Jump Start the Spring 2021 Semester

While the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges in teaching and learning, it also sparked extraordinary collaboration, creativity, and innovation among our faculty and staff as they adapted on-campus courses and other educational experiences to the online environment. As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, instructor flexibility and understanding of the challenges our students are grappling with continues to be of great value.

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Increasing Student Engagement

To better understand the needs of students, campus ran a Fall 2020 Student Experience Survey. Students expressed sincere appreciation for instructors who have been approachable, accessible and creative in these unusual circumstances. Many students asked for more office hours and more engaging virtual instruction. Even simple steps like arriving to the Zoom session early for an informal discussion can do a lot to help students feel like they have the opportunity to engage with the instructor and their classmates. Some faculty have found that by holding optional, informal virtual meetings with their students, they’ve been able to build more community and maintain better connections with their students, resulting in more engagement during class time.

The Student Feedback Survey provided these specific suggestions on what you can do to support the success of your students:

Provide a clear course schedule and deadlines
Provide slides online before class
Provide check-ins and reminders
Offer consistent office hours
Turn your camera on during online classes
Provide recorded lectures for those in different time zones
Provide video captions
Be mindful of workloads and flexibility with deadlines
If possible, consider arriving to class 10-15 minutes before it starts to chat with students who come early

As we all prepare for the Spring 2021 semester, we hope you’ll review the following resources and development opportunities to further maximize learning experiences for your students.

Spring 2021 Faculty Training And Support Opportunities

Faculty Workshop Series on Teaching & Learning – a dynamic, interactive faculty learning community to learn, share, and implement best practices from research-based pedagogy.
Virtual Office Hours to help you troubleshoot specific problems or explore new opportunities for online instruction and engagement.
Technical Workshops covering Zoom from basic use to advanced features, tips for improving your Compass or Moodle course, video best-practices and more.
Classroom Management and Policy Workshops to help you deal with the new challenges of social distancing and Zoom-based instruction.
Online Faculty Resources to help in your transition to online or blended teaching modalities.
The Online Teaching Academy remains available as a learning community and repository of teaching and learning resources to help transition your course to online instruction.
Our latest inspirational workshop series – The Art of Teaching: CITL Faculty Fellows Lunchtime Seminar Series – held the first Thursday of every month.

Check our calendar for virtual office hours, workshop dates, and registration information. You can also reach out to us with specific questions or requests by completing this brief intake form.

Are you feeling stuck? Reach out to the professionals for assistance!

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View Workshop Schedule