Apply to be in the 2025–26 cohort of the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) program! Send your application materials to CATL by Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.

Call for 2025-26 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program (Applications Due Monday, Nov. 4, 2024)

The UWGB Provost Office and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, on behalf of the UW System’s Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID), invite faculty and instructional academic staff to apply for the 2025-2026 cohort of the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) Program.

This program is designed to provide time (one year) to systematically reflect with peers in a supportive and open-minded community, and, ultimately, to move from “scholarly teaching” to the “scholarship of teaching.” Administered by OPID and directed by UW faculty, the WTFS Program is grounded in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).

Universities provide a $4,000 summer stipend (paid before the Fall semester), and cover travel, lodging, meals, and incidentals for their WTFS participants. To learn more about the program and the stipend, read the full call on OPID’s website.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit items 1-3 below as separate attachments to one email message. This email should be sent to CATL (CATL@uwgb.edu) with the subject line “WTFS Application.” The reference letter should be submitted directly to the CATL email by your Department Chair or Dean by Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. The full list of required materials is below:

  1. A letter stating your interest and qualifications for the WFTS Program (two-page maximum);
  2. A teaching & learning philosophy as it intersects with equity, diversity, and inclusion (three-page maximum);
  3. An abbreviated curriculum vitae (two-page maximum);
  4. A reference letter from your Department Chair or Dean (can be directly emailed to CATL@uwgb.edu).

As always, let us know if you have any questions via email: CATL@uwgb.edu

CATL Workshop: Create Interactive Video with PlayPosit

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Do you ever feel like students aren’t watching your class videos? Or, even if they are watching, the information is going in one ear and out the other? CATL has a solution for that! Using PlayPosit to make your videos interactive increases engagement and retention. PlayPosit integrates with Canvas and your Kaltura My Media library, allowing you to quickly add predictive exercises, comprehension checks, reflective prompts, and more to class videos.

Join our one-hour virtual workshop at 8:15am on Thursday, October 17 to experience what it’s like to interact with PlayPosit and to build your first interactive video. Attendees are encouraged to have a Kaltura or public YouTube video in mind that they want to add interactive elements to when joining the session. Register below to receive a Zoom link and calendar invite.

Ride the Active Learning Train: A Wacky Wednesday Follow-Up

At CATL’s most recent Wacky Wednesday event on September 25, we embarked on a cross-continental ride aboard the active learning train with the engaging board game “Ticket to Ride.” This hands-on session gave us a chance to “lay the tracks” for active learning strategies that can improve student retention and success in any discipline.

Active learning shifts the focus from passively receiving information to actively engaging with the materials. Research shows that engaging your students in this way improves retention, critical thinking, and success across various disciplines. Plus, active learning doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming for instructors to implement. If you’d like to get a 1-on-1 demonstration of active learning, reach out to CATL and we will be happy to meet with you.

Our Wacky Wednesday events are a fun, casual way to see these methods in action. If you missed the ride, don’t worry – there will be plenty more stops on the active learning line! We hope to see you onboard for future sessions, where we’ll continue to experiment and have fun with innovative teaching techniques.

Mark your Calendars!

Make sure to save the date for our next Wacky Wednesday on Nov. 20, 2024. More details to come.

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UWGB Canvas Gallery: A Virtual Exhibition of Teaching

About the Exhibition

Have you developed standout strategies in your Canvas course that could inspire or benefit your colleagues? The “UWGB Canvas Gallery: A Virtual Exhibition of Teaching,” hosted by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), is the perfect platform to share your innovative teaching and design approaches with fellow instructors. To participate in this showcase, we invite you to submit some of the materials you’ve developed in Canvas. They should be materials you already have, making the workload minimal, and they can be from a Canvas site for any course modality: in-person, online, virtual classroom, and more! Accepted work will be displayed in a virtual Canvas course gallery where others on campus can engage and view your work. This virtual gallery-style exhibition is more than just showcasing your work; it is about building a community where educators across UW-Green Bay can learn from one another by sharing the creative strategies that often only students see.

Call for Submissions

We are looking for submissions that highlight a range of teaching and design strategies that use Canvas effectively. You can submit a single Canvas item, such as an assignment, page, quiz, or discussion, or share an entire module that demonstrates effective teaching practices and supports student success. Examples of what you might share include:

  • A welcoming course introduction Canvas module that sets students up for success
  • Creative Canvas discussion boards that foster deep, meaningful dialogue
  • Innovative assessments that challenge traditional formats, such as project-based learning or peer feedback in Canvas
  • Thoughtfully designed group activities that encourage collaboration and active participation and use Canvas Groups to set up effective teamwork and communication
  • Gamified elements that motivate and reward student achievement such as using mastery paths or badging in Canvas
  • Visual and interactive elements that simplify complex concepts and enhance learning shared in Canvas
  • Effective use of module pre-requisites to scaffold learning
  • Well-written instructions for more complicated tasks in Canvas, such as the use of PlayPosit

In your submission, consider how your materials might:

  • Demonstrate inclusive teaching and digital accessibility
  • Foster student engagement and success
  • Support students in achieving course learning outcomes
  • Promote transparency or reduce invisible curriculum
  • Facilitate students’ ability to succeed in an online learning environment
  • Incorporate evidence-based teaching strategies, such as scaffolded assignments or use of the TiLT framework

The deadline to apply is extended until Monday, November 18, 2024.

How to Apply

To apply, complete the submission form by November 4, 2024. You’ll be asked to provide details about your Canvas course materials, along with a program-ready abstract explaining how your submission demonstrates effective or innovative teaching strategies. Make sure to highlight the benefits your Canvas use and design offers to both your students and your teaching practice.

With your consent, CATL will access the Canvas material you highlight. A CATL committee will review all submissions based on your survey responses, abstract, and any accompanying Canvas materials. Once submissions are reviewed, CATL will follow up with you. Accepted submissions will be featured in a Canvas course which will be available to UWGB instructors to view in January.

We look forward to seeing your contributions and showcasing the excellent work of our UW-Green Bay instructors!

Call for Peer Teaching Mentees for 2024-25 (Due Sept. 3)

Application due Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024

View the Call for Peer Teaching Mentees for 2024–25 as a PDF.

CATL is pleased to announce that the peer teacher mentoring program begun in 2022 based on recommendations from the Teaching Effectiveness Working Group and the University Committee will continue with Provost support for its third year.

The purpose of the program is to provide mentoring and support for professional development related to teaching. Additionally, this program can help build a culture of collegial teaching observations. Although now associated with CATL, as before, Professor David Voelker (Humanities and History) will work with up to eight faculty and teaching professor colleagues throughout the 2024–25 academic year. In addition to serving as a teaching mentor for the past two years, David has co-facilitated the UWGB Teaching Scholars program and the UW System’s Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars program. He has experience teaching in most modalities, including in-person, hybrid, virtual classroom, and asynchronous online.

David will work with each mentee instructor on a course of their choosing, providing feedback about classroom practices. He will meet with each instructor both before and after observing a class session. Mentees will also complete reciprocal peer observations with another participant in the program to benefit from additional feedback and to gain experience in conducting formative teaching observations. Participants are welcome to choose courses in any modality for observation.

At the end of the year, the teaching mentor will provide a written, confidential evaluation of each mentee’s teaching performance. The mentee will have the option of including that evaluation in their file for contract renewal, tenure, or post-tenure review but will not be required to do so. This process is different from typical CATL observations which are instead conducted at any time to address a specific teaching issue or concern, not to provide an overall evaluation of teaching performance.

WHY SHOULD YOU SIGN UP TO BE A MENTEE?

Participation in this program will give you two opportunities to discuss your teaching in depth and to receive detailed feedback from a supportive observer. Participation also demonstrates your commitment to professional development and provides evidence that may be utilized in a contract renewal, tenure, and/or promotion review.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

Participation is open to all UWGB faculty and teaching professors. While applications from assistant professors or assistant teaching professors will be prioritized, more senior faculty and teaching professors are encouraged to apply to gain experience with conducting teaching observations.
Up to eight mentees will be chosen for 2024–25. If there are more applicants than available slots, preference will be given to eligible applicants with the least amount of teaching experience at UWGB. Up to two faculty or teaching professors at the associate or full rank may be chosen. Mentees will be selected by the CATL director and the program mentor.

TO APPLY

Please complete this brief Qualtrics survey by Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

QUESTIONS

Contact CATL Director Kris Vespia (vespiak@uwgb.edu) or Professor David Voelker (voelkerd@uwgb.edu).