Faculty/Staff Daily Digest

Full descriptions: 

Supporting BIPOC Students and Colleagues 

Nishelli Ahmed, MPH (Health Educator, UConn Student Health and Wellness) 

Many institutions of higher education in the Northeast are predominately white (PWIs) and historically don’t have the support systems in place for BIPOC individuals on their campuses. Due to whiteness being the norm, professionals may lack both skills and knowledge needed to decrease barriers to connect with BIPOC students and colleagues. During this presentation, participants will work on developing and practicing skills to support BIPOC students and colleagues. 

Teaching Flows: Find Your "Flow State"! 

Christopher Bolster (Doctoral Candidate, Department of English, and AssistantDirector, First Year Writing program) 

This interactive workshop will focus on building successful flows (i.e., sequences) of classroom activities. Instructors will be introduced to different categories of class activities and will have opportunities to reflect on, develop, and share different teaching flows. Finding your "flow state" by intentionally planning and sequencing class activities can help vary your instructional strategies, meeting key learning objectives while keeping students engaged in the work of the class. 

Inclusion by design: Create an inclusive and accessible course 

Karen Skudlarek, MA (UConn Accessibility Coordinator) 

Design a course that is accessible and can meet the needs of potential students with a variety of characteristics.  We will discuss why this is important, aframework you can use to make it accessible, and how to use the accessibility checker (Ally) in Blackboard to ensure your content is accessible. 

Inclusive Teaching Practices for Neurodiverse Students 

Marisa Chrysocchou,Professor and Department Head, Civil & Environmental Engineering; Connie Syharat,Doctoral Candidate, Neag School of Education and Project Manager, INCLUDE; SariraMotaref, Associate Professor in Residence, Civil & Environmental Engineering 

This session provides an overview of inclusive teaching practices implemented in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as part of the INCLUDE project, a neurodiversity-centered initiative aimed at building and sustaining a culture that cultivates the strengths of a wide range of learners. Attendees will explore how a strengths-based approach toward neurodiversity can transform the learning environment, disrupt negative narratives, and enhance student engagement and motivation. We will share low-effort, high-impact practices for the neuro-inclusive classroom and highlight teaching innovations such as strengths-based projects. 

Dialogue for peer-to-peer learning 

Nana Amos, MA, Dodd Human Rights Impact and co-Director, Democracy and Dialogues Initiative; Saah Agyemang-Badu, MA, Graduate Assistant, Democracy and Dialogues Initiative 

Want to learn about the theory and practice of being an effective dialogue facilitator?  Join us as we explore the power of structured conversation to build connections across difference and promote mutual understanding. In this session, we will: 

How Faculty Incorporate Career Competencies in Undergraduate Courses 

Nancy Bilmes,MS,Director, Center for Career Development; Steve Kligerman, MA,Assistant Director, Programming & Career Everywhere, Center for Career Development; Lisa Famularo, MA,Assistant Director, Equity & Inclusion, Center for Career Development; Kaitlyn Anderson,MA,Career Readiness Program Designer,Center for Career Development 

In this session, the Center for Career Development will bring awareness to the NACE career competencies, why these skills are essential for student’s post-graduation success, and ways in which faculty are already incorporating competency development in their courses.  Attendees will interact with each other and members of our staff through discussions and activities to help showcase competencies in action and encourage competency alignment in the curriculum. 

Exploring wellbeing for ourselves and for our students  

Rachel Prunier, PhD (Director of Teaching and Learning for the Life and Physical Sciences, CETL, and Lecturer, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) 

In this workshop we will discuss wellbeing and how we can work to increase it in ourselves and our students. We will consider skills that can be gained through professional development and how those skills can support wellbeing and we will also reflect on the importance of boundaries and how they can be maintained. 

Building Equity and Engagement with Open Education 

Zach Claybaugh, PhD. (Student Success Librarian, UConn Libraries) 

This session will introduce participants to two pillars of open education: open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy. We will delve into what makes a resource OER and how OER can impact student success at UConn. We will look at how open pedagogical practices can help transform the classroom environment to present learners with opportunities for a more engaged and immersive educational experience. In addition to gaining an understanding of these two key aspects of the open movement and the value they bring to education, participants will have the opportunity to search for open content for their classes and explore a variety of classroom assignments and activities that utilize open pedagogy. 

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 

1. Discuss student, instructor, and institutional benefits for using OER and open pedagogical practices. 

2. Decipher permissions afforded by licenses applied to open content. 

3. Use a variety of repositories to explore OER and open pedagogical content for their classes. 

Enhancing International Student Success in Your Classroom: The LIONS Framework 

Xiaochen Liu, PhD., Academic Specialist,CETL, and Tina Huey, PhD., Associate Director of Faculty Development, CETL, and Adjunct Faculty, Department of English. 

Instructors and staff often face challenges supporting international students due to significant differences between US classrooms and those in students' home countries. Challenges such as language proficiency, interaction, and belonging, can impact teaching effectiveness and hinder students' academic success. This workshop equips instructors and staff with the LIONS framework (Language, Interaction, Openness, Name, and Social) to better support international students. Participants engage in interactive activities and discussions to understand these unique challenges and develop strategies for an inclusive classroom environment. 

Teach-Visuals-Engage: Designing narratives for digital citizens 

Luiza Printes dos Santos, MFA (MFA Candidate, School of Fine Arts) 

This workshop presentation is focused on visual communications and multimedia production to help you design engaging educational lectures. The main outcome is to build a solid visual presence as academics and educators to communicate with a highly active audience of digital learners. We will explore concepts around digital literacy, visual aesthetics, and video production with templates and guidelines to design your own visual narrative as an educator. 

Peer-to-Peer Learning in Writing Workshops 

Lisa Blansett, PhD.(Associate Professor in Residence, Department of English, and Director of UConn First Year Writing) 

Students learn to engage with others and to assess their own writing through peer review writing workshops. In this workshop, we'll cover how to prepare for and implement peer review sessions that result in more than just simple evaluative statements ("this seems good!") from students. We approach peer review as usability testing of a prototype and user research into audience (and field) expectations. 

Connecting Students Through Mindfulness for Earth: a roundtable 

Phoebe Godfrey, PhD., Professor in Residence, Department of Sociology; JeanneCiravolo, MFA, Assistant Professor in Residence, Department of Art and Art History; KingaKarlowska, MA, Global Initiatives Director, UConn Global Affairs; Zahra Ali, M.Sc, Director, Global Partnerships and Outreach; and Daniel Weiner, PhD., Vice President for Global Affairs, UConn. 

Please join this roundtable to add your ideas. Members of the Mindfulness for Earth collective of faculty, staff, and students will describe the M4E goals, share research and perspectives, and engage participants in a discussion. What would it mean to teach with these goals in mind? How can we imagine UConn's campuses and classrooms as labs for developing holistic awareness and connection? 

Participants will be guided in an arts-based meditation by Jeanne Ciravolo! 

ChatGPT and AI tools in teaching: a roundtable 

Tom Deans, PhD., Professor, English Department, and Director, UConn Writing Center; Dan Facchinetti, MA, Director of Educational Technologies, CETL,Zach Claybaugh, PhD. and Martina Rosenberg, PhD., Director of Teaching and Learning Assessment, CETL 

Students (and faculty) are using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools to assist their work. Come share how you have incorporated these tools into your teaching, or how you have dealt with AI-generated plagiarism, including any detection technology you have used. Results from a recent survey of UConn students regardinguse of ChatGPT and other AI tools for writing will be shared.  

Creating Presence and Meaningful Engagement in Online Discussion Boards 

Tim Stubbs, MS, Lead Instructional Designer, UConn CETL 

Whether you teach an online or in-person course, join Tim to learn ways to enhance instructor presence and student engagement in discussion boards. Topics will include: 

1. Assessing the current level of student engagement and instructor presence ina class. 

2. Identifying best practices that promote student engagement and instructor presence in discussion boards and other HuskyCT spaces. 

3. Accessing a variety of educational technology and pedagogy-based resources to increase student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction. 

4. Implementing strategies to increase meaningful student engagement and instructor presence in their classes.