CTL Happenings - Message #463

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.

Are you ready to get the most out of Canvas? In this webinar, you will learn about ten ways to leverage Canvas to improve both your and your students' experience in your course. 

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.

Creating accessible course materials is critical to support all students, particularly those with visual or audio impairments. In this webinar, participants will be introduced to tools, resources, and best practices for developing accessible course materials.

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. 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.

The Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success, our new institutional undergraduate learning outcomes, have replaced the Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs) and Principles of Co-Curricular Learning (PCLs). They are written with an active orientation, using student-facing language, and are applicable to all student-facing units. Administrators of all undergraduate programs, and instructors of general education courses and capstone courses, are expected to be among the first to map their learning outcomes to the profiles.

In this hands-on workshop, facilitators will provide a brief overview of the profiles, share examples of academic and co-curricular programs and courses that already have been mapped, and introduce tools, resources, and processes that participants can use to map their own learning outcomes. Participants are expected to bring copies of or have access to their own learning outcomes during the workshop so they can begin to map their program or course learning outcomes to the profiles. Ample time will be given for participants to engage in discussion and ask questions.

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.

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.

In this webinar, offered by the Centers for Teaching & Learning, we will explore and discuss the structure of Canvas, IU’s learning management system. The presentation will give instructors an understanding of the interactivity of Canvas tools and how that influences the way courses are set up.  You will learn how to

• share your syllabus
• create and grade assignments 
• communicate with your students
• get to know your students
• effectively use Canvas for teaching

Are you new to teaching at IU? Join this webinar to learn about the instructional technologies that can help you get the semester off to a good start.

You will learn how to:

• Share content with students
• Get to know your students
• Teach students about academic integrity
• Collect feedback from students
• Follow up with students who may be at risk
• Stay informed of instructional technology developments at IU

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

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. It features four groups of modules that teach one to ask the right questions, find the right data, find meaning in the data, and then use the data to make and communicate decisions.Workshops are offered every other week.

• Create and Use Survey Data July 25, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Register 
• Frame the Problem | August 1, 8:30-10:30 a.m. - Register
• Find Existing Data |  August 1, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Register
• Avoid Data Pitfalls |  August 8, 9-11 a.m. - Register
• Find Meaning in the Data |  August 22, 8:30-11:30 a.m. - Register
• Tell Stories with Data |  September 5, 9-11 a.m.  - Register

This seminar for faculty and staff and provides an orientation/overview of the programs and services offered by Adaptive Educational Services, The LGBTQ+ Center, and the Multicultural Center. This seminar is designed to inform, empower, and provide applicable curricular and co-curricular strategies, resources and tools for attendees to utilize while working with our diverse student populations.

The event will be August 15, 2019, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., IUPUI -Taylor Hall, rm 104.  Lunch will be provided.  Please RSVP. For any questions, please contact: AJ Young.

Gooblar, D. (2017, September 6). Teaching from the passenger seat.  ChronicleVitae.

Teaching assistants who teach discussion sections and recitations are encounter a number of challenges to improve the learning of students who experience lectures during the main class meeting. This short article addresses the major challenges and offers practical advice.