CTL Happenings - Message #302

When teaching a large class, instructors face challenges related to engaging learners and managing the classroom. Developing rapport with students, eliciting student participation, and giving and receiving feedback from students can all be daunting tasks. Presenters and participants will discuss strategies for increasing interactivity, developing community, efficiently handling logistics, and incorporating technology to minimize the challenges of teaching a large class.

Metacognition refers to how learners think about and monitor their own knowledge, a process which has been shown to improve students’ learning. Metacognitive skills involve assessing the demands of a task, evaluating one’s own knowledge and skills, planning an approach, monitoring one’s progress, and adjusting strategies as needed to complete the task. Participants will learn how to blend metacognitive skill instruction with content instruction by using strategies such as instructor modeling of reflection, student self-reflection, visual organizers, formative assessments, and more.

Teaching@IUPUI is an ongoing series of online mini-workshops focused on foundational teaching skills. Designed for new faculty, adjunct faculty, graduate students, and those looking for a refresher on good teaching practices, the workshops consist of brief presentations interspersed with opportunities for interaction and questions. Grounded in current research, the workshops address various teaching topics and provide participants with strategies and resources to make instruction more effective, efficient, and enjoyable.  Sessions are scheduled with the time of semester in mind, to keep topics relevant for faculty needs at that time.

Recordings of past Teaching@IUPUI webinars are available on the Center for Teaching and Learning website for you to access anytime.

Upcoming live sessions are listed below. Click on each webinar title for description and registration.

• Drafting a Teaching Philosophy (June 22) 
• Documenting Your Teaching (June 29)
• Designing Assignments (July 13)
• Creating Rubrics (July 20)
• Creating a Syllabus (July 27)
• Best Practices for Slide Show Presentations (August 3)
• First Day of Class (August 10)

Learn how to use Canvas, IU's new Learning Management System, at your own pace or in a guided tutorial. The Center for Teaching and Learning, along with IT Training, offers a wide variety of workshops and webinars to help faculty set up Canvas sites for summer and fall semesters.

Upcoming workshops:

• Canvas:  Assignments & Grading Overview (June 2)
• Canvas: Pages (Content in Context) (June 10)
• Canvas: Building and Organizing Content with Modules (June 16)
• Canvas: First Look (June 17)
• Canvas: Assignments and Grading Overview (June 20)
• Canvas: Using Groups (June 21)
• Canvas: Quizzes and Tests (June 29)

Oncourse to Canvas Migration Support

If you have been teaching in Oncourse and are ready to make the move to Canvas, here are some resources you may find helpful:

• Read Using the Canvas Migration Tool Knowledge Base
• Request a consultation with a Consultant
• Request a Canvas Workshop for your school, department or program
  

Changes to Turnitin Canvas Integration

Canvas courses for Summer 2016 were made available Thursday, 4/7.  Along with the summer course availability comes a significant change with the Turnitin (IU’s originality checking and plagiarism prevention service) integration with Canvas. Turnitin and Canvas are discontinuing support for the existing Turnitin integration. 

A new external tool integration with Turnitin became available on Thursday, 4/7. The new Turnitin tool is a substantial upgrade in security over the previous version. However, there are some significant changes in the way assignments are set up and connected to the service. In particular, any assignment you import from Spring 2016 and earlier will need to be reconnected with the Turnitin service.

View the Canvas instructions here and the updated IU Knowledge Base article with an included video tutorial. If you have any questions, please contact the CTL.

The IUPUI Center for Teaching and Learning and the IUPUI Graduate Office invite applications for a Graduate Teaching Assistant who will support efforts to develop programming connected to IU’s new affiliation with CIRTL, the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning. CIRTL is a network of 46 universities dedicated to the advancement of undergraduate education in STEM and other disciplines through the profes­sional development of future faculty (http://www.cirtl.net/). The CIRTL TA will assist in the planning, development, and facilitation of IUPUI’s CIRTL learning communities and related professional development programming offered through the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Graduate Office. Click here for more details and information about the application process.

Smith, R.A., & Schwartz, B. M. (Eds.), (2015). Using SoTL to enhance your academic position. Retreived from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology web site: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/usingsotl.