Faculty Learning Communities

Looking to build cross-disciplinary networks with other UofL faculty who are interested in investigating teaching and learning innovations?

2020 Faculty Learning Commmunities

• Hybrid Course Design

  Registration for this FLC is now closed.

  Facilitators: Jen Anderson and Jennifer Bobo

  Meetings:

  • Summer 2020 – Wednesdays from 2-3 pm, July 15 - August 12
  • Fall 2020 – monthly meetings, dates TBD

  Description: The hybrid courses offered at UofL in Fall 2020 due to the special circumstances surrounding COVID-19 will differ largely from traditional face-to-face classroom teaching. This FLC is open to anyone planning to convert a face-to-face course to a hybrid format (25%-75% online) in the Fall 2020 semester. It will examine the particular challenges encountered by group members as they adopt new pedagogies, embrace new technologies, and consider actively engaging students in a largely online environment. The FLC will provide a supportive environment in which to examine and share strategies, challenges, student learning activity templates, and research-based best practices in teaching and learning.

  Participants will:

  • Summarize best practices in teaching hybrid courses.
  • Design and pilot a plan to adopt new pedagogies and technology tools to foster active learning in a hybrid course setting.
  • Identify the primary structural components of their newly designed hybrid course, including which elements will be online asynchronous, online synchronous, and face-to-face.
  • Design and pilot a course assessment plan, including both formative and summative assessments for key assignments.
  • Populate their Blackboard course shells with resources for their students.
  • Engage with peers in creating a supportive environment in which they will share strategies, challenges, best practices, and lesson learned in designing and teaching a hybrid course.



2019 Faculty Learning Commmunities



• Using Classroom Response Systems to Improve Student Engagement and Learning (CRS-FLC)

  Facilitators: Jeff Hieb and Aimee Greene

  Meetings:

  • Spring 2019 – four, 2-hour cohort meetings, 1 FLC Dinner after hours during the week, and 2 or 3 30-minute one-on-one meetings with the facilitators.
  • Summer 2019 – 1 full-day institute in May.
  • Fall 2019 – 1-hour meeting every 2 weeks with project update report from each participant.

  Dates: To be determined. After submitting your application, you will receive a poll where you will indicate your availability in the spring.

  Description: Would you like to have more dynamic and interactive classroom experiences that actively engage your students in learning? Classroom response systems (CRS) are technology that promotes and implements active and cooperative learning in the classroom. iClickers are one of the best know classroom response systems, but Learning Catalytics and Blue-Pulse are two other CRS. Suggestions of other CRS are welcome.

  In this Faculty Learning Community (FLC) participants will transform a selected course by designing and implementing evidence based CRS instruction to be used throughout a selected course. If you have never used a CRS or if you think you could be getting more out of your current CRS, this FLC is for you. (Note: CRS are appropriate for classes of all sizes and instructional teams are welcome to apply as a team)

  Participants will:

  • Have hands-on exploration of different Classrooms Response Systems with multiple opportunities to practice using the technology.
  • Discuss Peer reviewed teaching activities that use CRS
  • Investigate different pedagogies that can be paired with the use of CRS.
  • Design and implement CRS based instructional activities to be used throughout their selected course in fall 2019.
  • Gather data on the impact of CRS based instruction in their course.
• FLC for Digital Humanities Research and Teaching

  Facilitators: Jason Zahrndt and Lara Kelland

  Meetings: 90 minutes each, meeting periodically between January-December 2019

  Dates: Session dates and times to be determined by participants through polls

  • Start in Jan. 2019 (Jan. – Apr.) - Readings and discussion of theory and tools
    • 4 meetings
  • Summer 2019 (May - July) - workshopping tools and creating class projects; best practices
    • 2 meetings
  • Fall 2019 (Aug. – Dec.) - implement projects and explore publication avenues
    • 2 meetings

  Researchers and educators from across an array of disciplines have been experimenting with theories, practices, and tools drawn from the digital humanities, both to create new forms of scholarship and to create new models for interactive and collaborative research, teaching, and learning. Digital Humanities encompasses a wide array of scholarly practices, bringing together researchers and educators from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.

  We seek to cultivate a robust inter- and trans-disciplinary exchange. To that end, we define digital humanities as utilizing any array of digital tools towards any inquiry into traditionally humanistic questions. We value a vibrant exchange of ideas, methods, and perspectives on human experience, and encourage all who wish to join.

  In this learning community, we will discuss ways of using digital humanities tools in new and existing research projects, explore how digital humanities projects can be integrated into classroom instruction in order to engage undergraduates in faculty research, and discover what institutional resources are available to support faculty efforts in this area.

  Participants will:

  • become familiar with best practices in digital humanities research and pedagogy
  • identify digital tools that can advance their research goals
  • gain hands-on experience with relevant digital humanities tools
  • design and implement a classroom assignment and/or research project that utilizes digital humanities research
  • explore publishing avenues for digital humanities work

  Possible list of topics to explore

  • Data visualization
  • Digital storytelling
  • Network analysis
  • Mapping/GIS
  • Virtual reality
  • Text analysis
  • Digital and social media ethnography
  • Best practices in pedagogy
  • Publication practices and strategies
  • Other tools and methods based on participants interests
• Teaching Transformation Through Active Learning

  Facilitators: Jen Anderson and Rachel Hopp

  Meetings: 1.5 – 2-hour meetings once every three weeks throughout the Spring 2019 semester

  Dates: To be determined. Participants will be polled to select best dates for the group.

  Instructors in the new Belknap Academic Building have the shared experience of teaching in high-tech, active learning classrooms (ALCs) that differ largely from traditional classroom spaces. This FLC is open to anyone interested in deepening his or her practice of active learning teaching, regardless of whether the teaching is in the BAB. It will examine the particular challenges encountered by group members as they adopt active learning pedagogies, embrace new technologies and manage student groups. The FLC will provide a supportive environment in which to examine and share strategies, challenges, and research-based best practices in teaching and learning.

  As a group, participants explore these questions:

  • What does the research suggest are the best teaching strategies for instruction in ALCs?
  • What are solutions to common challenges in ALCs?
  • How can instructors best design and implement a plan to create and manage student teams?
  • What can be learned from peer observation of a colleague’s active learning classroom teaching?
  • What teaching technologies and tools work well given the features of BAB classrooms?



What is a Faculty Learning Community (FLC)?

A faculty learning community (FLC) is a cross-disciplinary cohort of 8-12 faculty who engage in a collaborative yearlong program to ask questions about teaching and learning, explore teaching innovations, assess the impact on student learning, and present and publish scholarship about their work.




What is the time commitment to participate?

Most FLCs meet monthly during the academic year for 2-3 hours per session, but session length and frequency vary by topic. Typically, each participant selects a project related to the topic to explore with the goal of disseminating learning at the conclusion of the FLC. Between sessions, participants read selected resources independently and share information related to the topic with the group.




What is the benefit of participating?

Most FLC participants report that the experience of collaborating with other faculty, across disciplinary boundaries, on topics of shared interest is stimulating and refreshing. Many develop new projects and research collaborations as a result. Others report gaining greater confidence and experiencing greater enjoyment as teachers.




What have other FLC participants said about their experience?

• “It was a pleasure being part of the FLC on adaptive learning. The FLC really made me consider my role as an instructor in a new light and helped me begin to grapple with the value and purpose (both for me and for them) of the work my students do in and outside of my classroom.”
  — 2016-17 Adaptive Learning FLC Participant
• “I've really valued having a community to come every month or so to share, problem-solve, and learn together. I found this to be an uplifting space and time, I always left feeling inspired to try something new.”
  — 2016-17 Seminar on Teaching for New Faculty Participant
• “The most enjoyable and educational piece of this FLC was the community. Receiving feedback on my own courses/implementation, hearing what works [and] doesn't work for other faculty, and generally discussing the practice of teaching was both educational and motivating, and I believe will ultimately improve my effectiveness as a teacher.”
  — 2015-16 Collaborative Learning FLC Participant
• What I valued most was “the community we've built and the tangible ways in which I grew through the experience. My teaching is now a scholarly pursuit.”
  — 2015-16 Seminar on Teaching for New Faculty Participant