Each fall and spring semester, the Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning offers thematic seminars* on topics relevant to teaching, learning, and assessment at the University of Delaware. Our seminars are designed for educators at every stage of professional experience and are organized into categories based on target audience and topic, such as: Foundations of Teaching & Course Design, Methods & Classroom Practice, Equity & Inclusion, Assessment & Feedback, Program Educational Goals, and the Learning Sciences. Seminar topics vary from year-to-year with upcoming seminars announced each June for the following academic year.

Seminars are coordinated by CTAL and led by CTAL staff and/or other UD community members.

Note: Each seminar varies between 3-4 sessions per topic. When registering for a seminar, please note that you will be expected to attend all scheduled sessions. These seminars will be conducted in an in-person classroom setting.

Teaching computational thinking to help students understand and use artificial intelligence tools

Seminar Instructor: Kevin Guidry

Computational thinking is a problem solving approach that is systematic and can be automated and used to solve many kinds of problems often (but not always) with the help of a computer. This includes concepts such as decomposition, data, algorithms, and abstraction that are used to process and analyze data and to create real and virtual artifacts. Computational thinking is also a General Education objective at the University of Delaware, the set of skills and knowledge in which all undergraduate students should attain an appropriate level of competence. This seminar series will help UD faculty understand how computational thinking can be taught in their courses, particularly in ways that can be connected to artificial intelligence tools and help students understand their effective uses.

Dates: Feb. 15, Feb. 29, Mar. 14

Time: 9:35 AM – 10:55 AM

Location: Hullihen Hall, Room 328

Foundations of course design

Seminar Instructor: Matthew Trevett-Smith

This seminar series is reserved for current UD graduate students only. Faculty interested in this topic should apply for CTAL’s annual Course Design Institute.

Based on CTAL’s annual Course Design Institute, this highly interactive seminar is designed to guide graduate students through the iterative, dynamic, and scholarly process of learning-focused course design. The program will help you design your first course or reimagine a current course—whether it’s face to face, hybrid, or online. This seminar is taught across four (4) related in-person sessions. Each session will present evidence-based teaching principles, innovative assessment methodologies, and offer practical orientation to enhance pedagogical effectiveness in diverse disciplines. Participants will be expected to produce a course syllabus by the fourth session of this CTAL Seminar to be shared with peer-participants for feedback.

Dates: Apr. 16, Apr. 18, Apr. 23, Apr. 30

Time: 9:35 AM – 10:55 AM

Location: Gore Hall, Room 102

Dis/engaged pedagogy: Understanding and increasing student engagement

Seminar Instructors: Andrew Jenks & Amy Ritter

This seminar series will help participants explore the sources of perceived student disengagement in light of recent patterns of student participation and engagement in the in-person classroom. Using a social-relational model to identify and reframe student disengagement, participants will work during and between sessions to reflect upon their current practices. Participants will also develop plans to make small, meaningful changes to their pedagogical practice intended to better engage students. Because participants are working to identify specific problems and solutions to student disengagement in the in-person learning environment, this seminar series will be conducted in an in-person classroom setting.

Dates: Sept. 14, Oct. 12, Nov. 9

Time: 12:45 PM – 2:05 PM

Location: Purnell Hall Room 232

Teaching through discussion

Seminar Instructors: Rose Muravchick

Discussion can be an effective learning activity and tool for assessing student learning, but it is often challenging to generate and sustain over the length of a semester. In this seminar, we’ll consider how discussion can support your learning goals and how you can assess the impact of discussion both on student learning and on your own disciplinary thinking. We’ll explore both highly-structured discussion-based learning activities (e.g. panel discussions, debates…) as well as strategies for generating more informal discussion prompts. Finally, we’ll describe ways that you can assess discussion formally (e.g. through writing activities, using surveys…) and informally, through personal reflection. This seminar series will be conducted in an in-person classroom setting.

Dates: Sept. 18, Oct. 2, Oct. 16

Time: 9:10 AM – 10:05 AM

Location: Gore Hall Room 114