Events & Newsletters

The Canvas Essentials webinar reviews the Canvas interface, tools, and features. Also explored are design decisions in Canvas that impact ease of use and navigation.

This session is intended for any faculty, staff, or TAs who are new to Canvas and will be building Canvas course sites.

Register for Canvas Essentials (required)

Join us for this free 1-hour session.

Multiple choice questions can support student learning beyond their use in exams. In this webinar we'll discuss eight innovative uses for multiple choice questions along with strategies for how to implement them effectively. Innovative uses will include serving as background knowledge probes, ice-breakers, prompts for discussion, and methods for gathering student feedback. You will have the opportunity to experience some of these from the student perspective. Register for Eight Innovative Uses for Multiple Choice Questions.

This session will explore ways of building courses, developing activities, and creating assignments that support neurodiverse students' learning in a range of courses and learning spaces that reflect human neurodiversity. Register for Honoring Neurodiversity.

A strong course syllabus is the foundation for a strong online course. Today's discussion and quick tips include:

welcoming students with syllabus language, tone, and layout clearly presenting course schedules and requirements reviewing the diversify of your course readings, resources, content, and class activities & assessments applying accessibility and usability best practices; and more

See all retreat topics and register for one or more sessions.

Get personalized help setting up your Canvas courses for the Fall 2021 semester from the comfort of your own home! The Canvas Clinic is an opportunity for faculty and instructors to get hands-on support and consultation as they work on Canvas course sites. Staff from Information Technology (IT), Library Services, [email protected], and academic technologists from system campuses, will be on hand to help with start-of-semester tasks and course planning assistance. Topics include setting up course sites, creating activities and assessments, and integrating media or other course resources into Canvas.

Register for the Canvas Clinic

The first day of class is your opportunity to set the tone for the rest of the semester and this year, it's especially important. However, both instructors and students may feel anxious on the first day and this can be distracting and prevent us from focusing on the essential tasks of teaching and learning. In this workshop, we will discuss strategies for reducing anxieties and creating a welcoming and supportive environment on the first day back in the classroom. Register for Making a Good First Impression.

Recent research has demonstrated growing challenges 2SLGBTQIA+ students face in their courses, but faculty and instructors can make changes in their teaching to mitigate some of these challenges. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about 2SLGBTQIA+ identities and challenges, reflect on their own knowledge of 2SLGBTQIA+ students, and identify specific course design and pedagogical practices they can implement in their teaching. Register for Teaching to Support 2SLGBTQIA+ Students.

Is your Canvas course organized for intuitive navigation? Today's discussion and quick tips include:

optimizing course navigation providing consistency and clarity so students can anticipate what comes next utilizing accessibility and usability best practices; and more See all retreat topics and register for one or more sessions.

In this interactive session, new teaching assistants will be introduced to university resources for teaching, and will reflect on and discuss teaching strategies, roles, and responsibilities. Register for New TA Orientation.

How can we create online assessments that are clear, engage students, and accurately measure learning? Today's discussion and quick tips include:

ensuring our grading policies and assignment instructions are clear and consistent addressing online academic integrity applying accessibility and usability best practices; and more See all retreat topics and register for one or more sessions.

August 24, 2022, 1:00–4:00 pm

Let's talk about how we can leverage all interactive classroom activities for deeper content learning and interpersonal and intercultural development. In this webinar, we will share considerations, strategies, scripts and tools that can help you and your students realize the full potential of classroom interactions. This session counts towards the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program and is hosted by International Student Academic Integration (ISAI), Global Programs and Strategy Alliance. Leveraging Interactions for Intercultural Learning.

August 25, 2022, 1:00–4:00 pm

This session links learning-centered course design strategies to specific rhetorical and pedagogical practices for developing your course syllabus for its primary audience: learners. Through a mix of presentation, examples, and discussion, participants will work to shape a learning-centered syllabus as an accessible, audience-aware, core course document. Finalizing Your Syllabus.

How can we foster engagement and interaction online? Today's discussion and quick tips include:

engaging students with a variety of synchronous and asynchronous activities being present online with consistent communication practices applying accessibility and usability best practices and more See all retreat topics and register for one or more sessions.

Teaching with clarity is a required element on the Student Rating of Teaching. Participants will consider ways to improve the SRT element, "the instructor presented subject matter clearly." This workshop focuses on using vocal resources to convey classroom content clearly and engagingly. While this workshop addresses strategies for multilingual participants, the content is applicable to all linguistic backgrounds. Register for Vocal Strategies to Improve Clarity in Teaching.

Each year, scholarly articles are published describing new approaches to teaching practice in higher education, however, busy instructors often lack the time to keep up with this ever growing-research. CEI has hosted a pedagogical journal club since 2014 and during this time we have selected, summarized, and discussed over 68 journal articles related to teaching and learning. This webinar summarizes the big ideas related to scholarly pedagogical research. We will identify and describe approaches that have a solid foundation of support from the literature and familiar teaching approaches that have very little support from the literature. We will suggest strategies for how to use the literature to make decisions about your teaching practice. Register for Which Teaching Practices are (and aren't) Supported by Pedagogical Literature?

Start the semester right! Use the start of semester checklist to review your course and check-off items that are easily missed.

Register for Tune up your course site with the Start of Semester Checklist (Required)

The Office for Community Standards (OCS) will share information and best practices on dealing with alleged violations of the student conduct code. In this session, participants will learn what to do when they encounter alleged violations, such as scholastic dishonesty and/or disruptive behavior. OCS will also update participants on the newly revised student conduct code, which includes an updated definition of scholastic dishonesty.

Register for Addressing Scholastic Dishonesty and Disruptive Conduct

In this interactive session, new teaching assistants will be introduced to university resources for teaching, and will reflect on and discuss teaching strategies, roles, and responsibilities. Register for New TA Orientation.

In this engaging one-hour session, we'll apply empirically-based teaching and learning practices that promote student mental health, reduce anxiety, and maintain academic rigor. Register for Design Teaching & Learning that Supports Student Mental Health.

This webinar focuses on effective practices for student assessment, with attention to using Canvas to communicate grading expectations and provide feedback. Register for Rubrics, Grading, and Feedback.

Make your assignments clearer and more equitable for students through a simple practice of transparent assignment design. In this session, you'll learn to systematically apply three key components of transparent assignment design: purpose, task, and criteria for success. This intervention can help new and experienced instructors create assignments that have a deep impact on student learning, without the need for making drastic course design changes. Register for Transparent Assignment Design.

Participants will develop awareness of the linguistic diversity on campus and grapple with the dual goals of preparing students for the language needs of their future careers and valuing student multilingual skills and assets. We will examine possible biases related to how students use English or other languages. Finally, we will explore ways that our classroom practices not only tolerate, but embrace, linguistic diversity and contribute positively to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. Register for Recognizing and Embracing Linguistic Diversity in the College Classroom.

The Canvas Essentials webinar reviews the Canvas interface, tools, and features. Also explored are design decisions in Canvas that impact ease of use and navigation.

This session is intended for any faculty, staff, or TAs who are new to Canvas and will be building Canvas course sites.

Register for Canvas Essentials (required)

In this engaging session, participants will review and apply effective ways to start a conversation about mental health with students, including resources that support student mental health. Register for Starting a Conversation about Mental Health.

Get personalized help setting up your Canvas courses for the Fall 2021 semester from the comfort of your own home! The Canvas Clinic is an opportunity for faculty and instructors to get hands-on support and consultation as they work on Canvas course sites. Staff from Information Technology (IT), Library Services, [email protected], and academic technologists from system campuses, will be on hand to help with start-of-semester tasks and course planning assistance. Topics include setting up course sites, creating activities and assessments, and integrating media or other course resources into Canvas.

Register for the Canvas Clinic

In this session, we will identify ways to help students from globally and linguistically diverse backgrounds more easily access course content and engage in meaningful interactions with their peers. Register for Supporting Content Delivery and Student Interactions.

Anti-racist pedagogy acknowledges that structural racism is reproduced in our courses. Participants will be introduced to anti-racist pedagogy in the context of the UMN as a PWI. We will distinguish anti-racist pedagogy from inclusive teaching and explore anti-racist pedagogy in course goals and student learning outcomes; assignments; and course policies. Anyone interested in anti-racist pedagogy is welcome; those with a background in inclusive teaching will benefit most from this workshop. Register for Anti-Racist Pedagogy.

Join ATSS to walk through the ins and outs of setting up your Canvas Gradebook for the current or upcoming semester.

Register for Canvas Gradebook (Required)

Educators across higher education institutions report the highest levels of so-called "disengaged" students in their classrooms. This session re-frames this characterization by examining generation tren​​ds, the impact of the COVID pandemic, as well as the effect of social political context in teaching. This session offers educators insight into students' perspectives and pushes the discussion of disengaged students toward supporting an exhausted generation.

 

Register for BIPOC Student Classroom Experiences: Disengaged? Or Tired?

September Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

We will discuss this poster presented by H.D. Zhou, J.D. Walker, and Dalay Olson at the June 2022 meeting of the American Physiological Association. The poster presents data gathered in spring 2021 in University of Minnesota Professor Dalay Olson's introductory physiology course, PHSL 3051. Students could choose to attend this fully online class synchronously via Zoom, or they could view the recording of the same lecture later, on their own time. Attending lectures synchronously was positively associated with student exam performance, while controlling for students' ACT scores and GPA. This effect was stronger for female-identified students and students of color. Questions are raised regarding the mechanisms underlying these effects.

 

Register for section 2022-09 (required)

Student development in the classroom is often understood in traditional ways that confine student learning in linear static ways. These traditional notions still shape academic experiences today. This session introduces three critical frameworks that expand traditional approaches to student learning and development. Presenters will connect presented theories to curriculum development and instruction.

 

Register for Multicultural Student Identity Development

October Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

In this study, the authors looked at the effect of class format on an achievement gap for underrepresented minority students. Student exam performance was compared across three different formats taught by the same instructor: face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online. Exam scores were lowest for all students in the face-to-face course, and highest in the hybrid course. The achievement gap was eliminated for Hispanic and Black students compared to white students in the hybrid format. The authors propose that the increased structure in the hybrid course was responsible for this effect. We will discuss ways to apply these findings to your teaching.

 

Register for section 2022-10 (required)

November Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

This study analyzed performance gaps between different groups of students using multivariate models that included measures of incoming preparation as predictors. The authors found that demographically-defined gaps disappeared once preparation was accounted for. We will compare these results to similar analyses performed with University of Minnesota students, and we'll discuss the implications of the findings for teaching practices.

 

Register for section 2022-11 (required)

December Pedagogical Innovations Journal Club

This meta-analysis of 181 published stereotype threat interventions indicates their overall effectiveness in improving outcomes for underrepresented students. The authors develop an organizing schema to categorize the interventions into types and use this to determine which types are most effective. Their findings indicate that belief-based and identity-based interventions were more effective than resilience-based interventions. Additional categorizing finds that both gender-based and race-based stereotype threat interventions are effective. We will discuss how to apply these findings to your teaching.

 

Register for section 2022-12 (required)

Identity-based conflicts in academic spaces are highlighted as one of the most pervasive negative experiences that BIPOC students face on our campus. Using faculty/instructor reported scenarios, this session offers educators tangible instructional interventions to address, navigate, and support students through these moments.

 

Register for Identity in the Classroom