Friday, November 11, 4-5pm, DE206

Join Alison Geist and members of the Mellon Initiative in follow-up discussions to the day-long Project Based Learning workshop help in September.

Many of you attended the Problem-Based Learning Workshop in September.

It’s been a while, but we’d like to get together and talk about what we learned and how to use it here.   

Several of you have already been trying out some PBL approaches; we’d like to hear from you about that. And we’ll discuss whether there are more PBL strategies we could adapt for courses and programs.

As you’ll recall, the Provost’s Office, with Mellon funds, will give a $250 stipend to a faculty member who uses PBL with students this year, assesses its effectiveness, and shares it, simply and usefully.

November 1, 2019, 4-5pm, DE206

Join us for a conversation with Candace Bailey Combs, Learning Support Specialist and ESL Coordinator at the Learning Commons.

Candace, along with new peer mentors in the ESL Center, has been preparing first year students for the new demands of college level reading. Uncovering how students read and bringing their experiences out in to the open has introduced a starting point for creating more sophisticated (and speedy) readers. Let’s talk about effective reading strategies and discuss how teachers implement high standards for reading comprehension even as page counts climb higher and higher.  

September 27 2019, 4-5pm, DE206

Let’s talk about switching to online Course Evaluations.

Last Spring the Teaching and Learning Committee conducted a pilot study of an online format for student course evaluations.  The survey questions were identical to the traditional pencil-and-paper format, but the students responded online using their choice of devices:  computers, tablets, phones, etc. 

A key question was “how will the quantity and quality of student feedback be affected by the format of the evaluation?”  I think the results from the pilot study indicate that we can expect no effect whatsoever from the format change in those areas of concern!

At the 2nd week faculty meeting, TLC presented some results from that pilot study and invited faculty feedback on the full-scale implementation of the online format.

In the Teaching Commons this Friday, representatives from the Faculty Personnel Committee and the Teaching and Learning Committee will be available for conversations with interested faculty. Pre-tenure colleagues are especially encouraged to join us!