Past Events
Unpacking the Report of the Experiential Learning Task Force — Spring 2018
Join members of the task force for this informal discussion of the findings, recommendations, and implications of their report submitted last September. You will find the report at Link to Report.
How and Why to Adopt a Digital Textbook and Integrate into E-learning for All Students — Spring 2018
Several faculty have opted for a digital version of their textbooks embedded within eLearning for every student. Join this informal discussion of how and how well it worked.
Facilitator: Chris Grugel and invited users of embedded texts
How Knowledge of our Students Informs our Teaching — Fall 2017
Suggested reading - Beloit College’s “Mindset List” for the entering class of 2021 (www.beloit.edu/mindset/). Conversations about Teaching and Learning provides a time and space for informal, collegial conversations about a variety of topics related to teaching, and to student learning and development. All members of the college community are welcomed to attend.
Teaching Tidbits from our Distinguished Teaching Award Winners — Fall 2022
Session 1: Alternative Assessments, led by Professor Ed Kawakami, covers innovative and varied ways to assess our students. In this session, learn about and share ideas around creating alternative assessments. Session 2: Creating Community in our Classrooms, presented by Professor Kim Instenes, we will look ahead to January and/or spring term as we explore ways to create a sense of belonging and community in our future classes.
Taking Time to Get Out Into the World: Faculty in the Community: A Workshop in Creating a Community Engagement Plan — Spring 2019
In this workshop professors Nick Pilarski and Laura Huaracha, Communication and Digital Media Department, will describe their own case studies of public service projects tied to their classroom content. They will walk participants through steps for creating their own projects within the community and demonstrate examples and strategies for streamlining this type of work. Emphasis will be placed on working smarter, not harder, to get ourselves and students out there to benefit the community.
Introducing Students to The Aspire Center Tools and Services During Faculty Advising — Spring 2019
The Aspire Center is our new comprehensive four-year career preparation program for all Carthage students that kicked off its services in Spring 2019. In this interactive session, Lisa Hinkley, Associate Vice President and Executive Director for Career and Professional Development will provide an overview of the tools and services available through Aspire and discuss the important role faculty play in helping students get the most out of the program.
Strategic Literacy: Maximizing Student Interactions with Assigned Readings — Spring 2019
Do your students seem like they are passive readers, disengaged with your course’s assigned readings and textbooks? Then it’s time to think strategically about how we guide our students through their texts so they are actively engaged with the material, and connect it to in-class discussions.
In this interactive session, participants will experiment with and collaborate on various methods for maximizing student interactions with text.
Facilitator: Professor Jackie Easley
Tailoring Tutoring Services to Fit Your Class — Spring 2019
Do you know a student who aces their exams but fails to turn in homework? One who utilizes all of the support you can provide, but still needs more, possibly inside and outside of class? Fortunately, services to address such issues are available free to all students through the Office of Tutoring Services.
At this session, director of tutoring services Mackenzie Curry will discuss how to access supplemental instruction, embedded tutoring, general tutoring, and academic coaching in time to make a difference this semester.
Facilitator: Mackenzie Curry, Director of Tutoring Services
From Think-Pair-Share to Snapchatting: 5 Reliable Old-school and 5 Fresh New-school Ways to Elevate Class Discussion — Fall 2018
Well-planned and well-managed discussion can help students achieve nearly every type of learning outcome. Facilitating meaningful participation by all students and achieving just the right balance of structure and flow requires us to develop an ever-expanding repertoire of different strategies and approaches, including those involving technologies. Presenters for this session will discuss proven and emerging approaches to facilitating successful discussions, and invite participants to share their own successes.
Facilitators: Laura Huaracha, Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Media, and Provost David Timmerman
Other People’s Monday — Raising Grant Funds — Fall 2018
This workshop is a collaborative effort of the Office of Sponsored Programs and the Teaching Commons. It is designed to provide you tools and tips on how you can win grant money in order to offer new and better experiences to students, create professional development opportunities and experiences for yourself and your colleagues, and support any materials or equipment you may need. Beverages and heavy hors d’oeuvres provided. We look forward to seeing you there!
Accommodations — The Ins-and-Outs and the Law — Fall 2018
As higher numbers of students request accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, instructors must be adept at determining what is “reasonable,” what is a student preference, and what is required. We will discuss topics such as leniency in attendance policies, testing accommodations, and class participation accommodations in the context of supporting students with mental health, learning, and other issues.
Presenter: Director of Accessibility Services
Soliciting and Using Mid-semester Feedback From Students — Fall 2018
Mid-semester is an ideal time to pause and solicit feedback from our students that will help us plan the rest of the semester. This interactive session will include sharing of published tools and strategies and the exchange of ideas and experiences among colleagues.
Facilitator: Dennis Munk, Professor of Psychological Science and Education
Planning a J-Term Study Tour — Fall 2018
You’re interested in leading a J-Term study abroad program, but don’t know where to start, or maybe you’ve even done it once or twice, but still feel there is more to learn.
In this session, we will be addressing all of the basics: course development, logistics, budgeting, study abroad policies, roles of faculty leaders, etc. Please bring your ideas and questions!
Presenter: Erik Kulke, Director of Education Abroad, Assistant Professor of Modern Languages
Introduction to Mental Health First Aid — Fall 2018
This session provides a brief overview of major topics covered for those who did not participate in the full Mental Health First Aid course offered on campus on Aug. 23 and 24. Content will include:
- Understanding common mental health challenges
- Identifying warning signs of a mental health crisis
- Connecting students to emergency mental health care
- Connecting students to non-emergency mental health care
Early Alert System Training — Fall 2018
Do you have students who have already missed several classes, work, or other important commitments on campus? Are you worried about a student’s performance or engagement? Has a student come to you with a problem that you are unsure how to address?
Members of the Carthage community can submit an electronic alert within the my.carthage.edu portal to report these concerns. Whether you are familiar with the alert system and just need a refresher, or you are a new user to this system, join us for an overview and discussion.
Session leader: Carrie Espinosa, Director of the Center for Student Success
The Payoff Matrix: Helping Students Evaluate the Cost of Change — Spring 2018
This session will focus on the use of a practical decision-making tool to use with students. Faculty will learn how to elicit change talk, help students strengthen intrinsic motivation, and help students sustain change.
Efficient Paper Commenting in the New LMS (Schoology) — Spring 2018
Not one, not two, but three ways to mark up documents in Schoology! No more downloading/uploading of files with oh so many clicks. Changing to the new learning management system offers a number of different ways for faculty to comment directly on papers. This session will showcase the differences/advantages between these tools that might vary on the type of assignment students are completing.
Supporting Students in Distress — Spring 2018
Educators are often the first to notice students with mental health challenges. This session will focus on how to identify students in distress, how to support students with acute mental health symptoms, and how to connect students to appropriate support services.
Presenters: Lydia Zopf, Director of Counseling Services; Stephanie Mitchell, Professor of History
Decoding the Discipline: Identifying and Eliminating Bottlenecks to Student Learning — Spring 2018
Bottlenecks are those assignments, or elements of an assignment, on which students struggle to figure out and then meet our expectations. Causes for bottlenecks include the way in which assignments are designed and explained, how students draw on their prior learning in deciding what to do, their affective response to the assignment, and their motivation to succeed. Through a decoding process that involves systematic reflection and articulating exactly what we expect students to do (possibly in an interview with a colleague), we can identify strategies for eliminating bottlenecks.
This session will include an overview of the decoding process and brief demonstrations by colleagues who are attempting decoding this semester. Learn background information on decoding
Facilitators: Dennis Munk, Director of the Teaching Commons; Leslie Cameron, Professor of Psychological Science
Constructing a Successful Sabbatical Proposal — Spring 2018
This workshop is designed for those who are already planning to apply for sabbatical or who see it in their near future. The content will include an overview of proposal guidelines from P&T Committee member Chris Blaine (Professor of Chemistry), sharing of exemplary proposals from past years, and the opportunity to ask questions and begin outlining your proposal.
When was the Last Time you Used Video in the Classroom? — Spring 2018
Recording video for classroom presentations or observations used to involve multiple time consuming steps to get the final video into the hands of the student. New products on the market, such as Swivl (which is free), eliminate a number of steps to ensure that the recording is quickly accessible. This product is currently in use by Carthage student teachers and has virtually eliminated almost all of the usual technical or human errors that often accompanies video recordings. This hands on session will demonstrate how easy it is to use this tool, as well as discussing other practical applications of using video recordings.
Presenter: Chris Grugel, Instructional Services Supervisor
Providing Efficient and Impactful Feedback on Student Writing — Spring 2018
Giving students quality feedback on their written work is one of the most important ways we teach students how to become better writers. Giving students quality feedback, however, is a time-consuming activity that can be emotionally demanding. This session will focus on strategies that faculty can use to improve the quality of their feedback on student writing, reduce stress, and save time.
Presenter: Rick Matthews, Director, Writing Development, Sociology Department; Director, Criminal Justice Program; Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice
Planning a J-Term Study Tour — Spring 2018
You’re interested in leading a J-term study abroad program but don’t know where to start…or maybe you’ve even done it once or twice, but still feel that there is more to learn. In this session, we’ll be addressing all of the basics: course development, logistics, budgeting, study abroad policies, roles of faculty leaders, etc. Please bring your ideas and questions!
Presenter: Erik Kulke, Director of Education Abroad, Assistant Professor of Modern Languages
Getting Started…Resources for Step 1 & 2 in the Grant Life Cycle — Spring 2018
The first two steps in the grant life cycle are critical to successfully funding a project through grant funds. The Office of Sponsored Programs will provide a basic overview of the grant life cycle, as well as hands-on resources and tips for STEP 1: Generating Your Idea and STEP 2: Finding Funding. Participants will be introduced to the Grant Project Idea Form, a new tool being used by the Office of Sponsored Programs to better serve faculty and staff interested pursuing grant funding.
Presenters: Aidana Lira, Director of Sponsored Programs, and Kate Schenk, Sponsored Programs Assistant
Enhancing Career Conversations with Your Students: A Review of Developmental Theory, the Narrative Approach, and Interviewing — Spring 2018
Participants will learn different theoretical techniques to enhance your career conversations with students, with special emphasis on utilizing the narrative approach for getting started. The session will include opportunities for putting theory into practice through role-playing exercises.
This session sponsored by Career Services.
Presenter: Judith Ettinger, PhD, Retired LPC
Judith is a CDF Master Trainer and CDF Instructor. She has been working in the field of career development for 30 years and travels throughout the world delivering career development technical assistance and training. Dr. Ettinger is a Project Director at the Center on Education and Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including the Distinguished Achievement Award, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Outstanding Practitioner Award, National Career Development Association; UCLA Extension Distinguished Instructor Award for 2012; and the National Customer Service Award from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Introduction to IRB Net — Fall 2017
In September, Carthage is transitioning to a new electronic management system, IRB Net, to streamline the work of the Institutional Review Board. The purpose of this session is to introduce the new tool to faculty who will submit protocols for their own research, or on behalf of students. Dr. Leslie Cameron, Chair of the IRB Committee, and Dr. Tony Barnhart, Committee Member, will demonstrate how to utilize the new system.
Ethics & the Undergraduate Researcher — Fall 2017
Invited address by Dr. Dan Corts, Professor of Psychology, Augustana College.
The number of undergraduates engaged in research has been rising sharply, even while the nature of that research has been evolving. From its origins as a learning exercise—think bench work in natural science lab courses—research experience now includes undergraduates fully engaged in the scholarship of discovery, making substantive contributions to faculty work and even serving as collaborators. This evolution has occurred so quickly that some aspects of research have lagged behind, including various domains of ethics. Dr. Corts will share stories of conflicts that appear in the process of undergraduate research, most of the time catching people and institutions off guard and with little precedent to guide them. This session is co-sponsored by the Teaching Commons and the Psychological Science Department.
How Implementing Transparency in Your Classroom can Facilitate Success for Less-prepared Students — Spring 2017
This session will focus on the application of transparency in the design and explanation of academic assignments. Research on transparency suggests that the success of first-generation, low income, and under-represented students is enhanced when instructors make the purpose, tasks and criteria for an assignment clear. Examples and a transparency assignment template will be shared during the session. Dennis Munk, director of the Teaching Commons and professor of education, will present.
Teaching and Supporting Students with Autism and/or Anxiety — Spring 2017
This interactive session will focus on challenges faced by students with autism or anxiety, alone or in combination. Specific strategies for teaching and supporting will be described, and participants will have an opportunity to share experiences and ask questions. Health and Counseling Center Counselor, Mary Belknap, will present.
Soliciting and Using Student Feedback During the Semester — Spring 2017
This interactive session will focus on different tools and procedures for soliciting feedback from your students that will help you make adjustments to your course content and delivery during the semester, when benefits can still be realized. Professors Greg Baer and Dennis Munk will present.
Equity in Communities — Fall 2022
A workshop series focused on advancing equity in our communities.
Facilitators: Julius Crump, Director of Equity and Inclusion for Faculty and Academic Integration; Michele Hancock, Vice President of College Culture for Inclusion
Facilitating Sense of Belonging and Achievement Through the design of Course Syllabi and Assignments — Spring 2018
Clearly articulating general expectations for a course through a carefully constructed syllabi, elaborating on instructions for assignments, and anticipating where students might struggle are practices that facilitate success for all students and especially for those less prepared. Students who are challenged to meet the demands of a class are more likely to persist and feel positively about their experience when their instructor exercises transparency in designing, modeling, and explaining what to do. In this workshop, participants will be provided models and guided through a process of modifying their own assignments as well as engaging in effective syllabus audit.
Facilitators: Dennis Munk, Director of the Teaching Commons; Jeffrey Seymour, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice
Understanding DACA/Undocumented Students and Families — Spring 2018
Undocumented and DACA students in the United States face unique limitations and uncertainties when it comes to the pursuit of their academic and career goals. This introductory workshop will familiarize faculty and staff with past immigration legislation and future possibilities, dispel stereotypes surrounding immigrant students and families who lack a clear path to citizenship, and facilitate discussion around meeting the needs of this student demographic at both an institutional and individual level. Workshop participants will leave with additional recommended materials to facilitate their ongoing development in this subject area.
Facilitator: Carrie Espinosa, Director of the Center for Student Success
Gender Awareness in the Workplace and in the Classroom — Spring 2018
This workshop focuses on interactions in the workplace and in the classroom to explore how they challenge or reinforce gender stereotypes and power dynamics. Participants examine how not challenging norms in society reinforces stereotypes of what “feminine” and “masculine” mean and the impact those stereotypes can have on power dynamics in the community. The workshop also exposes participants to recent policies of inclusion for transgendered community members and those who do not identify themselves within the binary gender categories. Through group discussion, reflection, and targeted activities participants will gain a more thorough understanding of how they can be co-creators of a campus climate that supports those who have traditionally been disempowered because of their gender and gender identification.
Facilitators: Dani Geary, Chair, Social Work Department; Assistant Professor of Social Work, Ellen Hauser, Director, Women’s and Gender Studies Program; Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women and Gender Studies.
What You Should Know and do to Make Your Classroom Welcoming and Inclusive — Spring 2017
A welcoming and inclusive classroom is defined as an environment in which all students feel comfortable in expressing themselves and participating fully in the educational process. To that end, participants will explore critical components of a successful classroom that maximizes the benefits of all students and maintain and protect the dignity of all students and the groups to which they belong.
SoTL Brown Bag group will meet to discuss an article and share any progress of ongoing SoTL projects.
The article for February 2017 was “McCright, Aaron M. (2012). Enhancing students’ scientific and quantitative literacies through an inquiry-based learning project on climate change. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(4), 86-102.” The article can be accessed at http://josotl.indiana.edu/article/view/2050/2994.
The article for March 2017 was “Making General Education Matter: Structures and Strategies.”
The purpose of this new series is to bring together faculty and staff who share responsibilities and practices in teaching and supporting students.
Mentoring Early-Career Faculty — Fall 2023
Professor Nina Weisling, co-author of “Responsive Mentoring: Supporting the Teachers all Students Deserve” (2020), will facilitate discussions with department chairs/program directors about ways to support early-career colleagues and provide meaningful feedback/coaching through various methods.
Department Chair and Program Directors Leadership Series — Fall 2022
This series is designed specifically for department chairs and program directors. We will focus on the topic of Mentoring Junior Faculty.
Identifying and Overcoming Challenges in the Department Chair Role — Leading to a Hight Level of Satisfaction — Spring 2017
Sandy Siira, Director of Human Resources will lead this three-part workshop designed for department chairs. In the first workshop, Sandy will lead the group in a hands-on exercise to evaluate the role in order to identify areas needing improvement. Work completed in the first session will inform the topics for the subsequent sessions.