From the Ivory Tower to Main Street: Turning Data to Narrative

When students take the capstone course for the cutting-edge, interdisciplinary Environmental Writing Certificate Program, their instructor—Gillen D’Arcy Wood, Professor of Environmental Humanities and English— asks them to behave as though they’re working at a magazine startup. That’s because students don’t write a traditional research paper. Instead, they create an in-depth, multimedia article on a vital topic that will be published in the online Q Magazine.

“It’s not only text but … images, audio production, digital media,” he says in this video about the course, designed to give students 21^st-century skills and tools. 

Professor Wood also explains how the course was designed to solve a pedagogical problem dealing with traditional writing assignments and a societal problem of scientific writing about climate and the environment, which scientists call “a communication crisis.” 

Art of Teaching at Noon TODAY: A Panel Conversation with Technology Services CIOs

Join us for a lively conversation with Technology Services Interim CIO Scott Genung and Interim Deputy CIO Drew MacGregor at today’s Art of Teaching Lunchtime Seminar. We’ll be discussing what you need to know about teaching technologies on campus, including the move to Canvas, and what's on the horizon. How has the pandemic shaped our use of technology, and how are the CIOs thinking about campus needs going forward? Bring your questions and share your own experiences as we conclude the series for the semester. Zoom registration required.

Faculty Summer Institute May 17 - 18 at the iHotel

"Back to the Future: 25 Years of FSI

It was 25 years ago when the Presidents and Chancellors of Illinois public universities called for the development of an Inter-institutional Faculty Summer Institute on Learning Technologies. Since that time, many have championed the pedagogically sound incorporation of educational technologies into the higher education space. Along with incorporating evidence-based research and best practices into instruction, other areas have seen change to improve the higher education experience.

Improvements are made based upon the work completed by those who came before us. This year’s FSI is meant to honor our past as we look towards how higher education has progressed over the quarter century and how it continues to adapt. Click here to register for FSI.

CITL Summer Course Design Series Begins June 14

Lucas Anderson and the CITL Grad Affiliates will be running one of their favorite events of the year: the summer workshop series on course design. Learn about backward course design, and then start designing your course through a series of 8 workshops in which you will consider your audience, craft good learning objectives, choose well-aligned assignments, figure out how to engage your students, and start developing course policies and a syllabus. All while working with a great group of fellow teachers! You don’t have to commit to the whole series, but the more you attend, the more you take away. We are piloting a hybrid approach, where you get to decide whether to attend workshops in person or online via Zoom. The sessions run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from June 14 through July 7. Click here to register for any or all course design sessions.

Art of Teaching Lunchtime Seminar Series
Thursday, May 5
12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M., online via Zoom, registration required
Panel Discussion with Campus CIOs

See the CITL Event Calendar for all upcoming workshops. Looking for other training options? You might want to check out the Canvas Workshop Calendar, and additional training opportunities provided through Training Services (formally FAST3).

Assigning Final Course Grades
(from The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning) 

The end-of-course grades assigned by instructors are intended to convey the level of achievement of each student in the class. These grades are used by students, other faculty, university administrators, and prospective employers to make a multitude of different decisions. Unless instructors use generally-accepted policies and practices in assigning grades, these grades are apt to convey misinformation and lead the decision-maker astray. When grading policies and practices are carefully formulated and reviewed periodically, they can serve well the many purposes for which they are used. 

Grading and Performance Rubrics
(from Carnegie Mellon University Eberly Center) 

What are rubrics? A rubric is a scoring tool that explicitly represents the performance expectations for an assignment or piece of work. A rubric divides the assigned work into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at varying levels of mastery. Rubrics can be used for a wide array of assignments: papers, projects, oral presentations, artistic performances, group projects, etc. Rubrics can be used as scoring or grading guides, to provide formative feedback to support and guide ongoing learning efforts, or both. In the following paragraphs, we share some advantages of using rubrics and sample rubrics across different assignment types and disciplines.