Friday, August 21, 1:00pm - 2:00pm - Webinar

While teaching laboratory sections may appear to an outsider to simply involve monitoring student activities, in reality they are multiple-hour classes that require numerous instructional skills, including detailed planning, content mastery and presentation, implementation of experiments, classroom management, troubleshooting, and interactive student assessment. In this session, GTA/IAs will be given guidance on the preparation and steps necessary for facilitating an engaging, learning-centered laboratory session and how to keep students motivated. Tips on grading strategies for laboratory-style assessments along with managing laboratory-specific issues will be discussed. Register

Wednesday, August 29, 12:00pm - 1:00pm - Webinar

Having a successful, positive experience during a graduate teaching or instructional assistantship (GTA/IA) is a shared responsibility, including both the faculty member supervisor and the graduate student. While the faculty member/supervisor takes primary responsibility for guidance through the requirements of the GTA’s role, the GTA also needs to be proactive and involved. GTA supervision can take many forms depending on a variety of factors, and both the supervisor and GTA should follow key guidelines of good supervisory implementation and practice.

Join this webinar to learn the recommended guidelines and best practices, including how to ensure effective and respectful communication, develop realistic timelines and expectations, and navigate problematic situations through a scenario-based discussion approach. Be proactive so that you ensure your graduate teaching assistantship is positive, successful, and provides you with a professional development opportunity that benefits you in all aspects of your graduate career. Register

Friday, September 11, 12:00pm - 1:00pm - Webinar

Assessing your course is crucial to gathering valuable feedback on how effectively your teaching methods are working and making adjustments to improve the overall learning experience for your students. A course assessment should go beyond end-of-semester student evaluations by obtaining meaningful, actionable input from students regarding their experience in your class, their needs, and perceptions. There are many ways to collect feedback from your students; the best method depends on your objectives and the kind of information you want. In this webinar, we will explore a variety of techniques, such as midterm feedback for obtaining this kind of formative whole-course feedback, how to identify areas of improvement, what to ask your students, when and how to collect feedback, and how to interpret and respond to that feedback so you can improve your course for all involved.  Register

Thursday, October 1, 11:40am - 12:55pm - Webinar

Are your students sometimes mystified by their grades, or perhaps lacking motivation to take ownership of their learning? Have you ever wanted to help your students become more effective learners? Today’s students come to college with widely varying academic skills, unaware of the study skills needed to meet college-level expectations for learning.

Metacognition is the practice of “thinking about thinking”: the awareness and ability of learners to identify their cognitive processes and make changes to their learning behaviors (Lovett, 2008). Promoting metacognition can increase students' understanding of how learning works, teaching students how to understand what caused their successes or failures and direct their own learning (Brownlee, Purdie, & Boulton-Lewis, 2001).

This webinar will go beyond the basics of metacognition and explore how to use metacognitive techniques to help students monitor and regulate their own learning, providing you with concrete strategies and adaptive instructional materials for incorporating into your course.  Register

Friday, October 2, 12:00pm - 12:50pm - Webinar

Think back to the most influential teacher or professor you have ever had. Chances are, what you remember most is not their PowerPoint slides, lecture notes, or exam questions. You remember how they made you feel, the experiences they created, the questions they challenged you to answer, and the moments that transformed information into understanding. Why do some of these learning experiences stay with us for years while others are forgotten by the end of the semester? The answer may lie not in what students hear, but in what they do. Experiential Learning Theory suggests that meaningful learning occurs when students actively engage with ideas through experience, reflection, and application. Yet many instructors struggle with how to move beyond traditional lectures without sacrificing course content or rigor. The good news is that experiential learning does not require a complete course redesign. Small, intentional changes can create opportunities for deeper engagement, critical thinking, and lasting learning.

In this interactive workshop, participants will use an experiential learning framework, the Design Challenge, to redesign a component of their course to include an experiential learning element. Through reflection, hands-on activities, and peer discussion of practical implementation for their discipline and instructional modality, attendees will leave with evidence-based approaches for creating learning experiences that students remember long after the course has ended. Register

Tuesday, October 27, 11:40am - 12:55pm - Webinar

A teaching philosophy statement provides a concise description of an instructor’s teaching approach, methods, and experience. Colleges and universities request a teaching philosophy statement from applicants for faculty positions, and this document is an important part of your application package.

What is your teaching philosophy? What should you write or include? What if you have limited teaching experience? This webinar will help you begin to articulate your teaching and learning philosophy through reflecting on your own values and experiences in different instructional settings. We will discuss the statement’s purpose, different aspects of your teaching experiences that should be included, and best practices and strategies for composing the statement.

This is a working webinar, requiring that you do some reflective writing in advance, so that the webinar itself can include individual writing, group discussion, and feedback. Participants will leave with an outline of their statement, written components, and guidance to continue crafting it.  Register