Teaching During Trying Times: A Faculty Forum

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

In December of 1776, Thomas Paine wrote to his fellow American patriots that “These are the times that try men’s souls.” As our January plans to teach in-person classes have been thwarted by Covid, we recognize that we are again facing trying times.

On this coming Friday, January 14th at noon, Academic Technology Services will convene a bonus faculty forumfor faculty to discuss ways we can maintain our own morale and that of our students as we extend our use of Zoom and other synchronous and asynchronous teaching tools in January 2022 and perhaps beyond.

We will answer questions about creating incidental video to complement our synchronous or asynchronous lectures, using various Canvas tools to encourage student engagement with course content and with their peers, and adjusting instructional technology and pedagogical policies so that students can keep up with your lessons and your learning objectives, even when they may be quarantining in their dorm rooms, apartments, or family bedrooms.

Perpetual teaching innovator Mark Verbitsky from Political Science will be on hand to discuss his own experiments with “Zoom in the Room.” Otherwise, we will use the hour to share solutions to problems we have been facing now that most of us have returned reluctantly to remote teaching, and strategies to transition back to in-person teaching and learning, which we hope will take place later this quarter.

Please join us on Friday, January 14th at noon for this special faculty forum. This event will be recorded and the video shared on The Wheel during the week of January 17th.

Teaching During Trying Times: A Faculty Forum
Friday, January 14th at noon
Register now to join us via Zoom

See you Friday!

Andy Jones

Academic Associate Director, Academic Technology Services
Editor in Chief, The Wheel
University of California, Davis

P.S. Our previously scheduled faculty forum on lecture capture will still take place on January 21st at noon, also via Zoom. Among the faculty already committed to join us for that event are lecture capture veterans from Psychology, Evolution and Ecology, and Chemistry. You are also invited to register for that January 21st event now. Learning from each other, we can sustain excellent teaching during these troubled times. Stay healthy!

January 14 Noon Faculty Forum on Teaching During Trying Times

January 21 Noon Faculty Forum on Teaching with Lecture Capture