Groups meet throughout the year for seminars, discussions, and other activities. These groups are a part of CATL and TLT's year-long program offerings to enhance teaching and learning.
Course Design Working Groups (CDWG) involve a small number of faculty (typically 4 per group) who are designing a new course or rethinking an existing course. Some groups share common themes (such as faculty developing GST seminars), but most groups are made up of faculty who individually express interest in joining a group. Groups meet four times during the semester, for about two hours per meeting. In these meetings, the group discusses each participant's course -- with group members responding to the questions/topics that most interest the person who is designing the course.
During the group process, you will focus on a single course of your choosing; you might concentrate on a new course that you will teach soon, or a course you’ve taught before but that you would like to rethink.
Many Elon faculty have joined a course design group since the fall of 2005. Most have found the process to be productive and collegial; for example, one person in a summer 2006 group recently wrote: “I had a look at student evaluations of the course you helped me revise during our design group last summer. They were hands down the best evaluations I've ever received. I owe all of you a debt of thanks and give you lot of credit.”
The group meets four times, for no longer than two hours per meeting. Meetings are scheduled at the convenience of the group members, occurring typically every-other week. If you are interested in joining a course development group this semester, please contact Peter Felten (pfelten@elon.edu).
A program designed to support scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning. The purpose of this program is to develop a cross-disciplinary inquiry community that will provide methodological, scholarly, and social support for faculty members as they ask questions about the relationship between pedagogical strategies and student learning. We anticipate forming small groups that will meet monthly through the academic year. Participating faculty can expect to deepen their understanding of student learning and effective teaching; some participating faculty also might develop Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects that are suitable for publication or presentation. Please contact Katie King if you would like to join a course inquiry group this semester.
The New Faculty Coffee/Lunch Program emerged in 2006 during a faculty meeting vote in favor of informal peer mentoring on teaching and from focus groups and surveys with new faculty who expressed a strong desire for informal opportunities to talk one-on-one with colleagues about teaching and learning.
Modeled on the “take a student to lunch” program, the New Faculty Coffee/Lunch Program works like this – one new faculty and one other Elon person go to lunch together at the Acorn or Irazu'. During coffee or lunch, they talk about teaching and learning. When it is time to pay, they tell the server that lunch is on the New Faculty Coffee/Lunch Program. The server will swipe both diners’ Phoenix Cards, but there will be no charge on either card. CATL pays for lunch.
The program’s goal is to create new opportunities, ideally across departmental lines, for informal conversations around teaching and learning. Please use the program for that purpose. The program exists only during the fall semester, so don’t wait to have lunch with your new colleagues. Contact Peter Felten, if you have questions.
Peer mentoring is a collaborative process among colleagues who strive to teach in engaging, scholarly, and intentional ways. This new CATL program will support faculty to work with colleagues a specific aspect of teaching and learning. Different peer groups will focus on different topics of interest to group members. Groups might observe each other teach, examine samples of student work, talk in detail about course materials such as syllabi and assignments, or even co-teach for a while. Just like ballroom dance lessons, you do not have to have a partner to join!
Register: If you are interested in taking part in the peer mentoring program, or if you have questions, please contact Peter Felten (pfelten@elon.edu or x6609).
How can you evaluate the effectiveness of your own teaching and your students’ learning? What is the impact of a new pedagogical strategy on your students’ learning? How might you turn your classroom research into published peer-reviewed scholarship? If you are interested in pursuing a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project, consider joining the SoTL seminar. Each meeting will focus on a specific aspect of SoTL, starting with refining your research question, designing your study, and completing your IRB application. Later sessions will explore methods for collecting & analyzing data, and approaches to going public with your results. This program spans the entire academic year. Contact Katie King for more information.
Viz Cult at Elon is an inter- and multi-disciplinary body of faculty and staff interested in how visual culture shapes what we do, how we think, and how we learn. This year we will be hosting a series of “brown bag” lunch talks sponsored by faculty and staff from across the University. We will also continue to discuss the role that visual culture and visual pedagogies play in a liberal arts curriculum, as well as develop our virtual presence for Viz Cult @ Elon, and serve as advocates for more, and more appropriate, spaces for image-centered teaching and learning. For more information, contact Evan Gatti (egatti@elon.edu) and visit the Viz Cult website or Facebook page.
Want to give your scholarship a boost? Throughout the term faculty come to Belk Pavilion (Faculty Engagement, Room 111) on "Writing Fridays" to enjoy a quiet space for writing, sometimes individually, sometimes with a group. Frequently, faculty from various Writing programs may be attending, or are available by request.
Come when you can, and leave when you need to, but make a commitment to join us to write weekly, every other week, or monthly. Writing Fridays participants can choose to meet in groups to exchange feedback, to write in the company of other writers, or both. You set the agenda. Coffee and snacks are available.
If you want feedback on classroom research/scholarship of teaching and learning writing projects, contact Jessie Moore (College Writing/ENG 110 Coordinator), Katie King (CATL), or Peter Felten (CATL) to discuss your writing project.
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