Colby Faculty Development Week

Connect with colleagues to engage in dialogue, reflection, and planning sessions focused on learning from our pivot to emergency remote teaching this spring. This three-day event is open to teaching faculty and instructional staff at Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin Colleges.

• Slide Deck: Cultivating Community
• Session Video

• Slide Deck: Reaching Across the Divide
• Session Video

• Slide Deck: Transparent Assignments and Rubric Development
• Session Video

10 – 11:15 a.m.
Remote Teaching and Learning Webinar: Cultivating Community
Presented by Katie Byrnes, Director of the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching at Bowdoin College

Description: How does a class become a community of learners? Experience and discuss instructional strategies in remote learning contexts that build rapport and community among students and between students and the instructor.

12 – 1 p.m.
Birds of a Feather Lunches
Join colleagues from the CBB community to share your remote teaching and learning experiences. Each day offers you the opportunity to interact with a different community of faculty and instructors. 

• Lecture
• Lab
• Discussion
• Performance
• Studio Art
• Writing

1:15 – 2 p.m.
Teaching Writing Remotely
Presented by: Ghada Gherwash, Interim Director, Colby Writing Program and Multilingual Writing Specialist and Mark Wardecker, Instructional Technologist, Academic ITS

Description: invites participants to share how they adjusted their W1/writing-intensive courses for remote learning.

 2:30 – 3:15 p.m.
Learning with and from Students: Community and Inclusion in Remote Learning
Presented by Kevin Murray, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning, Colby College, Kate McLaughlin, Associate Director of Student Access and Disability Services, Colby College, Student

Description: While always foundational to effective teaching, the need to understand and address issues of inclusion and community has become even more apparent in remote teaching and learning. In this roundtable session, we will examine and discuss what Colby students themselves have had to say about inclusion and community in the remote context – where they feel we have effectively created inclusive course communities and learning experiences, and where they feel we might better promote community and inclusion. We will work to derive pedagogical lessons and strategies from these student perspectives and insights. 

10 – 11:15 a.m.
Remote Teaching and Learning Webinar: Reaching Across the Divide: Fostering Connections in Remote Learning
Presented by Shauna’h Fuegen, Senior Academic Technology Consultant and Manager of the Language Resource Center, Bates College

Description: Clear, authentic communication is key to a successful remote class, but is especially challenging during this time of pandemic. Examine strategies and tools for cultivating communication with your students. Bates professors Adriana Salerno and Kirk Read will be on hand to discuss their experiences reaching students during the COVID-19 pivot to remote teaching.

 12 – 1 p.m.
Birds of a Feather Lunches
Join colleagues from the CBB community to share your remote teaching and learning experiences. Each day offers you the opportunity to interact with a different community of faculty and instructors.

• Pre-Tenured (Assistant)
• Tenured (Associate)
• Tenured (Full)
• Lecturers, Lab Instructors
• Visiting, Postdoctoral Fellows

1:15 – 2 p.m.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous I: Conveying Course Content
Presented by Carol Hurney, Director Center for Teaching and Learning, Tim Stonesifer, Instructional Technologist, Academic ITS

Description: Participants will reflect on the best strategies to convey course content to students in the remote environment that encourages engagement and supports desired learning outcomes. Specifically, we will examine best practices for video production.

 2:30 – 3:15 p.m.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous II: Class Sessions and Discussions
Presented by Kevin Murray, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning, Ghada Gherwash, Interim Director, Colby Writing Program and Multilingual Writing Specialist, Manny Gimond, GIS and Quantitative Analysis Specialist

Description: In this roundtable session, we will share our experiences with synchronous and asynchronous class sessions and discussions and the technological tools that enable them. We will work to draw pedagogical lessons from our experiences.

10 – 11:15 a.m.
Remote Teaching and Learning Webinar: Transparent Assignment Design and Rubrics
Presented by Carol Hurney, Associate Provost of Faculty Development and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Colby College

Description:  Examine strategies to make remote assignments more transparent and develop rubrics to make grading more meaningful for you and your students.

 12 – 1 p.m.
Birds of a Feather Lunches
Join colleagues from the CBB community to share your remote teaching and learning experiences. Each day offers you the opportunity to interact with a different community of faculty and instructors.

• Humanities
• Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• Social Sciences
• Interdisciplinary Studies
• Foreign Languages

 1:15 – 2 p.m.
Responding to Student Writing Online
Presented by Ghada Gherwash, Interim Director, Colby Writing Program and Multilingual Writing Specialist, and Lizzy Holland, Writing Tutor

Description: invites participants to reflect on strategies for providing effective feedback on students’ writing

 2:30 – 3:15 p.m.
Assessing Learning Remotely
Presented by Kevin Murray, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning, Ellen Freeman, Teaching and Learning Applications Coordinator, Academic ITS

Description: Effective remote teaching calls for new approaches to assessing student learning. In this roundtable session, we will share our experiences assessing remote student learning and attempt to derive practical pedagogical strategies and lessons from those experiences. We will think together, in particular, about whether and how lessons learned in the remote context can transfer to and inform our traditional classroom teaching.