Center for Teaching Excellence
What do you think?
A recent email from the Chronicle included an article about cheating and AI. Arik Levinson proposes two approaches to reduce the likelihood of cheating that could work in tandem. What do you think about the suggestions?
Spring 2025 Groups
Gateway Courses Initiative
Equity-Minded Teaching FLC
One of the items of the Academic Master Plan is “Create culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy by utilizing disaggregated course data” and the Success Measure for it says that those who teach Gateway Courses will be prioritized. Last academic year, a team looked at the CCRI catalog and each of the 7 Academic and Career Paths to identify courses that are prerequisites or requirements for a wide variety of programs – these are Gateway Courses. If a student cannot successfully complete one of these courses, they cannot continue toward their academic goals. The team did not examine success rates, grades, or any student data – only the placement of courses in program requirements.
The Gateway Courses we identified are:
- ACCT 1010 - Financial Accounting
- BIOL 2201 - Human Anatomy & Physiology 1
- COMI 1150 - Programming Concepts
- ENGL 1010 – Composition 1
- MATH 1200 – College Algebra
- PSYC 2010 – General Psychology
In support of this goal of the Academic Master Plan, CTE will be offering the Equity-Minded Teaching FLC (previously offered over the summer) this Spring Semester at two time options. Each group will meet for 5 90-minute sessions and will have some light homework in between. Participants will be given a copy of “The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching” to read for homework and keep afterward. Those who complete the FLC will earn 15 CTE Knights points and an honorarium ($575 for Full-Time faculty; $375 for Part-Time faculty).
Option 1: Wednesdays from 1:30-3:00 over zoom
- February 5, 19, March 19, April 2, and 16
Option 2: Thursdays from 10:00-11:30 over zoom
- February 6, 20, March 20, April 3, and 17
These 15-person groups are open to all, but priority will be given to full-time faculty who teach one of the Gateway courses. The FLC will also be available in the Summer.
Getting Ready for 7-Week Classes FLC
Are you considering teaching a 7-week class in the future and want to plan it out
with a supportive community? Consider how to adjust your course for a move to 7-week
classes in collaboration with your colleagues and support from CTE and Online Learning
& Technology.
Over five meetings and between-meeting "homework" you’ll consider the core ideas of your course,
alignment between assessments and outcomes, the best use of in-class time, and how
to prepare your students well for this format.
A special run of this workshop series just for adjunct faculty will run on five Tuesdays from 8:30 – 10:00 over zoom. Click here to learn more, see meeting dates, and register.
Those who complete this workshop series will earn 15 CTE Knights Certificate points and an honorarium ($575 for Full-Time faculty; $375 for Part-Time faculty).
Caring Campus is Back!
CCRI is a caring campus with commitments from faculty to students. Those commitments are welcoming students, learning students' names, utilizing an inclusive and transparent syllabus, and providing early and frequent assessments to ensure student success and retention. Last academic year, the Faculty Senate approved for a resolution adopting these Commitments for all faculty.
This online workshop will teach you more about these commitments and how they impact students. You will also work with a group of your peers to get ideas and feedback on how to incorporate them into your courses.
When: 2/3 - 3/2 or 3/17 - 4/13
Where: Online
Knight points: 10 pts
Partnership with DAS and The Autism Project
Do you want to learn more about working with Neurodivergent Students? Join CTE, DAS, and The Autism Project for four hours of training and workshop led by Ariana DeAngelis from The Autism Project.
This hybrid group will meet on the first Friday of March (3/7) and April (4/4) from 12:30 – 2:30 each day. The in-person meeting space will be on the Knight campus in Warwick, with online attendees hosted over WebEx. Faculty will earn 8 CTE Knights points for full participation.
Space is limited to 30 people, so please register now!
Resources
Check out all the new books that CTE has added to the library collection in the past two years.
Rachel's Recommended Reading
"Geeky Pedagogy: a guide for intellectuals, introverts, and nerds who want to be effective teachers" by Jessamyn Neuhaus
From the publisher: "Geeky Pedagogy is a funny, evidence-based, multidisciplinary, pragmatic, highly readable guide to
the process of learning and relearning how to be an effective college teacher."
From Rachel: This accessable and engaging read won me over almost immediately by acknowledging that what works in one teaching context will not work in every teaching context. Neuhaus offers a great mix of idealism and excitement about teaching with a healthy dose of the realities of complex lives and the differing effects of faculty characteristics on how classes work.
Available as an ebook from the CCRI Library here.
Activate your CCRI ID as a Library Card here.
Knights Points
Don't forget, you can fill out an Implementation Plan if you want to use anything you learn from any professional development in your classes for 4 CTE Knights points. Close the gap to a CTE Knights Certificate before Spring Symposium!
Disaggregated Data Requests
In February 2022, I (Rachel) was able to see my course data for General Psychology (a course I have taught many times here at CCRI) disaggregated by race and ethnicity. The results were surprising and difficult for me to face. Despite that, I’m very glad that I did it, and I’m looking forward to trying some new strategies in my courses to try to close the equity gaps I found.
If you’d like to check out your own course data, request a meeting here to get started.
This is a confidential process and is for your professional development only. Results are not shared with chairs, deans, or the VPAA.
The Center for Teaching Excellence is a collaborative, faculty-led community that supports continuous development and champions high-impact, equitable teaching and learning practices for our diverse student body.
We Listen and Learn
We Respond and Lead
We Recognize and Reward