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Working Sessions and Workshops for Teaching Faculty

Upcoming Sessions

Please note that in addition to the workshops listed below, there are several Teaching and Learning Conversations held every semester.

Maximizing Full Grade Center in Blackboard (virtual)

Monday, December 9, 10:10 - 10:40 am OR 1:10 - 1:40 pm
OR Wednesday, December 11, 10:10 - 10:40 am OR 1:10 - 1:40 pm
(Stay after for Q&A)

Led by Mauricio Calpa (Center for Instructional Technology)

In this 30-minute online workshop, you’ll learn how to use and maximize Full Grade Center in Blackboard. You'll get guidance and tips for creating a grading system that works best for you and your students. The session will include the following topics:

  • How to set up a Weighted Grade Column 
  • How to create smart views that streamline your workflow 
  • Tips on customizing your gradebook for efficiency 
  • Best practices for naming convention 
  • Best practices for providing meaningful feedback 
  • Adjusting your grading schema 

Four different times are available for the sessions, and they will start 10 minutes after the hour to accommodate the final exam schedule. The presentation portion of the workshop will last 30 minutes. Faculty can stay online for an additional Q&A session if they so choose.

Register for one of the sessions 

Teaching Scholars Information Session

Friday, January 17, 9 - 10 am

Led by Courtney Broscious and Julia DeLapp

Come learn about an opportunity to participate in Year 2 of Eastern's Teaching Scholars program. Hear from Year 1 Scholars about their research projects, learn about the opportunities and expectations of participating, and ask questions as you consider whether or not to apply.

Register for this session.

Part-Time Faculty Orientation (virtual)

Friday, January 10, 12 - 1 pm

 

Led by Niti Pandey (Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies), Emily Todd (Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences), and Julia DeLapp (Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment).

Join the deans and the CTLA for a one-hour lunchtime session to prepare for the coming semester. Topics to be addressed include:

  • Ensuring you have everything you need for the start of the semester
  • Understanding institutional policies
  • Preparing your syllabus
  • Responding to letters of accommodation for students with disabilities
  • Engaging students and being aware of common student concerns
  • Knowing how to support students when they need academic or other types of help
  • Accessing resources from the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Register for this session.

Blackboard Basics and Introduction to CIT (virtual)

Monday, January 13, 12 - 1 pm

Led by by Mauricio Calpa, Instructional Design Coordinator, CIT

Staff from the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) will give a brief introduction to the services provided by CIT that can help you in your teaching. They will provide a short overview of Blackboard and explain how you can get one-on-one support. Following the presentation, there will be time for Q&A related to your technology needs, and opportunities to sign up for one-on-one support if needed.

The session will be recorded, and all who register will receive a link to the recording.

Register for this session

Managing Disruptions: Responding to New Trends in Classroom Behavior

Tuesday, January 21, 9:30 am - 12 pm
Johnson Room (Library room 204)

Led by Eunice Matthews-Armstead (Social Work) and Courtney Broscious (Political Science)

Faculty have been reporting higher incidents of disruptive behavior in class this semester, and that these behaviors are negatively affecting the learning environment for all students. Many faculty are finding that classroom management strategies they have used in the past are no longer working as well. In this working session, participants will discuss how student needs and behaviors have changed in recent years, approaches faculty can use to help prevent some classroom disruptions, and strategies for intervening when behavior escalates. Participants will also reflect on how to assess whether behavior is threatening.

Sandwiches will be served at noon for faculty who wish to continue their conversations over lunch.

Register for this session.

Recorded Sessions

  • Hope in a Time of Monsters: Supporting Faculty and Student Mental Health

    May 22, 2024
    Presentation by Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Senior Associate Director for Teaching and Learning, Simmons University
    Facilitation by Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault, Professor, Psychological Science

    Teaching is a vocation. When supported with resources and security, it is a constantly renewing source of excitement and richness. The last several years of disruption, uncertainty, and overburdened workloads have exhausted faculty and students alike. Monsters have reared their heads, and we have understandably shrunk from them. Faculty are burnt out—sacrificing their own mental health, phoning it in out of desperation, or leaving the profession entirely. Students are experiencing an epidemic of mental health problems, especially of anxiety. As instructors, we can support and encourage student mental health through pedagogies of care. A pedagogy of care involves high-touch practices like frequent communication, flexibility, inclusive teaching practices, learning new technologies and techniques, and being enthusiastic and passionate. All these practices involve both a heavy investment of time and a high degree of emotional labor. How can we support our students without burning ourselves out? How can we revive our sparks? In this interactive presentation, Sarah Rose Cavanagh will present some research and food for thought on how higher education should respond to both faculty depletion and the student mental health crisis. The presentation will reference content from her latest book, Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge.

    Following this talk, you will have opportunities to reflect on and discuss with peers your current practices and course policies, and how you might infuse “compassionate challenge” into your teaching. Please bring one or more of your syllabi to review. You may find it helpful to have a laptop. 

    Note: Dr. Cavanagh's presentation was recorded! Individuals with an Eastern login can access the recording and materials on the CTLA Sharepoint site.

  • Information Session on Developing New ELAC Courses

    Wednesday, September 4, 2024, 3 - 4 pm (virtual)
    Led by David Pellegrini, Seminar Coordinator, and Josh Idjadi, Disciplinary Perspectives Coordinator

    The first phase of Implementation of ELAC is underway and looks to be successful, thanks to the many faculty members and departments that have proposed new and revised courses for the program. Our work is not done yet, as we will need many more Disciplinary Perspectives courses and especially 200 and 400 level Seminars to be approved soon—before the October call for Fall 2024 department schedules.

    In this virtual session, the two ELAC coordinators provided information about developing ELAC courses. Participants were directed to Eastern’s faculty-focused ELAC web page for step-by-step instructions on the course submission process. In addition, the ELAC Resources Sharepoint site includes a folder of course design resources, which includes a course planning tool and syllabus template developed by Courtney Broscious. The Sharepoint site also includes a folder of the Senate-approved ELAC rubrics for assessing learning outcomes.

    Watch a recording of the session.

  • Introduction to the Center for Instructional Technology and Blackboard Basics

    Tuesday, August 20, 5:00 - 5:45 pm (virtual)
    Led by by Anik Vasington, Director of CIT, and Mauricio Calpa, Instructional Design Coordinator

    Staff from the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) gave a brief introduction to the services provided by CIT that can help you in your teaching. They provided a short overview of Blackboard and explain how you can get one-on-one support. Following the presentation, there was time for Q&A related to your technology needs.

    This session was designed for new part-time faculty.

    This session was recorded. Access the recording and helpful technology links on the CTLA Sharepoint site (requires Eastern login).

  • Orientation for New Part-Time Faculty

    Friday, August 16, 12 - 1 pm (virtual)

    Join the deans and the CTLA for a one-hour lunchtime session to prepare for the coming semester. Topics to be addressed include:

    • Ensuring you have everything you need for the start of the semester
    • Understanding institutional policies
    • Preparing your syllabus
    • Responding to letters of accommodation for students with disabilities
    • Engaging students and being aware of common student concerns
    • Knowing how to support students when they need academic or other types of help
    • Accessing resources from the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

    The session will be led by Niti Pandey, Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies; Emily Todd, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences; and Julia DeLapp, Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.

    This session was recorded. Access the recording and other orientation materials on the CTLA Sharepoint site (requires Eastern login).

Previous Workshops

  • Infusing Sustainability Into Course Design Across the Disciplines 

    May 22, 2024, 9 am – 12 pm
    Led by Patricia Szczys, Executive Director, Institute for Sustainability

    Students have embraced opportunities to engage with the ‘wicked problems’ of sustainability in their courses. The pursuit of sustainability goes beyond a direct response to climate change; it examines the historical and modern behaviors, policy, and practices that directly influence the interwoven environmental, social, and economic crises. The UN sustainability framework sets goals that aim to alleviate poverty, improve health, reduce educational and social disparities, spur equitable economic growth, and steward the environment. In this workshop, you’ll learn nine strategies to integrate sustainability into your courses (ELAC or majors courses) and you’ll hear how faculty from different disciplines have done so. You’ll experience hands-on learning activities that address the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability topics and highlight ways in which faculty and students can find meaning in coursework. You’ll have the opportunity to begin drafting an assignment or learning experience for your own course(s) that integrates sustainability and receive feedback from peers.

    Please bring a syllabus for one of your courses that you are interested in connecting to sustainability—or a preliminary idea for a future course. You may also find it helpful to have a laptop.

    Designing Meaningful Assignments

    May 21, 2024, 9 am – 12 pm 
    Led by Courtney Broscious, Associate Professor of Political Science

    Are your assignments engaging students in outcome-focused learning? Do you feel confident that through completing course assignments, your students have demonstrated that they have learned the skills and knowledge most important to your course? In this interactive session, you’ll dive into the art and science of designing assignments that both engage students and drive them towards achieving desired learning outcomes. Using the principles of backwards design, you’ll spend time reviewing your course goals and then editing an existing assignment or designing a new assignment to meet your stated learning objectives. You’ll have an opportunity to explore whether your assignment aligns with global rubrics used to assess student learning on specific outcomes, and to get feedback from peers.
     
    Please bring a syllabus for a specific course and one or more assignments from that course. You may find it helpful to bring a laptop.

    Designing LAC 101 Learning Experiences to Address ELAC Learning Outcomes 

    May 21, 2024, 1 pm – 4 pm
    Led by David Pellegrini, ELAC Seminar Coordinator and Professor of Theatre

    This fall, 30 sections of LAC 101 will run for the first time. Upon completion of this seminar, students should have a foundational understanding of each of the five ELAC learning outcomes and be able to articulate the value of a liberal arts education and an understanding of the skills and practices involved in the liberal arts. But how will faculty design classroom activities and assignments that help students develop this understanding? In this workshop, you’ll hear from faculty who have given some thought to learning experiences that introduce, address, and measure each learning outcome. You will have the opportunity to work in a small group with other faculty to develop a lesson plan and assignment around a specific learning outcome. You’ll have time during the session to begin work on an assignment or in-class experience and get feedback from your peers. You will also be given access to what will become a repository of assignments designed by Eastern faculty to address all of the different learning outcomes. This workshop will also be helpful if you are considering developing seminars at the 100, 101 and 200 levels in the coming academic year. You may find it helpful to bring a laptop.

    Faculty who share their work-in-progress at the end of the session and commit to sharing a final draft by June 21 for upload to the repository will be eligible for a $250 stipend. Faculty will be asked to participate in a one-hour virtual resource sharing event in late June to discuss the assignment/ experience they have designed.

    Understanding AI and ChatGPT: A Hands-on Workshop

    Wednesday, February 28, 3-4 pm, Science 115
    Led by Garrett Dancik (Computer Science)

    Are you interested in understanding more about how ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) work? Have you wanted to spend time learning to use one of these generative Artificial Intelligence tools, but didn’t quite know how to get started? In this workshop, Garrett Dancik will give a 30-minute overview of how LLMs work, what these tools can and cannot do, and what can go wrong. Participants will then have 25 minutes to experiment with ChatGPT, including creating and refining prompts relevant to their teaching. Staff from CIT will be on hand.

    Read an article about this workshop.

    Workshop on High Impact Practices

    January 10 and 11, 2024, from 9 am to 1 pm on both days

    The ELAC Seminar and Disciplinary Perspectives Coordinators are offering a professional development workshop through the CTLA focused on high impact practices (HIPs). This workshop is intended for faculty members who are interested in incorporating HIPs in their teaching, including in ELAC Seminars and Disciplinary Perspectives courses.

    The workshop will run from 9 am to 1 pm and include lunch on both days. Participants will be compensated in the amount of $300. Registration is limited to 25 faculty. Currently accepting registrations from full-time faculty, as well as part-time faculty who will be teaching ELAC courses in the fall.

    The workshop will focus on the following questions:

    • What is the research behind High Impact Practices?
    • What are the eight key elements that make HIPs truly high impact?
    • How can Eastern faculty incorporate HIPs in course design?
    • What is the importance of equity in the HIP design?

    Participants will engage interactively with model high impact practices, including Collaborative Projects and Assignments and Undergraduate Research.

    The workshop will also feature:

    • A discussion on Sustainability and its relevance to student engagement and adoption of HIPs across disciplines & Thematic Clusters across ELAC.
    • Examples from faculty on how they have developed HIPs for their courses, including using strategies such as scaffolded assignments.

    After the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be asked to continue developing a plan for incorporating a HIP in one of their courses and then share their plan with other faculty (e.g., at a department meeting or an event in the spring).

  •  Working Session on DEI for Faculty Teaching LAC 100 and 101

    Friday, August 23, 12 - 2 pm
    Facilitated by Peter Bachiochi, Cara Bergstrom-Lynch, and Brian Day

    As the new Liberal Arts Curriculum launches this fall, faculty who are teaching LAC 100 and 101 will be at the forefront of introducing our incoming students to the diversity of academic life and learning outcomes at Eastern. With support from the Office of Equity and Diversity, the CTLA is hosting a lunch and working session following the University Meeting for faculty to discuss ways to infuse equitable and inclusive content and teaching practices in their LAC 100 and 101 courses. 

    A small group of Peer Mentors will be invited to join us to share students’ perspectives on best practices related to DEI as well. 

    The goal will be to share ideas, resources, and tools with colleagues that we can carry forward to our LAC classes. It is recommended that you bring copies of your syllabi for LAC 100 and LAC 101 to refer to during the session.

    The session will be facilitated by faculty who participated in the Spring 2024 Faculty Learning Community on DEISJ (diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice) who are also teaching LAC 100/101 this fall: Peter Bachiochi (Psychological Science), Cara Bergstrom-Lynch (Sociology), and Brian Day (Communication, Film and Theatre).

    Lunch and a small stipend of $100 will be provided to all faculty participants, courtesy of the Office of Equity and Diversity. This session is open to faculty teaching LAC 100 and 101.