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The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
The National Association of System Heads (NASH)
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC)
The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and
The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE)

Invite leaders, faculty and staff across higher education for focused and practical discussions on:

Effective Online Instruction

Higher education has made an astonishing national transition to online learning. Traditional classrooms may be closed across campuses, but class is still in session, as faculty have gone above and beyond to ensure that their students keep learning.

Yet moving a course online—like being assigned to a classroom—is just the start.

Join nationally recognized experts in online teaching and learning for a virtual discussion on best-practices in key areas to ensure quality online instruction for student success.

Confirmed experts include: Flower Darby, Kevin Gannon, April Mondy, Viji Sathy, Alyson Snowe, Michael Wesch and more.

LEARN MORE (https//acue.org/webinars)

Webinar topics, dates, and times:

Welcoming Students to your Online Environment, Thursday, April 2, 2020, 2:00pm ET, (recording)

Managing your Online Presence,  Monday, April 6, 2020, 2:00pm ET (recording)

Organizing your Online Courses Thursday, April 9, 2:00pm ET (recording)

Planning and Facilitating Quality Discussions Tuesday, April 14, 2:00pm ET (recording)

Recording Effective Micro-Lectures Friday, April 17, 2:00pm ET (recording)

Engaging Students in Readings and Micro-Lectures Monday, April 20, 2:00pm ET (recording)

These one-hour, live webinars will include Q&A with participants and will be recorded and hosted by ACUE. Additional open educational resources to support effective online teaching are being offered in conjunction with OpenStax. Implementation resources related to each topic are available from ACUE’s Online Teaching Toolkit.

Some interesting food for thought:

“For my colleagues who are now being instructed to put some or all of the remainder of their semester online, now is a time to do a poor job of it. You are NOT building an online class. You are NOT teaching students who can be expected to be ready to learn online. And, most importantly, your class is NOT the highest priority of their OR your life right now. Release yourself from high expectations right now, because that’s the best way to help your students learn.”

Full blog post

Call for Posters for the CTE’s Fifth Annual Teaching and Learning Day (March 27, 2020)

Deadline for proposal submissions:  March 13, 2020

Submit a poster proposal

 

The CTE’s Teaching & Learning Day is an annual event that showcases the fresh thinking and innovative strategies of GGC faculty and staff related to enhancing teaching and learning. Our fifth annual Teaching & Learning Day will consist of a poster session that provides a visual forum for individuals and groups to showcase innovative work related to teaching, learning, and technology, including but not limited to:

• course design (face to face and hybrid)
• assignment design
• engaged pedagogies (including experiential learning)
• assessment strategies
• research on teaching and learning
• efforts to enhance student success

This poster session provides an opportunity to reach a broad audience and initiate conversations with colleagues sharing similar interests.

We invite you to submit a proposal to present your work. Please complete the proposal form by Friday, March 13, 2020. Questions may be directed to the CTE at cente@ggc.edu.

Please see the FAQ here: Teaching and Learning Day FAQ

Schedule / Details:

Date:  March 27, 2020
Time:  12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location:  Heritage Room (on the 3rd Floor of the Kaufman Library)
For more information:  http://cte.ggc.edu/tlday/
Contact:  (678) 407-5100 or cente@ggc.edu

The latest newsletter for GGC’s Digital Learning Community is out! The general purpose of this newsletter is to facilitate connections and communication between GGC faculty and to highlight some of the interesting and innovative ways in which faculty are using digital technology in their courses. Take a look to see what some of your colleagues are doing, and let us know what you think!

Digital Learning @ GGC Newsletter – November 2019:  Adobe Spark version

Digital Learning @ GGC Newsletter – November 2019:  Microsoft Sway version

How are YOU using technology at GGC? Would you like to be featured in a future issue of this newsletter? Contact the CTE for more information.

Please mark your calendars to attend the GGC Reads launch event on Wednesday, September 25, from 2pm – 3pm in the Heritage Room of the Kaufman Library.

This year’s book, New York Time’s and Amazon best seller Educated by Tara Westover, is a memoir of the author’s life growing up in a survivalist family from Idaho. Westover had no formal schooling, but decided to apply and was accepted to Brigham Young University, awarded fellowships to Cambridge University and Harvard University, and obtained a PhD from Cambridge. Westover recounts her experiences including being totally unprepared for the educational, social, and cultural aspects of college. The book resonates with a variety of themes including what does it mean to be educated, resilience, strength-based identity, sense of loss and reconciliation, social integration, mental illness, naturalism, etc.

Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and Provost T.J. Arant will kick-off this event with an introduction, followed by a reading by Dr. Perry Dantzler, Assistant Professor of English and CTE Faculty Affiliate of Integrative Learning. A time for a short discussion of the book (e.g., themes, feedback from those who have read it, etc.) will conclude the program along with a social time with light refreshments available. Students will be able to get a free copy of the book at the end of this event.

We look forward to seeing you there and joining together in conversation through this shared experience. See you on Wednesday, September 25!

Barbara J. (Barb) Mann, MLIS
Dean of Library Services
Daniel J. Kaufman Library and Learning Center

Do you typically feel like you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions at once, with no time or energy to find your balance? Make a small (but potentially rewarding) investment in yourself this year and join us in the Center for Teaching Excellence for Mindful Mondays. These weekly mindfulness sessions are intended to give you a chance to just sit still and breathe for a while – to relax, de-stress, and re-center yourself.

Join us in the CTE for Mindful Mondays starting Monday, August 19th. We will have two sessions each Monday; one from 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m., and another from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Each hour will be broken into two half-hour periods; in the first half hour, a short introduction will be followed by a short guided meditation, which will be followed by a short period for reflection / comments / Q&A. In the second half hour, a 10 – 20 minute silent meditation will be followed by a short period for reflection / comments / Q&A.

If you have not yet gone through the introduction (or if would like to do so again), or if you simply prefer the guided meditation, feel free to join us for the first half of the session. If you have already been through the introduction and just want to come sit silently, feel free to join us for the second half of the session.

Schedule for the 9:30 a.m. session:

• 9:30 – 10:00 – introduction / instruction / guided meditation / reflection / comments / Q&A
• 10:00 – 10:30 – silent meditation / reflection / comments / Q&A

Schedule for the 1:30 p.m. session:

• 1:30 – 2:00 – introduction / instruction / guided meditation / reflection / comments / Q&A
• 2:00 – 2:30 – silent meditation / reflection / comments / Q&A

You do not have to stay for the full hour, or even for a full half hour – come for ten or fifteen minutes if you like, or for however long you are able to stay. If you have already participated in the introduction / instructions and would like more time to meditate, however, you’re welcome to continue sitting through the entire session. Complete beginners are welcome, as are experienced practitioners.

If you have any questions about Mindful Mondays, please contact the CTE.

The CTE Summer Institute provides an opportunity for GGC faculty to strengthen and enhance their teaching skills through a series of workshops on a variety of innovative and effective teaching practices. Feel free to sign up for any or all of the workshops listed below.

Tuesday, June 4th from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Learning Through Play With Reacting to the Past – Thomas Chase Hagood (UGA) and Naomi J. Norman (UGA)

Reacting to the Past (RTTP) courses employ different pedagogy than most traditional classes. Students learn by taking on roles in elaborate games set in the past; they practice skills – speaking, writing, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership, and teamwork – related to substantive issues and moments of conflict. Since its inception, RTTP has been utilized across First Year Experiences and honors courses and across a wide range of disciplines including: political science, geography, epidemiology, classics, mathematics, history, and much more. Participants will get an overview of this pedagogy and play the London 1854: Cesspits, Cholera and Conflict over the Broad Street Pump game to better understand how immersive role-play can engage students in a process that includes all the key elements of high-impact teaching and learning. A “post-mortem” and debriefing will assist participants in understanding how to adapt this RTTP across a range of curricular settings and majors to the benefit of students and faculty!

Wednesday, June 5th from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Constructive Conflict Engagement in Higher Education – Esther Jordan (KSU)

We all experience conflict in our lives, in our academic work and beyond. While some of us dread it and others thrive in it, there are principles from the literature in organizational psychology and conflict management that can make our conflict engagements more constructive. This workshop will provide an interactive introduction to some of those principles, an opportunity to apply them to a relevant case, and guided reflection for application in our own contexts, including teaching, research, service, and administrative work. While the emphasis in this session will be on conflict in the academy, the principles apply to the rest of our lives as well.

Thursday, June 6th from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Transparency in Learning and Teaching – Denise Pinette Domizi (USG) and Rod McRae (UWG)

Research shows that, with minimal training, faculty who make two course assignments “transparent” lead students to gains in academic achievement, academic confidence, sense of belonging, and mastery of those skills most valued by employers. Results are particularly strong with historically at-risk students. Based on the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TiLT) work of Mary-Ann Winkelmes, participants will learn and practice how to make an assignment transparent by clearly defining its purpose, the specific tasks students will perform, and criteria for success. The facilitators will model this process by helping participants work through sample assignments, and then their own assignments, to make them more transparent. Be sure to bring an assignment you have used in the past.

More information on the Summer Institute

Do you typically feel like you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions at once, with no time or energy to find your balance? Make a small (but potentially rewarding) investment in yourself this summer and join us in the Center for Teaching Excellence for Mindful Mondays. These weekly mindfulness sessions are intended to give you a chance to just sit still and breathe for a while – to relax, de-stress, and re-center yourself.

So are you interested in trying this out for yourself? Then join us in the CTE this summer for Mindful Mondays, starting Monday, June 17th. We will have two sessions each Monday; one from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., and another from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Each hour will be broken into two half-hour periods, during which a short introduction will be followed by a short meditation, which will be followed by a short period for reflection / comments / Q&A.

Schedule for the 10:00 a.m. session:

• 10:00 – 10:10 – introduction / instruction
• 10:10 – 10:20 – mindfulness meditation
• 10:20 – 10:30 – reflection / comments / Q&A
• 10:30 – 10:40 – introduction / instruction
• 10:40 – 10:50 – mindfulness meditation
• 10:50 – 11:00 – reflection / comments / Q&A

Schedule for the 2:00 p.m. session:

• 2:00 – 2:10 – introduction / instruction
• 2:10 – 2:20 – mindfulness meditation
• 2:20 – 2:30 – reflection / comments / Q&A
• 2:30 – 2:40 – introduction / instruction
• 2:40 – 2:50 – mindfulness meditation
• 2:50 – 3:00 – reflection / comments / Q&A

You do not have to stay for the full hour, or even for a full half hour – come for ten or fifteen minutes if you like, or for however long you are able to stay. If you have already participated in the introduction / instructions and would like more time to meditate, however, you’re welcome to continue sitting through the entire session. Complete beginners are welcome, as are experienced practitioners.

If you have any questions about Mindful Mondays, please contact the CTE.

The latest newsletter for GGC’s Digital Learning Community is out! The general purpose of this newsletter is to facilitate connections and communication between GGC faculty and to highlight some of the interesting and innovative ways in which faculty are using digital technology in their courses. Take a look to see what some of your colleagues are doing, and let us know what you think!

 

Digital Learning @ GGC Newsletter – May 2019:  Adobe Spark version

Digital Learning @ GGC Newsletter – May 2019:  Microsoft Sway version

 

How are YOU using technology at GGC? Would you like to be featured in a future issue of this newsletter? Contact the CTE for more information.