Highlights & Accomplishments
Previous QEP: Improving Disciplinary Writing Achievements
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Held 23 five-day workshops with over 400 faculty members in attendance.
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Those who attended the workshops have impacted almost 24,000 ODU students.
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An IDW Action Project facilitated nearly $3 million in NSF funding to support Jennifer Kidd and Stacie Ringleb's proposed program to teach engineering lessons at local elementary schools.
About ODU's Previous QEP Plan: Improving Disciplinary Writing
Improving Disciplinary Writing enhanced upper-division undergraduate students' writing skills by focusing on writing that demonstrated a reasoning process supported by research and reflection on any given subject. This goal was executed through Faculty Workshops and Action Projects, two faculty development and engagement initiatives.
Writing skills were evaluated by determining if each student was able to demonstrate these 6 learning outcomes in their written documents:
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Did the student clearly state and focus on a specific problem, question, or topic that related to the task given?
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Did they identify relevant knowledge and list credible sources?
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Did the pupil incorporate information and multiple viewpoints related to the problem, question, or topic?
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Applied appropriate research methods or theoretical framework to the problem, question, or topic.
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Formulated conclusions that logically tied to their findings.
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Able to communicate clearly what they learned through reflection and/or evaluation.
Writing Resources & Tips:
These weekly writing tips were sent to faculty members during Fall and Spring semesters to help provide campus constituents with practical and interesting ways to integrate writing into the classroom without burdening themselves with extra grading.
Choosing Topics Sources & Relevant Knowledge Synthesis Research Method Formulating Conclusions Reflection
"I truly enjoyed participating in this workshop and feel it will be valuable in making my course more authentic for my students."
Kim Baskette, Human Movement Services
Faculty Development & Engagement Initiatives
Faculty Workshops
Workshops are designed for faculty who teach upper-division undergraduate courses to help provide them with techniques identified as best practices to enhance writing to learn. During these 5-day workshops, faculty re-design or create a writing assignment in their course that addresses ODU's six student learning outcomes. Click here to watch our promo video.
ODU Faculty Workshop Participants
Action Projects
The Improving Disciplinary Writing Action Projects allow academic programs the flexibility and funding to try different tactics to help faculty learn, develop, and implement best practices to improve writing and student learning in the upper-division undergraduate courses within their programs. These Action Projects are funded through an internal grant process.