Funding

Faculty Development Digest, February 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, Summer 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.

Upcoming Events

Canvas Workshops On Thursday, August 17 at 10am, Instructure trainer Cory Chitwood will facilitate a virtual, 90-minute Canvas Essentials workshop, aimed at new Canvas users or anyone who would appreciate a refresher on the basics of Canvas. Sign up via this form.

Cory will also run a virtual, 90-minute Q&A session at 1pm on August 17. Participants will have the opportunity to submit questions during the session and Cory will aim to address as many as possible during the allotted time. Sign up here.

Fall Teaching Circle If you would like to register your interest in participating in a fall teaching circle, please complete this form. The form also asks if you would be willing to serve as the facilitator. Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir will use the information received via this form to finalize the structure of the group. For reference, a teaching circle is a group of up to a dozen faculty members who meet on a regular basis throughout the fall semester to share issues, ideas, and advice connected to their teaching in a confidential and supportive setting. Please contact Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir with any questions.

New Faculty Orientation Incoming full-time faculty are asked to reserve Wednesday, August 16, and Friday, August 18, for New Faculty Orientation. You will receive more information from Director of Faculty Development Rachel Weir in early August, but feel free to reach out to her before then if you have any questions. 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 17 Canvas workshops (see above). Also, check out the Canvas Tips page for information on getting started.

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 9, 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 Arter Hall during business hours; the door on the Quigley side of the building should be unlocked at these times. You can either leave everything in Rachel Weir’s mailbox in Arter 103 or slide it under her office door (Arter 114A). Please contact her with any questions.

Reimbursement requests for the next fiscal year will not be processed until early August.

Report Reminders

ASC Funding Reports – June 30 If you received an Academic Support Committee grant for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023), 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 – August 1 This year’s Annual Activities Report has been significantly streamlined and should now be submitted via this Google 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) which elements are newly added in this reporting period (June 2022-May 2023).

These reports are not intended to reproduce the detail required for a self-evaluation, and are primarily for reflection and reporting of activities not listed on your CV. With your updated CV, this report will offer appropriate audiences, such as the Provost, a better understanding of the broad range of faculty work occurring across campus. For most faculty in most years, completing the form should take less than 30 minutes. Please submit your report via the Google form by August 1, 2023. Department chairs will receive copies of their faculty’s Annual Activities Reports from the Provost’s Office after all reports have been submitted.

Leave Reports – October 31 If you had a sabbatical or pre-tenure leave during the 2022/23 academic year, please remember to submit your leave report using the form on this page. For fall one-semester leaves, reports are due by March 31. For spring one-semester leaves and two-semester (fall/spring) leaves, reports are due by October 31.

Spring Educator Resource Institute

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Spring 2023 Educator Resource Institute on Tuesday, May 16. Materials from all of the sessions 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.

The Fall Educator Resource Institute will take place on Monday, August 21. Click here to save the date on your calendar.

Canvas Tips

Student Access to Completed Courses
When creating Canvas courses, faculty have the ability to control when students can access the courses. Changes can be made via the Settings page in a Canvas course, in the Participation section. If you’d like to allow your students to access the course after the semester is over, just uncheck the box next to “Restrict students from viewing course after term end date.” Note that it’s not possible to allow only specific students to access the course. See this page for further details.

Downloading Canvas Gradebook
If you’ve been using the Canvas gradebook and would now like to download a copy for your records, follow these steps:
– Open the gradebook by selecting Grades from the navigation menu in the Canvas course.
– At the top of the page click Actions; this will open a dropdown menu.
– Select Export Entire Gradebook. This will download the gradebook as a CSV file, which you can then save in your Google Drive.
If you have applied any filters to the gradebook using the View menu at the top of the Grades page, choose Export Current Gradebook View to download only the filtered version.

See this page for further details.

Micro-Credentials

The development process is now open for micro-credentials to be launched in Spring 2024. If you, your department, or a team of faculty wish to develop a micro-credential, please fill out this form at your convenience.

The deadline for submitting micro-credential proposals to the Curriculum Committee is October 5th, 2023. With the number of potential credentials being considered, submitting the initial intake form linked above between now and August would be ideal, but not required.

For more information, please see the micro-credential website or email Byron Rich with questions. The full micro-credential proposal is available upon request.

Data Science Workshop for Faculty

Faculty are invited to register for a summer workshop, to be held virtually, on infusing data science in STEM education. Funded through NSF award 1917002, the workshop provides curricular materials for incorporating data science concepts in early (first/second year) courses in both STEM and Social Science undergraduate education. More information about the workshop, including stipends offered and participation in the grant activities beyond the workshop, can be found here. (The application deadline is listed as May 15, but appears to have been extended.)

Summer Planning Workshops

In the April Digest, we mentioned two free, online summer strategy sessions offered by the NCFDD (National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity). If you missed those sessions, you can view the materials by following the links below:

5 Tips to Avoid Summer Burnout
2023 recording

Every Summer Needs a Plan
2022 recording
2023 slides

For other tips on how to address exhaustion and burnout, see this NCFDD post.

If you are prompted to create an NCFDD account, check out this page for instructions.

FCR Updates

The Foundation & Corporate Relations (FCR) office invites you to check out the grant opportunity below and to contact them early and often at fcr@allegheny.edu if you’re thinking about applying for a grant.

Humanities Faculty: Community-Engaged Course Development & Voter Education The Project Pericles’ Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program in the Humanities Grant provides $4,500 grants to design new or significantly revised courses in the humanities that incorporate community-initiated projects and voter education. There are multiple deadlines to apply. If you are interested, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form, indicating which deadline you are interested in.

STEM Faculty: NSF Mid-Career Advancement Grant The MCA program offers an opportunity for scientists and engineers at the mid-career stage to substantively enhance and advance their research program and career trajectory. Mid-career scientists are at a critical career transition stage where they need to advance their research programs to ensure long-term productivity and creativity but are often constrained by service, teaching, or other activities that limit the amount of time devoted to research. MCA support is expected to help lift these constraints to reduce workload inequities and enable a more diverse scientific workforce (more women, persons with disabilities, and individuals from groups that have been underrepresented) at high academic ranks. If you are interested, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form.

Spring/Summer 2023 Events

Upcoming Events

  • June 9 – First Year Course Registration Training
  • Aug 16 – New Faculty Orientation, Day 1
  • Aug 17 – Canvas Essentials Workshop (sign up here)
  • Aug 17 – Canvas Q&A Session (sign up here)
  • Aug 18 – New Faculty Orientation, Day 2
  • Aug 21 – Fall Educator Resource Institute (click this link to save the date)
  • Aug 22 – Exploratory Advisor Training 2, 11:15am-4:00pm
    The second in a series of two workshops for instructors of LS 198 and LS 199.

Past Events and Materials

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

Faculty Development Digest, April 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.

Spring Educator Resource Institute

Allegheny faculty, staff, and administrators are invited to participate in the Spring 2023 Educator Resource Institute on Tuesday, May 16, with sessions running from 9:00am to 4:00pm. (We recognize that this is Election Day, but available days are limited without going further into the summer.)

A full schedule has been posted on the Faculty Resources site; please check this schedule for updates and room details. Participants are asked to RSVP by 2pm on Friday, May 12, using this form. Form responses will be used to determine room locations for the sessions.

Upcoming Events

Course Reflection Session Continuing the tradition begun at the end of the fall 2022 semester, faculty are invited to set aside some time to reflect on their spring courses in the company of colleagues at a Course Reflection Session on Thursday, May 18, from 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Interested faculty can sign up by completing this form. Refreshments will be provided. See the Post-Semester Course Reflections page for additional information.

Teach Global Health: Summer Institute for Curriculum & Course Design The institute is a three-day workshop (June 20-23, 2023 on the Allegheny campus) for faculty at undergraduate-serving institutions to share experiences and best practices, evaluate curricular programs and assessment tools, and participate in charrettes designed to refine course and curricular materials that strengthen students’ learning, with facilitators from AAC&U, University of Richmond, Trinity Western University, University of Maryland, and CUGH. Allegheny faculty who are interested in either developing a new course or updating an existing course that could be available as an elective for Global Health Studies majors / minors (as well as their own department) are welcome to participate for free. Please email Caryl Waggett (cwaggett@allegheny.edu) by May 16 to register your interest. See this website for additional information. This program is sponsored by AAC&U, GLCA, CUGH, CFHI, and CISG.

Canvas Training

Mark your calendars for the following opportunities that will take place this August:

On Thursday, August 17 at 10am, Instructure trainer Cory Chitwood will facilitate a virtual, 90-minute Canvas Essentials workshop, aimed at new Canvas users or anyone who would appreciate a refresher on the basics of Canvas. If you’d like to sign-up now to get it on your calendar, please complete this form.

Cory will also run a virtual, 90-minute Q&A session at 1pm on August 17. Participants will have the opportunity to submit questions during the session and Cory will aim to address as many as possible during the allotted time. Sign-up here.

Sign-up reminders will be included in upcoming Digest issues.

Tech Tips

Directory Information
Is your information in the Employee Directory incorrect or incomplete? If so, check out the instructions on the Update Information page to find out how to update your details. In short:
– you can update your Box Number, Office Number, and Office Phone Extension via Self Service
– you can update or add other information (e.g. Title, Biography, Photo) using the form at the bottom of the Update Information page.
The Update Information page can also be reached from the Employee Directory using the green button on the right-hand side of the page.

Migrating Files to a Personal Account If you’re finishing up your contract at Allegheny and want to keep any content from your Allegheny account in Google Workspace (e.g. Gmail, Drive), take a look at these instructions to learn how to download or transfer this content.

Workshops

Teaching. Registration is open for Intentional College Teaching‘s 3-week, online professional development courses, including:
Teach Students How to Learn, June 12-28 (designed by Saundra McGuire)
Significant Learning by Design-I, July 10-26 (designed by Dee Fink)
Designing a Motivational Syllabus, July 31 – August 16 (designed by Christine Harrington and Melissa Thomas).
Faculty participants receive personalized feedback, discuss and share ideas with like-minded colleagues, and leave each course with tangible products they can implement in their teaching practice immediately. The cost of each workshop is $495.

Research. On June 20 from 12pm to 3pm, CUR will be hosting the virtual workshop Beginning a Research Program in Experimental Science Discipline at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution. This workshop will share first-hand experience from established faculty within such an institution, along with strategies for enhancing one’s research program within the context of undergraduate teaching and mentoring. In addition, this workshop will provide participants with information about sources of funding and other resources to support their research with undergraduates. The registration fee is $50.

The cost of professional development workshops like the two above can be reimbursed using your Faculty Travel allowance.

Summer Planning Workshops

Join the NCFDD (National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity) for two free, online strategy sessions focused on making the most of your summer. The first session, 5 Tips to Avoid Summer Burnout, will take place at 2pm on Thursday, May 4, and will focus on the best tips and strategies for maximizing research and productivity during the summer term and how to combat professional isolation and create a supportive writing community. The second session, Every Summer Needs a Plan, on Thursday, May 11, at 2pm, will focus on hands-on planning, where you can take time out of your schedule to identify your personal and professional goals for the summer, create a strategic plan to accomplish them, and identify the types of community, support, and accountability you need to make this your most productive and balanced summer ever!. Click here to sign up for one or both sessions.

If you haven’t taken advantage of our NCFDD institutional membership yet, check out this page for details on how to sign up.

FCR Updates

The Foundation & Corporate Relations (FCR) office invites you to check out the grant opportunity below and to contact them early and often at fcr@allegheny.edu if you’re thinking about applying for a grant.

Humanities Faculty: Community-Engaged Course Development & Voter Education The Project Pericles’ Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program in the Humanities Grant provides $4,500 grants to design new or significantly revised courses in the humanities that incorporate community-initiated projects and voter education. There are multiple deadlines to apply. If you are interested, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form, indicating which deadline you are interested in.

STEM Faculty: NSF Mid-Career Advancement Grant The MCA program offers an opportunity for scientists and engineers at the mid-career stage to substantively enhance and advance their research program and career trajectory. Mid-career scientists are at a critical career transition stage where they need to advance their research programs to ensure long-term productivity and creativity but are often constrained by service, teaching, or other activities that limit the amount of time devoted to research. MCA support is expected to help lift these constraints to reduce workload inequities and enable a more diverse scientific workforce (more women, persons with disabilities, and individuals from groups that have been underrepresented) at high academic ranks. If you are interested, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form.

AI-Writing Resources

Webinar Resources. As advertised in the March 2023 Digest, the GLCA-GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning hosted a conversation on ChatGPT on Wednesday, March 29. The following resources from that event are now available:
– a 29-minute video introduction to ChatGPT by Lew Ludwig (Denison)
– a Google Drive folder where you can see the Jamboard notes created in the webinar break-out rooms, along with a useful article by Ryan Watkins, Get Creative With Your Assignments.

Spring/Summer 2023 Events

Upcoming Events

  • May 3 – Exploratory Advisor Training 1, 10:00am-3:00pm
    A workshop for faculty serving as instructors for the pilot “advising labs” in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 (LS 198 and LS 199, respectively).
  • May 11 – Exploratory Advisor Training 1, 10:00am-3:00pm
    A repeat of the May 3 training. Exploratory Advisors need only attend one of these two trainings.
  • May 16Spring Educator Resource Institute
  • May 17 – Department Chairs Workshop
  • May 18Course Reflection Session
  • June 9 – First Year Course Registration Training
  • Aug 16 – New Faculty Orientation, Day 1
  • Aug 17 – Canvas Essentials Workshop
  • Aug 17 – Canvas Q&A Session
  • Aug 18 – New Faculty Orientation, Day 2
  • Aug 21 – Fall Educator Resource Institute (click this link to save the date)
  • Aug 22 – Exploratory Advisor Training 2, 11:15am-4:00pm
    The second in a series of two workshops for instructors of LS 198 and LS 199.

Past Events and Materials

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

Faculty Development Digest, March 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.

Demmler Awards

The Demmler endowment provides funding for faculty members who wish to pursue projects to develop innovation in teaching or in the curriculum. This year, preference will be given to projects that:
– advance innovation in inclusive teaching and/or
– advance the institutional goal of increasing enrollment and/or the College’s national profile as a liberal arts institution.
To provide maximum flexibility, proposals can be submitted at any time through June 2, 2023, for work that could take place any time through the Fall 2023 semester. Proposals will be reviewed by the Provost and Associate Provost with the goal of notifying applicants of the decision on funding within 10 business days of receiving the proposal. You can read the full description of this year’s call here. Applications should be submitted using this form.

Teaching Tools

Looking for a quick way to provide focused feedback to your students? Or perhaps a guided approach for peer review? Check out the TAG Feedback framework. As shown in the image below, the goal of TAG feedback is to give three specific forms of feedback and that’s it!

Visual showing components of TAG feedback

Too much feedback on an assignment can feel overwhelming, while vague feedback can leave students wondering what they need to do to address it. Using this approach can be a time-saver for faculty, while also providing students with a manageable number of focused, actionable next steps.

URSCA Updates

Summer Research and Scholarship. Allegheny College is now using a common application that all students participating in research, scholarship, and creative activities on campus and in the Meadville community will need to complete. In particular, all students who receive awards through the Office of URSCA or the Office of Community Engaged Learning, as well as students who are funded by grants received by faculty members, are required to complete this form in order to participate in summer programming. Links to program-specific application materials are embedded within the form, including the proposal template for the URSCA Student-Faculty Research Program. The Summer Research Program website is a one-stop shop for all of the information.

Scholars Symposium 2023. Watch for an email from URSCA Director Matt Venesky with information about the 2023 Scholars Symposium, including links to various forms for faculty and department/program chairs to complete (registration for Faculty Mentors wishing to participate in the Mentor Breakfast, links for departments/programs to register seniors participating in the Senior Project Poster Session, etc.). Please be on the lookout for these forms and pay attention to the various due dates that will be approaching as we end the semester.

AI-Writing Resources

Webinar.The GLCA-GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning invites you to a conversation on ChatGPT designed to help faculty think about the potential value of these generative AI programs, and not just their potential peril. Among other questions, they will be exploring how we can use AI to help deepen (rather than discourage) learning communities in our classrooms, and the ways that ChatGPT can improve student writing or problem-solving skills. Participants will work in groups with those who have more experience with AI to help everyone brainstorm possible approaches. Please join them for this webinar on Wednesday, March 29 at noon EST. Click here to register.

Using AI to Help Instructors. In their article Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts, the authors describe how instructors can leverage AI to help implement evidence-based teaching methods in their classroom. The five strategies they describe involve: generating multiple examples; generating explanations for different audiences; writing low-stakes tests; assessing student knowledge and identifying areas of confusion; and drawing connections between different course topics. Check out this blog post, written by one of the authors, for a quick overview with examples.

FCR Updates

The Foundation & Corporate Relations (FCR) office invites you to check out the grant opportunity below and to contact them early and often at fcr@allegheny.edu if you’re thinking about applying for a grant.

Humanities Faculty: Community-Engaged Course Development & Voter Education The Project Pericles’ Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program in the Humanities Grant provides $4,500 grants to design new or significantly revised courses in the humanities that incorporate community-initiated projects and voter education. There are multiple deadlines to apply. If you are interested, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form, indicating which deadline you are interested in.

Spring/Summer 2023 Events

Upcoming Events

  • May 3 – Exploratory Advisor Training 1, 10:00am-3:00pm
    A workshop for faculty serving as instructors for the pilot “advising labs” in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 (LS 198 and LS 199, respectively).
  • May 11 – Exploratory Advisor Training 1, 10:00am-3:00pm
    A repeat of the May 3 training. Exploratory Advisors need only attend one of these two trainings.
  • May 16 – Spring Educator Resource Institute (click this link to save the date)
  • May 17 – Department Chairs Workshop
  • June 9 – First Year Course Registration Training
  • August 21 – Fall Educator Resource Institute (click this link to save the date)
  • August 22 – Exploratory Advisor Training 2, 11:15am-4:00pm
    The second in a series of two workshops for instructors of LS 198 and LS 199.

Past Events and Materials

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

Faculty Development Digest, February 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.

Updates

On the right-hand side of the Faculty Resources site, you will find several new additions:
– The Opportunities for Faculty box contains information about time-sensitive opportunities. Check to see what’s coming up whenever you access the site! Feel free to submit items to Rachel Weir.
– The Recent Posts box contains links to recent issues of the Digest and other posts on the Faculty Resources site.
– The Digest Topics box contains a word cloud of topics that appear in issues of the Digest. Just click a topic to access all relevant issues. Click Digest to access all issues.

Mark your calendars!
– The Spring Educator Resource Institute will take place on Tuesday, May 16. Click here to save the date on your calendar.
– The Fall Educator Resource Institute will take place on Monday, August 21. Click here to save the date.

Teaching Tools

Have you made time in your course schedule for a Midterm Course Reflection? Week 7 (Feb. 27 – Mar. 3), 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.

At the end of the semester, you can return to this feedback and your responses to it as part of a post-semester course reflection. Watch for opportunities to join a May course reflection session with colleagues – more details soon!

Canvas Information

Did you know that you can control how long students have access to your Canvas course by adjusting the Participation option in Settings? Choosing Term means the course will be visible as soon as you publish it and will be available until the last day to submit work for an Incomplete for that semester. Choosing Course instead gives the instructor the option to adjust the start and end dates manually. If you want to make your course visible to all enrolled students indefinitely, uncheck the box next to “Restrict students from viewing course after course end date,” located at the end of the Participation section in Settings. All of these settings are course-wide; there isn’t a way to give students different access dates.

You also now have the option to change the course name that is displayed in the Courses menu. Just go into Settings and update the entry in the Course Name box. This change will be in effect for everyone in your course. You can create a course nickname just for yourself by clicking the three vertical dots on the course card in your Dashboard and changing the entry in the box below Nickname.

If you do make any changes in Settings, don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the yellow Update Course Details button so that your changes are saved.

AI-Based Writing Systems Workshop

On Friday, February 3, we were joined by Heidi McKee and James Porter, both of Miami University, for a workshop on AI-Based Writing Systems. If you weren’t able to attend, please check out the materials below:
Recording
Slides
Handout
You can also find these materials on the Teaching Resources page, under On-Campus Workshop Materials.

FCR Updates

The Foundation & Corporate Relations (FCR) office invites you to check out the grant opportunities below and to contact them early and often at fcr@allegheny.edu if you’re thinking about applying for a grant.

Humanities Faculty: Community-Engaged Course Development & Voter Education The Project Pericles’ Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program in the Humanities Grant provides $4,500 grants to design new or significantly revised courses in the humanities that incorporate community-initiated projects and voter education. There are multiple deadlines to apply. If you are interested, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form, indicating which deadline you are interested in.

Biology, Chemistry, and Physics Faculty: Fundamental Research The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation awards annual research grants to researchers at Pennsylvania colleges and universities to carry out fundamental research in biology, chemistry and physics. Grant programs include:
New Investigator Research Grants – Up to six awards at a maximum of $150,000 for two years ($75,000 per year).
New Initiative Research Grants – Up to four awards at a maximum of $300,000 for two years ($150,000 per year).
If you are interested in this opportunity, please complete the FCR office’s grant proposal endorsement form by March 1, 2023.

Call for FCR ERI topics The FCR office is planning a presentation during the next ERI. What topics would you like to know more about? How to write a strong proposal? How to create a grant budget? How to write a solid grant report? Email your ideas to fcr@allegheny.edu.

Did you know? The National Endowment for the Humanities website offers a tool to help match your project ideas with available opportunities. Don’t forget to contact Allegheny’s Foundation & Corporate Relations office at fcr@allegheny.edu to discuss your ideas!

Fulbright Programs

The 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar Program is now open. Faculty whose work could benefit from some international field time or who would like to spend a semester or two teaching abroad are highly encouraged to apply. Allegheny faculty have fared well in this competition over the years; see this page for a full list. Anyone with even a passing interest in applying is encouraged to reach out to the Fulbright Campus Liaisons – Rachel Weir and Patrick Jackson – for more information or to start a conversation about Allegheny resources that might be useful as you put together an application.

Do you have a student or advisee who is doing great things? Share their name with Senior Assistant Dean for Fellowship Advising Patrick Jackson and he will reach out to connect the student with fellowship opportunities including the Fulbright Student Program, the Rhodes Scholarship, the Marshall Scholarship, and many more.

Teaching Conferences and Workshops

Faculty and staff are invited to participate in Teaching and Learning Together: The Possibilities and Challenges of Pedagogy Partnerships, a summer workshop hosted at Grinnell College on June 13 and 14, 2023 through a grant from the Mellon Foundation. Pedagogy partnerships bring together faculty, students, and others to co-create meaningful teaching and learning experiences. The grant will cover all costs for participants (travel, lodging, and meals). Interested participants should complete the application form by Friday, February 24.

The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College is currently accepting presentation proposals for the 2023 What Works Conference, which will take place virtually during the week of May 30-June 2, 2023. The application deadline is Wednesday, March 1 March 22 (extended deadline), and presenters will be notified of their acceptance status by March 30.

The 7th Annual Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference (TLTCon 2023), hosted by the College of Charleston, will take place online on May 16-17, 2023. This year’s keynote speaker is Jay McTighe. Jay is a veteran educator and accomplished author having co-authored 18 books, including the award-winning and best-selling Understanding by Design® series. The conference is free but spaces are limited, so register today!

Spring 2023 Events

Past Events and Materials

Upcoming Events

  • May 16 – Spring Educator Resource Institute (click this link to save the date on your calendar)
  • May 17 – Department Chairs Workshop
  • Aug 21 – Fall Educator Resource Institute (click this link to save the date on your calendar)