WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Academic Integrity Workshop - Critical Conversations with Students
Langsam Librarians Pam Bach and Barb Macke facilitate this program designed to help UC faculty and GTAs engage our students in conversations about academic integrity and plagiarism.

We will examine what your students already know about academic integrity and where they get their information, and we'll consider what they need to know in order to critically converse about plagiarism. Our facilitators will offer some ideas for engaging students in discussions about this topic and will make available a variety of resources for both students and faculty as we wrestle with these principles.

Active Learning & Student Feedback
This workshop is part presentation (taking perhaps thirty minutes) and part round-table discussion (for another thirty minutes). We will discuss the theories around active learning and student feedback, but we also take time to share our perspectives and experiences.

The Art & Science of Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration
We will discuss the challenges and opportunities of multi-disciplinary learning experiences. Faculty from DAAP, Engineering, Business, and the IP office will share their experiences developing and managing multi-disciplinary experiences/courses within their programs.

Communicate with Elluminate
Elluminate provides a synchronous, web-based communication interface for a real time virtual classroom and collaboration in academic institutions. It can be used for live online teaching, conferencing, training, tutoring or any other collaborative work. The sessions of Elluminate Live can also be archived for asynchronous delivery. This session, lead by Sujata Prakash, is an introduction to Elluminate software, and is primarily for the moderator of an Elluminate session. It will cover function of its various tools, including, Whiteboard, Audio and Video Broadcast, Text Messaging, Application Sharing and Quiz Master. In addition, it will briefly cover the participant role.

Course Digitization
This class will show some easy to use tools offered through the Faculty Technology Resource Center (FTRC) and Instructional Design (ID) to convert or create digital materials and assignments. This session will be a survey of tools and is intended to provide participants an array of options that may best fit their course needs.

Creating a Productive Summer
Summers can be a wonderfully refreshing and a wonderfully productive time; but without proper planning, our bright hopes for the summer break can quickly deteriorate into a black hole of procrastination and guilt. This session, specifically desgined to address the needs of Graduate Teaching Assistants, provides UC GTAs with the hands-on tools to create workable summer schedules that will assist us in accomplishing both academic and personal goals.

Creating Effective Capstone Courses
This workshop will focus on how to organize a capstone course so that (1) students have a strong sense of the connections between learning goals and assessment measures throughout their capstone experience; and (2) instructors can assess both their students' learning and their students' achievement of the baccalaureate competencies that mark successful capstone experiences. We will also examine how experiential exercises or projects might facilitate student learning and capstone assessments. 

Creating Effective Oral Assignments
This session will look at how to incorporate oral presentations into the classroom in a way that they provide a valuable learning experience for both the student presenter and the audience.  The session we will consider the following: what kinds of assignments work well for oral presentations, how to structure an oral assignment, tips for helping your students prepare oral presentations, tips for helping the inexperienced speaker gain confidence, and the role of the audience in an oral presentation. Session participants will learn some basic presentation techniques and come away with information that will help them develop their own strategies to effectively incorporate the use of oral presentation into their courses.

Developing and Writing your Philosophy of Teaching (GTAs Only)
You have the skills and the vision to teach, but many colleges ask that you articulate your philosophy of teaching as part ofyour job application. What will you write? How long should it be? What's too boring because everyone says it? What's too lofty because it sounds foolhardy? You'll emerge from this workshop with the guidelines, ideas, and resources to develop and write your philosophy of teaching.

Engaging Undergraduates in Meaningful Research   In this panel session, faculty who successfully engage students in research will discuss their strategies and then open the session up for questions.  This will be a great time to brain storm on getting undergraduate students involved and passionate about research. 

Getting Your Video on the Web
Want to join the grassroots video movement already exploding on the web? We can teach you how to create new videos, upload content you already have onto the web, integrate your video with BlackBoard, create  your own video website, or simply start a single video streaming.

We'll also review some different program options and discuss why one format may work better than another for your needs. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned video veteran, we're here to assist you with your video needs.

This is not a hands-on session, but we'll try to provide a comprehensive overview and answer your questions. What's more, we'll happily arrange one-on-one sessions to assist youa s you implement your projects.

Interactive Learning with StudyMate
Students respond well to study aids they can access anytime and anyplace; if those study aids also provide feedback that supports students' learning processes, then learning increases. StudyMate is a software tool enabling instructors to create various types of Flash-based, interactive, and engaging study aids that can then be made accessible to students via BlackBoard.

StudyMate uses simple templates with which to create these engaging activities; it can also import already created items from MS Word files and from publishers' test banks. Studymate is published by the same company that brings us Respondus; so if you've already used Respondus to create tests or surveys for your classes, then learning and using StudyMate should be a breeze.

This is a hands-on session in which you'll practice a new kind of interactive tool with which to further engage your students.

Intermediate Blackboard Tools
This workshop will cover an array of Blackboard features that facilitate course communication and file management.  This program will be especially useful for those teaching large section classes or faculty who have similar courses each term.  Topics include: using the assignment manager, using mobile messaging to communicate with students, uploading your class syllabus to Learning Opportunities, and copying, archiving, and exporting courses.

Personal Response System (PRS)
The Personal response system (PRS) provides instructors with an electronic way to interact with students. Through small remote devices instructors can poll their students, ensure key learning points are being absorbed, take attendance, or give low-stakes quizzes. This session will show instructors 1) the hardware and software tools needed for PRS, 2) how instructors and students access those tools and 3) ways to integrate PRS into your existing classroom pedagogies.

PFF: Sharpening Your Edge Beyond Grad School

Podcasting Basics
This session will discuss what podcasting is, how it works, and what you need to do to get started.  It will also cover the integration of podcasting into UC's Blackboard system in Winter Quarter 2007 and the benefits of using this innovative new technique to support either your traditional on-campus class or a distance learning course. Join us for this informative session to discover how you can connect with the iPod generation in your courses. 

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
Problem-Based Learning is an instructional strategy that promotes active, self-directed learning, analytical reasoning, and the development of collaborative problem-solving skills. In this session, the UC Director of PBL, Ellen Lynch (CECH), and two members of the UC PBL Steering Committee, Margaret Cheatham (RWC) and Tracy Herrmann (RWC), will provide an overview of PBL including the development of PBL problems and issues related to facilitating groups and performing assessments in a variety of disciplines. Participants will be given ample time for questions and answers and handouts will be provided. The presenters encourage attendees to visit http://www.uc.edu/pbl/index.shtml for more information.

Respondus
Respondus is a software tool for creating and managing exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to Blackboard (Bb).  This workshop will demonstrate how this software tool can be used to facilitate exam or survey creation in Bb.  Other web-based surveying options may also be discussed.

Second Life Intro for Educators
Second Life is an exciting new venue for collaboration, training, distance learning, new media studies, and marketing. The University of Cincinnati's Second Life Learning Community is busy exploring how to create an innovative learning environment for students and faculty; explore new tools and techniques for information and scientific visualization; design collaborative meeting spaces and interact with colleagues from across the globe. Whether you're thinking of enriching an existing curriculum or experimenting with completely new educational goals, consider Second Life as a platform for innovation.

SMART Board
Learn to use a portable interactive electronic whiteboard to facilitate instruction, student learning, and assessment in mathematics, statistics, and physics courses. This session examines pedagogical implications, benefits, and challenges of using interactive whiteboards for teaching and learning.

Student Motivation (GTAs)
One of the greatest challenges educators face is how best to inspire student motivation and ensure active participation. Three distinguished professors from the University of Cincinnati Department of Psychology lead a panel discussion on the difficulties facing today's instructors and tried and true methods for overcoming them. 

SurveyMonkey for Teaching & Research
In this session we’ll demonstrate a commercially available tool, SurveyMonkey, which provides an alternative to the Blackboard assessment system. It is an inexpensive and versatile tool you can use for a variety of survey and assessment needs.

Surviving & Thriving with Course Evaluations
We all know the problem: The quarter is over, the course evaluations are in, and somehow they don't feel at all like the course we just finished teaching. So this workshop will consider some other approaches, some ways in which course evaluations can help instructors to assess their teaching in order to make adjustments, judge if students are achieving the course goals, measure whether or not the course fits with departmental goals, and prepare strong files for promotion and tenure. Participants will end up with specific suggestions and tools for some immediate steps to implement more survivable and thrivable strategies.

Syllabus Development
In this session, we will explore some key aspects of course development through two quite different approaches: Syllabus design. This is the practical, applied, tool-oriented approach, the attention to specific details and choice of language, the careful dance between a fine-print legal contract and a generous invitation to the course. Significant learning. This is the theoretical, conceptual, idea-oriented approach, based on Dee Fink's recent book and driven by the haunting sense that none of our practical tools are finally going to work as we had hoped.

Teaching 101 (GTAs)
In this interactive session, we will discuss ideas for effectively managing the classroom – helping you keep the focus on learning for each class meeting.  Topics will include setting the tone for your course, preparing for the first day, and developing systems for attendance, communication, and assignments.

Teaching 102 (GTAs)
This session will focus on the teaching strategies for maintaining interactive class sessions throughout the quarter.  We will discuss approaches for keeping the class energized, encouraging student participation, and facilitating group discussions. 

Teaching 103 (GTAs)
The final session in our series will highlight teaching beyond the lecture, including discussions about assessment, interactive technologies, sensitive classroom issues, and disabilities awareness.

Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities
Higher education in the US is committed to access for all. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), more students with learning disabilites have entered post-secondary programs. The intent of the law is to provide reasonable accommodations that grant students access (remove barriers) without reducing educational challenge. Facilitating this session is Stephen Kroeger, PhD, a UC professor teaching in CECH's Special Education program; Professor Kroeger will lead us in a discussion regarding the challenges facing all stakeholders, and he'll offer instructional strategies for overcoming obstacles to providing access without reducing the critical challenges that improve student learning. 

Time Management
This a two hour hands-on workshop which we hope will result in 1) reduced stress, 2) an increased feeling of accomplishment, and 3) improved effectiveness.  It will cover how to more effectively schedule your time, control interruptions, control piles of paper, control office clutter, and better manage calls, emails and files.

Transition to Blackboard 7
Under the instruction of UCit experts, you will learn about new tools to support your teaching using Blackboard7.  The new system includes better ways to bookmark and share websites (Scholar), a program that allows for distance learning aided by webcams, audio, instant messaging and a fully interactive whiteboard (Elluminate), ways to automatically monitor and notify students who are having difficulty in your course, new testing options, and upgraded Discussion Board. 

UCosmic—UC's Online System for Managing International Collaboration.                               
UCosmic is an ongoing attempt to comprehensively map UC’s international activities and is conceived as a system that allows faculty, students, administrators, and the community to better identify research and teaching opportunities and more quickly implement international activities. UCosmic is a work in progress, so this workshop invites you to offer your feedback and ideas to help shape UCosmic's future.

Web 2.0 for Educators (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Blogs, Wikis)
"Web 2.0" refers to the second generation of web-based communities and hosted services – such as social-networking sites – which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to updated technical specifications but to changes in the ways we can now use webs. This workshop visits the methods by which educators can harness these new uses to improve their teaching and their students' learning. Upon leaving this session, program participants will be encouraged to experiment with Web 2.0 tools in their courses.