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CITL Teaching & Learning Newsletter: May 21, 2021

May 25, 2021, 14:04 PM
CITL Teaching and Learning News: May 21, 2021
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Announcements

 
 

Illinois Summer Teaching Institute Begins June 7

Instructors interested in the Illinois Summer Teaching Institute should contact their departmental or college administrators for more information.   https://massmail.illinois.edu/massmail/353272272.html

Canvas Training Now Available

Visit the  training calendar  for the latest dates and to sign up for upcoming sessions. In June, we will begin sharing recordings of previous sessions for anyone unable to attend a workshop.

Join the Canvas Community course to connect with campus consultants, submit questions to Canvas experts, and more. This opt-in course space is an additional resource to support faculty in the transition to Canvas and facilitate discussion with colleagues across campus. 

Summer Workshop Series Begins June 22

Join Lucas Anderson and the CITL Grad Affiliates for the annual workshop series Lucas thinks is the most fun thing they offer all year. They’ll introduce you to backward course design as a driving philosophy, and use that philosophy to guide you through eight workshops in which you will consider the most essential elements of your course: from learning objectives, through assessments and class activities, all the way to the syllabus.

You’ll like these workshops if you:

  • Are a TA or new instructor designing your first course
  • Are going on the job market soon and want a well-designed course to show off in your application package
  • Are an experienced instructor who thinks going back to basics might refresh your course design
  • Want to work with a small group of people interested in good teaching and learning
  • Want to hang out (virtually) with Lucas and the Affiliates because it is fun

You don’t have to attend every workshop in the series – just the ones that appeal to you. But if you attend all or most of them, you are very likely to get to know your fellow participants and will end up working closely with several people who will help and support you. The environment is relaxed, the workshop facilitators are welcoming and enthusiastic, and the participants are always great to work with. Join us online on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm Central on Zoom from June 22 – July 15.

As a bonus, the half hour after each workshop will be devoted to exploring features of Canvas (the new campus LMS) that are relevant to the day’s topic. As an extra bonus, any and all of these workshops count towards workshop hours for  CITL teaching certificates .

See the workshop series flyer  for course titles and more information, or if you are already convinced you can  register for any of the workshops right here .

Volunteers Needed for the August Grad Academy

The Graduate Academy for College Teaching (the campus-wide pre-semester TA training) will be fully online again this August 16-17 with Microteaching August 18-19. We offer one of the most robust TA trainings among peer institutions because many members of the Illinois teaching community come together each semester to make it great. To maintain that trend, we can use your help!

If you have important insights to share with new TAs about teaching in person, teaching online, teaching with technology, or teaching inclusively, you could pitch us a topic for one of our many concurrent sessions. We could use sessions on maintaining work-life balance, teaching in a lab or studio setting, or growth mindset.  But those are just examples!  We have room for many topics.

If you have experience as a TA here at Illinois, we can always use lots of help with the small group sessions, where new TAs learn about running a good class session. You would receive training and a lesson plan to work from. New TAs respond well when these sessions are run by experienced TAs.

If you have any teaching experience at all, and are interested in helping new TAs get off to a good start with their teaching, consider facilitating Microteaching sessions. You would receive training and would get to facilitate one or more sessions where new TAs give short lessons on topics of their choice. You’ll probably learn several new things!

See the call for presenters  for more information and to sign up to help. Or if you know you want to help,  go directly here to volunteer . We want all our new TAs to start their first day of teaching with skill and confidence. We can do that with your help.

 
 

CITL Events & Workshops

 
 
Tuesday May 25
Building Courses In Canvas 2:00 P.M. - 3:30 P.M. via Zoom. Recurs throughout the Summer Registration required, check calendar for all workshop listings and registration information
Presenters: Canvas Training Working Group
Wednesday June 2
Canvas Support Open Office Hours
1:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. via Zoom. Recurs every Wednesday from 1-2pm and Thursday from 11am-noon. No registration required, check calendar entry for Zoom link.
Presenters: CITL Instructional Support and Training
Tuesday June 8
Migrating from Compass2g to Canvas
11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. via Zoom. Recurs throughout the Summer.
Registration required, check calendar for all workshop listings and registration information
Presenters: Canvas Training Working Group
See a complete list of upcoming workshops here.
 
 

Teaching Tips

 
 

Ten Tips for More Efficient and Effective Grading

(from Faculty Focus) Many instructors dread grading, not just because grading takes up a sizable amount of time and can prove itself a tedious task, but also because instructors struggle with grading effectively and efficiently. However, effective grading does not have to take inordinate amounts of time, nor does one need to sacrifice quality for speed.  The following tips can help instructors grade more effectively while enhancing student learning

A Mountain of Grading

(from Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching) Now that the final exams are almost over, do you find yourself facing a large mountain of grading? And, perhaps, you wonder if you are spending more time grading than your students spent completing that assignment?  Consider the notion of “light grading” where you limit your comments or notations to those your students can use for further learning or improvement.   Here are some suggestions on how to do that .

See More Teaching Tips Here

 
 
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