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UCAT offers events on a wide range of topics and issues related to teaching in higher education environments. You can scroll down to read descriptions of some of our past events, or click on the category names to move directly to descriptions of specific events.

Click here>> to read descriptions of some possible topics for an event for your department.
To request an event for your department, click here>>.

Categories of previous UCAT events include

Book Groups

Winter Book Group: "Engaging Ideas..."
Book: Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. Author: John C. Bean (with foreword by Maryellen Weimer). San Francisco: Jossey–Bass, 1996.
During a four–week seminar, held in weekly sessions throughout the month of February, we discussed this practical book. Bean's work explores strategies for increasing critical thinking through writing across the curriculum, problem–based assignments, discussion, and other active learning techniques. Twelve individuals were selected to participate in this discussion group on a first–come, first–served basis. Seminar participants received a free copy of the book and were required to attend all four sessions, to discuss specific chapters, exchange reflections and practices, and apply ideas from the book to their own courses.

Winter Book Group: "Learning Partnerships..."
Book: Learning Partnerships: Theory and Models of Practice to Educate for Self–Authorship. Editors: Marcia Baxter Magolda and Patricia M. King. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2004.
This book takes as its foundation Marcia Baxter Magolda's Learning Partnerships Model, based on her seventeen–year longitudinal study of young adults' learning and development. Based on nearly a thousand participant narratives, the model offers an empirically grouned yet flexible approach to promote "self–authorship". Baxter Magolda describes self–authorship––its centrality to the learning goals of cognitive maturity, an integrated identity, mature relationships, and effective citizenship––and the Model. The book then documents examples of actual practice and the learning outcomes they have yielded. These examples are from a wide variety of higher education settings. Learning Partnerships offers models for all educators who work to balance guidance and learner responsibility to prepare students for the complexity of the twenty–first century.

College Teaching Series; Quarterly Events on Teaching

Please Note: This is not an inclusive list. Also, some events offered within each of these series have been described in other places on this page.

Summer Institute on Course Design
Are you preparing to teach a new course, or are you frustrated or bored with one you are already teaching? Do you need to revise a course because of changes in enrollment or curriculum? This 5-day intensive institute is designed to provide you with the tools, the time, and the collegial support to really dig in and design or re-design that course. You will have the chance to work through the early stages of structuring and planning your course based on the foundation of what you believe is most important for your students to know, to learn, and to care about. At the end of the week you will have created the basic structure of the course, including plans for a syllabus, assignments, assessment tools, and a course outline. We will provide a variety of resources, introduce you to other faculty and staff on campus that can offer you advice and support based on their personal experiences with a variety of course design processes, and help you build a community network of other faculty around campus who are going through the same design process. This is also a great way to get a started preparing for our upcoming shift to semesters.

Clickers: The Greatest Pedagogical Tool Since Chalk
Clickers, or audience response systems, can be another distracting technological gimmick in the classroom––or a powerful new tool to promote student learning. Using a hands–on demonstration with examples, this workshop will explore ways to use clickers more effectively.

Get Help With Grading Student Writing
In this session, we will discuss ways to develop effective grading rubrics for your classes, talk about how you can negotiate common grading criteria with your colleagues, and give you time–saving tips to help you manage your work efficiently and effectively.

Teaching Strategies For The Inclusive Classroom
It is of critical importance that instructors at Ohio State create a learning environment in which thoughtfulness, mutual respect, and academic excellence are valued and promoted. This session provides information on how to create a supportive and open learning environment, employ inclusive teaching strategies, and design an inclusive curriculum. In this process, the culture of the classroom will be examined to determine how the method of teaching, design of classroom activities, and behaviors influences the learning environment.

Collaborative Learning I
Collaborative Learning II
The use of student groups is common in many types of courses, including labs, recitations, and lectures. This two–part series was designed to help you decide when and how best to use this teaching method. In Part I, we discussed issues of planning assignments and forming groups. In Part II, we explored strategies for managing groups and for fair assessment of group work.

Comparison of Computer–Based versus Paper–Based Examinations for Doctor of Pharmacy Students in a Drug Information Course
Educational technologies and software applications increasingly are available to faculty as they plan for, administer, and evaluate courses in their respective disciplines. The ultimate goal in using these tools is to improve the learners' educational experiences. However, faculty often must overcome operational challenges related to the use of these tools, and evaluate their impact on instructional goals and student satisfaction. This interactive presentation discussed one scholarly approach to a technology project, and described our pilot as a case example.

Critical Thinking: What is it?
How do we get our students to do it?
Have you ever been frustrated that your students don't think critically in the ways that you want them to? If so, you're facing one of the universal challenges of teaching. In this session we discussed what we mean by "critical thinking" and how cognitive development theories and research help us better understand our students' intellectual and ethical development. We also explored teaching strategies to help us better serve a wide range of students. We scheduled a longer session than usual to allow time to thoroughly explore these challenging issues, and work on practical applications for our own classes.

Designing Quizzes, Assignments, and Tests
Assessing student learning involves much more planning than many people realize. This session assisted participants in creating learning objectives and designing quizzes, assignments, and exams that assess students' achievement of those objectives.

Developing Effective Presentation Skills
Good presentation skills are important in helping students learn the material and keeping them engaged in the learning process. In this session we examined and practiced planning strategies and good delivery techniques.

Drawing to Learn:
Visual Composition Across the Curriculum
In this workshop, we broadened our definition of writing to include the composition of visual texts as well as texts that combine both visual and textual elements. Teachers from several disciplines discussed how composing visual texts helps students learn and think critically about course content, as well as what challenges students face when asked to visually compose.

Facilitating Classroom Discussions
Class discussion can be an effective method for getting students involved in most types of classes. In this session, participants learned how to encourage and maintain student involvement, respond to individual contributions, and employ questioning strategies.

Fair and Efficient Grading
Effective grading provides students with appropriate and clear feedback, maintains fairness, and completes the process in a timely manner. In this session, several helpful techniques for achieving this balance were discussed. Participants also explored their philosophy of grading, began thinking about how they can grade in a manner consistent with this philosophy, and generated ideas for communicating these expectations to their students. Finally, participants discussed how these issues can be complicated or simplified when one is part of a team of instructors.

Fighting Plagiarism Doesn't Have to be Scary:
Ethics and Student Writing
Confronting dishonest students who plagiarize work can be a very frustrating affair, and the ubiquity of copy–and–pasteable information on the Internet makes it easy for them to ignore their ethical responsibilities in academic research and writing. We explored strategies that make it difficult for students to plagiarize and, more importantly, to help them better understand ethical research and writing in various disciplines.

Globalizing the Curriculum: A Faculty Panel and Discussion
Several Ohio State faculty members briefly described how they have infused the curriculum in their courses with global issues and examples. Following their presentations, participants had the chance to discuss how these examples might apply in their fields.

Making Research and Writing Meaningful
Representatives from Ohio State's University Libraries and Writing Across the Curriculum showed how instructors and faculty from different disciplines can help their students be more reflective and critical about the research process.

Motivating Students to Write II:
Writing in the Community and the University
Ohio State offers over 40 service–learning courses across disciplines including medicine, veterinary clinical sciences, Spanish, English, education, engineering, art education, physical therapy, and agricultural communication. The philosophy of service–learning courses is that students engage in experiential learning by working with a community organization to both meet the organization's needs and help students learn valuable skills. Event attendees participated in a conversation about the significant role that writing plays in service–learning courses, and about how use service–oriented writing could be used in their respective classes.

Out in the Academy
In this event, a panel of faculty and professional staff at Ohio State discussed their experiences being "Out in the Academy." Panelists Debra Moddelmog (English), Jackie Miller (Statistics), Joe Ponce (English), and Willa Young (Student Life Learning Initiatives) will speak on such topics as the academic job search, and challenges and rewards that can be associated with identifying as an openly LGBTQ person while working professionally in the field of higher education.

Responding to Student Writing
Most TAs will be asked to respond to and evaluate various forms of student writing, which may include lab reports, translations, essay exams, memos, on–line discussion board postings, and position papers. In this session, participants learned how instructors' effective response to assignments can ease their subsequent responsibility of assigning grades, and help students improve their writing.

Sustainability in Higher Education
The goals of this event were to discuss ways that sustainability issues are taught across disciplines at Ohio State, and to brainstorm the learning objectives on these topics that we hope our students will achieve. Alan Kalish, Director of UCAT at Ohio State, moderated a panel of Ohio State faculty and staff, and facilitated the conversation among participants.

Teaching Strategies for the Inclusive Classroom
It is of critical importance that instructors at Ohio State create a learning environment in which thoughtfulness, mutual respect, and academic excellence are valued and promoted. This session provided information on how to create a supportive and open learning environment, employ inclusive teaching strategies, and design an inclusive curriculum. In this process, the culture of the classroom was examined, to determine how the method of teaching design of classroom activities, and behaviors interact, to influence the learning environment.

Conferences on Teaching

Beginning in May 2007, The Ohio State Academy of Teaching has offered a one–day seminar showcasing excellence in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), through the best practices of its members. Each year the free seminar has been open to all faculty, graduate students, and staff who wanted to improve their instructional skills and learn more about the vital link between teaching excellence and scholarship.

Mini–Conference on Scholarship, Teaching, and Best Practices:
Friday, May 4, 2007
The following sessions were offered at the first annual Mini–Conference:

  • Welcome Address––Archie Griffin, President and CEO of The Ohio State University Alumni Association
  • "Making Sense of Darwin for Nonmajors: Strategies for Increasing Understanding and Acceptance of Evolution," Susan Fisher (Department of Entomology; guest presentation)
  • "Why Not Make Them Do the Work: Active Techniques in the Classroom," Dave Tomasko (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Center of Affordable Nanotechnology of Polymeric Biomedical Devices)
  • "Promoting Teaching Excellence at the Grassroots Level," Brian Joseph (Department of Linguistics)––Keynote Address
  • "Teaching in the 21st Century," Victoria Getis (then Interim Director, and now Director, of Ohio State's Digital Union)
  • "Building an Infrastructure for Education Research," Dennis Pearl (Department of Statistics, and Director of INQUERI; guest presentation)
  • "Which Way is Up? The Virtues of Vertical and Horizontal Teaching," Mohamed Yousif (Department of Mathematics, Ohio State's Lima Campus)
  • "Developing and Documenting Your Teaching Effectiveness," seminar conducted by winners(s) of Ohio State's Graduate Associate Teaching Award
  • "Beyond Window Dressing––Making Powerpoint Slides and Pictures Effective Teachers of Concepts," Joseph F. Donnermeyer (Rural Sociology Program)
  • "Getting Graduate Students Minds Out of the Classroom and into the Research World," Dave Tomasko (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Center of Affordable Nanotechnology of Polymeric Biomedical Devices)
  • "Involving Students in Transformative Research: A Multi–Media, Community–Based, and Group–Oriented Approach," Judy Wu (Department of History)

Mini–Conference on Scholarship, Teaching, and Best Practices:
Friday, April 25, 2008
The following sessions were offered at the second annual Mini–Conference:

  • Welcome Address––Joseph Donnermeyer, Executive Committee Chair, The Ohio State University Academy of Teaching
  • "A Teaching Mosaic: Piecing Together a Community of Learning," Kathryn Plank (Associate Director of UCAT), with UCAT's Teresa Johnson and Heather Mitchell
  • "Your Average Standard Deviation: Creating a Liberal Arts Environment in a Large University Statistics Class," Jackie Miller (Department of Statistics)
  • "What Makes a Good TA," Brian Joseph (Department of Linguistics), with Hope C. Dawson and Masha Alley
  • "Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool," The Ohio State University's Digital Storytelling Team
  • "The Never–Ending Rehearsal of Teaching," Richard Blatti (School of Music)
  • "TELR’s 3rd Annual 'Five Minutes of Fame,'" staff from Ohio State's Technology Enhanced Learning and Research (TELR)
  • "Many Are Called, but Few Show Up: Building Scholarly Communities in a Busy University," Joseph Donnermeyer (Department of Human and Community Resource Development)
  • "All of Mathematics is Trivial Once You Know How to Do It," Ron Solomon (Department of Mathematics)
  • "Teaching Metacognition," Marsha Lovett (Associate Director for Faculty Development, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Associate Research Professor, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University)
  • "Engaging the Mob: Keeping Attention in a Large Classroom," Laura Deeter (Department of Horticulture)
  • "Assessment: A Strategy to Improve Learning," Alexis Collier (Associate Provost, Ohio State's Office of Academic Affairs)
  • "Digital Tools for Outreach and Engagement," Liv Gjestvang (Coordinator of Events and Education, Ohio State's Digital Union) and Robert P. Griffiths (eLearning Consultant, Ohio State's TELR)

Mini–Conference on Scholarship, Teaching, and Best Practices:
Friday, April 24, 2009
The following sessions were offered at the third annual Mini–Conference:

  • "In Making Teaching Great, the Basics Still Work," Richard Freuler, College of Engineering
  • "Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool," Karen Diaz (University Libraries), Anne Fields (University Libraries), and Heather Mitchell (FTAD), with Joel Bloch, Cynthia Dillard, and Brian Edmiston (College of Education and Human Ecology), and Joy Reilly (Department of Theatre)
  • "Lunch and Five Minutes of Fame by TELR"
  • "Calendar Conversion:  What It Means for Teaching and Learning at Ohio State," Teresa Johnson and Kathryn Plank, FTAD
  • "Teaching On–Line," Valerie Rake, TELR

InterACT Theatre Project for Social Change

The InterACT Theatre Project for Social Change is a collaborative partnership between Ohio State's Department of Theatre and the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT). Each of the following InterACT programs was offered in collaboration with UCAT.

  • I Can't Afford My Texts, Much Less Next Quarter's Tuition
    • This interactive theatre piece will shed some light on the economy's impact on students, teaching associates, faculty, and administrators. The following questions will be explored through a theatrical presentation, followed by a character–driven discussion.

  • Academic Rights and Responsibilities
    • Students and instructors sometimes differ about what is intellectually relevant to the subject matter of a class and what is personal opinion. In this interactive theatre workshop, the InterACT actors presented vignettes that focused on issues of academic rights and responsibilities, to help event attendees observe some of the interactions that may arise when students feel they have been treated unfairly on the basis of political opinions, religious beliefs, or other personally held tenets. In addition, the vignettes offered examples of situations when instructors believe their students are resisting learning about important subjects, because these challenge the students to examine their prior opinions. The vignettes were followed by discussion of these issues as well as strategies to address them.

  • Disability in the Classroom
    • Sketches in this presentation addressed disability policies at Ohio State, as well as general difficulties faced by those with disabilities. After the sketches were performed, the actors remained in character and were involved in an improvisational interactive Q&A with the audience, so that the actors and the audience could continue to dialogue about the issues raised in the sketches. The desired outcome was to raise awareness about Ohio State's disability policies, as well as potential roadblocks that can occur when assisting people with disabilities.

  • Disruptive and Distressed Students
    • Behavior that interferes with other students, faculty, or staff and their access to an appropriate educational or work environment is considered disruptive behavior. In this session, we explored the differences between disruptive and distressed students, how to respond to such students in both instances, and how to determine if the response includes new classroom management approaches or intervention.

  • Gender and Authority in Your Teaching
    • This program was offered in collaboration with The Women's Place at The Ohio State University. Through an interactive theatre piece, the InterACT Theatre Project for Social Change performed scenarios encountered by women instructors in the classroom. The performance addressed some of the issues that develop in classes where the content is specific to women and/or when the course is more likely to be dominated by one gender. The vignettes also explored issues of gender and authority in the classroom that can lead to confrontational or disruptive behaviors.

  • Keys to a Successful Advisor/Advisee Relationship in Graduate School
    • This interactive theatre performance, offered in collaboration with Ohio State's Graduate School, addressed some of the issues faced by advisors and their graduate student advisees. By way of dialogue with the characters, the audience had the opportunity to engage with the following questions:
    • What is a successful relationship between a graduate student and her or his advisor?
    • What are the graduate student's expectations of her or his advisor?
    • Are advisors able to mentor their students with ease, or do students need more than their advisors can give?

  • A Matter of Faith
    • This session focused on some of the issues and problems that students and faculty face which are directly related to their faith and/or religious beliefs.

  • Underrepresented in the Field
    • In this interactive theatre workshop, event attendees observed vignettes that focused on issues that can arise in disciplines where there is a group that traditionally has been significantly underrepresented. Event attendees discussed how issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and religion, among others, can affect the classroom environment both for students and faculty of the underrepresented groups, and for those in the majority––as well as strategies to create inclusive learning environments for all students.

International Faculty and TAs––Workshops on Instruction and Teaching

Writing Across Borders: Helping International Students with Writing
Writing Across the Curriculum will air a documentary entitled Writing Across Borders, a project funded by Oregon State University. The documentary's main purpose is to help faculty, writing assistants, and other professionals work more effectively with international students in U.S. classrooms by addressing some of the most significant challenges international students face, when writing for American colleges and universities. This documentary will be followed by a group discussion led by staff from UCAT and Ohio State's Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing.

Ownership of Language:
International Instructors Responding to Student Writing
Teaching in a language that is not your native language can be challenging, especially if your class is a writing class or a class that has a significant writing component. Students with native English speaking knowledge may challenge the judgment of international instructors when it comes to providing feedback on their papers. In this session, we talked about the challenges involved in teaching writing in your second (or third, or fourth) language, and strategies to meet and overcome those challenges.

Presentation Skills for International TAs
This seven–part workshop was designed to give non–native English speaking TAs a chance to practice spoken English, within a context that would be useful for teaching and academic presentations. We worked on presentation techniques, developed fluency, and practiced giving short presentations in small groups and to the whole group.

Responding to International Student Writing
During this workshop, we reviewed some strategies for responding to international student writing discussed in the Oregon State documentary Writing Across Borders, looked at examples of international student writing, and talked about effective strategies for responding to such writing.

Storytelling for International TAs
As teachers, we often use examples and analogies to illustrate concepts. Telling stories is also a way to help students understand concepts. For international instructors, sharing their stories to help explain concepts in class can also serve as a means for developing language skills. In this session we discussed the benefits of storytelling in class, practiced telling stories to each other, and thought about ways to develop stories for teaching.

The U.S. System of Higher Education
Designed for TAs unfamiliar with U.S. higher education, this session brought forth issues about cross–cultural differences between the U.S. and other countries in structures, values, communication patterns, and teacher–student interaction.

Writing Across Borders: Helping International Students
Ohio State's Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing (CSTW) aired a documentary entitled Writing Across Borders, a project funded by Oregon State University. The documentary's main purpose is to help faculty, writing assistants, and other professionals work more effectively with international students in U.S. classrooms by addressing some of the most significant challenges international students face when writing for U.S. colleges and universities. This documentary was followed by a group discussion led by staff from UCAT and CSTW.

Job Searches in Academic and Non–Academic Environments

The Academic Job Search:
An Overview to the Academic Job Search
Over the course of one academic term, this topic was addressed in a series of separate events about many aspects of the academic job search process. We began with a session on how to start searching for positions, what materials to prepare for the application, and general planning issues. We then offered a session on developing teaching and research statements, followed by a session on teaching portfolios. And finally, we invited Ana Berrios from Ohio State's Career Connection to facilitate a session on academic interview skills. Participants were welcome to attend all sessions or just those that fit their individual needs and schedules.

Putting Together Your Job Search Campaign:
A Three–Part Workshop Series
In three separate events offered during one academic quarter, UCAT collaborated with Ohio State's Career Connection area to offer the following workshops.

  1. The Academic Job Search
    This workshop provided useful information about the job search process in academia. Information was provided about helpful tips when starting your job search, where and how to look for openings, as well as what materials need to be prepared.
  2. Vitae and Cover Letters
    This workshop addressed how to write vitae and cover letters when searching for jobs in academia. Importance was placed on format and content, while highlighting career tips useful when applying for positions with a teaching and/or research emphasis.
  3. The Interview
    This workshop highlighted what to do before, during, and after an interview for positions in academia. Career strategies and interviewing techniques were emphasized, as well as familiarity with expectations for academic interviews. Samples of questions and practice opportunities were provided, along with useful suggestions to enhance confidence skills.

Annual Orientations on Teaching@Ohio State––
for new and returning faculty and TAs

Just before the start of each academic year, typically in the week before the beginning of Autumn Quarter, UCAT collaborates with Ohio State's Office of Academic Affairs and other units to offer an annual orientation on teaching at Ohio State. Although many sessions are designed especially for new faculty and TAs, all returning instructors are welcome to attend. For more information about last year's Orientation on Teaching@Ohio State, click here>>.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Tools for Educational Research:
Creating a Publishable SoTL Manuscript
Are you interested in asking and answering scholarly questions about your teaching? The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is research that informs your teaching through the application of rigorous scholarship in the same manner that you engage in your own field of research. Whether you are just hearing about SoTL for the first time or are already engaged in this form of research, UCAT and the faculty group TOAST (The Ohio State University Association for the Scholarship of Teaching) invited Ohio State course instructors to attend this workshop, which focused on creating a publishable manuscript. There are numerous journals and other outlets for publishing or presenting your SoTL research. During this session we reviewed some of these possibilities and discussed choices that you can make throughout your planning and research process to simplify the publication/presentation process. Participants gained a better understanding of what SoTL journals are looking for in a research manuscript and how one can choose appropriate journals or other venues to showcase a particular project.

Tools for Educational Research:
Design and Methodology for SoTL
Are you interested in asking and answering scholarly questions about your teaching? The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is research that informs your teaching through the application of rigorous scholarship, in the same manner that you engage in your own field of research. Whether you are just hearing about SoTL for the first time or are already involved with this form of research, UCAT and the faculty group TOAST (The Ohio State University Association for the Scholarship of Teaching) offered this workshop, which focused on creation of study design and choosing appropriate methods. Data collection for SoTL projects can be quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of the two, and the possibilities for how to go about collecting data are growing rapidly as we increase the diversity in our teaching pedagogies. During this session we discussed options, as well as pros and cons, for how, where, and when we can gather data to best address our various SoTL research questions.

Tools for Educational Research:
Human Subjects and SoTL
As we develop plans to investigate teaching and learning questions, it is essential to consider how to ensure the safe and ethical treatment of our human subjects. During this session Shari Speer (Linguistics) and Sandra Meadows (Office of Responsible Research) helped us identify ethical issues that arise when studying our own students and research strategies that protect them. In addition, we learned how to successfully describe our research protocols in our applications to the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Student Behaviors and Conduct

Please Note: This is not an inclusive list. See also a description (available above>>) of an event facilitated by the InterACT Theatre Project for Social Change, entitled "Disruptive and Distressed Students".

Teaching (and Supporting) the Millennial Student
Many have probably said things like, "This generation of students is so different from ours," "Students today just aren't like us," or "These students just don't seem to care as much about learning as we did." In this session, we learned about myths and realities surrounding Millenial students. We explored potential generational issues that may get in the way of successful teaching, mentoring, and advising relationships with students. We discussed general characteristics of students born between 1982 and 2002, as well as their expectations of education, teachers, and supervisors and trends that have shaped this group.

When You Have Troubling Students in Your Classroom:
A Panel Discussion
In the wake of the tragic events at Virginia Tech, many faculty, TAs, and college staff across the nation and here at Ohio State have struggled with a host of issues related to student welfare as well as safety and security in the classroom. These issues range from simply showing concern for and reaching out to a student who may be having difficulty, to legal and privacy questions, to dealing with potentially dangerous situations in a classroom. Additionally, media coverage of the event at Virginia Teach has increased the level of apprehension by focusing on traits of the perpetrator that are easily subject to stereotyping and misinformation. Many individuals in the university community expressed the need for a forum where they could address such concerns. In this session, we brought together a panel of experts to discuss policies and resources at Ohio State. Representatives from Ohio State's Multicultural Center, Campus Police, Counseling and Consultation Service, FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), and the Campus Suicide Prevention Program were on hand to share useful information and answer questions.

Writing and Maintaining Teaching Portfolios

Note: UCAT offers a wide range of teaching portfolio–related resources.
Click here>> to learn more.

Course Portfolios:
Documenting the Intellectual Work of Teaching
A course portfolio captures and makes visible the careful, difficult, and intentional scholarly work of planning and teaching a course, and is an invaluable took for documenting and reflecting on the quantity and quality of student learning. This workshop, facilitated by Amy Goodburn, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, was designed to help instructors conceptualize how their teaching––and the student learning that results––can be made visible as they develop their own models for peer review of teaching that seek to document, assess, reflect on, and improve teaching and student learning, through use of a courses portfolio.

Developing a Teaching Portfolio
This session addressed the major issues involved in preparing a teaching portfolio, such as constructing a personal philosophy of teaching statement, describing teaching responsibilities, choosing appropriate artifacts of teaching to include, collecting and synthesizing teaching feedback data, and reflecting on teaching. Participants received an introduction to developing a portfolio and took part in activities designed to help start the reflective process. Participants needing additional assistance in preparing specific parts of a portfolio were encouraged to make an individual appointment with an UCAT consultant.

Course and Curriculum Design Events

Summer Institute on Course Design
Are you preparing to teach a new course, or are you frustrated or bored with one you are already teaching? Do you need to revise a course because of changes in enrollment or curriculum? This 5–day intensive institute is designed to provide you with the tools, the time, and the collegial support to really dig in and design or re–design that course. You will have the chance to work through the early stages of structuring and planning your course, based on the foundation of what you believe is most important for your students to know, learn, and care about. At the end of the week you will have created the basic structure of the course, including plans for a syllabus, assignments, assessment tools, and a course outline. We will provide a variety of resources, introduce you to other faculty and staff on campus who can offer you advice and support based on their personal experiences with a variety of course design processes, and help you build a community network of other faculty around campus who are going through the same design process. This is also a great way to get a head start on the course redesign that will be necessary with our upcoming shift to a semester–based academic calendar.