Final Roundtable: More Meaningful Assessment

Our final Teaching Roundtable of the semester, Assessing Learning In and Across Our Disciplines, will be held remotely on Thursday, December 9 from 2:00 - 3:00. Juliana Belding (Math) and Dana Sajdi (History) will kick off our discussion by sharing their reflections on assessing learning within their own disciplines. We’ll then open things up for a discussion of common challenges instructors face when evaluating student learning. Find further details and registration information on the CTE’s website.

Apply for 2022-23 Faculty Cohorts

The CTE is now accepting applications for its 2022-23 Faculty Cohorts on Teaching, which bring faculty together for a year-long exploration of a pedagogical question or approach. Next year’s cohorts will focus on “Applying Learning Sciences to Our Teaching” and “Teaching for Inclusion and Social Justice.” All Boston College faculty are eligible, and participants receive a $2,500 stipend. Find further details and registration information on the CTE website.

Advice for Supporting International Learners

As part of International Education Week, Lynne Anderson, Director of BC’s English Language Learners Program, hosted a virtual panel on “Supporting International Learners at BC: Reflections from International Graduate Students and Instructors.” Some highlights of the advice shared by the student panelists:

• A little structure can make a big difference; for example, provide students with bullet points to respond to rather than an open-ended free write.
• Have students trade off taking notes during lecture and sharing those with the full class.
• Structure opportunities for students to participate in class by rotating assigned discussion leaders.
• Make space for international students to share about their home countries.
• Take the time to learn how to pronounce students’ names correctly.

If you’d like to see the full conversation, you can find a complete recording of the panel online.

Other Spring Programs

Faculty Reading Group: Becoming a White Antiracist

This spring, the CTE is partnering with Intersections to co-sponsor a faculty reading group on Becoming a White Antiracist by Stephen Brookfield and Mary Hess, which focuses on how to support white people in developing antiracist identities. The purpose of this group is to provide a semi-structured space where faculty can find a community of support and accountability as they pursue antiracist understanding, habits, and actions in their university work. As the title states, the book is primarily aimed at supporting white people in taking responsibility for participating in the dismantling of white supremacy. That said, BIPOC faculty are welcome to join the group if they are interested in doing so.

The group will meet seven times over the course of the semester. Participants will receive a copy of the book and $500 stipends. Space is limited so please express your interest by January 7th.

New Faculty Seminars on Teaching

We’ll continue our New Faculty Seminars on Teaching this spring, providing full-time faculty in their first two years at BC an opportunity to gather with colleagues to discuss topics of interest to those getting started in BC classrooms. You’re welcome to RSVP for our spring offerings:

Strategies For Active Learning  Wednesday, January 26th, 1:00-2:00
Interpreting Student Feedback on Your Teaching  Thursday, February 17th, 10:00-11:00
Better Assignment Design  Wednesday, March 23rd, 10:00-11:00
Using Tech Purposefully  Tuesday, April 12th, 2:00-3:00

We anticipate all spring seminars will be held in person in the CTE’s Innovation Lab (O’Neill 250). If in-person participation poses a barrier for you, please let us know.

Tech Updates

Poll Everywhere has recently made updates that provide instructors with additional flexibility when exporting Poll Everywhere grades to Canvas. Instructors can now choose between exporting the participation column (which will give students full credit for any activity they responded to, regardless of correctness) or, as was possible before, they can export the grade column (which is determined by whether or not students correctly responded to activities). In addition, while grading for correctness is only possible for two question types, grading for participation is available across all question types. Please see our updated page on viewing & grading student responses for more information.

Canvas New Quizzes have an updated look and feel, with similar functionality to Classic (current) Quizzes plus some new features. We recommend taking an opportunity to learn about the updated tool before you work with it, especially if you use question banks, surveys, practice quizzes, analysis tools, or manage release of results to students. In addition to a back-to-school New Quizzes training (see above), the CTE is addressing individual questions in a hybrid New Quizzes Drop-in, December 14, 2:00 - 3:00. Contact centerforteaching@bc.edu with any questions.