Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology

Please visit our site for SITT 2023: Small Act, Big Impacts!

 

Academic Technology Services staff -- our instructional designers, instructional technologists, and media production experts -- invite all UC Davis instructors to join your faculty colleagues at the 2020 Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology (SITT)!

In response to the continued need for physical distancing, this year’s Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology (SITT) will take place entirely online with a mix of pre-recorded presentations and live webinars on July 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. The theme of SITT this year is “Remotely Possible: Moving Beyond the Emergency.” Please register now!

SITT will include a keynote address, synchronous webinars (50 minutes each), pre-recorded faculty presentations, and interviews (5-10 minutes each) shared on our website beginning July 20.

UC Davis is committed to making its programs accessible to persons with disabilities. If you need an accommodation to participate in this event because of a disability, please contact Dr. Margaret Merrill at mmerrill@ucdavis.edu at least two weeks prior to the program with information regarding the requested accommodation.

The Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology (SITT) is the oldest yearly teaching institute at UC Davis. It provides opportunities for faculty to collaborate with other colleagues and staff who are excited about enhancing student learning. SITT is a no-cost event that is hosted each year by Academic Technology Services, and supported by many other units on campus, including the Center for Educational Effectiveness.

SITT typically features a keynote speaker, faculty microtalk presenters who share their experience integrating innovative educational technologies into their own classrooms, as well as hands-on break-out sessions. For more information, check out the faculty microtalk presenter announcement which details the titles of each microtalk from SITT 2019.

Given recent events, SITT 2020 will be virtual and will occur during the week of July 20th to meet present faculty needs. Asynchronous pre-recorded faculty microtalks will be released on Monday, July 20th. Later in the week on Wednesday, July 22nd, Thursday, July 23rd, and Friday, July 24th faculty will participate in live webinars and daily debriefs with colleagues. We anticipate covering topics such as teaching effectively with Zoom, creating alternative assessments, reviewing new tools that support remote instruction, and maintaining instructor presence.

Some topics covered in previous SITTs include:

  • The Digital Learning Environment: Engaging Students in the Classroom, and Beyond
  • Teaching with Video
  • Digital Storytelling
  • Advanced Uses of Canvas: One-on-One Consultations
  • Blended and hybrid teaching
  • Class (and classroom) designs that encourage collaboration
  • Time management during lecture
  • Online tools to facilitate discussions
  • Digital Devices and Distractions
  • Instructional Design Resources offered by Academic Technology Services
  • Faculty uses of the Learning Glass and green screen in the eLearning Studio

To get a more thorough sense of SITT offerings, consider this preview of SITT 2018 written by IET Senior Editor Bill Buchanan.

"The longevity of the Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology makes it a barometer for measuring change in campus academic tech. The latest SITT, for example, shows how far the campus has advanced in its use of UC Davis Canvas in just one year.

Last fall, UC Davis was beginning its first full academic year of using the new learning management system (LMS). Instructors wanted to learn about Canvas and how to move instructional materials from SmartSite, the previous LMS. This year, says longtime SITT organizer and host Andy Jones, faculty were more conversant with Canvas. They had the basics down. They wanted to learn about its other features, and why and how they could use those features in their work."

The SITT committee is busy preparing for SITT 2020 and will share information as it is finalized on The Wheel-- stay tuned! Also, plan to join us!