Reflecting on Values in Learning and Teaching (ReVOLT) Tool

Developed by Ellen Moll and Kate Sonka, College of Arts & Letters, Michigan State University, 2019

This tool is a set of activities that ask you to reflect on, and brainstorm about, your course in order to make it more integrative and more aligned with your own priorities and values. While “integrative” has a broad set of meanings, the emphasis in this tool is on helping students understand how the course relates to their lives, as citizens, as professionals, and as human beings.

Please start with the opening questions, and proceed using the links at the bottom of this page. If you have already done part of this tool, you can use the links below to go directly to the step you are on. While the following menu is the suggested order, you are free to explore the tool and utilize those parts that are most relevant to you.

• Opening questions
• Integrative Inventory
• Identifying Problems/Opportunities OR Developing New Content
• End planning

Please record your responses to these activities using one of the following methods (or similar):
Download or copy/paste the files in this tool to Word or Pages files, and write your responses there.
Print out the tool and write your responses by hand, and save the documents
Create a google doc or Word or Pages file and put your responses there, labeling which responses are for which prompts or activities
Make a copy of this tool’s folder or all the documents to your own Drive folder and write the answers in the google docs

Recording and saving your own reflections/brainstorming will help to fully implement the ideas and enhancements that you have generated; these written responses are for your use. (Note: Participating in the study on the effectiveness of this tool carries no expectation that you will share your reflections/brainstorming; you would likely be asked to refer back to your notes to gauge if you implemented any changes based on your reflections, etc. If you are interested in participating in this study, which requires a minimal time commitment, and have not signed up, please contact mollelle@msu.edu).

Note: This tool was originally developed by IAH (Integrative Arts and Humanities) to help IAH online instructors make their courses more integrative; we (Ellen Moll and Kate Sonka) are currently working to create an additional version (ReVoLT) that is intended for all disciplines; any feedback is welcome!

We would also like to invite instructors who have used this tool to participate in a study designed to gauge the tool’s effectiveness and provide guidance for future improvements to the tool/activities. Participating in the study is entirely voluntary, and will primarily consist of completing a survey, with the possibility that some participating faculty may wish to provide feedback through additional means. Using the tool for your own interest carries no expectation that you will participate in this study, of course.

Please also keep track of which changes you made to your course based on these activities, if you might be interested in participating in the study about the tool (which will take approximately 15-20 minutes).

This tool may be shared only in its original format (this page) unless the creators of the tool give permission.

Background of this tool: Several experienced IAH online instructors volunteered to provide access to their online courses; the practices observed in these courses were analyzed using grounded theory to create generalized categories of practices, which were then further explored using current published literature on integrative pedagogy and curriculum. We would like to express appreciation to all of the IAH faculty who volunteered to share their courses, as well as the IAH QM Working Group (Margot Valles, Kate Birdsall, Rob Roznowski, Katie McEwen, Ellen Moll), whose recommendations in part inspired this project.