Miami University Middletown is in the midst of a campus-wide curricular reform initiative to create active learner-centered opportunities. To accomplish this goal, the reform initiative is providing faculty the knowledge, time, and resources to develop and test innovative learner-centered instructional strategies and to extend the most successful of these throughout the campus. Several innovations have been implemented across the campus in Phase One of this project. In Phase Two, those efforts related to the following three areas of priority needs will be extended throughout the campus: helping students to improve critical-thinking and decision-making skills through the use of inquiry-based materials, to gain and master skills in computer and communication technology, and to gain practical work experiences in their intended field that are integrated with their academic learning. The aims of Phase Two are a) to provide mechanisms for faculty, staff, and administrators to share and utilize successful reform efforts, and to mentor faculty as models of reform are expanded throughout Miami University Middletown; b) to provide technology enriched learning environments that emphasize the interdependent nature of academic studies and workplace principles; and c) to ensure that the educational processes being fostered meet the learning needs of diverse student populations. These aims are being addressed by multidisciplinary teams made up of faculty, staff, and students who are carrying out the following activities:
1. Development of a Reform Resource Guide for faculty which includes successful models of learner-centered instructional strategies, assessment tools, and examples of successful reform efforts;
2. Offering of minigrants competitively to faculty for application of innovative reform initiatives throughout the campus; and
3. Provision of seminars and workshops for faculty, staff, and students to provide creative exchange of information with national leaders in the field of curriculum and institutional reform.
