CTL Happenings - Message #405

Assumed to be a basic teaching strategy, effective lecturing could still prove to be a difficult skill to master. Develop and delivering lectures with student needs in mind, however, can help to increase student engagement and content retention. This online mini-workshop will offer ideas and considerations for creating lectures that help students achieve learning goals, with time for questions and discussion.

Complete listing of upcoming Teaching@IUPUI webinars here.

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.

Complete listing of upcoming Teaching@IUPUI webinars here.

Active learning strategies in the classroom have shown to increase student' motivation, improve critical and higher-order thinking skills, and stay engaged and attentive during the class session. It helps create a three-way interaction among the students, the subject content, and the instructor. In this webinar, we will discuss a broad spectrum of research-based active learning strategies that can be adapted into different learning environments and disciplines.

Complete listing of upcoming Teaching@IUPUI webinars here.

Rubrics make grading consistent and speedy, and increases transparency of assignments to students. Rubrics also make concrete a course’s and assignment’s learning objectives, which helps students become critical thinkers and to assess their own work. In this webinar, participants will learn basic principles to streamline the creation of effective rubrics and will think about ways to use rubric as a foundational element of a teaching and learning practice. Participants will evaluate and discuss the merits of sample rubrics.

Complete listing of upcoming Teaching@IUPUI webinars here.

The deadline to submit proposals for this year's IU Online Conference is this Friday, June 1. Don't delay! Submit your proposal today.

Who can submit proposals?
We invite proposals from all IU faculty, administrators, advisors, success coaches, and staff members.

What kinds of proposals are you looking for?
We're looking for proposals that address empirical research, showcase best practices, and describe lessons learned related to one or more of the conference tracks:

• Program development and administration
• Coaching, advising, student engagement, and co-curricular programming
• Marketing, admissions, and recruitment
• Teaching and learning innovation
• Technology that advances digital learning

How long would my session last?
You'll need to plan a 30- to 45-minute presentation. This would include time for questions and answers.

When is the conference?
The IU Online Conference will take place on November 9, 2018 in Indianapolis. Registration is free and takes less than five minutes to complete.

Sign up now for Teach, Play, Learn, Indiana University's inaugural academic conference on game-based teaching and learning!

Born from IU's interest in games as effective tools for teaching, the conference goals include:

• Highlighting changing technologies and pedagogies in educational games and playful learning
• Demonstrating benefits of using games in the classroom
• Showcasing practical solutions for creating and using games in education

The conference keynote speaker is Sarah Smith-Robbins, IU's director of emerging technologies for Kelley Executive Partners and a nationally-recognized expert in social media and its application to education.

When: Friday, June 22, 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

Where: IU South Bend, Education and Arts building

Register and view schedule here. 

There are a variety of ways faculty, staff, and administrators can enhance their knowledge and share their expertise in global and intercultural learning this year. The Office of International Affairs has a small fund available to offset a portion of the associated costs of these professional development opportunities.

For information about the opportunities, click here: http://international.iupui.edu/global-learning/grants

For information about funding, contact Dr. Leslie A. Bozeman, Director of Curriculum Internationalization lbozeman@iupui.edu.

1. Perlmutter, D. D. (2011, October 30). How to read a student evaluation. The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Read-a-Student/129553.

 Not sure what to do with your student evaluations? This article has advice both on how to use them to improve your teaching and what to keep in mind regarding their impact on how your teaching is evaluated.

2. Lewis, K. G. (2001). Making sense of student written comments. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 87, 25-32. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/tl.25.

If you’d like more detail on how to organize students’ written comments to identify patterns and trends, see this article by Karron Lewis.