Students Report an Increase in Opportunities for Peer Engagement
This spring, DCAL surveyed Dartmouth students on their remote learning experience. One of the central findings was that students identified peer-to-peer interaction as central to their learning. In the spring term, most students reported opportunities for student engagement in their classes. DCAL surveyed students again in the summer and found a significant increase in students reporting that they had these opportunities in their classes. This newsletter offers some resources on community building and peer engagement.
DCAL Director Scott Pauls on "Community Conversations"
"We've seen tremendous amounts of creativity and innovation amongst the faculty as they've moved into what for most everybody is a new environment, in terms of remote teaching and remote learning," DCAL Director Scott Pauls spoke with Provost Joe Helble on "Community Conversations" last week. Read the transcript of the conversation here.
ELI Mini Grants
DCAL is offering small one-time grants to support faculty in the development and implementation of experiential learning activities in current Dartmouth courses in the Summer '20 or Fall '20 term. Preference will be given for activities focused on community building and student interaction and/or examining/addressing systemic racism. The small pool of funds to support these courses became available with the cancellation of spring term events. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, starting immediately, until funding is exhausted. Learn more about these grants and apply on the Experiential Learning Initiative site.
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The short videos "Building and Sustaining Community" and "Create Opportunities for Engagement and Discussion" are part of the Remote Teaching Good Practices video series featuring interviews with Matt Delmont, Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History, Lorie Loeb, Research Professor and Faculty Director of DALI Lab, Jerry DeSilva, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Luke Chang, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Eugene Korsunskiy, Assistant Professor of Engineering, and Caitlin Hicks Pries, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Thank you to the interviewees for sharing their insights!
Further reading from Dartmouth faculty on building community:
Are you ready for fall term? Consider our Remote Teaching Readiness Checklist to help you be as prepared as possible for a remote fall term.
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Virtual Events & Trainings
Are you teaching your courses with remote components for the first time in the fall term? Want to learn about some new tools to use with your students? Sign up for one of our workshops. We continue to offer opportunities to learn about core tools like Canvas and will be adding additional workshops over the next several weeks. Bookmark our training page on Teach Remotely — we're here to help.
Teach Remotely: Weaving Synchronous and Asynchronous Components in Your Course
Thursday, September 3
How do we prepare students to be engaged in a learning community, whether we are “meeting” via Zoom or holding our discussions on Canvas? This session will explore the link between asynchronous and synchronous course components, and how to make that link explicit for students. Additionally, we will examine the strengths and weaknesses of each mode and identify how these might be mitigated within the other mode. Discussion will focus on which components should/can be assessed, and how to build accountability for those that aren’t.
Register for the Zoom link.
New Faculty Orientation to Teaching
Wednesday September 9th
Dartmouth’s New Faculty Orientation to Teaching aims to provide useful information and productive interactions to help you get started successfully in your teaching role at Dartmouth. Facilitated by the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL), the Orientation to Teaching is designed to complement the other welcome and orientation sessions (with your department, the Dean of the Faculty, and Office of Human Resources) that you might attend as you begin your work at the College.
At Dartmouth’s New Faculty Orientation to Teaching, participants will:
- Discover resources and support for teaching
- Hear from faculty colleagues about teaching at Dartmouth
- Meet people who can support your teaching
- Meet other new faculty
- Get excited and more relaxed about teaching at Dartmouth
As a result of attending, participants will make progress toward:
- An increased sense of belonging to a community of scholar-educators.
- Awareness of available resources and services to support teaching.
While social distancing measures and campus policies remain unclear for September, we are planning for this orientation to take place virtually, via Zoom. If we are able, we will offer an additional in-person option, though Zoom will remain the primary delivery mode. Individuals who will not yet have arrived in Hanover, who will not begin teaching until a later term, or who would prefer to attend from a distance are encouraged to take advantage of this virtual offering.
This event is intended for faculty new to Dartmouth in Fall 2020, or who will begin teaching at Dartmouth in the academic year 2020-2021. The next Orientation to Teaching will take place in September 2021. If you are unsure whether this event is suitable for you, please contact us to inquire at dcal@dartmouth.edu.
Registration required. |
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