The Center for Teaching & Learning

Colleagues, we've almost made it! While this academic year seemed daunting to us all last summer, we have passed the one-year mark of this pandemic, and we have much to be proud of as spring semester comes to a close. We supported our students in new and different ways this past year--never losing sight of their success, despite the extra hours and stress involved. I hope that YOU, our talented faculty and staff, felt like you received the tools and support you needed to accomplish this truly Herculean task. Your CTL advisory board worked very hard to create new workshop formats (based on your regular feedback) with accessible, useable strategies to support you along the way. Although there was nary a scone, nor tea bag, at these sessions, the exchanges at our Tea & Talks and other workshops were still rich and productive from my standpoint. Speaking of which, this is my final note as CTL Interim Director, but you will continue to see responsive programming from the CTL over the summer via our private Facebook group (see details below) and at the fall workshop in August under Dr. Paige Eager's leadership as the new Dean of Faculty and incoming CTL Director. Until then, enjoy perusing this issue for timely tips as you anticipate those final assessments and best wishes for the remaining weeks of spring semester! ~April

The Center for Teaching and Learning has launched its own Facebook group for Hood faculty and staff.

This private group is a welcoming and inspiring resource that will serve as a community for Hood faculty and staff to learn how to implement the latest pedagogies, share their successes in the classroom, receive updates on upcoming events, help you remain motivated, and so much more! This group is committed to promoting teaching and learning as ongoing and collaborative processes of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection. And we want to learn from you!

Check your Facebook page for an invitation to join the new CTL group on Facebook, click here, or search "Center for Teaching and Learning @ Hood College" to request to join. If you have trouble locating us, simply email CTL@hood.edu and request an invitation - be sure to include your Facebook handle so we can send the invite your way. Since this is a private group, membership is controlled by CTL administrators. Once you are a member, you can invite your Hood colleagues to join as well. We look forward to seeing you there!

Question: "What do you do when you come across so much secondary literature related to your research topic that you are simultaneously excited — at the possibility of your work being further informed and refined — and completely overwhelmed?"

Answer: "I’d still recommend that you start thinking more like a senior eminence and less like a third-year graduate student. Other literature in your field is a gift, always, but it is a gift that you get to choose to accept — or not." Learn from Dr. Schuman's detailed response here.

Thanks to Dr. Martha Bari, Assistant Professor of Art History, for sharing!

Since online learning has led to almost all online testing/exams, accusations (not necessarily at Hood) have skyrocketed that students regularly consult Chegg.com to cheat on quizzes/tests. In response, Chegg created an account system for faculty in order to prevent cheating, dubbed The Chegg Honor Code. A faculty member can upload their tests/exams and set a timeframe that the test/exam is being administered. If a student tries to use Chegg during the scheduled assessment, the website will block student's view of the question. Some see an additional positive to this new Chegg policy, which can serve as alternative tutoring for students outside of the designated testing block.

Thanks to Kate Gmuer, Disability Services Coordinator, for sharing!

Listen to Episode 180 of the Tea for Teaching podcast as Dr. Kathleen Gradel discusses cloud-based Google apps that can be useful in synchronous and asynchronous collaborative learning. Click here to listen.

"Instructors in STEM fields appear to have unusually high concerns about students cheating in assessments, Seaman said. Some faculty members have completely rethought how to assess their students, Thomas said. Rather than relying on high-stakes exams or asking questions with answers that can easily be found on Google, some instructors are conducting more frequent assessment that asks students to apply their knowledge to specific situations." Read the full article here.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) condemns all forms of systemic racism, bias, and aggression against Black people, indigenous peoples, people of color, and those of marginalized genders, as well as discrimination based on socioeconomic status. We understand that excellence in teaching, by definition, must reflect our shared humanity and promote inclusive practices such as:

• being conscious of biases, racial abuse, micro-aggressions, and those who are minimized or left out;
• understanding and supporting those underrepresented in our Hood community; and
• promoting ways to actively foster equity, diversity and inclusion in our classrooms, research, and publications.

The CTL is determined to raise awareness of all those who have been systematically oppressed and call upon Hood faculty to join us in this commitment to create a more inclusive world. As members of the CTL Advisory Board, we stand united and affirm that Black Lives Matter.

"Higher education has not been exempt from scrutiny during America's current racial reckoning. Far from it, as people increasingly question whether colleges and universities have failed in their stated mission of increasing equity in society. After months of exploration by our reporters, we published eight articles that give a broad view of systemic racism in higher education and its impact on Black students, faculty, and employees. The pieces go beyond just describing well-established and intractable problems by exploring their root causes and answering how higher education can do better." Download the PDF here.

"[A]ntiracist pedagogy itself is grounded in the work of humanizing one another. Humanizing validates my students’ right to show up as they are and to claim their lived experiences as meaningful, and it recognizes them as deeply complex individuals. It is a practice that disrupts the marginalization of students of color and other students left behind by centering our common humanity in the classroom discourse. I’ve developed 10 habits to humanize my online classroom that are essential to embodying antiracist pedagogy." Continue reading to learn how to apply these 10 habits in your classroom.

"The early research is clear. Academic women -- especially Black, Indigenous and people of color -- and other caregivers are shouldering the burden of domestic life in this pandemic. As the crisis continues, and K-12 schools have adopted virtual and hybrid models, [f]aculty parents are once again being asked to perform a miracle,” as Colleen Flaherty has written in Inside Higher Ed. "The boundaries between work and home -- already tenuous before COVID-19 -- have been increasingly and rapidly erased. And as such, this pandemic has the potential to eradicate hard-earned gains toward equity that have taken decades to secure." Keep reading here.

Don't forget to take a break! In my students’ mid-semester evaluations, one thing came up over and over again: “thank you SO MUCH for the mid-class breaks!” I’m teaching hybrid, so my classes are meeting just once a week for 75 minutes. But I always, always spend 3-5 of those valuable minutes giving my students a break. I choose a song, put up a slide, and tell them to turn off their cameras, step away from their screen, stretch, walk around, or do whatever they need. I always try to specify how long the break will be (“I’ll see you again in 4 minutes, or 12:05”) so that they don’t have to just lurk by the computer 'til the song is over.

As we head into the final month of this semester, remember that many of your students head from zoom to zoom to zoom with very little time away during the day. We all know that “Zoom fatigue” is very real and can be really draining, especially 13 months into this pandemic life. My students (and I!) come back refreshed and able to better focus for the rest of the class, so it’s time very well spent. :-) If you haven’t tried this yet, give it a go this week! Your students will thank you!

IT wanted to let our you know about some upcoming technical changes and new features on the horizon for Blackboard by Fall 2021:

• The Hood Zoom contract with Blackboard has been renewed for another year.

• Access to the Panopto system will continue to be available throughout the 2021-2022 Academic Year.
  

• Access to the Respondus LockDown Browser & Monitor tools will continue to be available throughout the 2021-2022 Academic Year.

• IT is piloting the use of Office 365 for the main login page to access Blackboard to prevent logging in twice. Click here if you would like to test this new feature and contact helpdesk@hood.edu if you experience any problems.

• Click here to read about new features and upcoming improvements to our Blackboard core system, such as improvements to the Blackboard Mobile App and Collaborate Ultra tool.

• Over Summer 2021, IT will be exploring a redesign to the Blackboards interface. Though the look may change, the same functionality will remain with improved navigation options. You can watch a webinar about this process here.

Do you have a question about technology or teaching? Send an email to CTL@hood.edu, and on every Friday, we'll answer the question most broadly applicable across departments. When you email your question, let us know if you'd like to remain anonymous, use a fun sign-off moniker of your choosing (akin to the Dear Abby column), or list your name. All questions welcomed!

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