Announcing the Spring 2022 Reading Group

 

This semester, we are reading Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It by James Lang.

Keeping students focused can be difficult in a world filled with distractions -- which is why a renowned educator created a scientific solution to one of every teacher's biggest problems.
Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention? Conventional wisdom blames iPhones, insisting that access to technology has ruined students' ability to focus. The logical response is to ban electronics in class. But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn.

Schedule

• Meeting 1: Introduction through Chapter 3
  • Monday, February 28, 3-4 pm: UCE 116
  • Monday, February 28, 7-8 pm: Zoom
  • Thursday, March 3, 3:30-4:30 pm: UCE 116
• Meeting 2: Chapters 4-6
  • Monday, March 21, 3-4 pm: UCE 116
  • Monday, March 21, 7-8 pm: Zoom
  • Thursday, March 24, 3:30-4:30 pm: UCE 116
• Meeting 3: Chapters 7 through Conclusion​​​​​​​
• Monday, April 11, 3-4 pm: UCE 116
• Monday, April 11, 7-8 pm: Zoom
• Thursday, April 14, 3:30-4:30 pm: UCE 116

Please use our registration form (forms.office.com/r/Z3Q4Y4rdGn) to sign up for the CTL spring Reading Group. We will send a calendar invite based on your preferences.

Join Us for the Fall 2021 Online Faculty Symposium!

The CTL invites you to the 2021 Online Faculty Symposium

Creating and Sustaining Community in Online Courses

Join us online or in person

​​​​​​​Thursday, October 7, 4:30-7:30 pm

The USD Online Faculty Symposium is an annual showcase of excellence in online teaching and student engagement that features interactive discussions and sessions on USD’s online and hybrid education programs, policies, and technology.

Keynote

"Educational Webs" for "Learning, Sharing, and Caring"

Living the Community of Care Model Online

Drawing on feminist and personalist ethics of care, Dr. Chris Adamson will discuss how to form a community of care online through pedagogical habits and bell hooks's "rituals of regard."

Breakout Sessions

• LMS RFP Overview, Eric Mosterd
• The Grackle Google Experience, Angela Jackson
• Community Models and Activities, Chris Adamson

Refreshments will be provided.

Please register by October 4!

The CTL is Relaunching the Reading Group!

 

This semester, we are reading Geeky Pedagogy : A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers by Jessamyn Neuhas.

Geeky Pedagogy is a funny, highly readable guide to the process of learning and relearning how to be an effective college teacher. It encourages faculty to embrace their inner nerd, celebrates increasingly diverse geek culture, and explores stereotypes about super-smart introverts. Neuhaus invites readers to join her in an engaging, critically reflective conversation about teaching and learning in higher education as a geek, introvert, or nerd. Written for the wonks and eggheads who want to translate their vast scholarly expertise into authentic student learning, Geeky Pedagogy is packed with practical advice and encouragement for increasing readers' pedagogical knowledge.

Schedule

• Meeting 1: Introduction and Chapter 1
  • Monday, September 27, 7-8 pm: Zoom
  • Tuesday, September 28, 3:30-4:30 pm: UCE 116
  • Wednesday, September 29, 3-4 pm: UCE 116
• Meeting 2: Chapters 2 and 3​​​​​​​
  • ​​​​​​​Monday, October 25, 7-8 pm: Zoom
  • Tuesday, October 26, 3:30-4:30 pm: UCE 116
  • Wednesday, October 27, 3-4 pm: UCE 116​​​​​​​
• Meeting 3: Chapters 4 and 5​​​​​​​
  • ​​​​​​​Monday, November 15, 7-8 pm: Zoom
  • Tuesday, November 16, 3:30-4:30 pm: UCE 116
  • Wednesday, November 17, 3-4 pm: UCE 116

The Course Development and Pedagogy Series Starts Today!

Sequence Description

The Course Development and Pedagogy Series will introduce participants to strategies for effective course design and management, including Understanding by Design, field learning assignment sequences, and giving feedback on assessments. The series will also offer a collegial space to revise and share syllabi and rubrics.

Workshop Descriptions

• Backwards Design Featuring Dan Mourlam: Want to know how to create more engaging instruction that helps students master course goals? Dr. Daniel Mourlam will be facilitating a workshop on Backwards Design, a curriculum design process, where attendees will learn about writing clear learning objectives, assessment strategies, and other effective instructional practices that can help your students be more successful in your course.
• Syllabus Writing Workshop: Learn about designing your syllabus as a motivational and communication tool and practice syllabus revision in a collegial environment.
• Designing Field Learning Assignments Featuring Isaiah Cohen: Isaiah Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology, will guide participants through the process of designing educational field learning assignments with partnering institutions.
• Rubric Writing Workshop: Learn about holistic, analytic, and single-point rubrics in the classroom and practice using and developing rubrics in a collegial environment.
• Writing Effective Feedback Featuring Michelle Gannon: Michelle Gannon, Coordinator of the Writing Center, will present on best practices and strategies for giving students written feedback on assignments.

To find out more or to register for workshops, contact us at ctl@usd.edu!

PDF Extreme Makeover Event

May 10 – 28, 2021

All staff and faculty that are creating PDFs for the USD public website and online courses are invited to attend the upcoming (mostly) asynchronous document remediation event. In coordination with ITS, CTL, Marketing, and the USD Digital Accessibility Committee, digital documents posted on the public website and in online courses must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Digital accessibility guidelines help people with disabilities to effectively access content in digital spaces without having to request an accommodation.

Week 1 - Participants will receive a list of all the PDFs on their webpage or online course(s) via email.

Week 2 - Participants will learn through a virtual session (recorded) on Monday, May 17th at 1 pm CT and asynchronous training how to convert (when possible) inaccessible PDFs and PDF forms to accessible documents.

Week 3 - Participants will learn how to evaluate their remaining PDFs for accessibility. A virtual session will be offered on Monday, May 24th at 11:30 am CT (recorded). Participants will also be given information about third-party vendors that can make their PDFs accessible if they do not have the in-house resources to do so. Participants will share their updated spreadsheet of PDFs, noting which PDFs have been removed, converted, or made accessible. Each person and/or department that actively participates will receive a certificate of recognition from the USD Digital Accessibility Coordinator.

To RSVP for the event, please email the CTL Digital Accessibility Team at udl@usd.edu or call 605-677-5411. Training resources will include a self-paced course in D2L, instructional videos posted to Coyote One Stop, and two synchronous video trainings with virtual Q&A opportunities throughout the week. Support will be offered by the USD Digital Accessibility Coordinator.

Exciting Fellowship Opportunities with the CTL

Mark your calendars for the deadlines to submit for our summer training opportunities!

Course Design Fellowship

May 17 - 21, 2021
8:30 am - 12:30 pm

The CTL is announcing its call for participants for the 2021 Course Design Fellowship. This is a prestigious opportunity for any faculty who wish to design or redesign a course with a significant focus on the use of technology-enhanced pedagogy. Faculty who are admitted to this program join an illustrious group of distinguished alumni. Participants have reported increased student engagement, higher satisfaction with their own teaching, and have seen an increase in IDEA scores. For more information, please click on CDF: Call for Participants.


Submission Deadline is Friday, April 30, 2021

Open Textbook Fellowship

May 31 - June 4, 2021
2:00 - 4:00 pm

In coordination with Academic Affairs, the CTL is pleased to announce a call for up to fifteen (15) faculty to participate in the Open Textbook Fellowship (OTF). OTF participants will learn about open course materials and courseware resources and options, will work with CTL staff to adopt and incorporate open materials/courseware into their courses, participate in assessing student outcomes in those courses, and serve as faculty mentors to encourage further open materials/courseware adoption at USD. For more information, please click on OTF: Call for Participants.


Submission Deadline is Friday, May 7, 2021

The Spring 2021 Public Scholarship Series Starts Today!

 

Want to engage in public outreach but don’t know where to start? Already work with public-facing assignments and research but don’t know how that fits into public scholarship? The Public Scholarship Statement of Achievement series will introduce faculty to public-facing, multimodal assignments in the classroom and best practices for engaging with the the public and promoting community engaged learning.

Spring Workshop Sequence

• Blogging in the Classroom (1/29 at 10:00 AM): The blogging in the classroom workshop introduces participants to crafting and assessing public-facing writing assignments in the classroom.

• Digital Storytelling (2/11 at 1:30 PM)  Featuring Danielle Loftus, the Digital Storytelling workshop will cover basic tools and techniques for assigning multimodal narrative projects in the classroom.

• Podcasting in the Classroom (2/26 at 10:00 AM):  This workshop introduces participants to integrating podcasting activities and assessments in the classroom.

• Community Engaged Learning (3/25 at 1:30 PM): Join Kim Albracht from the Gallagher Center for Experiential Learning & Education Abroad to learn how you can integrate service learning into your classes. Meghann Jarchow, Chair of Sustainability and Environment, and Lindsey Jorgensen, Associate Professor of Communication Disorders, will share their successful uses of service learning in their classes.

• Organizing Virtual Conferences (3/31 at 10:00 AM): This workshop introduces participants to different remote conferencing models and discusses best practices.

• Public Scholarship Panel (Schedule coming soon): The Public Scholarship series closes with a panel on engaging the public as a researcher. In this panel, Rachel Kolb, Junior Fellow at Harvard University, and Joe Kantenbacher, Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Environment, will discuss their work with public-facing research and promoting the public good.

To register for a workshop, contact the CTL at ctl@usd.edu.

Blackboard Ally Launch

We are excited to announce the addition of a new tool to promote accessibility and inclusion at the University of South Dakota! Blackboard Ally, a dedicated accessibility tool that provides a dashboard that will help instructors engage in universal design for their course documents, is live and ready to support your teaching this term.

Teaching at USD this term and want more support on improving the accessibility of your course? Access our Blackboard Ally training in our Digital Accessibility Training (D2L Course)!

Blackboard Ally Resources

• Introducing Ally for Brightspace
• Ally D2L Brightspace Explainer
• ​​​​​​​Blackboard Ally - Impact on Students

Disability Studies Resources

Learn more about accessibility and disability studies:

• Universal Design for Learning Guidelines: This tool offers suggestions for facilitating flexible learning environments.
• Learning Something New - Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's Convocation Address: A leading disability justice theorist discusses the impact policies have had on our accessible construction of the world.
• Can You Read My Lips?: Rachel Kolb, an up-and-coming disability studies scholar, co-wrote this short film reflection based on the essay "Seeing at the Speed of Sound."
• Creating a More Inclusive Environment for Students with Disabilities: This recent article from Disability Studies Quarterly highlights twelve themes about student campus-life experiences.

Book Review: Helping College Students Find Purpose

Nash, Robert & Michele Murray.  2010.  Helping College Students Find Purpose.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.  320 pages.

This book examines the quarterlife generation—the transition between late teens into one’s early thirties—and how the seek meaning and purpose.  The book seeks to develop a rationale for faculty and administrators to see themselves as mentors of meaning-making, and to provide the tools for this to be a successful endeavor, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Book Review: Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

Collins, Allan & Richard Halverson.  2009.  Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology:  The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America.  Columbia, NY:  Teachers College Press.  176 pages.

“We are not going to fix education by fixing the schools.  They have served us very well in the past, but they are a 19^th-century invention trying to cope with a 21^st-century society” (p. 142).  This is the conclusion that these authors make.  This text, focused more on K-12 than post-secondary education, lays out some very interesting arguments for the implementation of life-long, multi-generational learning experiences that are the antithesis of our current public school system.

I found many interesting ideas in this book, which in many ways mirrors my own thoughts about our current educational system.

Book review: Davis & Arend (2013) Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning

Davis, James R. & Bridget Arend.  2013.  Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning:  A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and enjoyable College Teaching.  Sterling, VA:  Stylus.  300 pages.

Davis and Arend provide an introduction to seven ways, or theories, of learning.  These include behavioral learning, cognitive learning, learning through inquiry, learning with mental models, learning through groups and teams, learning through virtual realities, and experiential learning.  Within their discussion they suggest learning goals and activities that facilitate each type of learning.

I found the seven types of learning to be interesting, and their descriptions of various activities that enhance each type of learning were useful.  It is an excellent introduction to theories of learning for faculty who have not had any formal training in this area.

Book Review: Doyle & Zakrajsek's _The New Science of Learning_

Doyle, Terry & Zakrajsek, Todd.  (2013).  The New Science of Learning: How to Learn in Harmony With Your Brain.  Sterling, VA:  Stylus.  126 pages.

Advances in brain science have opened up our understanding of how the brain makes and retains memories—i.e., learning.  This book, written for students, examines how the brain processes new information, what makes us pay attention, and how important sleep and exercise are for memory.  An excellent book for any student--or faculty member, for that matter!