The Teaching and Learning Center works in collaboration with faculty and students to host events that explore the learning process. Recent events include the role of technology in the classroom, active learning, processes of foreign language learning, addressing “stereotype threat” in the classroom, developing Digital Humanities projects with students, and more.
The TLC worked closely with ARC and IT to support faculty and students as they adapted to remote teaching in Spring 2020. TLC lunches shifted online and took place every Wednesday at noon as of mid-March. Video recordings of these sessions, as well as links and documents, were compiled and made available in Teams TLC Online. Workshops from the online Faculty Retreat, March 17, are also stored in Teams. TLC Friday hangouts, which started in mid-March, took place every Friday at 5 or 6pm and provided an informal setting to discuss the highs and lows of our week teaching in the digital realm.
Several TLC Lunches this semester were replaced by seminars/workshops (see “Mellon Pedagogical Workshops” and “Workshops by external facilitators” for more information).
During the workshop, Michael redressed the role of ‘reflection’ for teaching and learning in Higher Education. He guided workshop participants through a number of reflective practices, including discussions about what sometimes goes wrong in the classroom and why. The TLC group is creating a discussion board on the topic through Teams. More information is coming soon.
Designed for anyone whose work involves humans or computers, this workshop was flexible and open to accommodate any range of faculty and staff concerns and questions around privacy, ethics, and digital literacy. No questions were considered too basic or too complex. The focus of the workshop was on digital literacy and applied privacy for the purposes of pedagogy, online research, ethnography/interviews, and journalism. The workshop addressed threat modelling for these particular cases, the importance of and different options for privacy practices, and digital privacy issues involved in research and teaching across global sites.
What challenges can arise in conducting student-faculty research? And how might they be met? This Mellon seminar reported on lessons learned from the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA)-Library of Congress Faculty-Student Research Program in Washington DC, which allows undergraduate students and faculty mentors in the humanities to carry out research at the Library of Congress with assistance from specialist librarians. The summer 2019 program took place in Washington from 8 to 17 July, with an AUP team led by David Tresilian and Michael Stoepel and including AUP students Anabel Bachour and Habiba Nadim researching the theme of Coming to America: The Early Arab-American Generations. All four members of the AUP team provided perspectives on this unique opportunity for faculty-student collaboration at one of the world's great research libraries.
The multimedia classroom promises new paths to student engagement and access. But sometimes the clip won't play, the sound is off, the route to pedagogical innovation gets blocked by finicky software or badly-configured accessories. This TLC will look at the nuts and bolts of getting your media to work in AUP classrooms.
As a busy advisor with little time and much to cover in your advising sessions, how do you raise questions about your students’ aspirations for their futures? How do you steer such conversations? What resources can you refer your advisees to that can support them in their career exploration and planning, particularly when students’ interests do not coincide with your own areas of expertise? How do you take into account with sensitivity the cultural factors, family pressures and other issues that may play a role in your advisees’ decision-making processes? What about internships and their role in your advisees’ education? Faculty have a unique role to play in helping students reflect on their academic and non-academic interests, identify the skills they have developed inside and outside of the classroom, and guide them in meaningful conversations about their futures. This session will be an open discussion about how you currently have such conversations, and making the most out of these exchanges or initiating them if you are not currently doing so.
Sharon Weill has just returned from a first research trip to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in Colombia, where she met and interviewed many different actors and organizations involved in the transitional justice process (including judges, politicians, NGOs, academics, journalists…). In this seminar for faculty and students, Sharon will present her recent trip, research agenda and methodology. Next year, the project will offer students the possibility to engage in this research and to be familiarized with empirical methods through this innovating, yet complex, transitional justice case study.
In this participative workshop, Martin Dege and Irene Strasser (Psychology), will encourage us to think about the role technology plays in our students’ (and our own) academic writing. Irene and Martin will encourage us to think beyond Microsoft Word and Powerpoint and introduce and discuss concepts such as ‘markdown’, ‘plaintext’ and the potential implications for writing, research and expression.
No internal workshops took place this semester; see “TLC Lunches” and “Workshops by external facilitators” for information about other events.
In this session, we’ll be considering definitions of both active and experiential learning methods, as well as thinking about some practical case study examples of both. We’ll also encourage participants to reflect on the learning opportunities for, and practical challenges associated with, active and experiential learning at our institution.
In this Mellon session I’ll be talking about using video in the classroom – any classroom! - and some simple tools for engaging it in formal ways. I’ll then go into depth in how I used the Shoah archive in my Provocative Witness: Cinema and Genocide, and share with you some strategies for creating a collaborative research community in the classroom and how to set up pedagogical structures that deeply engage the student in challenging material while dispersing some of what could be otherwise overwhelming material.
Over the past few semesters, AUP professors have been engaged in a wide range of interactive mapping projects with their students. This session, building on the seminars given by Digital Humanities expert David Wrisley at AUP in March this year, seeks to showcase such projects, discuss best practice and consider practical hints and tips for launching, engaging and rewarding mapping projects in and around the classroom. The aim is to move towards articulating some key principles for AUP mapping projects as the Digital Humanities plays an increasingly noteworthy role in research and pedagogy.
You might remember that in 2016 Ken Bain, author of What the Best Teachers Do (2004), conducted a series of virtual workshops for AUP, which raised a number of questions and sparked debate. In June this year, Elena, Linda, Rebekah and Russell attended a Summer Institute for teachers organized by Ken and Marsha Bain to reflect on some of these issues in more detail.
In this Mellon Seminar, we will briefly revisit Bain’s model, extrapolate from it and move beyond it by sharing our reflections on aspects of the model we imagine can be adapted to the context of AUP in 2017. We illustrate some of these thoughts with simple and helpful teaching tips and ideas recommended by other seasoned teaching and learning specialists at the Institute.
Atelier pédagogique sur l'analyse des différentes techniques de classe en cours de langue, retour sur le cours filmé enseigné par Olivier Crépellière.
During our first meeting, Elena will summarize some of the published research on this topic, and she will invite faculty to share their ideas, experiences, and concerns about co-teaching in all its forms. What approaches have worked best? What are the common pitfalls, and how can we avoid them? What are the administrative hurdles (cross-listing, teaching loads, etc.), and are they surmountable? Is FirstBridge the best forum for co-teaching at AUP, or are there ways of promoting co-teaching beyond FirstBridge as well? One goal of the first session will be to identify potential partnerships that participants would like to develop further, either within AUP or across institutions. During the second session in March, we’ll meet again to discuss drafts of proposals and outline realistic long-term goals for team teaching at AUP.
For several years, the Department of Comparative Literature and English has experimented with a portfolio process to investigate learning. With contributions from AUP student Michelle Lynch, members of the department will share their experiences, and they look forward to discussion with other departments who have used portfolios or are considering doing so. Wine and cheese will be served.
Part I is an introduction and initial discussion; Part II is a follow-up with reports and demonstrations from the classroom. Russell shares with us an anecdote from his class last week: “I’ve taken a strict, ‘no compromise’ approach to students and smartphones so far this semester; so much as a glimpse at the time on your phone, and you’ll find your phone on my desk until the end of class (I’ve been tempted to put a couple on eBay). This week, though, something got me rethinking my radical (Luddite?) approach. The students were workshopping the new MLA citation formats and building a bibliography by looking at a range of physical sources: books, journals and magazines. Class time was running out, so I - exceptionally - said they could photograph the relevant sections from the sources to finish at home. A minor pedagogical revelation ensued - the students set to work, not only taking snaps on their phones, but setting up a WhatsApp group to share the photos around the group. Is this the start of a new phase of collaboration among my students? On verra....” Follow-up to this and more in these seminars.
This workshop, organized by the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, will provide an introduction to USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. The two guest speakers, Emilie Garrigou-Kempton, Academic Relations and Outreach officer at the Center for Advanced Genocide Research at USC Shoah Foundation and Colin Keaveney, Associate Professor of French and co-director of the Francophone Research and Resource Center at USC, will particularly focus on how to use testimonies in the university classroom and how to encourage students to conduct their own research projects using the Visual History Archive.
This week-long series of workshops and consultations was conducted by Nadine Aboulmagd of the American University in Cairo. Nadine holds an MA in Educational Leadership with a concentration in Online and Blended Learning in Higher Education. She also teaches courses in the Professional Educators Diploma where she develops teachers’ ability to teach and assess students using technology, multimedia and digital pedagogy.
Using technology to enhance learning: technology tool parade (Nov. 4, 15-17:00 in Q-609)
This interactive workshop will explore the ways faculty already use technology, and find ways to enhance their classrooms using tools for student engagement. The session will include a comprehensive list of interactive tools categorized according to different pedagogical purposes.
Promoting digital literacy and e-safety (Nov. 5, 9:15-11:30 in Q-301)
This session is targeted towards promoting mindful integration of digital literacies in teaching and learning. Faculty will learn about elements of digital literacy, discuss how to integrate those in student work as well as outline ways to maximize e-safety.
Using student portfolios and blogs (Nov. 5, 15-17:00 in Q-609)
This workshop will explore the differences between blogs and portfolios, outlining rationales for assigning such projects to students. There will also be a strong focus on ways to guide and enhance student reflection, which is an integral part of student blogs and portfolios. The facilitator will share case studies, samples of student work, and guidelines on technology tools.
Videos and podcasts for teaching and learning (Nov. 6, 11-13:30 in Q-609)
This session will discuss best practices of using podcasts and videos for teaching and learning. We will explore ways to use such multimedia assignments with students, and important elements about how to assess student multimedia projects. The facilitator will share resources, samples and technology tools to teach with interactive videos and podcasts.
Cooperative and collaborative student learning (Nov. 7, 9:30-12:00 in Q-709)
Group work, student collaboration and cooperation has always been a struggle for faculty members. Do we grade fairly? How do we ensure accountability in group work? How do we motivate students to work collaboratively and effectively? This session will discuss these questions, and provide guidelines for assigning successful collaborative and cooperative group work. It will also include case studies and examples of digital tools.
Creating digital dialogue and online discussion (Nov. 8, 15:30-17:00 in Q-609)
This session will focus on guidelines for facilitating digital dialogue using discussion boards. We will discuss elements of netiquette, ways to monitor, facilitate and enhance student engagement in online discussions.
This workshop for faculty focused on how we can structure our classes to address challenges faced by our students. Many of the obstacles to academic success experienced by our students, including learning disabilities, limited English language fluency, culture-based hesitation to engage in intellectual debate and mental health issues such as anxiety, can be at least partially accommodated within the course syllabus and through daily classroom practices. In this workshop participants discussed ways in which we are already making our classrooms accessible to students who are coping with various challenges and also consider new methods and minor adjustments we can institute that will lead to fewer complications in our course management and to academic success for all students.
Intergroup Dialogue and Diversity Education workshop.pdf
This all-day workshop was conducted by Suzanna Klaf, Associate Director of Faculty Programs and Services at the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), New York City and Ph.D. in Geography from The Ohio State University. The workshop was open to faculty members interested in preparing a new course, refreshing an old one, or simply reflecting on and collecting ideas for new teaching strategies, assignment possibilities and ways to know if students are learning what we want them to learn.
David Wrisley, American University of Beirut (March 16-17, 2017 - all campus events) – Lecture Digital Project-Based Scholarship and Pedagogy in the Liberal Arts Institution; workshop Toolkit or Toychest?: the Digital in the Classroom, in addition to individual consultation and theme-based small group meetings (Culture/ Human Rights/ Human Behavior; Big Data; Visual Domain) and meetings with relevant offices.
Materials
Shona Whyte, University of Nice, France, Teacher trainer and Professor of English and French (April 12, 2017) - Interactive language teaching with technology.
Atelier animé par Shona Whyte, professeur d'anglais, de l'acquisition et de l'apprentissage des langues étrangères à l'Université de Nice et formatrice de futurs professeurs. L'atelier porte plus particulièrement sur l'utilisation des nouvelles technologies dans l'apprentissage d'une langue étrangère.
Nick Ellis, University of Michigan, Professor of Psychology and Language (May 17, 2017) - Form, Meaning, and Frequency in Usage-Based Language Acquisition.
Usage-based approaches to language learning hold that we learn constructions (form-function mappings, conventionalized in a speech community) from language usage by means of general cognitive mechanisms (exemplar-based, rational, associative learning).
Taken together, results suggest that language acquisition follows the leads of usage.
This symposium “Pushing for precision on initial input processing in SLA: Are we speaking the same language?” addressed input processing at the initial stages of foreign language acquisition and the interface with foreign language teaching.
Students and faculty came together to consider fundamental issues related to our place as citizens in the world today: human rights, education, freedom of speech, social justice, democracy, and civic engagement.
What happens when you lift the lid off AUP and look inside? You find a treasure chest of creativity, knowledge, skills and more. You find people with passions and expertise you never imagined. And what happens when you ask these people to share their knowledge and passions with the AUP community? You get an amazing program of wonders. In only one day, you get professor Claudio Piani handing us the tools we need to decipher the COP21 Agreement on climate change adopted in Paris, Pauline Bonnet of the Registrar’s Office feeding us homemade organic energy bites, a visit to a four-dimension light show with professors Ruth Corran, Elena Berg and Claudio Piani, and a lecture on Palestine and the International Court of Justice organized by professors Ziad Majed and Susan Perry. Do we close the lid now? Not yet! We have a whole week of treasures awaiting us, including student film night, walks in Paris led by AUP faculty, yoga, music, and lectures and round tables on literature, media, the environment and marketing messages. See individual event listings on the AUP website for dates, times, locations and descriptions. Hope to see you there!
Special Events Week - Program (pdf)
Special Events Week - Description (pdf)