Who Are You, Anyway?

In honor of Intentional Teaching's first anniversary, I have launched a very short survey to find out who is reading this newsletter and listening to the Intentional Teaching podcast. Would you take a couple of minutes and complete this survey? Really, it's very short and all the questions are optional.

So Much STEM

I mentioned the survey in last week's newsletter, and I've already received several useful responses. When asked about themes or topics for the future, one of you noted that there's a lot about STEM teaching and learning in the newsletter and podcast. "What about the social sciences and humanities?" That's a good question!

One reason for the focus on STEM is the work I'm doing at the University of Mississippi, where I have a visiting position at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. I'm CETL's liaison to the STEM departments on campus, and this has meant spending a lot of time reading and thinking about STEM education as I consult with faculty and lead workshops. Some of that work has shown up in Intentional Teaching, most explicitly in the podcast episodes focused on studio biology courses and corequisite approaches to college algebra, where I reached out to faculty at other institutions to learn how they pursued these innovations to help me be a better consultant on similar projects at UM.

Another reason for all the STEM here might be that I'm a mathematician by training and have taught math courses for a couple of decades. I just checked and 24% of the guests on the podcast thus far have been math educators. That surprises me because I hosted the Leading Lines podcast for six years and not once interviewed a mathematician! I really do think it's my work at Mississippi that's leading to the emphasis on STEM education here at Intentional Teaching.

That said, it's high time for more interviews with educators outside of STEM! I will keep this in mind as I recruit guests for the podcast and plan future newsletters, so thanks for the feedback!

Workforce-Relevant Learning through Micro-Credentials

In the latest episode of the Intentional Teaching podcast, I talk with Anne Reed, director of micro-credentials at the University of Buffalo. Her office oversees over one hundred different micro-credentials that can be earned by University of Buffalo students. Micro-credentials at Buffalo are learning experiences that are larger than a course but smaller than a minor that students can use to differentiate themselves on the job market by making clear the workforce-relevant knowledge and skills they’ve gained.

Anne and I had a fascinating conversation about micro-credentials at the University of Buffalo, how they’re structured and aligned with workforce needs, the roles faculty play in them, and why students pursue them. She also taught me how to create my own micro-credential, an "Outstanding Podcast Guest" badge that I awarded to Anne! You can listen to our conversation here, or search for "Intentional Teaching" in your favorite podcast app.

One thing I learned from my conversation with Anne is that digital badges can do more than just describe the requirements for earning the badge. Digital badges can also include links to evidence of learning, embedded in the badge itself. For example, if you view the "Outstanding Podcast Guest" badge I awarded to Anne, you'll see a link to her podcast appearance as embedded evidence. This is a really interesting feature of digital badges, in part because traditional "badges," like university transcripts, don't include evidence of learning, just documentation of certain learning experiences.

Micro-credentials can be offered for all types of learning, but many are designed to feature workforce-relevant learning outcomes. For example, I saw recently that the University of Texas has partnered with Coursera to offer professional certificates from Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce to UT students. That got me thinking about what kinds of entities are best positioned to offer workforce-relevant micro-credentials: universities like Buffalo or employers like Google?

It's not clear to me that university faculty would necessarily have greater expertise in professional skills than experts in those professions (some faculty would, some faculty wouldn't), but I certainly hope that faculty are more equipped to teach those skills than staffers at Google or Salesforce. As higher education navigates the "new learning economy" that Jeff Selingo described in a recent white paper, I think it's critical that higher ed institutions make clear not only their content expertise but also their teaching expertise.

Thanks for reading!

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