Faculty Professional Development Initiative (FPDi) offers virtual workshops on Active and Collaborative Learning and Four Tracks for faculty. Below is a list of all workshops that have been offered in the past or are currently offered.
To see the current offerings go to the FPDi Workshops page of this website.
Do you have an active and collaborative (ACL) classroom? Do you want to know more about ACL and ways you can use it to transform teaching and learning? In this highly interactive workshop, you'll learn about the College's Faculty Professional DeveloPMent Initiative (FPDi) and the language, pedagogy, and practices of Active and Collaborative Learning (ACL). Working with the FPDi teAM, you’ll share your ideas and experiences about ACL and learn foundational techniques that you can put to work right away in your specific discipline.
Are you curious about how to incorporate active and collaborative learning into your classroom? Do you want to learn about specific strategies for using ACL? In this interactive workshop, you will learn about different active and collaborative learning techniques and how to use them in the classroom. You will learn about different ways to structure an ACL classroom experience as well as ways to troubleshoot common roadblocks that can appear along the way.
Do you want to learn how you can use Active and Collaborative Learning (ACL) techniques to assess your students' knowledge base and understanding of course concepts? In this interactive workshop, you will learn about specific active and learning strategies and how those can be used to assess your students both in the traditional classroom as well as in the virtual classroom. This workshop will highlight both summative and formative assessments as well as explore the connection that Active and Collaborative Learning has to Alternative Assessment Techniques.
Do you want to learn how you can use Alternative Assessment to assess your students' knowledge and understanding of course concepts and encourage students to learn to apply the knowledge? In this interactive workshop, you will learn about the benefits and strategies of using Alternative Assessment and how those can be used to assess your students both in the traditional classroom as well as in the virtual classroom.
Do you want to learn more about how to incorporate Alternative Assessments into your classroom? In this interactive workshop, you will learn about specific alternative assessment strategies and ways that you can structure them in both the traditional and virtual classrooms. You will also explore the advantages and challenges of these forms of assessment as well as their connection to Active and Collaborative Learning.
Are you wanting to learn more about preventing and reporting academic misconduct? In this interactive workshop, you will learn about the types of academic misconduct, the importance of reporting, common misunderstandings surrounding the process, and how the Student Conduct Hearing Board meets, deliberates, and makes decisions. You will learn how to collect evidence and report academic misconduct in your own class. This workshop will also provide tips and strategies to promote academic integrity.
What increases student academic performance, ownership of learning, supportive behavior, and persistence? Having a positive classroom environment! In this interactive workshop, you will learn how to create a positive classroom climate by promoting student belonging, engagement, and connection. You will also learn strategies to address and manage barriers and common hurdles in creating a welcoming space in both the traditional and virtual classroom.
A two-week fully online self paced workshop designed to take an in-depth look at critical thinking skills and dispositions and address some of the problems that get in the way of our efforts to teach critical thinking skills effectively.
What is Critical Thinking and why do we struggle to teach it? The first session presents a brief overview of critical thinking skills and dispositions and addresses some of the problems that get in the way of our efforts to effectively teach critical thinking.
In the first CT session, we considered the impediments to teaching CT effectively, the evidence-based strategies that enhance CT instruction, and the role of metacognition in supporting good critical thinking habits.
In this session we are going to put some of those principles into practice. This session is more workshop than presentation; every participant should select an assignment or class activity to redesign during the session. Our goal is to redesign one assignment by creating a problem/inquiry-based experience that brings together genuine discipline-specific problems with explicitly taught critical thinking skills.
CT Workshop 3: How to enhance CT disposition in students: The problem of the resistant practitioner.
In parts 1 and 2 of the CT workshops we’ve been looking at enhancing CT through redesigning the structure of our courses to focus on explicitly infusing CT concepts and vocabulary into the class. In part 3 of the series, we’re going to be cracking the toughest nut of all, disposition. Critical thinking skills, like any set of skills, will have little durable influence on intellectual behaviors if the individual is not disposed to using it or is disinclined to persist when issues are complex or emotionally challenging.
In this session we will review the most important CT dispositions, consider why dispositions are as important as skills (maybe more so), learn why it is difficult to get people to adopt them, and consider strategies for enhancing students’ disposition to think critically.
Diversity is the first module of a three-part series surrounding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This module is designed to take an in-depth look at the makeup of the student body, what experiences students face in the classroom, and how diversity can be embedded in curriculum. Diversity is not separation but a look at the individual and an awareness of people from every walk of life and the intersections of people that create varying identities. Understanding who is in the classroom is the first step in broadening conversations, enhancing lessons, and facilitating growth for students, faculty, staff, the college, and surrounding communities. This and subsequent modules will follow the multicultural excellence theory by Sue and Sue (2003) which includes Awareness (mindfulness), Knowledge (learning), Skills (competencies), and Social Action (activism) within the classroom using Active and Collaborative Learning.
Equity is the second module in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion series. This module will take what has been learned in the Diversity module and add the Equity component. After an understanding of who is in the room a glance into how epistemic resources can be unearthed and shared. When varying cultural norms, values and ways of thought are overlooked in the classroom student success can decrease. In this module self-reflections on possible implicit inequalities and thematic insights that inform teaching practices. This module will discuss how being an active listener can help enhance learning of how a student’s personal reality does not always coincide with their intellectual knowledge. Educators can lessen acculturative stress by learning to become an equitable change agent in students' lives.
Inclusion is the third module in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion series. This module will integrate what has been learned in the Diversity and Equity modules and add the Inclusion component. This culminating module will touch on divisive cultural ideologies, ethical demands and requirements, and inclusive strategies that will help students stay and succeed. This module will focus on active and collaborative teaching strategies that will actively facilitate inclusion and a sense of community in the classroom.
Note: You must complete Diversity Level 2 Workshop before you can register for this workshop.
This fully online course prepares participants to teach in the web format, using department-approved shells (courses that have been designed by experienced faculty and undergone quality peer review). The course takes approximately 15 hours to complete over the three weeks it is offered. The course is facilitated but is self-paced, and there are deadlines to keep participants on task.
You’ve heard it often enough: ChatGPT is a game-changer. But how do we play the game when no one seems to know its rules? This session covers AI’s potential, its limitations, and different strategies that can be used to promote authentic learning in today’s classroom.
You've heard it often enough: ChatGPT is a game-changer. But how do we play the game when no one seems to know its rules? This session covers AI's potential, its limitations, and different strategies that can be used to promote authentic learning in today's classroom.
Mary Lia Reiter and Deb Bertsch are at the cutting edge when it comes to their knowledge of AI and student learning. Please come to our workshop, where they will informally share their experiences embedding AI into their curriculum. They will discuss the ways they use AI in their courses, what your observations have been—what worked, what was problematic--and how students reacted to those activities.
This workshop is intended for faculty who have participated in live online meetings, but would like to improve their methods for meeting with students synchronously. The first half of this workshop will focus on best practices/pedagogical strategies and the second half will offer participants step-by-step training on how to use the features of Zoom.
This interactive session will focus on the challenges, complexities, and potential of AI writing tools. Soon students will be using ChatGPT in academic contexts, and we need to understand the underlying implications about how this will affect teaching and learning.
This workshop focuses on how to create tests in Blackboard. Whether you are sending students to the testing center or proctoring a test remotely, building your tests in Blackboard offers a variety of question types and allows faculty to build question sets. Building your tests in Blackboard can also make grading tests more efficient. Topics covered in this workshop include:
Attend this workshop and learn how to use Blackboard to help you with your testing needs.
This workshop focuses on how to design and facilitate meaningful and engaging discussion boards in your online courses. More specifically, this session will cover:
Research is unequivocal; the best predictor of student success in online courses is their level of engagement. When students can feel a sense of ownership in their learning, contribute and connect with other students, and perceive that their instructor is invested and supportive of their efforts, they do better than when they are passive and expected to simply replicate static information being presented to them. This workshop focuses on strategies that will anchor students in your online course and engage them in the experience active and authentic learning.
This workshop focuses on how to design and facilitate meaningful and engaging discussion boards in your online courses. More specifically, this session will cover:
This workshop is designed for faculty who are teaching a live online or blended course and are concerned about academic integrity. We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Respondus Lockdown browser, Respondus Monitor, and Lockdown browser with live proctoring using Zoom. Various Blackboard test options will also be discussed, as well as best practices that faculty may use in the virtual testing environment.
Bb Annotate is an inline grading tool that allows instructors to comment on student work directly in Bb, without having to download and upload attachments. Bb Annotate offers a variety of markup features, including in-text comment bubbles, highlighting, freehand drawing, strikethrough, underline, customizable arrows and shapes, and others.
Bb Annotate pairs well with Bb’s embedded rubric tool, which allows instructors to create and customize grading rubrics that can be seen and interacted with right alongside student submissions.
These time-saving tools help instructors compartmentalize their grading processes, leading to a more efficient, localized experience for both students and faculty. Ann and Nick will provide step-by-step instructions for setting up both tools in your courses and will offer suggested best practices and tips and tricks for using them.
Most instructors have been teaching online for a while now—is it time to get a “tune-up”? This workshop will focus on how to use the LMS tools that will streamline your grading and course design.
These time-saving tools lead to greater efficiency and organization in courses. Ann and Jane will provide best practices and tips and tricks for using them.
Distance learning faculty have discovered that using active and collaborative learning is the key to engaging students in online classrooms. But putting students together to work in groups can be a messy, challenging process. If you'd like to learn some tips about how to make collaborative learning run more smoothly in your course, this session is for you. Distance Learning Faculty Fellow Ann Palazzo will offer some pedagogical insights on designing and facilitating online group projects, which will be followed by FAC member who will present a step-by-step guide on how to use the Blackboard Groups tool.
Here’s an opportunity to see how virtual proctoring works with Lockdown Browser.
There are two types of virtual proctoring available to faculty at CSCC: 1) Virtual proctoring with Zoom (synchronous), and 2) Respondus Monitor (automated proctoring where a video recording is captured of the student’s testing session).
This workshop is designed for participants to experience virtual proctoring with Zoom and Respondus Monitor. The use of virtual proctoring from a student’s perspective and an instructor’s perspective will be covered.
To see a list of all workshops offered by DEIS, go to the Training page.