WID is hosting several professional development groups for instructors during the Spring 2024 semester.

Each will meet 3-5x. If you are interested in joining one or more of them, please contact us!

Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education (Book Group)

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David Clark and Robert Tablert’s Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education is a practical guide to evaluating and adjusting grading practices to focus on supporting learning, engagement, and authentic connections. Grading for Growth introduces strategies for encouraging students to learn from mistakes and failure, emphasizing learning and growth.  The book ends with a workbook participants can use to plan future changes (which could be course-wide or assignment-specific). Whether you’re wondering whether there’s something different you can do to make grading more productive, or an experienced user of alternative grading practices looking to freshen your approach, there’s something for you in this book.

Meets on the following Tuesdays, 3-4 pm: 4/2, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30. Email us to join!

Let’s Talk About Generative AI: A Faculty Learning Community

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Generative AI (such as ChatGPT) is one of the hottest topics in education today.  This learning community will meet three or four times during the semester to learn about what genAI is and how it might affect our classrooms and our disciplinary work.  We’ll start off by reading Sid Dobrin’s Talking About Generative AI, a short and productive pamphlet which explores how teaching and higher ed policies can or should change in response to genAI’s evolution.  Our next meetings will focus on topics the group selects for follow-up and discussion.  This group is a chance to shape your learning and engage with colleagues.

Meets on the following Wednesdays, 2-3 pm: 2/7, 3/6, 4/3, 4/24. Email us to join!

Communicating Assignments Clearly: Rewriting Assignments for Student Understanding

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Join colleagues to review and revise your existing assignments using TILT's powerful research-supported framework. The award-winning TILT project (new tab) demonstrates that clearly communicating an assignment's purpose, task, & criteria positively affects student learning, motivation and confidence, especially for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color.  Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Select Fridays, 11 am - 12 pm.

Alternative Grading & Ungrading: New Approaches to Evaluating Student Work

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The Alternative Grading Group will return in the fall of 2024!

Additional Groups Offered by our Friends at the Center for Teaching and Learning

The Center for Teaching and Learning is offering an additional group: 

Faculty Research Group: Teaching and Learning - Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Develop your teaching related research ideas with colleagues from across campus. We will meet as a group to share ideas, progress and work together to support the research process in community.

This group will meet 3-5 x over the semester; days and times to be determined via survey. Share your availability today!

Designing for Learning: Reducing Barriers to Student Success

January 8th, 9 am - 2 pm, with monthly meetings to follow.

Designing for Learning (D4L) helps faculty reduce barriers to student success and create better opportunities for students to learn. It builds on research into how people learn, and practices for course design that engage students and focus on key course goals. This program connects participants with colleagues, explores teaching resources, and fosters creative and compassionate teaching. Starting with a pre-semester kick-off and continuing with monthly meetings during the spring semester, participating faculty will focus on (re)designing a specific course. (We’ll schedule monthly, hour-long follow up meetings around participants’ schedules.) Registration for this event is closed.

Events Calendar

Meeting Schedules

Help us to determine the best days/times for these groups by completing our instructor groups survey!

  • Book Group: Mondays: TBD via survey
  • Alternative Grading:TBD via survey
  • Better Assignment Communication: Transparency in Action through TILT: TBD via survey
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CTL): TBD via survey

We also host Faculty Writing Groups!

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