Mission Statement of Learning Research Institue

Mission
The CSUSB Learning Research Institute will promote interdisciplinary scholarly focus on teaching and learning and how it may be improved. The Institute will help formulate scholarly projects, generate financial and other support, allocate research funds, and otherwise serve as an advocate for scholarly attention on learning.

Focus of Activities
Learning Improvement, Experimentation, and Innovation - The Institute promotes better understanding of how people learn; how they develop as lifelong learners; how they perceive their learning needs; the factors that affect learning, and how to create positive contexts for learners with diverse needs based on local and global research findings.

Research on Teaching/Learning
The Institute will organize and carry out basic and applied research on teaching methodologies, techniques and strategies to determine the best practices, what is most effective in instruction, and what best facilitates learning in higher education.

Learning Measures
The Institute provides appropriate methods and measures for assessing the impact of teaching strategies, learning contexts, and curriculum innovation on learning outcomes.

Dissemination of Results
The Institute will promote the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and assist faculty in sharing and publishing SoTL results. The Institute will hold workshops/conferences and publish newsletters and journal articles on the findings of research on instructional improvement initiatives both on-campus and elsewhere.

Long-term Goals
Establish a culture that supports learning communities
Publication/Dissemination of research findings
Inter-institutional cooperative project and partnerships

Short Term Objectives
Organize and carry out Research on Learning Styles
Research on Creativity
Establish working relationship with units on campus that impact the goals of the Institute

Activities/Projects for First Year

1. Establish and organize Institute. Develop formal proposal and get Faculty Senate endorsement and approval of Institute.

2. Appoint and orient director

3. Publicize Institute - its formation and its potential

4. Develop advisory board of on-campus and off-campus consultants

5. Develop a research advisory board

6. Collaborate with Teaching Resource Center and Teaching Academy activities and projects where needed

7. Design and organize research agenda, e.g., Grade Inflation, Student Engagement Styles, Responsibility for Learning, Creativity, Learning and Thinking Styles, Motivation, Emotional Intelligence

Activities for Years 2-5

1. Seek Grant Funding (CSU System, Foundations, Federal Govt.)

2. Develop physical presence and permanent space for office, library, resource material, consultation/conferences with faculty

3. Develop Newsletter and investigate the feasibility of a nationally-distributed journal

4. Establish guest speakers series

5. Host research dissemination events

6. Fund faculty research projects

7. Facilitate Faculty/Student joint research

8. Evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the Institute

Marketing Strategies

Got LC? (Elsie, the cow!)
LC…..it keeps going and going and going…….