Course Syllabus

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 Aimee Surprenant, short hair, glasses

Virginia Tech
GRAD 5104: Preparing the Future Professoriate
Monday, 6:00pm - 8:30pm

 Johnny Woods Jr. photo-1.jpg

Instructor: Aimée Surprenant, Ph.D.
Dean of the Graduate School 
Email: gsdean@vt.edu

 

Kevin Kish
Executive Assistant to Dean Surprenant
kevink96@vt.edu 

Graduate Life Center - GLC 40

 

GTA: Johnny C. Woods Jr.
Ph.D. Candidate, Higher Education
Email: johnnycw@vt.edu

 

OVERVIEW

Leaders in the academic and business communities have recently challenged colleges and universities to embrace change in order to ensure the viability of the higher education enterprise. Rather than settle for the status quo and witness a probable decline in sustainability, most argue that it is time to create new models and new methods of training for the future professoriate, who will become the faculty and academic leaders of tomorrow.

This course is an integral part of the Graduate School’s Transformative Graduate Education (TGE) initiative and serves as one of the required courses for the Future Professoriate Graduate Certificate.

The purpose of the course is to provide graduate students with an understanding and contextual knowledge of the professoriate and issues facing higher education. These topics include faculty roles and responsibilities, changing demographics and nature of the students/learners, impact of technology upon higher education, diversity and inclusiveness, paradigm shifts in the academy, ethical issues and professional standards, global perspectives on higher education, and external forces influencing the college/university.

COURSE OUTCOMES

Upon successful completion of the course, students will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

  • Higher education and colleges/universities in the United States
  • Technology and its impact upon higher education
  • Changing roles and responsibilities of faculty
  • Paradigm shifts and trends in colleges/universities
  • Changing nature of students/learners in higher education
  • Ethics and scholarly integrity, professionalism
  • Global perspectives of higher education

TEXTS AND READING MATERIALS

No textbook exists for this course. Instead, readings are selected from a range of academic and popular literature. You will find assorted PDFs, URLs, and other materials organized by topic in the Files section of the site. Blogging and other activities provide space for deeper analysis of course themes and specific topics. It is critical that you not only read the material, engage during class sessions, and blog actively (and often), but also dig into the reading, to fully explore how concepts conflict, connect, etc.

SOME RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

  • Bell, D. (2002). Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning & Worth. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
  • Duderstadt, J.J. & Womack, F.W. (2003). The Future of the Public University in America: Beyond the Crossroads. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Kennedy, D. (1997). Academic Duty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
  • Pink, D.H. (2005). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. New York: Penguin.

SOME WEBSITES YOU SHOULD ROUTINELY BROWSE:

University News:

International University News:

Organizations:

SPECIAL LEARNING NEEDS

Students who need to make arrangements for special learning abilities or situations should make an appointment to see me as soon as possible. I’m dedicated to providing a productive learning environment for ALL students. Reasonable accommodations are available for students with disabilities. However, to be eligible for such accommodations, students should contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD, 310 Lavery Hall, www.ssd.vt.edu), via telephone 540.231.3788 (voice) or 540.213.1740 (TTY) or email Susan Angle at spangle@vt.edu. If you need adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, please contact me as soon as possible.

CLASSROOM AND DIGITAL ETIQUETTE

Thoughtfully and critically engaging with colleagues is a skill that will benefit you in all facets of life. Therefore, you are encouraged to utilize this course (and other courses) to refine such interpersonal communication abilities. Dialogue (verbal, written, or otherwise) is a critical component of academics, industry, and society in general. Knowing how to critically and respectfully discuss complicated (and often controversial) ideas is something all academics (among others) should be readily able to do. You will not always agree with your colleagues’ perspectives. Nevertheless, it is important to be able to thoughtfully and thoroughly explain why and how you disagree. Moreover, in the event that yours is the perspective in debate, it is equally important to be able to thoroughly explain why you hold such a perspective. For this course, all dialogue should effectively incorporate reading materials (those already in the course site or others added to the conversation during discussion) and other resources. Simply stating that you disagree is insufficient. Be (constructively) critical. Be thought-provoking. Be challenging. Be helpful. But be sure to be nice. 

BLOGGING

This is your space to think out loud, more deeply explore things we are reading, digitally engage with GRAD 5104 colleagues, and share things (news, videos, multimedia, etc.) that are tangental to GRAD 51041. Since we meet only once per week, the blog is a very useful space to discuss and explore topics outside of the seminar.

For the most part, you are expected to develop unique themes and content for your own posts. You should plan to contribute often and meaningfully to the blogging environment. Use the blog (blogs.lt.vt.edu/grad5104) as a space to ask questions (of the instructor, the GTA, each other, and outside readers) and share information as we explore the wide world of higher education. Again, the blog is designed to promote digital conversation about higher education and your individual and collective places therein. Therefore, you will need to not only create your own posts but also comment on colleagues’ posts. To help initiate blogging conversation, there are five (5) mandatory prompts during the semester. In addition to free range blogging (where you select topics/issues pertinent to GRAD 5104 and write thoughtful and thought-provoking blog posts that help to stimulate additional out-of-class discussion), each student will write a blog post about 5 specific topics: (1) Mission Statements, (2) Open Access, (3) Scholarly Integrity, (4) MOOCs, and (5) Changing Higher Education.

As mentioned above, students are "expected to contribute often and meaningfully to the blogging environment. Not only will you create your own posts, but you should also comment on colleagues’ posts." There is not a specific number of posts or comments expected of each student. Instead, a student's number of contributions (posts and comments) through the semester is viewed comparatively (calculated group mean) and qualitatively. Each semester is different — some groups are more active bloggers than others; some topics foster more blogging activity than others. Nevertheless, active and engaged blogging is a course expectation. Rather than require a specific number of posts, evaluation relies upon a combined quantitative and qualitative approach. This dynamic approach allows for flexibility when considering group dynamics and individual interests. The quantity of contributions is merely a starting point for evaluating a student’s out-of-class participation. After determining the number of posts contributed by each student and viewing that number in comparison to the group mean, posts and comments are reviewed qualitatively — the degree to which they engage with course topics, present thought-provoking discussions, stimulate additional out-of-class discussion. At the end of this process, students receive a point value that represents the frequency and quality of their blogging activity (posts and comments).

Questions are, as always, welcome and encouraged.

Please refer to the document titled “GRAD 5104 blog - getting started guide” in Files for blog setup instructions. 

1When contributing to your blog, please exercise as much creative freedom as you like. There are various modes and methods for constructively engaging with seminar materials and sharing tangential content that will enrich the communal learning experience. Understanding the rules and expectations of different genres is an important component of effective communication. Perhaps important is knowing when, how, and why to bend or break established conventions. If anyone is interested, we can talk more about this topic ad infinitum. 

HONOR CODE

Real learning and teaching can only occur in an environment of integrity and responsibility. The academic community requires ethical behavior from all of its participants. For researchers and writers, this means that the work we claim as ours must truly be ours. At the same time, we are not always expected to come up with new ideas; we often build our thinking on the ideas of others. We are expected, however, to credit others with their contributions and to clearly indicate the boundaries of our own thinking. Failure to do so in the university in general and in this course, in particular, will result in serious consequences for the offender.

VTHonorPledge: "I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this assignment." Simply put, this pledge applies to every VT student. All aspects of this course will abide by the Virginia Tech Honor Code. Any suspected violations of the VT Honor Code will be promptly reported to the VT Honor System. According to the Constitution of the VT Honor System, the fundamental beliefs underlying and reflected in the VT Honor Code are:

  1. trust in a person is a positive force in making that person worthy of trust
  2. every student has the right to live in an academic environment that is free from the injustices caused by any form of intellectual dishonesty
  3. the honesty and integrity of all members of the university community contribute to its quest for Truth

For further information, please visit www.honorsystem.vt.edu 

Communication

All communication for this class will be channeled through Canvas. This includes announcements and Canvas messaging. Hence, all students are encouraged to monitor their Canvas inbox regularly and/or directly connect the same to their email.  

Expectations for Graduate Study

Take some time to look over the Virginia Tech Expectations for Graduate Study to understand the "contributions that graduate students, faculty, and staff are expected to make to maintain a dynamic and productive academic environment."

HELP!?!

If you are at any time in need of assistance, please feel free to contact Dean Surprenant and/or Johnny via email or schedule a meeting. Questions are, as always, welcome and encouraged. 

Assignments

What follows is a hodge-podge presentation of all the assignments of the course (we can't disable it). They are more clearly organized and viewed in Assignments or within Modules.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due