Scholarship of Teaching

Hewlett Pluralism and Unity Project
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded the Office of Graduate Studies and DIIA’s Teaching and Learning group a grant with the initiative to create pluralism and unity in campus communities. The series of studies focused on the use of group work in college classrooms as a vehicle for increasing students' sense of community and openness to diverse perspectives.

Academic Classroom Community
Results of the Hewlett Project indicated that in conjunction with group work, the creation of academic classroom communities is essential to increase students' sense of community and openness to diversity. Current projects focus on investigating how epistemological beliefs of students and instructors contribute to the creation of academic classroom community.

TIF DI4 Grant Findings
As part of the latest UT Austin TIF infrastructure grant, DIIA's Instructional Technologies group investigated efficient and effective ways of using streaming media technology, which holds great promise for the delivery of instructional content accessible anytime and anyplace, especially when the distribution can incorporate both high and low bandwidth options.