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Creativity: Having Ideas & Bringing Them to Be
Instructors have a unique opportunity to help students enhance their creativity, says Bruce Litchfield (Technology Entrepreneur Center). “By creativity I mean the having of ideas—new ideas, novel and better ideas—and bringing those ideas to be,” he says.
In this video, Litchfield, a professor emeritus (ABE), discusses the need for helping students master skills that foster creativity and innovation when problem solving. They can use those techniques not only to enrich their classroom experience but also their careers and lives. Also, two of his former engineering students share examples of how they applied these techniques in their research and learning.
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Request for Proposals to Develop an eText@Illinois
Starting December 21st, CITL will award a limited number of $8,000 grants to faculty and instructors to put their locally-produced course materials for Summer or Fall 2023 on the award-winning eText@illinois platform. All instructor-authors are eligible, but those with large undergraduate enrollment courses (>300 seats annually) are encouraged to apply. Submit your proposal by November 30th. View the Request for Proposals here. Questions may be directed to Milind Basole, CITL.
Volunteer to Facilitate Microteaching at the January Grad Academy
Are you generally friendly and care about teaching? Do you have a little (or a lot of) teaching experience, either as a TA or instructor? Please help new TAs get ready to teach by facilitating Microteaching! TA training culminates in Microteaching, where new TAs teach 8-minute mock lessons on subjects of their choice. Microteaching facilitators help the TAs feel welcome, keep things running on time, and provide feedback on the lessons. We provide training. You get to learn a little bit about several different topics, and you end up with unique teaching development service to boost your CV. Contact Lucas Anderson if you would like to help. Microteaching will take place on Friday, January 13th, in the Armory building. Each session is 90 minutes long, and you can volunteer to help with one, two, or even three sessions. Thanks for your consideration!
Playing with Class: Gamification in the Social Science Classroom
Incorporating gameplay into college classes is a growing phenomenon in the academic world, and one study after another has demonstrated the positive effects that gamification can have on student engagement, performance, and satisfaction. Nick Cragoe, PhD aims to provide a snapshot of the benefits of gamification, a few examples of different strategic approaches, and a collection of ready-to-use resources. Join November 9th, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. via Zoom.
Art of Teaching Looks at Socially Just Leadership Education
Join us for the next Art of Teaching Lunchtime Seminar on Thursday, November 3rd from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. as our guest Vivechkanand Chunoo (Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication), or V, as he prefers to be called, discusses his philosophy on teaching toward pro-social learning outcomes and shows how he uses a leadership learning model rooted in cultural relevance and campus climate. The session will include examples and stories from his teaching and research and invite participants to consider how they can craft socially just, equitable, and fair teaching and learning contexts in their own disciplines. Don’t miss this practical and informative lunchtime session. Please register for Zoom link.
Survey: Perceptions of Online Video Proctoring for Exams
You are eligible to participate in this study by Michele Gribbins (Ed.D. Candidate, Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University-Bloomington and Director, Center for Online Learning, Research and Service, University of Illinois at Springfield) if you teach or have taught courses for a higher education institution. Experience using an online video proctoring service is not required. If you are interested in being included in the research study, please visit the Informed Consent Statement and Survey Instrument. The online survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete.
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Learning and Memory in the Classroom
Wednesday, November 2
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Armory Room 182, registration required
Presenter: Lucas Anderson, CITL Teaching & Learning Consultant
Art of Teaching: Lunchtime Seminar Series
Thursday, November 3
12:00 - 1:00 p.m., Zoom, registration required
Presenter: Ava Wolf, CITL Teaching & Learning Consultant
Academic Writing: Process Oriented Approaches for Student Assessment & Improvement
Thursday, November 10
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Zoom, registration required
Presenter: James Steur, CITL Graduate Affiliate
Engaged Pedagogy
Thursday, November 17
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Armory Room 182, registration required
Presenter: Nicole Cox, CITL Graduate Affiliate
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).
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Teaching with Blogs
(from Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching)
Although people often think of social media as a space for non-academic interactions, blogs can be helpful tools for instructors interested in enhancing their students’ communication skills and increasing their students’ investment in learning. Blogs can be spaces for informal or formal writing by students, and the capacity of blogs to support multiple forms of media (images, videos, links, and so on) can help students bring creativity to their communication. Most blogs include tools for commenting and discussion, enabling students to engage their ideas in conversation with others, either within their local learning communities or on the open Web.
Student writing is often seen by just one person on the planet (their instructor), which can make writing assignments feel like “busy work.” The dynamic interaction between writer and audience that blogs facilitate can help students see real value in their academic writing and take that writing more seriously. Blogs can be an excellent balance between the rigor and structure of a formal written assignment and the freedom to experiment with ideas and arguments.
Getting the Most Out of Guest Experts Who Speak to Your Class
(from Faculty Focus)
Inviting guest speakers into your classroom is a classic teaching strategy. Welcoming other voices into the classroom provides students with access to other perspectives, adds variety to the classroom routine, and demonstrates that learning is a collaborative enterprise. At the same time, however, presentations by guest experts are often plagued by a variety of design flaws that hinder their educational effectiveness. Guest experts, being unfamiliar with the mastery level of the students in the class, may speak over the heads of the students, or they may present their material at a level that is inappropriately introductory. Because they are generally unfamiliar with the class curriculum, they may repeat information that the students have already learned, or their comments may not connect in any clear way with what the students already know and what they are currently learning.
Miscommunication between the guest expert and the host professor, furthermore, may result in the guest’s presentation running either too short or, more commonly, too long. Despite these hurdles, the increasingly collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of higher education makes the kind of partnerships represented by guest-expert arrangements more important than ever. With a little extra preparation, professors can increase the likelihood of a productive guest expert experience.
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