Capital ideas: The inaugural winners of the Chancellor’s Meritorious Award for Engaged Teaching have involved students in activities from development of a combination stretcher-wheelchair to visiting death row as part of a discussion of capital punishment.
VIPs for the QEP: The awards are designed to support Western’s increasing emphasis on fostering engaged teaching and integrated learning, a key element of the recently adopted Quality Enhancement Plan, also known as the QEP. The honorees each receive a $1,000 raise to their base pay and will be recognized at the Spring General Faculty Meeting and Awards Convocation.
A rigorous selection process: Winners were selected based on how they implemented the principles of the scholarship of engagement into their teaching – how they created learning environments based on principles of discovery; integration; analysis and application; knowledge transmission and transformation; and an understanding of real-world social, civic or ethical issues. Deans and faculty advisory committees reviewed the nominations and supporting materials, which were then forwarded to the Office of the Provost.
National recognition for engagement: The answers students at WCU gave in the 2007 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which assessed activities including whether students had talked to their professors and advisers about career plans or participated in community-based class projects, put Western in the national spotlight. Survey findings ranked WCU in the top 50% of the nation in “Active and Collaborative Learning” and “Student Faculty Interaction,” and above peer institutions in “Level of Academic Challenge” and “Enriching Educational Experiences.”
Chancellor John W. Bardo’s seal of approval: “[The awards are] a small way of honoring the tremendous investment of time and energy by our faculty to benefit our students in ways that make Western what we want to be – an engaged university.”
Pictured at right, award-winner James Zhang, associate professor of engineering and technology, develops student hands-on learning experiences that benefit organizations such as Blue Ridge Paper and the Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River.