APRIL 18

Final Economics Seminar of the Semester – Lauren Calimeris-Kocman from St. John Fisher College, 3:10 p.m., Simon 124

With increasing pressures to improve student learning outcomes via innovative teaching techniques, and with advances in technology enabling instructors to become more innovative, many instructors are choosing to “flip” their classroom.  This means the activities that traditionally take place in the classroom, such as lectures, are experienced outside of the classroom, and activities that traditionally take place outside of the classroom, such as problem solving, take place inside the classroom.  While there are anecdotal stories of the effectiveness of flipping, thus far there are few quantitative studies analyzing the efficacy of flipping on student outcomes. This study presents experimental evidence of the effectiveness of flipping an introductory principles of microeconomics course.  Model results show that students who experienced the flipped teaching method scored significantly higher on midterm and final exams than did the comparison group.

APRIL 16

CITLS-Lafayette Library Program: The Embedded Classroom, noon-1:00 p.m., 004 Skillman

Professor Rebekah Pite (History) and Ana Ramirez Luhrs (Library) will discuss the embedded librarianship model and how it can enhance student learning. Drawing from their work on three courses: Crossing the Americas, Food Histories, and Women and Work in the Americas, they will highlight their collaboration on creating course syllabi, crafting assignments, and leading class discussions.

MARCH

MARCH 13

CITLS- Teagle Faculty Group Panel “Crafting an Inclusive Syllabus”, 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., 104 Scott Hall

Since 2011, Teagle Faculty Group members have worked together to learn how to include diversity content in their courses and to explore ways of creating a more inclusive classroom. This panel focuses on “classroom inclusivity” and features three Teagle members: Debbie Byrd (English & WGS), Brett Hendrickson (Religious Studies), and Chris Ruebeck (Economics). Panelists will discuss ways to use the syllabus as a tool for making your classroom one that is maximally welcoming to all students–no matter what courses or topics you teach. Lunch will be provided.

MARCH 11

“CITLS-Skillman Library Program: Integrating Visual  Resources into Classrooms”, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., 004 Skillman

Professors Suzanne Westfall (English), Paul Barclay (history), and Ed Gamber (economics) will speak about their experiences integrating visual resources into their teaching, including how they structured their classes and what assignments they created. Lunch will be provided.

MARCH 5

“Teaching with Twitter: When Learning Happens in 140 Characters”, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., 104 Scott Hall

This panel presentation will show how Twitter’s requisite brevity, inherent social nature, and sometimes frenetic pace can be wrangled to enhance the academic experience. From large lecture courses to small seminars, Twitter is a surprisingly flexible tool for teaching, learning, and student interaction. Erin Fletcher (economics) and Chris Phillips (English) will discuss their experiences bringing Twitter off the screen and into the classroom. Lunch will be provided.

FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY 26

“Designing a Syllabus and Formulating Learning Outcomes for a Course with a Community-Based Learning Component”, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., 104 Scott Hall

If you teach (or might one day teach) a course with a community-based learning component, please join us for a brown bag panel discussion. Elaine Reynolds, Rob Root, Bonnie Winfield, and Debbie Byrd will be sharing their experiences “Designing a Syllabus and Formulating Learning Outcomes for a Course with a Community-Based Learning Component.” Rob will talk about his statistics course, Elaine about her seminar on aging and age-related diseases, and Bonnie about her WGS course on women and the U.S. criminal justice system. Debbie will share a survey she distributes the first and last day of class to measure learning outcomes in her WGS course on single motherhood.

This panel discussion is co-sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement and CITLS. Lunch will be provided.  

NOVEMBER

NOVEMBER 13

“Morning after” conversation about modes of teaching and learning through dance with Ben Munisteri, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Ben Munisteri will be teaching Lafayette’s first course in dance next spring under the auspices of the Theater Program. Part of his charge is to help Lafayette develop curricular partnerships with faculty in other disciplines, and to explore possibilities of cross-disciplinary teaching and learning.

Attending this session, after hearing Ben speak the evening before, is a great opportunity to revisit topics he spoke about and to share your impressions gained from the Koresh dance performance. If you were not able to attend the Tuesday presentation and performance, this Wednesday’s chat with Ben will give a quick overview of the future work he will be using to help guide us at Lafayette in the next couple of years. Lunch will be provided.

 NOVEMBER 6

What Is “Digital Humanities”?: A Conversation and Information Session, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m., 206 Skillman

As we begin the first year of a four-year grant in building up digital humanities work at Lafayette College, there are important questions to address.  What is “digital humanities”?  How are we already doing it?  How might we adopt digital work into our scholarship and teaching?  Where are the limits of this kind of work?  What are its pros and cons?  This brownbag event will start a conversation around these questions, with time reserved toward the end when members of the Digital Humanities Steering Committee can answer questions about the recently-announced call for grant proposals.  Lunch is provided.  This event is co-sponsored by the DH Steering Committee and the Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship.

OCTOBER 

OCTOBER 18

“Information Literacy Brownbag”, 12:10 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., 003 Skillman

Professors Brett Hendrickson (Religious Studies) and Suzanne Westfall (English) will host a lunch time discussion on how they integrated information literacy into their respective courses: REL 232 Religions in Latin America and FAMS 230 Reading Media. If you would like to learn more about their endeavor and/or are interested in applying for an information literacy grant for spring 2014, please join the discussion. Lunch will be provided. Sponsored by CITLS and Skillman Library

OCTOBER 11

“Teaching a Course with a Community-Based Component: Rewards and Challenges,” 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., 104 Scott Hall

Faculty from differing divisions of the college will share some of the joys and challenges of doing community-based teaching (sometimes referred to as service learning).  A handout with useful tips (we hope!) also will be distributed. Lunch will be  provided.

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER 26

“MOOCs: In Theory & in Practice”, 4:10 p.m. to 5:10 p.m., 206 Skillman 

The rise of MOOCs — Massive Open Online Courses — has brought with it hope, hype, and hyperbole. This talk will focus on facts and experience as a basis for discussion of how best to use these new tools. Our speaker will provide an overview as to how a MOOC is made, how it runs, how it differs from other classes, how one can use MOOCs, and what their long-term impact may be. The overview will center around the speaker’s experience in building and running the Coursera class “Calculus: Single Variable”.  Participants from all fields are encouraged to attend and are welcomed to join in the subsequent conversation.