CTL Happenings - Message #507

The E.C. Moore Symposium on Excellence in Teaching and Learning which will be held online on Friday, March 5, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is now open for registrations. This year's Symposium will feature a keynote address on the role of "instructor talk" in promoting equity by Dr. Kimberly Tanner, Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University. Dr. Elizabeth Goering, Professor of Communication Studies at IUPUI will deliver a plenary addressing how metaphor and story can be used as active learning tools. To learn more and register, visit the E.C. Moore Symposium website.

Are you getting ready to plan your winter and spring courses? CTL’s Just-in-Time Course Design online Canvas course is now available as a web resource for all instructors! This web resource is organized into five categories:

• Structuring and Organizing Modules
• Creating a Welcoming and Supportive Learning Environment
• Engaging Your Students Online, On Zoom, and in the Physically-Distanced Classroom
• Developing and Adapting Assessments for Multiple Course Formats
• Developing and Adapting Content for Multiple Course Formats

Each category features recorded webinars, online resources, readings, and hands-on instructional guides for creating course materials in the online, in-person with physical distancing, or a mix of online and in-person teaching modes. For more information, go to: Access the Just-in-Time Course Design website.

Using Zoom Breakout Rooms Effectively
Friday, February 12, 2021 10 - 11:30 a.m.
We all know that big Zoom meetings can make interaction difficult, and that can lead to inequities with how participants engage and who gets to be heard. Using breakout rooms in your classes can help get more students engaged in conversations and activities, but like all small group work, they must be structured well to be productive. This interactive Zoom workshop will examine some strategies for using Zoom breakout rooms effectively, will give some technical Zoom tips, and will offer participants a chance to practice some of the approaches themselves. Bring your own strategies that work and join the discussion.  For more information or to register.

UITS Learning Technologies Survey
Be on the lookout for an email inviting you to participate in the UITS Learning Technologies survey. Take this opportunity to let UITS know how things are working for you in the realm of learning technologies. The email will be labeled as “External”. This is an artifact of using Qualtrics for anonymous distribution. The survey will run during the first three weeks of February.

Speed Dating with Learning Technologies
Speed Dating with Learning Technologies is exactly what it sounds like—a matchmaking event that encourages participants to "date" a range of potential tools and services, gaining exposure to a lot of resources within a short period of time. UITS Learning Technologies is taking this event virtual!  For spring 2021, UITS Learning Technologies will host four themed sessions via Zoom: (1) STEM, (2) Health, Education, and Welfare, (3) Business, Law, and Public Affairs, and (4) Arts, Humanities, Language & Culture. For more information and to register for an upcoming session, 

Call for proposals: Teach, Play, Learn 
Teach, Play, Learn (TPL) is IU's annual conference on game-based teaching and learning. This year's presentations will focus on real-life usage, empirical studies, and theoretical discussions. We're particularly interested in interactive workshops involving best practices for teaching with games or playful elements in the classroom.
Possible topics include:
• Board, card, or video games for educational purposes
• Gamification of the course
• Simulations and role playing
• Augmented and/or virtual reality (AR and/or VR)
• Study and research of games in the context of education
Proposals are due 11:59 p.m., Sun., March 28. For more details, visit the TPL website and be sure to save the date, June 25, 2021 for the conference!

Virtual Access to STC Computer Labs   

Faculty can let their students know that while they are away from campus, they continue to have access to the specialized software and high-powered computing of Student Technology Center (STC) computer labs using IUanyWare. 

STC virtual labs provide remote desktop virtualization through a personal device connected to the Internet. IUanyWare is compatible with PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks, as well as iPads, iPhones, and Android phones. For more information, see Access IU STC labs during COVID-19.

A teaching philosophy presents a faculty member’s reflection on the experiences and beliefs that shape his or her teaching and learning strategies. Often used as part of a job application, a promotion and tenure dossier, a teaching award nomination, or course syllabi, a teaching philosophy captures and documents a teacher’s values and aspirations in teaching. This webinar will review one model for structuring a teaching philosophy and will also examine some example philosophies. Webinar participants will take the first steps in articulating their teaching philosophy; those who have already begun to craft a philosophy will have an opportunity to continue that work. This webinar is the 1st webinar in a 3-webinar series designed to introduce faculty and graduate students to the process of creating, refining and documenting one’s teaching practices.

Have you ever had the experience of reading your end-of-semester student evaluations and found yourself surprised by the comments? You don’t have to wait until the end of the semester to find out how students feel the course is going! Gathering mid-semester feedback helps students feel like they are being heard and gives you useful information that allows you to make improvements and address concerns in the current class. In this webinar, we will discuss a variety of ways to gather mid-semester feedback including surveys, focus groups, and classroom assessment techniques, and respond to what your students say.

Do you feel like you’re in a Zoom slump? Class sessions on Zoom can be engaging and even invigorating, but it doesn’t “just happen” on its own - it needs you. Experience active learning in Zoom first-hand and leave with engagement activities you can immediately implement in your class in this mash-up of Zoom features and IU’s technology smorgasbord. Engage in Zoom alchemy - turning Zoom plumbum into active learning aurum.

If you are unfamiliar with the basic features of Zoom meetings, please review the following resources prior to this webinar:

• UITS Knowledgebase article on Using Zoom
• Zoom: The Basics screencast
• Keep Teaching: Zoom for Instructors webinar recording

New CTL Offering – The CHAT Room: Conversations Happening Around Teaching is a virtual, informal space where faculty can gather to discuss timely topics related to teaching. There will be a different topic each month, offered two days/times in order to make it possible for more faculty to participate. Each one-hour CHAT Room discussion will have a faculty facilitator and a CTL host. At the beginning of the session, the host introduces the topic and the facilitator, who then talks briefly about the topic and facilitates open discussion for the remainder of the  hour. The room will open 10-15 minutes early for people to socialize. Following the facilitated discussion, a CTL host will direct the participants to resources pertaining to the topic. The series begins the first week of January 2021. The discussions are scheduled for the first week of each month on Tuesdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m. and Wednesdays, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

The March topic for discussion is Rigor, flexibility – why not both? and the session will be facilitated by Carrie Hagan, IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law. The CTL host will be Jessica Alexander.

This session will be repeated on March 3.

Join CIRTL at IUPUI to Build Your Resume and More.....

Presenters from across the country share their expertise on teaching and learning topics to prepare graduate students and postdocs for future faculty careers. Sign up for a free CIRTL network account to participate in CIRTL cross-network in Spring 2021 workshops, courses, and events. CIRTL events and programs provide you the opportunity to network and build connections with graduate students, postdocs, and faculty across the CIRTL network, which currently has over 41 member institutions from the US and Canada, including IUPUI.

Workshop Series on Exploring and Unpacking Post PhD Career Possibilities

This four-part series helps mid/later-stage graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to articulate and build on professional skills acquired outside of “usual” classroom-related skills taught in CIRTL programs. Participants will develop enhanced self-awareness and agency with respect to employability by: identifying skills and competencies developed in many aspects of your experiences; determining areas for additional development; and developing awareness of possible post-PhD career paths. Learn more and register.

Sign Up for Spring Writing Groups is Now Open

Each semester, the Faculty Forum offers writing groups that provide encouragement, accountability, and a sense of community for faculty and staff. This spring, there are three ways to participate: 

Hybrid Writing Group  Participants will meet in person or on Zoom for two hours each week. In the first 30 minutes of the meeting, participants will discuss a writing-related topic. In the remaining 90 minutes, they will sit quietly and write. 

At Your Pace  Participants in the at-your-pace writing groups will record their time spend writing in an online spreadsheet that is shared with the other writers. In addition, participants will receive a weekly email sharing a concise reading on a writerly topic.

Online Writing Group  Membership is open to IUPUI, IUPUC, and IU Fort Wayne faculty and staff of all ranks, appointments and disciplines. Click here for more information and registration or contact us at: faccross@iupui.edu. 

The Institute for Engaged Learning is working with Rachel Wheeler, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Pathway Programs in SLA, to collect teaching resources that faculty can use to create more active, engaged learning opportunities and experiences for students, and consolidate these resources into an IU Pressbook, organized by types of resources and assignments.

There is a wealth of material out there both through various IUPUI centers and offices, and beyond on the web, but it can be difficult for faculty to find what they are looking for. The Pressbook will be organized to facilitate quick access to the resources that fit the instructor's needs. Please consider contributing to the Pressbook: If you have something to submit, or a request for a type of resource you are seeking, please take 10 minutes to fill out this Google Form: http://tinyurl.com/129s9xny.  If you have any questions, please contact us via email, iel@iupui.edu.

World101 is a growing library of free multimedia resources that provide an immersive learning experience in a variety of settings. IUPUI is using World101 in curricular and co-curricular activities as an internationalization and global learning strategy. Through its entertaining, interactive story-telling, World101 makes complex international relations and foreign policy issues accessible to learners both inside and outside formal academic settings. Click to learn more about World101.

For five years, SAVI Talks have sparked data-informed conversations around critical issues in Indianapolis. Our next event, March 25, from 9:30-11:00 a.m., will tackle issues of economic opportunity and equity. We will focus on economic opportunity and social mobility and how that varies by neighborhood and race. We will highlight the history of redlining and home ownership and how that still limits economic prosperity. We will explore childhood roots of social mobility, including research and data from Raj Chetty’s Opportunity Atlas, and put those data in local context to help inform programming and policy decisions aimed at breaking down generational poverty.  Register today for this online presentation! Login information will be distributed to registrants the day before the event. Register here.

Upcoming SAVI Data Literacy Skills Training: SAVI data literacy training empowers you to find, use, and understand data. Classes are as follows:

• Frame the Problem |  Feb. 11, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Register
• Find Existing Data  |  Feb. 11, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. – Register
• Create and Use Client Data  |  Feb. 18, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Register
• Create and Use Survey Data  |  March 3, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Register

Do you know of an instructor at IUPUI that created or uses an open educational resource (OER) in the classroom? OERs are any educational materials that are in the public domain or licensed for adaptation and reuse. OERs may include textbooks, chapters, online modules, assignments, audiovisual works, datasets etc.  If so, please nominate them or yourself for the annual IUPUI Open Education Award. The winner will receive a $500 cash prize. Nominations are due on by the end of the day on February 17, 2021.  University Library will announce the winner during Open Education Week March 1-5, 2021.

2020-21 CSL Dissemination and Leadership Development Grants Available
The Center for Service and Learning (CSL) provides small grants ($250 to $750) to support faculty and instructional staff to disseminate knowledge and other forms of innovation related to civic and community engagement in higher education. For more information contact Mary Price, price6@iupui.edu.

CSL Coffee Chat: Battling Burnout – What’s a community-engaged practitioner-scholar to do?
In this month’s Coffee Chat, we take up the topic burnout among faculty and staff involved in community engagement. Community-engaged teaching practices like service-learning place additional demands on educators that can lead to burnout. The work to create the powerful learning environments that are the hallmark of these learning methods demand additional time and attention.

• Event Date/Time: February 17, 2021, 8:00 a.m. - Register
• Location: Online - Zoom
• Contact: Mary Price, price6@iupui.edu

How to Tap in if You’re Tapped Out: A Workshop for Engaging Yourself and Your Learners 
Friday, February 19, 9 -11 a.m.
Location: Online - Zoom
Presenter: Niels Floor

LEAP Indiana is offering a special workshop: How to Tap in if You’re Tapped Out: A Workshop for Engaging Yourself and Your Learners. The primary goal of this event is to provide an opportunity for faculty to step back and reflect on the shift we have experienced in education, and then rediscover why we choose to teach as opposed to working a profession only. Click here to learn more and to register.

Flaherty, C. (2020, December, 14). Advising in the time of COVID. Inside Higher Education.

We know that faculty advising, whether formal or informal, is important for student success. A recent report from the National Survey of Student Engagement, from the IUB Center for Postsecondary Research, discusses the impact of three crucial aspects of successful advising from the student perspective. For a deeper dive, see the NSSE website.