Teaching Workshops and Communities

Motivational and transparent syllabi can both increase student motivation in your course and decrease the number of questions you’re asked throughout the semester. This workshop builds upon our online syllabus templates and provides suggested activities to get students to read your syllabus. Bring syllabi or a draft syllabus with you, in whatever stage it is in, to share and discuss with others during hands-on activities. 

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered twice annually during CFE’s Teaching Preparedness Weeks.

Curriculum Plan: Core Teaching Skills 102

Takeaways:

• · Review and begin revising your course description.
• · Review and begin revising the format of your course schedule.
• · Identify language you could modify quickly (such as use of personal pronouns).
• · Choose an activity to improve student engagement with the syllabus.

A key component to student success is a sense of belonging in the classroom and at the university. This workshop provides participants with strategies to build rapport with students so that they feel more connected with you and their peers. Participants are encouraged to bring their own ideas, while also learning about Student Background and Experience surveys, icebreakers, establishing community expectations, and motivational language.

Duration: 1.5 hours

Frequency: This workshop is offered twice annually during CFE’s Teaching Preparedness Weeks. A workshop on this topic for those teaching online, asynchronous courses is also available.

Curriculum Plan: Core Teaching Skills 103

Takeaways:

• · Draft your “About Me.”
• · Identify useful survey questions for you to get to know the students in your course.
• · Choose an icebreaker.
• · Rewrite Office Hour language to use Student Hours.

You can teach the fundamental skills of writing in your discipline without detracting from content instruction or making more grading work. In this workshop, Robert Scafe will introduce you to a “5-minute writing workshop” model developed by the nationally recognized Writing Enriched Curriculum program at the University of Minnesota. Participants will learn how to create quick, low-stakes writing prompts that assist students in achieving course outcomes. By the end of this workshop, you will have developed an engaging low-stakes writing prompt.

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered twice annually: once during CFE’s Teaching Preparedness Week (August) and once in February. Units may also request this workshop, as well as other consultations related to the Writing Enriched Curriculum program, by emailing Dr. Robert Scafe at rscafe@ou.edu.

Curriculum Plan: Core Teaching Skills 104

Takeaways:

• · Identify a concrete writing skill or outcome that you want to develop in your class or discipline.
• · Develop an effective 5-minute writing prompt focused on a specific, disciplinary writing outcome.

If you want to assign writing but are wary of the grading work, this workshop is for you. We will learn how to make feedback more efficient and meaningful by clarifying expectations, distinguishing commenting from grading, and training student writers (and their peers) to evaluate their own work. You will learn to give specific, productive feedback instead of wasting time proofreading and micro-grading student work. And you will learn to use Canvas tools such as SpeedGrader, rubric templates, and peer review to create a feedback environment appropriate to your teaching style.

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered twice annually: once in October and again in March.

Curriculum Plan: Core Teaching Skills 105

Takeaways:

• · Determine the type of rubric that you would like to use for one of your assessments.
• · Practice providing positive feedback that will be transferable to the type of assignments you provide your students.

Many discussion-based classrooms quickly devolve into a dynamic of instructor-student Q and A, with a small percentage of students accounting for most of the participation. It doesn’t have to be this way. Drawing on Stephen Brookfield’s Discussion as a Way of Teaching, this workshop will show you how to coach student-to-student interactions, set expectations for participation from day one, and anticipate “flare ups” with proactive discussion guidelines. We will also learn how to leverage the discussion dynamic to model academic skills such as citation, collaboration, and problem solving.

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered twice annually during CFE’s Teaching Preparedness Weeks.

Curriculum Plan: Active Learning 202

Takeaways:

In this workshop, we practice several group discussion approaches, such as:

• Circle of voices
• Piggybacking
• Hatful of Quotes

There are effective and dynamic ways to lecture that will keep your students engaged throughout your course. This panel discussion brings together faculty who teach large enrollment courses to discuss tools and strategies that can be utilized across all disciplines and in any class size. You are also encouraged to bring your strategies to share with other session participants. 

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This panel occurs annually in March. A recording of a past panel may be requested, but this session will not be able to be recreated for individual units upon request.

Curriculum Plan: Active Learning 320

Want to assign group work because it’s a necessary skill for students to learn, but remember hating group work yourself? Or not sure how to assess group work fairly, or set students up for success? Group performance is often translated into individual grades, which raises issues of fairness, equity, and motivation. This workshop will discuss multiple ways to assess group work effectively and how to help students establish group guidelines.  

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered annually in February.

Curriculum Plan: Active Learning 321

Takeaways:

• Create a proactive strategy to support the group in the initial stages
• Brainstorm solutions to common group struggles
• Develop a group and individual assessment

Through a discussion of project-based and problem-based assignments, you’ll be invited to consider using one of these frameworks to engage and assess student learning, intentionally connecting students with how your course objectives can help them to develop transferrable skills and applied knowledge. These frameworks promote higher-order thinking and assess not just what students have learned, but how they can transfer their knowledge to other scenarios. 

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered annually in November.

Curriculum Plan: Active Learning 333.

Takeaways:

• Create a draft of a problem
• Devise a course-specific approach to Project- or Problem-Based Learning

How do we get students to “think with” generative AI rather than rely on generative AI think for them? How does the use of generative AI align with your own teaching philosophy? In this workshop, you’ll articulate how you would like to address generative AI in assignments. We’ll then collaboratively work together to discuss what assignment types may limit the misuse of generative AI and which can incorporate generative AI to aid a student in their own learning. Throughout, we’ll situate student motivation as an important consideration in any assignment created. Be prepared to be asked to login to either ChatGPT, ClaudeAI, or Microsoft CoPilot as part of our exploration.

Duration: 1.5 hours

Frequency: This workshop is offered in August during teaching preparedness week and as needed pending new developments in generative AI.

Curriculum Plan: Feedback and Assessment 209

Reinvigorate your assessment strategies by offering students choices in how they demonstrate what they have learned. This approach aligns with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to inform how students can demonstrate their learning. We’ll work together to share various assessment strategies and provide tips about using videos, podcasts, role plays, self-assessment, and/or visual displays such as concept maps or infographics.

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This panel occurs annually in September. A recording of a past panel may be requested, but this session will not be able to be recreated for individual units upon request.

Curriculum Plan: Feedback & Assessment 210

Does it ever feel like students don’t know what you’re asking for on an assignment? Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) is a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practice which emphasizes the importance of transparency when designing assignments in order to mitigate barriers to success and increase student motivation. This workshop will engage faculty in redesigning a course assignment using the TILT framework.

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop occurs annually in September.

Curriculum Plan: Feedback & Assessment 211

Takeaways:

• Map skills and steps needed to complete the assignment
• TILT your assignment using any transparency approach

Classroom observations allow you to document your teaching successes and hone your skills. We’ll discuss identifying shared goals and opportunities for growth, understanding the diversity of effective teaching practices, effective feedback through transparent communication, and how to develop an action plan. If you are interested in observing someone’s class, or having your course observed, this is the workshop for you!

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: This workshop is offered annually in February.

Curriculum Plan: Feedback & Assessment 301

Inspired by trauma informed teaching principles (Dr. Janice Carello), this workshop provides examples of how those principles can be actualized within your course. We’ll discuss policies, email responses, resources, and strategies within the classroom to support students so they can engage more in your course. While applicable to all courses, we’ll provide additional tools for sensitive subjects, while supporting professional development. At the end of this session, faculty will choose 1-2 techniques to begin using in their classrooms and with their students.

Duration: 1.5 hours

Frequency: This workshop is offered annually in January, with additional offerings as needed.

Curriculum Plan: Inclusive Teaching 305

Takeaways:

After reviewing the techniques proposed (establishing community guidelines, a routine in the classroom, and/or flexible course policies, and using a survey to communicate about course expectations regarding sensitive topics), modify and apply one or two techniques for your classroom.

Conflict can occur within a classroom during disagreements and if students don’t feel a sense of belonging. Conflict can be scary and uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to be! In this workshop, we’ll discuss preemptive strategies and facilitation approaches to engage students in productive conversations on difficult topics. You’ll leave this session with concrete resources that can help you build community among your students and yourself. You’ll also have an opportunity to role play strategies in managing difficult conversations so that you’ll feel more confident in classroom facilitation.

Duration: 1.5 hours

Frequency: This workshop is offered annually in October, with additional offerings as needed.

Curriculum Plan: Inclusive Teaching 306

Takeaways:

• Incorporate guidance on conflict in your established community guidelines
• Role play different responses to conflict in the classroom.

All students deserve an equal opportunity to learn and to succeed. Using UDL principles as a framework, this workshop will discuss practical course design and teaching strategies to remove barriers to student learning. Through interactive group discussions, this workshop will support faculty in applying UDL principals to their courses. We will brainstorm ways to implement the principals through diversifying course content, engagement, representation, and action and expression for our students. Participants will take away at least 1-2 practical strategies to implement right away without revamping the whole curriculum. 

Duration: 1.5. hours

Frequency: This workshop is offered annually in October.

Curriculum Plan: Inclusive Teaching 308

Takeaways:

We’ll work in small groups to Identify opportunities to intentionally incorporate the UDL principles in a class of your choice:

• Multiple Means of Engagement
• Multiple Means of Representation
• Multiple Means of Action & Expression