The Center for Teaching & Learning

Message From the CTL Director

Faculty Focused:

• The rewards—and risks—of sharing failure stories
  

Student-Centered:

• Importance of Student Retention
  
• Moving Away from Expensive Textbooks

Equity Emphasized:

• Communication Accommodation with Individuals from Different Cultural Backgrounds
• BLM and Palestine: What they have in common

Online Oasis:

• The First 15 Seconds: Hooking Online Students
  

Scheduled (more details below)

• April 10th: Webinar: You Must Remember This: Using the Science of Memory to Support Learning in a Wired World
• April 11th: Webinar: Experiential Education for All
• April 11th: 3MT
  
• April 15th: SPIRE Symposium
• April 30th: Continuing the Conversation

Happy April!

As we head into the last full month of the semester, it's a great time to take a look at your courses' objectives. How well have the students learned what you set out to do? What small changes might make a significant impact? We're also deep into advising appointments for the summer/fall. Be sure to check in with your advisees beyond their course selection. Take a moment to ask questions like: What's working/not working? What are some new strategies you plan to try to help with stress? How do you take care of yourself when you're becoming overwhelmed? How do the people you choose to spend time with show support for your goals? Showing interest in our students' lives takes just a few moments and makes a big difference in student success.

April 10th is the deadline for linked courses for our new core curriculum--Heart, Mind, and Hands. Please reach out to me or Dr. Paige Eager if you have any questions about the linked courses or any other part of the new core. We are here to help!

This month, please support the work of our students by participating in one or both of these upcoming interdisciplinary events:

• 3MT Competition: Thursday, April 11th, 5:30pm, online. The 9th Annual 3MT Competition is a fun way to learn what our graduate students have been researching.
• SPIRE Symposium: Monday, April 15th. As an alternate day of instructor, faculty are encouraged to send students to view posters and presentations in lieu of class. Students can sign in via Handshake to verify attendance, and learn from a wide variety of disciplines.

“Karen L. Helgers said in an email that students often believe that struggling in a course or two makes them a failure. Their professors, after all, have always been successful — or so the students think. Helgers, an associate professor of earth science at SUNY Ulster County Community College, shares her story in part to help them get past these assumptions. ‘I share with them that I have ADHD, and that I was on academic probation my sophomore year... I then tell them how I improved my academic performance.’” To read other examples, click here.

The CTL has a dedicated bookshelf space in the Library Commons for CTL resources and materials! Feel free to check out these books and return them when you are finished. If you would like the CTL to order other materials to increase our repository, contact Kerri Eyler with your request.

According to a new article in The Chronicle by Karin Fischer, “The reasons that students leave college are many and complicated. Some find themselves academically unprepared, laboring to keep up with their coursework, while others can’t shoulder the costs. Some are directionless, racking up a hodgepodge of credits with no clear idea of what to study; others flounder socially or struggle with mental-health challenges.” To read the full article, click here.

Evidence shows that open educational resources can reduce costs for students, improve completion rates and increase the number of credits students take each term. In this article from Higher Ed Dive, explore the pros and cons of using open educational resources in the classroom. To read more, click here. If you’re interested in adopting OER for your courses, please reach out to us at ctl@hood.edu!

According to Wahed and Palmer-Wackerly in a recent Faculty Focus article, “When members of different cultural backgrounds interact, they are potentially opposed to each other because of their different expectations/perceptions, creating a clear sense of “us” and “them” (Gallois, Watson, and Giles, 2018). Such communication can be tense and hostile, and it can descend into overt discrimination and misunderstandings. Thus, understanding and negotiating intercultural conflict is imperative to resolving misunderstandings.” In this article, they describe an activity that “allows students to leave their comfort zone and learn to accommodate different cultural norms/perceptions.” To access the activity, click here.

In the U.S., supporters of Black Lives Matter have voiced their support for pro-Palestinian causes. As Rachel Uda explained in an article last fall, college students’ engagement in this conflict is high. In this provocative opinion piece from The Commentary, Wilfred Reilly states: “Achieving what is presumably every sane person’s end-game goal—actual improvements in the lot of currently troubled communities—will require total rejection of trendy oppressor v. oppressed narratives and demand a hard focus on what the actual problems in each case are.” To read his full column, click here. Please share your experiences of talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with us at ctl@hood.edu or join our final Continuing the Conversation event on April 30th. See below for more information.

“Imagine you have eight to 15 seconds to impress someone you meet for the first time. That’s how long you have to hook your online students and make them feel welcome in your class. This is crucial for setting the tone and establishing your presence as an instructor. But how do you do this when you teach a course you did not design, have 30 plus students per section, and face your own participation requirements as an instructor?” To read five strategies from Faculty Focus, click here.

UMBC is excited to welcome Dr. Michelle Miller, who will be visiting us virtually from Northern Arizona University on Wednesday, April 10 from 12:00 - 1:15 p.m. She will present “You Must Remember This: Using the Science of Memory to Support Learning in a Wired World.” This presentation will draw on her new book Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology: Teaching, Learning, and the Science of Memory in a Wired World (West Virginia University Press, 2022).

The full details can be found in the announcement below. Please note that there is no registration for this event. Simply add the event to your calendar and join using the event link.

On Wednesday, April 10th at 2pm, join Inside Higher Ed Editors Colleen Flaherty and Doug Lederman and experts from the University of Mississippi, Arizona State University and University of Michigan for an informative webcast that will explore how artificial intelligence is being deployed to boost teaching and learning in college and university classrooms, and how and whether this aligns with the science—or lack thereof—on AI and how students learn. This webcast will delve into compelling case studies, an expert panel discussion and an audience Q&A period.

Click here to register.

In this Virtual Forum on April 11th at 2pm, experts will discuss the impact experiential learning has on students socially and in how they learn. How can colleges and universities improve the reach of these offerings to students and address the challenges that remain in equity among students?

Register for “Experiential Education for All”

The 3MT competition was founded in 2008 by the University of Queensland in Australia and is now held at more than 350 colleges and universities across 59 countries worldwide. At Hood, graduate students present their research projects each spring in three minutes using just one PowerPoint slide. No other resources or props are allowed. Students are judged on clarity, pace, audience engagement and stage presence. All audience members are then welcome to cast their votes for best presentation. There is a judge’s winner and two People’s Choice Awards.

To attend and participate in this fun 3MT event, please click here to receive your Zoom link, and be sure to share the link broadly with your colleagues and students—all of whom will be eligible to win prizes during the trivia rounds.

Join in the celebration of student, staff, and faculty research, innovation and more at the annual SPIRE Symposium. Check your email for more information!

Faculty/staff posters and presentations alongside students' posters at 9am and 1:15pm in Whitaker. Student presentations, including departmental honors presentations, happen throughout the day in the Library.

• Michelle Gricus, Associate Professor of Social Work, Director of the CTL
• April Boulton, Associate Professor of Biology & Dean of Graduate School
  
• Catherine Breneman, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Ashley Coen, Assistant Professor of Education
• Paige Eager, Professor of Political Science, Dean of Faculty
• Jessica McManus, Assistant Professor of Psychology
  
• Heather Mitchell-Buck, Associate Professor of English; Coordinator of Digital Learning
• Katherine Orloff, Associate Professor of Journalism
• Kathryn Ryberg, Reference & Education Services Librarian
• Atiya Smith, Assistant Professor of Psychology & Counseling
• Jill Tysse, Associate Professor of Mathematics
  
• Jeff Welsh, Director of Instructional Technology in the IT division
• Adam Weintraub, Graduate Assistant for the CTL

Email: CTL@hood.edu
Website: www.hood.edu/CTL
Location: Hood College, 401 Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD
Phone: (301) 696-3397