Making sure that students are successful in your courses means connecting them to the right resources outside of your classroom. Navigating all that our campus has to offer can be a challenge.

Read on for ways to facilitate the connections that your students need.

Dear Faculty Commons

Time to read: 3 minutes

My students and I are all starting to feel the mid-semester slump. I want to liven up my class sessions and also need some low-stakes ways to check in and see that students are understanding the material. What can I do that doesn’t make a ton of extra work for me (#GradingAvalanche), and doesn’t sound scary, like a “pop quiz,” for the students?

Signed,

Stumped about the slump

Read our response.

5 ways you can better support first-generation students

Time to read: 4 minutes

As UD welcomes record numbers of first-generation college students to our campuses, we are all looking for ways to better support them. For instructors, there are many small things you can do that will help these students, and all of your students, achieve their academic goals.

Check out 5 meaningful ways you can support first-generation students in your classroom.

Canvas now offers a Google Drive Learning Tool Integration (LTI)

Time to read: 4 minutes

While you’ve been able to use Google in conjunction with Canvas for some time, now you can spend less time copying links, setting permissions, and other tedious tasks.

Discover how this integration helps you save time!

5 easy-to-use tools for multimedia assignments

Time to read: 1.5 minutes

November 5th through 9th is Media Literacy Week!

Students can learn a lot by creating multi-layered videos, websites, podcasts and audio projects, but you will need to provide them with the right tools for success.

Check out our recommendations for 5 accessible and easy-to-use tools to share with your students.

CTAL Grant: Call for proposals

Deadline: April 1, 2019

The Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning’s (CTAL) Instructional Improvement Grants (IIG) fund small-scale projects to improve existing courses, develop new courses, evaluate instruction, and assess curricular needs. The grant funds can also be used to support larger innovative projects that will directly and significantly affect teaching and learning.

Apply and get up to $5,000 in funds!

Upcoming Events

Faculty Commons Book Club

November 1 | 12:30 PM

Stephanie Kerschbaum, associate professor of English and Faculty Success Program Coordinator, will be guiding attendees through a discussion of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.

Get registered and get reading!

Roundtable: The Procrastinator’s Guide to Canvas

November 2 | 3:30 PM

It’s the 11th hour for Sakai users! There are less than 100 days to migrate your courses off of Sakai and onto Canvas. Sakai closes on December 21, 2018!

Learn how to move your course content and make personal archives of student data from past courses at this session.

Mindfulness Retreat

November 3 | 10:00 AM

Limited seats remain.Join Dr. Mike McKenzie and Employee Health and Wellbeing for an immersive day of mindfulness. This is a radically fresh approach to “goals” that will help you to identify and release limiting beliefs and bring deeper clarity and possibility to your life as you move forward in the year ahead. This event is FREE and open to the entire UD community. Registration required.

Register and get zen.

Faculty and Graduate Research Survey Presentation

November 9 | 11:30 AM

In the spring, hundreds of faculty and graduate students shared insight on their research, teaching, and publishing needs.

Get insight on the survey findings and how they will be used to meet your needs during this event in the Class of 1941 Lecture Room in Morris Library.

Telling Your Research Story with Analytics and Metrics

November 13 | 3:30 PM

You have dedicated a lot of time, energy and work to your research. It makes sense that you would want to know how people are engaging with your work.

Get acquainted with tools you can use to easily track and illustrate the impact you have as a scholarly author.

Works in Progress: Feedback on Your Research Posters and Presentations

November 13 | 2:00 PM

Are you in the process of designing a poster presentation for an upcoming event or conference?

Bring your poster draft-in-progress to this workshop for feedback on the content and visual design—and rehearse the oral presentation of your research.

Scholar in the Library

December 5 | 12:00 PM

Throughout the semester, students in the “Into the Archives” capstone seminar have been creating metadata and StoryMaps for the newly digitized Langston Hughes Ephemera Collection in Special Collections.

Explore their research and curatorial work—and get inspired with ideas on how you can incorporate hands-on learning like this in your courses.