TLS Library

myCourses is the course management system at RIT. This training is intended to give instructors an introduction to teaching with myCourses and provide an overview of the core tools. In this session we will cover:

• The Content tool for sharing your syllabus, documents, and other files with students.
• Grades for online grading and comments.
• The Classlist for email communication and reviewing your enrollments.
• The News tool for important course announcements.

We recommend this session as an introduction to myCourses then encourage you to go work with the tools and come back with your specific questions. After the session, faculty are always welcome to contact us for support with their quick questions. If you have more in depth needs after this training, or wish to reserve time with a staff member to work with you one-to-one, we ask that you request a customized training at http://wallacecenter.rit.edu/events.

myCourses is the course management system at RIT. This training is intended to give instructors an introduction to teaching with myCourses and provide an overview of the core tools. In this session we will cover:

• The Content tool for sharing your syllabus, documents, and other files with students.
• Grades for online grading and comments.
• The Classlist for email communication and reviewing your enrollments.
• The News tool for important course announcements.

We recommend this session as an introduction to myCourses then encourage you to go work with the tools and come back with your specific questions. After the session, faculty are always welcome to contact us for support with their quick questions. If you have more in depth needs after this training, or wish to reserve time with a staff member to work with you one-to-one, we ask that you request a customized training at http://wallacecenter.rit.edu/events.

Clipboard is a highly sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, online survey system. The staff of The Wallace Center created this tool for campus-wide use. Because Clipboard was developed at RIT, it comes with campus-based support. 

All RIT faculty and staff are free to use Clipboard.

Features of this session include:

• How to create a Clipboard survey;
• How to utilize the various question types, including the newly-added "branching" feature;
• How to create response sets;
• How to add users to your survey;
• And how to access your data.

This session is for demonstration only. It is not a workshop.

This will be one of very few training opportunities on this tool! If you have someone in mind whom you would like to be trained as your department Clipboard lead, this would be a great session for them. 

Clipboard is a highly sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, online survey system. The staff of The Wallace Center created this tool for campus-wide use. Because Clipboard was developed at RIT, it comes with campus-based support.

All RIT faculty and staff are free to use Clipboard.

Features of this session include:

• How to create a Clipboard survey;
• How to utilize the various question types, including the newly-added "branching" feature;
• How to create response sets;
• How to add users to your survey;
• And how to access your data.

This session is for demonstration only. It is not a workshop.

This will be one of very few training opportunities on this tool! If you have someone in mind whom you would like to be trained as your department Clipboard lead, this would be a great session for them.

Effective assessment of student learning outcomes is a common challenge for many instructors.  You may have asked yourself, “do my students truly learn what I teach?”

This introductory assessment workshop is the first in a series designed to support faculty in assessing student learning outcomes in their courses. This first workshop will focus on rubric development, but will also cover course goal setting and curriculum mapping.

Rubrics or scoring guides are one method that may be used to evaluate students' responses to performance assessment. Rubrics are simply statements of key criteria or characteristics of the particular learning outcome -- statements of what demonstrated performance for each criterion looks like at various achievement levels.  In best practices rubrics, like other forms of assessment, are part of a cycle of reflection. They evolve based on input from users and the on-going refinement of learning goals and course activities.

This workshop will also highlight the faculty and student benefits of using rubrics in any course format (campus, blended, online, independent study). The focus will be on discussing the development, use, problems, and on-going refinement of rubrics to assess student learning in multiple types of learning environments.

Participants should bring their course goals and one sample of an assignment and the rubric or scoring guide (if developed) from a current class.  Participants will receive resources for future use.

About our presenter:

Dr. Anne Wahl joined the Academic Affairs division in January 2009 as the new Director of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment. Anne was previously the Director of Assessment, Certification, and Accreditation at St. John Fisher College. For the past ten years, she has worked and conducted research in the areas of assessment and accreditation in higher education.

myCourses is the course management system at RIT. This training is intended to give instructors an introduction to teaching with myCourses and provide an overview of the core tools. In this session we will cover:

• The Content tool for sharing your syllabus, documents, and other files with students.
• Grades for online grading and comments.
• The Classlist for email communication and reviewing your enrollments.
• The News tool for important course announcements.

We recommend this session as an introduction to myCourses then encourage you to go work with the tools and come back with your specific questions. After the session, faculty are always welcome to contact us for support with their quick questions. If you have more in depth needs after this training, or wish to reserve time with a staff member to work with you one-to-one, we ask that you request a customized training at http://wallacecenter.rit.edu/events.

myCourses is the course management system at RIT. This training is intended to give instructors an introduction to teaching with myCourses and provide an overview of the core tools. In this session we will cover:

• The Content tool for sharing your syllabus, documents, and other files with students.
• Grades for online grading and comments.
• The Classlist for email communication and reviewing your enrollments.
• The News tool for important course announcements.

We recommend this session as an introduction to myCourses then encourage you to go work with the tools and come back with your specific questions. After the session, faculty are always welcome to contact us for support with their quick questions. If you have more in depth needs after this training, or wish to reserve time with a staff member to work with you one-to-one, we ask that you request a customized training at http://wallacecenter.rit.edu/events.

Members of the RIT Faculty Learning Community (FLC): Adjunct Faculty-Winter 20092 are selected from an applicant pool open to all adjunct faculty who have taught at least one quarter at RIT. Criteria for selection include:

• interest in working with colleagues from several RIT colleges
• reflection, support, and encouragement of new ideas
• commitment to quality teaching
• approval of their department chairs
  

To apply, please click: https://clipboard.rit.edu/take.cfm?sid=1B6F2AD3

• Expectations include the following:
• attendance at bi-weekly two-hour meetings
• development of a teaching project
• creation of a teaching metaphor
• participation in a group presentation at an RIT workshop
  

All meetings will be on Mondays from 6:00PM  8:00PM. We will adjust start time if necessary at first meeting.

The meeting schedule:

• December 7
• January 4
• January 18
• February 1
• February 15

Upon completion of the FLC, a $250 stipend will be paid to each participant.

For more information, contact Sarah Cass, sarah.cass@rit.edu.

Do you want to engage your students in a learning experience that's more meaningful than a typical class project? Are you unsure of how to measure the effectiveness of this sort of project? Well, you're not alone. This FLC will help us get a better handle on one of the hardest parts of service learning projects - assessment.

Members of the RIT Faculty Learning Community (FLC): Service Learning Winter-20092 are selected from an applicant pool open to all faculty at RIT. Criteria for selection include:

• interest in working with colleagues from several RIT colleges
• reflection, support, and encouragement of new ideas
• commitment to quality teaching
• approval of their department chairs

Expectations include the following:

• attendance at bi-weekly two-hour meetings
• development of a teaching project
• Each participant will identify either an actual project or a hypothetical project to use as a model, as we progress through the evaluation

At the end of the FLC period, we will produce a template(s) for assessing the service learning aspect of a variety of different projects (depending on the makeup of the FLC). This will include student activities related to the actual project and methods for assessing those complimentary activities.

To apply for this FLC, please click: https://clipboard.rit.edu/take.cfm?sid=0722EC38

All meetings will be on Tuesdays from 10AM to 12PM. The first meeting is Tuesday, December 8.
The schedule for this FLC is:

• Tuesday, December 8
• Tuesday, January 5
• Tuesday, January 19
• Tuesday, February 2
• Tuesday, February 16

About the facilitator:

Dr. Elizabeth DeBartolo is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at RIT. She received her BSE in mechanical engineering from Duke University in 1994 and her MS and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1996 and 2000, respectively.

Dr. DeBartolo's background is in fatigue life prediction and microstructure effects on mechanical behavior of aluminum alloys. At RIT, Dr. DeBartolo has been continuing her work with fatigue life prediction in aircraft engine components and structural members and has begun investigating static and fatigue strength in diffusion-bonded alloys. She is also working with ME students on two projects for military vehicle life enhancement through RIT's National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery.

For more information, contact Sarah Cass, sarah.cass@rit.edu or Beth DeBartolo eademe@rit.edu.

This FLC focuses on best practices for teaching revision in classes for which writing and writing instruction play a significant role.

Participants will explore best practices in the teaching of writing and revision. This exploration will be based upon current and landmark research on revision found in the fields of Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies. A small collection of articles and possibly a book will serve as the initial basis for this exploration. Additionally participants will be introduced to “CompPile”, an online “inventory of publications in post-secondary composition, rhetoric, technical writing, ESL, and discourse studies”.

Participants will reflect on what they learned during the creation of the rubric and the reading of student work, and use their experience of that assessment to develop their own classroom-based activities and assignments intended to teach students how to revise and improve their writing.

Members of the RIT Faculty Learning Community (FLC): Engaging Students Through Writing and Revision Activities Winter-20092 are selected from an applicant pool open to all faculty at RIT. Criteria for selection include:

• interest in working with colleagues from several RIT colleges
• reflection, support, and encouragement of new ideas
• commitment to quality teaching
• approval of their department chairs

To apply, please click: https://clipboard.rit.edu/take.cfm?sid=2B570730

Expectations include the following:

• attendance at bi-weekly two-hour meetings
• development of a teaching project
• Faculty will explore and learn about best practices in teaching writing and revision
• Faculty will develop classroom-based activities and assignments intended to teach students how to revise and improve their writing
• Faculty will identify strategies for integrating the assessment of writing into the teaching of writing in their classes
• Faculty will participate in a meaningful writing assessment project and revise a scoring rubric that focuses on the revision and improvement of writing

All meetings will be on Thursdays from 10AM to 12PM. The first meeting is Thursday, December 10.
The schedule for this FLC is:

• Thursday, December 10
• Thursday, January 7
• Thursday, January 21
• Thursday, February 4
• Thursday, February 18

About the facilitator:

Dr. David Martins is an Assistant Professor in the English department in the College of Liberal Arts. He was recently hired to direct the writing program at RIT. He is committed to contributing to the inquiry-based culture of assessment developing on campus through a faculty learning community that integrates a writing assessment component within the exploration and development of pedagogical practices.

Degrees:

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Technical Communication, May 2001
  Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
• M.A. in English, emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition Theory, 1995
  Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
• B.A. Cum Laude in English Literature (major), Asian Studies (minor), 1992
  St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

For more information, contact Sarah Cass, sarah.cass@rit.edu or David Martins, dsmgla@rit.edu.

StrengthsQuest is a fascinating tool for understanding how to identify and capitalize on our personal assets. Their new book applies SQ principles to leadership, which is very appropriate for an academic setting.

By identifying and developing natural talents, StrengthsQuest has enriched thousands of lives by capitalizing on what individuals do best. This positive theory has now been applied to leadership. Members of this FLC will learn how to apply their leadership profiles in classrooms and in teams. It is especially appropriate for department or committee chairs.

Members of the RIT Faculty Learning Community (FLC): StrengthsQuest Winter-20092 are selected from an applicant pool open to all full-time faculty at RIT. Criteria for selection include:

• interest in working with colleagues from several RIT colleges
• reflection, support, and encouragement of new ideas
• commitment to quality teaching
• approval of their department chairs

To apply, please click here:  https://clipboard.rit.edu/take.cfm?sid=F8F6B9A9

Expectations include the following:

• attendance at bi-weekly two-hour meetings
• Each participant will write a summary of his/her personal SQ profile, profile as a leader, leadership context, and plans for implementing SQ in that context.
• The group will prepare a poster for the 2010 Faculty Institute on Teaching and Learning (FITL).

All meetings will be on Thursdays from 2PM to 4PM. The first meeting is Thursday, December 10.
The schedule for this FLC is:

• Thursday, December 10
• Thursday, January 7
• Thursday, January 21
• Thursday, February 4
• Thursday, February 18

About the facilitator:

Susan Donovan is retired from RIT as an Associate Professor in Student Affairs. In the past year, she has worked with the Teaching and Learning Center to develop and support faculty learning communities. In winter 20082 she facilitated an FLC on creativity and innovation.

Susan has attended SQ training at the Gallup headquarters in Omaha, NE. She has used SQ with students, her departmental leadership team, and the Student Affairs directors. She has also presented to student groups and at FITL. She is especially interested in the potential of SQ for team development, and the leadership material provides a perfect opportunity to share this tool.

Degrees:

• M.S./Education, Reading, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY
• B.A./English, Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA

For more information, contact Sarah Cass, sarah.cass@rit.edu or Susan Donovan, ssdldc@rit.edu.