October 31st Teaching Challenge Workshops

 

9-10: CUE 318

Faculty and student issues with large classes
This session will be a forum to discuss the problems of instructing in the increasing number of larger classes. Both faculty and students are affected by less feedback, more difficult class interactions, fewer supplemental help activities, and difficulty in choosing appropriate assessments. While there are no definitive one-solution-fits-all answers, there are a number of options to mitigate such situations. Let’s begin the conversation that could result in focused solutions for individual situations for the Spring semester.   Keith Barker

 

10-11: CUE 214

Providing Prompt Student Feedback Using HuskyCT

Explore ways to use HuskyCT to provide prompt feedback to students. Learn about innovative uses of the “my grades,” assessment, and assignment tools, as well as various HuskyCT communication tools and prompts to keep students apprised of their academic progress. These tools can help automate the feedback process and save faculty time.  Kim Chambers

 

11-12 CUE 318

Instructional Design Solutions

Staff from Instructional Design and Development (IDD) will be available to discuss instructional design driven options for streamlining course content delivery, creating formative and summative evaluation instruments, and developing online formative assessment tools.  Faculty are encouraged to bring current and potential issues to the IDD group for consultation.   Desmond McCaffrey, Cathy Healy, Marny Lawton

 

12-2 CUE 134

Drop In for Lunch: Requires pre-registration

Join ITL staff for informal discussions of teaching questions and topics.  We’ll bring lunch, you bring your questions, problems, or issues and we’ll model group work at its best!  Catherine Ross, Dan Mercier, Desmond McCaffrey

*Registrants do not need to attend the full 2 hours.  You are welcome to arrive and leave as your schedule permits as long as you register for the lunch.

 

1-2 CUE 318

Organizing and supporting Student Study Groups

Research has shown that student study groups can play an important role in student success. This informal discussion will offer ideas on ways that faculty can encourage and support the use of study groups for the students in their classes. Kevin Sullivan

 

2-3 CUE 318

More Writing, But Not More Grading: Using Informal Writing to Enhance Learning
Research consistently shows that writing—even informal writing that is not graded or even collected—typically improves learning and critical thinking. For example, having students write for five minutes as a warm-up before starting a discussion is a common “write-to-learn” strategy. This workshop will outline a range of write-to-learn activities that don’t add significantly to the instructor’s paperload but that can help students explore ideas, consider alternatives, and engage with course content. Tom Deans

 

2-3 CUE 331E

Large Lectures in Q Courses

We will discuss various strategies for engaging students in large lectures in quantitatively-intensive courses. Bring your own best ideas and cautionary experiences to share! Tom Roby


3-4 CUE 318
Catherine’s Top Ten Interactive Teaching Techniques

My top ten list of classroom activities are active learning strategies that can be used in small, medium or large lectures and discussions, that will help promote student engagement, and that don’t require huge amounts of time or a course redesign to use!    Catherine Ross