This Week for Faculty: 🌴 Rest, Reflect, Reimagine: A Summer for You and Your Teaching

Connect with colleagues around teaching

Talk with colleagues about teaching issues or challenges, and brainstorm solutions.

Express your interest in joining a CTL-facilitated Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in Fall 2025 by submitting an interest form.

FLC topics may include:

• Collaborative learning: Meet with colleagues to discuss how we can best design opportunities for students to collaboratively work together to deepen their understanding and critical thinking.

• Inclusive pedagogy: Meet with colleagues to discuss how we can best design learning experiences that equitably and inclusively promote belonging and active participation for all our students.

• Mentoring: Meet with colleagues to explore strategies for building impactful mentoring relationships with graduate students and postdocs.

• Teaching with AI: Meet with colleagues to navigate the opportunities and challenges of integrating artificial intelligence into your teaching.

• Peer observation of teaching: Visit your colleagues’ classes and invite them to visit your class to reflect on your teaching and share inspiration, feedback, and support.

Reflect on the past year of teaching and look ahead

As you look back on the past year of teaching, we invite you to reflect upon your experiences in the classroom. As you do so, you may want to explore additional sources of information including course analytics and feedback from peers and students, which you can use to plan ahead for the next  semester.

Questions to guide your reflection include:

• What did you learn about yourself as a teacher this academic year?
• What was your favorite teaching moment? What made it memorable?

Reflect on the feedback received

Consider all the feedback that you collected from students whether through early and mid-semester student feedback or end-of-semester course evaluations, and if applicable, the feedback you received from TAs.

• How did your students perceive the course?
• Does your interpretation of the course align with that of your students?

As you explore and interpret the data, consider taking these actions:

• Identify patterns or common themes in the comments.
• Note what students found most useful in supporting their learning. Based on what students thought worked well, what practices will you continue doing?
• Reflect on the insights gained, and decide on the areas for improvement that would enhance the student learning experience. What changes to the course design and/or teaching practices might be needed?

The CTL can help you make meaning of the feedback received. Schedule a consultation CTLfaculty@columbia.edu.

Explore course analytics and student performance

CourseWorks Course Statistics, Course Analytics, and Panopto Analytics (see How to View User Statistics), provide a glimpse into student performance and engagement with assignments, discussions, quizzes, or course videos. For components that lacked student engagement, consider what improvements might be needed in the future (e.g., improved communication, clearer instructions, guidance or expectations).

• How did students perform on assessments?
• Which assignment, activity, or discussion really clicked for your students?
• Where did you see students most engaged?

Plan forward

Looking ahead to the next time you teach this course or material, consider the lessons learned and what changes are needed to maximize student learning.

• What is one aspect of your course you would like to rework? Why?
• What would it mean to feel joyful in your teaching next academic year?

As you reflect forward, consider taking these actions:

• Develop an action plan in which you outline what changes you will make, how you will make them, and by when.
• Identify the new approaches to course design, community building, engagement, and/or assessment that you will use, and the instructional technologies and tools you will carry forward from your remote teaching experiences.

What to read and listen to while on the go

Catch up on recent books and Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast episodes to inspire your teaching while you’re on the go this summer.

📖 Read: The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching (Norell, 2024)

An encouraging invitation to show up more fully in our teaching lives.

🎧 Listen: Season 9, Episode 4: The Present Professor with Liz Norell.

📖 Read: A Pedagogy of Kindness (Denial, 2024)

A compelling case for centering care in the classroom, offers suggestions for how instructors can implement a pedagogy of kindness in their own classroom.

🎧 Listen: Season 9, Episode 1: A Pedagogy of Kindness with Cate Denial.

Looking for more recommendations? Reach out to us at CTLfaculty@columbia.edu.

The CTL is here to support you all summer!

Connect via Zoom or over the phone 

Join us for office hours via Zoom (or phone) Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm to have your teaching with instructional technology questions answered, or schedule an appointment any time by contacting ColumbiaCTL@columbia.edu.

Schedule a consultations

Schedule an in-person or virtual consultation to discuss any teaching and learning need by emailing ctlfaculty@columbia.edu or email the CTL Learning Designer assigned to your school or department.