Workshops & Working Groups

Throughout the school year, the Center organizes workshops and on a variety of teaching topics and issues for Vanderbilt faculty, graduate and professional students, post-doctoral fellows, staff, and others.

To see our current offering of Working Groups, click here.

See also our list of related programs--relevant workshops, conferences and other events being offered by other organizations around campus. For information on past workshops, please see our workshop archive.

Interested in creating a workshop/working group or having a consultation?

Spring 2010 Workshops

Conversations on Teaching

Conversations on Teaching focus on emergent pedagogical issues in an informal, roundtable format.  Typically co-sponsored with other campus partners, these sessions often begin with perspectives from panelists, and then open up to a larger group discussion.

Teaching First-Year Students: The Myth of First-Year Enlightenment
Tuesday, January 26th, 4:10-5:30, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Mark Dalhouse, Director, Office of Active Citizenship & Service; Faculty Head of East House; Lecturer, History
Joseph Wehby, Associate Professor of Special Education
Roark Luskin, Class of 2012

The popular vision of the first year experience is one of personal, ethical, and intellectual awakening. However, in his book, The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens After High School, Tim Clydesdale writes, “Most of the mainstream American teens I spoke with neither liberated themselves intellectually nor broadened themselves socially during their first year out. What teens actually focus on during the first year out is this: daily life management.” Should Vanderbilt faculty and staff try to engage first-year students in critical thinking about their own ethics, values, and culture?  Or should we give that up as a lost cause and focus on more practical matters?  These and other, related questions will be discussed in panelist remarks and roundtable discussion.

Preview: This session’s title is taken from James Lang’s Chronicle of Higher Education essay of the same name.  See also the CFT’s podcast interview with Lang.

Teaching Students in Different Majors
Wednesday, January 27th, 4:10-5:30 pm, Center for Teaching Workshop Space
Facilitator: Kat Baker, Assistant Director, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Ted Fischer, Professor, Anthropology and Director, Center for Latin American Studies
Bruce McCandliss, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College

How to teach most effectively to a class that includes students in a variety of majors, some who will master the material easily and others who may struggle because they lack foundational knowledge? How to bring together two or more disciplines in one course?  This “Conversation on Teaching” will discuss various strategies for assessing and teaching interdisciplinary classes with students at different levels of interest and preparation. Assessing how students learn, their previous experience with the material, and how their skills change over the course of the semester is the first step in developing strategies to reach all students.  Faculty panelists Ted Fischer and Bruce McCandliss will share their techniques for fostering interdisciplinary learning, and your questions and contributions about your own teaching will be welcome. 

Mentoring Graduate Students (for faculty in the STEM disciplines)
Tuesday, February 2nd,  4:10-5:30, SC 6333
Facilitator: Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Michael Goldfarb, H. Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Isabel Gauthier, Associate Professor, Psychology
Keivan Stassun, Associate Professor, Astronomy

What does it take to be an effective mentor of our graduate students?  What are the different roles that a mentor will assume as she or he helps guide a student to the master's or doctoral degree?  In this “Conversation on Teaching,” we will discuss characteristics and norms of good graduate mentoring and solutions to common issues, such as how to collaborate with students on research projects, how to help them finish their dissertations and how to assist them in finding jobs.  Faculty panelists will share their experience and strategies, and significant time will be given for you to ask questions and raise issues.

The Technology Horizon at Vanderbilt
Tuesday, February 9th, 1:00 – 2:00, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: Rhett McDaniel, Educational Technologist, CFT

The 2010 Horizon Report is the result of research collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). This report identifies six emerging technologies that will likely enter mainstream use in teaching and learning over the next one to five years. The report also identifies potential challenges these new technologies may present to higher education institutions.

Using this report as a framework, this discussion will focus on how and when these predicted trends might impact faculty and students at Vanderbilt. We’ll consider which items on the report’s “technologies to watch” match key trends found here at Vanderbilt and how we might address the critical challenges that surround their adoption.

Preview: The 2010 Horizon Report Preview is available as a PDF file.  The emerging technologies named in the 2010 report include mobile computing, open content, electronic books, simple augmented reality, gesture-based computing, and visual data analysis.

Digital Writing: Using Social Media to Enhance the Teaching of Writing
Co-Sponsored by the Undergraduate Writing Program
Thursday, February 11, 4:10-5:30, Buttrick Hall, Room 205
Facilitator: Deanna Matheuszik, Graduate Teaching Fellow, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Jay Clayton, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and Chair, Department of English
Jane Robbins, Senior Lecturer, Organizational Leadership
Gabe Cervantes, Postdoctoral Fellow, English

In a world of text-messaging, Facebook status updates, and Twitter, students are used to expressing themselves 140 characters or so at a time.  What kind of impact does this have on the teaching of writing to today’s college students?  When students post their essays on class blogs, making them visible to their peers and the open Web, what kind of effect does that kind of audience have on their writing?  Might students learn to write more effectively when they work together on written assignments using collaborative writing tools like Google Docs?  In this session, panelists will discuss how they have integrated various forms of digital writing in their courses, reflecting on best practices and digital writing’s potential to deepen and enrich student learning, as well as the challenges and pitfalls it can pose to students and instructors.

Preview: Visit the course blogs, featuring student postings, for Jay Clayton’s Fall 2009 first-year writing seminar, “Worlds of Wordcraft,” and Jane Robbins’ Fall 2009 graduate course, “Leadership Theory and Behavior.”  Wondering what Google Docs is?  Watch this three-minute video, “Google Docs in Plain English.”

Interested in this Conversation on Teaching?  Then you might also be interested in the February 25th Virtual Brownbag, “Teaching with Blogs: It’s Not about Sharing What You Had for Breakfast,” which will provide an introduction to teaching with blogs at Vanderbilt.

Show and Tell: Ideas for Integrating Visual Thinking in Your Teaching

Wednesday, March 17th , 4:10-5:30, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitators: Maria Ebner, Graduate Programs Assistant, CFT, and Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Peter Durand, Principal, Innovation Tools & Methods, Vanderbilt Center for Health

Our brains are wired to rapidly make sense of and remember visual input.  How might we tap into our students’ ability to think visually when teaching?  Visualizations in the form of diagrams, charts, drawings, pictures, and a variety of other ways can help students understand complex information.  A well-designed visual image can yield a much more powerful and memorable learning experience than a mere verbal or textual description.  This session will feature remarks by Vanderbilt faculty and staff with experience in visual thinking, followed by a group discussion of opportunities where visual thinking can be effectively used to enhance our teaching and our students’ learning.

Interested in this Conversation on Teaching?  Then you might also be interested in the March 25th Virtual Brownbag, "Breaking the PowerPoint Habit: An Introduction to Prezi," which will provide an introduction to the new visual presentation tool, Prezi

Sustainability Across the Curriculum
Tuesday, March 30th, 4:10-5:30 pm, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: John Morrell, Graduate Teaching Fellow, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Cecelia Tichi, William R. Keenan, Jr. Professor of English
Beth Conklin, Associate Professor, Anthropology
James Clarke, Professor of the Practice, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Jack Barkenbus, Senior Research Associate, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment

As we begin the second decade of the 21st century, concerns about global environmental sustainability have moved to the center of political debate, with implications that resonate at all levels of social organization.  Colleges and universities play a vital role in ensuring that students acquire the knowledge and skills to meet the sustainability challenges of the future.  This panel will consider both disciplinary and interdisciplinary opportunities and challenges prompted by tackling complex environmental problems in the classroom.  According to what definition and principles of sustainability can we educate students across disciplines?  Panelists will share successful teaching strategies for engaging students in addressing issues related to environmental sustainability.

Preview: For a sense of the programs being developed from this approach, check out the Washington Center's Curriculum for the Bioregion initiative at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. More locally, on February 5th, Belmont University will host a one-day workshop on "Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum," organized by the Tennessee Higher Education Sustainability Association (THESA).

Teaching First-Year Students: Cognitive Challenges of the First Year
Thursday, April 1, 4:10-5:30, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT

Faculty Panelists:
Doug Christiansen, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions
Susan Kevra, Senior Lecturer, French
Adam List, Senior Lecturer, Chemistry

“Will this be on the test?” is, perhaps, a common question from first-year students, but why is it so common?  Students who assume their job is to memorize course material and regurgitate it on exams are going to want to know what to memorize, of course.  What leads students to have this belief about learning?  And what do we do to contribute to this belief?  If we want to help our first-year students move beyond memorization to deeper learning, how should we approach teaching them?  What kind of “deep learning” are first-year students capable of achieving?  And how does Vanderbilt Admissions identify prospective students who possess the kind of intellectual curiosity faculty appreciate?  These and other, related questions will be discussed in panelist remarks and roundtable discussion.

Preview: For a relevant take on other stereotypical student comments, such as “We didn’t cover that test question in class!” and “I lost points because my prof didn’t like my opinion!”, see Richard Felder’s essay “Meet Your Students” from the Journal of Chemical Engineering Education.

Junior Faculty Teaching Series

The Junior Faculty Teaching Series is designed to help tenure track faculty focus on strategies for effective teaching.  The workshops will feature award-winning senior faculty as facilitators and will be engaging, focused, practical, and relatively brief, providing a high return on the investment of your time.

More than 150 Minutes a Week: Integrating In and Out of Class Learning
Tuesday, February 23rd, 4:10-5:30, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT

It’s often said that students should spend two hours studying outside of class for every hour they spend in class.  Whether or not this actually happens, should students be left to their own devices for this out-of-class studying?  How might we direct their out-of-class studying in ways that help them get more out of their in-class experiences?  In this workshop for junior faculty, we’ll explore some options for integrating our students’ in- and out-of-class learning experiences:

  • How might online student discussions (on OAK or other sites) be leveraged to enhance in-class discussions?

  • Does it make sense to have students encounter new ideas for the first time outside of class, then spend class time helping them make sense of those ideas?

  • What can instructors in the sciences and engineering learn from how those in the humanities and social sciences approach this task—and vice versa?

Teaching Workshops

These workshops, facilitated by CFT Graduate Teaching Fellows, focus on issues particularly relevant to first-time teachers and are intended for graduate and professional students and post-doctoral fellows.  Drawing on research-based approaches, workshop facilitators will enable participants to identify and address common challenges and opportunities in their teaching practice.

Engaging Students in Large Lecture Classes
Wednesday, February 17th, 4:10-5:30, Furman 114
Facilitator: Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT

Most graduate students and post-docs planning faculty careers can count on teaching at least a few large lecture courses.  While “large” varies from school to school (maybe 50 students in a small college, perhaps 500 students in a large university), classroom dynamics in large classes are distinctly different than those in smaller courses.  How can you engage students in learning in such settings?  In this workshop, we’ll explore some options for doing so, including approaches to presentations other than death-by-PowerPoint, discussion methods that scale up well to large classes, and educational technologies useful in large classes, such as clickers and backchannels.

Preview: Not familiar with death-by-PowerPoint?  Then watch this.  Wondering what a backchannel is?  Watch this.  Also, read the classic “The ‘Change-Up’ in Lectures” by Joan Middendorf and Alan Kalish.

Feminist Strategies in the Classroom
Co-Sponsored by Women's and Gender Studies
Thursday, March 18th, 4:10-5:30 pm, Buttrick 124

Facilitators:
Erin Rehel, CFT Teaching Affiliate in Sociology;
Jane Wanninger, CFT Teaching Affiliate in English

Graduate Student Panelists:
Sarah Glynn, Sociology
Sarah Hansen, Philosophy
Monte Talley Hendrickson, Anthropology
Donald Jellerson, English
Sarah Tyson, Philosophy

This informal conversation, intended for graduate students, aims to explore the different ways graduate students make use of their own feminism in the classes they teach. Specifically, panelists will discuss how feminist principles are incorporated into their course design, classroom activities, and assessment strategies. Ultimately, panelists and workshop participants will discuss how feminist pedagogy can help further student learning in the university classroom

Virtual Brownbags

Have a little time over lunch for a CFT workshop, but can’t get away from the office or lab to visit the CFT?  If so, the CFT’s Virtual Brownbags are designed for you.  Each session is held online over the lunch hour using Centra, a Web conferencing platform.  Log on between 12:00 and 12:15, participate in the formal part of the workshop from 12:15 to 12:45, and (optionally) stick around afterwards for informal discussion.  You’ll be able to hear the CFT facilitators and see their slides, and you’ll be invited to participate during the session via a text-based chat room.

After registering for a Virtual Brownbag on the CFT Web site, you’ll be sent instructions for participating via Centra.

Teaching with Blogs: It’s Not About Sharing What You Had for Breakfast
Thursday, February 25th, 12:00-12:45, online
Facilitator: Rhett McDaniel, Educational Technologist, CFT

As digital writing becomes more commonplace in Vanderbilt courses, you may want to think about adding a blog to your course activities. If you have been considering blogging in your course but are not sure how to get started with it, this session will help you consider what skills you may need to learn and how to set up your Wordpress blog account. The group will also talk about some ideas and tips on making your blogging experience a success for you and your students.

Preview: Not sure what a blog is?  Watch this three-minute video, “Blogs in Plain English.”  Examples of Vanderbilt course blogs include Craig Smith’s blog for “Minds, Brain, Context, and Culture” (PSY 1200), Jane Robbin’s blog for “Leadership Theory and Behavior” (LPO 3450), and Derek Bruff’s blog for “Cryptogaphy” (MLAS 280-07).

Interested in this Virtual Brownbag?  Then you might also be interested in the February 11th  Conversation on Teaching, “Digital Writing: Using Web 2.0 to Enhance the Teaching of Writing,” which will include a discussion of teaching with student-authored blogs.

Breaking the PowerPoint Habit: An Introduction to Prezi
Thursday, March 25th, 12:00-12:45, online
Facilitator: Rhett McDaniel, Educational Technologist, CFT

Many other presentation tools such as Apple Keynote, SlideRocket, Google Presentation doc, and Adobe Presenter have enjoyed being alternatives to PowerPoint’s typical bullet list slide show. Prezi has recently been added to the list of such potential options for those who are eager to find new and different ways for presenting visual content. In addition to seeing Prezi in action, the group will spend some time discussing some best practices around the use of this tool.

Preview: Watch a video of a student presentation given via Prezi in CFT Assistant Director Derek Bruff’s Summer 2009 cryptography course to get a sense of what Prezi can do.

Interested in this Virtual Brownbag?  Then you might also be interested in the Conversation on Teaching titled "Show and Tell: Ideas for Integrating Visual Thinking in Your Teaching," which will include a discussion of the use of visuals in presentations.

May 2010 Workshops

The Center for Teaching is pleased to announce a series of hands-on workshops available to the Vanderbilt teaching community in May.  These workshops are intended to help participants make use of some of the ideas and tools discussed in CFT workshops and consultations this year.  The sessions stand alone, however, so all are welcome to attend.  Lunch will be provided at each of these workshops.

Sustainability Course Design and Resource Swap
Monday, May 10th, 12:00 – 2:00PM, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: John Morrell, Graduate Teaching Fellow, CFT

Sustainability is a resonant buzz word these days; everybody seems to be “going green.”  In the context of higher education, this trend provokes a question: what do the practices and principles of sustainability imply for teaching?  In this workshop, we will explore the concept of sustainability from a variety of perspectives, asking key questions about how to define sustainability and what kinds of things we might want to sustain.  As we work toward a set of central issues and ideas, we will focus on practical ways to teach these issues and ideas in the classroom.  This workshop will offer prompts and provide resources for integrating sustainability into course design.

This workshop will be interactive and collaborative.  Teaching sustainability is often challenging because of the interdisciplinary nature of the issues involved.  A primary goal of this workshop, then, is to share inspiration, experience, and expertise across disciplinary boundaries.  Please bring your ideas and course materials for teaching about sustainability!  Participants will have an opportunity to refine and share resources they’ve already created related to sustainability pedagogy, to receive feedback across disciplines, and to develop new approaches to these issues.  As a part of this effort, we’ll create a group wiki to record our conversation and facilitate resource sharing.

Earth and Environmental Sciences Professor John Ayers will begin our discussion about sustainability course design.  Professor Ayers has taught several courses on sustainability at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels, and he is currently in the process of writing a book on the subject, tentatively titled Sustainability: Reducing Risk and Living Well in a World of Shrinking Resources.   

Preview:  To begin thinking about how you can incorporate sustainability into the courses you teach, take a look at the Curriculum Resources offered on the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) website.  Vanderbilt is a member of AASHE, with full access to their resources.  Just be sure to use your @vanderbilt.edu address when signing up for an account.

Getting Ready for Review: Reflecting on and Documenting this Year’s Teaching
Tuesday, May 11th, 12:00 – 2:00PM, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: Allison Pingree, Director, CFT and Kat Baker, Assistant Director, CFT

Now that the academic year is drawing to a close, join us for a hands-on working lunch that will enable you to step back, reflect on, and then write about your teaching experiences while they’re still fresh in your mind. 

We’ll begin with a brief overview of ways to reflect on and document your teaching experiences, reasons why it’s important to do so, audiences and purposes for such reflections, and concrete strategies for creating and refining teaching documents throughout your career. 

Following this overview, you’ll have time to work individually or in small groups to refine pieces of writing, such as statements of teaching endeavors for upcoming reviews, that will enable you to make sense of the year and plan for the future. 

CFT senior consultants will be on hand to offer feedback and resources, as desired.   Bring your laptops, your student evaluations, syllabi, student work – whatever will help you wrap up the year and move forward!

While all faculty are welcome, this session will be especially focused on teaching reflections and documents related to preparing for promotion and tenure reviews. 

Designing in Prezi: A hands-on workshop
Wednesday, May 12th, 12:00 – 1:30PM, CFT Experimental Classroom
Facilitator: Rhett McDaniel, Educational Technologist, CFT

This workshop takes the virtual brownbag session on Prezi to the next level, allowing for hands-on time with the application where you can create your own animated presentation.  Participants are encouraged to use either an existing PowerPoint to ‘make over’ or start from scratch with course content that Prezi might help illustrate.  Either way, this session will help you get the experience necessary to make an interesting and dynamic presentation in an atmosphere where you can find advice for creating a visually engaging educational presentation for your course.

If you attended the CFT virtual brownbag session on Prezi, you have already seen the Prezi demonstration. If you were not able to attend, view the Prezi from the virtual brownbag before this workshop to for an introduction. Please plan to bring your laptop for this hands-on workshop.

Interested in creating a workshop/working group?

The Center for Teaching designs tailored workshops or working group for individuals or departments on a variety of topics, including (but not limited to):

  • course design
  • classroom dynamics
  • diversity in the classroom
  • motivating students
  • teaching with technology
  • cooperative learning activities
  • assessing student learning
  • grading
  • interpreting student evaluations
  • the scholarship of teaching and learning
  • documentation of teaching effectiveness

In addition to workshops and working groups, the CFT offers the following services for individuals and groups:

  • consultations with departments or other administrative units
  • consultations with individual instructors, based on
  • observations of instructors in the classroom
  • video recordings of instructors teaching
  • feedback from students via focus groups

Contact the CFT at 322-7290 or via our web site www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/contact.php.


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