Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:
I am pleased to announce the launch of Teaching Transformations: Faculty Reflections and Insights on Pandemic Practices, a digital guide. This guide highlights the creativity of Columbia faculty and the teaching innovations they developed during an unprecedented time.
This is an important moment in higher education, and Columbia is poised to be at the forefront of educational and instructional technology innovations. Faculty at Columbia have seized the opportunity to carry forward the lessons learned from teaching during the pandemic to enhance their courses, transform the learning experiences of our students, and revolutionize teaching and learning at our institution.
In partnerships with school deans, who helped to identify faculty contributors, and the assistance of the Center for Teaching and Learning, this guide features reflections on teaching during the pandemic from over 40 faculty. The insights shared range from the use of Virtual Reality in Dr. Brent Stockwell’s introductory biochemistry course to help build community among students and teach complex biochemistry concepts, to Dr. Katja Vogt’s flipped philosophy classroom where students engaged with course materials online before class to inform their in-class discussions. In this guide, you will read narratives of innovation focused on medical education and patient care, like Dr. Beth Barron’s design of interactive multi-modal online clinical cases to prepare students for in-person patient care in the Foundations of Clinical Medicine Tutorials course, and Dr. Natalie Voigt who partnered with her students, TAs, and colleagues to bring case-based learning into her Science of Nursing Practice course. Faculty members across disciplines shared narratives that focus specifically on equity and inclusion, like Dr. Harold Stolper whose syllabi include statements about anti-racist teaching and inclusion as a way of intentionally creating an inclusive classroom climate, and Dr. Latisha Hanson who redesigned her grading and assessment practices to focus on equity in order to actualize her commitment to fostering students’ growth as equitable healthcare providers. Faculty contributions also feature pedagogical designs focused on interdisciplinarity and collaboration, like Dr. Hod Lipson’s hands-on Robotics Studio where students engaged in collaborative projects building robots using 3D printed component parts. I hope you will enjoy reading through all the narratives from our teaching community as much as I have.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all faculty contributors to the guide and to invite those that would like to contribute to do so. Please contact the Center for Teaching and Learning by emailing [email protected] if you would like to share your innovations or nominate a colleague to do so.
Sincerely,
Mary C. Boyce
Provost
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
