Learning track highlights
Explore the initiatives and issues of university-community engagement at presentations, hands-on workshops, and in-the-community and poster sessions. Here are highlights of just some of the more than 150 presentations to be offered at Outreach Scholarship 2003.
- Responsiveness
- Parterships and Resources
- Academic Neutrality
- Commitment to Diversity
- Integration
- Coordination
Responsiveness
Universities strive to provide learners with skills, attitudes and values they need for success in work and life. While maintaining excellence in teaching and learning, educators and researchers must also remain attentive to the communities and larger body of constituents they serve. Genuine engagement requires an understanding of society's changing needs, a willingness to adapt, and resources that ensure a timely, effective response. Gathering input from community members can also broaden and enrich the university's body of knowledge on many issues.
"The People Came First: Learning from the Past" - This case study of Cooperative Extension in Wisconsin will examine university-community partnerships as they developed over the years. In many instances, it was the people, not the university, who initiated the partnership.
Presenter: Jerry Apps, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Demonstrating a Commitment to Responsiveness: Penn State's College of Health and Human Development" - The Pennsylvania State University College of Health and Human Development is committed to improving the quality of life across the life span. This presentation will focus on specific outreach programs that illustrate how effective partnerships among outreach staff, faculty and communities respond to identified needs.
Presenters: Fred W. Vondracek and Susan LeWay, The Pennsylvania State University
Partnerships and Resources
Engagement encourages and supports the formation of academic-community partnerships. Universities and colleges have much to offer, and much to learn, as they work to form collaborations that promote shared definitions of problems, solutions and successes, while leveraging scarce resources to achieve common goals.
"Creating Economic Value from Great Ideas: The University-Business Connection" - Intellectual property - the ideas, methods and technologies developed in university laboratories - has become increasingly important not only in terms of raising university revenue, but also for local and state economic development. Discover and share ways that research, teaching and engagement link with the private sector and how that relationship is vital in both directions.
Presenters: Beth Donley, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF); Debra Malewicki, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; Allen J. Dines, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Moderator: Erica Kauten, University of Wisconsin-Extension
"Learning Centers: Unique Partnerships On and Off Campus for Extended Outreach" - This session will focus on three different models for extending the university to underserved areas of the community through the use of learning centers. Eachmodel integrates strong community partnerships, expanded partnerships between units on campus, and the use of technology to expand engagement.
Presenters: Sam Cordes, Purdue University; Tom Emling, Michigan State University; Karen Bruns, The Ohio State University
"Reaching Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders: The Pennsylvania Partnership Model" - The Pennsylvania State University has partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, national associations and certifying bodies, and local community partners to serve the needs of professionals, parents and caregivers of children with pervasive developmental disorders. This session will focus on models for partnerships that can provide high impact and benefits to partners and stakeholders.
Presenters: Patricia Nelson, Jack Neisworth, Pam Wolfe and Ed Donovan, The Pennsylvania State University; Fran Warkomski, Pennsylvania Department of Education
Academic Neutrality
Outreach and community engagement allow universities to address important issues that have complex social, economic and political consequences. Playing the role of neutral facilitator and objective information resource can be difficult in the midst of contentious public debate. When public perception is important, with vital financial and political support at stake, institutions must preserve academic integrity.
"Robust Research and Rapid Response" - Emerging threats often present an opportunity for engaged institutions of higher education to respond quickly and apply research to environmental, economic, political and social challenges. University experts will discuss their involvement in responding to issues that often included intense news media scrutiny, elevated public anxiety, and heated political debate.
Presenters: James W. Travis, The Pennsylvania State University; Michael Boehm, The Ohio State University; Barbara Ingham, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension
Commitment to Diversity
An engaged university makes education accessible to the larger community, bringing lifelong learning opportunities to all. In the process of enhancing educational access, institutions must provide systems and resources that help clients negotiate complex organizational structures and feel genuinely welcomed. Challenging disparities and closing gaps requires a multidimensional understanding of diversity, as well as a personal and organizational commitment to accessibility.
"University Outreach...Community Inreach" - Is there real reciprocity, and transparent and mutually transforming respect, in the efforts of universities to engage communities? If we speak about university "outreach," is there also community "inreach"? Presenter: Calvin Brutus, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension
"Mobilizing the University and the Community: The Milwaukee Idea" - The Milwaukee Idea is an initiative designed to forge vital and long-lasting urban community-university partnerships that enhance the quality of life for all. Through The Milwaukee Idea, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is developing new approaches to learning, expanding applied research, fostering creative approaches to economic development, and forming partnerships to improve health.
Presenter: Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Integration
University-community engagement offers new opportunities for integrating the scholarship of outreach and professional service with research and teaching. Success in this area requires the creation and maintenance of an institutional climate where public service is actively facilitated and consistently rewarded across a variety of disciplines and structures.
"The 'Insurmountable Opportunities' of Online Engagement: Research and Practice Related to Faculty Satisfaction" - The online environment offers faculty members a potentially rewarding addition or alternative to traditional instruction. However, institutional support structures and effective strategies are necessary to meet the challenges of teaching online. This session will report on The Pennsylvania State University research studies on faculty workload in the online environment and effective practices implemented by faculty members and institutions to promote online faculty satisfaction.
Presenter: Melody M. Thompson, The Pennsylvania State University World Campus
"Documenting Faculty Scholarship of Engagement to Promote Good Work in Challenging Times" - Faculty and administrators in higher education have expressed a need for systems and support in the planning, implementation, evaluation and documentation of engagement, outreach and professional service. A panel of traditional and outreach faculty will provide a framework for documenting and a set of criteria for reviewing the scholarship of engagement.
Session leader: Lorilee Sandmann, University of Georgia/National Clearinghouse on the Scholarship of Engagement
Moderator: Patricia Book, The Pennsylvania State University
Coordination
As new community relationships and outreach programs are developed, clear communication must anchor the process. Communicators and advocates must understand and disseminate the engagement agenda to external audiences in a way that conveys value and relevance. All internal audiences - faculty, staff and learners - must have the skills and resources to collaborate productively in translating specialized knowledge into information the community can understand and apply. They must also be encouraged to gather and exchange feedback from multiple audiences in a timely manner.
"Impact of Engagement: Demonstrating Value Through Outreach" - To effectively demonstrate the value of outreach programs, educators and administrators must incorporate evaluation tools into program design and apply rigorous systems that help measure real impacts. This workshop will introduce the logic model as a conceptual framework for planning and evaluating programs, demonstrating accountability and communicating value, as well as examining the ways that formalized, established impact analysis can help shape programmatic and financial decisions and long-term strategies.
Presenter: Ellen Taylor-Powell, University of Wisconsin-Extension
"Outreach Collaboration: Action Research and Evaluation" - Civic responsibility, genuine partnerships and reciprocal engagement are contemporary notions of outreach scholarship that have been at the core of adult education research, teaching and practice for decades. At this session, learn about latest research and evaluation conclusions regarding rationale, strategies and results from external partnerships on public issues.
Presenter: Alan Knox, University of Wisconsin-Madison
