Welcome to our video website.  The Co-Presenters are  Dr. James Liszka, SUNY Plattsburgh, Dean Bruce Mattingly, SUNY Cortland and Dr. Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs, SUNY Oneonta.

Thank you for taking the time to watch our video. Our collaborators would be very interested in your feedback, especially in regard to the following questions:

1. How do you see this as a good way to promote cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary work among students and faculty?
2. Do you think the common problem pedagogy helps promote problem-solving skills in students?
3. How do you think this pedagogy might be better implemented in the future?
4. How do you see using this pedagogy in your own institution? What level of interest do you think you would have on your campus? Would you be able to readily identify other campuses as partners?

This is an exciting project and I appreciate all of the examples you shared in the video of what is being done across New York state. I know that engaging across disciplines and with the community takes more time and logistical coordination for faculty, which should be applauded. I think it can be challenging to have our students see the relevance of what they are learning outside of our classroom walls and how this learning applies to our lives, and The Common Problem Project does just this.

Are these projects course-based? (I apologize that wasn't clear for me from the video) Are they only semester-long projects? Since community problems and challenges don't fit nicely into a semester calendar, how do you get the students engaged and keep them engaged until the project is completed? Do you have students continue to work on additional projects after the semester is complete? What sort of feedback do you get from students in future semesters, when they look back and reflect on the experience of participating (not the immediate feedback, but reflection some time in the future)? Thanks for any additional information you may have.

Thank you for viewing our video Laura!  The projects are course based and many of them only run a semester long, but they could carry over to another semester in sequential courses.  When I ran the project in my courses I introduced the problem right from the start of the semester and we had check ins throughout the semester building to the final presentations. Others prefer to do it as a stand alone module that is embedded in the course and builds off the content.  In my case,  I also had students continue on after the semester in independent studies for those that were really engaged and wanted to continue their work. 

I also interviewed students post project a semester later to get their take away. You can see that video at 

https://cloud.swivl.com/v/0ac96c743ad7d276604e37f05ea18aff

Students found the projects to be very valuable not only as a way to build on their content knowledge and take theory into practice, but also for the soft skills they refined along the way. 

I love the model for integrated social issue problem solving. This is definitely a complex challenge. I'm actually more interested in the public benefits that flow from this type of engaged work. So often, one and done student projects are difficult for people experiencing the challenges you're describing.  When working with people without housing stability, the last thing they want is to be someone's science project, so how do you manage that community engagement process in a way that's ethically responsible and respectful?  

That's a very nice approach! STEM and Humanities scientists don't collaborate enough! Encouraging this kind of collaboration in early stages in life (mostly before students enter higher education) is a great way to help them see the problem through different lenses. At the end of the day, I think empathy is what moves good science. Have you seen some sort of action from students' side, such as reaching local/regional policymakers for example, after their work was done?

Thanks for your question John.  We too are concerned about the quality of the interaction with a community partner as we want it to be mutually beneficial.  Of course, some partnerships have more growth than others but it is important to establish the groundwork before the students engage with the partner.  We want these partnerships to align with SUNY "Approved Applied Learning" criteria (see below) as much as possible as well, which also gets to the community benefit.

Establishing guidelines prior to the project/problem is key. As is checking in throughout the process with the teams and with the community partner.  Another element to keep in mind to manage the communication with the partner so that they do not become overwhelmed with student requests.  At Oneonta, community partner communication was managed through team leads.  This limited the number of emails and phone calls they received.  Faculty mentors met periodically not only with the teams, but also with the team leads to manage any issues that came up. We are also clear from the start that the students may not have workable solutions to the problem or that only components of the solution are realistic.  They are students after all and ill structured problems are often much bigger than a semester can solve.  

SUNY has defined approved applied learning activities as meeting five criteria:

1. The Activity is Structured, Intentional and Authentic – All parties must be clear from the outset why this specific experience was chosen as the approach to the learning, and intentional about defining the knowledge that should result from it. The activity needs to be a structured experience with a formal process, which includes a course syllabus or learning contract between parties (students, faculty, and other supervisors as appropriate) and/or defined assessable learning outcomes. Roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined. Faculty and site supervisors (as appropriate) are expected to take the lead in ensuring the quality of both the learning experience and the work produced. The applied learning activity should have hands-on and/or real world context and should be designed in concert with those who will be affected by or use it, or in response to a real situation.
2. The Activity Requires Preparation, Orientation and Training - Participants and mentors must ensure that students enter the experience with sufficient background and foundational education, as well as a plan to support a successful outcome. The training and plan should include learning expectations and be referred to (and potentially updated) on an ongoing basis by all parties.
3. The Activity Must Include Monitoring and Continuous Improvement - Applied learning activities are dynamic. Therefore all facilitators in the activity share responsibility for ensuring that the experience, as it is in process, continues to provide a rich learning environment and is meeting learning outcomes.  Activities include a defined and flexible method for feedback related to learning outcomes and quality performance for all parties.
4. The Activity Requires Structured Reflection and Acknowledgment - There must be a structured opportunity for students to self-assess, analyze, and examine constructs/skills/insights from their experience and to evaluate the outcomes. Reflection should demonstrate the relevance of the experience to student learning, including the student’s articulation of how the experience draws on and improves this learning and meets defined objectives. Post-experience learning should include a formal debriefing. All facilitators and students engaged in the experience should be included in the recognition of progress and accomplishment.
5. The Activity Must be Assessed and Evaluated - Outcomes and processes should be systematically documented with regard to initial intentions and quality outcomes. Students must receive appropriate and timely feedback from all facilitators.

Great that you are starting fro a position of strength. I'd recommend considering adding some information about culturally responsive evaluation to your model, both training for students, and also thinking about authentic value for the community groups they engage with.

GLAS Education is launching a new community-based multidisciplinary team to address light pollution in the Geneva Lake area (southern WI).  I find your project interesting and the depth of your responses to people who post very informative.  Thank you for taking the time to do so.  I am most interested in hearing about how successful you are retaining student engagement over time and how you manage getting new volunteers up to speed on existing projects. Our project LENSS is here

I like the idea of this. I am curious if you have considered the scalability of using it at a two-year college?

Hi Kate,

Thanks for your interest in our project. Instructors who have tried Common Problem Pedagogy have reported that positive student engagement is one of the best aspects of this experience. Students are truly motivated to work on problems that matter to someone in the community, and they also value the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in other classes.

You second question is very important. We have worked with our campus faculty development centers to provide workshops for faculty who want to learn about the methodology. Sometimes this is face to face, and at other times it has been in the form of a webinar that can serve faculty on multiple campuses. Another strategy that we employ is to ask experienced faculty to serve as mentors for new instructors trying this approach for the first time.

Thanks for your questions! I'm looking forward to checking out project LENSS later today.

It's fantastic to see the issue of lack of multi-disciplinary collaboration being addressed! I am curious, what avenues do you use to disseminate content and create communities? Do you have a curriculum you've developed that instructors use? If so, is this freely available? Do you use technology at all to connect the communities that are formed as a result of this project?

Thanks, Bruce, for the questions on our program and the tip to check out yours.  It is great to see what a scaled-up version of what we do in our Environmental Project Management Academy looks like!  (For the other co-presenters, please check out our video if you get a chance.)

Our program features an embedded leadship seminar where students hone their leadership and soft skills.  They are able to apply these skills as they work in small teams on the community-based project.  Modeling the business world, we use 360' feedback throughout the project work so that the students can give and receive feedback and ultimately improve performance based on the feedback.

How do you assess team effectiveness and function?  We use a variety of feedback tools, but we have found that CATME is a great way for students to provide peer evaluations in a controlled and validated way.

In reading the disccusion thread, I was really intrigued by the "Approved Applied Learning" criteria.  If we do scale up our model, criteria like this will certainly be useful.

Great to see the STEM disciplines working together to benefit students!  And the focus on solving problems in the students communities helps to connect their experiences, cultures, and knowledge.  Question: How are the problems selected?  Is there a problem solving process?  Do the team members self-select roles in their teams?

I'm a firm proponent of inter-disciplinary and cross disciplinary learning experiences. How do you go about bringing different faculty members together? I saw that they can receive a stipend to rework an old class, but is this done in collaboration with someone from a different field?

Also, have you considered having students drive the common problems, in terms of identifying what they are?

Finally, have you noticed any challenges or special opportunities when working with upper or lower level classes within given disciplines?

Hi Marcelo,

Thanks for your question. We just had an information session at  SUNY Plattsburgh that was quite successful. We drew in about 20 faculty (our full time faculty numbers about 200).  After showing them our video and going through some of the detail of expectations, we went around the room, with each faculty talking about what sorts of problems they might be interested in. I was surprised at how much conversation this little effort generated. Several faculty stayed afterwards to talk some more. I think faculty are hungry for this kind of interdisciplinary work.

Really great idea for getting STEM students to start thinking about knowledge transfer.

Do you see much faculty/administrative resistance to breaking out of their knowledge silos and work across disciplines? If so, how have you lowered that barrier?

Hi Daniel,

We don't  have any administrative  resistance. I was Provost when this project  started,  and fully support it. Bruce Mattingly  is Dean. We also have support of all partner administrators. R1s might see more resistance, I suspect.

I love the project.  Thank you for sharing your multidisciplinary approaches. In the discussion above the criteria for learning activities are well defined.  Do you have tools of assessment and evaluation processes that you could share?

Thank you.

Thank you very much Bruce.  I just sent you an email so we can communicate there about the assessment methods.

Thank you very much for your support.

James, thank you for visiting the Seeds of STEM video. We hope to provide the little ones with the problem solving skills, so when they come to you - they are already prepared to tackle real-world problems. 

I love your work, and the focus on problems from the community. 
My University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), emphasizes problem solving throughout the undergraduate studies. in addition to several humanities-STEM integrated courses, all WPI undergrads are required to complete two 9-credit projects during the junior year (outside of their major) and senior year (major focused project). In addition students have an opportunity to engage in the Great Problems Seminar during their freshman year. 

Similar to your project, the students credits the WPI projects with providing them with the collaboration and problem-solving skills required on the job. I am sure that your students have provided similar feedback.  More info, here: 
https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/interactive-qualifying-project
https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/major-qualifying-project
https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program

All the best with your project!

Really interesting, and I have learned a lot from the discussion following the video. I am curious — there have been various comments about the challenges that faculty encounter — finding or envisioning appropriate topics, finding or cultivating partners outside their own "silo," etc — but I am curious about what kinds of changes have you seen in the way faculty work with students — what I think of as the core of pedagogy.  I assume that the mentorship during the year addresses that quite a lot? 

Thanks!

Hi Mia,

Thanks for the information about WPI  I like the idea of the Great Problems Seminar. 

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your interest in the Common Problem. I think one thing that's changed about faculty-student work relation with this pedagogy has to do with giving students greater autonomy in the classroom. We actually try to break faculty's habit of providing too much guidance, or helping students with solutions to the problems. We try to emphasize that the instructors should focus on metacognitive guidance--asking students to be more reflective about solving problems or how they overcame obstacles to reach a good solution.  of course, that's not always successful, but that's part of our aim. 

Enjoyed learning about your project through the video and more through this discussion. Thank you,

Hi Sue,

thanks for your nice comments. If there's any other information you need, just let us know.

Thanks James, 

Do you do anything with the students or faculty to increase individuals' (from diverse disciplinary studies and backgrounds) awareness of the values and/or cultural viewpoints they bring to the problems they are working on? If so, how?

Jake and Kjersti may also want to comment, but I'll jump in here. You raise a very important question, because it gets at the very heart of what we are trying to accomplish. We are very explicit with the faculty in our goals: when they form the interdisciplinary teams of students, we want each student to see himself/herself as the expert in the discipline from which they come. We also want them to listen to one another, and to appreciate the value in looking at problems from different points of view and through different disciplinary lenses. In reflecting on your question, I believe that we have emphasized disciplinary diversity. However, we have not been as explicit about cultural diversity, and that is certainly an area where we could enhance the project. Thank you for this great question!

This is a wonderful way to showcase collaboration across multiple disciplines. Also, your video looks very professional. I love the combination of photos, video interviews and aerial shots. Keep up the great work! 

Hi Sue,

Thanks for your great question. I think both faculty and students are hungry for working across disciplines, so it seems all we have to is to provide them the opportunity. We just had an information session here at SUNY Plattsburgh on the project and faculty from a variety of disciplines were present. After we went around the table (for about 20 people) and had each faculty talk about their interests, it generated quite a conversation among different faculty. I just graded my reflection papers for a joint class I did with an environmental scientist (I'm a philosopher), and the papers reflected the same sort of thing. Most of the students saw the benefit of having a variety of disciplines represented on their teams, and could draw on the variety of expertise.  I think also, depending on the issue, particularly if it has to do with social problems, students quickly become sensitive to cultural perspectives on these issues. This was shown in one of our classes where environmental studies and films students collaborated to make films about problems such as homelessness and poverty in the region.

Hi Ivetta,

Thanks for your nice compliments. It was great working with the local PBS station, and they were happy to do it--and it was inexpensive. I wrote the script and provided most of the still photos, but they came to the campus to shoot the faculty and students and did the voice over narration. They wanted me to do it, but once they heard the result they changed their minds, thankfully :).

Thanks, James and Bruce for the additional information. I really like your project.