- Faculty Inquiry Group (FIG): FIGs are small groups of faculty members who read a common text that is applicable to teaching best practices. Past topics include equity issues in teaching, engaging students in online courses, syllabi best practices, etc.
- Mindset Meetup: The Mindset Meetup includes faculty and staff reading a common text and meeting to have discussions around concepts covered in those texts. Past topics include equitable practices and wellness and work.
- Full-day workshops
- Coordination of faculty-assigned duty days
- Consultation and planning portions of the administratively assigned professional development days
- Asynchronous Online Training Courses: Library and Information Literacy Tutorials, Accessibility, POET
The CFI staff also act as resources for individual assistance to our faculty and staff members in one-on-one meetings.
Reading Across the Curriculum
Because critical reading is a key skill in all courses, instructors should teach reading skills needed for their disciplines. This requires an understanding of why there may be a reading skills gap along with how to support all students, but especially those who struggle, to gain those necessary skills. Instructors have the opportunity to participate in a learning community to earn this badge, showing that they have acquired the knowledge to implement specific reading strategies in their courses.
Podcasts
Because critical reading is a key skill in all courses, instructors should teach reading skills needed for their disciplines. This requires an understanding of why there may be a reading skills gap along with how to support all students, but especially those who struggle, to gain those necessary skills. Instructors have the opportunity to participate in a learning community to earn this badge, showing that they have acquired the knowledge to implement specific reading strategies in their courses.
Video Podcast: No Dumb Questions
No Dumb Questions Season One (2020-2021)
- Episode One, “Out loud and confused!” (on how to appropriately respond to a student who has come out in class)
- Episode Two, “Stuck with a silent student” (on how to encourage student participation):
- Episode Three, “All the same” (on why treating students equally isn’t always the best course of action)
- Episode Four, “Could I be clearer?” (on what to do if students are confused by your course setup)
- Episode Five, “Sick of teaching online” (on how to spice up your online teaching when it’s starting to feel like a drag)
- Episode Six, “Can you see me now?” (on how to react when more and more students stop using their cameras in Zoom)
- Episode Seven, “Stuck in limbo” (on being sick and tired of the daily grind of the pandemic)
- Episode Eight, “Plagued by plagiarism” (on how to work with a student who has plagiarized)
- Episode Nine, “Sticking with science” (on how to redirect students when they are getting too opinionated in online discussion boards)
- Episode Ten, “Not so sorry about chatting” (on why it’s good to take class time to chat about random things with your students)
- Episode Eleven, “Due dates overview” (on what we mean when we’d like to see everyone have a “Due Dates Overview” in their online courses for spring)
- Episode Twelve, “Grading Grinch?” (on how to avoid the stress and guilt of finals grading)
- Episode Thirteen, The Ghosted Instructor (on what do when your students stop showing up)
- Episode Fourteen, Head Scratching Online Teacher (on how to help students learn independently online)
- Episode Fifteen, The Acronym-Confused Faculty (on how to navigate the college and system abbreviations and codes)
No Dumb Questions Season Two (2021-2022)
- Episode One, “Pronouns in Intro Discussions” (on how on and why to ask for pronouns in classes)
- Episode Two, “Already Making Contingency Plans” (on being able to shift modalities during Covid illnesses)
- Episode Three, “Wanting to Help but Unsure How” (on what to do about students who don’t show up at the start of the semester because of Covid)
- Episode Four, “Flummoxed by Faulty Files” (on how to help students submit readable files in D2L)
- Episode Five, “Forced to Police the Mask Police” (on helping faculty with class management regarding masking”
- Episode Six, “Stuck with Silent Students” (on how to get quiet students talking)
- Episode Seven, “Written Communication Failure” (on how to help students write clearly and professionally)
- Episode Eight, “Apparently Assigns Confusing Work” (on helping faculty respond to students who don’t understand assignments)
- Episode Nine, “Ready for Lasting Change” (on preparing for and going through a POET online peer review)
- Episode Ten, “The Crack that Broke the (Grand)mother’s Back” (on how to respond to students’ excuses for missing class and classwork)
- Episode Eleven, “Not Feeling the Like” (on managing student and classroom behavior and whether faculty need to like all their students)
- Episode Twelve, “Sick of Running On” (on helping students with common writing errors in non-writing classes)
Student and Instructor Podcast: Going There
