The Center for Teaching & Learning

Message From the CTL Director

Faculty Focused

• Unraveling Faculty Burnout Podcast
  
• Management Strategies for a Large Advising Caseload

Student-Centered

• Implementing Revise & Resubmit for Students

Equity Emphasized

• Faculties So White
• Ratings and Gender Bias Over Time
• Beating Yourself Up Is Labor, but It’s Not Work

Tuned Up

• Library Resources
• CTL on Blackboard

Scheduled

• February 3: Webinar Discussion
• February 23: SAFIRE event
• March 2: Webinar Discussion
• April 7: Webinar Discussion

Dear Campus Community,

Greetings and welcome to 2023! I hope everyone had a chance to recharge and connect with friends and loved ones over the winter break.

I am happy to kick off this first CTL newsletter of 2023 with some exciting news! All faculty and staff members now have a five-month trial access to the professional development platform, Innovative Educators. Throughout the summer and fall of 2022, the CTL advisory committee vetted four different vendors, and we collectively decided this platform offered an array of live and recorded webinars that address the following: teaching and learning, compliance issues, student success, retention, mental health, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). The end of the newsletter details how to establish your trial account.

The CTL advisory committee has selected three recorded webinars that we would like to engage the entire campus community on in the coming months. You will need to watch the recorded webinar on your own and then join us for a moderated discussion on the content and themes of that webinar.

Also, don't forget about the upcoming virtual Spring Forum on Monday, January 23rd. More details are forthcoming from VP Tammi Simpson.

Best wishes,

Paige Eager

"Faculty often talk about how busy, overwhelmed, and stressed they are. These qualities are seen as badges of honor in a capitalist culture that values productivity above all else. But for many women in higher education, exhaustion and stress go far deeper than end-of-the-semester malaise. Burnout, a mental health syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress, is endemic to higher education in a patriarchal, productivity-obsessed culture. In this unique book for women in higher education, Rebecca Pope-Ruark, Ph.D., draws from her own burnout experience, as well as collected stories of faculty in various roles and career stages". Click here to listen to episode 408 of Unraveling Faculty Burnout.

"Student advising models vary widely depending on the institution, but each college and university is seeking the same outcome: Healthy, happy students who have done the hard work of reflecting on and clarifying their life goals, and have crafted the education plans necessary to achieve those goals, are well informed about their degree requirements -- and, ultimately, students who graduate and begin successful careers." Click here to know more.

"When we were young, we learned through a different kind of revision and resubmitting -- trial and error. If we wanted to learn something, we maybe took lessons, which today mostly entails watching YouTube videos rather than having a coach or teacher. Those lessons are followed by trying and probably failing, then figuring out what went wrong and how to do it better. Any skill takes practice. Of course, we don't have time to let students try over and over again, but we can at least give them an opportunity for a "do-over" ". Click here to keep reading.

"Faculty diversity is positively associated with student success across a variety of metrics. Black and Latino's students are more likely to graduate when they see themselves represented by their instructors, for instance. But the benefits of faculty diversity aren’t just evident among historically underrepresented students: research suggests that engaging with diverse instructors, perspectives and ideas benefits all students including in the development of empathy and problem-solving skills". Click here to know more.

"In the “Are You Working?” series, a Ph.D. and academic-writing coach answers questions from faculty members and graduate students about academic motivation and productivity. Read her previous columns here. Once again, a week has gone by when I’ve made no progress on my work. I created a reasonable work plan, gave myself tangible goals, set up specific work times, and offered myself rewards yet once again, I’ve failed to do anything, and I’m even more behind than I was before. I’m about to give up."

"Two new studies on gender bias in student evaluations of teaching look at the phenomenon from fresh and troubling angles. One study surveyed students at the beginning of the semester and after their first exam and found that female instructors faced more backlash for grades given than male instructors." Click here for more.

The CTL now has a dedicated bookshelf space in the Library Commons for CTL resources and materials! Feel free to check out these books and return them when you are finished.

On February 23rd, Hood will host its inaugural showcase highlighting the breadth of research and creativity achieved by Hood College faculty and staff. Named the Staff and Faculty Innovation and Research Exhibition (SAFIRE), this event creates a space for faculty and staff across disciplines to disseminate ideas, knowledge, theories, research projects, and recent developments in various academic disciplines.

All disciplines and divisions are encouraged to participate! Submit your proposal by February 10th via this link. New and previously presented content is welcome! This year’s exhibition will be held in the Beneficial Hodson Library and Learning Commons. For more information, check out the SAFIRE website or contact Dr. Michelle Gricus (gricus@hood.edu).

With this five-month trial, all faculty and staff have the ability to view any content in Go2Knowledge on the Innovative Educators platform. I have contacted various offices and divisions about curating their own modules to engage in team-based professional development. To activate your account, go to www.go2knowledge.com/hood and enter your first name, last name, and email. It is a web-based URL that can easily link from any LMS, webpage, or email. Hood will not have a single sign-on for this trial period, which means users will have to create their own accounts instead of being authenticated through Blackboard. If you have trouble creating your account, contact Jeff Welsh at welsh@hood.edu. The CTL will conduct a survey towards the end of the spring semester to get input and feedback about your experience with the platform.

Don’t forget to submit your application for an Academic Innovation Grant by March 24, 2023, to provost@hood.edu. Also, this year we now have two additional grants available that focus explicitly on academic innovation and High-Impact Practices (HIPs).

• All annual contract (0.5 or greater) Hood College faculty are eligible to apply.
  
• The proposed high-impact practice must be a graded or assessed component of a specific course.
• Proposals should clearly include how the high-impact practice standards will be met for the selected HIP.
  
• Grant recipients will be required to submit a brief final report (maximum 500 words) in January 2024 or May 2024, depending on when the project is implemented and evaluated.
  

Faculty may apply for one grant opportunity. For more information about the rubric used to assess proposals, visit the CTL’s Blackboard site or reach out to Paige Eager.

• Paige Eager, Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty, & Director of the CTL
• April Boulton, Associate Professor of Biology & Dean of Graduate School
  
• Catherine Breneman, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Michelle Gricus, Assistant Professor of Social Work
  
• Suzanne E. Hiller, Assistant Professor of Education
• Akia Jackson, Director of the Writing Center
• Elizabeth Mackessy-Lloyd, Assistant Professor of Nursing
• Jessica McManus, Assistant Professor of Psychology
• Heather Mitchell-Buck, Assistant Professor of English; Coordinator of Digital Learning
• Katherine Orloff, Associate Professor of Journalism
• Atiya Smith, Assistant Professor of Psychology & Counseling
• Marisel Torres-Crespo, Associate Professor of Education; Coordinator of Online Instruction
• Jill Tysse, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
• Jeff Welsh, Director of Instructional Technology in the IT division
• Karishma Gouni, Graduate Assistant for the CTL

Email: CTL@hood.edu
Website: www.hood.edu/CTL
Location: Hood College, Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD, USA
Phone: (301) 663-3131