CHICAGO WORKSHOP
MAY 29-31, 2009

“DESIGNING COURSES FOR SIGNIFICANT LEARNING”

This spring, Dee Fink & Associates is offering a 2 ½ day workshop on Integrated Course Design in Chicago on May 29-31, 2009.  Many campuses have been requesting this workshop nationally and internationally.  

This workshop will give college teachers from any campus the opportunity to learn about these ideas, apply them to one of their own courses, and receive feedback on their new course design.

This is a "Doing" workshop, NOT a "talking heads" seminar. Participants will spend over 50% of the workshop time "doing" course design: re-designing their courses, sharing their design with others, and getting feedback on their design.

Purpose and Value of this Workshop
In 2003, Fink published a book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences, which laid out a novel way of designing courses so that students have powerful, significant learning experiences.  People who have attended previous workshops have made comments such as the following:

"Really, this is probably the best, most cohesive, well-organized and well-paced workshop I have ever attended!"

“Reading the book was valuable, but talking about the concepts made it actionable." "Loved the way you modeled the process.  SO helpful!"

“I am writing to thank you profoundly for the wonderful workshop on 'Designing Courses for Significant Learning.' The balance between theory and practice was just right and I got numerous new and helpful ideas for course design."

"Thank you so much for sharing your approach to teaching for significant learning. I couldn't stop talking about it to my colleagues!"

Here is what people report about using the ideas of "significant learning" and "integrated course design":

"I have always intuitively wanted my students to experience the types of significant learning identified by Fink...but I lacked the design structure [until I read Dee's book]."

[A group of teachers working together] "All of us wanted to make changes to our courses, but we never had a structure to help us accomplish these goals before."

"When I tried these ideas, the energy in the classroom increased significantly...in fact the new energy was palpable!"

People attending this workshop will learn how to use these ideas to design or redesign their courses so that their students have learning experiences that take into account five phases of course design:  situational factors, learning goals, feedback and assessment, teaching/learning activities, and careful integration.  Workshop leaders will guide participants through all the key steps of this process.  Working with a specific course, participants will frame learning goals, incorporate evaluation and assessment, and formulate powerful, active teaching strategies.

Program
In addition to applying each of the key steps of Integrated Course Design to their own courses, participants will receive individualized feedback on their design.

The general agenda for the workshop will be:

Friday, May 29  (8:30 am – 5:00 pm)

• Introduction to general ideas of Integrated Course Design
• Begin working through initial steps

Saturday, May 30   (8:30 am – 5:00 pm)

• Work through remaining steps
• Design a common course in small groups
• Finish individual course designs

Sunday, May 31   (8:30 am – 12 noon)

• Share and review individual course design

Workshop Leaders
The people who will be leading the different parts of this workshop and who will be giving feedback on the participants’ course designs are:

DEE FINK was the director of the faculty development program at the University of Oklahoma (1979 – 2005), was president of the POD Network (2004-2005), and is the author of Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Jossey-Bass, 2003).  He currently works as a national and international consultant in higher education.

STEWART ROSS is the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Minnesota State Mankato.  He created CETL's signature program, the Faculty Teaching Certificate Program, that has been honored nationally. Stewart has done over 50 workshops at universities in 20 states in the past few years. He has been presenting Integrated Course Design workshops across the country for over two years. He has won a teaching award, two outstanding service awards, and a diversity award at Minnesota State - Mankato.  In 2005-2006 he also served as governor of the Minnesota-Dakotas District of Kiwanis.

Location and Hotel
The workshop will take place at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.  The Hyatt, which is located near O’Hare airport in Chicago, offers free airport shuttle service.  With a recently completed $60M renovation, it offers superb facilities. 

Cost
The cost of attending this workshop is $650.00.   This includes workshop tuition, dinner on Friday evening, morning refreshments, handouts, and a copy of Creating Significant Learning Experiences. 

Quantity Discount: Any institution sending four or more participants to the Chicago workshop will receive a discounted registration fee of $500 per person.

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION (For a PDF file regarding workshop registration and lodging registration, click here.)

To register for this workshop, fill out the following information:

Name:                                                                            
Institution:                                                                     
Address:                                                               
                                                                            
City:                                            State:                   Zip Code:              
Email:                                           Telephone:                           
Subject You Teach:                                                     No. Years Teaching:                

Send this information and payment for $650.00 [or $500.00 if four or more people from your institution are enrolling], made payable to "Dee Fink & Associates" to: 

Payment options:

• CHECK or PURCHASE ORDER: make it payable to "Dee Fink & Associates" and mail to the address above.
• CREDIT CARD: Please call Dee Fink & Associates at the number listed above.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS
Participants are responsible for making their own lodging reservations.  This can be done either online at http://ohare.hyatt.com/groupbooking/chirofink2009
or by calling: 1-800-233-1234.  When calling, ask for the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and be sure to identify the “Fink & Associates Workshop” to receive the special lodging rates for this workshop. 

Room rates for this workshop are:
$99 per night (plus taxes) - single, double, triple occupancy

The DEADLINE to receive these rates is:  May 7, 2009. 

Participants may extend their stay up to three days before or after the workshop at workshop rates, on a space-available basis.

Transportation:  The Hyatt Regency O’Hare offers complimentary shuttle service to and from O’Hare airport.  If you drive in, parking is available for workshop participants at $9 per day or night.