University of Northern Iowa

Search UNI

Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning

Events Resources

Spring 2021

We've got the Blackboard. Let's talk chalk.

While students appreciate the fact that faculty across campus are now almost universally using Blackboard, we have seen how the platform can both facilitate and frustrate learning. The Exemplary Course Program (ECP) is a great resource to help you organize both your pedagogical thinking and your LMS approach. Dr. Claire Stuve will be our seasoned guide in pursuing student engagement in face-to-face classes through the ECP rubric and our choices in Blackboard.

Across the three planned sessions at UNI, Dr. Stuve will 1) introduce f-2-f faculty to the ECP rubric as a way to organize our thinking about course design and delivery [March], 2) give faculty a chance to look take a look inside other people’s courses, critiquing design and delivery efforts as they are manifested in Bb [April], and 3) reflect on the extraordinary disruptions of '20-'21 with an eye toward preserving what was gained while moving forward from some of the less-than-helpful practices that emerged from our well-intentioned crisis responses [May].

Dr. Claire Stuve is Director of Curriculum Development, Testing Services, and Research for University College at the University of Toledo. She has taught nutrition, mathematics, and instructional technology, and her courses have garnered international awards and received recognition from both Blackboard and Quality Matters. She has twice been awarded Blackboard’s Exemplary Course Program award.

Presenter: Dr. Claire Stuve, University of Toledo

Fall 2020

Your Inclusive Classroom: Essential Google Tools for Student Success Through UDL

Open the door to an engaged and inclusive classroom! During this interactive session, you’ll explore three main principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), access helpful checklists and resources, and discover how free Google tools can help you implement the responsive and flexible benefits of UDL. Using the G-Suite apps and extensions, we will explore how you can make learning accessible to all learners. Create practical tools and strategies that you may be able to use next.

Presenters: Sarah Bryans-Bongey, Magdalena Galloway, Leigh Zeitz

UNI Students and Community Engagement: What Do We Know?

Faculty and staff are invited to learn about students' perceptions of Community Engagement at UNI in the classroom and across campus. This presentation will share information gained from last fall’s administration of the National Assessment of Service and Community Engagement (NASCE). We will review an analysis of the 2019 results in comparison to 2015 NASCE results and review possible areas of growth and where UNI is excelling.

Presenter: Kristina Kofoot

Standards-Based Grading In Iowa's K-12 Schools

Standards-based report cards have become the norm for Iowa elementary schools, and a growing number of Iowa's secondary schools are implementing standards-based grading (SBG) practices. This trend has already impacted our work with college-aged Iowans, and will shape our preparation of future Iowa educators. In this 60 minute workshop, we will discuss key principles of SBG, why schools are moving towards it, and the implementation barriers educators are experiencing.

Presenter: Matt Townsley (Educational Leadership), co-author of Making Grades Matter: Standards-Based Grading in a Secondary PLC

Hypothes.is

Are you interested in engaging students in dynamic text-based discussions in your face-to-face, hybrid, or online course? Hypothes.is is an open access web annotation tool, that can also plug into eLearning, that allows students to annotate collaboratively leading to authentic and dynamic discussions and deeper understanding. Join Amy Osatinski from the Theatre Department for an overview of what Hypothes.is can do, an illustration of how she uses it in her classes (both in person and online), and a tutorial for getting started.

Presenter: Amy Osatinski (Theatre)

UNI Fall Faculty Workshop 2020

Summer 2020

Preparing for the Physically Distanced Classroom

Preparing for the Physically Distanced Classroom: Protocols, safety, logistics, etiquette, enforcement?

Learning from Surveys of Spring 2020 Student Experience

Learning from Surveys of Spring 2020 Student Experience

How did our students experience emergency remote learning and a summer marked by pandemic and civil unrest? What do they bring to F’20?

Featuring a panel of faculty from Educational Technology (Bryans-Bongey, Galloway, Zeitz) who are actively researching Spring 2020 at UNI.

Active Learning Strategies for All Seasons

Active Learning Strategies for All Seasons (f2f, hybrid, HyFlex, online)

Pragmatic approaches in support of student-centered learning, universal design for learning (UDL), metacognition, micro-learning, and transparency in learning and teaching (TILT).

Labs, Studios & Field Experiences

What happens when Labs, Studios & Field Experiences become virtual spaces?

Panelists include Gowri Betrabet-Gulwadi, Gloria Stafford, Amy Lockhart, Lori Seawel

Group Work at a Distance

Group Work at a Distance (including peer review, forums, collaborations)

Panelists include Doug Shaw, Lisa Millsaps, Jerry Soneson, Laura Edwards, Farah Kashef

Rhythms of Learning

Rhythms of Learning (including pacing, organization, expectations; work-life balance for remote students and faculty; the power of modules and folders; making room for flexibility, resilience, improvisation; micro-learning)

Panelists include Nikki Harken, Bryce Kanago, Lisa Millsaps, Farah Kashef

Communication in Remote Learning

Communication in Remote Learning (including class announcements & individual correspondence; discussions & collaboration; feedback & grading; captioning)

Panelists include Alicia Rosburg, Disa Cornish, Susan Hill, Kenneth Atkinson, Jason Vetter

Synchronous? Asynchronous?

Synchronous? Asynchronous? Hybrid? Hyflex? (considering limits to "bandwidth," both for telecommunication and cognition)

Panelists include Nikki Harken, Tom Hockey, Heather Kennedy, Katie O'Brien, Lori Seawel, Leigh Zeitz

Student Centered Learning

Student Centered Learning (conceptual starting point is not content delivery, but rather the pursuit of student engagement)

Panelists include Magda Galloway, Bryce Kanago, Lisa Millsaps, Jerry Soneson, Jason Vetter

Making Lemonade

Making Lemonade (discovering and leveraging unexpected benefits in remote learning; going deeper with Blackboard; exploring & exploding assumptions; lessons to take back to f2f learning)

Panelists include Curt Hanson, Doug Shaw, Tom Hockey, Morgan Anderson, Katie O'Brien, Jason Vetter

Mental Health

Mental Health of students and faculty (including acknowledgement of the complete person and the demands of real life)

Panelists include Leigh Zeitz, Nikki Harken, Disa Cornish, Darcie Davis-Gage, Farah Kashef

Assessment in a Remote Environment

Assessment in a Remote Environment (including exams and their alternatives; efforts to build authentic, multimodal, low stakes and formative assessments; proctoring)

Panelists include Alicia Rosburg, Matt Townsley, Morgan Anderson, Lori Seawel

Fall 2016

2016 Diversity Colloquium: Mentoring: Promises and Pitfalls

Traditional definitions of mentoring assume a one-to-one relationship between an older, wiser person and a younger, more inexperienced one-and that these relationships are ALWAYS beneficial. There are many different mentoring models: sometimes mentoring relationships are created randomly, or based on a particular set of criteria, or for a specific amount of time. Sometimes mentoring relationships are encouraged within departments; sometimes not. Sometimes mentoring relationships work really well, but, often, they don’t. In this workshop, Marybeth Stalp (Sociology) presented and discussed ways to construct mentoring relationships that function effectively and benefit both mentor and mentee.

Mentoring: Promises and Pitfalls CETL Lecture Handout

Spring 2015

Exploring Service Learning Options

This session, led by Gerri Perreault (Chair of UNI American Democracy Project) and Donna Vinton (Director of Academic Assessment), provided an introduction to using service-learning in college courses.

Introducing the Paul-Elder Method for Critical Thinking

This workshop, led by Kim Baker (SAC), introduced The Paul-Elder Method for Critical Thinking, a systematic set of strategies for practicing, teaching, and evaluating critical thinking skills across disciplines.