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he has taught the past two summers. In the “immersion”classes, students live in a residence hall for three weeks andare “immersed” in the language, meaning, for example, theywould watch DVDs in Italian, speak in Italian with theirroommates and read books in Italian. The classes werefeatured in two state-wide newspaper articles for theirinnovative methods.“At some larger colleges, they have immersion programsabroad, but we really couldn’t do that here, so I took an ideafrom that method and adapted it here. From what I’ve seenit’s been pretty successful,” Strain said. “At Ozarks, you areencouraged by the administration to experiment and trydifferent approaches, and you’re not penalized if it doesn’twork. I think that is pretty rare in higher education becausethe administration is usually so far removed from theclassroom setting. But because we’re small, ouradministrators have a closer connection with the faculty.”Faculty members also credit the university’s commitmentto resources like “smart classrooms,” which incorporatenumerous multi-media components, and course managementsoftware such as Educator, which offers interactive on-linemethods to supplement the classroom experience.“These types of resources help faculty members evolvetheir teaching methods and allow students to easily find anduse class materials at their convenience,” Coleman said. “It’smuch easier to be innovative when you have the resources tohelp you.”Another emphasis for faculty members at Ozarks in thepast few years has been in the area of assessment. Strainoversaw the university’s recent extensive self-study for theNorth Central Association (NCA) of Colleges and Schools.The study, which was for reaccreditation purposes, outlinedthe university’s efforts in assessing its teaching and classroomsuccess.“There’s been a major emphasis throughout education onassessment in recent years. The quote you always hear is,‘Show us the learning,’ ” Strain said. “I think the NCA studywe worked on in the late 1990s really got us thinking aboutthat and we’ve already put things in place that allow us toassess better what we’re doing here. In that regard, we’reprobably ahead of other colleges and universities that havejust begun to do that. I know we’ve had people from othercolleges and universities contact us recently and ask us whatwe're doing in assessment because now they are goingthrough the (reaccreditation) process.”Strain has witnessed a transformation of faculty attitudesat Ozarks the last few years when it comes to assessment.“I think a few years ago, some faculty members had to bedragged along kicking and screaming,” Strain said about theassessment efforts. “That has definitely changed. The facultyhave seen that these can be great tools in getting usefulinformation on what is working and what isn’t. It’s been agreat vehicle for us to not only facilitate learning, but also tobe able to get some of those resources we need. You can bethe best biology professor in the world, but if you don't havemicroscopes in the classroom, you are not going to beeffective. I think a lot of faculty members have beenpleasantly surprised about how the assessment process hashelped them get additional resources for their classrooms.”At Ozarks, assessment has spawned a new term oncampus, ISOs or Intended Student Outcomes. The ISOsinclude areas such as communicating effectively and thinkingcritically. The methods to reaching ISOs are typically detailedin each faculty member’s course outline for that class.“I think the ISOs have led to faculty experimenting witha greater variety of teaching styles and methods,” said Dr.Robert Hilton, the chair of the Division of Business,Communications and Government. “I believe both students18 Today, SPRING/SUMMER 2004