Instructional Workshops

Turning Your Teaching Idea into a Fundable Research Project!

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is scholarly inquiry into student learning which advances the practice of teaching by making research findings public. SoTL offers faculty a unique vehicle for integrating the teaching and scholarship dimensions of faculty work, while enhancing the learning experience for students.

To promote faculty engagement in SoTL, UNC Charlotte offers a SoTL grant program through the Center for Teaching and Learning.  This workshop is designed for faculty who are either preparing to submit a SoTL grant in the current cycle, or who are seeking early feedback on an idea for a future grant cycle.  The goal is to provide a forum for idea sharing and feedback that will help faculty move forward in the design of their SoTL project, as well as the preparation of a SoTL proposal.

Do you want your students to understand how the content they are learning is relevant and purposeful?  Do you want them to learn essential knowledge but also skills that are applicable to real-world applications of the knowledge?  Do you want your students to be actively engaged with content rather than passive receivers?  A problem-based learning (PBL) approach to structuring your course, or portions of your course, may help you achieve these goals.  In this workshop, Dr. Tracy Rock will share how she uses problem-based learning in her courses and will highlight components of effective problem-based learning experiences.  You will be inspired to experiment with PBL in your own teaching practice!

Would you like to teach in a brand new learning space on campus?  

UNC Charlotte has launched a new initiative in classroom design to promote active and collaborative learning and to increase student engagement.  There are two rooms in Kennedy which are brand new teaching spaces that differ significantly in design from classrooms throughout campus.  One room holds 126 students and the other holds 36.  
 
Faculty who are selected to teach in these rooms will participate in training and be part of an interdisciplinary community of practice, the Active Learning Academy, to help guide the design of these spaces on campus. 
 
To learn more about the Kennedy classrooms, join us for this tour and informational session. 

UNC Charlotte is a rapidly growing university with over 28,000 students from diverse backgrounds. This diversity does not only include culture or knowledge background, but also includes students who live with a disability.  At UNC Charlotte we are committed to providing equality of educational opportunity and ensuring accessible education to all students.
 
This training focuses on Universal Design, and how full accessibility not only benefits students with disabilities, but also adds quality to your course. We will explore different types of disabilities and how students with disabilities access course information in different ways. We will then introduce the basics of how to make instructional materials accessible for all your students.

The CTL Reading Club is an opportunity to join in a discussion of a common reading related to the topic of learning.  The goal is to promote professional development, discussion, and reflection and to be a welcoming place for the university community to engage in dialogue together about learning.  Discussions will be facilitated by Laurie Parker, Instructional Technology Consultant, and Dr. Mike Thomas, Assistant Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at UNC Charlotte.

This month's reading is A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for World of Constant Change (2011) by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown.

This book is on 3-day reserve at the University Library under the names of the workshop leaders: Laurie Parker and Mike Thomas.

This workshop will discuss designing a rubric appropriate for responding to and grading student writing.  We will discuss the relationship between writing tasks, what constitutes successful completion of those tasks,  and the appropriate rubric to meet those ends. 

Group work is commonly thought of as a good way to teach collaborative skills.  When students work in groups, it is crucial for them to receive feedback about their performance as a group member.  Since this feedback focuses on how a student performs as a member of a group, their peers are in the best position to evaluate their performance.  After all, they are the ones the student is collaborating with. 

This workshop will discuss how to use CATME, an online program, to facilitate this peer review process.  Please note that CATME allows students to evaluate the contributions and performance of their peers.  It is not designed to facilitate peer review of a product (e.g. a paper).  This workshop will discuss how to use CATME to:

• Form student groups (especially helpful in large classes).
• Create a peer review of performance survey.
• Use student’s feedback to gain insight into high performing and problematic groups.

Are you using (or considering using) collaborative learning in your class but have questions and concerns about doing so?  If so, come to this open swim. This workshop is for instructors who are considering or just starting to use collaborative learning strategies in their class.  It will give participants an opportunity to have their specific questions, concerns, and issues addressed. Come prepared with questions or a lesson you would like to make more collaborative and leave with answers!

The content of your online course is already designed according to quality standards like Quality Matters. Now you want to make sure that the course is ready go for your students in the upcoming semester. This workshop reviews logistics of online courses that are useful to check at the start of term to help your students to get on board with your course with confidence, free of confusion and trouble. 

This workshop will review 5 techniques that instructors can use to minimize class disruptions and deal with the ones that occur productively.  At times even the most patient faculty find themselves frustrated by student behaviors.  This workshop will help faculty understand why some of the behaviors occur, how to proactively reduce them, and how to deal with them effectively when they do occur.

Peer Observations can be a powerful professional development opportunity.  This workshop will examine effective practices for new tenure-eligible and clinical faculty engaged in the peer observation process.  There will be recommendations for how to make these required/optional observations meaningful and successful.  

The process of identifying a personal philosophy of teaching and continuously examining, testifying, and verifying this philosophy through teaching can lead to change of teaching behaviors and ultimately foster professional and personal growth.  A Teaching Philosophy is a regular component of the portfolio for reappointment, promotion and tenure at most universities. Philosophy of teaching statements are also requested of candidates for teaching awards or grant applications.  This workshop will provide faculty with guidance on crafting their personal teaching philosophy statement and help them understand its personal and professional uses throughout their academic careers.  

Are you curious about integrating civic engagement and community service into a course or curriculum?

Then please join your colleagues for the 2014 Service Learning Showcase, co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching & Learning and NC Campus Compact at UNC Charlotte, May 2, 2014, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM, in SAC Salons A & B. The showcase will feature poster presentations that share case studies, best practices, lessons learned, and innovations in the use of service learning as a teaching and learning pedagogy. Come sample a wide range of projects and learn directly from your faculty peers who are engaged in innovative service learning practices that can be adapted to any course or discipline.

Refreshments will be served and handouts summarizing each project will be distributed. You're welcome to drop in, but please sign up so we can plan for the event.

Questions about the Showcase should be directed to Kim Buch, Faculty Fellow in CTL, at kkbuch@uncc.edu.

Presenters:

Please join us for the Faculty Learning Community (FLC.) The topic for this discussion will be “The Challenges and Opportunities of the Flipped Classroom”. The FLC is open to all faculty and provides a venue for engaged discussions of topics identified by participants. Faculty are encouraged to bring their lunch. Please contact Coral Wayland at cwayland@uncc.edu if you have any questions.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Transcending the Boundaries of the Professoriate

Presented by Kim Buch

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is a growing movement in post-secondary education. SOTL is scholarly inquiry into student learning which advances the practice of teaching by making research findings public. Terms closely related to SoTL in the literature are good teaching (that which promotes student learning and desired outcomes and is recognized by student satisfaction, peer review, etc.) and scholarly teaching (in which teaching is regarded as an area of study and the teaching and learning knowledge base is regarded as an additional discipline in which to develop expertise).  Research methods in SOTL include reflection and analysis, interviews and focus groups, questionnaires and surveys, content analysis of text, secondary analysis of existing data, observational research, and case studies, among others.

To promote faculty engagement in SoTL, UNC Charlotte offers a SoTL grant program through the Center for Teaching and Learning. 

This workshop provides an introduction to SoTL that encourages its use as a bridge between the teaching and research domains of faculty work.  It will also cover the SoTL grant program RFP and encourage faculty to consider projects which may be eligible for this program.

Join a small group of your colleagues as we conquer the challenges of teaching in the condensed summer sessions. Discover the hybrid teaching techniques that will work best for instructor and student while maximizing learning outcomes. The hands-on sessions have been designed by the Center for Teaching and Learning to deliver an overview of hybrid techniques.

• March 21 - Introduction to the Hybrid Course
• March 28 - Tricks to Convert 15 Week Course into 5 or 10 Week Course
• April 4 - Introduction to Quality Matters
• April 11- Using Moodle in the Hybrid Course
• April 18 - Using Video in the Hybrid Course
• Moodle Course (throughout) - An online environment of this workshop series. The workshop itself is in hybrid format.

Participants will create a Moodle development course incorporating ideas from the workshop, and should expect to spend 30 minutes to 1 hour outside of each workshop. Participation in all five workshops is recommended but not required.

All sessions will take place in Atkins 146, 10:00-11:00 am with morning refreshment provided by Summer School. Space is limited.

NOTE: This workshop series is intended for Summer School Faculty only.

This workshop will introduce participants to a student-centered learning strategy called team-based learning.  As its name implies, it employs a collaborative and active approach in the classroom that leverages the power of teams to promote learning.  A major strength of team-based learning is that it allows instructors to move away from lecture.  It also shifts the focus from learning course content (which is taught) to learning how to apply course content.  This workshop will model the steps involved in team-based learning; discuss the essential elements of team-based learning; and examine the keys to developing exercises that promote learning and team development.

Please join us for the Faculty Learning Community (FLC.)  The topic for this discussion will be “Leading Meaningful Discussion”.  The FLC is open to all faculty and provides a venue for engaged discussions of topics identified by participants.  Faculty are encouraged to bring their lunch.  Please contact Coral Wayland at cwayland@uncc.edu if you have any questions.

At times faculty are confronted with a problematic student whose behavior cannot be ignored.  The behavior in question can range from mildly annoying to seriously disruptive.  This session will review five steps that faculty should engage in when dealing with problematic student behavior.  We will then discuss actual examples of disruptive behavior and explore the best course of action.  While this session is a follow-up discussion to the  "When Students Push Your Buttons" webinar, faculty need not have viewed the webinar to participate in the follow up discussion.

Five Practical Strategies for Faculty to Better Manage Their Reactions

Let’s face it. Student behavior in the classroom can sometimes push the buttons of even the best, most patient faculty. Students can be frustrating and annoying at times. They challenge us to motivate them, but they test our patience as well. We must learn to let go of the negative behaviors they exhibit in the classroom and develop strategies for dealing with the behavior.

This Innovative Educators webinar – co-sponsored by the Center for Graduate Life and the Center for Teaching and Learning – will offer five practical strategies to better manage your reactions when students’ behavior moves beyond frustrating to downright annoying.

Participants will:

• Discover five practical steps to better manage their reactions to annoying and frustrating student behavior
• Learn ways to effectively manage their emotions and reactions when dealing with difficult student behaviors
• Find creative and more effective ways of proactively managing student behaviors in their classroom
• Leave with strategies that will help them stay calm and maintain a proper mindset, even in the most frustrating student scenarios

Dr. Brian Van Brunt, author of A Faculty Guide to Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior in the Classroom, will lead the Webinar. Dr. Van Brunt, past president of the American College Counseling Association, is Senior Vice President for Professional Development Programs at the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NHCERM). Over the past thirteen years Brian has taught counseling theory, ethics, program evaluation, statistics and sociology topics at both public and private schools for both graduate and undergraduate students at five different colleges and universities. Brian is an expert on campus violence and has been interviewed by the New York Times, National Public Radio, LA Times, USA Today and has appeared on Headline News and Anderson Cooper 360.

NOTES:

• You will view this Webinar as a group in the room listed below.
• A follow-up discussion will be held on March 17, 2014. (Sign up for a follow-up discussion)

Resources:

• Michigan State University - Civility/Incivility in the Classroom
• Dealing with Troublesome Behaviors in the Classroom
• Responding to Student Misconduct
• Disruptive Student Behavior
• Responding to Disruptive or Threatening Behavior
• Preventing and Managing Challenging Classroom Situations
• The Rules About Classroom Rules
• Class Problem

This presentation explores the exciting new world of ePortfolios and issues related to ePortfolio development, reflection, and assessment. The pedagogical underpinnings of ePortfolios will be explored as we view examples of how ePortfolios are being used in a variety of learning contexts. We will then turn to the basics of the new open source ePortfolio system being used at UNCC called Mahara. This ePortfolio platform will be demonstrated and participants will have the opportunity to explore its many exciting features for creating ePortfolios.

This presentation explores the exciting new world of ePortfolios and issues related to ePortfolio development, reflection, and assessment. The pedagogical underpinnings of ePortfolios will be explored as we view examples of how ePortfolios are being used in a variety of learning contexts. We will then turn to the basics of the new open source ePortfolio system being used at UNCC called Mahara. This ePortfolio platform will be demonstrated and participants will have the opportunity to explore its many exciting features for creating ePortfolios.

Please join us for the inaugural meeting of the Top 40 Learning Academy.  The topic for this discussion will be “Getting Students to Read/Teaching them How to Read”.  The Top 40 Faculty Learning Community is open to all faculty, regardless of participation in the Top 40 Learning Academy.  The faculty learning community provides a venue for engaged discussions of topics identified by participants.  Faculty are encouraged to bring their lunch.  Please contact Coral Wayland at cwayland@uncc.edu if you have any questions.

For students to develop the collaborative skills, it is crucial that they receive feedback about their performance as a group member.  Since this feedback focuses on how a student performs as a member of a group, their peers are in the best position to evaluate their performance. 

This workshop will discuss how to use CATME, an online program, to facilitate this peer review process.  Please note that CATME allows students to evaluate the contributions and performance of their peers.  It is not designed to facilitate peer review of a product (e.g. a paper).  This workshop will discuss how to use CATME to:

• Form student groups (especially helpful in large classes).
• Create a peer review of performance survey.
• Use student’s feedback to gain insight into high performing and problematic groups.

The Center for Teaching and Learning invites all faculty members to attend the 2^nd SoTL Research Showcase. The showcase will feature poster presentations from 18 different faculty members from a range of departments and disciplines in ten different projects funded by UNC Charlotte Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants program.

The event intends to showcase the impact of the SoTL grant and provide a venue for the dissemination of project findings to the campus community. This year’s showcase will on Friday, March 14, 2014 at 11:00am-1:00pm in SAC AB. 

A buffet lunch will be available throughout the event.

Presenters:

Developing Online Content for Foundation Design Instruction
Michael Swisher, Jeff Balmer & Nicholas Senske, CoA&A

Investigating the Readability of Geoscience Reading Materials Assigned to Undergraduate Earth Science and Geology Students
Scott Hippensteel, Geog & ESCI

Understanding Student Perspectives on the Course Evaluation Process
Loril Gossett, Comm Studies

Collaboration for Quality: A Partnership toAssess Information Literacy Instruction for Freshman Engineering
Alison Bradley, Dan Latta,  Meg Harkins, Atkins Library & Lee CoE

Othermothering: A Culturally Responsive Model of Doctoral Mentoring
Lisa R. Merriweather, Ed Leadership

The German Cello School: An Anthology and Recording of Student Pieces
Mira Frisch, Music

A Project-Based Integrated Work/Review Cycle (PBIWR) for Design and Learning of Accelerated Construction Monitoring
Don Chen & Shen-En Chen, ENGR Technology

Improving Geographic Knowledge Discovery and Spatial Reasoning with Mobile and Web-based Geographical Information Systems
Eric Delmelle, Wenwu Tang, & Laurie Garo, Geog & ESCI

Developing an Open Educational Resource for Secure Software Development
Dr. Heather Richter Lipford, Software & Information Systems

Teaching the Theory of Island Biogeography As an On-Campus Field Laboratory
William Garcia & Sara Gagne, Geog & ESCI

Attention Graduate Students:  are you interested in creating an Eportfolio to use in your job search? Whether you'll be job searching soon or in the future, a well-designed E-portfolio can help. Mahara is an E-Portfolio program designed to help professionals present their best work in a highly portable and versatile way. This workshop discusses the benefit of using E-Portfolio's in the workforce and use of the Mahara program. Please bring a laptop or similar device for an interactive learning experience.

The Moodle Assignment is a powerful tool that allows students to upload their submissions for you to grade. But I find myself typing the same feedback for multiple students in every assignment.

The new Marking Guides grading method has changed my life. I absolutely love the 'Frequently used comments' feature of the Marking Guide. The time I spend grading has drastically decreased and I'm free to attend to other course functions. Students can see the criteria they are being graded on and when reviewing their grades can see exactly why they lost points. This feedback also motivates students to incorporate my feedback in the next assignment. Many students comment in the course evaluation that they appreciated the assignment feedback and knowing why points were deducted.

In this Webinar, you'll see how to create and use Marking Guides in your Moodle Assignments.

Caryl Gordon is an Instructional Technology Consultant in the Center for Teaching & Learning providing technical support for Moodle and other learning technologies. She's also taught online intensive writing courses in the American Studies department.

NOTE: This Webinar will be held online using the University's Web conferencing system, Centra. You will need access to the Internet, and a microphone if you want to speak. See Centra's technical requirements on our Centra Resources page.

“Confessions of a Converted Lecturer”

Friday, February 15, 9:00 AM, CHHS 376

Dr. Mazur is a scientist, researcher, and educational innovator from Harvard University and has pioneered the “flipped classroom.”  His use of active learning technologies has revolutionized the college classroom as we know it.  Eric Mazur will share his engaging experiences and promises to light up the audience.  Please sign up now to join us at this exciting event!  Lunch will be provided.

Schedule of Events:

9:00    Sign-in, light refreshments

9:30    Keynote Address, "Confessions of a Converted Lecturer"

10:45    Q&A

11:30    Luncheon/Roundtable Discussions

--------------------------------------------------------

12:30    Workshop/Small Group Activity on Active Learning (NOTE: requires separate signup, limited to 30 attendees)

"Service learning is a method of instruction in which classroom learning is enriched and applied through service to others” (Florida Department of Education).  Service learning is a method of teaching that combines formal instruction with a related service in the community. Research has shown that service learning can have a positive impact on many student learning outcomes, including academic performance and retention.  It also provides a valuable service to the larger community, thereby promoting the university’s community engagement mission and the broader social good. 

Service learning is a widely-used pedagogy both nationally and here at UNC Charlotte.  It is surprisingly versatile and applicable to any discipline and level.  This workshop covers the what, why, and how of integrating service learning into any course.

For students to develop the collaborative skills, it is crucial that they receive feedback about their performance as a group member.  Since this feedback focuses on how a student performs as a member of a group, the peers they are working with are in the best position to evaluate their performance.  After all, they are the ones the student is collaborating with. 

This workshop will discuss how to use CATME, an online program, to facilitate this peer review process.  Please note that CATME allows students to evaluate the contributions and performance of their peers.  It is not designed to facilitate peer review of a product (e.g. a paper).  This workshop will discuss how to use CATME to:

• Form student groups (especially helpful in large classes).
• Create a peer review of performance survey.
• Use student’s feedback to gain insight into high performing and problematic groups.

You've probably heard about Twitter, and may even use it personally, but have you considered its academic uses?

This Webinar will discuss and demo the use of Twitter in an undergraduate class (35 students). You'll look at ways to involve students in and out of class via Twitter and share considerations of its educational benefits and pitfalls.
 

Dr. Min Jiang is Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, at UNC Charlotte, Affiliate Faculty of International Studies, and also Research Affiliate at the Center for Global Communication Studies, University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in Communication from Purdue University in 2007. Prior to pursuing her doctor’s degree in the U.S., she worked as an international news editor for BTV and CCTV as well as assistant to the director for "Kill Bill "I in China.

She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in new media technology, global media and research methods. Her research focuses on the intersections of Chinese Internet technologies, politics and policies. Her work is highly interdisciplinary, blending new media studies, political communication, international communication, legal studies, and information science, focusing on Chinese digital technologies (search engines, microblogging), Internet policies, social activism, and digital diplomacy.

NOTE: This Webinar will be held online using the University's Web conferencing system, Centra. You will need access to the Internet, and a microphone if you want to speak. See Centra's technical requirements on our Centra Resources page.

This presentation and workshop picks up where the Hitchhiker's Guide to ePortfolios leaves off. Here participants will explore the complexities of portfolio assessment and what this means for using electronic portfolios. We will then explore how the ePortfolio tool, Mahara, may be integrated into assessment systems at UNC Charlotte.

Do you hear all the talk about the blended, hybrid, or flipped class format and wonder if it would benefit your course? Are you already teaching in this technology-enhanced, active format?  Join this workshop to discuss how you might begin transforming your course or to share your experience if you are teaching in this format already. To facilitate the discussion, we will introduce a variety of blended formats adopted by UNC Charlotte faculty members who redesigned large-enrollment courses.

Dr. Concepcion Godev, an Associate Professor in Languages and Culture Studies, will join the workshop and discuss her experience of redesigning the Spanish 1201 & 1202 sequence into a blended format and of helping other redesign projects.

Do you want to motivate students to be more actively engaged in class?  Do you use group work in class with limited success in getting all students to actively engage?  This session will provide both informal and formal strategies that motivate students to participate in class by holding them accountable.

All over the world people are discovering the powerful uses of electronic portfolios (or ePortfolios for short)! ePortfolios allow us to display, archive, communicate, and reflect upon the work we do over time. This is an exciting and more authentic way to assess student work and share valuable resources and experiences.

This session will introduce Mahara, our new UNC Charlotte friend. This cool new buddy of ours can help us build ePortfolios and usher in an exciting, fresh approach to learning and growing. If you’re interested in how ePortfolios might compliment your teaching and learning, join us for this Webinar for a brief introduction!

Mike Thomas, is an instructional design specialist at the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He holds a double major Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology and Language Education from Indiana University, Bloomington. His consulting specializations focus on ePortfolios and large course redesign efforts.

More information about Mahara at UNC Charlotte

NOTE: This Webinar will be held online using the University's Web conferencing system, Centra. You will need access to the Internet, and a microphone if you want to speak. See Centra's technical requirements on our Centra Resources page.

This workshop will explore how to use concept mapping to develop students’ ability to think critically.  Concepts maps are a way to visually organize and represent complex ideas and processes.  When students generate concept maps they are required to identify the key parts of an idea/process and then show how they relate to one another. This workshop will discuss the theory behind concept maps; the pros and cons of using them; the steps involved in creating them; and how to leverage technology to create them.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is a growing movement in post-secondary education. SOTL is scholarly inquiry into student learning which advances the practice of teaching by making research findings public. Therefore, SoTL is a way to integrate the teaching and scholarship dimensions of faculty work.

To promote faculty engagement in SoTL, UNC Charlotte offers a SoTL grant program through the Center for Teaching and Learning. 

This workshop provides an introduction to SoTL that encourages its use as a bridge between the teaching and research domains of faculty work.  It will also cover the RFP for the 2013-14 SoTL grant and encourage faculty to consider projects which may be eligible for this program.

Note: This workshop will be offered again on Oct. 2, 9-30-10:45am. If this workshop is full, please sign up for the one in October at https://teaching.uncc.edu/workshops/sotl-turning-teaching-project-or-idea-fundable-research-project-0

As educators we are tasked with preparing students to become productive professionals and global citizens in a rapidly changing world.  To accomplish this educators need to teach 21st century skills in addition to discipline specific content.  This workshop will discuss what 21st century skills are, why they are important, and some steps for transitioning your classroom into the 21st century.

**Please note, this workshop does not focus on the use of specific technology in the classroom.

Peer Observation provides evaluative and formative data for the improvement of teaching for University Faculty.   This workshop will provide the opportunity to examine effective practices for conducting (a) pre-observation meetings, (b) observation techniques and format reports, and (c) post observation meetings.

This presentation and workshop picks up where the Hitchhiker's Guide to ePortfolios leaves off. Here participants will explore the complexities of portfolio assessment and what this means for using electronic portfolios. We will then explore how the ePortfolio tool, Mahara, may be integrated into assessment systems at UNC Charlotte.

This is an introductory workshop on using Mahara for ePortfolios at UNC Charlotte. We discuss adding artifacts, designing a page, and sharing your portfolio within and out of the University.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is a growing movement in post-secondary education. SOTL is scholarly inquiry into student learning which advances the practice of teaching by making research findings public. Therefore, SoTL is a way to integrate the teaching and scholarship dimensions of faculty work.

To promote faculty engagement in SoTL, UNC Charlotte offers a SoTL grant program through the Center for Teaching and Learning. 

This workshop provides an introduction to SoTL that encourages its use as a bridge between the teaching and research domains of faculty work.  It will also cover the SoTL grant RFP for the current year and encourage faculty to consider projects which may be eligible for this program.

Faculty classroom observations

Blending online assignments with classroom lectures and activities is becoming a widely accepted instructional approach at traditional “brick and mortar” universities. By having online tools deliver basic content, instructors can now focus on facilitating deeper level of learning in the classroom. The degree of blending varies depending on the content and instructor’s comfort level with technology.

At UNC Charlotte, a Large Course Redesign grant program is in place allowing faculty members to work collaboratively with the Center for Teaching and Learning to redesign large enrollment courses into blended or online courses. This workshop will explore a variety of courses that have been redesigned and will illuminate some of the many issues and considerations involved in successful blended course design.

On campus, indeed around the country, there is increasing recognition that active learning strategies produce deeper and more enduring learning. While there are a number of pedagogical techniques that promote active learning, many utilize collaborative learning.

This workshop will explore different levels of collaborative learning and best practices for using groups/teams in the classroom.  It will also explore some ways to overcome the perceived barriers to using collaborative learning in large classrooms.

As educators we are tasked with preparing students to become productive professionals and global citizens in a rapidly changing world. To accomplish this, educators need to teach 21^st century skills, such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, in addition to discipline specific content.

This workshop will discuss what 21^st century skills are, why they are important, and explore strategies for helping students become proficient in them.

Are you an Accounting Department instructor who has used Clickers in the past to administer tests, promote participation activities, or implement the Flipped Classroom concept?  Have you used Turning Point 2008 any time during the past couple of years? This workshop will cover the basic information that you need to know to transition from Turning Point 2008 to Turning Point Version 5 (TPV5).

TPV5 operates very differently from Turning Point 2008, especially in the way that data is uploaded to Moodle 2.  It is important to take this workshop to avoid the inevitable conflicts that will occur when it is time to upload data to Moodle through the Integrations tool.  The good news?  TPV5 is an easier tool for clicker using instructors. 

Clickers (NXT Response Cards) will be available for use during the workshop.  Come join us for an interactive clicker experience! 

Please bring the following materials for this workshop:

• Clickers (if you have one)
• USB Receiver (it came in the original package)
• Presenter Card

If you do not have these items, they will be provided for you in the workshop.

Note:  Beginning clicker users will still be able to get a feeling for how we are using the clickers at UNC Charlotte, and should consider buddying up with an experienced user for this workshop.

UNC Charlotte has more than 700 students registered with the Office of Disability Services (ODS.) One of those students may be registered for your class.

Is your teaching material accessible by all of your students? This session will introduce how to make your files like PowerPoint, Word, PDFs, and video/audio clips accessible by all students.

"Service learning is a method of instruction in which classroom learning is enriched and applied through service to others” (Florida Department of Education).  Service learning is a method of teaching that combines formal instruction with a related service in the community. Research has shown that service learning can have a positive impact on many student learning outcomes, including academic performance and retention. It also provides a valuable service to the larger community, thereby promoting the university’s community engagement mission and the broader social good. 

Service learning is a widely-used pedagogy nationally and at UNC Charlotte.  It is surprisingly versatile and applicable to any discipline and level.  This workshop covers the what, why, and how of integrating service learning into your classes.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is a growing movement in post-secondary education. SOTL is scholarly inquiry into student learning which advances the practice of teaching by making research findings public. Terms closely related to SoTL in the literature are good teaching (that which promotes student learning and desired outcomes and is recognized by student satisfaction, peer review, etc.) and scholarly teaching (in which teaching is regarded as an area of study and the teaching and learning knowledge base is regarded as an additional discipline in which to develop expertise).  Research methods in SOTL include reflection and analysis, interviews and focus groups, questionnaires and surveys, content analysis of text, secondary analysis of existing data, observational research, and case studies, among others.

To promote faculty engagement in SoTL, UNC Charlotte offers a SoTL grant program through the Center for Teaching and Learning. 

This workshop provides an introduction to SoTL that encourages its use as a bridge between the teaching and research domains of faculty work.  It will also cover the SoTL grant program RFP and encourage faculty to consider projects which may be eligible for this program.