2007

Ad Theologiam

Theology core courses are taught by many instructors with differing approaches, not following a shared curriculum but often touching on common figures and texts. Boyd Taylor Coolman saw the need for a repository that would allow faculty and Teaching Fellows (some of whom are planning classes for the first time) to share readings, images, syllabi and other teaching resources. He worked with Sarah Castricum, Instructional Designer in IDeS and occasional instructor for Introduction to Christian Theology, to develop a site where he and his colleagues could contribute, search for and comment on content.

Becker Collection

A few years ago, Sheila Gallagher began taking a closer look at a box of old drawings that had been sitting in a closet in her parents’ home. The drawings belonged to her great-grandfather, Joseph Becker, and his fellow artist-reporters who worked at Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the Irish immigration, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire, and numerous other aspects of nineteenth-century American culture.

The Birth of Jesus: Two Gospel Narratives

After finishing their first online tutorial, The Death of Jesus: Four Gospel Accounts, Phil Cunningham and Barbara Radtke approached IDeS with an idea for a second mini-course that would enable participants to explore the nativity narratives in new ways. Their target audience for this tutorial included religious educators, liturgy planners, members of scripture study groups and preachers, as well as a general audience of anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the Gospel narratives.

First-Year Writing Seminar Teachers' Lounge

Funded by a Faculty Summer Workshop Grant, Lad Tobin and Ricco Siasoco collaborated with IDeS to create an online teaching resource repository to support faculty who teach the First-Year Writing Seminar. This site is designed to offer faculty a collaborative space where they can share teaching resources such as syllabi, readings, and assignments and where they can discuss the challenging teaching issues they face.

Immersive Environment for Research

Faculty members Maya Tamir and Aaron Walsh shared the goal of creating games based in a virtual environment which could be used in psychology experiments. Their collaboration allowed students of 3D Graphics and Virtual Reality technology to further their skills in those fields. Tamir uses the games they produced to conduct experimental research on goal-driven human behavior, and to train students of social psychology through hands-on experience.

Instructors' Workbook in Clinical Practice

As Coordinator of a multi-section course required for all Graduate School of Social Work students, Robin Warsh was seeking a way to deliver resources for the 8 – 10 instructors teaching the course each fall. Respecting their differences in approach, she envisioned a Blackboard Vista site serving as a repository for lecture material, PowerPoint presentations, video clips and other resources that faculty could draw from as needed and to which they could all contribute.