Events & Newsletters

Designing and Delivering Online Learning will help you explore and make plans to implement effective pedagogical practices in your online courses. This four module seminar is open to faculty and instructors systemwide and will be delivered completely online, making use of Canvas activities and incorporating Zoom. The four Zoom meetings will be held on Thursdays from 3:30-4:30pm between September 28 and October 26.

As part of the Inclusive Teaching at a Predominantly White Institution Workshop Series, this 90-minute interactive workshop introduces basic pedagogical tools that instructors use for effective teaching and course design. After we explore distinctions between content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, we will use Bloom's Taxonomy as one tool to understand and apply Backwards Course Design principles. This workshop will introduce concepts that will be referenced throughout the workshop series.

This 6-workshop series explores inclusive teaching by focusing on racial and Indigenous dynamics. We will explore the context of the UMN as a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) and its implications for classroom climate, equitable pedagogy, diversifying course content, and equitable assessments. The first workshop on Pedagogy Basics will provide a refresher on tools and practices that will be referenced in the following workshops.

How are faculty members and instructors incorporating ChatGPT in their courses and assignments? How has it changed the work students produce? What skills do instructors and students need to develop in order to incorporate these powerful and controversial new technologies into their teaching and learning? Hear from UMN faculty and instructors from different fields share their experiences and lessons learned. Our goal will be an engaged discussion that will follow brief remarks from panelists.

Register for: ChatGPT in Classroom environments: Early Adopter Experiences
  (Required)

Welcome to the October edition of Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

During this month's Journal Club, members of a cross-disciplinary research team will present preliminary findings from a project exploring the experiences of under-resourced, multiply-marginalized disabled graduate students at the University of Minnesota. Time will be dedicated to an open discussion about ways instructors may utilize this research to improve graduate program.

The Fall 2023 Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club will highlight research on a variety of timely topics: the experiences of disabled students in higher ed, accessibility of active learning, cultural norms among first-generation students, and the importance of self-efficacy. We will highlight how the findings of each of these articles could be applied and adapted for your teaching and you will have the opportunity to benefit from the insight and experiences of your peers.

Note: You do not have to read the articles to benefit from attending the journal club.

Instructors have consistently observed more of what they describe as increased levels of student disengagement. In this session, we'll explore possible causes of student disengagement and why it is on the rise. Together with participants, we'll identify ways to counter student disengagement through relevant and transparent course goals and assignments, active learning strategies, intentional feedback, and more.

October 25, 2023 (1:00–3:00 pm)
12 Nicholson Hall (East Bank)

Among the nervous reactions to the emergence of generative AI is worry about the brief, informal writing might no longer be a reliable strategy to engage students in their undergraduate courses. If a chatbot can spit out a plausible answer, why even bother assigning short writing exercises? Fortunately, the reasons for assigning brief writing assignments and the benefits for students haven't changed. Opportunities to draw connections to personal experience, ask questions pertinent to their interests, and to consider specific examples and cases all allow students low risk opportunities to explore and engage with their learning.

This in-person workshop will introduce instructors to strategies for using in-person and online writing tasks that invite students to explore thinking routines important to your course content in ways that rely on their own knowledge. Participants are welcome to bring current informal writing activities for revision or to come with ideas for new topics and questions.

As part of the Inclusive Teaching at a Predominantly White Institution Workshop Series, this 90-minute interactive workshop will explore dynamics of race and Indigeneity at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) like the University of Minnesota. Participants will examine and reflect on foundational assumptions about teaching and learning using core concepts such as PWI, identity, positionality, and race and identity stressors, among others.

This 6-workshop series explores inclusive teaching by focusing on racial and Indigenous dynamics. We will explore the context of the UMN as a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) and its implications for classroom climate, equitable pedagogy, diversifying course content, and equitable assessments. The first workshop on Pedagogy Basics will provide a refresher on tools and practices that will be referenced in the following workshops.

November 8, 2023 (1:00–3:00 pm)
12 Nicholson Hall (East Bank)

Alternative-text explanations are added to images, figures, and graphs to deliver information to readers who may be blind or have low vision. Effective alt-text briefly explains both the what and the why of a visual image, and can include descriptive vocabulary or an explanation of the central message of a chart or graph. Particularly in disciplines that regularly include data visualization, alt-text is a necessary element of figure construction.

An ancillary benefit of this accessibility feature is that the writing of alt-text can also help students to better understand the purposes and functions of visual information in academic writing, and can help students to recognize what truly matters in a data visualization. For this in-person workshop, participants will be invited to examine and explore common figures and their accompanying alt-text, and to develop their own alt-text based on examples. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring examples of images and figures from their own disciplines to develop into learning activities for students.

Students and instructors feel more stress now than ever before. Join us to explore concrete, empirically-based strategies that support student mental health and well-being. We will discuss how you can reduce stress in your educational setting, including areas of course climate and belonging, pedagogical strategies, managing cognitive load, and planning your course policies in the future.

Welcome to the November edition of Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

This study explored how cultural norms affect coping and help seeking for academic, financial, and psychological problems among diverse first-generation college students. Most students were self-reliant and underutilized social support because of concerns about negatively affecting close relationships; these relational concerns included burdening others, being judged by others, and making matters worse. Concerns about face loss and group harmony were heightened among ethnic minority students.

The Fall 2023 Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club will highlight research on a variety of timely topics: the experiences of disabled students in higher ed, accessibility of active learning, cultural norms among first-generation students, and the importance of self-efficacy. We will highlight how the findings of each of these articles could be applied and adapted for your teaching and you will have the opportunity to benefit from the insight and experiences of your peers.

Note: You do not have to read the articles to benefit from attending the journal club.

November 28, 2023 (Noon–1:30 pm)
101 Walter Library (East Bank)

Instructors and educators have always loved to share ideas and resources for instruction in their fields, and peer-to-peer sharing of resources in schools and departments predates the emergence of the internet. The Open Educational Resources movement has expanded on this history of cooperation to make low- and no-cost teaching materials available to instructors for the use of their students.

While we often rely on professional publishers and textbook writers to curate, review, and edit teaching resources to ensure their quality and ease of use, Open Educational Resources can offer lower cost alternatives of equivalent or better quality. Even better, the opportunity to revise OER resources means that materials are potentially more current, more dynamic, and more engaging.

This panel brings together Open Educational Resource authors and advocates to talk about how OER Resources are produced, reviewed, and disseminated and why these authors chose open access publication as the best strategies for sharing their instructional resources.

Free lunch included!

As part of the Inclusive Teaching at a Predominantly White Institution Workshop Series, we will examine the differential experiences of BIPOC students, using data and scenarios. Participants will explore strategies (proactive, ongoing, and "in the moment") that address racial and Indigenous dynamics of class climate. Participants will consider typical PWI frameworks as well as stereotype threat as a race stressor.

This 6-workshop series explores inclusive teaching by focusing on racial and Indigenous dynamics. We will explore the context of the UMN as a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) and its implications for classroom climate, equitable pedagogy, diversifying course content, and equitable assessments. The first workshop on Pedagogy Basics will provide a refresher on tools and practices that will be referenced in the following workshops.

Welcome to the December edition of Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

While there is a vast body of research that demonstrates the benefits of active learning for students, we know that those benefits are not equitably distributed. The authors of this article consider whether active learning is accessible to students with disabilities, and they interviewed directors of Disability Resource Centers (DRCs) to identify students' barriers to active learning, accommodations that may reduce those barriers, and recommendations for designing more inclusive active learning courses. In our discussion, we will examine both the findings and limitations of this research, as well as implications for improving active learning strategies in our own teaching contexts.

The Fall 2023 Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club will highlight research on a variety of timely topics: the experiences of disabled students in higher ed, accessibility of active learning, cultural norms among first-generation students, and the importance of self-efficacy. We will highlight how the findings of each of these articles could be applied and adapted for your teaching and you will have the opportunity to benefit from the insight and experiences of your peers.

Note: You do not have to read the articles to benefit from attending the journal club.

This 90-minute interactive workshop webinar is part of the Inclusive Teaching at a Predominantly White Institution Workshop Series. Equitable pedagogical practices require challenging the assumption that there is a set of fixed "best practices" for all teaching contexts. Rather, participants will be guided to diversify their teaching methods as well as to examine their teaching through the lens of BIPOC students' experiences in their courses. Participants will increase their awareness of how dynamics of race and Indigeneity affect discussion and other learning experiences.

This 6-workshop series explores inclusive teaching by focusing on racial and Indigenous dynamics. We will explore the context of the UMN as a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) and its implications for classroom climate, equitable pedagogy, diversifying course content, and equitable assessments. The first workshop on Pedagogy Basics will provide a refresher on tools and practices that will be referenced in the following workshops.

As part of the Inclusive Teaching at a Predominantly White Institution Workshop Series, in this 90-minute interactive workshop participants will learn how to audit course content and curricula using a 3-part framework that presents possible approaches to this work. Participants will also examine their discipline's approach to knowledge and consider disciplinary knowledges as "situated."

This 6-workshop series explores inclusive teaching by focusing on racial and Indigenous dynamics. We will explore the context of the UMN as a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) and its implications for classroom climate, equitable pedagogy, diversifying course content, and equitable assessments. The first workshop on Pedagogy Basics will provide a refresher on tools and practices that will be referenced in the following workshops.