We found 18 results that contain "interactive exercises"

the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities invites you to attend a workshop on Alternate Grading April 21st, from 10 to 11:30 am via Zoom.

We are honored to welcome Prof. Nicole Coleman of Wayne State University to run the workshop. If you are interested in learning ways to prioritize learning over grading and to make assessments more meaningful for students, you may want to consider a new grading system. Coleman will lead an interactive program on her experiences with teaching courses in both the Specs Grading and Ungrading structures. She will provide some information on how each system works and the theory behind them. She will then guide educators in adjusting an assignment or a syllabus to work with these methods. Please bring a rubric and/or a syllabus to the session to be able to participate fully in this workshop.

We invite you to submit a proposal to present at the 2025 Virtual Appreciative Education Conference, which will be held on January 10, 2025.

The Appreciative Education Conference will bring together educators, practitioners, and researchers from all levels dedicated to fostering positive and strengths-based learning environments. Appreciative Education Conference attendees will include PreK-12 teachers and administrators; higher education faculty, staff, and Administrators; students of all ages; and community leaders. We seek dynamic proposals on topics related to Appreciative Education from energetic presenters. In creative and interactive presentations, educators will share how they utilize an Appreciative approach to support and challenge students, their campuses, and/or themselves to reach their potential.

The deadline for proposal submission is July 1, 2024. https://www.fau.edu/education/centersandprograms/oae/virtual-appreciative-education-conference/submit-proposal/

FREE Webinar: Publishing as a Practitioner

Are you interested in publishing but not sure where to get started? Join us for this interactive session to learn more about the research and publishing process, hear how other practitioners navigate engagement in scholarship, and engage with a community of practitioners passionate about publishing. There will be opportunities to ask questions, discuss areas of expertise, and identify available resources. We also hope that participants will use this webinar to form writing groups or find accountability partners.

Register for this FREE webinar here: https://myacpa.member365.org/public/event/details/6c58e7493279687e8398a688b6ab40615760cacc/1

Recorded Webinar on Generative AI and Teaching at MSU:
Event: An Introduction to Teaching and Generative AI
Facilitators: Stephen Thomas, Jeremy Van hof, and Jake Kasper

https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/Introduction+to+teaching+with+generative+AI/1_7sww2tmu link

Part 1
The first hour will be focused on general concepts and implications of generative AI (genAI) to your current course. This workshop will introduce you to the concept of genAI and Large Language Models (LLM). We will look at what can be done with them, how students might use them, and how you might think about them in your classroom. You will be given a chance to reflect and discuss how these tools might interact with your assignment prompts and how you might think about your assessment structure.

Part 2
The second hour will be more open for exploration of tools and specific examples of curriculum. Examples will be given for incorporating genAI into disciplinary objectives and what additional genAI skills might be added to course goals. As part of this discussion, we can examine three genAI tools: ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Khanmigo.

For more genAI resources from across campus, visit: https://edli.commons.msu.edu/2023/08/16/generative-ai-resources-msu/

My background in Scandinavian languages and literature keeps rearing its head in various ways after many years. Specifically,when it comes to folklore, magical tales, and perilous journeys toward maturation. In a way, I have become a pedagogical Ashland, of sorts, since coming to MSU in 2015. My journey, an ongoing quest if you will, has been in trying to find that one magical key, which will unlock the enchanted door to greater student interest and involvement in their general education course requirements.

Those of us who teach these courses know that, too often, many students view gen. ed. requirements as hoops to jump through. Something they must satisfy to graduate. Subjects that, they feel, have little to do with the real world, their intended majors, or envisioned careers. Scheduling and convenience more than genuine interest seem to be the determining factor for many students when they choose to enroll in such courses. Put the head down, muddle through, and get it done with as little effort as possible.

But there might be another way.

In my own ongoing quest to motivate and engage the students in my various IAH courses more effectively, I have come back to Bloom's Taxonomy again and again since first learning about it in the 2016-2017 Walter and Pauline Adams Academy cohort. More specifically, it is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, revised by various scholars for use with 21st century students who exist in an increasingly digital world, that has been especially useful when it comes to designing assessments for my students.

For those who are interested, there are all kinds of sources online -- journal article pdfs, infographics, Youtube explainer videos, etc. -- that will be informative and helpful for anyone who might be interested in learning more. Just search for 'Bloom's Digital Taxonomy' on Google. It's that easy.

For my specific IAH courses, I organize my students into permanent student learning teams early each semester and ask them to create three collaborative projects (including a team reflection). These are due at the end of Week Five, Week 10, and Week 14. Right now, the projects include:

1) A TV Newscast/Talkshow Article Review Video in which teams are ask to locate, report on, review, and evaluate two recent journal articles pertinent to material read or viewed during the first few weeks of the course.

2) A Readers' Guide Digital Flipbook (using Flipsnack) that reviews and evaluates the usefulness of two books, two more recent journal articles, and two blogs or websites on gender and sexuality OR race and ethnicity within the context of specific course materials read or viewed during roughly the middle third of the course.

3) An Academic Poster (due at the end of Week 14) in which student teams revisit course materials and themes related to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and identity. In addition, students are asked to examine issues of power, marginalization, disparity, equity, etc. in those same sources and look at how these same issues affect our own societies/cultures of origin in the real world. Finally, student teams (in course as diverse as Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, Horror Cinema, and the upcoming Contemporary Scandinavian and Nordic Authors) are asked to propose realistic, concrete solutions to the social problems facing us.


Anecdotally, student feedback has been largely very favorable so far. Based on remarks in their team reflections this semester (Fall 2021), students report that they enjoy these collaborative, creative projects and feel like they have considerable leeway to shape what their teams develop. Moreover, they also feel that they are learning quite a bit about the material presented as well as valuable 21st century employability skills in the process. Where their all important assignment grades are concerned, student learning teams in my courses are meeting or exceeding expectations with the work they have produced for the first two of three team projects this semester according to the grading rubrics currently in use.

Beginning in Spring 2022, I plan to give my student teams even more agency in choosing how they are assessed and will provide two possible options for each of the three collaborative projects. Right not, these will probably include:

Project #1 (Recent Journal Article Review and Evaluation)-- Powtoon Animated TV Newscast OR Infographic

Project #2 -- (Review and Evaluation of Digital Sources on Gender and Sexuality OR Race and Ethnicty in our specific course materials) a Digital Flipbook OR Podcast

Project #3 -- (Power, Marginality, Disparity, Equity in Course Materials and Real World of 21st Century Problem-Solving) an Interactive E-Poster OR Digital Scrapbook.

Through collaborative projects like these, I am attempting to motivate and engage the students in my IAH courses more effectively, help them to think more actively and critically about the material presented as well as the various social issues that continue to plague our world, and provide them with ample opportunity to cultivate essential skills that will enable their full participation in the globalized world and economy of the 21st century. Bloom's (Revised) Digital Taxonomy, among other resources, continues to facilitate my evolving thought about how best to reach late Gen Y and Gen Z students within a general education context.

If anyone would like to talk more about all of this, offer constructive feedback, or anything else, just drop me a line. I am always looking for those magic beans that will increase student motivation and engagement, and eager to learn more along the way. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy has certainly been one of my three magical helpers in the quest to to do that.

Takk skal dere ha!

Our Spring Conference on teaching and learning was focused on the guiding philosophy of our Teaching Center: Engaging and Equitable Education for All. This philosophy not only guides our center's educational development and pedagogical strategies but also reflects our commitment to creating learning environments where every student feels valued and empowered. Indeed, it's at the core of MSU’s mission to ensure that all students can succeed, and the work educators do is central in the pursuit of that mission.

The conference was a day not just to celebrate successes in the classroom, but also to offer sincere thanks for the work Spartan educators do to make MSU a place of deep and meaningful learning. Educators are well aware of the powerful role gratitude plays in higher ed. Gratitude is not just about saying 'thank you.' It is about acknowledging the hard work and passion of everyone involved in the educational endeavor—recognizing that each contribution, no matter how small it might seem, enriches our students’ collective experience and understanding.

I’ve seen that enrichment play out in my own family over the past four years. Just last weekend my son graduated from James Madison College. His growth as a writer, a thinker, a critic, and a leader has been remarkable to watch. His college experience was defined by all the things that make MSU so great – football games, RSOs, dorm food, parking tickets, an unforgettable study abroad experience, wicked winter walks between Wells Hall and Case. But ask him today what stood out the most and he’d without question say it was in the classroom where he changed the most. His experience is typical of so many of the 6,200 students that walked across stages all last weekend. They leave here more prepared to thrive and lead because of what MSU’s educators gave them day in and day out in class. And it’s because of those thousands of changed lives that it’s so important to pause on occasion to thank educators.

CTLI’s “Thank an Educator” initiative, which launched 2018, exemplifies the ethos of gratitude that I hope to elevate in the Teaching Center. Since it's inception over 900 educators have received notes of gratitude for the excellent work they do. They all are testaments to the varied ways in which education can impact the lives of the members of the Spartan community. I encourage you to click the Thank and Educator link to the left or visit https://iteach.msu.edu/home/thank_an_educator so you can thank an educator yourself!

At the Teaching Center we celebrate and recognize the diverse array of educators across roles on our campus; each one plays a crucial role in shaping the vibrant educational ecosystem at MSU. At CTLI, our definition of educator is broad and inclusive. We believe that everyone here contributes to our teaching and learning mission. From the lab supervisor engaging with students in hands-on research to the campus tour guide sharing the Spartan spirit with prospective students to the veteran professor delivering that inspiring lecture, you are all educators in the fullest sense. The interactions educators foster and the knowledge they share underscore our “Spartans Will” ethos—demonstrating determination, resilience, and a commitment to excellence.

Hello again everyone! Here are some talking points to think about in the run up our 10am meeting tomorrow (Friday, November 05, 2021).

Recurring Zoom Link: 951 4830 7886
Passcode 432210


Student Engagement in Higher Education, ch. 2-3

Chapter 2: “Engaging Students of Color”Samuel D. Museus, Kimberly A. Griffin, Stephen John Quaye [MGQ - “Magic”]

1) How would you describe the campus racial climate and/or culture of the schools where you got your degrees and/or have previously taught? Do any institutions in your background for having been successful in instilling a positive racial culture? Do any notable failures or struggles stand out in your memory? It may be helpful to recall: climate is shaped by five internal dimensions: (1) an institution’s history and legacy of inclusion or exclusion, (2) compositional diversity, (3) psychological climate, (4) behavioral climate, and (5) organizational/structural diversity (Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005). [p. 19]

2) Museus, Griffin, and Quaye note that “two concepts provide a useful backdrop for the current discussion: campus racial climate and campus racial culture” (18). What knowledge or familiarity do you have of/with the racial climate or culture at MSU? How would you describe the local manifestation of the framing concepts Museus, Griffin, and Quaye provide?

3) What concrete steps could you take to alleviate cultural incongruence (21) and cultural dissonance (ibid) while boosting cultural engagement (22) for Students of Color in your courses?

4) The “proactive philosophies” indicator of the CECE model describes “Educators who use proactive philosophies [to] go above and beyond to actively reach out, encourage, and sometimes pressure students to take advantage of available information, opportunities, and support” (23). What does being such a faculty member/administrator look like? How does one responsibly and equitably pressure students to pursue opportunities?

5) Practical question: In several places, MGQ advocate for community-based opportunities, but also caution against the tendency towards siloing. Practically, what does/should it look like to provide opportunities for this type of contact among students that is supportive and culturally responsive, without siloing them, or making students of color serve as “ambassadors of their community”?


Chapter 3: “Engaging Multiracial Students”
C. Casey Ozaki, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Kristen A. Renn [OJGR - “Jogger”]

1) It seems like today’s college students often have to enter the classroom already knowing who they are and who they will be. We can likely point to any number of institutional practices/requirements that reinforce that pressure. How can we create spaces for hybridity, ambiguity, uncertainty in our students’ perceptions of self?

2) OJGR note that “median age of the mixed race individuals is 19, compared to single-race individuals with a median age of 38” (39), which means that our students represent the age cohort closest to the “center,” so to speak, of multiracial identity discourse. What pressures might this present to college-aged students? What opportunities?

3) Studies show that “biracial students at HBCUs and non-HBCUs had poorer quality of interactions with faculty, staff, and students than Black and White students at both institutions” (40). What incentive/impetus/motivation does/should a finding like this make for us as educators? How could we productively address situations in which multi-racial students might approach us with complaints about feeling isolated and alienated from classmates in our courses?

4) The most provocative element of OJGR’s chapter comes in their final suggestion, which is to “Create a Campus Culture of Boundary Crossing.” What does this mean for you, and what would it look like at Michigan State?

IBM is offering the MSU community a suite of online courses that take participants through a comprehensive design thinking journey. The introductory offering, The Practitioner Course, is an interactive overview of the fundamentals of human centered-design concepts. Thanks to a collaboration with MSU’s Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, MSU students, faculty, and staff can enroll in IBM’s Practitioner Course at no cost and learn the principles that make design thinking different from other problem solving approaches: https://msuhub.medium.com/ibm-offers-free-design-thinking-training-to-msu-community-5187dc69180