Faculty are welcome to self-enroll in these CTL courses:
Modules for Teaching Online and Learning Brightspace from the Student Perspective.
Events Calendar
Brightspace Tools & Workflows for Grading & Feedback
Microsoft TeamsThis workshop provides an overview of strategies for grading student work and providing feedback. We’ll demonstrate tools to provide students feedback (inline grading, audio/video, rubrics), different grading workflows, including Quick Eval, and a snapshot of Brightspace’s automated feedback tool – Intelligent Agents. We’ll also show how students can find their grades and feedback. Please note, if you are interested in learning how to set up your Grade Book, please view “Brightspace Grades.”
Brightspace Discussions
Microsoft TeamsThis workshop covers the details of using the Discussion tool in Brightspace. We will demonstrate where to set up both whole class and group discussions, and how link them to your Table of Contents. We’ll look at how to clean up Discussions migrated from Blackboard and cover the differences between Forums and Topics in Brightspace.
The Power of Clear Assignment Instructions
Microsoft TeamsWould you like your students to better understand your assignment instructions? This workshop provides an overview of Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (TILT), a research-supported framework focused on clearly communicating an assignment's purpose, task, & criteria. This framework has been shown to positively affect student learning, motivation, and confidence, especially for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. During this session, we’ll share examples of this framework in practice and start the groundwork to “TILT” two of your own assignments.
Brightspace Assignments
Microsoft TeamsIn this session we’ll focus on:
Creating and previewing Assignment (individual and group)
Settings and connecting Assignments to Grades
Editing and reordering Assignments
Evaluating student submissions (including annotations and rubrics)
Using the Submission Log for tracking student work
Improve Brightspace Course Accessibility with Ally
Microsoft TeamsDuring this workshop, you will learn how to use Ally to evaluate the accessibility of your course materials. You will also learn how to use Ally’s step-by-step instructions to improve the accessibility of course documents. Finally, you will learn about the alternate formats Ally makes available to students for all your course materials.
Book Group : Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching
303 Howe, CTL ClassroomJoin us for a book group to read The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching together. This guide is a hands-on exploration of the empirical research around creating equitable educational outcomes and examples of small and large teaching practices that can occur in classes of all shapes and sizes. If you’re curious about inclusive or equity-minded teaching and wondering where to start, this book is for you! Co-authored by a team with varied disciplinary and teaching experience, it has something for everyone.
The Power of Clear Assignment Instructions
Microsoft TeamsWould you like your students to better understand your assignment instructions? This workshop provides an overview of Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (TILT), a research-supported framework focused on clearly communicating an assignment’s purpose, task, & criteria. This framework has been shown to positively affect student learning, motivation, and confidence, especially for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. During this session, we’ll share examples of this framework in practice and start the groundwork to “TILT” two of your own assignments.
Brightspace: Customize Your Course with Release Conditions and Intelligent Agents
Microsoft TeamsDuring this workshop, we’ll explore how you can use Release Conditions to create a custom learning path for your course materials in Brightspace. We’ll introduce Intelligent Agents, which can automatically send emails to students who meet course criteria you specify. Finally, we’ll share examples of how you can use Release Conditions and Intelligent Agents together to further customize learning paths and enable timely student communication.
Accessible Documents in the Classroom or Lab
Microsoft TeamsCreating course materials with accessibility in mind makes your courses more welcoming and sets students up for success. In this workshop you’ll explore simple steps for creating accessible documents and learn ways you can teach students to make their own work accessible—all with little added labor for you.
Brightspace Tools & Workflows for Grading & Feedback
Microsoft TeamsThis workshop provides an overview of strategies for grading student work and providing feedback. We’ll demonstrate tools to provide students feedback (inline grading, audio/video, rubrics), different grading workflows, including Quick Eval, and a snapshot of Brightspace’s automated feedback tool – Intelligent Agents. We’ll also show how students can find their grades and feedback. Please note, if you are interested in learning how to set up your Grade Book, please view “Brightspace Grades.”
Iclicker Cloud – Exploring Advanced Features
Microsoft TeamsGo beyond polling as we dive into iClicker's more advanced features and learn how you can leverage them to fit your pedagogical practices! This session will go over the following topics:
AI Question Creator - Refresh your classroom questions by discipline, topic, learning taxonomy, and more with this new tool. Questions are customizable and can be downloaded as a PDF or slide deck!
Pre-Created Quizzing & Asynchronous Assignments - Upload your slide decks as a PDF and create pre-set quizzes and assignments ready to go for your synchronous and asynchronous classrooms
iClicker Events - Run a one-time session with no account creation required! - Group Learning Learn how students can work together to answer poll questions and achieve consensus.
Introduction to Neurodiversity in Education
303 Howe, CTL ClassroomThis session introduces neurodiversity as a framework for understanding the varied ways students think, learn, and engage. Participants will examine biological and social perspectives, reflect on their positionality, and explore the prevalence of neurodivergent experiences at UVM, including invisible identities. The session will challenge assumptions about teaching, providing a foundation for inclusive educational practices.
Brightspace Quizzes (Tests)
Microsoft TeamsIn Brightspace, the Quiz tool is used for both quizzes and tests. In this session we’ll show the workflow for creating quizzes, including:
Creating questions and question types
Creating a question library
Building a Quiz
Grading a Quiz
Quiz statistics and logs
Accessible Documents in the Classroom or Lab
Microsoft TeamsCreating course materials with accessibility in mind makes your courses more welcoming and sets students up for success. In this workshop you’ll explore simple steps for creating accessible documents and learn ways you can teach students to make their own work accessible—all with little added labor for you.
“The Inner Work of Racial Justice” Book Group
Microsoft TeamsIn this 5-session book group, we’ll read “The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness” (Rhonda McGee, 2019), exploring mindfulness practices that encourage us “to pay attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way … (in order to) increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered”.
Explore ChatGPT & Copilot With Us!
302 Howe Memorial 302 Howe Memorial Libraryo Join us in-person to explore ChatGPT and Copilot, both chat-based text generation tools. We’ll open with a brief presentation about the interfaces, possible uses, and ethical considerations, but most of your time will be spent using the tools. Please bring your laptop so you can take time to work with ChatGPT and/or Copilot, stopping periodically for the group to check in about what we’re noticing and thinking. Whether you’re considering using these tools in your teaching or curious what your students may be doing with them, this exploration will help you to become more familiar with their possibilities and shortcomings.
Brightspace Course Design with Equity in Mind
Microsoft TeamsThis one-hour workshop explores how faculty can use Brightspace to support an equitable learning environment. The workshop offers course design recommendations and connects Brightspace tools to these four equity-minded principles:
Fostering Student Sense of Belonging
Creating Course Structure
Supporting Student Executive Functioning
Building Relationships
Brightspace Assignments
Microsoft TeamsIn this session we’ll focus on:
Creating and previewing Assignment (individual and group)
Settings and connecting Assignments to Grades
Editing and reordering Assignments
Evaluating student submissions (including annotations and rubrics)
Using the Submission Log for tracking student work
Writing Without Papers: Low- and No-Stakes Writing Activities
Microsoft Teamso Formal papers aren’t the only way to include writing in a course. Low- or no-stakes writing activities can get students practicing critical thinking, give you insights into what students are learning, and help students connect with each other and your course content without having to devote your – and students’ - time to drafting and grading essays.
Brightspace: Customize Your Course with Release Conditions and Intelligent Agents
Microsoft TeamsDuring this workshop, we’ll explore how you can use Release Conditions to create a custom learning path for your course materials in Brightspace. We’ll introduce Intelligent Agents, which can automatically send emails to students who meet course criteria you specify. Finally, we’ll share examples of how you can use Release Conditions and Intelligent Agents together to further customize learning paths and enable timely student communication.