http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o Vision of students today  Problems The Spellings Report points out that students are not learning the critical thinking skills they need for the real world. Students graduate from college and get a piece of paper that proves their completion yet employers are dissatisfied with the abilities of these graduates who can't seem to perform problem solving. From what I have found around my world {of higher ed, distance education}, and in a general sense, that many instructors tend to have few to none of the elements needed to successfully incorporate critical thinking into their online courses. For example, a course may only have one element critical thinking incorporated and they are not addressing the other factors that influence a students ability to think critically. I spent an entire summer researching critical thinking and uncovered mounds of exciting articles, research and resources. I feel that the missing element is the practical, big picture and the symphony of all these pieces working together. The puzzle pieces I am referring to are all of the factors that may influence critical thinking. My goal of this project is to layout the factors that may influence critical thinking in an online course. My secondary goal is to not only share the big picture with instructors but to create a series of workshops that address each factor. The bottom-line is: how are we, as educators and leaders, going to make positive change? So in a couple years, we will hear employers raving about how the recent graduate that they hired is exceeding expectations and is problem solving like a pro. One of the first things I learned about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is that you have to ask yourself "is this working?" We could be doing all kinds of what we think are great things, but in the end, is it working? Are students learning? Are they thinking critically? Are they engaged? Last Updated:March 2008

Methodologies & Types of Evidence of Student Learning Gathered I plan to build upon previous research on the topic of critical thinking, formulating the big picture for online teaching and learning in higher education. I will produce a self-evaluation tool for instructors and online programs to use to decide what level they current stand with their efforts to improve student learning and critical thinking. I will breakdown and describe the factors that influence critical thinking and make up the big picture. This model can be used to take steps necessary to improve student learning and critical thinking. I have gathered a variety of excellent tools (that already exist) for measuring critical thinking that I will share. I will refer to one online nursing course to pull concrete examples as evidence of critical thinking. The rubric of critical thinking indicators will focus on the steps of the CT process and key verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy that are in the higher levels of cognitive challenge. Last updated: February 2008

Critical Thinking is... a process, not an outcome all about the context in which it occurs the ability and willingness to explore alternatives self-improvement in thinking by means of standards (that will assess thinking) the practice of reflective skepticism Ability to make a well informed decision The big question is: What does critical thinking mean to you? Project Summary In recent discussions of critical thinking, a controversy has been whether critical thinking is actually being fostered in online courses. On the one hand, instructors may believe they are doing a fine job at fostering critical thinking, but in reality they are not. On the other hand, some instructors simply are not doing it at all. In sum, then, the issue revolves around the training of instructors about critical thinking and awareness the factors that will influence critical thinking. My own thought is that there is much potential for critical thinking to occur but instructors are simply not aware of how to incorporate it, facilitate it, or evaluate it. In some situations they may have one piece of the puzzle but do not grasp the big picture. To find out, I designed a project to address the possibilities of incorporating critical thinking into the online discussion forum. I intend to show student evidence that will support the fact that critical thinking indeed can occur, then I will provide the steps an instructor can take that will foster critical thinking. In terms of other SoTL inquiries, my project is a "what is" type of project. My central question is: What factors affect a student's ability to perform critical thinking in an online course? To illustrate my conclusions, I will compare and contrast examples of critical thinking scenarios in a few recent online courses. I will list the indicators of critical thinking and share a few tools to evaluate CT. Last updated March, 2008

Annotated List of Helpful Resources & References Adams, K. L. (October 17, 2001). The critical incident questionnaire: A critical reflective teaching tool. Exchanges: The Online Journal of Teaching and Learning in the CSU. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from http://www.exchangesjournal.org Boris, G. & Hall, T. Critical Thinking and Online Learning: A Practical Inquiry Perspective in Higher Education. 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, 2005. 7 p. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/04_1288.pdf Broadbear, J. (2003). Essential Elements of Lessons Designed to Promote Critical Thinking. The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 3(3). Brookfield, S. D. (1987). Developing Critical Thinkers; Challenging Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking and Acting. (A. B. Knox, Ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishing. Brookfield, S. D. (1997). Assessing Critical Thinking. New Directions for Community Colleges.(75), 17-29. Retrieved July 31, 2007, EBSCO. Chaplin, S. (July 2007). A Model of Student Success: Coaching Student to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Introductory Biology Courses. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 1(2). Retrieved July 31, 2007, from http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl Elder, L. & Paul, R. (January 1, 1998). Critical Thinking: Developing Intellectual Traits. Journal of Developmental Education. 21(3), 34. Facione, P. A. & Facione, N. C. (1994). Holistic critical thinking scoring rubric. Millbrae, CA: California Academic Press. Available http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/rubric.pdf Feito, J. A. (2007). Allowing Not-Knowing in a Dialogic Discussion. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 1(1). Retrieved July 31, 2007, from http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/v1n1/feito/ij_feito.htm Garrison, R. D. & Anderson, T. (August 2000). Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education. The Internet and Higher Education. Retrieved August 2007, from http://communitiesofinquiry.com/documents/CTinTextEnvFinal.pdf Glowacki-Dudka, M. & Barnett, N. (2007). Connecting Critical Reflection and Group Development in Online Adult Education Classrooms. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 19(1), 43-52. Hrepic, Z. & Zollman, D. A. (June 2007). Comparing Students' and Experts' Understanding of the Content of a Lecture. Journal of science education and technology. 16(3), 213-224. Isaacson, R. M. & Fujita, F. (August 2006). Metacognitive Knowledge Monitoring and Self-Regulated Learning: Academic Success and Reflections of Learning. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 6(1), 39-55. MacKnight, C. B. (2000). Teaching Critical Thinking through Online Discussions. Educause Quarterly.(4), 38-41. Newman, D. R. & Johnson, C. (2007, October 25). An experiment in group learning technology: evaluating critical thinking in face-to-face and computer-supported seminars. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/papers/ccvsem/contents.html Newman, D. R. & Johnson, C. (January 1996). An Experiment in Group Learning Technology: Evaluating Critical Thinking in Face-to-face and Computer-supported Seminars. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An electronic journal for the 21st Century. 4(1), 57-74. Norris, S. P. & Ennis, R. H. (1989). Evaluating Critical Thinking. (R. J. Swartz & D. N. Perkins, Eds.). Pacific Grove, CA: Critical thinking press & software. Paul, R. (2005). The State of Critical Thinking Today. New Directions in Community Colleges.(130), 27-38. Retrieved August 2007, EBSCO. Paul, R. W. (1993). Critical Thinking; What every person needs to survive in a rapidly changing world. 3rd ed. (J. Wilson, Ed.). Santa Rosa, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Perkins, C. & Murphy, E. (2006). Identifying and measuring individual engagement in critical thinking in online discussions: An exploratory case study. Educational Technology & Society. 9(1), 298-307. Rawson, M. (2000). Learning to Learn: more than a skill set. Studies in Higher Education. 25(2), 225-228. Shulman, L. S. (July 1999). Taking Learning Seriously. Change. 31(4), 10-17. Westbrook, V. (October 2006). The Virtual Learning Future. Teaching in Higher Education. 11(4), 471-482. Twardy, C. R. Argument Maps Improve Critical Thinking. 2003. Retrieved August 31, 2007, from http://cogprints.org/3008/ van Gelder, T. (2001, October). A Reason!Able Approach to Critical Thinking. Principal Matters. van Gelder, T. (January 2005). Teaching Critical Thinking; Some Lessons from Cognitive Science. College Teaching. 53(1), 41-46. Wirth, K. R. & Perkins, D. Learning to Learn. May 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007, from http://www.macalester.edu/geology/wirth/CourseMaterials.html Yukselturk, E. & Ercan, T. (2005). Reconsidering Online Course Discussions: A Case Study. Journal of Educational Technology Systems. 34(3), 341-367.

Get on the bus to lifelong learning Links and Tools Foundation for Critical Thinking http://www.criticalthinking.org/ American Philosophical Association, Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction. "The Delphi Report," Committee on Pre-College Philosophy. (ERIC Doc. No. ED 315 423). 1990 http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/DEXadobe.PDF Rubrics for evaluating critical thinking Facione & Facione http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/rubric.pdf Washington State University Critical Thinking Project (includes rubric)

Preliminary Findings, Results, Conclusions, & Implications Implications for further study: More questions 1) Would teaching the instructors about these factors increase the critical thinking and therefore improve the learning? Survey the current standing of 10 courses Give workshop Measure change/improvements 2) Would informing students about the value and process of critical thinking cause a change in the their learning? Spring 2008

Career Relevance & Impact The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows program sponsored by OPID has had a huge impact on my life. I consider this to be a milestone in my career. Through this program and process I have discovered that my true passion is in the scholarship of teaching and learning. All of the folks in the program that I have met have been so helpful in guiding and encouraging me. My confidence in my leadership skills have skyrocketed. In the past, I never considered myself a leader or an agent of positive change, but now I know I can do it. The program has been a unique experience for me in that I am one of a few instructional designers who have been in the program. Most of the fellows and scholars are instructors, and in the classroom environment as well, whereas I am grounded in distance education. But it is ok, I take it as a challenge and opportunity to pioneer SoTL work in the online teaching and learning environment. I am grateful for this opportunity to be a WTF and I look forward to continue with my growth and commitment to SoTL. Ongoing