The Pew FTLC offers a full complement of sessions on demand. We will deliver sessions on the following topics for colleges, units, or groups of faculty, or request a topic specific to your needs.  Each interactive session provides information grounded in the teaching, learning, and faculty development literature. Disciplinary examples and special emphases will be incorporated into requested on-demand workshops. Depending on the needs of the group, we can offer sessions of varying lengths and include specific disciplinary examples.

There are four broad categories of sessions listed:

• Course planning and design
• Effective teaching methods
• Assessment of student learning
• Faculty professional activities

Contact [email protected] for additional information or to schedule a session tailored to your particular needs.

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING

ASL 1: How's it going? Gathering informal feedback from your students
Four considerations for gathering student feedback will be presented. This session will also describe the Pew FTLC service, mid-semester interviews about teaching (MITs).

ASL 2: Classroom assessment techniques (CATs)
CATs are activities designed to provide invaluable insights into student learning. These activities are readily adaptable to any discipline. Specific examples and implementation best practices will be discussed.

COURSE PLANNING AND DESIGN

CPD 1: Course planning: starting with the end in mind
What do you want your students to know and be able to do by the end of your course? Walk through a course design framework that begins with the end in mind. Leave this session with a plan to either design a new course or revamp an existing course.

CDP 2: Incorporating service learning into your course
There are many ways to engage the community as part of the student learning experience. Come learn from other faculty with experience in cultivating and implementing sustainable service learning in their courses.

CDP 3: Engaging students in a general education course
How can you design a general education course to maximize student engagement with you, each other, and the course material? Strategies will be generalized through case studies from two very different disciplines.

CDP 4: Why are we learning this? Four ways to help students connect to your course materials
Crafting learning experiences that engage all students can be a challenge. This session will describe four low-stakes course planning approaches to engaging more students, regardless of your discipline.

CDP 5: Clarifying expectations for your students with rubrics
A well-designed rubric can help students complete assignments the way you want them to and save you time and effort as you provide performance feedback. Best practices in crafting rubrics will be discussed through the evaluation of rubrics from a range of disciplines.

EFFECTIVE TEACHING METHODS

ETM 1: Tapping into student motivation
Significant research efforts have gone into understanding what motivates individuals to learn. Come learn about this research and discuss practical suggestions for motivating students in your courses.

ETM 2: Teaching and performance: strategies for the classroom
Join us for a discussion of “teaching as performance” that will include strategies for maximizing your delivery and making your classroom more vibrant and dynamic.

ETM 3: Active learning strategies for larger classes
Whether you consider a large class to be 30 or 100 students, come     explore strategies to actively engage students in your course. We will share specific ways to involve all students in hands-on exercises without significantly increasing your workload. Activities will be modeled in this session, so come prepared to actively participate.

ETM 4: Helping students prepare for class
Maybe it has happened to you from time to time: students come to class not having read the text or completed the assigned work. Strategies will be presented for motivating students, structuring pre-class work, ensuring accountability, and providing timely feedback to students about their learning.   

ETM 5: Leading class discussions that develop critical thinking
Would you like to increase student participation in class discussions? Would you like to see your students think more deeply about class material? Approaches to leading rich class discussions will be examined.

FACULTY PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

FPA 1: Getting started in the scholarship of teaching and learning
What cool, interesting, innovative things are you doing in your classroom? Consider engaging in a scholarly project related to your teaching in order to make your work public. We will discuss the steps necessary to translate teaching practice into scholarly products.

FPA 2: Preparing a Pew FTLC grant proposal
This workshop is for any faculty member who wants to know about the many grant offerings available from the Pew FTLC.

FPA 3: Designing or revising a departmental mentoring program
Incorporating research results and best practices from GV as well as other institutions, this session will assist units in crafting effective and efficient mentoring programs. Applicable to support programs geared toward new faculty, adjunct instructors, or others.

FPA 4: Becoming an effective mentor
This presentation, geared for those interested in serving as a mentor, reviews definitions, boundaries, and issues inherent in establishing and improving mentor relationships in academic settings. There is the opportunity to examine dynamics common to academic structures, review the variety of roles and tasks related to mentoring, as well as raising awareness regarding issues that can create barriers to positive mentoring.

FPA 5: Becoming an effective mentee
This presentation reviews definitions related to being a mentee/protégé in academic settings. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to explore a variety of issues, boundaries, and goals that mentees may experience across their career. The focus includes ways to improve and sustain the mentee relationship with those who offer expertise in their area of study.

FPA 6: Conducting productive meetings
Four strategies to increase the efficiency and overall productivity of any meeting will be examined.

FPA 7: Practicing self-reflection: preparation of an integrative statement for a personnel portfolio
Reflecting on past successes, challenges and articulating future areas for improvement takes practice. We will utilize a set of exploratory questions to stimulate reflective thought and discuss integrative statement writing strategies.

FPA 8: Interpretation of student evaluations of teaching
We will review common misconceptions surrounding student evaluations of teaching and provide examples of how faculty have interpreted their evaluations.

FPA 9: Peer review of teaching: a systematic approach to an evaluation program
This session is for departments looking to implement a new peer review process or revise an existing program. We will discuss the formative and summative aspects of peer review and share three model programs for departments to consider adopting or adapting to their needs.