Spring 2015 Events

NOTE: Presentations are best viewed by downloading and opening the file in MSPowerPoint instead of the Google Slides viewer.

Open House

January 30

Tools of the Trade

February 6

Learn about technology and other ways to accomplish specific pedagogical goals like improving student participation, recording class activities, also hosting guest speakers from remote locations. Also learn how to assess student learning in real-time, run successful collaborative projects, and more.

Successful Strategies for Large Classes

February 13

Lecturing to a huge roomful of students can be challenging, but also rewarding. This session explores ideas for keeping students engaged, classroom management, working with TAs, etc. Colleagues who have lots of experience in large lecture halls will share their insights.

Online and Open Resources for Learning

February 20

While the internet can be a great educational asset, it must be used intelligently. Learn how to find resources, and to evaluate them for reliability and quality. We will explore the online "branch" of the BU Libraries, the CLT website, Open Educational Resources, MERLOT, and open textbooks.

CISCO Collaborative Meeting Room (CMR) Demo

February 27

Come learn about this video conferencing service. It couples WebEx Personal Rooms and the cloud-based WebEx Video Bridge into one, always-available meeting experience. Accessible from any standards-based video device, it provides simple, highly secure collaboration regardless of location or technology. It can be used for virtual office hours, tutoring, lecture capture (and is available in a student version).

ePortfolios - An Alternate Grading Strategy

March 18

An electronic portfolio is a virtual collection of evidence that shows one's learning over time. By promoting reflective-based learning, ePortfolios kindle the learners' discovery of their tacit skills and knowledge, while simultaneously providing evidence-based documentation of their growth. This session will demonstrate how to create an ePortfolio to assess student learning, including community-based or experiential learning environments. Research to support the use of ePortfolios in learning and teaching will also be provided. Guest speaker Richard Kiely (Director of Engaged Learning + Research at Cornell University) will be joining the program remotely.

Services for Students with Disabilities — Accessibility by Design: Creating Inclusive Course Content

April 24

The Services for Students with Disabilities office and the Center for Learning and Teaching presents a one-of-a-kind "flipped" BYOD (Bring your own device) workshop to help you in creating accessible course content - for a wide variety of learners in your course. Specifically, we will cover Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, PDF's, and teach you how to use the built-in speech-to-text in your device! Additionally, we will provide resources for how to search for closed-captioned videos, best practices for scanning, and designing accessible content in other programs such as Google Docs or Pages.

The Art of Questioning: Using Bloom's Taxonomy as a Foundation for Course Design

May 18-19

How do you know that your students are learning what you want them to learn? Are you frustrated when exam results do not meet your expectations? Are you able to adjust your teaching to meet the changing needs of your learners? Although it is tempting to "cover" material whether students "get it" or not, research shows that students retain only so much material by the end of the course. This workshop will help you to decide what your students should really learn during your course, and remember in a lasting way. The Center for Learning and Teaching will guide you in using Bloom's Taxonomy as a foundation for course design so that you will walk away from this workshop with a clear plan that aligns your course learning objectives with your course assessments.