The May DOLCE 2021 Recording is Available Now
Thanks to all faculty colleagues who joined us on May 7 for our monthly DOLCE event. A guest speaker from Boise State University joined two of our faculty colleagues in discussing novel and innovative ways of responding to remote teaching challenges. Dr. Leslie Madsen, Boise State University IDEA Shop Director and Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (and UC Davis alumna) was followed by Dr. Joe Anistranski, Assistant Professor of Teaching from the Department of Human Development & Family Studies, and Dr. Bettina Ng’weno, Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies. The video recording of the event is now available.
Dr. Madsen shared how her institution created a support system and resources for faculty teaching remotely. She explained how the characteristics of her institution -- the student demographics, internet availability challenges, uneven textbook access, and other factors -- informed the ways her university supports faculty course design. Dr. Madsen and her colleagues created a homegrown Flexible Learning and Instruction Plan (FLIP) to offer practical strategies for faculty to incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as part of a student-centered approach to instruction.
Next, Dr. Joe Anistranski shared how he approaches the course framework as a system to enhance learning in his Human Development class. Dr. Anistranski highlighted the classroom activities of creating, assessing, reflecting and discussing and the ways these four steps improve and systematize his students’ learning, thus preparing his students for challenges in and outside his classroom. Anistranski introduces learning frameworks via the course syllabus, and then reiterates them in synchronous classes and instructional videos.
Finally, Dr. Bettina Ng’weno, recipient of Distinguished Graduate and Distinguished Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring Award and the Distinguished Teaching Awards: Undergraduate, reflected on her course-creation and teaching experiences. She highlighted six important factors essential to her approach to teaching: equity, access, clarity, boredom, engagement and wellbeing. For example, equity informed her thinking about assignment creation, exams, and grades. The question “Would you do it to everyone?” or “Would you announce this to everyone?” guided her practices of creating an equitable environment for her students. Dr. Ng’weno also shared that new online student requirements, such as making puzzles based on course content and participating in discussion boards, engaged her 60+ students in unexpected and effective ways.
To learn more about our most recent DOLCE, please review the recording. We hope the tips, resources, and faculty discussions will be useful as you consider your teaching plans for upcoming quarters.
Academic Technology Services offers DOLCE (Discussing Online Learning and Collaborative Education) on the first Friday of every month, and Faculty Forums on the third Friday of the month during the school year. Please join us at our May 21 Faculty Forum on Lecture Capture. We hope to hear about your lecture capture perspectives, challenges, and success stories. Let us know if you would like to be named as one of the “ringers” in the room!
If you have questions about Instructional Design at UC Davis, please contact our ATS senior instructional designers at instructionaldesign@ucdavis.edu.
Best,
Dr. Andy Jones
Academic Associate Director, Academic Technology Services
Editor in Chief of The Wheel: The Instructional Technology Blog of UC Davis
University of California, Davis