Primarily Education-Focused Sessions and Resources

20 Minute Monday Morning Mentor (Week of September 21st)

Date: Available September 21st – September 27th
Session Title: What is the Best Way to Grade Participation?
Presenter: Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D. (Professor Emerita of Teaching and Learning – Penn State Berks)

Overview:

You know how essential it is for students to be active participants in their education. But how do you grade them on it? Find out in this Magna 20-Minute Mentor, What Is the Best Way to Grade Participation? Running just 20 minutes, it is the easiest way to improve your course and fit into a busy schedule.

While emphasizing there is no single way to assess student participation, presenter Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., delivers a concise and comprehensive overview of what not to do, activities worth doing, how to do them, and how to evaluate your own process. Too often instructors base participation grades on very vague standards or use these assessments to give grades they somehow think students deserve. In this compelling and practical session, you’ll learn that effective assessment of participation starts with understanding why you’re evaluating participation in the first place and having a clear description of the behavior you’ll be monitoring.

You’ll explore:

• Making feedback part of the way you grade participation
• Providing accommodations for students with special needs, including shyness
• Getting students involved in assessment

Drawing on her extensive experience as an educator, published author, and editor of The Teaching Professor, Weimer supplements this video seminar with handouts such as tracking sheets and assessment instruments to help you implement what you learn.

Learning goals:

After completing this grading and feedback focused program, you’ll be able to:

• Describe and avoid common pitfalls associated with grading student participation
• Identify positive and negative criteria you will use to evaluate student participation
• Develop strategies for implementing your assessment plan
• Use appropriate techniques to keep all students involved with and aware of your participation assessment plan
• Develop and implement feedback strategies to help students improve their participation

The session link and login information to the September 21st 20 Minute Monday Morning Mentor is available in the announcements section of the Professional Development course within Blackboard. Enrollment instructions for the Professional Development course are located at http://tinyurl.com/profdevenroll.

Online Teaching Toolkit: Evaluate and Improve Your Teaching

Date: September 22, 2015
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Location: GEB A204

Overview:

Until recently, teachers and students faced each other in the same classroom at the same time. The increase of online courses has changed that model dramatically, affecting how teachers are evaluated in profound ways. It is essential that faculty understand the best practices that underlie evaluations of effective online teaching. In this seminar you will learn the strategies for garnering constructive feedback, make significant changes in the way you teach based on that feedback, and take more control for the results of your evaluations.

It is essential that faculty understand the best practices that underlie evaluations of effective online teaching. To gain this awareness, participate in this 40-minute online seminar, Online Teaching Toolkit: Evaluate & Improve Your Teaching. You’ll compare summative and formative evaluation approaches and learn how to use feedback from diverse sources to improve your teaching. You’ll learn how to make changes in your teaching methods while you teach the course so you can respond quickly to student concerns. Evaluating your performance in online courses is becoming more important than ever. This dynamic seminar can give you the insights and practical tools for boosting evaluation results while improving your teaching.

To register to attend this session please go to: http://tinyurl.com/onlineteachingtoolkit

Contemporary Fair Use Guidelines and Copyright Law

Date: September 25, 2015
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: GEB A102

Overview:

Frank Lancaster, Associate General Counsel at UT, will present a session entitled ‘Contemporary Fair Use Guidelines and Copyright Law.’ The session will provide an overview of case history surrounding contemporary copyright law, key things to remember in the classroom and online environment, and resources for faculty.

A light lunch will be provided beginning at 11:30 AM to those who register to attend by September 16th. To register to attend use this link: http://bit.ly/UTHSC-092515

Copyright and fair use are topics that generate questions. If you have questions about this topic, send them to Dr. Cindy Russell (crussell@uthsc.edu) so that Frank can address some of them during his presentation.

Frank delivered a similar session for UT Chattanooga’s Instructional Excellence Conference. You can view that session here: http://tinyurl.com/utc-copyright (actual speaker audio begins at the 1-minute mark)

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Professional Sessions

New Faculty Orientation

Date: September 25, 2015
Time: 7:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: GEB A102

Overview:

The Office of Academic, Faculty, and Student Affairs (AFSA) will be hosting New Faculty Orientation as a supplement to the orientation that is provided by Human Resources at each faculty member’s hire date. The AFSA New Faculty Orientation is catered specifically to the faculty with introductions of people and resources that may be of help in their growth and advancement during their time of employment with UTHSC.

This orientation is for ALL faculty hired as of January 2015 and in the months following. A light breakfast will be provided beginning at 7:30 AM and lunch will be provided at 12:00 PM.

To register to attend please go to: http://bit.do/NFO-Fall15

Biomedical Informatics Group (BIG) Meeting

Date: September 25, 2015
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (Lunch will be provided)
Location: 910 Madison, Room 502

Speaker:  Oguz Akbilgic, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor The University of Tennessee Health Science Center; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Center for Biomedical Informatics)

Topic: Clustering of Sequential EMR Data via Symbolic Pattern Recognition

Overview:

Our goal is to develop a Symbolic Pattern Recognition Method relating sequential data to different outcomes.

IRB Insights

Date: September 30, 2015
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Location: 930 Madison, Hamilton Eye Institute’s Freeman Auditorium (3rd Floor)

Overview:

Learn about the changes in the iMedRIS software upgrade from Version 9.03 to Version 10.03 occurring at the beginning of September. You may view the program remotely by clicking on the following site at the time of the session: http://mediaserver.uthsc.edu/uthscms/Play/61382e815f944cdf91148e014896c3241d

If you miss the session, the video and slides will be posted a few days after the training session to our website (http://www.uthsc.edu/research/research_compliance/IRB/training.php ), under “See Previous IRB Insights materials”.

2015 Biomedical Research Symposium

Date: October 23, 2015
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Location: St. Jude – Marlo Thomas Center GEC Auditorium

Topic: “Stem Cells and Cancer” – The symposium will be hosted by Drs. Sorrentino, McKinney-Freeman and Roussel

Overview:

Did you know….

You can apply credit received for professional development outside the university to your faculty training records? Simply complete the HR Request for Additional Training Credit form found at http://www.uthsc.edu/hrtraining/pdfs/additional_training_credit_form.pdf and forward it, along with a copy of the program’s agenda, to the HR Training Department at 910 Madison, Suite 727.

Why do this? The University of TN believes that professional development and training of its employees are central to the university’s mission, vision, and values. Having credit received elsewhere to your UTHSC training records is very useful to your department and college – for things such as annual reviews and program accreditations.