University community reminded to take measures against Zoom bombing

As the University community continues to rely on Zoom as a platform for virtual meetings, Penn State students, faculty and staff are reminded that numerous tools are available to help avoid “Zoom bombing” — a type of online harassment where an individual hijacks a video conference to wreak havoc, such as using the screen-sharing function to show offensive or malicious content, or spouting hateful or threatening language.

“While we’ve seen a marked decrease in Zoom bombings since last year due to security changes Penn State made, we are always deeply concerned and troubled any time an individual disrupts a meeting with harassment or offensive language,” said Damon Sims, vice president for Student Affairs. “The University repudiates hatred or discriminatory harassment toward any individual or group and finds these efforts to intimidate, shock or hurt our community to be deplorable and cowardly."

Learn more about how you can prevent, or report issues around zoom bombings by reading the full Penn State News article.

The Schreyer Institute Welcomes Paul Ko

The Schreyer Institute welcomes its new member, Paul Ko.

Paul is a Ph.D. student in Economics, for whom he taught economics classes (residential and online). He is currently interested in finding ways to incorporate active learning into large lecture classes. Paul believes he’s benefited a lot by attending Schreyer workshops himself, and he looks forward to working with the Schreyer team on pedagogical research and facilitating future workshops as a graduate consultant. He recognizes that it is unfortunate that he cannot meet people in person. Nevertheless, he is eager to build connections virtually this semester. Paul can be reached at pik106@psu.edu.

The Schreyer Institute is happy to welcome Dani McCauley

The Schreyer Institute is happy to welcome Dani McCauley, who will be interning this spring and hosting a series of workshops on teaching and assessment.

Dani is a D.Ed. student in Administration and Leadership at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is currently an intern with the Schreyer Institute and was recently hired as an Instructional Designer with the Center for Teaching and eLearning Initiatives (CTEI) at Penn State Behrend. Her research interests include serving rural students in higher education, student engagement in face-to-face and online classes, and first-year seminars.

The following is a list of Dani’s upcoming webinars. Registration is recommended, but not required. For more information, Dani can be reached at dbe5082@psu.edu.

Wednesday, March 24 @ 12:05 – 1:05 pm

Inspired by James Lang's “Small Teaching,” this session presents small but powerful instructional and assessment activities for use in the beginning, middle, and end of a class session that promote students’ engagement, motivation, and achievement.

Tuesday, March 30 @ 12:05 – 1:05 pm

Study guides and post-exam reflections make it easy to integrate academic success tools into courses. Using the Depth of Knowledge framework, participants will discover how to revise study guides and create exam wrappers that help students better prepare for assessments.

Tuesday, April 6 @ 12:05 – 1:05 pm

Feedback is an integral part of student learning, especially when it guides and informs students' performance in future assessments. In this session, participants will discover the critical characteristics of feedback, how to use technology to enhance delivery of feedback, and how to provide incentive for students to use feedback in future learning.