A Message from the Dean: March 2021

Dear CASL Community,

I earnestly hope that this brief message finds you healthy and well. While the one-year anniversary of the college’s pivot to remote teaching and learning seems like the obvious subject for my column this month I would rather shift my gaze forward and talk about one of the forward-looking initiatives currently underway in the college—the work of the Practice Based Learning faculty task force.

I had the pleasure of joining the group’s recent meeting and was struck by the enthusiasm of the members and of great good work that they’ve done to date. The recent “Approaches to PBL” document that the group shared with the college offers a wonderful snapshot into the myriad approaches under consideration to implement a PBL focused curriculum here in CASL. Likewise, student survey data shared at the meeting (and soon to be shared with all of you) also provides ample evidence of our students’ enthusiasm around this new initiative. Equally as exciting have been recent remarks by the Chancellor referencing his interest in seeing PBL take hold more broadly across the campus.

In short, it is a very exciting time to be in CASL and the conversations that we are having around PBL (the Task Force is still grappling with a name) will not only transform our college but also stand to transform the university as a whole. Once again, CASL is charting a new course for the University of Michigan-Dearborn!

I cannot wait to see how this all plays out!

- Martin Hershock, Dean