Update on Faculty Hub Events

This is an update from the Faculty Hub on some re-scheduled events and a reminder of upcoming events and resources that may be useful to you at this point in the semester.

Re-Scheduled Events

  • Faculty Hub Morning Blend: Distracted (Continued): Due to the ice storms, we have re-scheduled our follow-up discussions on Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It on Thursday, February 25 from 1-1:45 p.m. and Friday, February 26 from 9-9:45 a.m. Whether you attended the book talk with Dr. James Lang or not, you are invited to join us to review key points and how we might apply them to current modes of teaching.  No registration is needed, please use this Zoom link. (If you missed the book talk you can view it here.) We are using our Morning Blend format in which a brief presentation is made (generally, about 15 minutes), a tip sheet is provided, and an open discussion is invited for anyone who wishes to do so after the presentation. We are mindful of faculty time in how we package these weekly events.  If you are not yet familiar with our Morning Blend series, we invite you to explore the archived resources from prior sessions, several of which are timely at this point in the semester: Developing Time Efficient Workflows for Grading, Strategies for Virtual Office Hours, and Strategies for Gathering Midterm Student Feedback, a topic that Jim Lang also referenced in his talk last week and that could be applied now or in the next few weeks.

Reminders: Key Events in March

  • Radical Empathy: We invite you to join us for a faculty development session with Dr. Terri Givens who will address structural racism and the persistence of inequality while offering practical steps for calling out racism and affecting radical social change.  The session will be part presentation and part workshop and is based on her book, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides. If you are among the first 40 people to sign up, we will send you a copy of the book! To learn more, please see this excerpt and consider joining us on Monday, March 22 from 1-2:30 p.m. Register for the Book Talk!
  • We will also hold a follow-up conversation about radical empathy on Thursday, March 25 from 9-9:50 a.m., facilitated by Keith “Mac” McIntosh and Linda Boland. If you would like to join us, please register here.
  • Faculty Hub Conversation: Are you currently teaching as an adjunct professor or as an instructor on a part-time or temporary appointment in A&S, RSB, Jepson, Law, or SPCS? Would you like an opportunity to ask questions, build community, and make connections with faculty in similar instructional roles from across campus? The Faculty Hub invites you to join us for an informal conversation to share knowledge, practices, success stories, questions, and considerations for teaching at the University of Richmond. This Faculty Hub Conversation* will be co-facilitated by Kylie Korsnack (Faculty Hub), Carol Wittig (Library), and John Zinn (SPCS) and will be offered on Friday, March 5 from 12-12:50 p.m. Sign up here!  *Note: This is the second conversation that we are offering for adjuncts this semester. If you came to the first session, we hope to see you again! And if you missed the February meeting, we hope you’ll consider joining this time!
  • NCFDD Writing Challenge: If you would like to try a new approach to building a regular writing habit, please join us for the NCFDD writing challenge. The name may be misleading–it is not a competition but a chance to gain peer support to encourage the habit. Writers decide when to write each day and there are no penalties if you miss some days! If you have not tried this approach and want more information about the logistics or potential impact, please contact Linda Boland.
  • Consultations: Are you thinking about mid-term assessments or improving your digital workflow? To learn more about how the Faculty Hub can help you, please consider our one-on-one consultations which can be scheduled at mutually convenient times.

Radical Empathy and a 14-Day Writing Challenge

The Faculty Hub invites all faculty to participate with us in two faculty development opportunities in March.

  • Book Talk with Dr. Terri Givens on Radical Empathy

We invite you to join us for an important faculty development opportunity with Dr. Terri Givens, founder/CEO of Brighter Higher Ed, political scientist, consultant, and a former vice provost and provost.

Dr. Givens’ forthcoming book Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides addresses issues of structural racism and the persistence of inequality and offers practical steps for calling out racism and affecting radical social change. This 90-min session will be part presentation and part workshop.  The book is not available until 2/25 and you do not have to have read it in order to gain from this session. If you are among the first 40 people to sign up, we will send you a copy of the book as soon as it’s available!

To learn more about the forthcoming book, please see this excerpt and consider joining us:

We will also hold a follow-up conversation on Thursday, March 25 from 9-9:50 a.m, facilitated by Keith “Mac” McIntosh and Linda Boland. If you would like to join us, please register for the follow-up conversation.

  • 14-Day Writing Challenge

It can be very hard to find 30 minutes a day for focused writing time, especially under current conditions.  However, if you would like to give it a try, here is a program that uses some motivational approaches to help you engage or re-engage in your writing.

Consider participating with us in a 14-day writing challenge sponsored by the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). This will occur from March 22-April 4 and you must register by March 17 (see below).  During the week of April 5, the Faculty Hub will offer a follow-up conversation for UR participants so that we can reflect on our experiences, celebrate our successes, and share tips on how to continue our writing momentum into the coming months.

New to NCFDD? No problem! UR has an institutional membership. Follow these steps to activate your account and sign-up for the challenge:

  1. Visit the NCFDD website
  2. Click “Join NCFDD”
  3. Select your institution from the drop-down menu
  4. Click “Activate My Membership”
  5. Complete a basic sign-up form with personal and professional information
  6. Activate your account by clicking the link in a follow-up confirmation email
  7. Once you are logged in, you will see information about signing up for the challenge under “Start Learning” on the main dashboard or under “Events.” Registration closes on March 17!

First Week of Spring Term, 2021

Greetings and best wishes for a good start to your spring semester!  Below please find information about new professional development events in the Faculty Hub.

Faculty Hub Book Talk: Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It with Dr. James Lang

Why are attention and focus so difficult and so important to effective learning?  What is the impact of technology on attention spans? What role can teachers play in facilitating attention and reducing distraction in students? If these questions interest you, we invite you to join a Faculty Hub book talk by Dr. James Lang, author of Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. To learn more, please see a series of articles by Lang in the Chronicle of Higher Education that cover some of the topics from this book.

Sign up here to join this book talk on Monday, February 15 from 3-4:15 p.m.

The first 40 people to register will receive a copy of the book through campus mail. If you are teaching remotely and are unable to come to campus, please indicate this on your registration form and provide your mailing address.

The Faculty Hub will also facilitate a discussion on Friday, February 19 from 9-9:45 a.m. to explore how we can employ some of Lang’s ideas in our teaching. As Lang’s book was written just prior to COVID-19, we want to explore how to facilitate student attention and focus in our new teaching modes. No registration is required for the follow-up session which will use this Zoom link. 

A Faculty Hub Working Group on Alternative Assessments is a new opportunity to discuss specifications grading, portfolio grading, oral exams, ungrading, student self-evaluation, and other alternative assessments of learning. If you’ve ever considered implementing an alternative form of assessment in one or more of your classes, or if you’re doing so now, please consider joining with other faculty for regular discussions this semester to share ideas and resources, promising practices, and pitfalls. Meetings will be held over Zoom at mutually convenient times, and the group will determine the frequency of meetings (but probably no more than once a month). Contact Libby Gruner at egruner@richmond.edu by Friday, January 22, for more information or to join the group.

Please join us for the Faculty Hub’s Morning Blend sessions: (1) Social Annotation on Thursday, January 21 at 1 p.m. and Friday, January 22 at 9 a.m. and (2) Active Learning: Peer to Peer Thursday, January 28 at 1 p.m. and Fri January 29 at 9 a.m. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and join us for a short presentation (10-15 minutes), a takeaway document (tip sheet), and an informal open discussion on each topic. All Morning Blend meetings will use this Zoom URL, no registration required.

 

Jan 2021 Faculty Hub Programming

Greetings and happy new year from the Faculty Hub!

Below is a list of our schedule for January – please follow the links for registration information.  Sessions with the same title are duplicate sessions (#1, #2, etc). 

Wed., Jan. 6

Conversation: Student Workload (1st offering)

Across the country, students have expressed concern that the shift to remote learning has coincided with a substantial increase in workload. Is this the case or are instructors simply distributing and assessing coursework differently? If the latter, how can we help students adjust to and manage new or different workflows? Please join faculty from across campus to engage in informal conversation around this topic. Consider reading “The Strange Case of the Exploding Student Workload” prior to joining this session.

Time: 10-10:50 a.m.

Register: Conversation: Student Workload #1

 Panel: Alternative Assessment Methods

Are you planning to use or considering an alternative assessment method such as oral exams, student self-assessments, “ungrading,” or portfolio grading in your spring courses? This 50-min panel will feature short presentations (5-7 min) by Della Dumbaugh (Mathematics), Jan French (Anthropology), and Chris Miller (Political Science) followed by Q&A and open discussion on these alternative assessment methods. This panel will be moderated by Libby Gruner (Faculty Hub Associate, English).

Time: 2-2:50 p.m.

Register: Panel: Alternative Assessment Methods

Thurs., Jan. 7

Conversation: Course Design

Do you want an opportunity to reflect on the alignment between your course objectives, assessments, and course activities? Do you want to get feedback from others as you finalize your course design plans for the spring? Join us for this conversation to receive a few resources related to “backwards course design” and to have an opportunity to engage with faculty colleagues from across campus in an informal conversation about your course design process.

Time: 10-10:50 a.m.

Register: Conversation: Course Design

Morning Blend: Bb Course Organization

Do you have questions about how to organize your course materials in Blackboard? Join the Faculty Hub for Morning Blend on Blackboard Course Organization. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and join us for a short presentation (10-15 minutes), a takeaway document (tip sheet), and an informal discussion on strategies for organizing your course materials in Blackboard.

Time: 1-1:45 p.m.  (yes, this is an afternoon option–it’s morning somewhere!)

Zoom: Morning Blend Zoom room  (No registration required)

Fri., Jan. 8

Morning Blend: Bb Course Organization

We will offer a second session of Morning Blend on Friday morning.

Time: 9-9:45 a.m.

Zoom: Morning Blend Zoom room  (No registration required)

Workshop: Blended Classroom Experience #1

Do you want to experiment with blended learning before the spring semester begins? This workshop is designed to give faculty the opportunity to experience the blended classroom from multiple perspectives: remote learner, in-class learner, and in-class instructor. During this 90-minute session, each instructor will facilitate a brief 15-minute lecture, learning activity, and/or discussion. Then, remote and in-class learners will have the opportunity to provide feedback and reflections on their experiences. While the number of remote learners is not limited, we must cap the number of in-class learners to 10 and in-class instructors to 3.

Note: Priority registration for this initial session will be given to new or returning faculty who did not teach in-person last semester.  This workshop is also offered on January 14 and 15.

Time: 10:30-12 p.m.

Register:  Workshop: Blended Classroom Experience #1

Panel: Alternative Assessment Projects

Are you planning to use or considering an alternative assessment project such as podcasts, digital projects, or group projects? This 50-min panel will feature short presentations (5-7 min) by Dan Chen (Political Science), Melissa Freilich (Theatre & Dance), and Caroline Weist (Language, Literatures & Cultures) followed by Q&A and open discussion on these types of final projects.

Time: 1-1:50 p.m.

Register: Panel: Alternative Assessment Projects

Mon., Jan. 11

Workshop: Inclusive Pedagogy – Transparency

How can we use the concept of transparency to design more inclusive learning environments for our students? In this workshop, we will explore three teaching areas – the learning environment, the design of assignments, and grading practices – through the lens of transparency. Drawing from both research on inclusive teaching and the practical experiences of one another, we will work together to identify concrete strategies and tools for building more transparency into each respective area of our teaching. This 75-minute workshop will include time for participants to get feedback from colleagues on a teaching approach or artifact. Participants are encouraged to come to the workshop with a course policy, assignment description, or a grading approach in mind that they would like to make more transparent.

Time: 11-12:15pm

Register: Workshop: Transparent Teaching

Conversation: Student Workload (2nd offering)

We will offer a second opportunity to engage in dialogue about helping students manage and/or adjust to the workloads associated with remote and blended learning. See description above or click the registration link below for full details.

Time: 1-1:50 p.m.

Register: Conversation: Student Workload #2

Tues., Jan. 12

Panel: Tips for Engaging Students on Zoom

Is it possible to adapt videoconferencing technology to promote student engagement in learning? Having now used Zoom for teaching in online and blended coursed, we have found several ways to promote student engagement and inclusive teaching. Our tips will be shared with plenty of time for participants to ask questions or share their own tips! Panelists include Linda Boland, (Faculty Hub, Biology), Jessica Erickson, (Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Law) and special guest panelist, Claire Howell Major, Professor of Higher Education Administration at the University of Alabama and author of several books, including Teaching Online: A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice.

Time: 11-11:50 a.m.

Register:  Panel: Zoom Pedagogy

 Panel: Social Annotation

Are you planning to use or considering whether to integrate social annotation into your spring courses?  This 50-min panel will feature short presentations (5-10 min) by Kristine Grayson (Faculty Hub Associate, Biology) and Libby Gruner (Faculty Hub Associate, English) followed by Q&A and open discussion. The panelists will discuss how/why they incorporated social annotation into their pedagogy with examples from Perusall and Hypothes.is.

Time: 2-2:50 p.m.

Register: Panel: Social Annotation

Wed., Jan. 13

Faculty Hub Institute: Data Visualizations in R

Click on the registration link to learn more about this multi-session, all-day faculty development opportunity.

Time: All Day

Register: Institute: Data Visualizations in R

Panel:  Making Use of an Imperfect Tool—Using Your SEI Results to Improve Your Teaching

University-administered student evaluations of instruction (SEIs) are imperfect tools.  As instructors, how can we re-frame our SEIs as formative?  Are there strategies for working with SEIs that can make them a useful professional development tool?  This 50-minute panel will feature brief presentations by Carthene Bazemore-Walker (Assistant Dean for Diversity, Inclusivity, and Thriving, A & S), Don Forsyth (Jepson School of Leadership), and Joe Ben Hoyle (Accounting, Robins School of Business), with time for Q & A on how to make use of your SEIs.  Moderated by Linda Boland (Faculty Hub, Biology).

Time:  10-10:50 a.m.

Register: Panel: Making Use of an Imperfect Tool

Thurs., Jan. 14

Panel: Collaborative Documents

Are you planning to use or want to learn more about using collaborative documents to engage students in your blended or remote courses? This 50-min panel will feature short presentations (5-10 min) by Saif Mekhari (Economics) and Fernando Otalora-Luna (Biology) followed by Q&A and open discussion. These panelists will discuss how/why they incorporated collaborative documents into their pedagogy and how their approach impacted student learning.

Time: 10-10:50 a.m.

Register: Panel: Collaborative Documents

Morning Blend: First Day

How do you approach the first day of a blended or remote class? Do you have strategies to share for cultivating community, connection, and curiosity on the first day? Join the Faculty Hub for our next session of Morning Blend: First Day. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and join us for a short presentation (10-15 minutes), a takeaway document (tip sheet), and an informal open discussion on strategies for approaching the first day of class.

Time: 1-1:45 p.m.

Zoom: Morning Blend Zoom room  (No registration required)

Workshop: Blended Classroom Experiences #2

We will offer a second session of the Blended Classroom Experience. See description from January 8 (above) or click the registration link below for full details.

Time: 2-3:30 p.m.

Register:  Blended Classroom Experience #2

Fri., Jan. 15

Morning Blend: First Day

We will offer a second session of Morning Blend on Friday morning (see above for full details).

Time: 9-9:45 a.m.

Zoom: Morning Blend Zoom room  (No registration required)

Faculty Hub Workshop: Blended Classroom Experiences #3

We will offer a third session of the Blended Classroom Experience. See description from January 8 (above) or click the registration link below for full details.

Time: 10:30-noon

Register: Blended Classroom Experience #3

Debrief on Fall 2020, Thinking Forward to Spring 2021 

I want to thank and congratulate all faculty and academic staff who have worked so hard to make this semester as successful as possible.  Alongside numerous staff at the university, the faculty have worked extremely hard to adapt to the new and constantly changing challenges of blended and remote teaching.  Thank you all for your efforts.

We are conscious of the time challenges we have all faced since March, yet we also want to capture some of those lessons learned and use them to our mutual benefits during spring term. Before we move fall term teaching to the past tense, we invite you to consider joining us to share with your colleagues what you learned this semester.  What worked well?  What needs re-alignment?  What additional professional development support would be most helpful?

Next week, the Faculty Hub is offering facilitated conversations about our fall term teaching experiences.  Please consider if one of them meets your interests and please know that you are welcome to participate for a duration that works for you.  We hope that you will find it meaningful to share and learn with your colleagues.  We also list below some planning that is under development for January 2021, to help you prepare for spring term.

Faculty Hub Conversation: Teaching FYS 

Did you teach an FYS course during the fall semester or are you preparing to teach an FYS course in the spring? Do you have strategies or successes from your experiences this fall to share with colleagues? We invite faculty to come together to share knowledge, practices, success stories, and considerations for remote or blended teaching of FYS courses. Two sessions will be offered:

Faculty Hub Conversation: Fall Semester Debrief

Do you have strategies or successes to share from your teaching this fall? Would you like to ask questions and receive feedback from colleagues as you plan your spring courses? Please join faculty from across campus for a semester debrief session in which we will share knowledge, practices, success stories, and considerations for remote or blended teaching. Two sessions will be offered:

Can’t make any of these sessions but still want to participate? Please email us to let us know if you would be interested in attending a similar type of session in January or to receive a one-on-one recap with a member of the Faculty Hub.

Descriptions of the Types of Programming Offered by the Faculty Hub

  • Conversations: Informal, interdisciplinary conversations (50 minutes) around a topic of shared interest (this is the format for the December sessions noted above).
  • Panel Discussions: Short presentations on selected topics (5-10 minutes) by 2-4 faculty members followed by Q&A (20-30 minutes).
  • Morning Blend: Informal “coffee break-style” discussions on a topic that impacts teaching and/or scholarship. Each session includes a brief presentation (10-15 minutes) followed by optional discussion time.  The Faculty Hub produces a one-page tip sheet to guide you in implementing a strategy or approaches discussed.  Visit our website for the recorded presentations and tip sheets from fall term.
  • Workshops: Hands-on, interactive sessions (75-90 minutes) that allow participants to take a deeper dive into a specific topic or practice with a teaching approach.
  • Faculty Hub Institute: Intensive workshops (full day or multi-session) designed to deepen faculty knowledge and skillsets to help propel their pedagogy and scholarship into the future.
  • Consultations: The Faculty Hub is available to provide faculty with personalized support for teaching and scholarship through confidential, individual or small group consultations. Schedule a consultation on our website.

A note about recordings:  To maintain opportunities for authentic sharing by colleagues participating in a program, periods of open dialogue are not recorded in our sessions.  Most public presentations, invited speakers, and scheduled presentations within the program are recorded and some sessions include handouts, worksheets, or tip sheets which we will share with attendees and anyone else who wishes to use them.  We encourage individual or small group consultations if a topic interests you but you cannot attend at the scheduled time.

We are in the planning stages for our January 2021 programming.  Here is a quick preview of topics we are working on and the formats for engagement.  If you would like to help in a session from this list or suggest another topic, please email us!

  • Panels: (1) Alternative Assessment, (2) Social Annotation, and (3) Collaborative Documents
  • Conversations:  Reflecting on Course Design
  • Morning Blends: (1) Course Organization in Bb and (2) The First Day of Class
  • Workshops: (1) The Blended Classroom Experience and (2) Zoom Pedagogy
  • Institute:  Data Visualization with R (register here)

Resources on Assessment Design

The Faculty Hub has been asked about resources on assessment design in advance of the virtual final exam period.  Below are some resources we have shared via our website and Blackboard courses.

In addition, we are happy to offer 1-1 consultations regarding remote learning assessments. Email facultyhub@richmond.edu, or book an appointment directly with one of the consultants using the following links: Kylie, Ryan, or Andrew.

From our Morning Blend Series:

From our Responsive and Flexible Teaching course:

From our curated resources:

University of Richmond Honor Code:

  • You might also find it useful to review UR’s “Honor Code”

Two Faculty Development Opportunities

Dear Colleagues,

I want to let you know about two upcoming opportunities for faculty development.

1- Tomorrow, Friday, November 13 at 2:00 pm ET, Cengage (an education and technology company) is hosting a webinar on Oral Exams: The Secret to Assessing Students During COVID.  This event features Dr. Della Dumbaugh, Assistant Chair and Professor of Mathematics and author of the recent Inside Higher Ed article, “Revitalizing Classes Through Oral Exams.”  The webinar is free and you may register here.

2- In January, the Faculty Hub will initiate a new program for faculty development, The Faculty Hub Institute.  Institutes are multiple session workshops for faculty to learn together, gain professional feedback, and advance teaching and scholarship goals in a supportive environment for experimentation.

Would you like your students to create data visualizations that are both beautiful and effective narrative tools? Would you like to better communicate your data in scholarly publications and presentations?  If these questions interest you, please consider joining us for the first Faculty Hub Institute:  Data Visualizations in R.

We will host two faculty cohorts for this Institute. The first cohort will begin with a full-day workshop on January 13, followed by additional spring term sessions with members of the cohort and built-in opportunities for one-on-one support.  Learn more about the course content and the schedule here. A second cohort will meet for professional development in a more concentrated format in May. This schedule will be available early in the spring semester.  As for all Hub activities, faculty from all five schools are invited to participate.

We are currently accepting registrations here for the cohort that begins on January 13. Please note that we will be offering the Institute in a blended teaching format with up to eleven (11) in-person spots, to be filled on a first-come-first-serve basis. Other members of the cohort will participate remotely.  If you want to learn more about this opportunity and the time commitment, please contact the Faculty Hub.

As you consider these or other professional development opportunities, please note that we are also available for individual consultations.  Let us know how we can help you.

Best wishes as you near the end of the semester.

Sincerely,

Linda

Linda M. Boland, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology

Director, Teaching and Scholarship Hub

New Website and Faculty Development Opportunities

Same Address, New Design . . .

The Faculty Hub is proud to release our new website with a reorganized resource page, as well as updated program and services pages. We have developed this site to support the goals of the Faculty Hub.  Please let us know how you like it!  You can also now follow us on Twitter!

Upcoming Program Reminders

Registration is still open for Inclusive Teaching: Student Belonging, an interactive session designed to practice critical reflection and analysis around stories of students’ experiences in the classroom presented by UVA Acts on Friday, October 30 from 12 – 1:30 p.m. Register here!

There is also still time to join the Faculty Hub Book Club featuring Calling Bullsh*t: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. The book’s focus on data and information literacy aligns with the work of Faculty Hub Associates, Dr. Kristine Nolin and Dr. Kristine Grayson, who will lead the discussions. Sign up here by Monday, November 2.

Please consider attending the Morning Blend, a weekly online get-together to communicate helpful tips for faculty (a 10-15 minute presentation), a takeaway document (tip sheet) for later reference, and discussion time. The program runs every Monday morning and repeats on Thursdays, both at 9 a.m. Next week, we are discussing Open Book Exams. Each session uses the same Zoom URL and no registration is needed.

Cross-Institutional Faculty Development Opportunities

Please take a look at some cross-institutional faculty development opportunities. These are great opportunities to extend your learning while also helping you connect to faculty with shared interests and methodologies at other institutions.

Fieldwork Across Disciplines

  • A deeper look into fieldwork across many disciplines, with applications to virtual environments. A Lafayette College faculty panel discussion with faculty from the arts, anthropology and sociology, environmental studies and biology, and civil engineering.  October 20, 12:15-1:15 p.m. EDT. Please register here.

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Made Me a Better Research Mentor.

  • A conversation with ACS colleagues at Furman University and Wofford College. The focus is on mentoring strategies that faculty adopted in summer 2020 during the pivot to virtual projects. Panelists will share what they plan to retain from this experience after we return to in-person mentoring. October 22, 4-5 p.m. EDT. Please register here.

Building your Facilitator Tool Box: Honing dialogue skills to navigate pre- and post-election tensions.

  • Panelists will discuss tools that can be used to set up pre- and post- election conversations. Featured panelists are Roger Fisher; Associate Director of the Intergroup Dialogue Program at University of Michigan; Libby Roderick; Director, Difficult Dialogues Initiative, University of Alaska Anchorage; and Erica Dugué; Senior, African American Studies major, Dialogue and Difference in Action Leader, Princeton University. October 27, 4:30-6 p.m. EDT. Please register here.

Ungrading

  • How alternate approaches such as self-assessments, grade free zones and peer review can help students realize their potential. Facilitated by Lafayette College Professor Chris Phillips. October 29, 12:15-1:15 p.m. EDT. Please register here.

Introducing the Faculty Hub’s Redesigned Website

The Faculty Hub is proud to release our new website this week. We have developed this site to support the goals of the Faculty Hub: to foster excellence in teaching, cultivating cross-disciplinary interactions for scholarly exchange, and promoting professional development for faculty at all career stages. I wanted to share with you some of the features of the new website that we think faculty will love:  

Resource Page: 

Faculty told us that they wanted a resource page with curated guides, weblink, and tip sheets that was filterable for pedagogical and scholarship categories. The new page contains many terrific resources, but it is just our starting point. We will be regularly be adding new resources to the site. We also have links to our Slack page where faculty are encouraged to share their favorite resources and ask the faculty community about specific questions or concerns.  

Program Pages: 

The Faculty Hub is continually adding new opportunities for faculty to engage in. These programs typically have deliverables, applications, and other materials that faculty want immediate access to. Our new program pages have built in archives for easy asynchronous learning. Our Morning Blend program for example is a short 10-15 talk accompanied by a one-page tip sheet. We typically hold these events live on Monday and Thursday mornings but if you cannot make them, we now have a library of the materials on the website. 

Services Pages: 

Our one on one consultations are some of the most impactful services we offer in the Hub and the new website makes scheduling a consultation with Hub staff super easy. Check out the “Schedule” links on side bar in the one on one consultations page, these links take you to each consultant’s calendars and make scheduling meetings super easy.  

We are also very excited about the new Faculty Hub space on the third floor of Boatwright Library. Very soon, you will be able to reserve one of the many multi-use spaces in the Hub for your faculty focused group meetings.  

We encourage you to check out the new site and let us know your thoughts. We are always looking for ways we can best serve our faculty! 

Best,  

Andrew Bell 

Programs and Consultations, Mid-Fall 2020

As we reach the mid-point of fall term, the Faculty Hub extends our thanks to all faculty and staff for maintaining our academic mission, despite the challenges. We have had many opportunities to work with faculty, especially since March 2020, and we are always seeking additional ways to help the faculty.

Please take a few minutes to review upcoming events.

Inclusive Teaching: Student Belonging

To what extent do students feel accepted, supported, and respected by instructors and peers? A sense of belonging is a basic human need and it impacts student well-being and academic performance. Want to learn more about how you can make a difference in promoting student belonging at UR?

Join us for Inclusive Teaching: Student Belonging, an interactive session designed to practice critical reflection and analysis around stories of students’ experiences in the classroom. We invite you to help us build a shared understanding of the ways in which students’ experiences can be supported by consistent actions from instructors. We are hosting a virtual presentation by UVA Acts on Friday, October 30 from 12 – 1:30 p.m. Register here!

(This is limited to 30 participants on Zoom; we will consider a second opportunity if there is interest.)

Morning Blend

Please consider our new program, the Morning Blend, a weekly online get-together to communicate helpful tips for faculty (a 10-15 minute presentation), a takeaway document (tip sheet) for later reference, and discussion time. The program runs every Monday morning and repeats on Thursdays, both at 9 a.m. Next week, we are discussing Adapting Media Projects for Remote and Blended Teaching. We schedule the sessions from 9 – 9:45 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays and use the same Zoom URL. No registration is needed and you are welcome to come for some or all of the session.

Faculty Hub Book Club

We and our students are consumers of data every day. What data can we trust? Do scholarly works contain valid information? How is data communicated? How do we identify and evaluate information, data, and news? What are some ways we can effectively incorporate data and information literacy into our courses and effectively communicate about data in our scholarship?

We invite you to join us to learn from Calling Bullsh*t: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. The book’s focus on data and information literacy aligns with the work of Faculty Hub Associates, Dr. Kristine Nolin (Chemistry) and Dr. Kristine Grayson (Biology), who will lead the discussions.

Faculty from all schools and disciplines are invited to join us. One organizational meeting will be scheduled for late November or early December and three discussion meetings between January 11 and February 26. Discussion times will be selected for greatest participation by registrants. Your book will be delivered before Thanksgiving. Sign up here by Monday, November 2.

Faculty Hub Institute: Data Visualization with R

Rescheduled from spring 2020, we will be offering the Faculty Hub Institute twice next semester: once in the beginning of the semester and once after the semester concludes. The specific schedules are still being worked out and the time commitment is listed below.

  1. A pre-spring session on January 13, 2021 from 9 a.m. –2 p.m. plus 90-minute sessions in each of the three following weeks. Faculty will also need to commit to work independently 1-2 hours a week on their visualization projects between each session.
  2. A post-spring institute on May 11-12 from 9 a.m. –4:30 p.m. and May 13 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Individual project work time will be available during these hours.

If you are interested in learning more, check out the syllabus and/or email Andrew Bell. Registration will be available soon.

Responsive and Flexible Teaching

Materials we created for our three-week summer course, Responsive and Flexible Teaching, are still available in Blackboard, and we encourage you to review them as the semester continues and when you start preparing for spring term. If you do not yet have access to this course, please email facultyhub@richmond.edu to be added. Ryan Brazell, one of the Hub’s Technology Consultants, recently added a document that may be helpful to faculty who are interested in using Hypothesis, a social annotation tool that allows students and faculty to collaboratively comment on documents.

Faculty Hub Consultations

We are available for consultations throughout the semester. To request a consultation from the Faculty Hub staff, please use this link. To request a consultation from our Associates, please review the contact information below.

Dr. Kristine Grayson, Associate Professor of Biology, Faculty Hub Associate
Email: kgrayson@richmond.edu 
Office hours for faculty: Wednesday, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m., Friday, 1 p.m. – 2p.m. or by appointment (email for Zoom link)  
Consultations: data literacy, quantitative skills assessment, grants and publishing on science teaching practice 

Dr. Libby Gruner, Professor of English, Faculty Hub Associate
Email: egruner@richmond.edu  
Office hours for faculty: By appointment (book here; Thursdays and Fridays are best. Zoom link will be sent) 
Consultations: alternative forms of assessment, ungrading, portfolio grading, contract grading, inclusive pedagogy

Dr. Kristine Nolin, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Faculty Hub Associate
Email: knolin@richmond.edu 
Office hours for faculty: Monday 1 p.m. – 3 p.m., by appointment (Book here. Zoom link will be sent)
Consultations: data literacy 

Thank you all!

Linda