This Web page: http://tlt.gs/NanoInterviews

www.tltgroup.org

Engaging the Next 10%

Faculty Sharing - Small Steps in the Right Direction

Nanovation Interviews

Frugal Innovations for Student Engagement

Purpose: Seek small, useful ways to support more effective, widespread, and rapid collegial sharing of improvements in teaching and learning with technology.
See also: http://tlt.gs/mentorinterviews

Challenge/Hypothesis
Money & Time are Scarce
Teaching/Learning Potential Improvements are Over-Abundant & Under-Utilized
Valuable "low-threshold" resources for improving teaching and learning with technology are over-abundant and under-utilized. Most of them are not known or used by more than 5-10% of all faculty. (5-10% = the "early adopters" and pioneers)
Collegial Sharing Could Accelerate & Sustain Cumulative Improvement
Collegial sharing of such resources could accelerate and sustain cumulative, significant improvement in education (reaching well beyond the usual 5-10% of faculty pioneers, early adopters).
Need New Support for Collegial Sharing
This will not happen without new kinds of support for collegial sharing of teaching/learning improvements in higher education among faculty.

Purpose of Interviews
Learn what enables and encourages faculty to make modest course improvements themselves and to help others do so too. Identify resources, services, and activities that could support more effective, widespread, and rapid collegial sharing of "low-threshold" improvements in teaching and learning with technology.
In this context, "resources" might include materials, services, incentives, etc.
"Low-Threshold" improvements are reliable, accessible, easy to learn and share, non-intimidating, and low-cost. They include many free online tools and services.

Fluidity of Protocol
Each of the interviews is likely to be different from all the previous interviews in two important ways:
1. No two interviewees have exactly the same kinds of experiences with exactly the same kinds of improvements in teaching/learning.
2. My goals and questions for each interview keep evolving, prompted by some of the surprises in the previous interviews.

Interview Questions
PART I - Improvements you made & how someone helped you
A. What enabled you to learn from a colleague about some tech-related improvement in teaching and learning and to begin to use it in one of your own courses? The improvement could be as "low-threshold" as how to insert images in classroom presentations or how to guide your students to use Google Docs when working on collaborative assignments or how to format a syllabus more effectively in your institution's online learning management system.

PART II - How you could help colleagues make similar improvements
A. Have you already helped some other faculty member to try the same or a very similar improvement? If not, would you be willing to do so? When? How?
B. What could make it easier or more likely that you would help a few colleagues to try the same or similar improvements?
C. What are some obstacles?

PART III - How we could support you to help a few colleagues in the next few weeks
A. What could I and my colleagues from the TLT Group do to encourage and enable you to help a few colleagues make improvements similar to one of yours? In the next few weeks?
B. Can you identify two or three colleagues who are among those most likely to welcome your help? If you believe it would be appropriate, could you give me their names and contact info? Are there any ways in which you would especially like me or others to help the colleagues you have identified? Any ways you would like us to avoid?
C. If this is too soon, how much later? When?
D. Would some version of one of our paper bookmarks- designed for use with one of your own recent improvements - be a good way to support your efforts to help a few colleagues?