Faculty Resources

From the Director of Faculty Development:

COACHE: You’re probably tired of hearing me say this, but if you’re eligible, please take the COACHE survey! I don’t know about you, but the thought of having free coffee during finals week and a nice brunch at the last meeting is giving me life.

Allegheny Awesome: 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 Google Calendar: Did you know that there’s a Google Calendar that has all of the faculty development events on it? You can find it here!

Spring 2025 Educator Resource Insitute (ERI): Speaking of events…we’ve just started planning the Spring 2025 ERI, which will take place on Tuesday, May 13! We have a few things already planned, including a syllabus audit workshop and a workshop on alternate grading schemes (e.g. contract grading, mastery-based grading, and more). If you use alternate grading schemes and are interested in helping with this workshop, please email me! In the meantime, if you are interested in organizing a workshop for either the Spring or Fall ERI, please contact me.

From the Office of Inclusive Excellence

“Research for Lunch” is a once-monthly lunch event that showcases the different forms research can take. It’s geared towards students interested in summer research or in early stages of preparing to comp, but faculty are encouraged to attend! It features the projects and day-to-day research of faculty and staff from creative writing, music, sustainability, athletics, COMJ, public humanities, art, philosophy, theatre, and more. It convenes on Jan 28, Feb 19, March 27, and April 14 from 12:30 pm-1:20 pm in the Brooks Gillespie Room. Please RSVP here. Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the IDEAS Center, and URSCA; please direct any questions to Tommy Conners (tconners@allegheny.edu).

Updates from the Library

“AI in Higher Education” Panel Discussion materials: If you missed the panel on Jan. 30, you can read about it in The Campus and see these materials compiled by Doug Anderson, one of our panel organizers. The Chronicle of Higher Education also recently released an article collection called “AI on Campus”.

Data Bites: If you missed the Data Bites session on Boolean Searching, you can find the slides here. Please contact Doug Anderson with any questions you may have.

Infusing Creativity into the Research and Writing Process (using the pedagogies of Learning by Heart, Corita Kent) with Tressa Snyder & Dr. Sheila Nowinski: Please join us on Feb. 28, 12:15-1:20pm in Pelletier 224 for a presentation on revitalizing and infusing creativity into the research and writing process with pedagogies of Corita Kent; an American artist, teaching faculty of Immaculate Heart College, former religious sister and political activist. This is an interactive, workshop-style presentation showcasing how the goals of creating higher quality, dynamic projects and more in-depth learning can be achieved through creativity. All faculty, administrators, and student-facing staff are invited. Snacks will be provided.

Canvas Tip: Did you accidentally delete an assignment? You can get it back! Open Canvas in your browser and edit the URL by deleting everything after the course code and then type “/undelete” after the code (for my course, it would look like this:  https://allegheny.instructure.com/courses/11685/undelete). This will give you a list of things deleted in the last 30 days, and you will be able to restore items.

From Student Success:

Academic Alerts: Student Success has made slight updates to the Academic Alert form to improve usability for submitters and ensure more accurate student-related information. In response to faculty feedback, we have also added a highly requested feature: submitters will now receive an email notification summarizing the actions taken by the Class Deans. These notifications will be sent on the first business day after an Alert is resolved. To help faculty navigate the process, Student Success has created a short training video that outlines the full lifecycle of an Academic Alert—from submission to resolution. This video will be available through the College’s training platform starting February 17, 2025. The new email notifications will go into effect after Spring Break. Thank you for your continued support in helping students succeed!

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Classroom observations: James Lang & Kristi Rudenga wrote a piece for The Chronicle for folks who are being observed in their classrooms by colleagues.  This may be a helpful read for both folks who are being observed and folks who are observing.

All hail the sticky note!: Ok, I love me a good sticky note and 100% used to reward myself for completing tasks by going to Staples to buy them. I love using Mira boards for meetings (digital sticky notes). And, unsurprisingly, I use them in the classroom with my students sometimes. This article by Kate Nesbit called “Post-it Pedagogy” gives you some tips on different classroom activities that make use of the humble sticky note.

Discussion as a dying art?: This article by Maggie Hicks in Ed Surge links back to the workshop we had on difficult conversations in the classroom and how discussion can be tricky when topics are contentious. However, if you’ve noticed that your students are reluctant to participate in classroom discussions in general, there might be some useful stuff in this article for you as well.

Thinking about sabbatical & pre-tenure leave: If you have a sabbatical or pre-tenure leave coming up within the next few years, this article in Inside Higher Ed might help you think through your plans and the difference between should do and need to do.

Upcoming Opportunities

Upcoming workshop at Allegheny: The HHMI Inclusive Excellence team will be running the workshop “Shifting from a deficit to an anti-deficit mindset in the classroom” on Feb. 21, 12:20-1:20 pm in Pelletier (2/20 was canceled due to lack of RSVPs). Lunch will be provided on 2/21.  If you didn’t get to RSVP (for food count purposes) and still want to attend, email Lisa Whitenack, Director of Faculty Development (lwhitena@allegheny.edu) ASAP.

Upcoming GLCA workshop with Mays Imad: The Great Lakes College Association (GLCA) is hosting a virtual workshop with Dr. Mays Imad on Weds. March 12 (note new date!) from 12-1pm. This workshop, titled “Teaching Through Difficulty”, will explore how educators can apply principles from neuroscience to support student learning even in the midst of discomfort and adversity. Through reflective discussions and practical strategies, we will examine the role of context in student engagement, the power of offering choice, and the necessity of fostering meaningful connections in the classroom. Dr. Mays Imad is the founder of Pima Community College Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), a Gardner Institute Fellow and an AAC&U Senior Fellow within the Office of Undergraduate STEM Education.  Her research focuses on stress, self-awareness, advocacy, and classroom community, and how these impact student learning and success.  She is a nationally recognized expert on trauma-informed teaching and learning, and passionately advocates for institutions to make mental health a top priority and to systematically support the education of the whole student. You can register for the workshop here.

Chautauqua Institution opportunity: The Road Scholar Program, hosted each summer by the nearby Chautauqua Institution, is a great opportunity for Allegheny faculty to serve as instructors for its week-long programs. Each year, they identify a series of themes their seminars will address and structure those seminars around appearances by world-renowned authors, performers, public figures and so on. This summer, they need instructors for weeks 5 and 9 (see the flyer here). Road Scholar provides all meals and accommodations, gate passes, and an honorarium (partners and families are welcome). For more information, you may contact Brian Harward (bharward@allegheny.edu), who hosted a seminar this past summer and had a wonderful experience.

Carnegie Mellon University’s LearnLab Summer School: We invite applications for participation in an intensive 1-week summer school on advanced learning technologies and technology-enhanced learning experiments. The summer school will provide a conceptual background and considerable hands-on experience in developing, running and analyzing technology-enhanced learning experiments. This program runs from July 28 – August 1, 2025 and includes some pre-work. The summer school is organized into six parallel tracks: Chemistry Education (CE), Computational Models of Learning (CML), Computer Science Education Research (CER), Building online courses with OLI (BOLI), Intelligent Tutor Systems Development (ITS), and Educational Data Mining (EDM). You can read more about the program here.

What Works in 2025? Building for the Future of Higher Education: The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College invites presentations on teaching and learning for a hybrid conference May 28-29, 2025.  This conference is an opportunity for faculty and academic support professionals to share their experiences innovating for the classroom. Your proposal should include an explanation of how your session would apply to the teaching of undergraduates in small colleges and universities. These can be lessons learned in larger institutions that would also apply to smaller settings. We will consider all proposals that would apply to undergraduate education at a small college or university, but we especially want to encourage proposals in these areas:

• approaches that build community and belonging in the classroom
• creative connections between different disciplines across the curriculum
• experiential opportunities and real world applications for the liberal arts

Propose a presentation at https://forms.gle/aU8u6A1G4s1kbdxu6. Deadline to submit is Friday, March 15.  Presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 29.

From the Director of Faculty Development:

I hope that everyone had a restorative and restful winter break and has been keeping warm!

Faculty Development office hours: The Pelletier 308 suite will continue to be under construction as work continues to make the Center space. Lisa is now back to being in her Steffee B105 office full-time until the Pelletier construction is complete (projected March 2025).  Faculty Development office hours for the spring semester are: Monday 2-4 pm & Friday 9:30-11:30 am. 

Allegheny Awesome: 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.

From the Office of Inclusive Excellence

Free Virtual Workshop for those interested in leading a Sustained Dialogue Group: Interested in facilitating fun and engaging conversations in your club, department, or organization?The next virtual full training in the Sustained Dialogue process for gathering groups is available to all members of the campus community beginning February 13th, 2025, every Thursday through April 24, 2025. Each session is 90 minutes and will build on skills developed the previous week. Sessions start at 3:00pm and are open to all who want to enhance their skills for tough conversations. Future SD group leaders, please sign up with a potential co-facilitator! Please contact Anne Butcher in the Office of Inclusive Excellence at abutcher@allegheny.edu to get registered.

“Research for Lunch” is a once-monthly lunch event that showcases the different forms research can take. It’s geared towards students interested in summer research or in early stages of preparing to comp. It features the projects and day-to-day research of faculty and staff from creative writing, music, sustainability, athletics, COMJ, public humanities, art, philosophy, theatre, and more. It convenes on Jan 28, Feb 19, March 27, and April 14 from 12:30pm-1:20pm in the Brooks Gillespie Room. Please RSVP here. Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the IDEAS Center, and URSCA; please direct any questions to Tommy Conners (tconners@allegheny.edu).

Updates from the Library

“AI in Higher Education” Panel Discussion, Thursday, Jan. 30: Please join us from 6-7pm in Pelletier 311 for a discussion focusing on when it is and is not safe to use AI in the classroom, whether by students or faculty. Our panel consists of:

• Janyl Jumadinova, Chair, Department of Computer and Information Science
• Alexis Hart, Professor of English and Director of Writing
• Kalé Haywood, Chair, History and Philosophy Department
• NealyClare Wheat, Honor Committee Chair

Snacks and drinks are provided!  Please RSVP here by January 27, 2025 to help us plan for food. However, you can attend without RSVPing. This programming is a collaboration with the Center for Faculty Research & Teaching Excellence, the Director of Faculty Development, and the Dean of the Library.

Librarians Want to Collaborate with Faculty: Remember, Librarians are research, instructional design and educational technology partners. Do not hesitate to contact the helpful staff of Pelletier Library for collaboration and support needs. We look forward to continuing to foster Allegheny’s commitment to research, scholarship, and the liberal arts with faculty, now and into the future.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Career education and the “hidden job market”: Scott Carlson in The Chronicle writes about the “hidden job market” that many of our students and general workforce are not necessarily aware of. A great example can be found in our local manufacturing community; many of those jobs are not on the manufacturing floor, but can include things like marketing, design, risk management, technical writing, and accounting. The article gives several examples and may be useful for thinking outside of the box for careers for the students in your program.

College students and media literacy: This article by Colleen Flaherty in Inside Higher Ed discusses a survey on media literacy taken by undergraduates that not only has information where/how they get their news and how critically they’re thinking about it, but also their suggestions for what colleges can do to help them improve their media literacy.

Understanding the effects of K-12 education on Gen Z: This piece by Beckie Supiano in The Chronicle take a solid look at how K-12 education (and US & world events that affected it) have influenced the habits and behaviors of our Gen Z college students. Note that there is some blaming and deficit framing in this article which I am not a fan of, but what I like about this article is that it shows the complex interactions that different events and expectations have had on our students.

Making room for your own writing: James Lang, who has written several books on academic writing, makes the argument for having writing rituals to get you into the writing groove faster. Full disclosure – I am a fan of this argument, and mine entails coffee/tea, instrumental music, and the same day each week.

Upcoming Opportunities

Upcoming workshops at Allegheny: The HHMI Inclusive Excellence team will be running the workshop “Shifting from a deficit to an anti-deficit mindset in the classroom”. There will be two offerings: Feb. 20, 4:30-5:30 pm & Feb. 21, 12:20-1:20 pm, both in Pelletier. Snacks will be provided on 2/20, and lunch will be provided on 2/21. RSVP here by Feb. 13. Questions can be directed to Lisa Whitenack, Director of Faculty Development (lwhitena@allegheny.edu).

What Works in 2025? Building for the Future of Higher Education: The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College invites presentations on teaching and learning for a hybrid conference May 28-29, 2025.  This conference is an opportunity for faculty and academic support professionals to share their experiences innovating for the classroom. Your proposal should include an explanation of how your session would apply to the teaching of undergraduates in small colleges and universities. These can be lessons learned in larger institutions that would also apply to smaller settings. We will consider all proposals that would apply to undergraduate education at a small college or university, but we especially want to encourage proposals in these areas:

• approaches that build community and belonging in the classroom
• creative connections between different disciplines across the curriculum
• experiential opportunities and real world applications for the liberal arts

Propose a presentation at https://forms.gle/aU8u6A1G4s1kbdxu6. Deadline to submit is Friday, March 15.  Presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 29.

From the Director of Faculty Development:

I hope that everyone has a restorative and restful winter break! But first, we have one last 2024 edition of the Faculty Development Digest.

Travel expenses & mileage: If you are asking to be reimbursed for mileage during your travels, please include a printout of Google Maps that shows the mileage you are claiming. This is essentially acting as a receipt for your mileage, and your payment request cannot be processed without it.

Faculty Development office hours: The Pelletier 308 suite will continue to be under construction as work continues to make the Center space. Lisa is now back to being in her Steffee B105 office full-time until the Pelletier construction is complete (projected March 2025).  Faculty Development office hours will resume in the spring semester. 

Canvas tip #1: This one comes from personal experience, but it might be just in time for some folks! Have you ever accidentally modified an assignment grade in the Canvas grade book by accident, but have returned the assignment and don’t know what the original grade was? There’s a fix for that! In the Gradebook view, in the upper left corner is a drop-down that says “Gradebook”.  Select “Gradebook History”. You can filter that by student, assignment, or date to find what you need.

Canvas tip #2: This is how I found out about how to do tip #1. If you’re stuck on something, you can click “Help” on the left side of the screen, and then select “Chat with Canvas Support (Faculty Only)”. You might have to join a queue, but the folks on that chat are super helpful!

Spring Book Group for Faculty and Staff: The Spring 2025 faculty/staff book group will focus on Catherine J. Denial’s book A Pedagogy of Kindness. This book was recommended by two faculty members, and is about a vision for teaching that focuses on “ensuring justice, believing people, and believing in people.” As one faculty member stated, the book also spends significant time focusing on instructors and insisting that “we be kind and compassionate with ourselves as teachers.” Please fill out this form by Mon. December 16 if you are interested in participating, and we will move forward with scheduling from there. Book groups will meet approximately 7 times over the semester (roughly every other week). All participants will receive a copy of the book, and food will be provided at book group meetings.

Allegheny Awesome: This week’s edition of Allegheny Awesome comes to us from Irem Kurtsal. Irem wrote to share a project that students across multiple semesters and classes have been working on since 2022:

“Successive cohorts of students in Freedom, Addiction and the Opioid Crisis (currently PHIL 340, before FSPHI 201 and PHIL 290) have been designing a digital learning experience (a serious game) on the kinds of challenges faced by a person with a substance use disorder (SUD) who is trying to stay sober. The intended learners of the digital experience are the general public, educators, high school students, and policymakers. Inpatient and outpatient recovery program facilitators and directors from Crawford and Erie counties, as well as the director of CHAPS are our community partners. In Spring 2022 students met with these partners and heard their insights on what may be included in our digital tool and what pitfalls we must avoid. Then they each created their own design. In their final paper, they detailed how the elements of their proposed design were aligned with what they learned about free will and SUD stigma throughout the course. The strongest of these designs became a reading assignment in the Spring 2023 offering. Those students presented the design to the same community partners and asked them to scrutinize it. We discussed what sorts of changes should be made. In Fall 2024 these students reworked the earlier design, adding further details that a developer would need in order to be able to create a prototype. This is a relay project where successive classes pick up the baton and advance things a little bit further and along the way, reflect on the conceptual link between agency, control, SUDs, and social stigma. The final objective is to reduce SUD stigma in our community (and beyond) by implementing the digital product. To get there, future cohorts of PHIL 340 students will be involved in various stages, such as testing the prototype with our students, and writing all the conditional scenarios for the final product.”

You can find a handout, more information., and the assignment prompt here.

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. 

From the Office of Inclusive Excellence

Updates from the Library

Spring syllabus planning: As you develop your syllabi for spring courses, the library encourages faculty to build in a librarian visit to your classroom. One of several librarians will engage with your students to build skills in information literacy, research strategies, using citations, and more. It’s never too early to request a classroom visit. See the library’s Research Instruction Classes page for more details.

Data Bites Series: This programming is a joint collaboration with the Center for Faculty Research & Teaching Excellence, the Director of Faculty Development and the Dean of the Library. Running through the 2024 – 2025  academic year, programs will occur on most Fridays in the Pelletier Collaboratory 12:15 pm – 1:20 pm on topics spanning research, teaching, educational technology and scholarship. We know Friday lunch doesn’t work for everyone, and we will be trying to find other days and times in the future.

• The last Data Bites of the semester is Drop-In Tech Time with Sue Gum, Tressa Snyder & Brian Kern, will be held on Friday, Dec. 13 at 12:15 pm in Pelletier Collaboratory. This event is an open time to bring us your instructional technology questions! Get face-to-face assistance with Canvas (both the desktop and mobile app), database searching, DSpace, Google Workspace, and more. Feel free to bring your own lunch. Coffee, cookies and fresh fruit are provided and will be available at 12:00 pm, with the session beginning at 12:15 pm.
• If you missed the 11/15 Data Bites on Primary Sources in the Classroom, you can find the slides here.
• You can find the tentative spring schedule here.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Faculty as mentors: We’ve heard many times that Allegheny alumni care deeply about their relationships with their former professors, in part because we as faculty often act as mentors for our students, as do so many of our wonderful staff. Yet, most have us have not had any formal mentorship training. This article by Ashley Mowreader gives some advice on how to be a mentor.

Understanding “Generation P” college students: Our current first-year class is the first to have their entire high school experience take place in the COVID landscape. This article discusses a survey of over 350,000 incoming first-year students that took place in summer 2024, and what it means for interests, mental health, and campus culture.

Brain breaks for improved learning: This article by John Orlando discusses the importance of having your students take a “brain break” every 10-30 minutes to help them learn, as well as some strategies to keep those brain breaks fun.

Upcoming Opportunities

2025 Provost’s Summit: Fostering Inclusive Excellence in an Evolving Educational Landscape, Feb. 6 & 7.  Ball State University’s Division of Online and Strategic Learning, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs are pleased to announce the 2025 Provost’s Summit: Fostering Inclusive Excellence in an Evolving Educational Landscape taking place virtually on February 6 and 7, 2025. This virtual summit will showcase meaningful and inclusive work of faculty, staff, and students at Ball State University, across the Midwest region, and beyond. We invite you to share your teaching practices, especially those related to meaningful and inclusive learning experiences for students. The program committee is accepting proposals for individual and panel sessions that center on Assessment Practices, Inclusive Pedagogy Practices, Innovative Teaching Practices, and Trends in Higher Education. Description of proposal categories and session formats as well as a link to submit proposals can be found on the summit webpage. Deadline for proposal submission is December 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm (EST).

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.

From the Director of Faculty Development:

Allegheny Awesome: This week’s edition of Allegheny Awesome is about a campus-wide activity that many of you may be participating in – the simulation of an outbreak of Marburg virus disease for Becky Dawson’s Epidemiology course (BIO/GHS 321). As Becky described in her email seeking participants, “One of the key tenets of an outbreak investigation is tracking down cases and their contacts. I would like my students to have a real-life/boots-on-the-ground experience of finding individuals who may be ill or exposed to the disease.”  Becky sent index cards with patient information to various folks on campus, and students must track down the patients to collect their information. Just like in real life, students won’t be able to get in touch with every person of interest. I’ve included my card below in case you’re curious. This is a great example of how Allegheny faculty think creatively about their pedagogy. (H/T to Caryl Wagget for bringing this to the Digest!)

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: The Pelletier 308 suite is under construction as we get the HVAC fixed.  Lisa Whitenack will still be holding office hours in Pelletier and will be hanging out on the main floor during her usual office hours (Mondays from 1:30-5 pm and Thursdays from 8-9 am & 11 am-12 pm. No appointment is necessary!). If you need to come chat with her about something confidential, we can easily find a space to do that.

RSE reminder: Please don’t forget that Reports of Student Experience (RSEs, our “student evaluations”) are scheduled for the week of Dec. 2. If you are new to Allegheny’s RSEs or would like some resources on about them and how to interpret the results, we have a website for that!

From the Office of Inclusive Excellence

Microagressions training: On Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024, Boundless Awareness will host a free, 90 minute, virtual workshop on Microaggressions from 12pm-1:30pm.  Boundless Awareness helps individuals and organizations build inclusive spaces through interactive educational experiences. This session is open to all College employees. If you are interested in learning more about Microaggressions, please register here at this link.

Sustained Dialogue faculty moderators needed! The Office of Inclusive Excellence is partnering with the Sustained Dialogue Institute to offer Moderator Training to any interested member of the campus community. This free workshop series, consisting of 3 sessions in December, will offer individuals the opportunity to lead fun, engaging and moderate conversations that prompt change and understanding through listening deeply to each other. More information about the Sustained Dialogue Institute can be found here.

December Fridays: Accelerated Virtual Sustained Dialogue Skill Series

Dec. 6th, 1-5pm Eastern/ 10a-2p Pacific

Dec. 13th, 1-5pm Eastern/ 10a-2p Pacific

Dec. 20th, 1-5pm Eastern/ 10a-2p Pacific

If interested, please contact Anne Butcher at abutcher@allegheny.edu by December 3rd to be registered.

Updates from the Library

Spring syllabus planning: As you develop your syllabi for spring courses, the library encourages faculty to build in a librarian visit to your classroom. One of several librarians will engage with your students to build skills in information literacy, research strategies, using citations, and more. It’s never too early to request a classroom visit. See the library’s Research Instruction Classes page for more details.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

AI: If you missed the virtual workshop with Dr. Tricia Bertram Gallant on “Empowering Learning with Integrity in the Age of AI”, you can find the recording and slides here. The GLCA also passes along several recent articles of interest: one from the Chronicle called “Cheating has become normal: faculty members are overwhelmed and the solutions aren’t clear“, and one from The Atlantic called “ChatGPT doesn’t have to ruin college” that also talks about having an honor code. Note that the Atlantic one requires a subscription, but there is an option to start a free trial for access to the article.

Closing out classes: We’re just a few weeks from the end of the semester! This article by Kristi Rudenga, “7 ideas to perk up your last day of class“, talks about how to thoughtfully end your course with a “flourish instead of a fizzle”.  This article by Beth McMurtie from 2022 makes a case for ending the semester with review. Finally, Brock Toggerson and the U Mass Amherst Center of Teaching & Learning share their tips for wrapping up the semester strong (6 min. video plus an article).

Community partnerships: Preparing Students to Engage in Equitable Community Partnerships (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, November 14, 2024) is a  40-minute podcast dealing with how to avoid issues that arise from community partners if students aren’t well prepared for partnerships.

Student autonomy: A new paper in Science Advances discusses a study on how class policies supporting student autonomy increase class attendance and subject mastery. If you don’t want to read the entire paper, Megan Sumeracki offers a summary in the Learning Scientists blog.

Upcoming Opportunities

2025 Provost’s Summit:Fostering Inclusive Excellence in an Evolving Educational Landscape, Feb. 6 & 7.  Ball State University’s Division of Online and Strategic Learning, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs are pleased to announce the 2025 Provost’s Summit: Fostering Inclusive Excellence in an Evolving Educational Landscape taking place virtually on February 6 and 7, 2025. This virtual summit will showcase meaningful and inclusive work of faculty, staff, and students at Ball State University, across the Midwest region, and beyond. We invite you to share your teaching practices, especially those related to meaningful and inclusive learning experiences for students. The program committee is accepting proposals for individual and panel sessions that center on Assessment Practices, Inclusive Pedagogy Practices, Innovative Teaching Practices, and Trends in Higher Education. Description of proposal categories and session formats as well as a link to submit proposals can be found on the summit webpage. Deadline for proposal submission is December 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm (EST).

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.

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.