The Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning

News, Features, and Upddates

Work Study Office Aid ECTL

WE'RE HIRING

WORK STUDY OFFICE AID, ECTL

We are looking for work study students to assist our Office Associate and other team members with light cleaning, making copies, setting up rooms for events, assisting with technology (zoom, webinars etc), managing supply room inventory, sorting and filing, basic data entry, upkeep of ECTL lending library; may assist with special projects as assigned.

Please view the job posting for more information!

MAKING CCT VISIBLE WEBPAGE

CRITICAL & CREATIVE THINKING, ECTL

The ECTL's "Making It Visible" webpage is designed to celebrate the activities, assignments, and other curricular elements UW instructors have created. We hope the ideas presented here will motivate others to make critical and creative thinking more visible in their own courses.

Why? We want educators to make critical thinking visible because we know that students are more likely to transfer, appreciate, and apply skills when they understand why they are being asked to engage in certain kinds of tasks. We know that clear frameworks, metacognition, and reflection can encourage students to be more aware of the importance of critical thinking and better versed at engaging their critical thinking skills in diverse contexts.

Do you have a great critical and/or creative thinking assignment, activity, or other resource (e.g., syllabus discussion) to share?

SUBMIT IT HERE

SERVICES, SUPPORT, AND RESOURCES

Drop-in Instructor Support (formerly Faculty Learning Studio)

We offer drop-in support hours every week to consult about a wide range of curriculum and pedagogy questions, explore more advanced uses of WyoCourses, or get a refresher about the basic WyoCourses tools. Drop-in support is open to all UW instructors and no appointment is necessary.

Mondays and Thursdays 2:00-4:00p

Consulting and Class Observations

Want to revise an assignment, adjust a syllabus, or review a set of course evaluations? Interested in feedback from an independent classroom observation? We provide a variety of consultations to help you revise a course with the goal of improving student learning. All consultations are confidential unless otherwise arranged.

Rapid Course Design

This workshop focuses on the MOST ESSENTIAL tools to get your WyoCourses class websites up and running as quickly as possible! This session will give you hands-on assistance setting up the basic functionality for your course.

Teaching and Learning Academies

These half-day events feature UW educators and ECTL educational developers sharing innovative teaching strategies that significantly impact student learning. Presentations may include strategies that engage with digital communication, inclusive pedagogy, critical thinking, community service, and assessing student learning.

Attendees are welcome to attend for the entire half-day (lunch provided), sporadically as schedules allow, or request video recordings of workshop sessions.

SoTL Learning Days

The ECTL Assessment Office invites 10 University of Wyoming Instructors (faculty, staff and graduate teaching assistants are encouraged to apply) to attend the Kennesaw State University 30th Annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Summit.

John P Ellbogen Summer Institute

The Summer Institute is founded on the model of the Great Teachers Movement, which is based on the philosophy that well-facilitated shoptalk is one of the highest forms of professional development. No individual "expert" can match the collective knowledge, experience, wisdom, creativity, and genius of any group of teachers actively involved in their profession. The participants are the "experts" at the retreat.

The John P. Ellbogen Summer Institute is funded by an endowment from the Ellbogen Foundation and the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning.

Spring Book Discussions

Every other year (odd years), the Ellbogen Center for Teaching & Learning chooses a book relevant to faculty, staff, and administrators of the University of Wyoming to discuss in-depth. Each participant who registers receives a complimentary copy of the book. There are several groups available, each typically capped at 10 participants to provide an environment where conversation and communication can be most effective. Those who participate in the discussion sessions are often invited to an event with the author the following Fall semester.

Past book choices have been Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto by Kevin M. Gannon, and Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College by Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert.

Developing Activities to Promote Students’ Critical and Creative Thinking

Graduate Teaching Assistant Learning Community – A Practical Approach to Effective Teaching

Assessment Learning Community

Ungrading Learning Community

New Faculty Learning Community

Collaborative Communication

Magna 20-Minute Monday Morning Mentor Series

The ECTL subscribes to the Magna Publications weekly 20-Minute Monday Morning Mentor series. These video-based programs are designed to answer a specific question related to teaching and learning. They deliver actionable insights in highly focused 20-minute presentations designed to fit busy schedules. Note: Our subscription only allows access to the weekly programs during the week they are available (Monday through Sunday) and not before or after.

Assessment Activities

Current assessment activities include information on a range of projects and activities recently completed or currently underway to gauge student learning, make improvements, or respond to accountability interests.

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. (2021). NILOA Current Assessment Activities

Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL)

SoTL (The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) is defined at UW as "Systematic inquiry into student learning by integrating the experience of teaching and prior scholarship on teaching and learning and making the findings appropriately public. Thus, building a SoTL community which leads to the assessment and enhancement of student learning."

New Faculty Programs

Every year we offer and promote educational development opportunism for new instructors in part funded by an endowment by the John P. Ellbogen Foundation. These include a New Faculty Learning Community and New Faculty Book Bags.

Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Programs

The ECTL recognizes that graduate students play an important part in the UW teaching and learning community. We encourage students to utilize our programs and resources to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities as instructors.

Every year we offer and promote educational development opportunities for Graduate Teaching Assistants which are funded through an endowment from the John P. Ellbogen Foundation.

ECTL Knowledge Base

We have worked hard to develop a limited, curated list of links and resources within this Knowledge Base. You can also find links to other resources in other sections of our ECTL website--so if you can’t find what you’re looking for here, please reach out to us for help: wyocourses-inst@uwyo.edu

Lending Library

The ECTL library provides access to a range of resources about teaching and learning. Our books cover a wide variety of subjects and themes and include many of the most well-liked and well-respected books about teaching and learning. All books are available for checkout and can be shipped to off-campus faculty at their location.

Breakout EDU: Active Learning Tool

Breakout EDU is an immersive learning games platform that brings collaboration to both remote and in-person learning. Breakout EDU games consist of a combination of physical and digital puzzle elements that must be solved in a set amount of time. Players of all ages are challenged to open the locked Breakout EDU box using critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity.

GTA Handbook

To facilitate your growth as an effective instructor for UW's students, we provide this Graduate Teaching Assistant Handbook as an introduction to your training in pedagogy. We also provide our students a range of learning opportunities and environments. Learning takes place in traditional classrooms, studios, and laboratories, and also n the field and in the community. UW's most effective teachers are constantly learning by testing new strategies and approaches to covey topics to facilitate higher levels of understanding within their students. Because students learn most effectively when they are actively engaged, university educators learn to employ a range of strategies to facilitate student learning. In this handbook, you will find a number of these strategies and approaches. Some will work for you, some will not fit your particular uses. Pick and choose wisely, for that is the role of the effective instructional graduate assistant.

Lightboard Studio

Looking to innovate your online teaching delivery style? If the answer is yes, the ECTL Lightboard Studio may be for you! With CARES funding, the Ellbogen Center for Teaching & Learning (ECTL) has acquired a new teaching tool that lets you create innovative, fun and engaging videos. It can be used for lecture as well as supplemental videos.

Teaching Tips

To facilitate the growth of effective instructors, we have gathered and developed the following strategies and approaches that recognize the responsibility instructors have to provide students a range of learning opportunities and environments. We have also included information about important legal and ethical responsibilities that instructors need to be aware of, career development materials, and other helpful information.

The ECTL Pedagogical Post Newsletter

We are excited to share with you our newly designed newsletter, The ECTL Pedagogocal Post! This newsletter shares teaching tips and spotlights faculty and graduate teaching assistants doing great work, important campus collaborations and partnerships, and any other timely or interesting information.