CTL Happenings - Message #610

Harvey, A. (2025, March 10). Tired of Awkward Silences? Upgrade your Think-Pair-Share. Faculty Focus.

This short article scaffolds the process of creating think-pair-share learning activities, but with a bonus: when implemented, the approach also scaffolds students’ learning. No more awkward silences!

The Learning Technologies Faculty Fellow Programs have open applications to become a Fellow. Open fellows cohorts include the Digital Gardeners Initiative (1 semester) and the Mosaic Active Learning Initiative (1 year). If you are interested in building community and connections with faculty from across our IU campuses and exploring more with Learning Technologies, we encourage you to apply! Application windows close May 2, 2025.

If you have questions, please contact the mosaic@iu.edu or dgi@iu.edu.

The Teach, Play, Learn Conference, IU’s academic conference on game-based teaching and learning, is accepting proposals for presentations on real-life usage, empirical studies, and/or theoretical discussions of game-based teaching and learning. Learn more and submit a proposal.

Monday, April 7 | 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Learning Technologies Faculty Fellows Programs and Presenters: Justin Hodgson and Adam Maksl

This workshop will offer guidance in how Generative AI can be used to aid in student learning. It will feature modules, practices, and considerations to help students leverage Generative AI in their own learning practices and situations. More at the Digital Gardener Initiative.

Thursday, April 10 | 3 - 4 p.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Eric Brinkman and Presenters: Ben Braddock, Eric Brinkman, Kate Muehlhaus, Tehanee Ratwatte, and David Smiley

Are you working on adapting generative AI assignments into your teaching? This Faculty Showcase will present the work of 4 IU instructors who are adapting their assignments to incorporate generative AI into their courses in thoughtful ways that improve their course learning outcomes and test student critical thinking. Surveys suggest that the majority of U.S. companies will expect student graduates to be able to navigate and use generative AI; therefore using generative AI in your course can model for students both when and how students should think about using generative AI to improve their work, training them how to be successful at IU and beyond. 

Presentations from Ben Braddock (Group Scholars), Kate Muehlhaus (Luddy), Tehanee Ratwatte (Kelley), David Smiley (Public Health) will discuss generative AI use in several contexts: For example, how to use generative AI to improve and enhance course design, to help students generate ideas, and to design innovative classroom AI assignments such as building an online brand. 

Workshop participants will be able to: 

• Describe some potential uses of generative AI in the classroom
• Adapt an assignment using generative AI
• Assess how designing assignments can help students understand when and when not to use generative AI 

This event fulfills the following IUB Graduate Teaching Apprenticeship Program requirements: Associate Requirement 2.2: technology.

Friday, April 11 | 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. | Faculty Crossing (UL 1125M)
Register » Organizer: Douglas Jerolimov and Presenter: Douglas Jerolimov

Want to learn how to make (or improve) a great online or hybrid course? Then join us for this one-day introduction to the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric and to the QM quality assurance process, on Friday April 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. QM is the world’s leading quality assurance organization for online and hybrid course design, and you’ll apply QM’s recently updated Quality Matters Rubric to an actual online course! Completion of the workshop is a step toward becoming a certified Quality Matters peer reviewer. Attendees must bring their own laptops and power supplies. Lunch is provided!

Monday, April 14 | 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Learning Technologies Faculty Fellows Programs and Presenters: Justin Hodgson and Adobe Partner; Microsoft Partner; Local / Community Partner

This webinar panel will explore how Generative AI is influencing emerging relationships between higher education, industry and/or community partners. It will feature a range of professionals exploring how Generative AI is impacting partnerships and practices. More at the Digital Gardener Initiative.

Wednesday, April 16 | 1 - 2:30 p.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Kevin Mickey and Presenters: The POLIS Center and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and and Engineering

This webinar showcases a range of powerful desktop and online mapping and spatial analysis tools, data, and other resources designed to enhance higher education teaching, service, and research activities. These resources are versatile and applicable across numerous disciplines, including health, public safety, public policy, economics, history, archaeology, geography, planning, informatics, and more.

A key feature of the webinar is SAVI, an online platform offering free interactive mapping and analysis tools, downloadable databases, reports, and data literacy workshops. SAVI provides access to thousands of data variables detailing the socio-economic characteristics of Indiana communities over multiple decades. Data themes include demographic trends, social determinants of health, social services, crime, education, and more. The webinar will also present examples of how SAVI resources have been utilized to support university research and teaching.

Additionally, the webinar introduces ArcGIS Online, a tool for creating customized, interactive maps and dashboards that can enrich course content and support research. Participants will also learn about the extensive array of Indiana demographic and environmental geospatial data resources and training available to faculty and students.

Thursday, April 17 | 11 - 11:45 a.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Jeani Young and Presenters: Thomas Longshore and Jeani Young

Do you use Canvas to provide information and resources to your students? Do you have assignments, discussions, or quizzes in Canvas? Are they all accessible? Accessibility is a crucial part of student success. If your students can’t do what you want them to because something is inaccessible, they’re less likely to succeed in the course.

Even if you don’t think you have students with disabilities, you do. Around 20% of the student population and 34% of military veterans have one or more disabilities. You don’t know because the majority of disabilities are invisible and most of the students don’t disclose. ADHD, anxiety, depression, autism, migraines, sleep disorders, dyslexia, and post-traumatic stress disorders are not visible by looking at someone. 

There are some simple things you can do to make your content and assignments in Canvas more accessible. Join us as we walk through how to check for accessibility issues and update your Canvas content. We'll cover practical steps and best practices to improve usability for all your students. Topics include:

• Text formatting,
• Table formatting,
• Making color-blind friendly pages,
• Describing instructional images, and 
• Reducing extraneous cognitive load through course organization.

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

Monday, April 21 | 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Learning Technologies Faculty Fellows Programs and Presenters: Justin Hodgson and Anne Leftwich

This workshop session will offer IU participants a set of cases for academic uses of AI/Generative AI and situate strategies for using these platforms in your everyday academic practices. More at the Digital Gardener Initiative.

Wednesday, April 23 | 2 - 3 p.m. | Online-Zoom
Register » Organizer(s): Charity Bishop

IU Indianapolis has a strong portfolio of engaged learning opportunities, including undergraduate research, service learning, study abroad, internships, and capstone experiences. These forms of experiential learning have been designated a high-impact practices based on “evidence of significant educational benefits for students who participate in them—including and especially those from demographic groups historically underserved by higher education” (American Association of Colleges & Universities). Many of these experiences require students to opt-in, generating inequities in engagement across student groups, as some students have more flexibility and/or financial resources to participate than others. Embedding high-impact practices directly into courses is a powerful strategy for promoting equitable access to experiential and applied learning opportunities for our students. However, when we scale experiential learning in this way, quality tends to suffer, and a high-impact practice is only high-impact “when done well.” The Institute for Engaged Learning (go.iu.edu/engage) is committed to providing instructors with a wide-array of professional development opportunities, which include multiple-day “When Done Well” professional development institutes, communities of practice (over Zoom or Teams), and 1:1 consultations. 

Service Learning Community of Practice 

The Institute for Engaged Learning will host a Service Learning Community of Practice (SL CoP) during the 2024-2025 academic year. The SL CoP is open to any IU Indianapolis, IU Columbus, or IU Fort Wayne faculty interested in expanding their knowledge, network, or collaborative opportunities surrounding service learning. 

Each CoP meeting will be a 50-minute Zoom session. Sessions will be held: 

Thursday, Sept. 19, 11am 

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2pm 

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 11am 

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2pm 

Thursday, Mar. 6, 11am 

Wednesday, Apr. 23, 2pm 

Monday, April 28 | 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. | Online - Zoom
Register » Organizer: Learning Technologies Faculty Fellows Programs and Presenter: Justin Hodgson

This webinar session will feature panelists engaging in reflective and projective practices. Helping us situate the current “state of things” with AI/Generative AI and higher education while also identifying potential trends and emergent considerations for the coming academic year. More at the Digital Gardener Initiative.

This workshop will explore essential quantitative methods for analyzing educational data, with an emphasis on statistical techniques and their practical applications. Participants will engage in interactive activities to deepen their understanding of data analysis tools and enhance the rigor of their research.

This online event will be held on Zoom on Friday, April 11, 2 - 3 p.m. EST. Register.

Presented by IU Indianapolis Arts and the Humanities Institute, this is a two-day event that builds on the work of late historian Howard Zinn. The People Speak foregrounds the enduring power of literature, arts & humanities and human imagination as tools to confront and transcend social challenges, to amplify the public good and to foster a collective humanity rooted in radical love and critical hope. April 11-12 at the Indiana Historical Society. Learn more and RSVP.