Course Design Conversations: Strategies for In-Person Teaching and Learning
The Course Design Conversations: Strategies for In-Person Teaching and Learning series invites you to join in conversations with peers about teaching in the classroom. With the return to classroom instruction, there are opportunities and challenges such as connecting remote students, new classroom technology, and engaging students in meaningful discussions. Each session will have a guest presenter to share their experiences, engage in discussions and explore strategies for effective classroom teaching and learning.
In this series, participants will have opportunities to:
- Apply practical strategies to your own classroom instructional needs.
- Engage in meaningful discussions with colleagues
- Explore the latest trends in classroom instruction to best support student learning
Teaching in Learning Spaces Across Campus
There is a wide variety of physical learning spaces across the UCalgary campus. From large lecture theatres to small seminar rooms, or spaces with moveable furniture arranged in small groups. In any of these spaces teaching strategies can have a direct impact on student engagement and learning. But what are the most effective teaching and learning strategies in these different spaces and how can you prepare your course with the learning space in mind? Join us and a panel of instructors to learn about the impact the learning space has on course design and what happens in the space.
Guest Presenters:
- Denis Onen, Schulich School of Engineering,
- Cameron Welsh, MBA, Haskayne School of Business
Facilitators: Patrick Kelly
Date: May 8, 2023
Time: 12 – 1 p.m.
Location: Online
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Algorithmic Tools for Content Creation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a broad field incorporating many techniques for computers to solve problems in ways humans might. Recent advances in computing and AI have made AI much more relevant to education. AI can now influence the tools that institutions use to support students, the ways students create work, the ways instructors create work and assessments, and how information is created, used and shared.
When designing courses, understanding what AI can do and what it can't do is important to choosing the outcomes, assessments and activities that work for you and your students. It might be that some activities need to be modified to focus on how students achieve the learning outcomes. In other situations AI may enable you and your students to do new types of work which allows you to transform your course.
Join us for a discussion about the capabilities of AI, the impacts it can have on teaching and learning and what kinds of decisions we can make in light of this rapidly changing field.
Guest Presenters:
- Wei Cai, PhD, Chair, Division of Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures
- Soroush Sabbaghan, PhD, Werklund School of Education
- Jason Weins, PhD, Department of English, Faculty of Arts
- Richard Zhao, PhD, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science
Facilitator: Lorelei Anselmo and Tyson Kendon
Date: June 7, 2023
Time: 12 – 1 p.m.
Location: online
Past workshops
Winter 2023
Open Educational Resources, also known as OERs, are peer-reviewed academic content that is made available through an open-access license. Benefits for both instructors and students include accessibility, enhanced quality of content, promoting self-directed learning, and more. OERs include print material, videos, audio, and even quizzes and assignments. Join us to explore the many ways OERs can be used in your classroom and the benefits for all.
Guest Presenter: Verena Roberts
Facilitators: Lorelei Anselmo
Over the last few years, ‘ungrading’ — an approach to assessment that de-centres grades, privileging instead student labour and formative feedback — has become both an increasingly common practice in postsecondary classrooms and the subject of increasing controversy in popular and scholarly publications concerned with teaching and learning.
What does it mean to have ‘completed’ an assignment? How can this approach work in classes that require demonstrated mastery of core disciplinary skills? What does an ungraded final exam look like? Along with a brief introduction to ungrading, this workshop is intended to offer participants an opportunity to work through some of these questions, and to collaborate with colleagues in other fields to identify solutions that could work in each of their courses.
Guest Presenters: Derritt Mason & Morgan Vanek
Facilitator: Patrick Kelly
Fall 2022
Lecturing is a common and essential activity to transfer information and course content to students. Whether in a large classroom or small seminar, lectures can include student-centred active learning strategies to increase student engagement and provide time for students to work with course content. This session shared lecturing strategies to engage students and provide time to learn and share with each other.
Facilitators: Amanda Musgrove, Patrick Kelly, Lin Yu
The student population is becoming more diverse than ever, from socio-economic status, culture, language, race, and gender, to the interests and experiences they bring. Using Equity, Diversity, and Inclusive (EDI) principles we will explore strategies to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive classroom environment to create robust learning experiences for all learners. Teaching in a diverse classroom starts well before the first day of class by reflecting on your own positionality, including an EDI statement in your course outline, and intentional integration of EDI strategies into the first day of class and beyond.
Facilitators: Patrick Kelly, Lin Yu
Having well-defined and articulated student assessment and grading strategies is essential for effective course design. Specifications grading takes a different approach to assigning grades where student work is evaluated simply using a one-level grading rubric based on whether the work meets expectations. In this approach, assignments and tests are "bundled" around course learning outcomes, clearly aligning the work students do and mastery of course content. Students earn higher grades by completing more challenging learning bundles.
Facilitators: Patrick Kelly, Lin Yu, Kyla Flanagan
Spring/Summer 2022
Are you curious about the available technology in classrooms and how you might leverage them to engage students and meet learning outcomes? This session will review what technology is available and provide time to share and learn from each other on how technology can be used to support student learning, instruction, and connecting remote students into the classroom.
Facilitators: Corey Flynn, Patrick Kelly, Lin Yu
Are you wondering how to engage students in discussions in class? Collaborative learning has been shown to have a dramatic impact on student engagement and learning yet has it’s challenges. This session will discuss some of the common opportunities and challenges with facilitating student discussions and then provide opportunities for participants to share their own facilitation strategies and learn from each other.
Facilitator: Lisa Stowe, Patrick Kelly, Lin Yu