CEMS Teach | College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences | The University of Vermont(title)

Welcome to the CEMS TEaching ACtivity Hub (TEACH)!

TEACH is a platform for CEMS teachers, by CEMS teachers. It was created to support the College's mission to advance educational excellence and to support students through improved learning experiences. 

  • Join the CEMS TEACH Team! Contribute to ongoing discussions, receive important updates and reminders, ask questions, and celebrate the educational legacy of our instructors.
  • Learn about past and upcoming events and other relevant training opportunities.
  • Find useful information on innovative teaching practices, instructional research, and remote instruction.
  • SUBMIT FEEDBACK Share your experience and any ideas that might be of interest to others in the CEMS community.

While TEACH focuses on programs within CEMS, we welcome collaboration and inspiration from others in the wider UVM community and beyond!

CEMS class taught in a laboratory space

About TEACH

TEACH is supported by the CEMS Pedagogical Innovation Committee, whose mission is comprised of three key elements:

  1. Community: Creating opportunities to connect with colleagues across disciplines and exchange ideas on best teaching practices.
  2. Innovation: Developing and disseminating pedagogical resources, tailored to the needs of CEMS faculty and students.
  3. Reflection: Regular assessment of teaching practices and student learning outcomes to better-inform curricular decisions and programs within CEMS.

Upcoming Events and Workshops

Upcoming Faculty Workshops

Past Events & Workshops

AY 2022-2023
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In preparation for the transition to Brightspace, the College ran fewer TEACH events and encouraged faculty to attend the many Brightspace workshops offered by the UVM Center for Teaching and Learning.

Fall 2022

  • Faculty Round Table: Welcoming Physics Discussion - 9/29/22 11:40-12:55 in Innovation E204
  • Teaching with Case Studies, facilitated by Scott Auerbach, UMass Amherst Integrated Concentration in Science (iCons) - 10/27/22 11:40-12:55 in Innovation E204
  • CEMS Brightspace Workshop and Q&A Session - 12/14/22 9:00-11:30 REMOTE

Spring 2023

  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Learning Community Meeting 1 - 2/16/23 9:00-10:00 REMOTE
  • SoTL Learning Community Meeting 2 - 3/30/23 9:00-10:00 REMOTE
  • SoTL Learning Community Meeting 3 - 4/27/23 9:00-10:00 REMOTE
  • iCons-UVM Learning Community Meeting 1 - 2/17/23 11:00-12:00 REMOTE
  • iCons-UVM Learning Community Meeting 2 - 3/17/23 11:00-12:00 REMOTE
  • STEM Teaching Slam and Student Engagement Workshop with Scott Auerbach - 5/16/23 1:30-4:00 in Innovation E105
AY 2021-2022
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Fall 2021

  • Classroom Technology Training with Ian Davis & Bill Garrett - Weds. 26 August 2021, 1:00-2:00 PM in Votey 207
  • CEMS Teaching Support Drop-in Session with Courtney Giles & Priyantha Wijesinge - Weds. 26 August 2021, 2:30-4:30 PM in Innovation E204 / REMOTE
  • TEACH: Cheating Lessons - Faculty Reflections 9 September 2021, 11:40-12:55 in Innovation E204 / REMOTE
  • New Faculty Teaching Discussion, 23 September 2021 REMOTE
  • TEACH: Designing, Managing, and Assessing Student Teams - 11 November 2021, 11:40-12:55 in Innovation E204 / REMOTE

Spring 2022

  • CEMS Assessment Retreat Mon. 10 January and Weds 12 January 2022 REMOTE
  • Panel Discussion with Kroepsch-Maurice Award Recipients 17 March 2022, 11:40-12:55 Votey 303 and REMOTE
  • Faculty Round Table on Teaching Through a Pandemic 7 April 2022, 11:40-12:55 REMOTE
  • CEMS Spring College-wide Retreat 18 May 2022, 9:30AM - 3:30PM Innovation E210

Book Group: Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning by Cathy Bishop-Clark and Beth Dietz-Uhler, facilitated by Holly-Buckland Parker, UVM Center for Teaching and Learning 

  • Meeting 1: 14 March 2022
  • Meeting 2: 6 April 2022
  • Meeting 3: 18 April 2022
  • Meeting 4: 4 May 2022

Pedagogical Innovation Committee Meetings

  • Fall Meeting 1: 16 September 2021
  • Fall Meeting 2: 21 October 2021
  • Fall Meeting 3: 18 November 2021
  • Fall Meeting 4: 9 December 2021
  • Spring Meeting 1: 3 February 2022
  • Spring Meeting 2: 3 March 2022
  • Spring Meeting 3: 31 March 2022
  • Spring Meeting 4: 28 April 2022
AY 2020-2021
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Fall 2020 

  • New Classroom Technology Training with Ian Davis and Bill Garrett, 25 August 2020
  • Classroom Technology: Applications in Different Modalities with Priyantha Wijesinghe and Courtney Giles, 25 August 2020
  • Humanizing Online and Remote Classrooms: Creating Inclusive Spaces with Christa Hagan-Howe, 22 September 2020
  • TEACH Faculty Meet-Up: What Teaching Looks Like for Me This Semester, 15 October 2020
  • TEACH Faculty Meet-Up: Final Exams, Alternative Exams, and Time-saving Tips , 12 November 2020
  • Inclusive Teaching Practices with Holly Buckland-Parker from UVM CTL, 9 December 2020
  • TopHat (Active Learning Platform) Workshops for CEMS Faculty (9/29/20, 12/9/20, 12/11/20)

Spring 2021

  • Gradescope Spring Workshops: Delivering and Grading Assessments Remotely with Gradescope, 14 & 19 January 2021
  • TopHat Workshops for CEMS Faculty, 12 & 15 January 2021
  • Second Annual CEMS Pedagogy Workshop with Mike Prince (Bucknell University) and Priyantha Wijesinghe, 26 & 27 January 2021
  • Community Engaged Learning with Susan Munkres, Director of the Office of Community Engaged Learning at UVM, 23 February 2021
  • Keeping it Real in College: Learning in STEM Through Real-World Problems in the UMass iCons Program, Scott M. Auerbach, Executive Director, UMass iCons Program, 8 March 2021
  • Faculty Meet-Up: Cheating with Chegg, 25 March 2021
  • When Cheating Happens with Jennifer Garrett-Ostermiller from the UVM Center for Teaching & Learning and Deanna Garrett-Ostermiller from the UVM Center for Student Conduct, 1 April 2021
  • Faculty Meet-Up: How to Avoid Cheating with Jennifer Garrett-Ostermiller from the UVM Center for Teaching & Learning and Deanna Garrett-Ostermiller from the UVM Center for Student Conduct, 29 April 2021

Summer 2021 Book Group: Cheating Lessons by James Lang, facilitated by Jennifer Garrett-Ostermiller, UVM Center for Teaching and Learning

Pedagogical Innovation Committee Meetings

  • Fall Meeting 1: 14 September 2020
  • Fall Meeting 2: 12 October 2020
  • Fall Meeting 3: 9 November 2020
  • Fall Meeting 4: 30 November 2020
  • Spring Meeting 1: 13 January 2021
  • Spring Meeting 2: 10 February 2021
  • Spring Meeting 3: 10 March 2021
  • Spring Meeting 4: 14 April 2021
AY 2019-2020
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Fall 2019

  • Best Practices in Video and Screencasting (Howe 330) - Workshop Debrief - 21 November 2019
  • Not All Active Learning is Created Equal with Holly Buckland-Parker and Dianna (Annie) Murray-Close, 11 December 2019

Spring 2020

  • CEMS+Physics Perusall Working Group - 17 January 2020
  • iClicker & iClicker Cloud Workshop with Jennifer Garrett-Ostermiller at the Center for Teaching and Learning (Howe 330) - 27 February 2020
  • Gradescope Workshop with Priyantha Wijesinghe - 4 March 2020 in Votey 207 
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: Screencast-o-matic 101 Workshop, 16 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: MS Teams Workshop 1 - Setting up a class and scheduling, 16 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: MS Teams Workshop 2 - Channels and Apps, 16 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: Assessment using Blackboard & Respondus, 16 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: Gradescope Setup and Assessment, 16 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: Screencast-o-matic 101 Workshop, 17 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: MS Teams Workshop 1 - Setting up a class and scheduling, 17 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: MS Teams Workshop 2 - Channels and Apps, 17 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: Assessment using Blackboard & Respondus, 17 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • Emergency Remote Instruction Prep: Remote Instruction Drop-in Hours, 18 March 2020 in Innovation E204 & REMOTE
  • CANCELED: iCONS Program Seminar with Scott Auerbach, Director of the iCONS Program at UMass Amherst, 20 March 2020 in Innovation E102 
  • CANCELED: Incorporating Service Learning into Your Courses with Susan Munkres, Director of the Community Engaged Learning program at UVM, 26 March 2020 in Perkins 003
  • CANCELED: CEMS Annual Pedagogy Workshop with Mike Prince from Bucknell University - Postponed to January 2021

Pedagogical Innovation Committee Meetings

  • Fall Meeting 1: 16 September 2019
  • Fall Meeting 2: 30 September 2019
  • Fall Meeting 3: 28 October 2019
  • Fall Meeting 4:18 November 2019
  • Spring Meeting 1: 31 January 2020
  • Spring Meeting 2: 21 February 2020
  • Spring Meeting 3: 20 March 2020
  • Spring Meeting 4: 10 April 2020
  • Spring Meeting 5: 1 May 2020

Other Activities

CEMS Course Evaluation Updates Project
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This project began in Fall 2022 as a joint effort between the Pedagogical Innovation Committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. The goals are to:

  • Evaluate the language of the current questions and propose changes that would ensure the information honed is meaningful to instructors throughout CEMS, inclusive of Physics
  • Develop language for a question or questions that focus on classroom climate (student sense of belonging) and diversity in the discipline
  • Explore the functionality of the current survey system used for course evaluations (Blue Surveys) and the possibility of including custom questions to assess course- and program-specific learning objectives
  • Provide recommendations and best practices to faculty on how to improve student response rate

In AY 2022-23 the committees focused on information gathering, including:

  • teaching evaluation best-practices from the literature and other institutions
  • meeting with survey administrators to understand the functional limits of the Blue survey system used at UVM
  • coordinated student focus groups with the Center for Teaching and Learning
  • developed and deployed a faculty survey
  • developed pilot survey questions

The project focus in AY 2023-24 will be to summarize the information gatheredin year 1, deploy the pilot survey questions and gather feedback from faculty on the changes, and present final recommendations to the college.

Spring 2020 CEMS Remote Instruction Student Survey
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This project began in Fall 2022 as a joint effort between the Pedagogical Innovation Committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. The goals are to:

  • Evaluate the language of the current questions and propose changes that would ensure the information honed is meaningful to instructors throughout CEMS, inclusive of Physics
  • Develop language for a question or questions that focus on classroom climate (student sense of belonging) and diversity in the discipline
  • Explore the functionality of the current survey system used for course evaluations (Blue Surveys) and the possibility of including custom questions to assess course- and program-specific learning objectives
  • Provide recommendations and best practices to faculty on how to improve student response rate

In AY 2022-23 the committees focused on information gathering, including:

  • teaching evaluation best-practices from the literature and other institutions
  • meeting with survey administrators to understand the functional limits of the Blue survey system used at UVM
  • coordinated student focus groups with the Center for Teaching and Learning
  • developed and deployed a faculty survey
  • developed pilot survey questions

The project focus in AY 2023-24 will be to summarize the information gatheredin year 1, deploy the pilot survey questions and gather feedback from faculty on the changes, and present final recommendations to the college.

2019-20 Teaching Practices Survey
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The CEMS Teaching Practices Survey was deployed on January 7 and closed January 24, 2020.
The purpose of the survey was to:

  • Establish a baseline for existing teaching practices in CEMS
  • Evaluate faculty interest in innovative and inclusive teaching methods
  • Identify potential barriers to adoption
  • Gather information on the various teaching technologies and platforms currently used in CEMS

Survey sections included Teaching Practices, Inclusive Teaching, Community, Pedagogical Interests, Teaching Technologies, and Demographic Information.

TEACH Resources

Pedagogical Innovation Committee
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Current Members

  • Clayton Cafiero, Computer Science
  • Ken Burkman, Mechanical Engineering
  • François Dorais, Mathematics
  • Richard Single, Statistics
  • David Bernstein, Electrical & Biomedical Engineering
  • Luke Donforth, Physics
  • Priyantha Wijesinghe, Civil & Environmental Engineering, co-Chair
  • Courtney D Giles, Civil & Environmental Engineering, co-Chair

Past Members

  • Radhakrishna Dasari, Computer Science
  • Eva-Marie Cosoroaba, Electrical & Biomedical Engineering
  • Britt Holmen, Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Laura Marthaler, Mathematics
  • Sheila Weaver, Statistics
CEMS Teaching Recommendations
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CEMS Teaching Recommendations

UVM Center for Teaching and Learning upcoming workshops and resources for Fall 2021 teaching.

Syllabi Templates and Examples
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Got Syllabi?

  • Download a copy of the latest UVM Syllabus Template and Course Schedule here
  • A modified CEMS Syllabus Template, including recommended sections and information for CEMS instructors can be found here
  • Example syllabi for CEMS 050 and CE 172 can be found here.
  • If you are teaching an Independent Study Course, please follow these guidelines.

(Updated 8/16/21) 

Teaching and Learning Platforms
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Faculty are encouraged to use only UVM-approved technologies, particularly for teaching, research, and any instance in which student work or data may be transmitted.  Approved platforms, free to students and instructors:

  • Blackboard (primary learning management system)
  • MS Teams (primary video conferencing tool)
  • Yellodig (alternative discussion board tool)
  • Flipgrid (video discussion tool)
  • Perusall (reading annotation tool)
  • Screencast-o-matic (screencasting tool)
  • TopHat (Active learning platform; License available for CEMS instructors only)
  • Gradescope (Grading platform; License available for CEMS instructors only)

Addition information on UVM-approved technologies can be found on the Center for Teaching and Learning website and the ETS Knowledgebase.

(Last Update: 5/11/2022)

Classroom Information
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CEMS Active Learning Classrooms and Teaching Labs

  • Active Learning Classrooms: Innovation E204, Innovation E210. Contact Courtney Giles for scheduling and questions
  • Teaching Labs: Votey 101, Votey 127, Votey 120, Votey 114, Votey 225, Votey 242, Votey 246, Votey 330, Votey 332, Votey 334. Contact your department chair for scheduling and questions.

UVM General Purpose Classrooms

(Last Update: 5/11/2022)

CEMS PODS - Pop-Up Remote Teaching Stations
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Fall 2020 CEMS Teaching Pod locations: Votey 107, Votey 223, Votey 229, Votey 312, Votey 326.

  • Hardware: Logitech Meetup (Instructor camera/microphone), Wacom One (for hand-writing notes in both OneNote and MS Whiteboard), Document Camera (for hand-writing notes on paper and projecting/sharing in MS Teams meeting), docking station for instructor laptop.
  • Compatible devices: Instructor laptop. iPads and some tablets will not dock. 
  • Recommended Software: MS Teams, MS Whiteboard App, OneNote, Screencast-o-matic
  • Please clean/sanitize the stations thoroughly before and after each use with provided cleaning supplies.

To schedule a CEMS Teaching Pod, please contact your department administrator with the following information: Course CRN, Course number, Class meeting pattern

(Last Update: 8/17/20)