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About

What it Is

The Innovative Teaching Showcase is an online series publication created by the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment (CIIA) at Western Washington University (WWU) as a way to highlight and share exceptional teaching practices by WWU faculty. Some instructors are showcased because of the way they teach an entire course, a single lesson, or the way they approach all their classes. At the heart of each Showcase is the innovative method instructors use to facilitate their students' learning in unique and creative ways.

For each edition, several WWU instructors who exemplify the Showcase teaching strategy theme either apply or are nominated to be featured.The CIIA Advisory Board reviews and selects nominees for inclusion in each Innovative Teaching Showcase. Selected instructors work with the CIIA to develop the resource over several months. The published work remains on the site indefinitely.

The Innovative Teaching Showcase is a series publication (ISSN: 2374-9415) with issues dating back to 1999.

Openness

The spirit of the Innovative Teaching Showcase has always been to provide open access to academic best practices. This began well before the "Creative Commons" and open license movements. We have now placed the most appropriate license on each page of the publication, which is: "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International" (CC BY-NC-ND). This means that people may use the materials posted for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate attribution is provided and the same license is posted with the content wherever it goes. To use the content in a more customized way, contact the instructors for permission. Some videos are not posted as Creative Commons due to the inclusion of purchased music which holds a different copyright. For this reason, "unless otherwise noted" is included in our license description. Full details are available on the "Colophon" page of each edition of the Showcase.

What it Includes

The CIIA works with several instructors for each edition to develop and publish their innovation on the Showcase website. Each section is composed of three parts:

  • a portfolio (written by the instructor) describing the innovative strategy in detail (what it is, how it is done, why it works, what students think, and future directions);
  • video clips of interview with instructor; and,
  • examples of the work in the form of syllabi, assignments, and supporting documents.

Benefits for Instructors

The advantages of being "showcased" are numerous. The CIIA presents innovations from the Showcase website at campus-based functions as well as national conferences. Featured instructors, too, find the persistent resource is useful for sharing their work with others, as part of their tenure and promotion materials, and in other professional venues.

Showcase Team

The student technology assistants in the CIIA work with the CIIA director/project manager as a team, contributing their complimentary talents and skills to each Showcase. The student employees are able to gather useful work samples to add to their portfolios and working skills they can draw upon as they enter their new professions. This publication simply would not exist without the talents of scores of students who have worked at the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment over the years. Indeed, the project takes significant time to develop, especially during spring term, and support is especially essential from area directors in Academic Technology and User Services and the Vice President for Business & Financial Affairs.