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©2004
The Regents of the University of California
 

campus briefs

BLENDED INSTRUCTION

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Judith L. Smith, in collaboration with Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Jim Davis, recently launched a new initiative to draw together and share vital information from a small number of focused case studies exploring different and promising approaches that blend traditional and electronic learning. In the first year of the Blended Instruction Case Studies initiative, the Faculty Committee on Educational Technology, which will oversee this effort, is looking for ideas that personalize and enrich the educational experience in historically high-demand undergraduate classes, which often frustrate students as well as instructors. The committee is soliciting from faculty ideas that combine traditional and electronic teaching strategies in innovative ways to deliver instruction that improves student learning and experience with research. A faculty panel will review and select several projects, and an invitation to submit a more detailed proposal will be sent to those applicants. With the assistance of a support team, the ideas that are finally selected will be implemented and assessed in one or more undergraduate courses. Anyone interested in submitting a Letter of Interest must do so by Nov. 14. Online forms and details are available at: www.college.ucla.edu/edtech/BICS. Or e-mail BICS@ucla.edu if you have questions. There will be additional opportunities to participate in 2004 and 2005.

SMOKE-FREE NURSES

A School of Nursing professor will launch a program to help nurses quit smoking. The first initiative of its kind nationally, “Tobacco Free Nurses” will be funded by almost $2 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help the country’s largest group of health professionals with the highest percentage of smokers. “Nurses have a tremendous opportunity to assist
in tobacco-control efforts,” Professor Linda Sarna said. “However, smoking among nurses limits their ability to be strong tobacco-control advocates, including the act of engaging in smoking-cessation efforts with their patients.” According to Sarna, the nursing profession as a whole has had limited leadership in the tobacco-control movement and has had no coordinated support to help nurses in their own cessation efforts. One of the available resources will include $100 of free individualized smoking cessation services that will be offered through the Internet for each nurse who chooses to participate.