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ShareFair: Academic Conference for UMUC Faculty Research and Scholarship

Floyd Csir

Instructional Support Specialist

Center for Support of Instruction

Published: November-December 2011

Category: » University-showcase » Conference-presentations

Sharing knowledge and ideas was the theme of UMUC's 1st Annual ShareFair on UMUC Faculty Research and Scholarship, which attracted an enthusiastic crowd on October 20, 2011. One hundred and thirty faculty and some doctoral students attended the half-day conference at the Academic Center at Largo, with an additional 46 participants attending virtually.

Dr. Jay Liebowitz, the Orkand Endowed Chair in Management and Technology in UMUC's Graduate School, said, "The ShareFair was created to spark conversations, share knowledge about one's research and scholarship, and encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations." Liebowitz, who led the coordination of the conference, also noted that an event such as ShareFair allows faculty to stay on top of research trends and issues that will help them be more effective professors.

Two-and-a-half hours of video recording from the event are available for those who were unable to attend. These archived recordings can be viewed at http://nsp.performedia.com/umuc/umuc11/gallery. In addition, several PowerPoint presentations from ShareFair and a 12-minute video montage of the Faculty Research Poster Session that was developed by the Center for Support of Instruction can be viewed in the UMUC Digital Repository.

Dr. Sharon Tettegah, a program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF), kicked off the conference with a compelling talk about NSF grants. She encouraged faculty to submit grant proposals to the NSF, adding that the federal agency values proposals that are innovative, transformative, and interdisciplinary in their approach. Dr. Tettegah noted that evaluation of projects is a key aspect to getting a grant proposal approved because it ensures a successful project and helps the NSF conduct grant reviews. She encouraged grant writers to look at previous successful grant applications for methods on how to write a winning proposal.

Dr. Datta Kaur Khalsa, Program Director for Assessment, Department of Education, said she hopes to be involved in the assessment process for grant proposals from UMUC, noting that there is "an amazing level of expertise" within the university community. She was glad to see UMUC faculty having the opportunity to present their research at the event.

Following Dr. Tettegah's speech, Provost Emeritus Dr. Nick Allen discussed the challenges facing the higher education sector in the age of tremendous technological change. His presentation cited numerous published predictions, including the possibility that 50% of all learning will occur online by 2020.

ShareFair participants then had an opportunity to engage directly with more than 20 UMUC faculty who shared their research projects via poster presentations, with a few conducted via Skype (from Guam, Germany, and New Jersey). The research presentations covered a wide range of subjects, including multimedia and computer simulations, ethics education and analysis, online classroom communications, community building, and synchronous online teaching.

Participants also actively conversed on a variety of timely topics related to higher education at moderated roundtable discussions called Knowledge Cafés. Topics included social science and system reviews, community-based learning, science databases, e-mentoring, team-based capstone projects, open access publishing, and knowledge management and e-learning. Dr. Bryan Booth, Executive Director of Doctoral Programs, emceed the Knowledge Cafés during the live streaming event. "The variety of table discussions covered many topics that I think are very relevant to the UMUC community," he said.

A brief panel discussion entitled "How to Get Published" followed, in which panel participants discussed the various factors related to book and article publishing. Understanding one's audience, knowing the literature, and clearly stating the significant contribution of one's research to a given field are some of the tips offered by the panelists.

The conference wrapped up with an awards ceremony recognizing UMUC faculty and staff in research and scholarship. The following award winners were highlighted:

• Most Cited Paper from 2010-11
  Rana Khan for her co-authored article: Alkharouf, N. W., Klink, V. P., Chouikha, I. B., Beard, H. S., MacDonald, M. H., Meyer, S., Knap, H. T., Khan, R., Matthews, B. F. (2006). Timecourse microarray analyses reveal global changes in gene expression of susceptible Glycine max (soybean) roots during infection by Heterodera glycines (soybean cyst nematode). Planta, 4(224), 838-852. doi:10.1007/s00425-006-0270-8.
  
  
• Highest-Sponsored Grant
  Javier Miyares and Husein Abdul-Hamid, $1.2 million grant from the Kresge Foundation for "Developing Data-driven Predictive Models of Student Success"
  
  
• Best Posters (F2F)
  • Irmak Renda-Tanali, "Assessing the Benefits of Online Computer Simulation Exercises for Curriculum in Emergency Management and Homeland Security"
  • Wendy McDonough, "A Study of Multimedia to Enhance Teaching, Social, and Cognitive Presence in Online Courses."
• Best Virtual Poster
  Kendra Jorgensen-Wagers, "Socio-Cultural Factors Involved in the Psychological Consequences of War and Violent Conflict"
  
  
• Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 UMUC Faculty Research Grant Awardees
  The 15 out of 63 proposals for faculty research grants funded from $100,000 given by the Provost's Office were also recognized. 

Rave reviews about ShareFair were received from faculty and administrators. Second-year Doctor of Management student Priscilla Lewis was enthusiastic about Dr. Tettegah's keynote address and about ShareFair in general. "It [ShareFair] teaches you how to use your DM degree to help with educational issues or problems." Liebowitz expressed how grateful and excited he was to be able to help bring ShareFair to UMUC and noted that the event "would not have been possible without the wonderful support from the ShareFair team and UMUC faculty, staff, and administration." The Center for Support of Instruction provided video and technical support for ShareFair throughout the day.

Note: For the UMUC Faculty Research Grant program, 49 proposals have been received for the next round of Spring 2012 funding and are currently being reviewed. If you are interested in learning more about the grant program, please visit the Faculty Research Grants Web page.