New Instructors

First Year Instructor Program

This yearlong program provides a forum for new tenure-track faculty and instructional academic staff to explore issues that are beyond the scope of the New Instructor Workshop and are characteristic of ongoing teaching responsibilities. It offers 8 or more sessions designed to provide instructors with collegial support, access to seasoned faculty and administrators, and an opportunity to ask questions and network.

The 2020-21 Agenda Topics Include: 

• Friday, September 25 – Dealing with Student Anxiety
  • John Klem, professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, describes anxiety and areas where it is prevalent in the student population. After presenting models of anxiety, Klem proposes a number of strategies for teachers to use to address student anxiety. 

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• Friday, October 16 from  12:20 - 1:15 –  Student Progress and Support Systems 
  • Join a team of campus experts who are here to support you and your students.  Joshua Lind, Registrar's Office, will show you how to log into and use Access Stout.  Amy Mcgovern, Associate Director of Housing, will walk you through connecting to Navigate, accessing Stout alerts and attending to progress reports.  Jacqueline Bonneville, Associate Dean of Students, will share when and how instructors should contact the Dean of Students' office and what  supports they might find there.  

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• Tuesday, October 27 from 2:30 - 4:00 pm  - Active Learning Strategies for the STEM Laboratory Setting:  Do They Work?
  • Dr. Casie Bass is an Associate Professor within the Animal and Food Science Department at UW-River Falls and the 2018 recipient of the UWRF Distinguished Teacher Award.  One of the core courses for Animal Science students she teaches is Physiology of Reproduction, a course typically taken by seniors.  During the fall 2019 semester, Casie implemented some unusual active learning strategies (for example, working with clay) to the laboratory component… attend her virtual presentation to see if they worked!
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• Tuesday, November 17th from 2:30 – 4:00 pm – Equity – minded Instruction 
  • Arriety Lowell, UW - River Falls Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning's  Academic Integrity Fellow reminds us that no group of people are a monolith.  All have their own experiences, concerns, cultural backgrounds, skills, expertise and anxieties.  Equity and Inclusivity minded instruction is a way to acknowledge and support difference in our learners and provide a path to excellence for all of them. Explore small strategies that support the diversity of learners from office interactions to classroom conversations and short assignments to semester-long projects. Join us for an interactive, applied learning experience

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• Friday, November 20th from  12:20 - 1:15 – Canvas Course Updates – Rich Text Editor & Blueprint Courses

  • Changes are coming to the Canvas Learning Management System.  The Rich Text Editor in Canvas and the interface for editing text, linking files and laying out your Canvas interface will be updated in January of 2021.  New legal updates to FERPA are impacting the way courses are shared and how multiple sections of online courses are managed.  Please join Emily Laird as she introduces changes to Canvas’ rich text editor and explains how you can use blueprint courses to manage multiple sections of your course.  .

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• Friday, December 18th from  12:20 - 1:15 – The Centipede System for Course Organization
  • Today's students need to balance off-campus jobs, child-care, elder-care, or other obligations, and this is becoming a greater challenge as UW Stout strives to welcome non-traditional students. These obligations have become more burdensome in the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. How can an instructor create flexibility within an online course?Join Dr. Gregory Bard as he describes "The Centipede System,'' a course-organization methodology that addresses these needs by building flexibility into the course structure, enabling students to balance competing obligations. Learn how The Centipede System better serves Stout students by allowing them to self-schedule their work. This course-organization framework has additional benefits, such as for students recently out of high school, who often lack the traditional calendar skills and to-do list skills that previous generations were taught. When the semester's obligations begin to burden even the instructor, the structure helps make it easy to see, at a glance, what content needs to be created or posted on which days. The students always know what they should be doing, and while they might very well choose to ignore an obligation by deliberate choice, at least we can reduce the chances they will miss an obligation due to forgetfulness, explicit time conflicts, or planned & unplanned obligations to loved ones. The year 2020 has brought us grave and unwelcome challenges. The Centipede System is one possible roadmap an instructor can choose for adapting to our changing and chaotic environment.

Thursday, January 21st from  1:00 - 2:30 PM – Models of Engaged Learning and Teaching:  Part 1

This interactive session begins with an introduction of the Research Skill Development Framework and its use in individual courses, programs, and curriculum development and its current iteration as a model for engaging students in learning.

Friday, January 22nd from  9:00 - 10:30 AM – Models of Engaged Learning and Teaching:  Part 2 (Online)

Participants will continue to work with the Model for Engaged Teaching and Learning framework in this continuation from the RSD/MELT Framework - Part 1. Levels of autonomy, and building students' inquiry and information literacy skills over time is discussed.

Friday, February 19th from  12:20 - 1:15 – (Mostly) Pain Free Group Work (Online Teams Meeting)

When they go wrong, group projects can be a nightmare for both students and instructors.  Join Kim Zagorski in this session as she discusses strategies to help minimize the angst of group work.  This includes the use of formative assignments, student buy-in through public presentations, and technology do’s and don’ts.

Friday, March 26 from 1:25 - 2:20 - Office of Research & Sponsored Programs Overview

The UW-Stout ORSP is here to help you with any research, grant, compliance, contract, and dissemination needs you may have. We promote student and faculty research across campus and help to make your research a reality.

• Friday, April 23 – TBD

 

• Friday, May 14 – Celebrate Successes – First Year Instructor Group

 

All first year instructors are invited to attend these sessions. Those who participated in the New Instructor Workshop are eligible to participate in the First Year Instructor Program. While participation in this program is optional, for those instructors who do get involved, they receive a financial incentive. Funding for the workshop series is provided by the Provost's Office and NTLC.