Colleagues - Happy New Year! Welcome back from what I hope was a relaxing winter break. CTL has been busy enhancing teaching technologies, and preparing a whole new set of activities and events to enhance your professional development this semester. Things to look out for include: PLIG – submission deadline for these grants is January 20th! Don’t delay and please submit an application. Further collaboration with the AI HUB – watch this space, and save the date for our annual Summer Institute which will be held May 14th – 16th. A call will go out soon for your submissions. 

Have questions or need support? CTL Staff and Faculty Fellows have your back in support of your teaching and learning endeavors.

News + Updates

Meet Our Newest Team Members

We are thrilled to welcome Shawn White and Cana Fuest as the newest additions to the Center for Teaching and learning. Their unique skills and experiences are sure to enhance our mission of supporting faculty and enriching the teaching and learning environment.

Shawn White has joined the Classroom Technology Support team as an AV Engineer and Programmer. Shawn is an RIT alumnus who previously worked with our Classroom Technology Support team as a student worker. Since then, he has gained valuable experience as an AV Service Technician, specializing in programming and commissioning high-end AV systems. We are thrilled to have Shawn back with us.

Cana Fuest has joined the Learning Design and Technology team as an Instructional Designer. Cana comes to RIT from Elim Bible Institute and College where she spent the last four years as a full time faculty member and distance education chair. Cana is interested in the integration of AI-driven tools into course workflows.

Save the Date for Summer Institute 2025 May 14th-16th!

Mark your calendars! The Center for Teaching and Learning’s third annual Summer Institute will take place May 14th - 16th. What’s new? The theme of this year’s conference is “creativity and innovation” in teaching and learning. Faculty can look forward to engaging workshops, panels, guest speakers and presentations across four main tracks:

• Teaching and Supporting Students with Technology
• Creating Engaging Learning Experiences
• Advancing Faculty Success
• Exploring AI In Practice Across the Academy

Call for session proposals will go out in February 2025.

Getting Started: Tips for Using myCourses 

RIT’s learning management system, myCourses, offers a number of features which faculty can leverage to increase efficiency in course preparation and delivery. Here are a few tips which are helpful at the start of the semester:

• Course Merge: If you are teaching more than one section of the same course, you can merge the sections together to save course development time.
• Course Copy: Pull previous course content and assignments forward into the new semester - no need to reinvent the wheel!
• Course Calendar: Student feedback indicates that using this feature helps to keep them on track in your course.

The CTL team is always happy to meet with faculty and review the features of myCourses which help to streamline course management.

Join a Teaching Circle this Spring

We are pleased to announce eight exciting Teaching Circles for Spring semester 2025. A teaching circle is a small group of faculty and teaching staff who meet regularly on-campus and/or Zoom to explore and discuss a current teaching and learning topic.

Upcoming Events

Full list of events on the CTL Events webpage.

Teaching Strategies

TA Training - Intro to Being a TA (Option 1)
JAN 16 | Join us to learn more about being an undergraduate Teaching Assistant (TA). This session is offered twice with the same content. Please only attend one session. 

TA Training - Intro to Being a TA (Option 2)
JAN 17 | Join us to learn more about being an undergraduate Teaching Assistant (TA). This session is offered twice with the same content. Please only attend one session. 

Measuring Success: Writing Effective Course Learning Outcomes
JAN 23 | Join Garret Arcoraci, CTL Faculty Fellow, and CTL staff for a discussion on strategies that can help you to write measurable course learning outcomes. Using Blooms Taxonomy, we will compare examples of course learning outcomes as well as evaluate the learning outcomes for your own course. Bring a syllabus (or two) with you! 

Multi-Modal Assignment Design: Can project-based learning improve student engagement?  
JAN 28 | Join CTL staff to explore the RIT tools that can support multi-modal assignment design, including video assignments, and consider the ways that project-based learning might increase student engagement. 

Running an Early/Mid-Semester Student Feedback Survey
JAN 30 | Collecting student feedback early in the term using myCourses Survey, Google Forms, or Qualtrics can provide insights for improving teaching and learning in your current course(s).

Teaching Tools

Gradescope: A tool that can speed up grading
JAN 21 | Gradescope allows instructors to be more efficient when grading handwritten activities such as worksheets, quizzes, and tests with partial credit. Gradescope does this by helping to bucket similar responses together, allowing instructors to consistently apply the same points and feedback for similar submissions. This session is an introduction to Gradescope, focusing on getting started and using Gradescope with myCourses.

How Gradescope Can Help You Grade Faster
FEB 5 | Learn about the benefits of Gradescope from instructors who have used this tool in their courses. Bring your questions! We encourage you to also join us for "Gradescope: A tool that can speed up grading" for a tutorial on setting up activities in Gradescope and using Gradescope with myCourses.

Using Intelligent Agents in myCourses to Improve Teaching Efficiency
FEB 11 | Intelligent Agents in myCourses can help you support student success and manage your workload more efficiently. This powerful feature automates communication and reporting based on student activity within your course.

Looking for Customized Support?

Tools for Teaching

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) supports faculty in using a variety of academic technologies. These three tools are a good addition to core tools like myCourses. Visit our website to learn more.