Commons Meetups Begin

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Published:
June 16, 2020
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Dr. Evangeleen Pattison will facilitate a Commons Meetup on Friday, June 19, at 10am
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Whether you are recovering from spring, wondering when and how to begin planning for fall, or teaching summer courses - or all of the above - we hope resources mentioned in this newsletter help you move forward. As always, feel free to contact us with thoughts or questions.



We are grateful for continued synergy within the teaching and learning community. Many are contributing time and expertise, and the CTL is proud to convene conversations and host assets on our website. We encourage you to join many of the summer meetups hosted by UT instructors, starting with Bob Duke on Tuesday at 4:00 pm!




In this edition:


CTL Commons: Next Phase

The CTL Commons is a gathering place for online/blended course planning that includes a wide variety of resources:

  • Workshops led by CTL and campus partners
  • Open office hours
  • Meetups to informally discuss teaching topics beginning June 9th
  • Links to templates, documents, and websites
  • Videos from instructors covering best practices and lessons learned. We are grateful for their contributions!

 Interactions and resources are organized by six topics and guiding questions:

  • Course Design: How can I redesign my course for remote instruction?
  • Content Curation: How do I create content for remote instruction?
  • Student Support: How can I make sure my students get the support they need to meet essential course objectives?
  • Community Building: How can I connect with and engage my students in virtual environments?
  • Instructional Activities: How can I design activities and choose technology tools that help my students reach learning outcomes?
  • Assessment: How can I creatively measure student understanding of concepts?

We've wrapped up the initial phase of the Commons. Thanks to our partners on the UT Libraries and Canvas teams for their help during phase one! Session recordings will be added to the site as they become available.



Phase two begins this week with informal Zoom meetups. See below for more details


Commons Meetups Starting

Dr. Bob Duke kicks off our summer series of Commons meetups June 9th at 4:00! See the RSVP for the full list and to sign up.



Commons meetups are informal Zoom gatherings focused on a specific topic related to online/blended teaching and facilitated by a member of the faculty or UT instructional staff. The topic will be based on a video that the facilitator faculty has contributed to the Commons.



Meetups provide a forum to share ideas, ask questions, and discover new strategies. We encourage you to submit questions on the RSVP to inform the conversation.

This Week

Topic: Engaging students in an online environment

Facilitator: Bob Duke (Prof, Music, Dell Medical School)

Date/time: Tuesday, 6/9/2020, 4:00-4:45pm

Topic: Building community in a virtual classroom

Facilitator: Cossy Hough (Asst Dean for Undergraduate Programs; Clinical Assoc Prof, Social Work)

Date/time: Friday, 6/12/2020, 10:00am-10:45am


Eyes on Teaching: Summer 2020

This summer the Provost's Teaching Fellows and Center for Teaching and Learning will be hosting a fully-online Virtual Eyes on Teaching for UT Instructors.

Eyes on Teaching is an opportunity for instructors to watch their colleagues teach, and to talk with each other about their teaching successes and struggles. As a non-evaluative peer observation practice, Eyes on Teaching instead focuses on reflection and sharing of new ideas and methodologies. On July 22 and 23, a special edition of Eyes on Teaching will take place for the observation of Summer 2020 courses - instructors will have the opportunity to observe both synchronous and asynchronous undergraduate courses across many disciplines, and will have opportunities to reflect on the intersections between the course observed and their own upcoming Fall courses.

While there is much to learn from each of our observed instructors, we are encouraging participants to keep in mind several common threads throughout the two-day event. This year we are looking at the Five Cs for Teaching with Technology as a framework for thinking about creating online and hybrid courses for the Fall semester.

Closing the Loop: Integrate experiences for your students and build on prior knowledge.

Communication: Ensure students know about course expectations, as well as how and why they are using new technologies.

Content: Choose the right tools for course needs with a ’less is more’ mindset.

Community: Encourage the use of new tools and technologies to bring students together, build relationships, and foster belonging.​

Collaboration: Seek to leverage technology to help students effectively work together to solve problems and/or produce a final product.

We hope you will join us! Signups will begin in early July. Please reach out to eyesonteaching@utexas.edu with any questions or for more information.


2020-2021 CTL Grantees

We are proud to announce University Teaching Grants and Instructor Learning Community Grants. It will be great to see what emerges from their work over this coming year. The projects will culminate with a showcase later in spring 2021. Congratulations to the grantees!



University Teaching Grants

 

Zhengrong Cui

Department: Pharmacy

Fostering Learning from Peers by Evidence-Based Optimization of the Structure of Small Discussion Groups

 

Lauren Gutterman

Department: American Studies

Austin LGBTQ Oral History Project

 

Thushani Herath

Department: Chemistry

Career Panel Day: Think like a practitioner in your field

 

Chang Liu

Department: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Improving Learning from Evidence-Based Practice with Online Tools

 

Jason Lustig

Department: Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies

"Fake News" and the Jews: From blood libels to holocaust denials

 

Linda Mayhew

Department: Liberal Arts Honors and Humanities

Historical Immersion with Reacting to the Past

 

Adrian Rodriguez

Department: Mechanical Engineering

Creating Opportunities for Engagement in an Engineering Lab

 

Gwendolyn Stovall

Department: Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science (TIDES)

Student Leadership: Measures and artifacts

 

Veronica Yan

Department: Educational Psychology

Transforming Effective Strategies into Regular Habits

 

University Teaching Grants

 



Luis Avilés & Jermani Ojeda

Department: Spanish & Portuguese

Owning the Classroom: Student's advocacy in the language learning process through the production of digital storytelling

 

Mirza Lugo-Neris & Liberty Hamilton

Department: Communication Sciences & Disorders

Enhancing Cultural Inclusivity in Teaching in CSD

 

Erin Reilly

Department:  Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations

XR Learning Community

 

Guatami Shah, Darsana Manyathu Sasi, & Ahmed Shamim

Department: Asian Studies

Inclusive Pedagogy in Less Commonly Taught Language Classrooms

 

Sarah Sloan & Starla Simmons

Department: Steve Hicks School of Social Work

Inclusion and Equity Learning Community in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work


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