OFD Newsletter: March 8, 2021
Faculty Conversation Series – Ungrading: What is it and how does it work?
The next installment of our Faculty Conversation Series, Ungrading: What is it and how does it work?, will be held this Wednesday (March 10, 2021, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) with special guest Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh, FT Chemistry Instructor, Central New Mexico Community College. Ungrading is the latest buzzword in academia. The focus of ungrading is to provide extensive feedback to students and then jointly (students and instructors) come to a consensus as to what the grade should be. Come learn more from an experienced practitioner and decide if it might work for you.
For each session of the Conversation Series, faculty will read a relevant article/paper about the topic (optional), receive question prompts, engage in conversation around the topic with other faculty members, and reflect on how the conversation may have changed thinking on the topic. Conversations are facilitated by Dr. Maria Gallardo Williams, OFD SoTL Faculty Fellow.
Our other remaining Spring 2021 conversation is:
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as Part of your Teaching Practice. (Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.), Special Guest – Dr. Diane Chapman, Executive Director, Office of Faculty Development: How does your teaching inform your scholarship, and how do we turn that into published work? Join us for a session filled with tips, inspiration, and information.
To register for either session, visit REPORTER.
Faculty Forum: Keeping Up the Casual Conversation
Today on Faculty Forum, Dr. Stefanie Chen from the Department of Biological Sciences discusses the use of Slack to keep communications going amongst faculty colleagues. The current pandemic has us missing many experiences – travel, eating at a restaurant, going to the movies – but one interaction that may have previously gone underappreciated is the hallway interaction with your colleagues. How many times have you gotten up to go to the bathroom, started chatting with a colleague, and gotten a new idea, either for a research direction or even your personal life?
Now that we are all at home, how can we recreate that valuable experience? While Zoom is a great option for planned meetings, and has increased inclusivity for many kinds of meetings, it lacks the spontaneity and casual feel of a hallway run-in.
University Global Partnership Network (UGPN) Goes Virtual
The University Global Partnership Network (UGPN) Virtual Conference 2021 will bring together delegates from four world-leading Universities: North Carolina State University, University of Sao Paulo, the University of Surrey and the University of Wollongong, to promote and facilitate innovative collaborations in research and education. Organized virtually this year for the first time, the conference will be held over four days: March 22-25, 2021.
NC State University Libraries Can Provide Research Assistance to Your Classes
The NC State University Libraries has a robust teaching program, and librarians are available to work with your students as they build their research competency, data literacy, media creation skills, and more. For more information, visit the Libraries Instruction Programs page or use the Libraries Instruction Request Form to schedule a synchronous or asynchronous session for your students.
Universal Design for Learning During a Pandemic
Join Dr. Michelle Bartlett, Faculty Scholar, Belk Center and Crystal L. Tenan, IT Accessibility Coordinator for an upcoming joint OIT and DELTA workshop: Universal Design for Learning During a Pandemic.
- Description: The pandemic has created complex learning barriers for many students. Learn how to utilize the three principles of UDL to serve diverse learners and identify opportunities to implement UDL in your online, hybrid or in-person classroom.
- Date: April 8th, 2pm
- Registration: in REPORTER
Labor-Based Grading Contracts as Antiracist Classroom Writing Assessment
- April 2, 2021, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
- Dr. Asao Inoue (Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Equity, and Inclusion, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University)
- Sponsored by the Campus Writing and Speaking Program
How do we make our grading practices in all disciplines not just more equitable and inclusive but antiracist in purpose and outcomes? This interactive keynote centers on labor-based grading contracts in all courses where students write. It will discuss what they are, what values and philosophical grounds they promote, and how a teacher might begin thinking about using them in college courses.
During the keynote, participants will engage in three activities: (1) an interactive lecture that offers some theoretical background that leads to using labor-based grading contracts in classrooms that support writing; (2) a reflective reading of a template labor-based grading contract; and (3) a Q&A period. Participants will leave the lecture with a sample labor-based grading contract and a handout with links to other materials online.
- Please register: https://tinyurl.com/czypsdur (free/open)
- Zoom Link: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/91970136777
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, March 10
Friday, March 12
- Faculty Chat Café, 9:00 a.m.
Monday, March 15
- Mindful Mondays, 9:00 a.m.
Friday, April 9
- SoTL Institute Applications Due, 11:59 p.m.
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