Annual Faculty Retreat
The theme of this year’s retreat is “Creating Wicked Students… Now and Beyond.” As instructors, we all desire our students to be ready and able to create positive change for the world and society.The future is unknown, as are the challenges ahead and possible solutions. These challenges, or wicked problems, require out of necessity that our students develop what Paul Hanstedt (2018) calls “wicked competencies.” Examples of these competencies are when students are open to new challenges, know when and what to question, can draw from multiple areas, and are not afraid to fail. Just providing disciplinary knowledge and skill content is necessary but not sufficient. Students with wicked competencies are prepared now and beyond to solve wicked problems.
Even though this year’s retreat will be a virtual event, retreat attendees will be able to participate in hands-on activities and large and small group discussions. We will highlight several of our exemplary teachers across the disciplines who have created a safe academic environment for their students to develop wicked competencies. Helpful resources from our faculty presenters will be provided. In addition, we encourage attendees to apply for this year’s grants to implement ideas inspired during the retreat.
Faculty Summer Institute
FSI: At the Intersection of Teaching, Learning, and Technology is an annual conference that brings educators and instructional-technology professionals together each May at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Attendees come from across Illinois and as far away as Canada. The conference features keynote presentations, networking, and hands-on training on the use of modern communication and information technologies in education.
Spring 2021 Call for Proposals
Re-imagining the Classroom Symposium
There has never been a more important time to consider the current and future state of the university classroom. Higher education is facing an almost unprecedented time of change where diverse forces such as shifting values, reduced revenue, and ubiquitous technologies are reshaping the landscape of teaching and learning.
The Reimagining the Classroom Symposium has evolved from its first Flexible Learning Summit in 2013, but our basic mission remains the same: to promote transformative learning experiences for our residential students by exploring the complex relationships between physical classrooms, teaching pedagogies, and emerging technologies.
The theme for 2020 is Breaking New Ground: Human-Centered Teaching Practices for the Student-Centered Classroom. More information about this theme will be posted soon. Please check back.
Graduate Academy for College Teaching
The Graduate Academy prepares Teaching Assistants for classroom teaching responsibilities (lecture, discussion, laboratory, or studio) by engaging them in interactive sessions about teaching strategies and resources. The program is designed as a conference with choices of sessions on foundational teaching topics, discipline-based teaching topics and language, culture, and diversity topics. Grad Academy TAs will also attend Microteaching sessions that provide them with a safe and constructive environment to practice their teaching skills.