We found 204 results that contain "facilitation"
Posted on: MSU Extension
DEI in Teaching & Facilitating
Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion while developing and delivering programming and educational materials.
NAVIGATING CONTEXT
Posted on: #iteachmsu
A calming influence: Managing conflict and difficult conversations in the university classroom
At CTLI, we've compiled resources for educators to review when preparing for potentially contentious classroom discussions Domestic and global conflicts and controversies often impact our students in diverse and uniquely personal ways. Some MSU educators mentioned increased tension and potential for disruptions in your classroom. Students are coming to learn with a diverse array of perspectives, experiences, and identities that shape how they experience the world. Navigating classroom discussions on charged societal issues or current events can be extremely challenging.
The resources curated here offer guidance on fostering civil discourse and managing disruptive behavior in the classroom. We hope these resources equip you with strategies and best practices for maintaining a respectful learning environment where all students feel safe and heard. This collection includes guidelines on setting expectations for dialogue, maintaining calm, tips for redirecting off-topic or uncivil comments, sample facilitation methods for controversial discussions, and ways to de-escalate a hot-moment.
As educators, we all share the responsibility of creating classrooms where learning can thrive. In times of tension, our first priority should be to seek to understand. The role of the teacher in conflict situations is to be the agent of calm, to seek to diffuse tension, and to foster an environment where learning can happen whenever possible. With compassion and care, we can model civil engagement across differences, while also drawing reasonable boundaries around conduct. Our hope is that these resources will help equip you to handle tense situations with wisdom, patience and cultural sensitivity. (please note this collection is in progress)
The resources curated here offer guidance on fostering civil discourse and managing disruptive behavior in the classroom. We hope these resources equip you with strategies and best practices for maintaining a respectful learning environment where all students feel safe and heard. This collection includes guidelines on setting expectations for dialogue, maintaining calm, tips for redirecting off-topic or uncivil comments, sample facilitation methods for controversial discussions, and ways to de-escalate a hot-moment.
As educators, we all share the responsibility of creating classrooms where learning can thrive. In times of tension, our first priority should be to seek to understand. The role of the teacher in conflict situations is to be the agent of calm, to seek to diffuse tension, and to foster an environment where learning can happen whenever possible. With compassion and care, we can model civil engagement across differences, while also drawing reasonable boundaries around conduct. Our hope is that these resources will help equip you to handle tense situations with wisdom, patience and cultural sensitivity. (please note this collection is in progress)
PEDAGOGICAL DESIGN
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Facilitation skills are important for teaching adults and leading productive meetings. Facilitative leadership helps groups reach consensus, make decisions, and get things done. It embraces inclusive and creative thinking and discussions and helps ensure that all participants in a class, meeting, or workshop are engaged, collaborating, and contributing. It is about leading a participatory group process.
The videos below focus on facilitating online to help groups brainstorm ideas, define goals, and reach consensus.
Visit MSU Extension's Facilitative Leadership webpage to learn more.
Tools for Online Facilitative Leadership
Facilitation skills are important for teaching adults and leading productive meetings. Facilitative leadership helps groups reach consensus, make decisions, and get things done. It embraces inclusive and creative thinking and discussions and helps ensure that all participants in a class, meeting, or workshop are engaged, collaborating, and contributing. It is about leading a participatory group process.
The videos below focus on facilitating online to help groups brainstorm ideas, define goals, and reach consensus.
Visit MSU Extension's Facilitative Leadership webpage to learn more.
Posted by: Anne Marie Baker
Posted on: Teaching Toolkit Ta...
Tips and Tricks for Facilitating Peer Review
Ask students to work through the following steps on at least two peer drafts:
Identifying:
Can you identify the main ideas / thesis in the paper? If so, underline it and evaluate it or give suggestions for strengthening.
Pointing:
Which words, phrases, or passages strike you as important or successful? Which ones feel flat or repetitive? Try to find a word, phrase, or passage in every paragraph.
Elaboration:
What would you want to hear more about?
Summarize:
Not the whole piece, but parts. In your own words, write two sentences that summarize the main idea in a paragraph; Write a short paragraph summarizing a section (2-3 page section).
Doubting and believing:
Believing: Believe everything and think of other examples, evidence, and ideas to add.
Doubting: Doubt everything and think of what all the counterarguments are.
Identifying:
Can you identify the main ideas / thesis in the paper? If so, underline it and evaluate it or give suggestions for strengthening.
Pointing:
Which words, phrases, or passages strike you as important or successful? Which ones feel flat or repetitive? Try to find a word, phrase, or passage in every paragraph.
Elaboration:
What would you want to hear more about?
Summarize:
Not the whole piece, but parts. In your own words, write two sentences that summarize the main idea in a paragraph; Write a short paragraph summarizing a section (2-3 page section).
Doubting and believing:
Believing: Believe everything and think of other examples, evidence, and ideas to add.
Doubting: Doubt everything and think of what all the counterarguments are.
Authored by: MSU Writing Center
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: Teaching Toolkit Ta...
Facilitating Independent Group Projects
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Issue #1: Students Don’t See the Value of Independent Projects
Tips
Emphasize the real-world skills that students gain. This can be particularly valuable for students who aren’t necessarily interested in the subject matter but can see the benefits they gain in other areas, such as problem solving and managing a team.
Explain how each component of the independent project emulates a real practice in the discipline. This communicates to your students that you are putting them through this experience to help them develop their competencies, not to waste their time.
Treat every pitfall as a lesson, not as an opportunity to point out deficiencies. If something goes wrong, help the students figure out a way to move forward. Then, ask the students what they learned from the experience (e.g., how to better communicate, the value of a contingency plan, time management) and how they might strategize differently if confronted with a similar situation.
Issue #2: Designing and Conducting Independent Projects is Overwhelming
Tips
Break down the project into manageable goals. Create a guide for students that details out the specific steps that lead to the end product, which includes due dates for smaller components of the project. This will help students feel competent as they achieve each small task and to better manage their time.
Provide iterative feedback. If the only evaluation students receive on their work is their final project grade, they don’t have the opportunity to improve and learn along the way. Checking in with students as they reach each small goal allows both students and instructor to keep track of progress and to make adjustments if a group has gotten off-course.
Take time in class to praise students for their progress. Students may have trouble perceiving their accomplishments, so bringing them up will help to increase student confidence moving forward with the project.
Help groups work through challenges in a structured manner. Ask groups to bring up challenges they have encountered lately, and run a brainstorming session with the entire class to overcome these challenges. Often, other groups will have encountered similar challenges, so working through them together helps students feel more competent and build a sense of community among classmates.
Issue #3: Group Members do not Contribute Equally
Tips
Have students create a team contract. Provide students with a general template for a group contract with space to detail procedures for written communication among teammates, goals for the project, and consequences for group members who don’t pull their weight. All students should contribute to the creation of the contract and sign it. If an issue arises at any point during the project, the group has a clear path forward to correct the issue.
Build in opportunities for every member to contribute. The threat of being held individually accountable is often enough motivation for students to pull their weight. Take time in class to consult with each group individually or run brainstorming sessions with the entire class, asking individual students to share their experience or discuss project results.
Issue #4: Group Members Have Disparate Goals
Tips
Form groups based on mutual interests. Ask students to sit in different sections of the classroom based on potential project topics, then organize the students into groups based on their “interest zone.” An added bonus to this approach is that student groups will automatically have something in common, which can help them form social bonds and increase the enjoyment of working together.
Make time at the start of the project for students to discuss goals. Talking about how the project might relate to their goals for the course, their undergraduate education, and/or their career helps students understand the motivations of their teammates. When group members understand each other’s motivations, they can adjust their expectations and support the achievement of a variety of goals.
While your students may not enjoy the long hours, issues with teammates, and frustrations that accompany the independent group project, they may come to appreciate the lessons learned from their experiences. An example of working through a road block on their project could become a scenario they describe in a job interview. Dealing with an uncooperative group member could inform their approach to team management in their career. Engaging in inquiry could become the foundation for a student’s decision to pursue graduate school. Keep these outcomes in mind, and make every effort to put a positive spin on student progress.
Issue #1: Students Don’t See the Value of Independent Projects
Tips
Emphasize the real-world skills that students gain. This can be particularly valuable for students who aren’t necessarily interested in the subject matter but can see the benefits they gain in other areas, such as problem solving and managing a team.
Explain how each component of the independent project emulates a real practice in the discipline. This communicates to your students that you are putting them through this experience to help them develop their competencies, not to waste their time.
Treat every pitfall as a lesson, not as an opportunity to point out deficiencies. If something goes wrong, help the students figure out a way to move forward. Then, ask the students what they learned from the experience (e.g., how to better communicate, the value of a contingency plan, time management) and how they might strategize differently if confronted with a similar situation.
Issue #2: Designing and Conducting Independent Projects is Overwhelming
Tips
Break down the project into manageable goals. Create a guide for students that details out the specific steps that lead to the end product, which includes due dates for smaller components of the project. This will help students feel competent as they achieve each small task and to better manage their time.
Provide iterative feedback. If the only evaluation students receive on their work is their final project grade, they don’t have the opportunity to improve and learn along the way. Checking in with students as they reach each small goal allows both students and instructor to keep track of progress and to make adjustments if a group has gotten off-course.
Take time in class to praise students for their progress. Students may have trouble perceiving their accomplishments, so bringing them up will help to increase student confidence moving forward with the project.
Help groups work through challenges in a structured manner. Ask groups to bring up challenges they have encountered lately, and run a brainstorming session with the entire class to overcome these challenges. Often, other groups will have encountered similar challenges, so working through them together helps students feel more competent and build a sense of community among classmates.
Issue #3: Group Members do not Contribute Equally
Tips
Have students create a team contract. Provide students with a general template for a group contract with space to detail procedures for written communication among teammates, goals for the project, and consequences for group members who don’t pull their weight. All students should contribute to the creation of the contract and sign it. If an issue arises at any point during the project, the group has a clear path forward to correct the issue.
Build in opportunities for every member to contribute. The threat of being held individually accountable is often enough motivation for students to pull their weight. Take time in class to consult with each group individually or run brainstorming sessions with the entire class, asking individual students to share their experience or discuss project results.
Issue #4: Group Members Have Disparate Goals
Tips
Form groups based on mutual interests. Ask students to sit in different sections of the classroom based on potential project topics, then organize the students into groups based on their “interest zone.” An added bonus to this approach is that student groups will automatically have something in common, which can help them form social bonds and increase the enjoyment of working together.
Make time at the start of the project for students to discuss goals. Talking about how the project might relate to their goals for the course, their undergraduate education, and/or their career helps students understand the motivations of their teammates. When group members understand each other’s motivations, they can adjust their expectations and support the achievement of a variety of goals.
While your students may not enjoy the long hours, issues with teammates, and frustrations that accompany the independent group project, they may come to appreciate the lessons learned from their experiences. An example of working through a road block on their project could become a scenario they describe in a job interview. Dealing with an uncooperative group member could inform their approach to team management in their career. Engaging in inquiry could become the foundation for a student’s decision to pursue graduate school. Keep these outcomes in mind, and make every effort to put a positive spin on student progress.
Authored by: Kateri Salk
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
ASPIRE - Department Facilitated Experience
The College of Nursing community is very grateful for the collaboration that brought about the ASPIRE (Asynchronous Program for Instructional Readiness) workshop to enhance our faculty’s ability to teach within the online learning environment in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Due to clinical responsibilities and other obligations, many faculty members were not able to commit to the synchronous (SOIREE) version of this workshop. The asynchronous nature of the ASPIRE workshop proved to be a perfect fit for many of our faculty.
Starting in April of 2020, I was fortunate enough to pilot the ASPIRE workshop and facilitated a group of ten College of Nursing faculty as they progressed through the six module D2L course. The ability for me to facilitate our faculty’s progress and provide timely feedback made up for some of the benefits lost from not being able to join the synchronous experience. Rather than treating this as a truly “at your own pace” course, I encouraged faculty to complete the workshop within two weeks. I was able to increase engagement and accountability with frequent email communications to set expectations and by requiring faculty to submit deliverables to the assignment folder for each of the six core modules. In order to provide timing feedback, I setup email notifications on the assignments folders to inform me when an assignment was submitted. Thanks to the strong relationship I have with department faculty as a local resource for instructional design and educational technology support, the feedback enhanced course presence and guidance on best practices around the college. For example, there are many ways to develop voiceover presentations, and sharing a similar message regarding best practices promotes consistency throughout our courses. I highly recommend that all faculty take advantage of the wonderful learning opportunities available from the university, and if SOIREE is not an option, a department facilitated version of the ASPIRE workshop is a great option for an interactive professional development experience.
Starting in April of 2020, I was fortunate enough to pilot the ASPIRE workshop and facilitated a group of ten College of Nursing faculty as they progressed through the six module D2L course. The ability for me to facilitate our faculty’s progress and provide timely feedback made up for some of the benefits lost from not being able to join the synchronous experience. Rather than treating this as a truly “at your own pace” course, I encouraged faculty to complete the workshop within two weeks. I was able to increase engagement and accountability with frequent email communications to set expectations and by requiring faculty to submit deliverables to the assignment folder for each of the six core modules. In order to provide timing feedback, I setup email notifications on the assignments folders to inform me when an assignment was submitted. Thanks to the strong relationship I have with department faculty as a local resource for instructional design and educational technology support, the feedback enhanced course presence and guidance on best practices around the college. For example, there are many ways to develop voiceover presentations, and sharing a similar message regarding best practices promotes consistency throughout our courses. I highly recommend that all faculty take advantage of the wonderful learning opportunities available from the university, and if SOIREE is not an option, a department facilitated version of the ASPIRE workshop is a great option for an interactive professional development experience.
Authored by: Andy Greger
Assessing Learning
Posted on: #iteachmsu
DEI in Action: Developing, Planning and Facilitating Educational Programs and Events
MSU Extension has developed a three-part document to guide employees in creating and delivering educational materials and programs as well as event planning in a way that reflects our values and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The first section focuses on considerations and strategies for facilitating, or delivering, programming.
The second section focuses on the development of educational materials, or products.
The last section focuses on event planning considerations.
An appendix of useful sites is also included, including a section on sources for diverse images. This document can also serve to help outside trainers and contractors understand our values and how we expect them to play out in educational programming. https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/dei-in-action-developing-planning-and-facilitating-educational-programs-and-events
The first section focuses on considerations and strategies for facilitating, or delivering, programming.
The second section focuses on the development of educational materials, or products.
The last section focuses on event planning considerations.
An appendix of useful sites is also included, including a section on sources for diverse images. This document can also serve to help outside trainers and contractors understand our values and how we expect them to play out in educational programming. https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/dei-in-action-developing-planning-and-facilitating-educational-programs-and-events
Authored by: Anne Baker
Justice and Belonging
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Q & A with Garth Sabo & Stokes Schwartz: MSU Learning Community and #iteachmsu Group co-facilitators
This week, we wanted to highlight Stokes Schwartz and Garth Sabo, both educators with the MSU Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities. Stokes and Garth are also the co-facilitators of the “Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success” Learning Community this academic year! According to the Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Development (formerly AAN), this Learning Community is: A Zoom based reading group that pairs theory and praxis of student engagement techniques to drive greater student success in general education and prerequisite courses at the university. Bimonthly meetings (twice a month) consist of reading and discussing 2-3 recent articles and sharing best practices for applying methods in courses across the university. These two also use a group on the #iteachmsu Commons to share information about upcoming meetings, attach reading files, and continue to engage in asynchronous dialogue outside their meeting times!
Read more about these Learning Community co-facilitators’ perspectives below. #iteachmsu's questions are bolded below, followed by their responses!
Q & A with Garth Sabo & Stokes Schwartz
You are facilitators of a Learning Community (LC) and decided to have a group on iteach.msu.edu for that LC. What about the #iteachmsu Commons appealed to you for this group?
Sabo: A major component of the LC structure at MSU focuses on providing some element of public dissemination of the work we do together, and Stokes and I both appreciated that #iteachmsu would allow us to make our group activities visible to the wider MSU community. We both felt a strong need for some type of digital meeting space/repository for things like meeting notes, agendas, etc., and we found that iteach.msu.edu offered a suite of those tools that were fairly easy to wrap our heads around and adopt as practice.
Schwartz: Having a central place for learning community members (and interested parties) to check-in, share our thoughts, relevant documents, and planned talking points for meetings/discussions as well as any follow-up observations in the days following a meeting. Personally, I have found iteach.msu.edu relatively easy to use.
Sabo: Our LC meets digitally, and we also thought that it would be nice to structure things in a way that leaned into benefits of that structure rather than simply trying to imagine ourselves as an in-person community that only meets via Zoom, so we’ve also tried to use iteach.msu.edu as a platform for ongoing and supplemental conversations to the discussions that come up during our scheduled meetings.
Tell me more about your LC and what activity in your #iteachmsu Group looks like? (This can include, but not limited to goals, topics, general overview of membership, the kinds of things being shared in your group.)
Sabo: Our learning community is titled “Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success,” and the only thing I don’t like about it is the name. Stokes and I are both faculty in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities, and part of the impetus for the group was a desire to dig deeper into pedagogy research that might help us crack the egg of engaging students in a required course. We wanted to find a format that allowed us to have pedagogy conversations that were data-driven and practical in focus, so that our community members could feel like our conversations were driving towards concrete actions.
Our Zoom meetings focus on talking through a few pre-designated texts that the entire group reads. We’ve been fortunate that our current roster has also agreed to take turns as interlocutors, with one person briefly presenting on some additional text(s) that add additional context to the material we all consumed
Schwartz: Typically, Garth and I plan 8-10 multipart discussion questions for our meetings on fostering student engagement and success, which we share via iteach.msu.edu a few days ahead of time. Team community members have also shared information and related ideas via our iTeach group. We are also in the process of compiling a playlist.
Sabo: Our iteach activity tends to be kind of evenly split between looking back at what we’ve already done with logistical stuff (like meeting agendas, Zoom links, etc.) and what we might do (like additional discussions or resources that members post or comment on in the Feed). Our current membership is a great mix of folks across the College of Arts and Letters in a range of roles, which has enriched our conversation in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated. We’re certainly open in having more folks join us if interested!
Schwartz: We have had four meetings so far and have our fifth coming up on December 3, 2021 from 10-11:30 EST and all are welcome! Please note, if you're interested in joining the 12/3/21 meeting, please reach out to either co-facilitator via email or on iteach.msu.edu, as the readings we'll be discussing are from a hardcopy book we've procured!
What has been a highlight of this semester for your LC and what are you looking forward to next semester?
Sabo: I love talking about teaching with people who love teaching, and I really feel like that has been the tone of our conversations all semester. I’ve been very appreciative of the fact that our group has been able to talk about the challenges of teaching while still being productive and hopeful about what good teaching can do for our students and the world. One thing that has certainly helped that has been the spirit of collaboration that’s breathed through this group since its beginning. Stokes and I have had a good rapport even since the planning stages of this community, and that has continued as we’ve gone from the process of proposing the group to actually planning its meetings. As you might be able to tell from how long my answers to these questions are, I tend to be wordy and big-picture in my focus, and Stokes does a great job of bringing things back around to ask, “Okay, but what would that actually look like?” in a way that has helped our conversations find a great balance between macro and micro issues of engagement and student success. Our members have been great about thinking and sharing proactively as well.
Schwartz: The highlight? Two actually. First, working with my co-facilitator Garth. We seem to have established an effective working relationship and bat our ideas-plans back and forth until they take solid shape. It has been fun sharing our ideas, developing our respective parts, coming back to the figurative table for another round of mashup, and then seeing what the final results are before the day of an actual meeting. Second, the knowledge and personalities of our learning community members, all of whom bring interesting experience and perspectives to our meetings. Thus far, I have really enjoyed the experience. It has been like grad school in the best way possible (without the egos and constant stress).
Sabo: Just to peek behind the curtain a little bit, next semester we’re pivoting slightly to frame our conversations with the goal of producing tangible results of our collaboration, whether that be conference presentations, publications, or something else entirely. I’d love to see a step on that road being a bigger focus on producing material that we might share to the wider iteach community via the Articles feature.
Schwartz: Looking ahead, I am excited to continue working with our community in the new year and possibly develop a panel or presentation on concrete things we might do to engage our students in the general education or lower division prerequisite "classroom" (F2F or online) more effectively. Beyond that, I am already mulling over ideas for proposing another similar learning community for the 2022-2023 AY. The cross-pollination possibilities offered/brought about by learning communities like these is fantastic and a good way to break out of our various silos here at MSU.
If you are interested in learning more about this year’s Learning Communities at MSU you can see the full list here. If reading this story peaked your interest in #iteachmsu Groups, you can view all the current groups here. Looking for a group on a particular topic or practice, but don’t see one - start it! Any MSU user can create a group, just login to iteach.msu.edu with your MSU netID to get started. Easy to follow instructions for starting a group are here.
Read more about these Learning Community co-facilitators’ perspectives below. #iteachmsu's questions are bolded below, followed by their responses!
Q & A with Garth Sabo & Stokes Schwartz
You are facilitators of a Learning Community (LC) and decided to have a group on iteach.msu.edu for that LC. What about the #iteachmsu Commons appealed to you for this group?
Sabo: A major component of the LC structure at MSU focuses on providing some element of public dissemination of the work we do together, and Stokes and I both appreciated that #iteachmsu would allow us to make our group activities visible to the wider MSU community. We both felt a strong need for some type of digital meeting space/repository for things like meeting notes, agendas, etc., and we found that iteach.msu.edu offered a suite of those tools that were fairly easy to wrap our heads around and adopt as practice.
Schwartz: Having a central place for learning community members (and interested parties) to check-in, share our thoughts, relevant documents, and planned talking points for meetings/discussions as well as any follow-up observations in the days following a meeting. Personally, I have found iteach.msu.edu relatively easy to use.
Sabo: Our LC meets digitally, and we also thought that it would be nice to structure things in a way that leaned into benefits of that structure rather than simply trying to imagine ourselves as an in-person community that only meets via Zoom, so we’ve also tried to use iteach.msu.edu as a platform for ongoing and supplemental conversations to the discussions that come up during our scheduled meetings.
Tell me more about your LC and what activity in your #iteachmsu Group looks like? (This can include, but not limited to goals, topics, general overview of membership, the kinds of things being shared in your group.)
Sabo: Our learning community is titled “Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success,” and the only thing I don’t like about it is the name. Stokes and I are both faculty in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities, and part of the impetus for the group was a desire to dig deeper into pedagogy research that might help us crack the egg of engaging students in a required course. We wanted to find a format that allowed us to have pedagogy conversations that were data-driven and practical in focus, so that our community members could feel like our conversations were driving towards concrete actions.
Our Zoom meetings focus on talking through a few pre-designated texts that the entire group reads. We’ve been fortunate that our current roster has also agreed to take turns as interlocutors, with one person briefly presenting on some additional text(s) that add additional context to the material we all consumed
Schwartz: Typically, Garth and I plan 8-10 multipart discussion questions for our meetings on fostering student engagement and success, which we share via iteach.msu.edu a few days ahead of time. Team community members have also shared information and related ideas via our iTeach group. We are also in the process of compiling a playlist.
Sabo: Our iteach activity tends to be kind of evenly split between looking back at what we’ve already done with logistical stuff (like meeting agendas, Zoom links, etc.) and what we might do (like additional discussions or resources that members post or comment on in the Feed). Our current membership is a great mix of folks across the College of Arts and Letters in a range of roles, which has enriched our conversation in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated. We’re certainly open in having more folks join us if interested!
Schwartz: We have had four meetings so far and have our fifth coming up on December 3, 2021 from 10-11:30 EST and all are welcome! Please note, if you're interested in joining the 12/3/21 meeting, please reach out to either co-facilitator via email or on iteach.msu.edu, as the readings we'll be discussing are from a hardcopy book we've procured!
What has been a highlight of this semester for your LC and what are you looking forward to next semester?
Sabo: I love talking about teaching with people who love teaching, and I really feel like that has been the tone of our conversations all semester. I’ve been very appreciative of the fact that our group has been able to talk about the challenges of teaching while still being productive and hopeful about what good teaching can do for our students and the world. One thing that has certainly helped that has been the spirit of collaboration that’s breathed through this group since its beginning. Stokes and I have had a good rapport even since the planning stages of this community, and that has continued as we’ve gone from the process of proposing the group to actually planning its meetings. As you might be able to tell from how long my answers to these questions are, I tend to be wordy and big-picture in my focus, and Stokes does a great job of bringing things back around to ask, “Okay, but what would that actually look like?” in a way that has helped our conversations find a great balance between macro and micro issues of engagement and student success. Our members have been great about thinking and sharing proactively as well.
Schwartz: The highlight? Two actually. First, working with my co-facilitator Garth. We seem to have established an effective working relationship and bat our ideas-plans back and forth until they take solid shape. It has been fun sharing our ideas, developing our respective parts, coming back to the figurative table for another round of mashup, and then seeing what the final results are before the day of an actual meeting. Second, the knowledge and personalities of our learning community members, all of whom bring interesting experience and perspectives to our meetings. Thus far, I have really enjoyed the experience. It has been like grad school in the best way possible (without the egos and constant stress).
Sabo: Just to peek behind the curtain a little bit, next semester we’re pivoting slightly to frame our conversations with the goal of producing tangible results of our collaboration, whether that be conference presentations, publications, or something else entirely. I’d love to see a step on that road being a bigger focus on producing material that we might share to the wider iteach community via the Articles feature.
Schwartz: Looking ahead, I am excited to continue working with our community in the new year and possibly develop a panel or presentation on concrete things we might do to engage our students in the general education or lower division prerequisite "classroom" (F2F or online) more effectively. Beyond that, I am already mulling over ideas for proposing another similar learning community for the 2022-2023 AY. The cross-pollination possibilities offered/brought about by learning communities like these is fantastic and a good way to break out of our various silos here at MSU.
If you are interested in learning more about this year’s Learning Communities at MSU you can see the full list here. If reading this story peaked your interest in #iteachmsu Groups, you can view all the current groups here. Looking for a group on a particular topic or practice, but don’t see one - start it! Any MSU user can create a group, just login to iteach.msu.edu with your MSU netID to get started. Easy to follow instructions for starting a group are here.
Posted by: Makena Neal
Navigating Context
Posted on: New Technologies
New Technologies: Classroom Video - Focus Group
In order to facilitate a blended learning approach, the university is planning to install 200 high quality web cameras in many of the lecture halls across campus. The rooms will be equipped with echo cancellation to prevent room sound from feeding back into the mic. The camera will work with existing software that are commonly used on campus; such as: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Camtasia, and Kaltura Capture (located on mediaspace.msu.edu).
Below you will find a recording of focus group conducted with educators across campus:
To contribute feedback of your own, click on the following qualtrics link:https://msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cMGiNyXeaWe7045
Below you will find a recording of focus group conducted with educators across campus:
To contribute feedback of your own, click on the following qualtrics link:https://msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cMGiNyXeaWe7045
Authored by: Rashad Muhammad
Posted on: #iteachmsu
#iteachmsu detailed presentation
A 12 - slide presentation has been developed to help Ambassadors facilitate more in-depth conversations about #iteachmsu commons and it's functions. It is accessible at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Um0L0GMrwBtdPckoplNivXM2rGvofSrN/view?usp=sharing Note: this slide deck will be updated as necessary to match the key functions of the site. A 6 -slide presentation is also available under "#iteachmsu basic presentation".
Posted by: Makena Neal
Navigating Context
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Intercultural dialogue facilitation is a science and an art. Facilitators are the single most important determinant of successful dialogue outcome. They are the engines that drive the experience to produce meaningful interaction among participants within and across groups.
Click the attachment below for more information on facilitating intercultural dialogue in practice.
SOURCE: MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives
Click the attachment below for more information on facilitating intercultural dialogue in practice.
SOURCE: MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives
Posted by: Makena Neal
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
So why do educators work with the Hub? Here’s what we’ve heard…
Educators collaborate with the Hub to design learning experiences. We help you understand learners, map the experience, prototype and test the experience, and create a plan for success and sustainability.
Educator units come to us to help create the conditions for growth and change you’d like to see in your program. We provide a variety of facilitated sessions to help with team alignment, strategic planning, change management, and learning and development for long-term transformation.
Educators come to us to help facilitate design sprints. Design sprints provide key insights for solving complex challenges and a powerful team-building opportunity. We can facilitate sprints focused on your strategy, process, research, and culture.
If you’ve collaborated with the Hub on a project, tell us more about your experience in the comments below!
Educators collaborate with the Hub to design learning experiences. We help you understand learners, map the experience, prototype and test the experience, and create a plan for success and sustainability.
Educator units come to us to help create the conditions for growth and change you’d like to see in your program. We provide a variety of facilitated sessions to help with team alignment, strategic planning, change management, and learning and development for long-term transformation.
Educators come to us to help facilitate design sprints. Design sprints provide key insights for solving complex challenges and a powerful team-building opportunity. We can facilitate sprints focused on your strategy, process, research, and culture.
If you’ve collaborated with the Hub on a project, tell us more about your experience in the comments below!
Posted by: Kaileigh Hermann
Navigating Context
Posted on: Reading Group for S...
Hello again everyone! Our reading group on Student Engagement and Success is slated to meat for 90 minutes this Friday morning (October 22nd) at 10am. Hope to see you then. For your convenience, here are the questions we'll discuss (or use as jumping off points) related to Chapter One in our book Student Engagement in Higher Education, Third Edition:
Questions on Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper (Ch. 1)
1) What is your view of Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper’s assertion that U.S. higher education, in general, is obligated to do more to foster student engagement within and beyond the classroom? What might be some practical challenges to do that?
2) In the Preface, Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper suggest that there is something temporally specific about the crisis of engagement they and their contributors describe. How would you describe engagement as a timely matter? In other words - what shape(s) does the issue of engagement take in 2021?
3) At the micro level (within our own teaching, advising, or other close work with students), how might we address the issue? What are some concrete steps we might take?
4) Describe your reaction(s) to the approach advocated at the bottom of p. 6, “Faculty and student affairs educators must foster the conditions to enable diverse populations of students to be engaged, persist, and thrive.” Where do you see difficulties with that aim? How might you nevertheless integrate that goal into your own practices? What might you change or adapt?
5) What makes PQH’s intersectional and anti-deficit lens appealing for this type of research? In particular, how do you respond to the book’s organizational reliance upon identity-based systems of oppression (which, we should note, we’ve proposed to use as an organizing principle for our discussions as well)?
6) What are some concrete ways we might be more intentional in our teaching/advising practices or other close work with students when it comes to cultivating their engagement. How do we help them to help themselves?
7) Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper discuss Tinto’s assertion that academic (and social) communities are key to student engagement, performance, and retention (4-5). What is your own view? How might the use of academic communities (student learning teams) nevertheless present challenges of one kind or another? What might be some concrete steps we could take to ease or avoid potential issues?
8) Near the end of Chapter One, Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper acknowledge that “Linking theory and practice is not simple” (12). Realistically, how might we achieve at least some of what they call for? How could we maximize results -- “the amount of time and effort students put into their [Gen. Ed. or Prereq.] studies” -- without completely redesigning our courses and component classes/modules?
9) In the “Distinguishing Educationally Purposeful Engagement” section, PQH mention the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which has collected data on ten engagement indicators for approx. 4,000,000 college students since 2000. What, if any, familiarity do you have with the NSSE, and how do you respond to their engagement indicators (subcategorized under Academic Challenge, Learning with Peers, Experiences with Faculty, Campus Environment) and High-Impact Practices (service learning, study abroad, research with faculty, internships)?
10) PQH deride the so-called “magical thinking” philosophy that undergirds much traditional scholarship of engagement and insist, instead, that “educators must facilitate structured opportunities for these dialogues to transpire” (8). What experience have you had with this type of facilitation? How did it seem to benefit the students involved?
11) For your own courses, what would you prioritize when it comes to fostering greater student engagement? How might you create or improve conditions that could facilitate that?
Questions on Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper (Ch. 1)
1) What is your view of Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper’s assertion that U.S. higher education, in general, is obligated to do more to foster student engagement within and beyond the classroom? What might be some practical challenges to do that?
2) In the Preface, Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper suggest that there is something temporally specific about the crisis of engagement they and their contributors describe. How would you describe engagement as a timely matter? In other words - what shape(s) does the issue of engagement take in 2021?
3) At the micro level (within our own teaching, advising, or other close work with students), how might we address the issue? What are some concrete steps we might take?
4) Describe your reaction(s) to the approach advocated at the bottom of p. 6, “Faculty and student affairs educators must foster the conditions to enable diverse populations of students to be engaged, persist, and thrive.” Where do you see difficulties with that aim? How might you nevertheless integrate that goal into your own practices? What might you change or adapt?
5) What makes PQH’s intersectional and anti-deficit lens appealing for this type of research? In particular, how do you respond to the book’s organizational reliance upon identity-based systems of oppression (which, we should note, we’ve proposed to use as an organizing principle for our discussions as well)?
6) What are some concrete ways we might be more intentional in our teaching/advising practices or other close work with students when it comes to cultivating their engagement. How do we help them to help themselves?
7) Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper discuss Tinto’s assertion that academic (and social) communities are key to student engagement, performance, and retention (4-5). What is your own view? How might the use of academic communities (student learning teams) nevertheless present challenges of one kind or another? What might be some concrete steps we could take to ease or avoid potential issues?
8) Near the end of Chapter One, Pendakur, Quaye, and Harper acknowledge that “Linking theory and practice is not simple” (12). Realistically, how might we achieve at least some of what they call for? How could we maximize results -- “the amount of time and effort students put into their [Gen. Ed. or Prereq.] studies” -- without completely redesigning our courses and component classes/modules?
9) In the “Distinguishing Educationally Purposeful Engagement” section, PQH mention the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which has collected data on ten engagement indicators for approx. 4,000,000 college students since 2000. What, if any, familiarity do you have with the NSSE, and how do you respond to their engagement indicators (subcategorized under Academic Challenge, Learning with Peers, Experiences with Faculty, Campus Environment) and High-Impact Practices (service learning, study abroad, research with faculty, internships)?
10) PQH deride the so-called “magical thinking” philosophy that undergirds much traditional scholarship of engagement and insist, instead, that “educators must facilitate structured opportunities for these dialogues to transpire” (8). What experience have you had with this type of facilitation? How did it seem to benefit the students involved?
11) For your own courses, what would you prioritize when it comes to fostering greater student engagement? How might you create or improve conditions that could facilitate that?
Posted by: Stokes Schwartz
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: Equitable Pedagogy ...
Hey everyone, we have a CEIG grant to develop resources and training around helping trainers be aware and educated of best practiced related to creating and facilitating educational materials and programs. I'd love to get ideas from anyone in this group on what has been successful, what are pain points, etc. This was inspired by this document, which is a sort of starting place of this project. https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/dei-in-action-developing-planning-and-facilitating-educational-programs-and-events
Posted by: Anne Marie Baker
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
A new D2L site has been started to help facilitate conversation about experiential learning given the Covid-19 pandemic. The site has discussion threads for laboratories, studio arts, field placements, and more. Self-enroll here: https://apps.d2l.msu.edu/selfenroll/course/1161791
Posted by: Becky Matz
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: Teaching Toolkit Ta...
Good morning Teaching Toolkit Tailgate! I'm Ellie Louson, your AMA host for Sept 1st. Ask me anything about experiential learning in undergrad courses. I don't know everything, but I am glad to share what I've learned facilitating experiential courses at MSU under the Spartan Studios project: the good, the bad, and the surprising. At last year's tailgate we made stuff out of Play-Doh and I want today to be just a much fun!
Posted by: Ellie Louson
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
The WOCI and the English Department will be co-hosting a workshop on trauma-informed classroom techniques for graduate students on Tuesday, February 28th at 1pm via Zoom. This is a follow up to the discussion that was held on February 17th (Feminist strategies for teaching during a crisis). All are welcome. Dr. LeConté Dill, who will be facilitating the workshop, will be paying particular attention to how womxn of color navigate teaching in the days and weeks following a traumatic event. This workshop aims to provide a space for graduate student instructors to learn how to show up for their students with a politics of care and a particular sensitivity to what students have just been through here at MSU. A flyer is attached for your review. Please share broadly.
Register for the workshop here or using the following link:
https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMod-yhrzgrGtH-58qoyfRfyVv4Og-
Please email Dr. Delia Fernandez-Jones (dmf@msu.edu) and Dr. Kristin Mahoney (mahone95@msu.ed) with any questions.
Register for the workshop here or using the following link:
https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMod-yhrzgrGtH-58qoyfRfyVv4Og-
Please email Dr. Delia Fernandez-Jones (dmf@msu.edu) and Dr. Kristin Mahoney (mahone95@msu.ed) with any questions.
Posted by: Rashad Muhammad
Navigating Context
Posted on: Reading Group for S...
Click the link below to view our proposed schedule for the year and sign up as a facilitator or interlocutor for a future discussion!
- GJS
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ydn3vqll2MVNDhxMEKQXJWtoa_QALCnvvbSSHv-cE6s/edit?usp=sharing
- GJS
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ydn3vqll2MVNDhxMEKQXJWtoa_QALCnvvbSSHv-cE6s/edit?usp=sharing
Posted by: Garth J Sabo
Navigating Context
Host: MSU Libraries
Research Facilitation Network Lightning talks: Research Support Services at MSU
Join us for insightful talks about research support services available at Michigan State. This session will highlight units assisting researchers throughout their research life cycle. Bring your questions and support needs to contribute to the discussion.
Meeting information: Zoom, September 16 from 3-4PM
Register here!
Navigating Context
Host: MSU Libraries
Film Screening: I’m Still Here (Ainda estou aqui)
Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here), winner of the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards (2025), tells the powerful true story of Rubens Paiva’s arrest and disappearance in 1970s Rio de Janeiro and his wife Eunice’s relentless fight for the truth amid Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985).
Based on the novel by Marcelo Rubens Paiva—son of Rubens and Eunice—the film portrays the Paiva family’s struggle to uncover Rubens’ fate in a nation gripped by political repression. The trauma of her husband's disappearance drives Eunice to study law, ultimately becoming a leading advocate for Indigenous rights in Brazil.
We invite the MSU community and the general public to a free screening and discussion on political oppression, censorship, fear, trauma, democratic challenges, and social upheaval. Faculty members will facilitate the conversation, encouraging critical engagement with the film’s historical and contemporary relevance.
This event is free and open to the public.
Agenda
5:30 PM: Screening to be presented by Janette Nuñez (MSU Libraries) and Saulo Gouveia (Romance and Classical Studies)
7:45 PM (immediately after the screening): Discussion panel featuring:
a. Peter Beattie, History
b. Saulo Gouveia, Romance and Classical Studies
c. María Isabel Espinoza, Sociology
d. Rocío Quispe Agnoli, Romance and Classical Studies
Navigating Context
Host: CTLI
The Educator Exchange Learning Community
The Educator Exchange is intentionally designed to provide protected time and space for meaningful connections about our work and paths as educators. We believe that the best [lifelong] learning occurs when we connect in spaces that affirm our experiences and celebrate our unique perspectives! Our aim is to be a community of practice where you can openly share when things don’t go as expected and brainstorm solutions to challenges, explore teaching practices in different ways, talk through the challenges of educator roles in myriad situations, and cultivate joy in the celebration of each other’s successes. Join The Educator Exchange and rediscover the joy of being part of a caring community dedicated to uplifting one another and making a positive impact in our classrooms, labs, and beyond. This offering is facilitated in collaboration with the Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Development. Check out their website more about MSU's formal Learning Communities [hyperlink: https://ofasd.msu.edu/teaching-learning/learning-communities/]
Upon completion of this learning experience, participants will be able to:
Build connections and foster a supportive community among MSU educators by sharing experiences, challenges, and successes
Exchange innovative teaching strategies and best practices to improve instructional effectiveness
Encourage peer-to-peer learning and reflection to promote professional growth, student engagement, and educator well-being.
Navigating Context
EXPIRED
Host: CTLI
Supporting Student Success Through Early Warning: Strategies for Graduate Teaching Assistants
On behalf of the GREAT office at The Graduate School, check out Supporting Student Success Through Early Warning: Strategies for Graduate Teaching Assistants
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Location: Zoom
Audience: Current Graduate Students & Postdocs
This interactive session is designed to support Graduate Teaching Assistants in recognizing and responding to early signs that students may be in need of support. Participants will explore their role in MSU’s early warning efforts and develop practical strategies to promote academic engagement, connection, and timely support. The session will include discussion of common indicators that students may be facing challenges affecting their educational success, strategies for effective communication, and how to use campus resources and reporting tools like EASE to provide timely support.
Facilitator(s):
Kanchan Pavangadkar, Director of Student Success for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR)
Dwight Handspike, Director of Academic Advising & Student Success Initiatives, Undergraduate Academic Services, Broad College of Business
Samantha Zill, Human Biology & Pre-Health Advisor, Michigan State University, College of Natural Science
Maria O'Connell, University Innovation Alliance Fellow, Undergraduate Student Success Strategic Initiatives Manager, Office of Undergraduate Education
Register Here
**Zoom link will be sent closer to the workshop date.
Navigating Context
EXPIRED
Host: CTLI
Graduate Resources for Accommodations and Supportive Practices(GRASP) Panel
On behalf of the GREAT office at The Graduate School, check out Graduate Resources for Accommodations and Supportive Practices (GRASP) Panel
Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Location: Zoom
Audience: Current Graduate Students & Postdocs
Details to follow
Facilitator: Beau Zhang, PhD Candidate, Psychology
Register Here
**Zoom link will be sent closer to the workshop date.
Navigating Context
EXPIRED
Host: CTLI
Instructor Jumpstart: Part 2
Join the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI)- in partnership with the Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Development (OFASD)- for a two part introduction to high-level topics related to quality, inclusive teaching at Michigan State University. Each session in “Instructor Jumpstart” is a one-hour, hybrid, presentation, co-facilitated by Drs. Makena Neal and Ellie Louson.
Upon completion of this learning experience, participants will be able to:
participants will be able to identify key principles of quality and inclusive teaching practices at MSU
participants will recognize core strategies for creating an engaging and equitable learning environment
participants will describe foundational concepts related to effective instructional design and inclusive pedagogy.
The in-person location for this session is the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation. Please join us in the Main Library, Room W207. For directions to W207, please visit the Room Locations page.
Navigating Context
EXPIRED
Host: CTLI
Instructor Jumpstart: Part 1
Join the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI)- in partnership with the Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Development (OFASD)- for a two part introduction to high-level topics related to quality, inclusive teaching at Michigan State University. Each session in “Instructor Jumpstart” is a one-hour, hybrid, presentation, co-facilitated by Drs. Makena Neal and Ellie Louson.
Upon completion of this learning experience, participants will be able to:
participants will be able to identify key principles of quality and inclusive teaching practices at MSU
participants will recognize core strategies for creating an engaging and equitable learning environment
participants will describe foundational concepts related to effective instructional design and inclusive pedagogy.
The in-person location for this session is the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation. Please join us in the Main Library, Room W207. For directions to W207, please visit the Room Locations page.
Navigating Context
EXPIRED