Teaching News

Dear colleagues,

Please apply to one of the 2022 UO Summer Teaching Institute's two stipended ($1K) topical pathways, Hybrid Teaching and Access for All: UDL, Usability, & Inclusive Design. This year's Summer Teaching Institute, July 11-15, offers a celebratory return to an in-person program and time for reflection, collegial connection, and purposeful action based on the extraordinary changes our teaching and learning community has undergone across two years of upheaval and adaptation.  

Pathway applications are due Wednesday, May 18. This opportunity is for both tenure-related and career faculty.   

Hybrid Pathway: Join this pathway to redesign an existing course for hybrid delivery and participate in a faculty pilot where you’ll explore and advance best practices in hybrid teaching at UO. 

Access for All: UDL, Usability, & Inclusive Design Pathway: Learn about and put into practice the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Inclusive Design (ID), and web accessibility. We’ll also examine and contextualize the pressing need for greater accessibility in higher education generally and for students at UO specifically. 

Learn about the pathways and apply.

Participants in these pathways and all UO faculty will be invited to larger-format sessions on faculty and student wellbeing, equitable student success, and new approaches to assessment. More information about these sessions is coming soon.

Help shape the future of UO Libraries' services

The University of Oregon Libraries is partnering with Ithaka S+R, a national research organization, to survey UO faculty and graduate students about their research, teaching, and publishing practices. Your participation in this survey will help shape the future of faculty and graduate student services at UO Libraries.

To take the survey, look for the personalized email link that you received in your UO email from Ithaka S+R on April 19 (subject: “UO Libraries Faculty Survey”). The survey is anonymous and the results will be reported in the aggregate. We invite you to review our FAQ page, and if you have any additional questions, please email Cameron Mulder (cmulder7@uoregon.edu), the Libraries Statistical Consultant.

NEW: Office Hours with Counseling Services with for Faculty and GE Instructors

If you need assistance in supporting a student with mental health issues, please call Counseling Services for a consultation at 541-346-3227 or click on the zoom link for Office Hours with Counseling Services to meet with a CS leadership team member on Thursdays from noon – 1:00 p.m. for Spring Term 2022. A consultation with our staff can help you identify the next steps, appropriate resources, and services for your student.

Looking for more resources on how instructors can support student mental health and wellbeing? Check out the Student Wellbeing Toolkit. 

Accessible and Inclusive Design Workshop Series

This series features practices to create more accessible and inclusive classes for all students, particularly students with disabilities and/or neurodivergent students. It is a collaboration between TEP, AEC, UO Online, and the Library.

  • When? Wednesdays from 1-2 p.m.
  • Where? On Zoom: see individual sessions for links. 
  • Who? You! It is enthusiastically open to faculty, students, and staff at any existing level of knowledge, and is meant to be a co-learning experience.

Upcoming dates and topics include: 

  • Apr 27: Using Open Educational Resources 
  • May 4: Rethinking “Participation” with UDL 
  • May 11:  Canvas Accessibility with Pope Tech 
  • May 18: Neurodiversity through an Equity Lens 

Find out more about each session and register for any you are interested in by visiting our webpage.

Yes, And! Improvisation as a Tool for Enhancing Teaching and Learning

Improv Coach, UO Math Professor Team for STEM Teaching Workshop

  • Friday, May 20, 9am-noon 
  • HEDCO 220 
  • Limited to faculty 
  • Register here

This interactive workshop will introduce skills and principles adapted from improvisational theater to enhance teaching and learning in university classes. Building on UO Professor Ellen Eischen’s success adapting improvisational techniques to the mathematics classroom, and Improv @ Work Founder Heather Barnes' experiences teaching improv to STEM professionals, this workshop will provide tools and strategies that can help instructors engage their students. This workshop will include a high level of participation, cited research, and concrete examples. Be prepared to actively participate, get out of your comfort zone, and evolve as an instructor.

The workshop will be especially aimed at STEM faculty, but others are also welcome.

Learning by Seeing

with guest facilitator Jessica Riehl

  • Tuesday, May 10, 2:00-5:00 pm  
  • Crater Lake South, EMU room 145 
  • Register here

This workshop is designed for participants to rotate in and out on the hour — plan to stay for all, or just join when you can!

Our classrooms are supposed to provide methods for sense-making — a task that is increasingly complicated by a world that doesn't always make sense. We may need new ways to help our students organize their thoughts and to help them participate in knowledge production, especially if students' own learning or processing skills do not benefit from traditional classroom pedagogies. This workshop introduces faculty to visual thinking. Visual thinking can offer new ways for instructors to engage students in substantively difficult conversations by allowing for collaborative work, visual exploration, and systems-thinking.

  • Hour one: What is Visual Thinking?
  • Hour two: Three Easy Visual Thinking Techniques 
  • Hour three: Using Visual Thinking to Unpack Difficult Ideas

Hosted by Provost Teaching Fellow Alison Gash 

Student-to-Student Interactions in Online Courses

Join faculty panelists to discuss the benefits, challenges, and rewards of building vibrant student-to-student interactions in your online courses.  Review, analyze, and discuss real-life course examples your University of Oregon colleagues use to deepen student learning and understanding.

Science Teaching Journal Club: Helping Students Succeed in your Course

Join us to examine ways to help students reinforce the content knowledge and skills they need for your course and to employ effective learning techniques so they can use their time as efficiently as possible.

Thinking about bolstering students’ college knowledge and study skills? Check out the Student Success Teaching Toolkit. 

Climate Wisdom Lab: Engaging Climate Anxiety and Emotions in the Classroomwith Kevin Gallagher and Sarah Jaquette Ray of Emergent Resilience

June 16-17 RSVP interest to attend by April 29 Space is limited 

Climate anxiety is on the rise, with many educators seeing students drowning in despair. A 2021 study of global youth found that a full 60% of 16-25 year-olds were “very” or “extremely” worried about global warming. Such anxiety is often amplified by other significant concerns, including COVID-19, racial injustice, the decline of democracy, economic worries, as well as the standard stressors of school, career, and social life.  Yet while it may be easy to say that faculty should attend to students’ emotional needs in the classroom, doing so effectively and appropriately can be challenging. How can faculty teach climate change and interrelated topics in a way that understands their heavy emotional effects, supports students’ wellbeing, and enhances their capacity to face an uncertain future? The Climate Wisdom Lab is a two-day intensive workshop that will provide faculty with an opportunity to explore these questions and develop a concrete strategy for their courses.This workshop is sponsored by the Provost’s Environment Initiative and hosted by TEP, the Office of Sustainability, and the Student Sustainability Center. 

Last chance to apply for the Environment Initative's Faculty Fellows program

The Environment Initiative is now accepting applications for the Faculty Fellows program. All teaching and research faculty are welcome to apply.To apply for consideration, please submit a current CV, a short statement of interest, and two nomination letters – one from your dean and another from your department head – to UOEI@uoregon.edu. The final deadline of Monday, May 2, 2022.

Your statement of interest should include:

  • How does your current research align with the EI Guiding Principles?
  • Does your recent or current research have external funding?
  • What project or type of project would you propose to benefit the EI?