Message From the CTL Director

Faculty Focused:

• CTL Workgroups
• Innovation Station: Flipped Classrooms
• Less Intimidating Office Hours
• Core Linked Courses

Student-Centered:

• Gen Ed for Gen Z
• "Learning (not rigor) is what prepares students for the real world"
• The Question-Centered Course

Equity Emphasized:

• What Former First-Gen Students Wish They Knew about College
• Supporting Black and Brown Students: One Study's Findings

Tuned Up:

• Open Educational Resources: Increased Buy-In

Online Oasis:

• What Students Want from Online Learning
  

Scheduled:

• CTL Workshop: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
  
• CTL Workshop: The Mentoring Relationship

At this time of year, my to-do list mocks me. It seems to say , "Are you really going to add another 15 things when you haven't crossed off the 20 you added last week?" Perhaps I am alone in personifying my to-do list, but I know other faculty and staff feel that similar tug of "never enough time." When your response to "How are you?" is "busy," it may be an indicator of imbalance that requires your attention.

For some faculty and staff, these imbalances are temporary. The cycle of the academic year makes certain times especially "tasky" and midterm is one of them! In these cases, making a few significant organizational tweaks may be enough to restore the energy needed to head into the second half of the semester. This might mean finding a better system for managing unread emails or making small routine tweaks. For example, exiting out of Outlook while you're working on challenging tasks helps improve focus and reduce "ping" distractions. Or, perhaps spending just a few moments at the start of each day to list that day's priorities could save time later in the day. If you need support in identifying and making these kinds of changes, please reach out to ctl@hood.edu!

For others, these imbalances are a sign of something deeper--chronic stress, exhaustion, burnout. In these cases, making small adjustments does little to restore energy. Please consider checking out these resources to identify and attend to the burnout symptoms:

• Dr. Christina Maslach talks about six driving factors of burnout: Workload, control, fairness, reward, values, and community.
• American Council on Education webinars: “Faculty and Staff Burnout: What to Do About It” and “Faculty Well-being” (co-hosted with ACUE).

Upcoming events--see below for more info:

• November 3: Universal Design for Learning
• November 16: The Mentoring Relationship

If you can think of a CTL event or program that might help you "right the ship," please reach out. In the meantime, please check out the strategies and suggestions below.

Our new feature---Innovation Station--highlights creative and innovative strategies our colleagues are using in their classes. Please share your own creative and innovative strategies with us via ctl@hood.edu.

October's innovator is Dr. Amy Kilpatrick, Assistant Professor of Special Education. This semester, she is implementing a flipped classroom model in a 2-credit educational skills course. To learn more about Dr. Kilpatrick's experience so far, watch this video: https://youtu.be/FncPmBdmzS0

“Students don’t always understand the potential value of office hours — and even when they do, many are hesitant to come and meet with professors. Jess Walter, a student at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, summed it up nicely...: ‘You’re one on one with someone who’s in a position of authority over you, so it’s very intimidating.’” Read Becky Supiano’s full story in the Chronicle for ideas on reaching students.

Hood is preparing to launch our new Heart, Mind, and Hands core. The new core, which launches in Fall 2025, includes a pair of linked courses, starting with the FYS that help students build connections and community.

As you consider your proposals for linked courses, these tools/resources may be helpful to you:

• "Missed Connections" spreadsheet: If you've got an idea but are still in need of an interdisciplinary partner, use this spreadsheet to find your match!
• Subcommittee on Core Curriculum Proposals (SCCP): Drs. Kevin Bennett, Alan Goldenbach, Elizabeth Knapp, Mallory Huard as well as Katie Grocki (Registrar) and Nathan Reese (Associate Director of Assessment).
• Inside Higher Ed story about “good life” courses will provide some food for thought. The article provides helpful suggestions for contextualizing learning and promoting meaning.

When you're ready to submit your linked courses, complete this proposal.

The CTL 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. If you would like the CTL to order other materials to increase our repository, contact Kerri Eyler with your request.

“[Because of COVID, students] often find the world demanding and frightening. They may have missed certain milestones of adolescence, from getting a driver’s license and holding a summer job to opening a bank account. They date less than previous generations, giving them less opportunity to have their hearts broken, but also less chance to know the sweet sadness of love. Going somewhere, anywhere, without their parents knowing is often not part of their reality.” The Chronicle’s Melinda S. Zook explores the importance of the humanities to help Gen Z students connect. Read the article here.

"We all know the story of rigor: 'Rigor is how we prepare students for the real world, and our job as faculty is to bring rigor to our classes.' In this story, rigor is the hero and faculty members are its enforcers...

Rigor, according to this stock story, is core to the very existence of higher education, because it enables us to determine who is worthy. We have all heard some version of this sentiment: 'To be of value, a course must be rigorous.' ...

Learning (not rigor) is what prepares students for the real world, and our job as faculty members is to strategically challenge our students and help them engage with that challenge to enable their learning."

To read the entire article from Inside Higher Ed, click here.

"How can we best motivate students? That’s a question that has always challenged faculty members. But with students generally showing signs of decreased academic preparedness and increased personal struggles after the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s one that may be more resonant now than ever." Read the opinion piece from Andy Tix here.

The LA Times recently highlighted their readers' experiences as current and former first-generation college students.

"More than half of college students in the United States are first-generation students. These students tend to come from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and are disproportionately low-income. Access to a college degree can afford students more opportunities, but the journey to that degree involves additional hurdles for first-gen students." To keep reading, check out the full article at the LA Times.

"To better understand what factors can promote student success among underrepresented minority students, researchers evaluated student and faculty demographics and syllabi for community college math courses along with student outcomes. The report found specific teaching methods can improve academic outcomes among Black and Latino students, putting them on par with their white and Asian peers."

Access the brief and the technical report of the study conducted in 704 developmental math courses here.

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching materials that are “openly licensed, adaptable, and freely available online.” If you are using OER materials in your course(s), CTL would love to hear from you! If you’re new to the idea, read this Inside Higher Ed article to learn more.

"To ascertain which learning models higher education students prefer and why, as well as what they find satisfying about online education and which elements of the online learning experience they value most, we surveyed 7,000 students across 17 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The research covers eight dimensions of the online learning experience encompassing 24 attributes..."

Read the summary of this study, which identified a correlation between satisfaction levels and growth in online learning environments.

Inside Higher Ed’s Ashley Mowreader, provides a comprehensive overview of online engagement strategies. To improve online learning outcomes and student engagement, she highlights these:

1. Facilitate active learning in Zoom classes
2. Add asynchronous activities
3. Implement strategic course design
4. Create community outside of class
   

• Michelle Gricus, Associate Professor of Social Work, Director of the CTL
• April Boulton, Associate Professor of Biology & Dean of Graduate School
  
• Catherine Breneman, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Paige Eager, Professor of Political Science, Dean of Faculty
• Shaun Hoppel, Director of Accessibility Services
• 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
• Kathryn Ryberg, Reference & Education Services Librarian
• Atiya Smith, Assistant Professor of Psychology & Counseling
• Jill Tysse, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  
• Jeff Welsh, Director of Instructional Technology in the IT division
• Adam Weintraub, 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