CTL Happenings - Message #511

The 2021 Plater Institute on the Future of Learning will focus on fostering antiracism in the classroom. The institute will bring together experts who will share strategies and resources on antiracist policies and pedagogies for the university community. Dr. Tambra Jackson, Interim Dean of the IU School of Education at IUPUI will give the keynote address. Go here to view the schedule and to register.

Check out the CTL's latest teaching resource - a collection of short video clips that cover some of the most popular topics from our workshops and webinars! If you’re short on time and looking for answers to specific questions about a teaching strategy or technology, start with these video guides. Explore the videos.

Call for Proposals Date Extended: 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., Monday, April12. For more details, visit the TPL website and be sure to Save the Date, June 25, 2021 for the conference.

The CHAT Room: Conversations Happening Around Teaching is a virtual, informal space where faculty can gather to discuss timely topics related to teaching. 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 April topic for discussion is How do my blind spots impact my teaching? This session will be repeated on April 7.

In this VoiceThread training, you will learn how to turn new assignments on for your courses and begin using them with your students. We will review all of the workflows, new features, and options for your VoiceThread assignments and showcase examples from actual courses. This webinar is open to IU instructors from all IU campuses and will be repeated on April 8, 2021.

Do you wish your course texts were more affordable? Do you have your own content you'd like to share with your students in an engaging, professional format? Join this webinar to learn more about creating, curating, and sharing content in Pressbooks. 

Pressbooks is an IU supported etext authoring platform where you can author content by yourself, with others, or as an individual or group assignment. The content can be private to your class or shared publicly. It also offers a familiar editing interface and exciting interactives to help make your materials more streamlined and attention-grabbing. Register to learn more.

Improvements and changes are coming to Examity for summer! Examity’s new developments include improved Canvas integration, new user interface for both students and instructors, automated proctoring with a human audit, a lockdown browser, and improved user documentation. Note: Examity is only available in select courses and requires pre-approval by your school dean.

This webinar is repeated on the following dates and times:

Thursday, April 15, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Friday, April 16, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 20, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

This webinar introduces faculty and staff to the essential elements and design of a virtual exchange experience. Virtual exchange is a pedagogical approach that enables collaborations among students with peers in other countries through online technologies. Members of the Virtual Exchange Community of Practice will share practical tips for designing successful virtual exchange experiences in a variety of course modalities across a range of disciplines, including business, computer science and technology, health, and social sciences. Attendees will learn how to find partners and design icebreaker activities, interactions, and assignments for virtual exchanges that cultivate global learning and intercultural learning among students and provide benefits for faculty as well.

Transparent assignment designs have been proven to motivate increased student effort and to promote student success. Clarification and elaboration of an assignments’ purpose, task, and grading criteria works to scaffold student learning activities. Doing so helps all students, but especially students from underserved populations and students who are unfamiliar with college success strategies. In this webinar, participants will be introduced to the transparent design framework, analyze sample transparent assignments, and will begin drafting or revising a transparent assignment.

This webinar will provide an overview of the general education course review process, course dossier requirements, and the rubric that will be used to review the course dossiers. It will also address the option for preparing a simplified course dossier based on using a Mile Marker assignment.

Addressing student concerns and navigating conversations in a divisive political, economic, and social climate has been challenging and exhausting. In this session, panelists will share their expertise, strategies, and models that they use to facilitate conversations on contentious topics in a variety of contexts. Participants also will be invited to share their concerns about these conversations as well as insights and approaches that they have found useful.

Diversity statements are increasingly becoming a required component of job applications in order for employers to discern potential employees’ contributions to equity and inclusion. In this workshop, the purpose of and best practices for writing a diversity statement will be reviewed. Participants will also begin to craft the core components of their diversity statements by reflecting on how their teaching, research, service, and other activities have contributed to equity and inclusion. This workshop is co-sponsored by the IUPUI Preparing Future Faculty and Professionals program.

Each semester, the Faculty Forum offers writing groups that provide encouragement, accountability, and a sense of community for faculty and staff. There are three ways to participate: Hybrid Writing Group, Online Writing Group and At your pace. Click here for more information and registration or contact us at: faccross@iupui.edu.

SAVI Equity Data & Information Hub 

The Polis Center is working on a SAVI Equity Data and Information Hub, and we seek your input on which priorities, topics, and content we should focus as we build it. What inequities keep you awake at night?  What type of data and information do you feel is not being generated or shared publicly that would help shed light on inequities? Please send your suggestions to Sharon Kandris.

Digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis 

The Polis Center at IUPUI—in collaboration with The Indianapolis Public Library and several major Indianapolis cultural and heritage institutions and organizations—is developing a bicentennial legacy project: a digital version of the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Building on the 1994 print version, the free, web-based resource is expected to launch in early summer 2021. Click for more information or to Subscribe to its public newsletter  .

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 | April 8, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Register

• Find Existing Data | April 15, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.- Register 

Bailenson, J. N. (2021). Nonverbal overload: A theoretical argument for the causes of Zoom fatigue. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2(1).

The affordances of videoconferencing technology met and even exceeded higher education demands during the pandemic, but it can also be exhausting to be perpetually engaged online. This article presents emerging theories and research on why “Zoom fatigue” can have psychological consequences in our work and social lives and presents practical solutions to mitigate it.