Faculty Resources Posts

Faculty Development Digest – September 2024

By September 23rd 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:

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!

Help us design the Center: The Center for Faculty Research and Teaching Excellence is envisioned as the campus hub for faculty and staff development, supporting transformational teaching and research and enhancing the use of educational technology. Faculty and staff, we invite you to complete this survey to let us know what you would like to see in the Center and how you might want to contribute to the Center. Thank you for your input!

Updates from the Library

New database: The library would like to announce the availability of Mergent Market Atlas, a new online resource database. Market Atlas will continue to offer the modules and reports formerly found in Mergent Online, but with a cleaner interface that is easier to navigate. You can still authenticate into Market Atlas with your Allegheny login. The Help pages found in Market Atlas are a great resource for learning all the new features. More information and tutorials will be forthcoming as Mergent makes them available.

New book in the Faculty Development Collection: This month, Tressa Snyder, Dean of the Library, is showcasing Collabor(h)ate: How to build incredible collaborative relationships at work (even if you’d rather work alone), by Deb Meshak, PhD.  Although collaboration is celebrated in organizations of all shapes and sizes, it’s not always obvious how to cultivate a culture of collaboration. This is especially true when the existing culture is at odds with the goals and aspirations of the institution. Meshak discusses creative ways to form collaborative relationships and partnerships focusing on communication and goals.  This book is located on the main floor of the library in the Faculty Development collection, call number: 650.1 M37c

Academic Advising

There are a number of 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!

Getting Ready for the 2024 Presidential Election

Based on the last two presidential elections, faculty should start thinking about how they want to handle both the weeks leading up to the election and the weeks following the election. Some faculty engage with world events and politics in their courses and may feel ready to handle whatever happens. Other faculty may teach courses that do not typically address these topics; however, students may bring their feelings and experiences involving the election or other world events into your classroom.

While we are working on some things to help you navigate the next few months, there are a few resources you can check out now:

  • The GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning has put together a large collection of resources for navigating difficult discussions. These include general guides to more specific topics.
  • Some students may experience trauma from the events related to the presidential election. Trauma can seriously impact a student’s ability to learn and their well-being. We also know that trauma can be caused by many other experiences, including the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic racism, and the general political climate.  We can engage in trauma-informed pedagogy

For Tenured Faculty

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Teaching with AI: The https://lascollab.parami.edu.mm/guides/ has a series of guides on aspects of teaching under a liberal arts model, including guides for scaffolding academic writing, working/dealing with AI, and ecomedia literacy.

More teaching with AI: Here are the slides from the GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning (CTL)’s August 28 presentation on AI, No Robot Left Behind: AI and Our Fall Classes, hosted by Lew Ludwig and featuring Alexis Hart, Byron Rich, and Caitlyn Deeter (Rollins College). Lew offers a useful compendium of other AI guides and resources here.

Student resilience: Building a Learning Sanctuary: Fostering Resilience in Our Students, Part 1 (Mays Imad, The Teaching Professor, August 26, 2024): Imad sees a “learning sanctuary” as an intentional response to the global challenges that affect student well-being, hoping to transform anxiety and uncertainty into empowerment and wisdom.

Student mental health: Slides and resources from the CTL’s August 14 workshop on Strategies to Support Student Mental Health in the Classroom led by Jan Miyake and Angie Roles (both at Oberlin) can be found here.

Upcoming Opportunities

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.

Faculty Development Digest, August 2024

By August 22nd 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.

Changing of the Guard

Please join me in thanking Rachel Weir for her outstanding service as the Director of Faculty Development over the last three years!

I’m looking forward to working with all of you over the next four years and appreciate your patience as I learn the ropes as the new Director.

~Lisa Whitenack

Fall Educator Resource Institute

Allegheny faculty, staff, and administrators were invited to participate in the Fall 2024 Educator Resource Institute (ERI) on Monday, August 19. If you missed it or want to look back at the materials, you can find the full schedule here (which also contains links to the slide decks that our presenters used).

Whether you attended the ERI or not, please take the time to fill out this survey. Our presenters would appreciate your feedback if you attended. If you didn’t attend, I would love some feedback on what you would like to see in future ERIs and what the obstacles to attending are.

Setting Up Your Courses

Check out the Preparing for a New Semester page for reminders and tips for the new academic year. In particular:

  • Take a look at the Syllabus Checklist page as a reminder of the required and recommended syllabus content. This page summarizes the information found in Section 9.1 of the Faculty Handbook.
  • Don’t forget to update your syllabus statements if you’re reworking a syllabus from a previous semester.
  • If you are teaching a course that has an SP or PD distribution requirements tag, please make sure you are able to identify at least one assignment that will assess that learning outcome. The rubrics that will be used to assess those learning outcomes can be found here (SP) and here (PD). Faculty teaching courses with other DR tags should still consider how specific assignments could be used to assess those learning outcomes, as we anticipate expanding this requirement to additional tags in future semesters.
  • If you’re thinking about AI and your classroom, Elon University & AAC&U have published this student guide to AI. The guide is shared under a Creative Commons license, so you can create a version that more closely matches your needs (see the statement on page 20 about reuse).

Reports of Student Experience (RSEs). The fall RSE survey will be open during the week of December 2, so please make sure that you set aside time for students to complete the survey during class that week. This survey is administered via the RSEs link that appears in the navigation menu in each of your Canvas courses. For this reason, all courses that are eligible for RSEs must have published Canvas sites, preferably by the Add/Drop deadline so that reminders don’t need to be sent out to instructors. This doesn’t mean that entire courses need to be managed through Canvas. You can find instructions on how to create a minimal Canvas course in this document.

You may also want to make time to administer a midterm course reflection, followed by a post-semester course reflection.

Canvas Information

Canvas Workshops. On Thursday, August 15, we held two virtual Canvas workshops: one on Content Creation and the other on Outcomes, Rubrics, & Learning Mastery. If you missed them, you can watch the recordings.

Course Mergers. Library Services, working with the Office of the Registrar, has developed a streamlined process for merging course sections in Canvas. Faculty who are teaching more than one section of a course may wish to request that the sections be merged into a single Canvas course. To request a merger, please use the Request a Canvas Course Merger button on the Library Resources for Faculty page, and submit the form provided. Requests will be processed by Library Services after approval by the Registrar.

Please allow time for processing. It is imperative that course merger requests be submitted before classes begin. Course mergers cannot be completed after students have submitted assignments or participated in discussions in the course. Please note that this process supersedes the former methods of emailing LITS or opening a WebHelp ticket.

Canvas Support. The Canvas Tips page contains information about Canvas resources and support, course set-up reminders, troubleshooting suggestions, and a link to materials from previous Canvas workshops. Two quick reminders:
– If you’ve copied content from a previous course, watch out for issues with invalid links or unpublished images (the dreaded padlock!). You can identify these quickly using the Course Link Validator. See this article for more information.
– If you can’t find one of your courses in Canvas, click on the Courses icon and then select All Courses. Click the star next to any course to add it to your Courses menu and your Dashboard. See more information here.

Updates to the Honor Code

As faculty write syllabi and assignments, please remember to give students clear guidance on what is and is not acceptable in your course. This guidance should be repeated to students at appropriate intervals, especially as tests and assignments are coming due. Faculty teaching classes with first-year students should be especially mindful to teach academic integrity to students, as the standards and habits these students are used to may not be the same from high school to college.

The Honor Code was revised by student vote in Spring 2024, but nothing has changed in terms of the expectations or process for faculty to report suspected Honor Code violations. The Honor Code reporting form is here and the up-to-date Honor Code is here. A summary of the changes made in the new version is posted here.

The most significant change for 2024-2025 is that the expedited hearing process has been replaced by a mutual agreement process, which brings the Honor Code more into alignment with our non-academic code of conduct for students. 

Please remember that if you have unresolved Honor Code cases from Spring 2024, those will proceed according to the old rules. 

Please contact Ian Binnington (ibinning@allegheny.edu) with any questions!

Updates from the Library

Book Suggestion/Review. Why Learn History (When it’s Already on your Phone), Sam Wineburg

How do we get today’s students excited about reading and learning about history and other liberal arts topics? Wineburg seeks to address how today’s students learn (going against much of what we know about Bloom’s Taxonomy) and suggests how educators can navigate this cultural shift in technology, learning, and thinking. This book is available in the Faculty Development section of Pelletier Library (main floor), call number: 973 W725 w

Research Librarians & Class Visits. Research librarians are available to work with faculty to design classes to help students develop the information literacy and/or research skills they need for their courses.

Using the Request a Library Session button on our Research Instruction Classes page, please request two possible dates and times for a librarian visit to your class. We appreciate your flexibility with scheduling.

Librarians can visit your classroom, or you can bring your students to Pelletier for the session.

A list of suggested possible topics can be found on the same page. Please let us know which would be particularly important for your students to learn, or suggest additional topics.

What’s New.

  • The newly instituted Research Desk (located at the front entrance of Pelletier Library) will be staffed during peak library usage times. Beginning on Tuesday, August 27, students, faculty, staff, and community patrons may stop at the desk during posted times, or schedule an appointment with a Research Librarian. Research Desk Hours are 3:00 pm – 9:00 pm Monday – Thursday, with additional scheduled hours (to be determined) during the day.
  • The Dean of the Library, Tressa Snyder, will be reaching out to departments to discuss library support of research, collection development, and programmatic needs.
  • Two new librarians have joined Pelletier Library Staff! Andrew Miller, Research & Digital Humanities Librarian, and Chris Anderson, Archives & Special Collections Librarian.  Andrew and Chris will be reaching out to faculty regarding research needs. Both will be teaching library instruction sessions and serving at the Research Desk.

Fall 2024 Opportunities

Upcoming Workshop

Join our colleagues Alexis Hart and Byron Rich for the one-hour online session “No Robot Left Behind: AI and Your Fall Classes,” Wednesday, August 28, from 12:15-1:15 EDT.

This session is specifically tailored for liberal arts divisions in Art, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. This session will be run by Byron Rich (Assistant Provost of Academic Innovation: Director of Academic Innovation Partnerships) and Alexis Hart (Professor of English and Director of Writing) of Allegheny College, Caitlyn Deeter (Instructional Technologist) of Rollins College and Lew Ludwig (Professor of Mathematics; Director, Center for Learning and Teaching) of Denison University.  This session will begin with discussing AI with your students, providing you with tools to establish clear and effective AI policies. Following that, we’ll break into groups by academic division, allowing for in-depth engagement with AI strategies and insights relevant to your field. Discover how faculty in various disciplines are already using AI tools to enhance teaching. Share your insights, pose questions, and prepare yourself with the knowledge to create a balanced, fair, and academically rigorous environment for the upcoming semester. Please note, due to the division-specific breakouts, we will not be able to record this session for later viewing. We will provide a webpage link with resources to all who register. 

 Sign up HERE for this online event (a Zoom link will be sent the day before).  For questions, please reach out to Collen Monahan Smith of the GLCA.

 Fall Teaching Circle

A teaching circle is a group of up to a dozen faculty members who meet on a regular basis throughout the semester to share issues, ideas, and advice connected to their teaching in a confidential and supportive setting. We are in the process of identifying someone to facilitate the fall teaching circle. Please watch for a My Allegheny announcement for information about dates and times, plus a sign-up form. Please contact Director of Faculty Development Lisa Whitenack with any questions.

Writing Accountability Group

Are you an untenured faculty member (tenure-track, NTTR, visiting, adjunct, etc)? Do you have scholarly writing projects you need to complete and just have a hard time finding the time? Do you like to have camaraderie while you work? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, please join us for the Writing Accountability Group (WAG)! Starting September 20th, we will be meeting one Saturday a month to write (9:00-12:00), socialize during lunch (12:00-1:00), and write some more (1:00-4:00). Lunch is provided. If you are interested in joining us, please complete this form. Note that completing this form does not mean you are required to attend every meeting. You also do not need to attend the entire duration every Saturday to join. If you have any other questions about WAGs, please email Chris Normile at cnormile@allegheny.edu. This group is sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

Upcoming Events

  • Aug 30 – New Faculty Lunch

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, Summer 2024

By May 28th 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 the Director of Faculty Development. To access previous issues, use the links in the Recent Posts box or on this page.

Spring Educator Resource Institute

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Spring 2024 Educator Resource Institute on Tuesday, May 14. Session materials are now linked to the schedule.

Whether or not you attended the ERI, we invite you to complete the ERI survey. As part of this initial survey, ERI participants will have the opportunity to opt into a follow-up survey that will be distributed later this year to collect information about the kinds of changes participants made as a result of the ERI.

Summer Events

New Faculty Orientation
Incoming full-time faculty are asked to reserve Wednesday, August 14, and Friday, August 16, for New Faculty Orientation. You will receive more information from the Director of Faculty Development in early August. Please also take look at the New Faculty Information page.

If you’re not familiar with Canvas or would like a refresher, you are encouraged to sign up for one or both of the August 15 Canvas workshops (see below). Also, check out the Canvas Tips page for information on getting started.

Summer Canvas Workshops
Instructure trainers will offer two Canvas workshops to the Allegheny community on August 15, 2024:

  • The first workshop will take place via Zoom from 10:00am to 11:30am and will focus on Content Creation. This workshop is aimed at new Canvas users and anyone who would like a refresher on the basics; sign up here.
  • The second workshop will take place via Zoom from 1:00pm to 2:30pm and will focus on Outcomes and the Learning Mastery Gradebook. Sign up here.

Fall Educator Resource Institute
This day-long professional development event will take place on Monday, August 19. Additional details will be shared in August.

Reimbursement Requests

Please remember to turn in all Faculty Travel or ASC Grant reimbursement requests to Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir by Friday, June 7, so that they can be processed before the end of the fiscal year. Original, itemized receipts should be accompanied by a completed Travel/Entertainment Report form with an ink signature; electronic submissions are generally not accepted. Additional information is available on the Faculty Funding page. Paperwork can be dropped off in Rachel Weir’s mailbox in Arter 103 between 8am and 4pm; the door on the Quigley side of the building should be unlocked at these times.

Report Reminders

ASC Funding Reports – June 30 If you received an Academic Support Committee grant for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024), please remember to complete the Funding Report submission form by June 30. This form and further details are available on the ASC Grant Applications page. Please contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

Activities Reports – June 30 As a reminder, the Annual Activities Report was significantly streamlined last year and should now be submitted via this form. Instead of asking for information that is available through other sources and reports, you are asked to identify, reflect upon, and highlight significant innovation and changes in your work. Your CV will be the primary location for listing activities and accomplishments; the Google Form will be the place where you can briefly reflect or provide context as appropriate. It will be most helpful if you can identify on your CV (via bold or highlighted text, for example), what elements are newly added in this reporting period (June 2023-May 2024).

Leave Reports – October 31 If you had a sabbatical or pre-tenure leave during the 2023/24 academic year, please remember to submit your leave report using the form on this page. For fall one-semester leaves, reports were due by March 31. For spring one-semester leaves and two-semester (fall/spring) leaves, reports are due by October 31.

Canvas Tips

End of Semester Tasks
Check out the Summer 2023 Faculty Development Digest for information on managing student access to completed courses and downloading your gradebook from Canvas.

Share Your Canvas Tips & Tricks
The Allegheny Canvas team would like to know how you’re using Canvas in your courses! How are you leveraging Discussions? Do you have any creative approaches to Canvas assignments or tips for making an especially engaging Home page? Have you found any uniquely useful LTIs or any navigation options that you consider an absolute must? Share your ideas with the team via this form for possible inclusion into upcoming workshops, faculty training, and/or announcements.

Canvas Updates
We’ll be rolling out a few changes to Canvas this summer so they’ll be ready to go for the fall semester.

  • Instructure has redesigned the Discussions tool; check out this video from Instructure for more details. For more information, see the Instructor Guide on the Discussion Redesign in the Canvas Community.
  • Instructure has also made some similar changes to the Announcements feature; check out the Announcements Redesign Instructor Guide in the Canvas Community for more info and tips.
  • Starting in June, the old Google Apps Canvas plug-in will no longer be available and all instructors will use the Google Assignments LTI 1.3 tool. If you bring forward previous assignments into your Fall 2024 courses, this step-by-step guide will help with recreating Google Apps assignments to configure them for the new Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

Professional Development

The Grading Conference
Interested in learning about alternative grading methods in higher education? Register here for the 2024 Grading Conference – Higher Ed Focus, which will take place online from June 13 to June 15. The registration fee of $50 can be reimbursed from your Faculty Travel allowance. The keynote speakers will be Dr. Susan Blum, Dr. Laila McCloud, and Jeff Schinske. See the schedule for additional details.

Community-Engaged Learning
Materials from Dr. Barbara Jacoby’s recent workshop “Conducting and Supporting the Scholarship of Service-Learning” are available in this folder.

Summer Reading and Listening

Blog Posts
Here is an eclectic list of recent blog posts for your summer reading pleasure!

Podcasts
A very long list of podcasts by and for higher education professionals is available here. Here are a few that you might want to start with:

Events

Upcoming Events

  • August 14 and 16 – New Faculty Orientation
  • August 15 – Canvas Workshops (see details above)
  • August 19 – Fall Educator Resource Institute (save the date)

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, April 2024

By April 16th 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 Rachel Weir at rweir@allegheny.edu. To access previous issues, use the links in the Recent Posts box or on this page.

Center Survey

The Center for Faculty Research and Teaching Excellence is envisioned as the campus hub for faculty and staff development, supporting transformational teaching and research and enhancing the use of educational technology. Faculty and staff, we invite you to complete this survey to let us know what you would like to see in the Center and how you might want to contribute to the Center. Thank you for your input!

Spring Educator Resource Institute

The schedule for the Spring Educator Resource Institute (ERI), which will take place on Tuesday, May 14, is now being finalized and will be posted soon.

Advising Second Year Students. Thanks to the Maytum Center for Student Success and the William Beazell Memorial Fund, the ERI will kick off early this year. Dr. Laurie Schreiner, a national expert on the second-year experience, will give the keynote address Thriving or Surviving? A Vision for the Second Year of College in the Tillotson Room at 4:15pm on Monday, May 13, with a reception to follow. Her presentation should be of interest to all faculty, staff, and administrators who mentor and advise students. Her workshop We Have Some Data… Now What?! will focus on Allegheny’s results from the recently-conducted Sophomore Experiences Survey and will take place at 9:00am on Tuesday, May 14 as part of the ERI. Please direct questions about Dr. Schreiner’s visit to Second Year Class Dean Amy Stearns.

Save the Date. The Fall Educator Resource Institute will take place on Monday, August 19.

Course Reflection Coffee Break

When you have a moment to look back on your classes this year, you might want to consider the ideas in Rachel Toor’s blog post Love Them More; Care Less. In short, we as educators work hard to make our classes as effective as possible and if things don’t go well, we often take that to heart. Toor’s advice is to do “the best you can, while also not contorting yourself to try to fix things you can’t manage.”

This advice will be the theme of our spring Course Reflection Coffee Break. On Friday, May 10, we invite you to take a break from grading and spend time with colleagues looking back on your teaching successes and challenges this semester. There will be an open tab for participants at French Creek Coffee & Tea between 1:30pm to 3:00pm and we will gather in the meeting room at the end of the upstairs hallway at French Creek. Bring a copy of each of your syllabi so that you can record notes about each course for next time – your future self will thank you!

New Faculty Orientation

New Faculty Orientation for any incoming, full-time faculty will take place on Wednesday, August 14, and Friday, August 16. There will also be a Canvas workshop for new users on Thursday, August 15. Please be aware of these dates as you schedule departmental retreats or other meetings in the lead-up to the fall semester. Additional information for new faculty can be found on this page.

In the Library

Looking for a resource to guide your teaching? Each month we will highlight relevant materials from our collection in Pelletier.

Books in the Faculty Development Collection. Tressa Snyder, Dean of the Library, is showcasing two books from the Faculty Development Collection located in the soon-to-be renovated Allegheny Authors area on the main floor next to the study rooms. The first book, Journal Sparks: Fire Up Your Creativity with Spontaneous Art, Wild Writing and Inventive Thinking by Emily K. Neuburger, offers out-of-the box ways to apply journaling concepts to stimulate creativity in the classroom. These formats can be applied to all subject areas from traditional writing to mathematical thinking to comp research. The second book, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks, is more for personal introspection. Brooks explores the characteristics of lives of meaning and purpose, and how we can use our gifts to build a “life of interdependence and commitment to others.”

Study Away Workshop.

Do you work with students in an advisory capacity at Allegheny? Have you wondered how you might help them if they asked you about study away? Then you’d benefit from attending an engaging training workshop about supporting diverse students who express an interest in studying away while at Allegheny. Join Allegheny’s Global Education Office as we welcome veteran Higher Education Leader, Dr. Shakeer Abdullah, to lead our faculty and staff community in a training seminar on Using Multicultural Competence to Support Diverse Students in Study Away Programs on Monday, May 13, 12:00pm-4:00pm (lunch included). Please RSVP using this form. Support for this event was provided by the Great Lakes Colleges Association through its Global Crossroads Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Professional Development Opportunities

WTF: Way(s) to Fail. Materials from this GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning workshop on embracing the pedagogy of failure in your classroom are now available. This interactive workshop was led by our colleagues Lydia Eckstein, Amelia Finaret and Lisa Whitenack on Wednesday, March 20. You can view the workshop recording here. Additional resources can be accessed via this Google doc.

Scholarship of Service-Learning Workshop. The SoTL SIG of the POD Network will host the free webinar Conducting and Supporting the Scholarship of Service-Learning, facilitated by higher education consultant Dr. Barbara Jacoby, on Wednesday, April 17, from 3:00pm to 4:00pm. See more information on this page. Interested participants can join the webinar via this link.

Teaching Conferences

TLTCon 2023. The 7th Annual Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference (TLTCon 2024), hosted by the College of Charleston, will take place online on May 7-8, 2024. This year’s keynote speaker is Josh Weiss, Director of Digital Learning Solutions at Stanford University. The conference is free but spaces are limited, so register today!

The Grading Conference. Interested in learning about alternative grading methods in higher education? Register here for the 2024 Grading Conference – Higher Ed Focus, which will take place online from June 13 to June 15. The registration fee of $50 can be reimbursed from your Faculty Travel allowance. The keynote speakers will be Dr. Susan Blum, Dr. Laila McCloud, and Jeff Schinske.

Events

Upcoming Events

  • May 10, 1:30pm-3:00pm – Course Reflection Coffee Break (French Creek Coffee & Tea Meeting Room)
  • May 13, 4:15pm – Keynote Address: Thriving or Surviving? A Vision for the Second Year of College, Dr. Laurie Schreiner
  • May 14 – Spring Educator Resource Institute (schedule coming soon!)
  • August 14 and 16 – New Faculty Orientation
  • August 15 – Canvas Workshops (more details soon)
  • August 19 – Fall Educator Resource Institute (save the date)

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, March 2024

By March 14th 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 Rachel Weir at rweir@allegheny.edu.

Community Event

Educators in the Workplace. This year’s Educators in the Workplace event will be held on April 11 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm at Peters’ Heat Treating (11010 McHenry St, Meadville) and will include a tour, appetizers and adult beverages, and a discussion session. The purpose of Educators in the Workplace is to improve communication and collaboration between local businesses and educational institutions, including Allegheny. Past attendees have also found this event helpful in terms of communicating with Allegheny students about job opportunities in our local manufacturing industry. Register using this form.

Professional Development Opportunities

WTF: Way(s) to Fail. Are your students paralyzed by being wrong? Do they not take risks in the classroom for fear of getting a bad grade? The science of learning tells us that we learn best from our mistakes. How can we develop a culture of supportive failure for our students to enhance their learning? Sign up here for the GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning’s free virtual workshop, WTF: Way(s) to Fail, on embracing the pedagogy of failure in your classroom. This interactive workshop will be led by our colleagues Lydia Eckstein, Amelia Finaret and Lisa Whitenack on Wednesday, March 20, at 4:00pm. The goal of the workshop is to offer specific strategies for incorporating failure into teaching, course activities, and mentoring. To prepare for this engaging workshop, check out WTF: Way(s) To Fail! A Primer, based on the article Teaching the Inevitable: Embracing a Pedagogy of Failure.

Study Away Workshop. Study Away brings students into contact with new cultural frameworks that can challenge and shape their identities, and we as educators can help make this a productive growth experience for them. Join Allegheny’s Global Education Office as we welcome veteran Higher Education Leader, Dr. Shakeer Abdullah, to lead our faculty and staff community in a training seminar on Using Multicultural Competence to Support Diverse Students in Study Away Programs on Monday, May 13, 12:00pm-4:00pm. Dr. Abdullah will coach us on the knowledge, skills, and awareness we need to support our students and their identity development before, during, and after they study away. Read Dr. Abdullah’s full bio and watch a brief video introduction of the workshop for additional information.

Please RSVP by April 1. Space is available for 35 Allegheny educators to participate in the workshop on a first-come, first-served basis. Lunch will be provided at the start of the event, and light refreshments mid-afternoon. Support for this event was provided by the Great Lakes Colleges Association through its Global Crossroads Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Teaching Tools

Promoting Academic Integrity. As described in this post in the International Center for Academic Integrity’s Integrity Matters blog, four ways to promote academic integrity in our classes are:
1. Communicate your expectations and policies clearly (and repeatedly)
2. Foster a supportive learning environment in which students feel comfortable discussing challenges and seeking help
3. Use transparency in learning and teaching practices
4. Employ scaffolded, low stakes (or no stakes) assessments.
See the full blog post, linked above, for more details and additional references.

Financial Aid and Advising

As you meet with your advisees to discuss next year’s course schedules, please keep the following financial aid information in mind:

Federal student aid (direct loans, Pell Grant, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, or Veterans Administration benefits) cannot be used towards classes that do not count toward the graduation major, graduation minor, or distribution requirements, per federal regulations. This means the following in practice:

  • Each semester, a student needs to be enrolled in 12 credits that count towards their program of study (graduation major, graduation minor or distribution requirement) as defined by financial aid regulations to receive full-time aid.
  • Students who wish to explore the curriculum outside of their graduation major, graduation minor, and distribution, should enroll in a semester when they are already taking a minimum of 12 credits needed for their program of study.
  • For some students, it will likely be to their financial benefit to be part-time in their final semester. Part-time students are eligible to continue to live on campus, fully participate in campus life, and can often be eligible to participate in varsity athletics. They also will receive a prorated amount of their institutional aid.
  • When approaching the 128 credits, we need to be careful to ensure that each semester they have 12 credits that count towards their graduation major, graduation minor, or distribution.

Assessment Resources

Canvas Templates for Program Assessment. If you’re using Canvas rubrics for program assessment, take a look at these instructions, which describe how chairs (or assessment coordinators) can set up a single template Canvas assignment for a program. In short, one person creates a Canvas assignment that contains all of the rubric rows needed by a program in a given semester and shares it via Canvas Commons. Other faculty can then copy the assignment into their courses and delete the rows they don’t need, as described in these instructions, which can be copied and then tailored for a specific department by adjusting the highlighted parts. Contact Rachel Weir if you have any questions about this approach.

Friday SLO Talks. The California Outcomes Assessment Coordinators’ Hub (COACHes) will be hosting Friday SLO (Student Learning Outcomes) talks this spring. The first talk, Building Upon Foundations of Assessment: Why Assessment Matters Today, took place on March 1; you can view the recording here. The upcoming talks are:
– March 15: How Learning Works (Susan Ambrose)
– March 22: Project-Based Learning (Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa Api)
– April 12: Infusing Creative Thinking into Higher Education (Cyndi Burnett).
Register for an upcoming talk via this link using the dropdown menu in the form to select a particular talk. Previous talks can be seen on this YouTube playlist.

Teaching Conferences

PKAL Meeting. The 2024 Capital PKAL Regional Network Meeting will take place virtually on March 15 from 8:30am to 4:00pm with the theme Empower Students & Preserve Critical Thinking in the World of AI. PKAL (Project Kaleidoscope) is an AAC&U initiative focused on STEM higher education. More information is available on this page and interested faculty can register for $75 via this page. Please note that this registration fee can be reimbursed from Faculty Travel allowances.

What Works in 2024. The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College is currently accepting presentation proposals for the What Works in 2024 Conference, which will take place virtually during the week of May 29-31, 2024. The application deadline is March 15 and presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 29.

The Grading Conference. Interested in learning about alternative grading methods in higher education? Register here for the 2024 Grading Conference – Higher Ed Focus, which will take place online from June 13 to June 15. The registration fee of $50 can be reimbursed from your Faculty Travel allowance. The keynote speakers will be Susan Blum, Laila McCloud, and Jeff Schinske. If you’d like to submit an abstract for a presentation, workshop, or roundtable discussion, submissions are being accepted via this form until March 31 (the deadline was extended from March 15).

In the Library

Looking for a resource to guide your teaching? Each month we will highlight relevant materials from our collection in Pelletier.

Senior Project Archive. Once again, the library will be accepting senior projects for DSpace. This will be our 15th year! The easiest way to familiarize students is via the library’s Senior Project Submission page. There are a few minor changes to be aware of:
1. We have removed the option to submit print permission forms due to low use. Please direct students to the online permission form.
2. The submission process to DSpace has changed with the latest version of the software. A new slide deck is available on our website with step-by-step instructions for submitting projects.
If you encounter any issues, please contact Brian Kern at bkern@allegheny.edu.

Student Research Appointments. Please encourage students who would like assistance with papers, presentations, and other research projects to make an appointment with a librarian for one-on-one assistance. Librarians Doug Anderson and Tressa Snyder are available throughout the week to assist students with formulating a search strategy, focusing their research, identifying authoritative articles and books, finding and requesting items, tracking their research, using correct citation styles, and more. Students can make an appointment with a librarian at any time during the semester, although we do require 48 hours notice. When students book their appointment, we encourage them to provide information about their research project so the one-on-one session is most effective and beneficial. If you have any questions, feel free to email research.instruction@allegheny.edu or call Library Services in Pelletier at 814-332-4312.

GLCA Resource

LAS Advisors. The Liberal Arts and Sciences Collaborative is pleased to offer GLCA faculty the opportunity to receive free, one-hour virtual consultations with our team of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) Advisors. Their advisors are available to serve as a guiding resource, offering their expertise to those keen on enhancing their LAS education delivery through administration, curriculum, and/or pedagogy. To be connected with an advisor, take a look at the LAS Advisors webpage to identify an advisor who aligns with your interests and needs and then click the Request a Consultation button to access the request form.

Spring Educator Resource Institute

Save the Dates. Thanks to the Maytum Center for Student Success and the William Beazell Memorial Fund, the Spring Educator Resource Institute (ERI) will kick off early this year with a presentation and reception on Monday, May 13, in advance of our traditional day of workshops and presentations on Tuesday, May 14.

Dr. Laurie Schreiner, a national expert on the second-year experience, will be giving a talk at 4:15pm on Monday, May 13th, with a reception to follow. Her presentation should be of interest to all faculty, staff, and administrators who mentor and advise students, with particular relevance to current Exploratory Advisors, who will be continuing to advise 2023-2024 students through much of their pivotal second year. A related workshop will take place on May 14 as part of the ERI. Please direct questions to Second Year Class Dean Amy Stearns.

Events

Upcoming Events

  • May 13, 4:15pm – Presentation by Dr. Laurie Schreiner, national expert on the second-year experience
  • May 14 – Spring Educator Resource Institute (save the date)

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, February 2024

By February 15th 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 Rachel Weir at rweir@allegheny.edu.

Spring Educator Resource Institute

Save the Dates. Thanks to the Maytum Center for Student Success and the William Beazell Memorial Fund, the Spring Educator Resource Institute (ERI) will kick off early this year with a presentation and reception on Monday, May 13, in advance of our traditional day of workshops and presentations on Tuesday, May 14.

Dr. Laurie Schreiner, a national expert on the second-year experience, will be giving a talk at 4:15pm on Monday, May 13th, with a reception to follow. Her presentation should be of interest to all faculty, staff, and administrators who mentor and advise students, with particular relevance to Exploratory Advisors, who will be continuing to advise 2023-2024 students through much of their pivotal second year. A related workshop will take place on May 14 as part of the ERI. Please direct questions to Second Year Class Dean Amy Stearns.

Funding Opportunities

Demmler Awards. The Demmler endowment provides funding for faculty members who wish to pursue projects to develop innovation in teaching and in the curriculum. Consistent with data provided to us by the Art & Science Group and the strategies outlined in The Allegheny College Pathway, this year preference will be given to projects that focus on 1) building career discernment into academic programs; 2) building hands-on learning into the academic program; 3) developing accelerated academic programs (3+1 or 4+1 combined bachelors/masters degrees); and/or 4) developing proposals for federal grants or grants from major foundations.

You can read the full description of this year’s call here, and applications should be submitted using this form by March 1, 2024. Proposals will be reviewed by the Provost and Senior Associate Provost with the goal of notifying applicants of the decision on funding by April 1, 2024.

College Schools Collaborative. Do you have a terrific idea for a new collaborative project between Crawford Central School District and Allegheny College faculty, staff, or students? If so, the College-Schools Collaborative (CSC) can help you by providing funding to support your collaborative project. Guidelines and the application form can be found via this link. If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Whitenack.

In the Library

Looking for a resource to guide your teaching? Each month we will highlight relevant materials from our collection in Pelletier.

Did you know that Allegheny has an institutional subscription to Magna’s The Teaching Professor resource? Via this subscription, you can access articles and advice on a variety of teaching topics and you can also sign up to receive a weekly newsletter. To access this resource, use this link or search for “Teaching Professor” in Aggregator on the Library website.

As an example, a search for “peer review” yields multiple articles including The Benefits of Student Peer Review, Three Methods to Enhance Peer Review in Your Classroom, and Student Peer Review and Learning. Check out The Teaching Professor the next time you need advice or strategies to support your teaching!

Teaching Tools

Midterm Course Reflection. Have you made time in your course schedule for a Midterm Course Reflection? Week 7 (Feb. 26 – Mar. 1), right before we head into Spring Break, could be a great time to pause and gather feedback from your students about what is and isn’t going well for them in your course so far. You can find multiple resources on the Midterm Course Reflections page, including how to set up the survey, how to review the responses, and how to follow up with your class. This information is also available via the Teaching Resources page in the Faculty Resources site.

Reports of Student Experience (RSEs). The spring RSE survey will be open during the week of April 22, so please make sure that you set aside time for students to complete the survey during class that week.

Post-Semester Course Reflection. At the end of the semester, make time for a post-semester course reflection. Watch for details about our May Course Reflection Coffee Break if you’re interested in reflecting with colleagues!

Professional Development Opportunities

Study Away Workshop. Study Away brings students into contact with new cultural frameworks that can challenge and shape their identities, and we as educators can help make this a productive growth experience for them. Join Allegheny’s Global Education Office as we welcome veteran Higher Education Leader, Dr. Shakeer Abdullah, to lead our faculty and staff community in a training seminar on Using Multicultural Competence to Support Diverse Students in Study Away Programs. Dr. Abdullah will coach us on the knowledge, skills, and awareness we need to support our students and their identity development before, during, and after they study away. Read Dr. Abdullah’s full bio and watch a brief video introduction of the workshop for additional information.

Please RSVP by April 1. Space is available for 35 Allegheny educators to participate in the workshop on a first-come, first-served basis. Lunch will be provided at the start of the event, and light refreshments mid-afternoon. Support for this event was provided by the Great Lakes Colleges Association through its Global Crossroads Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Inclusive STEM Teaching Online Course. The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project, an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, is hosting a free six-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from March 4 – April 26, 2024, via edX. Participants in the course will learn how to:
– Advance awareness, self-efficacy, and ability to cultivate inclusive classroom environments
– Support their development as reflective, inclusive practitioners
– Engage in reflection and discussion around topics of equity and inclusion across a variety of institutional contexts
– Implement inclusive teaching methods in their classes that will remove common barriers and enhance learning in STEM for all students.
Click here for more information and to register for the course.

Questions can also be directed to Lisa Whitenack, who completed a previous offering of the course.

Perusall Community Book Event. As part of the Perusall Engage series, faculty are invited to participate in a 4-week asynchronous, author-facilitated, communal reading experience focused on Michelle D. Miller’s book Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology. This community event will run from February 26 until March 22. During this time, participants will be able to engage with the author, with each other, and with the book content, all within the Perusall platform and at their own pace. There is a $15 fee to access the book for two months, but you can participate in the four-week book event for the first week without charge. A discount coupon will be provided for attendees who wish to purchase a print copy of the book after the event. Click here to join the event.

ASC Reminders

ASC Funding Deadline. The spring semester deadline for ASC grant applications is February 15. All full-time continuing faculty are eligible to apply for funding of up to $3500 per year to support projects in 2023/24 or 2024/25 that are related to teaching or research. Requests for sabbatical or pre-tenure leave funding should also be submitted as ASC grant applications. The application form and additional details can be found on this page. Please contact ASC Chair Tim Bianco or Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

Supplemental Research Funding. Outside of the two funding cycles each year, faculty can apply for up to $500 in ASC funding using the same application process, as described on this page.

ASC Funding Reports. If you use Academic Support Committee funding in the current fiscal year (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024), please remember to complete the Funding Report submission form by June 30. This form and further details are available on the ASC Grant Applications page. Please contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

Fall Leave Reports. If you were on leave during the fall semester, please remember to submit your leave report using the form on this page by March 31. For spring one-semester leaves and two-semester (fall/spring) leaves, reports are due by October 31. Please contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

Teaching Conferences

PKAL Meeting. The 2024 Capital PKAL Regional Network Meeting will take place virtually on March 15 from 8:30am to 4:00pm with the theme Empower Students & Preserve Critical Thinking in the World of AI. PKAL (Project Kaleidoscope) is an AAC&U initiative focused on STEM higher education. More information is available on this page and interested faculty can register for $75 via this page. Please note that this registration fee can be reimbursed from Faculty Travel allowances.

What Works in 2024. The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College is currently accepting presentation proposals for the What Works in 2024 Conference, which will take place virtually during the week of May 29-31, 2024. The application deadline is March 15 and presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 29.

GLCA Webinars and Resources

“Do Faculty of Color Really Matter for the Liberal Arts?” Webinar. Professors Irene López (Psychology) and Simon Garcia (Chemistry), both of Kenyon College, presented this significant and timely webinar on behalf of the GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning on December 5, 2023. You can access various resources associated with the presentation, including the recording and slides, via this document.

“Working with Students When Things Get Difficult” Webinar Cyndi Kernahan, Professor of Psychological Sciences and Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, presented this webinar on January 18, 2024, also on behalf of the GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning. The webinar recording can be found here and other resources from her workshop are available in this folder.

Results of Survey on Generative AI. The findings of the GLCA survey that was administered in November 2023 can be found in this report from Paul A. Djupe (Director, Data for Political Research at Denison University) and Lew Ludwig (Director, Denison Center for Learning and Teaching).

Events

Upcoming Events

  • May 13, 4pm – Presentation by Dr. Laurie Schreiner, national expert on the second-year experience
  • May 14 – Spring Educator Resource Institute (save the date)

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, January 2024

By January 11th 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 Rachel Weir at rweir@allegheny.edu.

Spring Book Group

There’s still time to sign up for the spring book group! Meetings begin on Wednesday, January 24.

Belonging Book Group. How can we foster a sense of belonging for our students and for ourselves? The spring 2024 faculty/staff book group, facilitated by Rachel Weir, will focus on Geoffrey Cohen’s book Belonging: The Science of Creating Connections and Bridging Divides, which describes how “small actions to boost belonging have the potential to restore a sense of community in times of isolation and division” and that a sense of belonging “even boosts individual and communal health.” Meetings will take place on Wednesdays (January 24, February 7, February 21, March 13, March 27, April 10, and April 24) from 12:30pm to 1:20pm, with lunch provided, and all participants will receive a copy of the book. Please contact Rachel Weir with any questions. Sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

Setting Up Your Courses

Syllabus Checklist. The Syllabus Checklist page contains a list of required and recommended syllabus content, summarizing the information found in Section 9.1 of the Faculty Handbook.

DR Assessment. If you are teaching a course that has an ME or CL tag, please make sure you are able to identify at least one assignment for which one rubric row can be applied (Process or Conventions for ME; Civic Systems or Civic Actions for CL). Additional details can be found in the ME rubric and the CL rubric. Information about the assessment process will be emailed to instructors.

Reports of Student Experience (RSEs) The spring RSE survey will be open during the week of April 22, so please make sure that you set aside time for students to complete the survey during class that week. You may also want to make time to administer a midterm course reflection, followed by a post-semester course reflection.

Canvas Courses The RSE and other assessments are administered via Canvas, so all courses must have published Canvas sites, preferably by the Add/Drop deadline so that reminders don’t need to be sent out to instructors. This doesn’t mean that entire courses need to be managed through Canvas. You can find instructions on how to create a minimal Canvas course in this document.

Check out the Preparing for a New Semester page for additional reminders and tips for the new semester.

Teaching Tools

First Day Advice. Check out James Lang’s post How to Teach a Good First Day of Class for advice on how to set the tone for the semester by incorporating curiosity, community, learning, and expectations into your first class meeting.

Engaging Teaching. In her advice guide How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging, Sarah Rose Cavanaugh (author of The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion) shares four principles for increasing engagement in your classes:
– Cognitive Resources Are Limited. Emotion Trumps.
– Your Persona and Performance Matter, Like It or Not
– We Are Intensely Social Creatures, Motivated by Community
– Stories Are Our ‘Most Natural Form of Thought.’

Mental Health Days. Thinking about incorporating mental health days into your class schedule? In the post Student Wellness Tip: Create Mental Health Day Reflections, read about how one professor structures these breaks by requiring students to submit a short, written reflection describing how they spent the scheduled class meeting time, with the only rules being that they can’t sleep or study. The professor also commits to using this break to focus on his own wellness.

Ending With Review. In her post The Case for Ending the Semester With Review, Beth McMurtrie describes how Robert Talbert structures his classes so that the last two weeks do not involve any new content, allowing time to review material so that students can further bolster understanding. A similar strategy is to use these two weeks to delve more deeply into the material, but to only assess students on the earlier material. This provides the opportunity for students to view the assessed content from different points of view, enhancing their understanding without the pressure of additional testing.

Reading Your RSEs

Finding RSE Reports. Each course’s responses are contained in an Evaluation Report. To find your Evaluation Reports, go to the Anthology platform, click on the Reports icon at the top and then select Evaluation Reports. You should then see a list of your courses. Select the reports that you would like to see by checking boxes in the Include column and clicking the View button that appears above the list. You can also use the filters at the top of a page to find a specific course. Department chairs can access the reports for faculty in their department in the same way. The Anthology platform can be accessed directly via the RSEs link in your Canvas courses or via the Google waffle. If you run into any issues, please email rsesupport@allegheny.edu to contact the on-campus Anthology managers.

Analyzing RSE Responses. RSE results should be viewed through the lens of reflection and growth, as opposed to comparison with other faculty. For the qualitative responses, which appear at the end of the Evaluation Report, look for themes and identify possible action items. Pay attention to the positive comments, not just the negative ones! For the quantitative results, look for trends over time, celebrate the positives, and identify areas for improvement.

It’s normal to have an emotional reaction to reading feedback from your students, so give yourself time to work through any feelings that come up for you. For more advice on how to approach reading your evaluations, take a look at Constanza Bartholomae’s post Put Your Teaching Evaluations in a Jar. For example, she suggests “leaning into your values” and creating a “jar of affirmations.”

The Reports of Student Experience page contains additional information and advice, including the slides from the October 2022 presentation RSEs and You: What Does It All Mean?

Canvas Information

Course Mergers. Faculty who are teaching more than one section of a course may wish to request that the sections be merged into a single Canvas course. To request a merger, please use the Request a Canvas Course Merger button on the Library Resources for Faculty page, and submit the form provided. Requests will be processed by Library Services after approval by the Registrar, so please allow time for processing. Course mergers cannot be completed after students have submitted assignments or participated in discussions in the course.

New Quizzes Training Course. A 90-minute on-demand training course on New Quizzes is now available through the Canvas Training Portal. To access the portal, click the Help link in Canvas, located at the bottom of the navigation menu on the left-hand side. As noted in the portal, “New Quizzes is an enhanced quizzing tool available inside of Canvas. The tool offers a variety of interactive question types to promote engagement in your assessments. This course explores New Quizzes including the creation process, moderation and grading options, item bank management, as well as how to import and migrate existing quiz content.”

Canvas Support. The Canvas Tips page contains information about Canvas resources and support, course set-up reminders, troubleshooting suggestions, and a link to materials from previous Canvas workshops. Two quick reminders:
– If you’ve copied content from a previous course, watch out for issues with invalid links or unpublished images (the dreaded padlock!). You can identify these quickly using the Course Link Validator. See this article for more information.
– If you can’t find one of your courses in Canvas, click on the Courses icon and then select All Courses. Click the star next to any course to add it to your Courses menu and your Dashboard. See more information here.

ASC Reminders

ASC Funding Deadline. The spring semester deadline for ASC grant applications is February 15. All full-time continuing faculty are eligible to apply for funding of up to $3500 per year to support projects in 2023/24 or 2024/25 that are related to teaching or research. Requests for sabbatical or pre-tenure leave funding should also be submitted as ASC grant applications. The application form and additional details can be found on this page. Please contact ASC Chair Tim Bianco or Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

ASC Funding Reports. If you use Academic Support Committee funding in the current fiscal year (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024), please remember to complete the Funding Report submission form by June 30. This form and further details are available on the ASC Grant Applications page. Please contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

Fall Leave Reports. If you were on leave during the fall semester, please remember to submit your leave report using the form on this page by March 31. For spring one-semester leaves and two-semester (fall/spring) leaves, reports are due by October 31.

Teaching Conference

The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College is currently accepting presentation proposals for the What Works in 2024 Conference, which will take place virtually during the week of May 29-31, 2024. The application deadline is March 15 and presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 29.

Events

Upcoming Events

  • May 14, 2024 – Spring Educator Resource Institute (save the date)

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, November 2023

By November 30th 2023

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 Rachel Weir at rweir@allegheny.edu.

Mindfulness Minute

As you are reading this newsletter, briefly take a break to look around where you are. Can you find one beautiful thing? Focus your attention upon it, breathing deeply and allowing your body to settle as you just enjoy its presence. Anytime, you can return your attention to this object as a way of orienting yourself to beauty and pleasure. (And, if you can’t find anything at this moment, allow this to be a gentle nudge to place objects of beauty — plants, art, small stones, photographs — in places where you work, to allow you access to this orienting practice at any time.)

Teaching Feedback and Reflection

RSE Week. The Reports of Student Experience (RSEs) will be open to students next week (December 4-8). To encourage students to complete the RSE, please set aside time in class and share with your class how their feedback is useful to you as you reflect on and revise your courses.

RSE Access. Students will receive an email when the survey opens on Monday and they can access the survey from that email or from the RSEs link that should be in every Canvas course. If you’ve previously hidden the RSEs link, please make it visible by: 1) selecting Settings in the left-hand menu in Canvas; 2) in the Navigation tab, dragging RSEs from the bottom list into the top list; and 3) clicking Save at the bottom of the page.

Syllabus Annotation Activity. Looking for additional ways to collect feedback from your students? Bring copies of your syllabus to class on the the last day and ask your students to annotate them. Emily Farris, Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas Christian University suggests the following prompts for students: What did they like/dislike? What was impactful? What would they change? If they could add a week, what would they include or want more of? This activity can also be done electronically using the commenting function in Google docs or a platform such as Perusall. See this enthusiastic post from Matt Reed for his view on the benefits of this activity.

Bonus Tech Tip. For the above activity, you can create a copy of your Google doc for each student as follows:
– Share your document with “Anyone with the link” or “Public.”
– Copy the URL for your document and use it to create a link to your students. For example, you might provide the link within a Canvas assignment or on a Canvas page.
– Update the link, replacing the word “edit” in the URL and anything after it with the word “copy.”
When anyone clicks on the link, they will now be prompted to create a copy of the document that will automatically be saved in their Google drive.

Course Reflection Coffee Break. Faculty are invited to take a break from grading to reflect on and celebrate this semester’s teaching successes. Coffee, tea, and snacks will be available in CC 301/302 from 1:30pm to 3:00pm on Wednesday, December 20. Stop in to spend a little time talking with colleagues about teaching and giving yourself an opportunity to decompress. Bring a copy of each of your syllabi so that you can record notes about each course for next time – your future self will thank you!

Upcoming Events

Do Faculty of Color Really Matter for the Liberal Arts? The GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning will be hosting this virtual presentation by Professor Irene López (Psychology, Kenyon College) and Associate Professor Simon Garcia (Chemistry, Kenyon College) on Tuesday, December 5, at 12pm. López and Garcia will present on their findings of barriers and issues faced by faculty of color in academia and, in particular, the importance of faculty of color for students, the curriculum, and the institution. They have also launched a website, the Faculty of Color Network, specifically designed to support faculty members of color and will showcase this initiative during the presentation. Register here to attend this event; registered attendees will receive a link to attend via email the day before the event. The first part of the session will be recorded.

Spring Book Group

How can we foster a sense of belonging for our students and for ourselves? The spring 2024 faculty/staff book group, facilitated by Rachel Weir, will focus on Geoffrey Cohen’s book Belonging: The Science of Creating Connections and Bridging Divides, which describes how “small actions to boost belonging have the potential to restore a sense of community in times of isolation and division” and that a sense of belonging “even boosts individual and communal health.” Meetings will take place on Wednesdays (January 24, February 7, February 21, March 13, March 27, April 10, and April 24) from 12:30pm to 1:20pm, with lunch provided, and all participants will receive a copy of the book. Please contact Rachel Weir with any questions. Interested educators can sign up by completing this form. The form also provides space for you to register your interest if you can’t meet at this time; if there’s enough interest, another group may be formed. Sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

In the Library

Each month we will highlight a resource in Pelletier.

Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education: published in 2023, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to nontraditional grading techniques. Authors David Clark and Robert Talbert describe motivations for using alternative grading approaches, together with multiple case studies from a variety of disciplines. For additional case studies and resources, check out Clark and Talbert’s companion blog Grading for Growth.

In addition to the ebook linked above, a paper copy of the book is available in the Faculty Development section in Pelletier, which is located on the main floor near the Allegheny Authors section (look for the bright green walls).

URSCA Updates

Summer Research and Scholarship. Information about 2024 summer research opportunities is now available on the Summer Research Program website. Interested students can apply for up to 8 weeks of funding to participate in research, scholarship, and creative activities on campus and in the Meadville community during Summer 2024. To apply, students should submit a completed proposal (available here as a Word document) and submit it via the link on the website by Friday, March 29, 2024; the link will be live early in the spring semester.

Faculty Stipends. Faculty who mentor students participating in the Student-Faculty Research Program through the Office of URSCA will receive a stipend of $100/week (for up to 8-weeks of support) for their mentorship. The $100/week stipend is not paid per student (i.e., faculty mentoring 2 students will only be eligible for $100/week) and this stipend is available only to faculty whose students participate in this specific program.

Contact Matt Venesky (mvenesky@allegheny.edu), Director of URSCA, if you have any questions.

Global Education Updates

Global Learning Seminars in 2025. Faculty are invited to propose a Global Learning Seminar for 2025. GL Seminars are led by two Allegheny faculty and take students to a domestic or international off campus destination. GL Seminars are offered as standalone 2-3 week summer courses or as part of a Spring 2025 course with travel embedded into Spring Break. Proposals are due by January 17, 2025. Are you interested in leading a GL Seminar but don’t know where to start? RSVP at this link to attend a presentation about the 2025 proposal process on Dec. 4 at noon. For further information, review the 2025 Global Learning (GL) Seminars: Proposal & Program Policies.

Major Specific Study Away Advising Sheets for Students, Faculty, and Staff. Last summer, Allegheny faculty members collaborated with the Global Education Office (with support from the GLCA Global Crossroads Innovation Grant) to create major-specific advice for students considering studying away for a semester. These are now housed on a new My Major & Study Away landing page on the Global Education website. Do you have questions about which semester it’s best for any given major to study away? Or have you wondered which of our sponsored program options are best suited for a particular student looking to take upper-level major coursework while away? What about the mandatory courses students in a given major need to complete before they’re approved by their department to study away? These advising guides answer all these questions and then some. We hope they will be a valuable resource for the Allegheny community when supporting our students in their study away adventures.

Teaching Conference

Ohio PKAL Conference. The eighth annual Ohio Project Kaleidoscope (OH-PKAL) conference, Navigating Current Challenges & Opportunities in STEM Higher Education, will be held at Otterbein University on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The keynote speaker is Dr. Lynne Parker, Associate Vice Chancellor of The University of Tennessee at Knoxville and expert in Artificial Intelligence. OH-PKAL is a network of STEM faculty and graduate students promoting and enhancing evidence-based, learner-centered STEM undergraduate education. Check out the call for proposals to learn more about the conference’s themes and to submit a proposal for a poster, presentation, or workshop; the deadline for submissions is Tuesday, December 19. If you’re interested in carpooling with other faculty, contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir.

Professional Development Opportunities

Research Seminar on Affirming and Inclusive Engaged Learning for Neurodivergent Students. The Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University invites interested scholars and practitioners, regardless of discipline, to apply to join a multi-institutional cohort of researchers who will investigate systems, supports, pathways, and pipelines for neurodivergent students to facilitate access to and participation in high-quality engaged learning experiences. Selected applicants will meet on Elon University’s campus one week every June for the next three years. The deadline to apply is January 16, 2024; more information is available here. Alexis Hart (ahart@allegheny.edu) has been participating in the current research seminar and would be happy to talk with interested faculty.

2024-2025 Workshop for Early Career Faculty. The Nielsen Center for the Liberal Arts at Eckerd College invites early-career faculty at liberal arts colleges to join a supportive learning community and national network. Nielsen Fellows participate in a seminar-style workshop throughout a year-long program that includes three in-person gatherings at Eckerd College on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The deadline to apply is December 22, 2023; more information is available here.

Events

Upcoming Events

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.

Faculty Development Digest, October 2023

By October 18th 2023

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 Rachel Weir at rweir@allegheny.edu.

Gator Day Faculty Events

Please join us for these two Gator Day (Tuesday, October 24) events for faculty.

Using Assessment Instruments. (Tillotson Room, 9:00am-10:00am) A hands-on workshop that guides faculty through the process of implementing assessment instruments such as the DR rubrics (in courses that carry an ME or CL tag) and those identified in program assessment plans.

Caffeine and Cupcakes. (Tippie Alumni Center, 10:00am-11:00am) The Office of the Provost invites you to stop by to connect with colleagues, eat some cupcakes, and pick up some Allegheny goodies.

Professional Development Opportunities

Community-Engaged Learning Series. Three workshops focused on community-engaged learning and its transformative impact on students and the community will take place from October 18 to October 20. For more information and to register, click here.

ALIC Workshops. The Art department is offering a series of one hour digital art workshops. The first round of workshops includes:
– A Guide to Cell Phone Photography (October 18 & 25)
– Photoshop Comes to the Rescue (November 1 & 8).
Sign up for a workshop here. More details are available in this post on My Allegheny.

Informer 5. ITS will be offering multiple Lunch & Learn sessions on using Informer 5. These include introductory sessions on October 26 and November 3, an Advanced Usage session on November 16, and a Visualizations session on December 14. Lunch will be provided and all sessions will take place in Murray 120 at 12 pm. See more details here and use this form to sign up for sessions. More information about Informer is available here.

Professional Opportunity

Director of General Education. Applications are now open for the new Director of General Education position. Interested tenured faculty are invited to apply for this five-year, renewable position by November 1. As described in the job description, the Director of General Education will report to Peter Bradley (Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, Strategic Planning, and Assessment) and will lead the college-wide strategic developments, implementation, analysis, and reporting of general education student learning outcomes and assessment.

Teaching Conference

Ohio PKAL Conference. The eighth annual Ohio Project Kaleidoscope (OH-PKAL) conference, Navigating Current Challenges & Opportunities in STEM Higher Education, will be held at Otterbein University on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The keynote speaker is Dr. Lynne Parker, Associate Vice Chancellor of The University of Tennessee at Knoxville and expert in Artificial Intelligence. OH-PKAL is a network of STEM faculty and graduate students promoting and enhancing evidence-based, learner-centered STEM undergraduate education. Check out the call for proposals to learn more about the conference’s themes and to submit a proposal for a poster, presentation, or workshop. If you’re interested in carpooling with other faculty, contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir.

Fundraising and You

Are you interested in learning more about how fundraising at Allegheny works? This could include: how to identify and engage with potential donors; how to effectively communicate possible donor opportunities; how Institutional Advancement can help departments and programs connect with donors; the role of faculty in donor stewardship; or understanding fundraising responsibilities for faculty who move into administrative roles. Interested faculty are invited to complete this form, briefly indicating the kinds of topics they would like to learn more about. Responses will be collected by Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir and shared with Institutional Advancement in order to plan possible training opportunities.

In the Library

Each month we will highlight a resource in Pelletier.

During the pandemic, the Pelletier library provided subscriptions to Screencast-O-Matic, a tool used to capture screenshots, edit images, and create web recordings. On October 23, this tool will be renamed ScreenPal and will be upgraded to include the following capabilities:
– Interactive video quizzes, polls, and ratings
– Advanced video analytics
– Royalty-free stock media.
See this page for more details.

Allegheny has 25 licenses, which can be accessed here. Each license provides a month of access and can be renewed each month, if licenses are still available.

Canvas Information

Assignment Submission Issues. If your students are reporting that they cannot upload their assignments to Canvas, please have them work through the steps below, which were communicated in a Canvas announcement on October 18. In short, make sure they are logged into their Allegheny account and have authorized Google Drive on Canvas. Also, both students and faculty should use the Google Drive (LTI 1.3) option in Canvas. The other option (Google Drive) is an older version with less functionality.

For many assignments, your instructor may offer the option of uploading a file from your Google Drive, such as a Doc, a Sheet, or Slides. Before you can make use of this feature within Canvas, you will need to authorize the Google Drive app within Canvas. Here’s how:
1. Before you start, log out of ALL Gmail accounts on your device. Then log into only your @allegheny.edu account and no other Gmail in the same browser. Sometimes the process will glitch if you are logged into a non-Allegheny Gmail account.
2. From the Canvas navigation menu, click on “Account” and then choose “Settings”.
3. Under “Web Services”, check whether you see Google listed in the “Registered Services” section or in the “Other Services” section. If it is in the “Other Services” section, click on it and proceed to step 4. If it’s listed under “Registered Services”, you’ve already authorized it, so you can skip to step 6.
4. Click on Canvas may prompt you to log into your Google account. Use ONLY your @allegheny.edu Gmail.
5. Once you’ve logged in, it should show Google listed in the “Registered Services” section of your account settings.
6. When submitting an assignment, make sure you use the Google Drive (LTI 1.3) option, and not the Google Drive option.

If you still encounter issues with uploading files from Google Drive even after Google Drive is listed in the “Registered Services”, please let the Canvas Team know by emailing canvasteam@allegheny.edu, and we will reach out to you to help troubleshoot. Including screenshots and exact wording of any error messages you encounter will help tremendously!

Canvas and RSEs. Don’t forget that because the end of semester Reports of Student Experience (RSEs) are administered via Canvas, all courses that are eligible for RSEs must have published Canvas sites. This doesn’t mean that entire courses need to be managed through Canvas. You can find instructions on how to create a minimal Canvas course in this document.

Events

Upcoming Events

Past Events and Materials

See the Faculty Development Opportunities page for additional links to previous events.