Faculty Development Digest -November 2024

The Faculty Development Digest highlights events and resources that may be of interest to faculty and other educators on campus. The Digest will be posted on the Faculty Resources site periodically throughout the year. If you have an item that you would like to suggest for inclusion in a future issue, please send the details to Director of Faculty Development Lisa Whitenack at lwhitena@allegheny.edu. To access previous issues, use the links in the Recent Posts box or on this page.

From the Director of Faculty Development:

Allegheny Awesome: Since nobody sent me an item for this month’s digest, I’ve decided to highlight something that Brad Hersh introduced me to when we started co-teaching our introductory biology courses last year. On exam days before we pass out the exam, Brad has students write what they’re worried about on a piece of paper, crumple it in a ball, and then throw it at him. Not only do the students find this amusing, but research shows that writing about this kind of fear can boost exam performance because this frees up brainpower to focus on the exam instead of the anxiety (Ramirez & Beilock, 2011). As an added bonus, we can collect all of those papers and see how our students are feeling going into the exam.

If you have a cool pedagogical thing that you’re doing and would like to share, please email me! If you’ve seen a colleague doing something awesome in the classroom or while advising that people should know about, please let me know! If you’ve discovered the key to staying productive in your scholarship while juggling all of the things, send me an email! From there, I will follow up with folks and work with them to write a paragraph or two for a future Faculty Development Digest. 

Faculty Development office hours: Do you need help with your travel reimbursement? Do you want to talk about an idea or issue related to faculty development? Or perhaps you just never knew there were offices behind the Collaboratory and want to say hi? Lisa Whitenack will be holding office hours in Pelletier 308B on Mondays from 1:30-5 pm and Thursdays from 8-9 am & 11 am-12 pm. No appointment is necessary! Note that there will be no office hours the week of Nov. 11 because Lisa will be at a conference for professional development folks.

Academic Advising

As we jump into approving schedules for our academic advisees, remember that there are several resources available to help you with advising students, whether you are advising undeclared students or students who have already declared. One of your first stops should be the Advising Handbook as you work with students. It is updated each year and is a wonderful resource!

We are also trying something new this year! As you may have noticed, sometimes the course descriptions in the Catalogue may not speak to our students in a way that sparks their interest.  For example, some courses have to be described in a particular way because the specific topic may vary with the semester or instructor. Therefore, we are working on providing some student-forward course descriptions as the academic year proceeds. English has graciously agreed to be our first department and has written “student-friendly” course descriptions for their Spring 2026 100-level courses. Please share these with your advisees!

The advising team has also put together this Google Doc that has an ongoing list of department- & program-specific updates and course availability.

Updates from the Library

Data Bytes: Doug Anderson, Research and Instruction Librarian, will offer an introduction to the Canvas Commons on Friday, November 8 at 12:15 in the Pelletier Collaboratory. The Canvas Commons provides a way for instructors to share the content of their courses. Come learn both how to share content with your colleagues and how to search for content shared by others. Feel free to bring your own lunch. Coffee, cookies, and fresh fruit are provided and will be available at 12 pm, and the presentation starts at 12:15 pm.

Last week’s Data Bytes centered around some interesting updates and opportunities regarding open-access publishing. Here are links to the slide deck & summary of current and future open access opportunities. Please contact Brian Kern or Tressa Snyder with questions or just to chat!

RefWorks: The library encourages students and faculty to use the RefWorks Citation Manager to track research resources and add citations to their work. A brief PDF introduction to RefWorks titled “Welcome to RefWorks at Allegheny College” is available for your use or for sharing with students. Research Librarians are also available to visit classrooms to provide in-depth instruction in using RefWorks; please request a library session from the Library Services for Faculty page.

EZ Borrow: A new “My Account” feature has been added to the EZBorrow search platform: https://ezborrow.reshare.indexdata.com. This feature allows you to view current and past requests, and authenticate before initiating a search, as well as the option to save searches, save items, and create lists of saved items. You can find the directions for how to use this feature here.

For Tenured Faculty

While department evaluations for pre-tenure and tenure appointments have already been sent in, it is worth continuing to think about the process and interrogating our own unconscious biases.  Underrepresented Minority Faculty in the USA Face a Double Standard in Promotion and Tenure Decisions (Masters-Wage, et al. 2024) describes a study where data from five US universities on 1,571 faculty members’ P&T decisions demonstrate a double standard which is amplified for faculty with intersectional backgrounds.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Study Away: 10 Lessons From Leading a Study-Abroad Trip by Aimee Weinstein in the Chronicle of Higher Education, gives an account of a faculty member exploring the ups and downs of traveling overseas with students for a course.

Speaking of study away, study abroad offers students important life and career skill development opportunities, but not every learner is able to take advantage of these programs. Domestic learning experiences give students similar exposure with fewer complications. You can read more in Expanding Study Away Opportunities by Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed.

Group work & collaboration: Using Collaborative Learning to Elevate Students’ Educational Experiences (George Ojie-Ahamiojie, Faculty Focus) and Setting Groups Up for Success (Tony’s Teaching Tips, October 16, 2024) make the case for successful student collaboration and offer advice on how to make that work.

Upcoming Opportunities

Associated Colleges of the Midwest:  Addressing the Hidden Curriculum on Campus: Supporting First-Generation and Low-Income Students as They Navigate College: Friday, November 8, 1:00-2:00 Eastern:  Rachel Gable will introduce current research on supporting first-generation and low-income students in a range of college contexts. She will offer concrete data, personal vignettes from students, and specific advice for faculty and staff as they engage with first-generation and low-income students on their campuses. The emphasis of the workshop is on supporting all students to thrive, with a focus on those who have less familiarity with the college-going process. This event will be held on First-Generation College Student Celebration Day (November 8). Rachel Gable is a higher education researcher and practitioner who is passionate about helping students find their best fit educational pathway, one that maximizes their academic strengths, intellectual curiosity, and personal fulfillment. Over the past two decades, she has taught and worked with students from middle school through college and from an array of institutional types, including highly selective private universities, small liberal arts colleges, and large less-selective public institutions. Her first book, The Hidden Curriculum: First Generation Students at Legacy Institutions, details the academic, social, and personal experiences of first-generation college students attending two of our nation’s most selective universities to uncover the unwritten rules for success in college. Gable works with faculty and university stakeholders at William & Mary on academic program development and modification to meet the needs of all students. REGISTER HERE FOR THIS WORKSHOP

 “Empowering Learning with Integrity in the Age of AI ”with Tricia Bertram Gallant, Integrity & Ethics Consultant & Speaker on Friday, November 15, 2024 from 12:30-1:30 pm (EDT). At this GLCA event, we will focus on understanding the threats and opportunities and then identifying the options that faculty have for minimizing the threat and amplifying the opportunities.  In thinking about one thing we can do next week, next term and next year, participants will leave the session empowered to craft their GenAI and AI policy while creating a culture of integrity within their classes. Tricia Bertram Gallant, Ph.D. is the Director of Academic Integrity Office and Triton Testing Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), Board Emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity, and former lecturer for both UCSD and the University of San Diego. Tricia has authored, co-authored, or edited numerous articles, blogs, guides, book chapters/sections, and books on academic integrity, artificial intelligence, and ethical decision-making. Most recently, Tricia authored Crafting Your GenAI & AI Policy: A Guide for Instructors, which has been shared widely within and beyond UCSD as a helpful tool for faculty struggling with the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching, learning and assessment. Tricia has a forthcoming book (University of Oklahoma Press, 2024), co-authored with David Rettinger, entitled “The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI. Tricia regularly consults with and trains faculty, staff and students around the world, on academic integrity, artificial intelligence, and ethical decision-making. Sign up here for this online event (a Zoom link will be sent the day before). The session will be recorded.

3rd International Conference on Education: Shaping Equitable Education: Inclusion, Innovation, & Impact:, Feb. 21-22. The Department of Education at Forman Christian College University is pleased to host the 3rd International Conference on Education: Shaping Equitable Education: Inclusion, Innovation, & Impact. The aim of this conference is to explore new theories, frameworks, models, methods, technologies, and strategies to address crucial issues in inclusive and equitable education. This event will bring together a diverse group of experts, practitioners, researchers, leaders, and policy planners from around the world to share their research findings, innovative practices, and creative ideas to overcome the challenges of inclusive and equitable quality education for all. The conference welcomes research papers on the following key streams: Innovation in Teaching and Learning; Professional Competences for Future Workforce; Leadership, Policy Planning and Strategic Improvement; and Ethical Considerations in Equitable Education. The deadline for Abstract Submission: 20th December, 2024; Early Bird Participant & Presenter Registration Deadline: 1st January, 2025. Details on sub-themes, registration, submission guidelines, and the conference program can be found on the conference webpage.

Another World is Possible: A Global Racial and Social Justice Summit: Call for Presenters: Please join the Great Lakes Colleges Association and Global Liberal Arts Alliance on February 13-16, 2025, for an in-person Global Racial and Social Justice summit at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The conference is being sponsored by the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom at Antioch College. Further information can be found here.