St. George’s University’s DES Inspires and Supports Faculty

St. George’s University’s Department of Education Services (DES) offers a myriad of programs uniquely designed to optimize the educational experience of its student body, faculty, and staff.  Since its inception, the DES’s primary goal was to provide support to the SGU community at large; a dynamic Faculty Development Program is driven to provide personal and professional development to inspire maximum performance.

One component of this program is Let’s Talk Teaching, a series of weekly seminars and workshops which cover a wide range of topics essential to the learning and teaching processes.  Topics include teaching and assessment strategies, professional and organizational development, community building, and one of the more popular topics - teaching and technology. 

Dr. Bill Blunt, DEd, Deputy Chair, Director of Faculty Development, and Professor of Educational Services.

Introduced in 2001 by Dr. Jeff Johnston, the former Deputy Director for the DES, Let’s Talk Teaching continues under the leadership of Dr. Bill Blunt, DEd, Deputy Chair, Director of Faculty Development, and Professor of Educational Services.

Dr. Blunt explained that the Let’s Talk Teaching (LTT) seminars aim to maintain faculty excitement about teaching, an often demanding profession, and one that plays a vital role in the overall performance appraisal of a university and its subsequent appeal to prospective students.  Dr. Blunt, who presents and facilitates many of the LTT seminars, said that approximately 50 faculty members from all schools attend the seminars each term.  In addition to providing educational issues of interest, LTT serves as a forum for faculty to share with colleagues their successes with experimental and innovative methods of teaching. 

In general, LTT emphasizes the need to integrate teaching with assessment through effective course planning; the result being increased student participation and active learning both inside and outside the lecture halls.  “Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)” are definitive ways of obtaining useful information on what, how much, and how well students are learning. When applied regularly, they will encourage students to engage in “higher-order learning” rather than simply relying on memorization. 

LTT has also been successful in incorporating technology’s continuously changing impact on teaching.  Dr. Blunt has presented several seminars that address the role of emerging technologies, and how they change the way instructors teach and students learn.

He credits IT training, led by Avril Best, for providing an important complement to the LTT program.  With the introduction four years ago of ANGEL as an online course management system, followed soon after by lecture recordings using Sonic Foundry, St. George’s University’s faculty has achieved a high level of proficiency in managing computer-based learning.  “The partnership between IT and LTT,” said Dr. Blunt, “helps to optimize the educational value of new technologies.  The recent introduction of TurningPoint student response systems (clickers) is a case in point.  Students report that the technology (which allows students to participate in presentations or lectures by submitting responses to interactive questions via a hand held keypad), is useful and adds significantly to the value of lectures.”

A current goal of LTT is the development of Distributed Learning at St. George’s University.  Published authors on web-based training, Saltzberg and Polyson (1995), define Distributed Learning as “an instructional model that allows instructors, students, and content to be located in different, noncentralized locations so that instruction and learning occurs independent of time and place.” Dr. Blunt explained that St. George’s University aims to implement a vibrant, virtual environment for online learning through the combined use of technologies such as blogs, wikis, Wimba (real-time, online lectures), and live lecture recordings using Sonic Foundry, all based on  good course planning, sound teaching and assessment methods, and comprehensive student learning assignments. 

Dr. Blunt emphasized that many large universities in the developed world offer similar support services, but they rarely provide the integration and individual attention like St. George’s University. Let’s Talk Teaching is just one example of the diverse network of services offered through the Department of Educational Services, whose dual purpose is to teach students how to learn, and teach teachers how to convey more of their subject matter to more students, both in the classroom and in small groups.

Collaborative efforts with other departments including Dean of Students Office, Psychological Services Center, and University Clinic, further substantiate the University’s keen attention to the needs of its faculty and student body, as well as its dedication to providing an effective and thriving educational program.

Published on 10/21/09