CTL Happenings - Message #460

New graduate student teaching assistants (TA) for the 2019 - 2020 academic year are invited to participate in the 2019 IUPUI TA Orientation to learn more about their new position and develop strategies to confidently and effectively interact with faculty and undergraduate students. The in-person training session is scheduled for Thursday, August 22, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and the online Canvas course will be available from August 1. Successful participation includes completing the in-person training and the online course. Click here for more information and registration details.

At this event, organized as a number of forum sessions, associate faculty join their colleagues from other departments to brainstorm and explore different strategies to approach commonly encountered teaching issues. The AFTF event takes place on the evening of Wednesday, September 18, 2019 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., in the University Library (UL), in and about the offices of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).  Click here for more information and registration details.

If you have course content in Canvas that you would like to use again in the upcoming semester you can import that material into your new Canvas course. This saves you time over re-creating the same content in the new course. To copy the content to your new course please use the Canvas Guide or contact the IUPUI Center for Teaching and Learning at 317-274-1300.

Have you ever considered how you could keep teaching if there were an unplanned campus closure? A variety of circumstances might require you to temporarily take your class online with minimal notice: a campus closure due to a natural disaster, increased absenteeism during a flu outbreak, or a family emergency requiring your presence elsewhere. In this webinar, we'll discuss some general principles that can help you prepare for the unexpected and adapt as quickly and smoothly as possible, as well as the various university resources that are available to support you.

This event aligns with the following IUSM Academy of Teaching Scholars program competencies: Curriculum and Course Design (C), Instructional Technology (IT).

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 webinar will offer tips and considerations for effective syllabus design, show example syllabi, and include time for questions and discussion.

Did you know that any video you load into Kaltura will be mechanically captioned automatically? These mechanical captions (done by speech recognition software) are a great place to start if you are interested in improving the accessibility and usability of your course for all students. Mechanical captions don't include punctuation, for example, which is an easy thing to add to help your viewers understand the content. Attend this webinar to learn how to use the new (as of May 2019) REACH editor, a very simple and straight forward interface for caption editing.

This event aligns with the following IUSM Academy of Teaching Scholars program competencies: Instructional Technology (IT).

As IUPUI continues the process of reviewing general education courses, course coordinators or faculty responsible for preparing course portfolios for review may have questions about the information and materials that need to go into the portfolios. This workshop will provide an overview of the course review process, course portfolio requirements, and the rubric that will be used to review the course portfolios. It will also introduce a new option for preparing a simplified course portfolio based on using a Mile Marker assignment. Examples from existing course portfolios will be incorporated into the workshop. Questions and discussion will be encouraged.

This workshop is being offered in two formats: in person and online. When you register, you will be prompted to choose how you would like to attend.

This workshop will be repeated on the following dates.  Click on a date to register.

August 8, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., UL 2115J

September 5, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., UL 2115E

Diversity and inclusion play an important role in promoting student learning.Today’s college students are increasingly diverse compared to prior generations. Traditional teaching strategies have also been shown to lead to lower academic achievement for underserved students compared to majority students even when differences in GPA and other factors are controlled for.

By considering the diversity of the classroom and implementing equitable teaching strategies, instructors can increase student learning and sense of belonging for all students, not just those who are underserved. In this webinar, participants will learn how to leverage student diversity and incorporate inclusive teaching strategies in their classrooms. Questions and discussion will be encouraged.

Creating assignments that align with and allow for the accurate assessment of learning objectives requires careful planning. Such planning can help improve student understanding of your expectations, student achievement of your learning objectives, and can also set the stage for a smoother assessment process. This webinar will review methods for designing or refining assignments to target specific objectives, for communicating critical assignment components to students, and for scaffolding assignments to help students achieve intended learning outcomes.

Formative assessment is an important part of a balanced assessment strategy. Providing frequent opportunities for students to see what they know and what they don’t know – especially when paired with targeted feedback – helps students assess their own level of understanding, ask better questions, and study more effectively. It encourages active engagement with the content while also giving instructors regular feedback on how their students are progressing.

Quick Check allows you to easily integrate frequent, low-stakes, knowledge and understanding checks within your own content to promote student learning. The integrated, mastery-based approach of Quick Check activities can be less intimidating to students than a formal quiz, reducing anxiety and allowing these checks to be a learning experience.

Evidence-based teaching practices are research-supported methods of teaching that foster high levels of student learning and retention in STEM fields. These active learning strategies are rooted in principles of how people learn and may be successfully adapted to different disciplines. This webinar will provide an introduction to various evidence-base teaching practices and particularly focus on two such evidence-based teaching practices, Peer Instruction and Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Using examples drawn from different disciplines, participants will be equipped to implement a Peer Instruction or PBL strategy for an assignment in a course of their own, and discuss techniques to assess student learning gains.

The Polis Center at IUPUI is offering a series of free workshops to build data literacy skills and use the SAVI community information system as a resource. SAVI Training is a hands-on curriculum focused on data literacy from end to end.  Workshops are offered every other week.

• Create and Use Client Data| July 11, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Register    

• Create and Use Survey Data |  July 25, 9:00 a.m. -11:00 a.m. - Register

Applications are being accepted for the Service Learning Assistant Scholarship program to support faculty and staff community engagement.  The deadline is June 30, 2019 and will be for the ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-2020. (Please note that this is for our general application period; those who applied during our priority window have already been awarded). We do still have funding for the AY and encourage you to apply.  There is NO SPRING ONLY application period. The current application window is for ANY FUNDING for either ALL Of AY 19-20 OR just Fall OR just Spring. 

To find out more about this program, please visit https://csl.iupui.edu/resources-support/grants/faculty-staff/assistant

Friday, July 12  | IU South Bend, Education and Arts Building 
Register »

Sign up now for Teach, Play, Learn, Indiana University's 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 Dr. Seann Dikkers, author, education researcher, design consultant, speaker and founder of Dikkers Appraisal, LLC.

When: Friday, July 12, 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. 

Where: IU South Bend, Education and Arts building

Whitaker, M. (2019, June 02). How to make the best of bad course evaluations.The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Student course evaluations have many shortcomings but still are often used in hiring and promotion and tenure decisions. This article suggests ways for instructors to review course evaluations diagnostically to improve their teaching.