Educate the Whole Student by Integrating STEM, Liberal Arts, and Social Responsibility
Synergies in Teaching and Learning
Definitions
The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), n.d. defines service-learning (S-L) as an approach to experiential teaching and learning in which students address community needs using academic and civic knowledge. Bringle and Hatcher (1995) consider both a) students' participation in service activities to address community needs and b) students' reflection on the activities to gain understanding of the course content, appreciation of their discipline, and a sense of social responsibility, to be essential components of S-L.
"I consider S-L to be the finest example of University-to-Community synergy to cultivate in students the notion of social responsibility and enable them to make sense of what they learn in class."
Service-Learning (S-L)
The State University of New York (SYNY), n.d. defines Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as "an approach that brings students and professors together across cultures to learn, discuss and collaborate as part of their class. Professors partner to design the experience, and students partner to complete the activities designed. COIL becomes part of the class, enabling all students to have a significant intercultural experience within their course of study."
"I consider COIL to be a fine example of University-to-University synergy to nurture students with a culturally fluent, cross national mindset and to enable students to make sense of what they learn in class. And, so I consider "domestic COIL", if I am allowed to utilize the term. Imagine the value to the students of COIL-ing a course from, say, a university in rural Mississippi with a course from an inner-city university in Chicago."
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)
Synergies Projects
Type VI Synergy (External): University-to-University
(UNV-to-UNV)
Project Owners:
Emilia Alonso-Marks/Alonso-Sameño
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: markse@ohio.com
Rajiv Saxena
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: rsaxenajnu@gmail.com
Oral Expression in Spanish is a course at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), taught by Dr. Saxena. The course explores different topics pertaining to the Spanish-speaking world, such as linguistic varieties, language variation and change, customs and traditions, and cultural heritage. Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics is a course at Ohio University (OHIO), taught by Dr. Alonso-Sameño. The course introduces students to the study of human languages, their components, and uses. The course focuses on Spanish from the perspective of contextualized language use and the application of linguistic analysis to the study of language.
Project Building Pronunciation Awareness is a UNV-to-UNV synergy that involves Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) between the two courses. The synergy focuses on linguistic aspects such as a language phonemic inventory, sound variation, syllabification, and accent placement to provide a strong background for students looking to improve their oral skills in a foreign language. Students learn about linguistic concepts and subfields such as phonetics and morphology, and get to practice their oral skills. Finally, students help each other build language skills and confidence by becoming aware of their pronunciation with the help of a partner's feedback. By observing their own pronunciation and that of their partner’s, we hope that students will reflect on their own first languages (mainly English for OHIO students, and a variety of languages spoken in India, i.e. Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, etc. for JNU students) and realize that learning another language requires similar strategies.
Type of Synergy: Multiple
Project Owner: Athan Vouzianas,
Synergies Project Founder, Partner, and Team Leader
Contact: avouzianas@synergiesproject.com
Renaissance Engineers (RenEs) is an organization founded and led by Athan with vision "to make a difference by actively participating in our community" and mission "to 'create for good' in our community by solving problems with our knowledge and skills".
"I created RenEs being purposeful to provide all constituents with a platform for creating synergies in teaching and learning."
Therefore, RenEs design and implement projects that can be utilized as curricular, co-curricular, or ancillary learning activities.
You don't have to be an engineer to be a Renaissance Engineer. You only need to want to “create for good” with your knowledge and skills."
Membership to RenEs is open to students of all disciplines, professors, members of the community, as well as members of the industry. Therefore, RenEs becomes a platform for enabling Synergies.
Type I Synergy (Internal): Course-to-Course
(CRS-to-CRS)
Ohio University's ET2800 (Engineering and Technology – Overview) and ENG1510 (Writing and Rhetoric I) are two courses students frequently take during their first year of studies. ET2800 is intended for students in all engineering majors and recommended to students in non-engineering majors. ET2800 provides an overview of engineering and technology to place the profession in a historical context, to examine the views of supporters and detractors, to examine moral and ethical issues associated with the profession, and to develop an appreciation for the manner in which engineering and technological work is conducted. ENG1510 is the first-year composition course. Students practice in composing and revising expository essays that are organized, coherent, and effective for their purpose and audience. The essays cover a variety of topics such as gender, ethnicity, race, social issues, communication, technology, and issues facing professional fields. Frequently, students take ET2800 and ENG1510 in the same semester. In a synergy between ET2800 and ENG1510 instructors will create common assignments for the two courses. For example, students may study assembly line design and its impact on manufacturing and on society. Students will work on engineering calculations and reflections in ET2800 and will continue the discussions in ENG1510 while working on the writing side of the assignment. Among many assignments, students will produce one report for both courses to detail the design of an assembly line both from the technical and societal perspectives.
Project Owner: Athan Vouzianas,
Synergies Project Founder, Partner, and Team Leader
Contact: avouzianas@synergiesproject.com
CSD6240 (Neuromotor Disorders of Speech) and PT7500 (Neuroanatomy for Physical Therapists) are courses offered by Ohio University's Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and Physical Therapy (PT) programs, respectively. CSD6240 is an in-depth study of the nature and habilitation of speech disorders of organic etiology. PT7500 is the neuroanatomical study of human brain, brainstem, cranial nerves, and spinal cord emphasizing function and considerations relative to physical therapy. A course-to-course synergy between CSD6240 and PT7500 brings CSD graduate students with PT undergraduate students in the gross anatomy lab to review anatomical structure and functions important for speech. Key aspects of the synergy include a) delimitation of content and purpose by individual course learning outcomes, b) peer-to-peer teaching and review, and c) problem-based learning. The project has been well received by both sets of students. PT students compete to take part in this activity, although it requires volunteering 9 hours of their evenings over three weeks. CSD students made significant gains and reach criteria for their clinical course in at least 6 fewer hours than traditional instruction alone.
Type I Synergy (Internal): Course-to-Course
(CRS-to-CRS)
ET3300/5300 (Engineering Economics) is a course at Ohio University that provides knowledge for assessing the economic consequences of engineering decisions and designs. The course provides methods for evaluation of engineering design alternatives in terms of costs and benefits and is intended for third or fourth year students, as well as graduate students. In a synergy between Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology and Scripps College of Communication, students in ET5300 performed engineering economic analysis to select the best alternative for the implementation of an information and telecommunication system.
Type III Synergy (Internal): College-to-College
(COL-to-COL)
Project Owner: Athan Vouzianas,
Synergies Project Founder, Partner, and Team Leader
Contact: avouzianas@synergiesproject.com
Type III Synergy (Internal): College-to-College
(COL-to-COL)
Project Owners:
Pittaya (Fon) Paladroi-Shane,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: paladroi@ohio.com
Thom Stevenson,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: stevent3@ohio.com
Synergy between Ohio University's Center for International Studies and Patton College of Education. INST 2900/5900 (Special Topics in International Studies: Southeast Asian Languages, Foods, and Cultures) is a course designed to frame the connectedness of local and global community by focusing on food cultures and languages from Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam). The course is offered in a blended model with online instruction where students learn the basics of three main Southeast Asian languages and cover topics ranging from anthropology to food science; and with in-class sessions where students learn to prepare Southeast Asian dishes using fresh produce grown locally.
Type III Synergy (Internal): College-to-College
(COL-to-COL)
Project Owners:
Nasseef Abukamail,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: abukamai@ohio.com
Nicholas Mezitis,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: mezitis@ohio.com
Synergy between Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology and Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. In a senior design class, computer science students developed an online application which enables an endocrinologist to prescribe medication by instantly accessing medical and healthcare information from different sources. The scope of the project was to create a tool to aid in the education of medical students in diabetes medication and their applications to patients. The tool utilizes the "shopping cart" model and applies it to the diabetic population. The vision is to create a modern approach to the healthcare marketplace that is updated in real time and takes into consideration patient profiles and insurance information to prescribe medication and calculate the cost.
Type III Synergy (Internal): College-to-College
(COL-to-COL)
Project Owners:
Nasseef Abukamail,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: abukamai@ohio.com
Nicholas Mezitis,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: mezitis@ohio.com
Synergy between Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology and Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. In a senior design class, computer science students will develop a mobile app to help children monitor their glucose level. The app will communicate with the children's glucose monitor and will encourage them to manage their diabetes through game-like interface.
Synergy between Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology and Patton College of Education. Students from Human and Consumer Sciences worked with mechanical engineering students to develop a cooking station for chefs with disability or physical restriction, while computer science students developed a mobile app to control the station. This environment allows many aspiring chefs to bake with ease with a table that adjusts itself to their needs.
Type III Synergy (Internal): College-to-College
(COL-to-COL)
Project Owners:
Nasseef Abukamail,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: abukamai@ohio.com
Thom Stevenson,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: stevent3@ohio.com
This initiative will create synergies in teaching and learning between the university and K-12 schools; and the university and partner community/learning organizations. Constituents will be educational leaders, teacher leaders, university graduates, and university graduate students. Constituent organizations will be after-school enrichment programs, sports clubs, children's and youth organizations, and communities of faith. The constituents synergize to create activities that enrich and support the learning of both university students and students in K-12. Therefore, ensuing activities will be beneficial to all parties involved in the synergies.
Type IV Synergy (External): University-to-Community
(UNV-to-COM)
Ohio University's Center for Campus and Community Engagement (CCCE) seeks to understand and strengthen an OHIO engagement ecosystem that reflects the University’s mission, ensures ethical and mutually beneficial engagement with community partners and the SE Ohio region, enhances faculty and staff professionally, and creates beneficial outcomes for enrollment and student achievement. Although the timeline of this academic year will likely not allow for all aspirations to be addressed, they are strongly interconnected and therefore need to be explicitly identified. To address the above objectives, my proposal is to develop an informed plan, based on a literature review, to integrate community engagement and strengthen the engagement ecosystem broadly.
Type IV Synergy (External): University-to-Community
(UNV-to-COM)
ET2800 (Engineering and Technology – Overview) intended for students in all engineering majors and recommended to students in non-engineering majors. ET2800 provides an overview of engineering and technology to place the profession in a historical context, to examine the views of supporters and detractors, to examine moral and ethical issues associated with the profession, and to develop an appreciation for the manner in which engineering and technological work is conducted. A specific section of ET2800 is designated as a Service-Learning course. The course instructor worked with a community organization to implement projects in the community that fit some of the course's student learning outcomes. Examples of projects included building a 50 ft. pedestrian bridge on a trail path, building wheel-chair accessible ramps, building French drains to protect trail paths from rain water, and performing maintenance work for houses and yards.
Type IV Synergy (External): University-to-Community
(UNV-to-COM)
Project Owner: Athan Vouzianas,
Synergies Project Founder, Partner, and Team Leader
Contact: avouzianas@synergiesproject.com
Synergies with Industry resulting in internships, internships for college credit, CO-OP, practicum, etc.
Athan is currently working to build UNV-to-IND synergies. Email Athan to discuss ideas.
Type V Synergy (External): University-to-Industry
(UNV-to-IND)
Project Owner: Athan Vouzianas,
Synergies Project Founder, Partner, and Team Leader
Contact: avouzianas@synergiesproject.com
ET2800 (Engineering and Technology – Overview) intended for students in all engineering majors and recommended to students in non-engineering majors. ET2800 provides an overview of engineering and technology to place the profession in a historical context, to examine the views of supporters and detractors, to examine moral and ethical issues associated with the profession, and to develop an appreciation for the manner in which engineering and technological work is conducted. A specific section of ET2800 is designated as a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course.
In a COIL synergy between Ohio University's ET2800 and University of Patras', Greece Theatre Performance students will work together to design the "neighborhood of the future" from the engineering, societal, and artistic points of view.
Type VI Synergy (External): University-to-University
(UNV-to-UNV)
Project Owners:
Yianna Roilou,
Synergies Project Affiliate
Contact: roilou@upatras.gr
Athan Vouzianas,
Synergies Project Founder, Partner, and Team Leader
Contact: avouzianas@synergiesproject.com
ENG 3080J (Writing and Rhetoric II) is a course at Ohio University that focuses on building writing skills in a variety of genres such as rhetorical analysis, research-based argument, reporting, etc. Coursework includes learning to read rhetorically and using effective strategies for searching academic databases and evaluating sources. A specific section of ENG3080J is designated for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). A COIL synergy is being built between Ohio University's English Department and e-campus and Leipzig University's Herder Institute. An online section of ENG 3080J (Writing and Rhetoric II) at Ohio University focusing on the rhetoric of contagious diseases and a course in Teaching German as a Second Language in an online environment at Leipzig University will collaborate on this project. Aside from building knowledge in their respective course content, students will also develop intercultural communication and digital literacy skills, using coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic as course material.
Type VI Synergy (External): University-to-Community
(UNV-to-UNV)
THAI 2110 ( Intermediate Thai I) and THAI 2120 ( Intermediate Thai II) are two courses at Ohio University designated for COIL. PPT 362 (Improve Sustainability of Food Packaging) is a course at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. Sustainable Food Packaging in Thailand and Sustainable Consumption in the US is a UNV-to-UNV type of synergy that connects the two courses from the two universities. At the end of the series of COIL activities, students from the two universities will be able to a) demonstrate their cross-cultural knowledge and understanding of Thai and American society through the discussions on but not limited to their roles in sustainable development, food packaging, and consumption; b) improve their intercultural communication skills by using English and Thai for discussion and collaboration; c) deepen their understanding of the issues related to sustainability, especially sustainable food packaging and sustainable consumption among the current generation; and d) synthesize information and declare a personal pledge to help promote the Sustainable Development Goals, or global goals.
Type VI Synergy (External): University-to-Community
(UNV-to-UNV)
Greek in Greece is an Ohio University program to learn modern Greek for students who completed one year of Ancient Greek. Students take two courses in Ancient Greek at Ohio University, while they “buddy up” for cultural exposure with students in the Philology program at the University of Patras (UP) in Greece. Students complete the program with courses in Modern Greek at UP. The program includes cultural enrichment activities and visits to archaeological sites.
Type VI Synergy (External): University-to-University
(UNV-to-UNV)
References
Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A, (1995). A Service-Learning Curriculum for Faculty. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall 1995, 112-122. Retrieved April 14, 2021 from https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/4591
What Is COIL. (n.d.) SUNY. Retrieved Apr 14, 2021, from https://online.suny.edu/introtocoil/suny-coil-what-is/
What Is Service-Learning. (n.d.) NYLC. Retrieved Apr 14, 2021, from https://www.nylc.org/page/WhatisService-Learning