The work of Rebecca Pope-Ruark, associate professor of English, on Scrum has been featured on two top higher education podcasts.
Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s work was featured on two higher education podcast recently, spotlighting her recent book publication from the University of Chicago Press, “Agile Faculty: Practical Strategies for Managing Research, Teaching, and Service.”
In this faculty development book, Pope-Ruark adapts the Scrum project management framework from software development to faculty work, offering concrete and simple strategies for managing both individual and collaborative research agendas, running committees, mentoring students and peers, and designing effective courses and team projects.
Pope-Ruark recently appeared on Episode 96 of the “Research in Action” podcast, a production of the Oregon State University E-Campus, where she talked at length about Scrum and its relationship to faculty work as well as how to use features of Scrum, such as the Scrum board and sprints, to guide faculty to make regular, actional progress toward their most valuable goals. In an accompanying bonus clip, she discusses how to introduce a Scrum board in student group projects and use it for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning data collection.
Pope-Ruark’s approach to productivity management was also featured in Episode 82: Using a Scrum Board of the “You’ve Got This” podcast, in which host Katie Linder discusses how she implemented the Scrum board approach from “Agile Faculty” in her own work in an academic research unit.
Pope-Ruark is an associate professor of English specializing in Professional Writing and Rhetoric and coordinates the Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovation pilot program. “Agile Faculty” is a result of her Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Scholars project.