Each semester, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning hosts multiple semester-long interdisciplinary cohorts designed to help innovate or refine teaching techniques and learning activities. Cohorts typically meet four to six times per semester. Some cohorts may meet in a face-to-face environment, while others may meet virtually. In all cases, the participants serve as a learning community for one another.
Spring 2023 Programs
Faculty Teaching Squares
Teaching Squares projects are opportunities to learn by observing your peer faculty members on all aspects of teaching. They are intended to promote dialogue and self-reflection and are entirely non-evaluative.
See further details on our Teaching Squares page.
Applications are accepted before the beginning of the semester.
Faculty Learning Community: Gulf Scholars
UCF faculty from across the university (i.e., from every unit on campus) are invited to join FCTL’s newest semester-long Learning Community on the topic of Team Based Learning. This opportunity is funded by the National Academies of Science’s Gulf Research Program through a grant led by Drs. Kristy Lewis (Biology, Sustainable Coastal Systems Cluster) and Jennifer Sandoval (Communication, Sustainable Coastal Systems Cluster). Primarily facilitated by our curriculum development lead and TBL expert, Andrea Berry from UCF College of Medicine, this learning community will focus on developing faculty skills to create robust Team-Based Learning (TBL) modules for use in a new interdisciplinary course called “The Gulf Uncovered.” While the course is place-based and centered on The Gulf of Mexico, the modules can be from any discipline and expertise as long as it provides critical insight into understanding (and/or addressing) the complicated, large-scale, socio-environmental problems that occur within the Gulf of Mexico coastal region. In other words, faculty can develop modules in their area of expertise, but any case studies or examples used, should be centered on the Gulf of Mexico coastal region. Faculty will provide their completed modules to a repository for use in the Gulf Uncovered course at the end of the Learning Community, but will also be encouraged to use those modules in their own teaching as well.
The modules developed will cover two weeks of the Gulf Uncovered course, for a total of four class periods, that means faculty will need to develop content for four class periods. We will provide all the necessary background information about TBL and how to implement it during each in-person meeting of the Learning Community.
For more context, here are some examples of module topics that align with the place-based context of the curricula development:
- Impacts of sea level rise on vulnerable coastal communities on the Gulf Coast
- Using nature-based engineering solutions to mitigate storm surge on the Gulf Coast
- Marine ecology of the Gulf of Mexico
- Environmental writing from the Gulf Coast
- Seminole tribe of Florida’s climate adaptation planning process
- The economics of red tide on Florida’s Gulf Coast
- Importance of emergency management plans in the Gulf of Mexico
- Media representations of communities and cultures along Florida’s Gulf Coast
- The history and influence of natural disasters on music in the Gulf Coast
While these are just a few examples, we encourage faculty to be creative and again, we encourage ANY discipline to join this community–this course is truly interdisciplinary in nature.
The learning community will meet six times from 12:00 – 1:30 pm from January 26th to April 6th, engaging in TBL practices as both learners and instructors. There will also be reserved times in the Faculty Multimedia Center for the Learning Community cohort to schedule time to create any lectures or videos to support their module. The weekly topics are listed below.
Meeting 1, Jan. 26: Foundations of TBL
Meeting 2, Feb. 9: Establishing Learning Objectives and Flipping the Classroom
Meeting 3: Feb. 23: Individual Readiness Assurance Test (IRAT) and Team Readiness Assurance Test (TRAT) Development and Best Practices.
Meeting 4: March 9. Application Activity Development
Meeting 5: March 23: Classroom Management of TBL
Meeting 6: April 6: TBL Facilitation
OPTIONAL TIMES FOR MEDIA RECORDING
Meeting 7: April 20: Record mini-lectures or videos in support of your module using the Faculty Multimedia Center
Meeting 8: May 4: Record mini-lectures or videos in support of your module using the Faculty Multimedia Center
The culmination of the Learning Community will be at the Faculty Summer Conference on May 8 – 11. While the Summer Conference portion of the Learning Community is 100% optional, the cohort will be encouraged to attend to finalize the modules, present our work, and celebrate with at the end of the Summer Conference with a cohort happy hour.
Faculty will receive $1000 from the GSP if they complete the Spring 2023 Learning Community and submit a module for The Gulf Uncovered course by May 11, 2023. For additional information about the Gulf Scholars program read this press release from UCF Today.
For more information or if you have any questions about this opportunity, please email GulfScholars@ucf.edu.
Register here: https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2ggFFL9njJ0cEOW
Faculty Writing Club
Join with your fellow faculty Friday mornings from 10:00 a.m.–noon in a writing club to network, be productive, and provide gentle accountability. You can join online or in-person at the Faculty Center. If coming in person, feel free to bring your own device, but we’ll also have laptops you can borrow.
We will spend the first 5 minutes sharing our goals for the time block, and then spend the rest of the time working on our individual projects. During the last 5 minutes, we will share what we’ve accomplished and what we plan to do next time. Everyone is welcome!
For questions, to share ideas, or to be added to the Microsoft Team for virtual writing, please contact aimee@ucf.edu.
Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College
Book Club
Wednesdays, 1:00–2:00 p.m., beginning 8/31 and ending 11/9, in CB1-207. Participants can join remotely if needed.
This fall we will reprise Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College by Mark C. Carnes (2014). Carnes offers a provocative critique of higher education and an impassioned appeal for innovation in teaching. This study is based on interviews with students and faculty who participated in the pedagogical innovation “Reacting to the Past,” which began at Barnard College https://reacting.barnard.edu/. The focus of this book is student disengagement and how role-immersion pedagogy can channel students’ untapped energies for transformative learning experiences. We will also share ideas and resources for adopting or creating RTTP games.
The first 10 faculty who register will receive a free book. Others may purchase the book from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Fire-Role-Immersion-Transform-College-ebook/dp/B00N79RDG0/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=minds+on+fire&qid=1605725544&sr=8-3. The ebook is only $10.00.
Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning
Book Club
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 12:00–1:00 p.m. through Zoom, beginning 1/25 and ending 4/27.
“Faculty and instructors are continually facing questions such as how do I effectively teach an increasingly diverse student population, how do I engage and support my students as class sizes increase, how do I use multi-media and other resources to build a high quality course, and a host of other questions” (see Tony Bates).
If the above is true for you, read below.
Whether you teach fully online, mixed-mode, in person or some variation of these modalities, all of us teach in a digital age. It is time we accept the simple truth that there is no going back to solely pencil and paper or chalkboard learning. Even variations of these now exist in the digital world. Join us this fall semester as we take a deep dive into Teaching in a Digital Age by Tony Bates. As Bates notes, this book is about “…helping your students to develop the knowledge and skills they will need: not so much digital skills, but the thinking and knowledge that will bring them success in a digital age.” (Bates, 1). This book is Open Access and can be found at https://www.tonybates.ca/teaching-in-a-digital-age/.
Register at https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71g5WIw1Yd6ofD8
Past Programs
Summer 2022
Facilitated by Patty Farless
Are you still struggling with the disruptions, distractions and continued distance exacerbated by the pandemic? Anxious about how you can prepare for anything that might derail your future courses? Concerned that student learning has plummeted? Join us this summer semester as we take a deep dive into Resilient Pedagogy: Practical Teaching Strategies to Overcome Distance, Disruption, and Distraction. This book provides “the first comprehensive collection on resilient pedagogy framed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movements that have swept the globe” (Thurston, et al 8). The reflections and strategies from this book will provide ideas about how to reframe our courses and promote resilient teaching and learning for faculty and students. This book is Open Access and can be found at https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/resiped/1/.
Spring 2022
The Academic Community Engagement (ACE) faculty learning community is a collaborative program developed by UCF Experiential Learning and the UCF Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. The purpose of the ACE faculty learning community is to further encourage the development and facilitation of community engagement across and beyond campus. Through the ACE program, faculty members will learn:
- What community engagement and service-learning are
- How to develop community engagement and service-learning partnerships
- How to maintain community engagement and service-learning partnerships
- How to facilitate community engagement and service-learning experiences
- How to assess community engagement and service-learning experiences
- How to develop a syllabus that is focused on community engagement and/or service-learning
- How to develop activities that are focused on community engagement and/or service-learning
- How to promote community engagement and/or service-learning across campus
- How to promote community engagement and/or service-learning beyond campus
- How to submit their work to publications that focus on community engagement and/or service-learning
Most of the program will be facilitated via asynchronous Webcourse-based modules and activities; however, we will host a few synchronous sessions via Zoom on the following dates:
- Thursday, February 3, 1:30-2:45 p.m.
- Thursday, March 24, 1:30-2:45 p.m.
- Thursday, April 14, 1:30-2:45 p.m.
The ACE faculty learning community will be facilitated by Haley Winston (Experiential Learning) and Christine Hanlon (Faculty Fellow for the FCTL). The first ten faculty members who actively participate in the program will receive a FREE copy of Campus Compact’s book, “The Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education: A Competency Model for an Emerging Field.”
Facilitated by Christine Hanlon
Join us for a “Thrive Online” Book Club! In this series, we’ll use Shannon Rigg’s 2019 book, Thrive Online: A New Approach to Building Expertise and Confidence as an Online Educator, to help us become more effective online educators. We’ll focus on one part of the book (about 70–80 pages) for each session, with guest speakers to jumpstart our discussions. We have books to give away, so register early to be eligible for the book raffle.
Date | Reading | Guest Speaker |
Tuesday, Jan. 25 | Part One: Changing the Conversation (read through page 83) | Jessica Waesche (Psychology) |
Tuesday, Feb. 1 | Part Two: Thriving as an Online Educator | Danielle Eadens (Interdisciplinary Studies) |
Tuesday, Feb. 8 | Part Three: Hitting your Stride | Christine Hanlon (Communication) |
Tuesday, Feb. 15 | Part Four: Leading the Way | Roslyn Miller (Center for Distributed Learning) |
Tuesday, Feb. 22 | None | Kelvin Thompson (Center for Distributed Learning) & Shannon Riggs (author of Thrive Online) |
All Book Club meetings will be held synchronously via Zoom. Feel free to come to one (or ALL) of the Book Club meetings. The Zoom link will be sent every Monday to everyone who registers via this form. Note that you only need to register one time, and the link will be sent to you for each of the meetings. Winners of the book raffle will be notified via e-mail and will need to pick up the books at the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (we will not be able to mail the books).
Facilitated by Patty Farless
Are you in search of ways to promote deeper student learning? Are you bored with your own classes? Do students classify your assignments as busy work? If any or all of these challenges speak to your own experiences, join this engaging book group as we delve into Christine Harrington’s Keeping Us Engaged: Student Perspectives. In this book, Harrington taps into what works for students by going directly to them. Harrington’s work modernizes our understanding of the needs and goals of a racially and economically more diverse student population. In doing so, the question of what constitutes a typical classroom is quickly discarded as integrative approaches are explored that prompt deeper, critical learning in students. This book is a go-to reference for an array of active-learning strategies designed to promote student engagement. Let’s tackle these challenges together through conversations with colleagues about the book, our courses and future goals.
Fall 2021
Team-Based Learning (TBL) is focused on in-class collaborative activities that apply, elaborate, and synthesize the individual learning that students perform outside of class. It promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. TBL requires students to be accountable for pre-learning through readiness-assurance tests and for team development through frequent self- and peer feedback. TBL can be utilized in any size class.
Participants in this project will learn about the evidence that supports TBL strategies, experience various TBL activities, and design TBL modules for their classes.
The purpose of this cohort is to enable faculty to produce an article manuscript for submission to an academic journal. It is designed to help participants to make time for research and writing in the midst of their other various professional and personal obligations. It is also designed to help participants make and meet weekly goals. Faculty writers will work over twelve weeks during the spring term to revise an existing piece of writing (conference paper, chapter, unpublished draft, etc.), to identify publishing venues, and to submit the finished product for publication.
People with SoTL projects are especially encouraged to apply.
The workshops will be held on September 9, September 23, October 7, October 21, November 4, and November 18 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Participants should be prepared to attend all six meetings via Zoom, to have regular online “check ins” with the workshop group, and, most importantly, to talk about their work with colleagues. Each participant will receive a copy of the Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks book prior to the beginning of the workshop.
Navigating in a new culture can be challenging, and even more challenging when you are confronted with varying approaches to teaching and learning. This cohort is designed for scholars on J-1 visas, or new international faculty members. Participants will learn about the culture of higher education in the United States, investigate effective teaching practices, such as engagement strategies, active learning, as well as available resources for faculty at UCF. Participants gain an understanding of the nuances of faculty life, from course design to assessment to delivery, all while traversing a new culture. An addition for this semester is that we’ll address the application process for securing a position in higher education in the United States.
Facilitated by Patty Farless
Are you in search of ways to promote deeper student learning? Are you bored with your own classes? Do students classify your assignments as busy work? If any or all of these challenges speak to your own experiences, join this engaging book group as we delve into Ken Bain’s Super Courses: The Future of Teaching and Learning. In this book, Ken Bain, renowned educator, historian, and author of What the Best College Teachers Do and What the Best College Students Do, looks at the best evidenced-based practices in the humanities and sciences in the United States and internationally. In doing so, the question of what constitutes a typical classroom is quickly discarded as integrative approaches are explored that prompt deeper, critical learning in students.
Facilitated by Christine Hanlon
Join us for a Zoomtastic Book Club! In this series, we’ll use Jonathan Brennan’s (2020) book, Engaging Learners Through Zoom: Strategies for Virtual Teaching Across Disciplines, to help us become Zoomtastic facilitators. We’ll focus on two chapters for each session, with Zoomtastic guest speakers to teach us advanced features and tricks in Zoom. We have 10 books to give away, so register before noon EDT on Tuesday, August 17th, to be eligible for the book raffle.
| Date | Chapters | Topics |
| 9/7 | 1 & 2 | Polls & Chat (featuring a demonstration of Poll Everywhere with Danielle Eadens) |
| 9/14 | 3 & 4 | Breakout rooms & Main session room (featuring a demonstration of breakout rooms with Will Dorner) |
| 9/21 | 5 & 6 | Zoom Fatigue, Whiteboards, & Annotations (featuring a demonstration of whiteboards and annotations with Julie Donnelly) |
| 9/28 | 7 & 8 | Virtual Backgrounds & External apps (demonstration TBA) |
All Zoomtastic Book Club meetings will be held synchronously via Zoom. Feel free to come to one (or ALL) of the Zoomtastic Book Club meetings. The Zoom link will be sent every Monday to everyone who registers.
Note that you only need to register one time, and the link will be sent to you for each of the meetings. Winners of the book raffle will be notified via e-mail and will need to pick up the books at the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (we will not be able to mail the books).
Spring 2021
In an education environment overrun with pandemic pedagogy, how can instructors pause and reflect on their teaching, their students, and their classes? Our current circumstance necessitates teaching ‘survival’, but we are called to something more, something deeper. As teachers, we have a great responsibility to approach our classrooms with purpose and intentionality. Yet, we struggle to find the time, and frankly the energy, to engage in deep philosophical reflection about our role as an instructor and student learning. To address these concerns, the Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning is hosting a spring series for up to ten faculty members to adopt or create contemplative activities designed to deepen our own awareness, concentration, and insight. Participants will actively engage in practices that can be taken back to the classroom. In addition to experiencing the practices, we will discuss the literature on best practices and effective implementations.
This CIP will address contemplative pedagogy and will provide participants with strategies to enhance student engagement. Specifically, participants will be part of a community who values a deep learning and reflective approach. During our time together, we will discuss instruction during a crisis and make sense of our current situation. In addition, we will reflect on the role of the instructor in meeting the current needs of our students. Finally, we will use contemplative pedagogy as an instructional framework and will design activities and applications that enhance deep learning in the classroom.
Ever wonder “what’s the buzz” about Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)? Have you ever pondered the ABCs of IRB? Would you be interested in an opportunity to be a co-author on a SoTL research project? If these are the questions that keep you awake at night, then this Course Innovation Project is for you! Members of this cohort will work together on a joint SoTL project from start to finish. In the process, faculty members will learn how to create research questions, complete an IRB, explore journals committed to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as well as how to discuss this essential research with colleagues and contextualize it for award applications.
Sponsored by the Center for Distributed Learning and the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning
The pivot to remote teaching during the COVID crisis has revealed a shortage of field-tested, effective teaching practices and a corresponding gap in faculty training structures for effective synchronous online teaching and learning. Of course, we anticipate an end to the current crisis and a general return to previous conditions, but we also envision a potentially continuing role for synchronous online teaching and learning now that faculty and students have gained experiences with this approach.
The Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) and the Faculty Center are seeking a group of faculty members with extensive experience in teaching across modalities and in faculty development. This program will combine elements of discipline-based educational research with course innovations toward the goals of 1) informing potential new/revised course modalities at UCF, 2) recommending structures for future faculty training initiatives, and 3) curating effective practices in synchronous online teaching. For those familiar with faculty development programs through the Faculty Center, this program will require more work and time from participants.
In addition to expanding their own knowledge base, participants will lay the foundations for a future advisory committee and make preliminary recommendations on future training models. Participants will be responsible for
- Codifying good practices for synchronous teaching anchored in the burgeoning literature but informed by faculty experience
- Making a consensus recommendation on whether UCF should pursue synchronous teaching and learning post-pandemic
- Making a consensus recommendation for how a post-pandemic, UCF-supported synchronous approach might fit within or supplement existing institutional structures (e.g., new modality or existing modality)
- Making recommendations for addressing synchronous teaching in new or existing faculty development programs and in institutional evaluation efforts
- Contributing to a review of enterprise-level learning platforms and associated technologies.
This spring we will reprise Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College by Mark C. Carnes (2014). Carnes offers a provocative critique of higher education and an impassioned appeal for innovation in teaching. This study is based on interviews with students and faculty who participated in the pedagogical innovation “Reacting to the Past,” which began at Barnard College (https://reacting.barnard.edu/). The focus of this book is student disengagement and how role-immersion pedagogy can channel students’ untapped energies for transformative learning experiences.
Participants will need to purchase a copy of the book https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Fire-Role-Immersion-Transform-College-ebook/dp/B00N79RDG0/.
Fall 2020
Ever wonder “what’s the buzz” about Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)? Have you ever pondered the ABCs of IRB? Would you be interested in an opportunity to be a co-author on a SoTL research project? If these are the questions that keep you awake at night, then this Course Innovation Project is for you! Members of this cohort will work together on a joint SoTL project from start to finish. In the process, faculty members will learn how to create research questions, complete an IRB, explore journals committed to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as well as how to discuss this essential research with colleagues and contextualize it for award applications.
Learning and applying new technologies can be challenging; however, active learning via technological tools can help students to more effectively learn course concepts across all course modalities. Join us to learn about many technological tools that can revamp your courses. Each session will feature demonstrations of technological tools as well as practical examples of how faculty members have integrated the tools to enhance learning in their courses. Our last meeting will be the ALTT Faculty Showcase, where participants will demonstrate deliverables that they created during the ALTT CIP.
Has COVID-19 impacted your writing? Are you struggling to find time to write? Is your research being impacted? This 12-week workshop may be the solution you’ve been searching for!
Join like-minded faculty who are struggling to make time for research and writing in the midst of other professional and personal obligations.
Up to 12 faculty will work as a cohort to (a) reframe their approach to writing, (b) create a schedule and processes that prioritize writing and research, and (c) receive support and accountability to write/rewrite/revise existing research (conference paper, chapter, journal article, etc.) in only 12 weeks.
The workshop meets every other week, for up to 2 hours, remotely. Participants often include a variety of disciplines, offering unique peer-to-peer support and insight.
Spring 2020
The Faculty Center will offer a course re-design opportunity to integrate role-immersion activities to improve student engagement and learning. Faculty will participate in four sessions and work collaboratively to design a significant role-immersion project for a class. This may be a debate assignment, a mock trial, mock U.N., or other serious game designed to embed students more deeply in the subject while enhancing critical thinking and communication skills. We will also be reading Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College by Mark C. Carnes (2014). This study is based on interviews with students and faculty who participated in the pedagogical innovation “Reacting to the Past,” which began at Barnard College. Participants will receive a $300 grant upon successful completion of the project.
As educators, it is critical to adapt teaching approaches and strategies to meet the needs of changing student populations. Today’s students are often referred to as the iGeneration; they are digital natives. They not only learn differently than students 10 years ago or 20 years ago, but they also engage in course content through different channels. To reach these learners it is essential to understand the unique set of characteristics this population brings to the classroom. It is also vital to rethink how we deliver content. We will address the characteristics of the iGen with special attention to their learning modalities. We will investigate the four pillars of the FLIPped ideology, how to apply them to your own courses, and key instructional technologies (Lightboard, WACOM, screencasting) that can be used to FLIP intentional content. The culminating project includes a FLIPped lesson and assessment measure.
Participants will receive a $300 grant upon successful completion of the project.
Navigating in a new culture can be challenging, and even more challenging when you are confronted with varying approaches to teaching and learning. This faculty cohort unpacks the culture behind higher education in the United States, investigates effective teaching practices, such as engagement strategies, active learning, 21st-century skills, and problem and project-based learning. Participants gain an understanding of the nuances of faculty life, from course design to assessment to delivery, all while traversing a new culture. Limited to J1 Scholars and Educators. Non-funded, certificate upon successful completion.
The purpose of this cohort is to enable STEM faculty and post-docs to produce a manuscript for submission to an academic journal. It is designed to foster a community of colleagues that will support participants in making time for research and writing in the midst of their other various professional and personal obligations. It is also designed to help participants make and meet weekly goals. Faculty writers will work over twelve weeks during the spring term to revise an existing piece of writing (conference paper, chapter, unpublished draft, etc.), to identify publishing venues, and to submit the finished product for publication. The workshops will be held on January 22, February 5, February 19, March 4, March 18, and April 1 from 10:00 – 12:00. Participants should be prepared to attend all six face-to-face meetings, to have regular online “check ins” with the workshop group, and, most importantly, to talk about their work with colleagues. Each participant will receive a copy of the Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks book prior to the beginning of the workshop.
Fall 2019
As teachers, we must adapt our teaching strategies to different classes depending on class size, modality, student readiness, program placement, and many other factors. For students, their approaches to learning are influenced by a multitude of variables as well, and their study strategies are often inefficient or even maladaptive. In this workshop series, we will closely examine many factors that influence our approaches to teaching and our students’ approaches to learning, and we will devise strategies to better teach and to help our students better learn. Additionally, we will identify many research questions for potential SoTL studies related to these topics.
In order to receive the $500 grant, participants must participate in all four cohort meetings, submit a revised assignment that reflects integration of some of the principles we’ll be learning about, and submit a Canvas module with resources and activities that will help your students improve their approaches to learning.
Our meeting times are Tuesdays, 10:00–12:00 on September 10th, October 1st, October 22nd, and November 12th.
Active learning classrooms (ALCs) are flexible, student-centered spaces that facilitate the use of active learning strategies. Faculty on the downtown campus, where ALCs are the design of choice, may recognize the opportunities and challenges associated with teaching in ALCs. This flipped-format Course Innovation Project will address challenges through four important instructional practices that will be impacted by moving to an ALC: implementation of active learning pedagogies, management of physical space, methods of assessment, and adoption of instructional technologies. We will address these practices with special emphasis on the classroom spaces downtown (e.g., mobile tablet chairs and collaborative platforms like Intel Unite).
To receive the $500 grant, faculty must attend four cohort meetings, develop activities and assessments appropriate for use in an ALC that can be used for their course, and submit a (re)designed lesson plan that could be used in an ALC. The cohort will meet on Thursdays, September 12, October 3, October 24, and November 14 from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. on the downtown campus.
We will accept up to ten faculty members. Please register by September 5th at 5 p.m. Notifications of acceptance will be sent on Friday, September 6th.
The purpose of this cohort is to enable faculty to produce an article manuscript for submission to an academic journal. It is designed to help participants to make time for research and writing in the midst of their other various professional and personal obligations. It is also designed to help participants make and meet weekly goals. Faculty writers will work over twelve weeks during the spring term to revise an existing piece of writing (conference paper, chapter, unpublished draft, etc.), to identify publishing venues, and to submit the finished product for publication. The workshops will be held on September 11, September 25, October 9, October 23, November 6, and November 20 from 10:00 – 12:00. Participants should be prepared to attend all six face-to-face meetings, to have regular online “check ins” with the workshop group, and, most importantly, to talk about their work with colleagues. Each participant will receive a copy of the Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks book prior to the beginning of the workshop.
This semester, we will be reading Connected Teaching: Relationship, Power, and Mattering in Higher Education (2019) by Harriet L. Schwartz. The book club will meet on Thursdays, noon to 1:00 p.m., from September 12th through November 14th. The first ten faculty to register will receive a free copy of the book.
At a time when many aspects of the faculty role are in question, Harriet Schwartz, the author of Connected Teaching, argues that the role of teachers is as important as ever and is evolving profoundly. She believes the relationships faculty have with individual students and with classes and cohorts are the essential driver of teaching and learning. Inspired by Relational-Cultural Theory, this book encourages teachers to deepen awareness of themselves and the transformative potential of teaching as relational practice.
If you are interested in participating, please send an e-mail to Eric.Main@ucf.edu.