Join us for our faculty learning series. These interactive workshops focus on practical, research-informed strategies that can be applied immediately across disciplines and teaching modalities. Lunch will be provided.
Collaborative Learning Techniques: Designing and Facilitating Meaningful Group Work
Many faculty use group activities, yet not all collaboration leads to meaningful learning. This two-part workshop focuses on designing collaborative learning that fits your course context, rather than forcing your course to fit a single technique.
Part A emphasizes intentional design decisions: defining the purpose of collaboration, designing tasks that truly require collaborative work, forming groups strategically, and selecting approaches aligned with class size, modality, discipline, and available time.
Part B shifts to implementation in real classrooms, focusing on setting expectations, facilitating group work effectively, evaluating collaborative learning, and anticipating and responding to common challenges.
Participants will leave with practical, adaptable strategies to design and sustain collaborative learning that is purposeful, manageable, and aligned with course goals.
Dates:
Part A – Monday, February 16, Location: Richter Library, Room 102B
Part B – Wednesday, March 11, Location: Frost Institute for Chemistry and Molecular Science, Room 115
Student Engagement Techniques: Designing Learning Experiences That Motivate and Activate Students
Student engagement is more than participation—it emerges from the interaction between motivation and active learning. This two-part workshop introduces a research-informed framework for understanding engagement and applying it intentionally in course design.
Part A focuses on how motivation and active learning work together and how to design learning experiences that support both, helping faculty move beyond isolated engagement activities toward more coherent learning design.
Part B centers on selecting and adapting specific student engagement techniques aligned with different learning goals—from recall and analysis to problem-solving and application—while also supporting community, appropriate challenge, and learner self-awareness.
Participants will gain concrete tools to design engagement strategically across individual class sessions and entire courses.
Dates:
Part A – Wednesday, April 15, Location: Frost Institute for Chemistry and Molecular Science, Room 115
Part B – Wednesday, May 6, Location: Allen Hall, Room 202A
