The Office of Faculty Development

April 2021 Tuesday Tips

6 April 2021:

Dear faculty, 

I know that by now I probably sound like a broken record, but FDEV is really interested in focusing on student engagement this semester. 

I have heard many concerned faculty sharing their experience about how “this semester is just different” and how students are really struggling and dropping out or simply not showing up. 

This is a concern that we have tried to address with the student engagement challenge and today I want to share one of our Teaching Guides about Zoom breakout rooms

The teaching guide includes some practical tips for application in the classroom, but also a number of tutorials and resources you can explore. 

We want to take our effort a step further though, and for this reason, I am asking all faculty to consider contributing to the creation of a database of Zoom discussions, assignments, and activities that you used in your classes and had a positive impact on the students. It is my hope that this list of resources can offer faculty some practical ideas of how to manage zoom discussions and breakout rooms. I know we have some amazing talent among our faculty, so I encourage you to fill out this brief google form(opens in new window) and share your successful experience with online student engagement. 

Thank you for your contributions! 

And… a reminder to join us tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for our weekly Go Virtual Community meeting via Zoom(opens in new window). We will discuss ideas and experiences with flipped classes! 

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

13 April 2021:

Dear faculty, 

Yesterday I ran into an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, about the problematic nature of grading class participation. In Should We Stop Grading Class Participation?(opens in new window), James M. Lang discusses how grading participation is often very subjective - and therefore inevitably biased - and shares that: “when we drill down to the particulars, this grading practice raises some hard questions that usually are left unanswered: Are all comments equal? What counts as a comment worthy of a good grade? How am I tracking the quality of the comments, as opposed to the sheer quantity?” 

What Lang suggests is not to eliminate opportunities for students to engage (with both the material, with each other, and the instructor), but to reconsider what that engagement looks like and what different forms can take. This topic was the focus of one of the Go Virtual Community meetings we had in the Fall, and I created a brief presentation about Evaluating Participation (Google Slide). These slides offer information about benefits, challenges, and methods for assessing participation, but also resources that invite to reconsider the role of participation as a graded portion of the course, including links to rubrics that can help evaluate participation and engagement in more holistic, equitable, and meaningful ways. 

I hope you will find these resources both useful and challenging! 

UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES 
TODAY! Teaching Racial and Social Justice Series (3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.) 
Friday Forum: How to Approach Service Strategically (April 16, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) 
CAL$ Summer Program (Google Doc) Application (Due April 19th
QLT Workshops(opens in new window)REGISTER HERE(opens in new window)

Submit ideas for activities in zoom discussions and breakout rooms HERE(opens in new window)

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

20 April 2021:

Sent on behalf of Dr. Jamie Gunderson

Get excited, educators! FDEV has a new, creative idea on how to further increase engagement AND experiential learning: interactive journals and digital toolkits! Interactive journals are gaining popularity in the digital learning environments as well as research and are easily accessible for learners and educators alike! See an example of an interactive journal (Google Slide)! Digital toolkits serve as a repository for learners (and educators) to organize resources that can support learners beyond the classroom.

Interested? Join us to learn more about creating your own interactive journal and toolkit at our GoVirtual Community meeting tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. via Zoom(opens in new window).

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

27 April 2021:

Dear faculty,

I want to take this opportunity to share some information about the ChicoFlex pilot that started in early April and invite you to this week’s Friday Forum for a chance to hear from the faculty who are participating in the pilot. Danielle Hidalgo (Sociology), Jaime Raigoza (Computer Science), Kevin Kimbell (Finance and Marketing), Nicholas Nelson (Physics), and Scott Brady (Geography and Planning) have been teaching in classrooms equipped with hyflex technology for the last couple of weeks, and have experimented with different pedagogical practices.

Faculty Development has been working closely with Classroom Technology Services(opens in new window) and the Technology & Learning Program(opens in new window) to learn the ins and outs of hyflex technology, class management, and general pedagogical needs for hybrid courses that will adopt the ChicoFlex Model(opens in new window). The ChicoFlex Team (Brent Liotta Chiara Ferrari, Kathy Fernandes, Marjorie Shepard, and Mike Magrey) has attended these classes in a variety of capacities: acting as students in person, participating as students online, and providing some tech support.

We are incredibly grateful to the faculty who are participating in the pilot, and I think I speak for our whole team when I say that we are learning so much about the possibilities, as well as the challenges of this mode of instruction. This Friday Forum will give us an opportunity to share what we have learned so far: we encourage everyone to join us for a chance to ask questions about ChicoFlex and hear about Summer training opportunities!

ChicoFlex Pilot Friday Forum

(Friday, April 30th, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., via Zoom(opens in new window))

- The ChicoFlex Spring Pilot Team

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