2016

Letters from the Advisor - November/December 2016

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 20:17:35 +0000

Letters from the Advisor - November/December 2016 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/28/2016 - 13:17

Dear Colleagues in Arts & Sciences,

ASSETT offers professional development options to faculty interested in implementing technology that will impact the academic success of their students.

I am particularly interested in the Faculty Fellows program because it gives diverse faculty members the opportunity to learn about teaching successes and challenges within and among departments. We are hoping that the program establishes and fosters stronger ties among faculty members across the college.

ASSETT has also developed teaching observation capabilities that are useful for faculty who are interested in gathering data to describe their teaching. The data can be used for more effective course revision and also for developing teaching dossiers that more accurately reflect the passion and effort involved in developing and teaching a course. Visit the VIP Service page to learn more.

Finally, on a more personal note, I have learned a lot about the challenges, commitments, and passions of different faculty members from across the college by being a part of the excellent ASSETT team. I want to thank my colleagues for their headlong engagement in the scholarly pursuit of teaching excellence.

Sincerely yours,

Andrew Martin
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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TTAP Program Fall Highlights

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 19:25:55 +0000

TTAP Program Fall Highlights Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/22/2016 - 12:25

Student Fellows (SFs) working for the Teaching Technology Assistance Program (TTAP) were busy this fall semester helping Arts and Sciences faculty across campus. The TTAP program is a new initiative that was launched this fall, with the goal of enhancing the classroom experience for both faculty and students. The following is a brief synopsis of the exciting work that TTAP helped support:

Kubi - Student Fellow Austin Chau supported the use of Kubi technology in Susanna Pérez-Pàmies classes in the Spanish & Portuguese department. The Kubi is a remotely controlled tablet or iPad stand, which greatly enhances video conferencing. This pilot explored Kubi’s capability in allowing students to attend class remotely. Austin was integral to the success of the program, supporting Susanna and her students.
Online Presentation Tools - Austin also supported History professor Vilja Hulden and her students by introducing online presentation tools, as well as tips on effective presentations in her classroom. He continued his support by being an “outside expert,” giving students feedback on their presentations.
Wordpress and Google Maps - Student Fellow Jake Brauchler supported the use of Wordpress and Google maps for History professor, Anne Lester. Over the course of several classroom visits, Jake helped guide Anne’s students in setting up their own Wordpress sites, and also showed them how to integrate Google maps, videos and images into their blogging sites.
Wikipedia - Austin held a workshop for PhD candidate Emily Frazier-Rath’s German class this fall. During this workshop, Austin helped support student’s learning on how to edit Wikipedia articles, as well as helping them understand the formatting and citing standards.
Upcoming Projects - The TTAP program is also looking forward to supporting Theater professor Beth Osnes during the Spring 2017 semester. Her course, “Creative Climate Communication” offered this spring, will bring together theater, discussion about climate change and technology, and a Student Fellow from the TTAP program will help facilitate this exciting project.

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Dr. Anne Lester Integrates Wordpress & Google Maps in HIST 1800

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:02:02 +0000

Dr. Anne Lester Integrates Wordpress & Google Maps in HIST 1800 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/21/2016 - 09:02

This month’s faculty spotlight celebrates Dr. Anne Lester’s work to innovate HIST 1800 - Introduction to Global History. Lester developed an opportunity for students to share what they are learning while also developing their technology skills with WordPress and Google Maps. WordPress is a web-based tool for creating websites and blogs which enables students to develop writing skills for a variety of purposes and audiences. Google Maps allows students to cultivate a spatial understanding of regions the class focused on, in this case, to become familiar with the vast extent of the Silk Road during the premodern period. Students articulated and published their insights online to share with peers.

Dr. Lester led the students through a process of using analytical academic writing to create research essays focused on different topics throughout the semester and then turn that technical writing into informal blog posts. This process enables students to continue working on their formal writing techniques yet finessing an ability to translate that into conversational pieces that explain historical concepts for a wider audience. Giving students the opportunity to create research-based content for an online blog also helps bolsters students’ ability to think critically when reading blog articles in their daily lives. These valuable communication skills transfer to multiple real workplace scenarios and prepares students for engaged citizenship.

Student Fellow Perspective
Reflection by Jacob Brauchler

I aided with researching and explaining how to use WordPress, as well as techniques for how to properly cite information found on other websites and blog posts. WordPress is an excellent choice because it is a widely used blogging and website building tool. It also has a robust online help forum that supports students’ ease in using it. After discussing with Dr. Lester the specifics of what she hoped to accomplish, I visited her class multiple times throughout the semester in order to teach different techniques that students would need and to aid in supporting their use of a new technology. In my presentations to the class, I explained the process of creating their own blog site, addressed how to add images and videos to a blog post, instructed them on how to embed maps, and answered questions for the group as a whole. I also worked individually with specific students to help them problem-solve challenges they faced with Wordpress.

From my perspective as a 3rd year Computer Science student, it’s really important to celebrate professors who integrate new technologies into the classroom to make learning more obviously relevant to students’ lives. Digital literacy is a 21st-century skill-set that takes time to learn and practice and I enjoyed seeing students develop these skills in this project. I look forward to helping other professors innovate in their classes in the future.

Authors: Jacob Brauchler, Tara Gilboa

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SIG - Faculty Collaborate to Develop Critical Thinking Opportunities

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 15:48:52 +0000

SIG - Faculty Collaborate to Develop Critical Thinking Opportunities Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/21/2016 - 08:48

This semester, 10 faculty from across the college of Arts and Sciences participated in a Special Interest Group (SIG) on Encouraging and Developing Students’ Critical Thinking Skills. From readings and discussions, to student personas, to development of specific student activities; participants have been highly engaged in creating significant critical thinking learning experiences for their students. Due to popular demand, we’ll offer this SIG again during Spring 17. Please apply and include your available times to meet.

We recognize these Fall 16 Participants for their commitment to the continuous improvement of teaching and learning:

Bilge Birsoy, Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology
Doug Duncan, Program of Writing and Rhetoric
Nicole Jobin, Sewell RAP
Henry Lovejoy, History
Suzanne Magnanini, French and Italian
David Paradis, History
Kathryn Plath, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Julian Resasco, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Petger Schaberg, Program of Writing and Rhetoric
Andrew Martin, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Definitions of Critical Thinking by our participants.

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Tech of the Month - November 2016 - PlayPosit

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Tech of the Month - November 2016 - PlayPosit Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/01/2016 - 00:00

Did you know you can embed quizzes in video content and track student interactions with your videos?

PlayPosit is an interactive video tool that allows you to customize the student experience by laying your own custom lesson (quiz questions, text prompts, images, etc.) over video content. Using video from YouTube or other sources, you can add images, text, or a variety of quiz questions, share the lesson with your students for completion, and then monitor student activity and engagement through the analytics collected by the platform. The in-video quiz tools also allow you to incorporate feedback and can be an excellent platform for formative assessment. In Fall 2015, the Academic Technology Design Team (ATDT) began an isolated pilot of one promising interactive video tool, Zaption, in the redesign of Introduction to Engineering (COEN 1500), an 800 student hybrid course. Based on the success in COEN 1500, ATDT expanded this pilot in Spring 2016 to include a large (800 student) BCOR course out of Leeds School of Business taught by Mike Willis as well as PSYC 2145 (94 students) and PSYC 2606 (15 students) taught by Shaw Ketels. While the Spring 2016 pilots were successful, that specific tool is no longer available to educators. We are now excited to further explore PlayPosit as a solution for the �� Boulder campus. The ATDT is piloting PlayPosit as an interactive video tool solution for the �� Boulder campus. If you’d like to participate in our Spring 2017 PlayPosit pilot, contact the ATDT. For more information, please visit the PlayPosit Pilot webpage.

November, 2016

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Tips & Tricks - November 2016 - Anti-Sets & Closures

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Tips & Tricks - November 2016 - Anti-Sets & Closures Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/01/2016 - 00:00

Whether you teach large lectures with 200+ students or classes of less than ten, this tip is for you. “Anti-Sets” and “Closures” require very little investment of time to create (Can you spare five minutes?) and ensure students are critically thinking about your course material. Think of them as a “warm-up” and a “cool-down” during the first and last couple of minutes of class. They also offer students a guaranteed point of self-reflection and self-assessment during class, building metacognition. If you have lecture slides, I recommend adding a first and last slide with your selected “Anti-set” and “Closure” activities. Below are two examples as well as a chart with six categories of activities/structures to select from when designing your own.

(Click on Image to Open | by Dr. Marti)

The first pair is from a science course. The anti-set is the first slide students see as the walk in the room and the closure is the last slide shown during the last couple of minutes of class. When these slides come up, you train your students to write for the time alloted to them.

(Click on Image to Open | by Tara Gilboa)

The second pair are examples from a professional development workshop about "Building Community" in your classroom for faculty. In reference to the categories of activities/structures below, this Anti-Set is from the “Essential Skills/Structures” column and is an example of “Multi-leveled open ended questions.” The double diamond extension offers both an “Organizing Thinking” example should students create a "Graph" or “Symbol” example should they chose to draw a comic strip. The closure is a classic “3-2-1” example from the “Organizing Thinking” category.

For my ideas for how to structure anti-sets and closures please click on the chart below. Interested in implementing this trick in your course next semester? Contact a Teaching & Learning Consultant with ASSETT to get started.

(Click on Image to Open)

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Letter from the Advisor - October 2016

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Letter from the Advisor - October 2016 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/20/2016 - 00:00

October 20th, 2016

Dear colleagues in Arts & Sciences,

ASSETT is finding its way into the professional lives of many faculty with positive effects on professional development and promoting community across diverse departments within the College. The first SIG session on critical thinking attracted professors and instructors from across the college and there was a lively discussion that centered, in part, on the similarities and differences in the defining characteristics of critical thinking among different domains of thinking and knowing the world: the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. I attended this event and look forward to collaborations across departments as we learn how to teach and assess critical thinking. The event also added some color to my growing network of interactions I have had around substantive teaching issues since the semester began. I’m also taking advantage of the Teaching Technology Assistance Program and having a Student Fellow support me in using iBook Author in my class. If you’re interested in implementing a technology into your class, I encourage you reach out to ASSETT to learn more!

The faculty fellows program was launched and we look forward to working with individuals on advancing the development of community around teaching and the positive role that technology can play in elevating discourse, interactions, and achievement in a variety of different contexts and department across the College.

Sincerely yours,

Andrew Martin, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Tech of the Month - October 2016 - Hypothes.is

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Tech of the Month - October 2016 - Hypothes.is Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 10/01/2016 - 00:00

How might we encourage students’ to engage in course materials? Well, if your goal is to guide students in thinking more critically and reading online texts more deeply (PDF or web article), than Hypothesi.is might be right up your alley. It’s a tool for annotating online texts that encourages students to read, facilitates deeper understanding through social reading with their peers, and prepares students’ for class discussion. Follow these steps to get set-up and try it for yourself, visit the hypothes.is website, or email us assett@colorado.edu and we’ll have a Student Fellow set your students up for success with Hypothes.is for you!

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Tips & Tricks - October 2016 - Accessibility

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Tips & Tricks - October 2016 - Accessibility Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 10/01/2016 - 00:00

“How to: Increase Accessibility in your course”

There are several options and resources available for making your course accessible and user-friendly for all learners! Learn more about OIT’s Universal Design service and check out the calendar of events for more information on events focusing on skills to build your accessible authoring toolkit. One hot tip that is true for both documents and presentations: stop using the “insert text box” tool! Computers read such text boxes as images, not text, which makes anything you put inside them invisible to a screen reader user. Be sure to use the default layouts instead to design your materials. Want to find out more or see a demonstration of this tip in action? Weekly Tuesday open office hours and Friday learner’s lunches are great opportunities to explore what accessibility tips like this really mean in practice, how Universal Design can build an inclusive environment, and how you can create an accessibility roadmap toward alignments with the �� Accessibility Policy.

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Tech of the Month - September 2016 - Slack

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Tech of the Month - September 2016 - Slack Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/01/2016 - 00:00

How might we help our students communicate in teams even when they are out of the classroom?The phrase, ‘my students are slacking,’ doesn’t usually roll of an instructor’s tongue with a positive connotation. However, for instructors using the communication tool, Slack, it may be perfectly fine for students to be slacking - or communicating. Slack is a team-based, highly collaborative, messaging tool. Users can synchronously communicate with one another via open and private channels, or direct messaging. Slack also features an easy drag and drop system to share files with other team members. Conversations within Slack are searchable and archivable. And, Slack conveniently integrates with other tools such as Google Docs and Trello. This versatile tool and can be used in a number of ways. Students can create their own team in slack and use this as a private communication platform to collaborate on a class project. Or faculty can create a class instance, and use Slack as a main communication tool. While this tool works great in the classroom, it works well as a communications platform for academic groups, such as student groups, communication between TAs and GAs, or even between colleagues. If you’re interested in learning more about Slack go to http://www.slack.com to sign up for a team or visit their getting started documentation. Happy slacking!

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2016

Letters from the Advisor - November/December 2016

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TTAP Program Fall Highlights

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Dr. Anne Lester Integrates Wordpress & Google Maps in HIST 1800

Student Fellow PerspectiveReflection by Jacob Brauchler

Authors: Jacob Brauchler, Tara Gilboa

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SIG - Faculty Collaborate to Develop Critical Thinking Opportunities

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Tech of the Month - November 2016 - PlayPosit

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Tips & Tricks - November 2016 - Anti-Sets & Closures

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Letter from the Advisor - October 2016

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Tech of the Month - October 2016 - Hypothes.is

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Tips & Tricks - October 2016 - Accessibility

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Tech of the Month - September 2016 - Slack

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Student Fellow Perspective
Reflection by Jacob Brauchler