CTL Happenings - Message #326

Applications are due by November 15, 2016 for the Reflection in SoTL Faculty Learning Community which will begin in January 2017 and continue through December 2017. The Reflection in SoTL FLC will explore the process of critical reflection and determine specific ways in which each faculty member will incorporate critical reflection in their teaching practices. Applications are available here.

This faculty learning community is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching.

This three-session series is designed to train participants to communicate complex scientific topics more effectively to non-experts like patients, learners, lawmakers, and funders. This program is free and open to all IUSM and IUPUI faculty and graduate students. 

All participants are asked to commit to the entire three workshop series, as each session builds upon the previous. Please note: If you register for this event, you will be registered for all three sessions. Click here to register.

Connecting with your Audience - Wednesday, November 16

Distilling your Message - Wednesday, November 30

Media Training for Scientists and Physicians - Wednesday, December 14

The Curriculum Enhancement Grant (CEG) provides faculty with technical and instructional support, time, and funds to implement projects designed to improve student learning and successes at IUPUI and IUPU Columbus.  In addition, the grants seek to enhance the conversation about scholarly teaching on campus and increase the practice of the scholarship of teaching and learning.  The request for proposals is now available at http://ctl.iupui.edu/Programs/CEG.   The deadline for submitting 2017 CEG proposals is January 27, 2017 at 11:59 p.m., EST.

Most new faculty at large public universities enter the professoriate with training and support to conduct research, but few also enter with equivalent preparation and support for their teaching. The Early Career Teaching Academy provides a setting within which faculty members can create and develop a powerful teaching career, one that is rooted in evidence-based active learning strategies and high-impact educational practices, and designed to facilitate student success.

The academy convenes in two intensive sessions:  one full-day, and one half-day session. These sessions focus on the effective development and assessment of active learning teaching strategies suited to IUPUI’s diverse student body. By the second session, faculty are able to articulate the teaching strategies they plan to implement.

The next academy will be held on Friday, February 3, 2017, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday, February 10, 2017, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.  Click here for more information and to apply.  

As the semester winds down, take a quick break and come learn about some simple and quick ways to improve your Canvas site for the spring semester. Getting to know the ins and outs of Canvas can take some time. This face-to-face workshop will provide participants with simple tips to make their course easier to navigate, streamline communication, and provide clear expectations for students. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops so that they can enact some of these tips during the workshop under the guidance of CTL's IT consultants.

Top Hat, built off the limitation of clicker technology, specializes in facilitating engagement in lectures through live feedback using a broad range of question types, discussions and other interactive modules like class wide tournaments and attendance. It also allows students to use devices they already own (anything with WiFi or cell phone reception works). Top Hat saves you time on grading and helps to improve overall student performance. The company has been working with professors in over 400 North American universities since 2009.

Top Hat will be on IUPUI's campus Wednesday, November 16th for informational sessions. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to join one of the group seminars.

As IUPUI begins the process of reviewing general education courses over the coming academic year, faculty who teach these courses will want to be prepared to put together a course portfolio with the elements needed for the course review. This brown bag workshop will examine the rubric that will be used to review general education courses, the information and documents needed for the review, and the process for assembling a course portfolio as well as show two examples of course portfolios that have been put together to pilot the review process.

This workshop is also offered on November 29, 2016, from 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.  To register for the workshop on the 29th, click here.

A syllabus is often the first impression that students form of a course, and it serves both faculty and student as a guide to and contract for the semester. A well designed and personalized syllabus can help faculty set the proper tone while simultaneously helping them avoid having to repeatedly answer basic student questions about expectations, policies, and deadlines. By examining syllabi from various disciplines, this online mini-workshop will offer tips and considerations for effective syllabus design, show example syllabi, and include time for questions and discussion.

This webinar is part of the Center for Teaching and Learning’s online mini-workshop series focused on foundational teaching skills, Teaching@IUPUI . Designed for new faculty, adjunct faculty, graduate students, and those looking for a refresher on good teaching practices, the webinars are short, with a brief presentation interspersed with opportunities for interaction and questions.

This workshop introduces faculty and staff to the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric and to the QM Process. Quality Matters is a nationally recognized quality assurance organization for online courses design, and the QM Process is a faculty-led peer review process that uses the research-based standards (criteria) of the QM Rubric to certify online courses. Eventually, many online courses within the I.U. system will undergo the QM Process with the goal of achieving national QM recognition. Faculty may also use the QM Rubric as a guide to design online courses. And, for faculty who are interested, this course serves as a prerequisite for QM's Peer Reviewer Course, which is required course for faculty who seek certification as a QM Peer Reviewer, allowing them to participate in QM course reviews for courses created here at I.U. and at other universities.

There will be a one hour break for lunch. Participants are free to bring their own lunch, or to take advantage of the many options available on campus. To receive the QM certificate of completion for this workshop, participants must be present for and participate in the entire workshop. Click here to register.

Reflective practice is an important component of teaching and learning. Faculty and other educators need time and support to incorporate high impact practices, new pedagogies, or online experiences into their teaching strategies, curricula, or co-curricular offerings. Teaching and learning enhancement grants can provide faculty and staff with the support needed to develop new or redesign existing courses, programs, and other learning experiences. Grant opportunities for faculty and staff at IUPUI include:

• Curriculum Enhancement Grants, offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning
• ePortfolio Grants, offered by the ePortfolio Initiative
• RISE to the IUPUI Challenge Curriculum Development Grants, offered by the RISE program
• RISE to the IUPUI Challenge/ePortfolio Initiative Curriculum Development Grants, offered by the RISE program and the ePortfolio Initiative

At this workshop, participants will learn basic information about each grant, eligibility requirements, and how to apply for the grants, plus answers to questions such as, “What kinds of projects will the grants fund?”, “How long does a project like this take?”, “How much funding is available per project?”, “What is expected of awardees?”, “What will reviewers look for in proposals?” and “What advice do past awardees have for faculty engaged in course development projects?” Time for participant questions and discussion will be built into the session.

Note: This is a repeat of the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Grants at IUPUI event on Thursday, November 3rd. To register to this event, click here.

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:

• Rubrics & Integration with Canvas (November 21)

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

Center for Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), a network of 46 universities including IUPUI, focuses on advancing undergraduate education by preparing graduate students and postdocs to use evidence-based and reflective teaching practices. Visit CIRTL at IUPUI to learn more about how IUPUI graduate students and postdocs can participate in local and cross-network CIRTL activities and earn digital badges through a Canvas course to showcase their teaching development efforts to prospective employers.

Upcoming CIRTL Programming :

• Teaching in the US: This series is designed to help international TAs acclimate to the US higher education system.  Click here for instructions to join the series.
• Workshops:
  • Universal Design for Learning:  Reaching and Teaching Diverse Learners, Wednesday, November 16th, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
  • Developing Work-Life Resilience, Tuesday, November 29th, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
  • Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement, Thursday, December 1st and 15th, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Note: You do not need to be enrolled in the Canvas course to start participating in CIRTL local and cross-network programming.

Ford Foundation Fellowships:   

Through its program of Fellowships, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

• Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships (Science, Engineering and Medicine)
• Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships (Science, Engineering and Medicine)

Unizin Snapshot, an early version of a new Canvas-integrated tool for examining student performance in your course, allows you to see students’ performance compared to their peers on quizzes, assignments, overall engagement and current grade, all directly within Canvas. Snapshot also enables you to drill down to look at an individual student’s performance over time in your course.

Faculty are invited to a special Snapshot faculty focus group, to be held November 16th, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (lunch will be provided). So that interested faculty across IU can participate, there will be concurrent focus groups held on every IU campus; however, for our campus, the focus group will be in UL 1116. Given space constraints, we can only accommodate up to 30 faculty, so sign up early to reserve your spot.

Prior to the focus group, all registered participants can experiment with the Snapshot tool in one of their Canvas course sites (you’ll be asked to identify this course on the registration form); when the tool is added to your course, you’ll also receive a brief “Quick start to Snapshot” document. Note: once added to your course, students will not have access to Snapshot – only instructors.

During the focus group, you’ll have the opportunity to provide your feedback in experimenting with Snapshot in your course, engage in additional hands-on activities with the tool, as well as learn more (and share your own ideas, too) on the potential uses of Snapshot for teaching and learning and plans for broader implementation of Snapshot at IU.

We hope you will be able to join us. Please register here if you can attend. If you can’t attend but are interested in learning more about Snapshot or other learning technologies at IU, please contact us at thectl@iupui.edu.

What is Two-step Login (Duo), and How Does it Work?

Email and online scams (phishing attacks) are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Two-step login (Duo), also known as two-factor authentication, adds a second layer of security when you log into secure systems.
Combining an additional verification with your username and passphrase helps prevent anyone but you from logging in.

Duo works like the two-step logins offered by Google, Facebook, and Amazon:
1. Enter your username and passphrase.
2. Use your mobile device or phone to get a passcode.

At Indiana University, Two-step login (Duo) adds this second layer of security for some university systems, and also for your personal information and financial data (Bursar direct deposit, for example).  

The Duo Mobile app for smartphones or tablets is recommended, but if you don't have such a device, regular cell phones and landlines are also supported.
For step-by-step instructions for the various ways to begin, see Getting started with Two-step login (Duo) at IU.

During the months leading up to the end-of year enrollment deadline for Two-Step Login, the UITS Support Center is providing in-person support at various campus events.
Get help with setup, adding a second device to your profile, and any other questions you have about two-step login.
The Support Center will continue adding events throughout November, and December 2016.

Upcoming Opportunities:
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the IUPUI Campus Center
Tuesday, November 22, 2016 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the IUPUI Engineering and Technology building

Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan (November 9, 2016). Returning to the classroom after the election. http://crlt.umich.edu/node/93815.

Zamudio-Suarez, F. (November 10, 2016). Lesson plans after the shock: How instructors treated Trump’s win in the classroom. The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://www.chronicle.com/article/Lesson-Plans-After-the-Shock-/238360?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=eb76b0c7373e431b9a2fccef2f04e913&elq=fd4637d6ab4b423e9d0786cb07646db4&elqaid=11440&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4467.