December 2023 Tuesday Tips

5th December 2023

Sent on behalf of Dr. Joseph Morales, Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Susan Roll, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and Joara Jimenz, Director of the DREAM Center.

In an inclusive teaching environment, the concept of extra credit requires careful examination. While faculty strive to introduce engaging and innovative assignments for credit and extra credit, there's a growing awareness that some of these tasks unintentionally pose barriers or exclude certain students from participation.

Consider an assignment that involves voter registration; it inadvertently excludes students ineligible to vote. Moreover, not every student possesses the flexibility to take on additional tasks due to work commitments or family obligations. Requests for involvement in programs like CalFresh might compromise student privacy and unduly burden University staff or community partners.

To foster equitable class assignments, start by pondering:

• Is the assignment equally accessible to all students?
• Can activities, whether for credit or extra credit, be integrated within class time?
• Are there possibilities to expand the assignment, offer choices, or alternative pathways, ensuring all students can fairly complete it for credit?

Faculty who have implemented these high impact practices have experienced enhanced participation and more fruitful class time conversations. By aligning with students' circumstances, we can cultivate more inclusive learning environments where every individual enjoys an equitable opportunity for success and feels safe, valued, and respected.

This week instead of a related NCFDD recommendation we want to suggest an upcoming event sponsored by the School of Education. Check out Liz Kleinrock's website(opens in new window) and join the talk, "Cultivating Antibias and Antiracist Educator Identities'' on Friday, December 8th from 11am-12pm (Hybrid Event: Zoom and Campus Watch Party Butte 102).

RSVP for the Watch Party(opens in new window)in Butte 102 and join us for the webinar(opens in new window).

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

12th December 2023

Tuesday Teaching Tip: What Was Missing This Fall?

The end of the year is often a time for reflection. Some of you may be ending the term and thinking about the project that got away–the manuscript you were meaning to finish or a class you want to improve. We hope you will have a look at the preliminary slate of Spring offerings from FDEV and find something that connects to a professional goal in your life. We are going to start fast in the Spring. Applications will be live for most programs on 1/18 with a due date of 1/30 so we wanted to preview the slate for you now. 

Chico Affordable Learning Solutions (CAL$)
Lead: Beth Shook(opens in new window) 
Compensation: $500
Format: Asynchronous online

Want to decrease course costs for students? And at the same time provide students high quality and accessible course materials? Participate in an asynchronous Canvas training designed to help faculty identify and evaluate Open Educational Resources (OER) and other free or affordable course materials for your courses. Faculty who complete the online training, including developing a cost-savings plan to be implemented in a Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 course, will earn $500 in taxable income. 

Canvas modules will cover the following topics: OER and why they are important, finding and evaluating OER, Library resources, understanding copyright and Creative Commons licenses, ensuring accessibility, curating and adapting materials for your course, teaching with open resources, and the Zero Cost Course Materials (ZCCM) designation.

Advancing Hispanic/Latinx Student Success
Leads: Yvette Zuniga(opens in new window) and Teresita Curiel(opens in new window) 
Compensation: TBD $500-$1000
Format: TBD

This project is partially funded by a generous U.S. Department of Education Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) grant from PI Ryan Patten, College of BSS.  We are happy to collaborate on this important work.  This FLC will feature connected workshops focused on better understanding Hispanic/Latinx university students and how Chico State can advance their success.

BIPoC Writing Community 
Leads: Stef Baldivia(opens in new window) and Gloria Lopez(opens in new window)
Compensation: TBD, at least $500
Format: TBD

The purpose of the Black, Indigenous, People of Color Faculty Writing Community (BIPoC-FWC) is to cultivate community and support for a diverse group of faculty to successfully navigate the retention, tenure, and promotion process, by developing scholarly and creative work, while strengthening a network of colleagues at the Chico State campus. The BIPoC-FWC is designed to create a space for BIPoC faculty to share their research ideas and publication goals, while supporting and motivating each other. All self-identified Black, Indigenous, or Faculty of Color, are encouraged to apply. Members will regularly meet in a set location for a total of ten 90-minute sessions and two community building events. During writing sessions, every writer works on their own project, with mutual support offered through fellowship both prior to and following the writing sessions. Faculty will be working in a large cohort led by two peer-mentors, Gloria Lopez and Stef Baldivia. There will be a mandatory kick-off meeting in early spring based on participants availability.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Teaching (EDIT)
Leads: Alisa Wade(opens in new window) and Allison McConnell(opens in new window) 
Compensation: $500 for attending the majority of the workshops
Format: FLEX 

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Teaching (EDIT) Series includes six workshops, and is designed to offer faculty an introduction to basic concepts of equity, diversity, inclusion, and how they can be implemented in the classroom in order to create more equitable and accessible learning environments. Each workshop explores--and models--a different facet of student-centered and inclusive teaching through tools, resources, and strategies: positionality in the classroom, antiracist pedagogy, backward design, accessibility of course materials, culturally responsive teaching and the hidden curriculum, and practices of classroom community building. Workshops are each paired with a teaching guide (and other materials) and offer the opportunity for faculty to complete deliverables that they will be able to incorporate into their course(s) moving forward.

Grant Writing Support
In Development
Compensation: TBD

Leadership Development
Lead: Holly Nevarez(opens in new window) 
Compensation: $500
Format: TBD

The leadership development faculty learning community (FLC) will introduce leadership styles and strategies. This FLC is designed for you lead from wherever you are. Perhaps you are not a formal leader on campus, but find yourself leading other staff or students; perhaps you would like to be a formal leader someday and want to start to develop skills; or perhaps you are going to be a department Chair next year and want to start preparing. In any of those scenarios, this FLC is for you. We will talk about staffing, shared governance, facilitating meetings, managing difficult people, work to develop a leadership philosophy and more.

Publish and Flourish
Lead: Chris Fosen(opens in new window) 
Compensation: $500
Format: One online synchronous FLC and one in-person FLC

The Office of Faculty Development is bringing back faculty learning community (FLC) writing groups for the spring 2024 semester. After a survey was sent out in December 2023 to “Publish and Flourish” and “Write an Article in Twelve Weeks” participants about meeting preferences, we recognized the need for two distinct meeting patterns and goals for FLC participants. Faculty can select either option below:

• Meeting one hour a week on Zoom for dedicated writing time with minimal interruption, for the purposes of getting words down on paper and providing mutual accountability.
• Meeting two hours every other week in-person (flex possible) for time to reflect on their writing process, plan out benchmarks for completion, and share drafts in small groups of 2-4. These groups provide accountability and increased understanding of how writing time can mesh with other professional duties.

Participating faculty will receive $500 in taxable income for completing some significant portion of their writing goals, and attending all meetings (through week 13 or 14).

Teaching Climate Change & Resilience (TCCR)
Lead: Mark Stemen(opens in new window) 
Compensation: $500
Format: Online synchronous and asynchronous
Applications due on 12/15(opens in new window)

Faculty participating in the TCCR FLC will learn from experts in the field about the science behind climate change, the solutions available to counter it, the need to incorporate justice into the conversation and the enormous anxiety all of this produces in our students. The five 90-minute sessions spread evenly throughout the semester will be held over Zoom, allowing faculty to form breakout rooms based on discipline for further discussion and curriculum development. In addition to changing their own courses, participating faculty will also become part of the systemwide network of colleagues focused on issues of climate change that formed after the first FLC, and learn how other faculty incorporate those issues across a wide spectrum of curricular disciplines.

Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT)
Lead: Allison McConnell(opens in new window) 
Compensation: $750
Format: Asynchronous online

The Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) Program is an asynchronous, self-paced Canvas course structured around the QLT evaluation rubric. This QLT course is designed to meet core standards in the QLT instrument through the completion of eight modules with associated deliverables that guide you to fully redesign a course (or design a new course). Topics and deliverables focus on backwards design, student engagement, authentic assessment, inclusion and accessibility, and more. This QLT course requires a final course review. While focusing on online learning, QLT provides a framework that is applicable to all modes of instruction.

Finally, if you find yourself with time and an inclination toward professional development in the next few weeks, remember we have developed a 100% online and asynchronous course(opens in new window) to help you redesign your classes in a world of generative AI. We also have our institutional subscription to the NCFDD with a variety of great resources. Or you could just get some rest–up to you!

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.