Workshops To Go

Note: This workshop is designed for CUIMC faculty teaching students in clinical settings. 

Providing students with meaningful feedback is essential for their growth and learning. Students expect to receive feedback, yet it can be challenging for faculty to give feedback in the clinical context while time is limited, interactions are brief, and the focus is on patient care. In this session, clinical faculty will explore elements of effective feedback and work on enhancing their feedback skills through an activity in which they will evaluate and rephrase feedback statements.

This session addresses questions about giving feedback, such as:

• How do I create a climate of feedback in the clinical setting?
• How do I identify when effective feedback should be given?
• How do I evaluate what content should be included in clinical feedback?

Explore CTL resource: Feedback in Clinical Education

Designing a lecture that simultaneously engages students and helps them learn important course content requires careful planning. In this session, faculty will draw on three key findings from the science of learning—activation of prior knowledge, retrieval practice, and reflection—that promote student engagement and learning. Faculty will reflect on their own teaching practices and consider ways to incorporate these evidence-based strategies into their class sessions.

This session addresses questions about planning class sessions, such as:

• Will lecturing help my students learn?
• What can I do to plan effective class sessions?

Explore CTL resource: Five Tips for Engaged Lecturing

Well-designed discussions can be dynamic, eye-opening, and generative, providing students with meaningful and engaging learning experiences. However, challenges can arise in the form of unequal participation, unclear learning outcomes, or charged topics that turn into difficult classroom moments. In this workshop, faculty will address these challenges by exploring a four-step process as well as strategies to ensure that students engage in and learn from discussions (in class as well as asynchronously), and leave class with clear takeaways. With intentional planning and facilitation, faculty can maximize student learning from classroom conversations.

This session addresses questions about teaching using discussions, such as:

• How do I get students to engage with each other in class discussions?
• How can I keep the conversation going between class sessions?
• How can I create a space in which my students feel comfortable sharing?

Explore CTL resource: Learning Through Discussion

From in-class activities and assignments, to peer-reviewed manuscripts, feedback is essential for growth and learning. And yet, if students don’t reflect on or apply notes or comments, it can sometimes feel like feedback doesn’t matter all that much. Giving feedback can feel like an arduous process, and when it goes unused on student assignments, it can leave instructors feeling frustrated. In this session, faculty will explore strategies to make giving feedback easier and more effective.

This session addresses questions about giving feedback, such as:

• How do I create a culture of feedback? 
• What kinds of feedback can I give to students?
• How do I use technology to facilitate the feedback-giving process? 

Explore CTL resource: Feedback for Learning

Gradescope is a Columbia-supported assessment platform integrated with CourseWorks that can help faculty manage their grading loads. Gradescope allows instructors to build rubrics for faster and more equitable grading, respond to handwritten student work in an online environment, and provide feedback to students efficiently. This session introduces faculty to Gradescope through a series of demonstrations, including how to use the platform to grade a handwritten assignment, provide feedback to students, and connect their CourseWorks courses and assignments to Gradescope. (*Please note: this session is offered as a 75-minute or 90-minute session.) 

This session demonstrates how to use Gradescope to address challenges in grading, such as:

• How can I efficiently grade and provide feedback to a large number of students?
• How can I improve grading consistency across multiple graders?
• How can I streamline offering feedback on handwritten student work?

This session is best suited for Science and Engineering departments, particularly those with courses that use paper-based or programming assignments.

Explore CTL resource: Creating Assignments and Grading Online with Gradescope

This session focuses on the basics of Columbia’s learning management system, CourseWorks (Canvas). It introduces faculty and graduate student instructors to CourseWorks and how they can use it to create community, support student engagement, and assess student learning. Faculty and graduate student instructors finish this session with an understanding of the CourseWorks interface and a toolset that will allow them to set up a course with clear expectations for students, create opportunities for a variety of assignment engagements, and nurture an environment that encourages a culture of inclusive communication. This is an introductory session, suited for new faculty or teaching assistants. (*Please note: this session is offered as a 75-minute session only.) 

This session demonstrates how instructors can leverage CourseWorks for their courses, such as:

• How can I use CourseWorks to enhance my classroom community?
• How can I organize my course materials into learning modules to better engage students?
• How can I set up online assessments for students to complete asynchronously?

Asynchronous self-paced offerings are also available: 

• Introduction to CourseWorks (Canvas) (self-paced course) 
• Assessment and Grading in CourseWorks (Canvas) (self-paced course)

Explore CTL resource: Teaching with CourseWorks

Regardless of course topic or content,  HOT — heated, offensive, or tense — moments in the classroom are always a possibility. Although never fully avoidable or predictable, there are steps instructors can take to help mitigate the potential for these moments, and strategies to help better equip instructors for navigating HOT moments when they occur. In this session, faculty will identify strategies for engaging with, facilitating, and navigating HOT moments before, during, and after class. (*Please note: this session is offered as a 75-minute or 90-minute session.) 

This session addresses questions about HOT moments, such as:

• How can I anticipate and prepare for HOT moments before they occur?
• What are strategies for responding to HOT moments when they happen?
• How should I follow up on HOT moments after class? 

Explore CTL resource: Navigating Heated, Offensive, and Tense (HOT) Moments in the Classroom

Teaching large courses can present unique challenges, including building rapport with and among students, managing large amounts of grading, using TAs effectively, and upholding academic integrity. In this session, faculty will explore these challenges and discuss evidence-based strategies to make large online courses more manageable and rewarding for faculty and students alike.

This session addresses questions about teaching large online courses, such as:

• How do I engage and build community with students in my large online course?
• How can I promote academic integrity? 
• How can I work with my TAs effectively?

Explore CTL resource: Teaching Large Courses Effectively and Efficiently

Inclusive classroom practices can empower students to create and engage in deeper, more meaningful learning experiences, but establishing an inclusive learning environment can be challenging. In this session, faculty will explore five evidence-based inclusive teaching principles that they can apply to their classroom: foster a climate of belonging, setting explicit expectations, constructing inclusive course content, designing all course elements for accessibility, and reflecting on faculty’s own beliefs about teaching. Faculty will use these principles to reflect on their current teaching practices as well as learn a variety of simple effective inclusive teaching strategies to maximize equity in their course.

This session addresses questions about inclusive teaching, such as:

• How do I create a community in which all students feel a sense of belonging? 
• How can I partner with my students to co-create the learning environment? 

Explore CTL resource: Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia