Learning Communities

The Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning sponsors several learning communities that bring together various groups of faculty and graduate students from across campus to engage in active and collaborative programming for the purpose of enhancing teaching and learning.

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Fall 2023 Learning Communities

Assessment

Let's take some time to talk about assessment! Join the Assessment Faculty Learning Community for engaging conversations and to think with your peers about assessment for student learning at UW. 

Collaborative Communication

In our hectic schedules, we often do not take the time to slow down to reflect on and think together about our work. The ECTL has been hosting an informal collaborative communication (CC) group for the past four years that does just that.

Developing Activities to Promote Students’ Critical and Creative Thinking

If you want to improve your students' critical and creative thinking, these workshops are for you. Explore and apply concepts from Bean & Melzer's Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. This text pairs theory with examples which can be easily adapted to a wide range of course contexts.

New Faculty

Meet other new faculty from a variety of disciplines, discuss best practices in teaching and learning, share resources and attend social events. Past participants have found these learning communities valuable for improving their teaching practices as well as creating community with others.

Graduate Teaching Assistants

In this learning community GTA's come together and discuss their role in higher education. GTAs are experts in their field of study but may need support honing their understanding of teaching and learning. The book we are using for this learning community, "The Successful TA," draws on decades of experience to offer practical advice. The lessons and scenarios in this short, accessible guide can be applied to any discipline--from large lecture halls to labs. In this learning community, we are setting the stage to develop lifelong best teaching practices.

Ungrading

There have been many innovations in education. We have moved from classrooms to Zoom and back again. We have learned to teach  effectively in synchronous and asynchronous, online environments. We have explored and implemented active, team-based, collaborative, project-based, problem-based pedagogy in our classrooms, increasing students’ engagement and learning. We have learned how games and game theory can be used to increase student engagement in class materials. In short, we have transformed education in many ways. How else might we inspire ourselves and our students? What else might we explore?