Connecting Learning Across Academic Settings (CLAAS) UW's CLAAS project is a three-year SoTL initiative funded by the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). In this project, six UW faculty have developed the concept of working literacies as a framework for evaluating materials, designing assignments, and examining student learning in their general education courses. They have incorporated various discipline-specific literacies in these courses, as well as literacies for engagement as citizens in an increasingly interdependent world. Within a faculty development model of group dialogue, shared readings, and collaboration, participants have embraced ongoing, formative assessment as a central SoTL practice. They have particularly valued the interdisciplinary nature of the project, frequently adopting each other's ideas for application in their own courses. The project has generated numerous evidence-based findings about student learning. Dissemination efforts are focused on national and international conference presentations, a state-wide colloquium in June 2006, and an upcoming book featuring the project's methods and findings. Visit the CLAAS website to learn more:www.uwyo.edu/claas.

John P. "Jack" Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning The ECTL provides leadership, advocacy, support, faculty development, and instructional services for teaching and learning excellence. The scholarship of teaching and learning is integral to ECTL programming. In addition to the programs highlighted in the right and left columns, the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning contributes to SoTL at UW through several projects. Warming Up the Chill features the results of a two-year project at the University of Wyoming on issues of diversity in the classroom. WAG (Writers in Agriculture Guild) began with an ECTL-sponsored innovative teaching grant awarded to the College of Agriculture and has since grown to include many assessment and SoTL initiatives. Program in College Teaching--The UW Graduate School and the Ellbogen CTL offer an individualized certificate program that reflects completion of a broad range of documented experiences in scholarly teaching and learning. UW Assessment Grants--Grant recipients design projects involving research in teaching and learning, with the potential for publishing their results.

Senior Scholars Program and inVISIBLE College The Senior Scholars Program is designed specifically for associate and full professors and extended term academic professional lecturers. In a cohort, participants are developing scholarship of teaching and learning projects. The program runs from March 2005 - May 2006. The Senior Scholars Program is the most recent development of UW's inVISIBLE college. In Fall 2000, UW's first inVISIBLE college cohort developed a working definition to guide inquiry projects and conversation. The definition guides the work of the 2005 Ellbogen Scholars: "Scholarship implies peer critique, reflection, and dissemination. The scholarship of teaching enhances student learning through ongoing, systematic inquiry."

Contact Information For more information about SoTL initiatives at UW or the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, contact Jane Nelson, ECTL Director, at (307) 766-4847 or ellbogenctl@uwyo.edu. You may also visit our website, www.uwyo.edu/ctl, to learn more.