The Faculty Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship invites you to explore the following events for the month of February.  To access more information about specific events and to reserve your seat for any of these events, visit the Faculty Opportunities events page.

Save the Date

Level 2 Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning

March 18-April 12, 2024 (More information coming soon!)

This is the Level 2 Training course for the Online Teaching Certification. Successful completion of this training and the SUNY DLE Brightspace Fundamentals Asynchronous Modules are required to teach online at SUNY Oneonta. These courses were created to certify new and current online instructors in best practices to provide the highest quality eLearning experiences possible for students.

This 4-week course allows the participants to experience a fully online course as a student and work through the skills needed to set up their own online courses successfully.  It is expected to take about 5 hours per week to complete the coursework. It is peer-review on most work, and assignments are marked on a S/NS basis. Completion of 95% of the work will culminate in the completion certificate.

Workshop Sessions

Reacting to the Past

February 10 – 11

All faculty are invited to join for a workshop on the Reacting to the Past pedagogy. Participants will have the opportunity to play two games with other participants. Workshop sessions will cover the student experience with students who have played the games in classes on campus and integrating games into syllabi and assessment. If you’re interested in introducing games to your classroom, use this Reacting to the Past registration link.  This session is hosted by Matthew Unangst, History Department

Introductory School-wide Grant

Wednesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm (See specific dates below)
Craven Lounge, Morris Conference Center

Staff from the Faculty Center, the Office of Research, Grants and Contracts, and University Advancement will present introductory grant workshops for faculty from each of SUNY Oneonta’s three schools. Workshops will be tailored to the disciplines within that school and will discuss navigating internal and external funding at SUNY Oneonta. Topics covered will include the basics of grant writing and how to write an effective and fundable application, as well as general information on how to find appropriate funding opportunities.

Workshops will be held in Craven Lounge, Morris Conference Center at the following schedule:

• School of Liberal Arts and Sciences – February 21, 3:00 – 4:00 PM
• School of Education, Human Ecology, and Exercise Sports Studies – February 28, 3:00 – 4:00 PM

Navigating Grant Seeking at SUNY Oneonta

Monday, February 19, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Milne Library, Room 318 Conference Room

Looking for funding to support your research and creative activities? This session introduces members of the University Grant Team who can assist you with grant seeking and other scholarship support. Topics covered will include the basics of grant writing and how to develop an effective and fundable application, as well as where to find the right funding opportunities for your scholarship. Members of the Faculty Center will be on hand to share their grant-seeking experiences.

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

Thursday, February 29, 12:00 -1:00 pm
Hunt Union, Oneonta Room 126

In this session, we’ll explore a variety of strategies for inclusive teaching using a deck of course planning cards created by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation. Participants will receive a deck of cards and will have the opportunity to practice, evaluate, and speak back to these approaches, which include new and familiar opportunities for building community in the classroom. Brought to you by the Faculty Center and the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Talking Teaching: Community Roundtable with the Faculty Center

Every other Thursday, 8:30 – 10:00 am
Oneonta Room (room 126), Hunt Union (first floor past the Experiential Learning Center),
and the Talking Teaching Teams link

The Talking Teaching discussions are a space to connect and talk about what’s new in the world of teaching and learning.  Each session will have a focus on a specific topic but can also be a space to talk about what is happening in the classroom and identify new modalities to explore.  This is our rethinking of the Teaching Breakfast. 

We will continue to meet both in person and virtually, so if you feel comfortable participating in person, we’d love to have you in the room; if you would rather meet via Teams, join from your computer. These sessions will continue to be a place to come together to talk about teaching and hopefully share a few questions and get a few answers.

Upcoming Dates and Tentative Topics

• February 8 – Global Learning
• February 22 – Getting Students Talking in the Classroom

Bring Global Learning to Your Course with COIL

Thursday, February 8, 1:00-2:00 PM
Fitzelle Faculty Lounge, Room 159

Are you interested in helping your students collaborate with students from somewhere else in the world? SUNY Oneonta’s COIL team can help support you through this process, from locating an international partner to creating a project for student collaboration to implementing the project in your classroom.  COIL supports global literacy and can help mobilize change agents for social justice. It engages students in world-building for diversity, equity, and inclusion. COIL can also be a pathway for international research, travel, government grants (Fulbright), and scholarly production.

Join us at our event to see how your colleagues are implementing COIL projects in a variety of disciplines. SUNY COIL has been implemented by 153 institutions, which involved 61,200 students in 28 countries on 6 continents this year.

Calls for Participation

Professional Learning Community: Make It Stick

Join the Faculty Center for a professional learning community devoted to Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Harvard UP, 2014). We’ll meet in Fitzelle Faculty Lounge (159) four times during the spring semester: February 9 & 16, March 1 & 8, 11 AM. For each meeting, we’ll read two chapters and then come together to discuss how the book might inform our approaches to teaching and course planning. To join and receive a free copy of the book, contact Racheal.Fest@oneonta.edu.

AI Tools for Instruction Community of Practice

Join the Faculty Center for AI Tools for Instructions, a community of practice. This working group brings together faculty from across the disciplines who are interested in producing and sharing course materials engaging with AI. We welcome faculty at all levels of interest and experience. We also support a range of approaches to AI, including critical engagement. Contact Racheal.Fest@oneonta.edu to participate.

Alternative Student Assessment Community of Practice

Join the Faculty Center for an Alternative Student Assessment community, which meets regularly throughout the semester to share examples from classes that focus on student learning in the classroom and get away from traditional grading models.  Techniques such as specification grading, contract grading, and ungrading are explored, and participants are able to share what is working and what is not in their classes. The group will also be reading through Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop by Jesse Stommel. If you are interested in joining this group, contact Chilton.Reynolds@oneonta.edu) to register.