Events

Good teaching involves planning, lots of it and at every level. This online, self-directed workshop, open to all new instructors at Penn State, is offered at the start of each semester through Canvas, Penn State’s learning management system.

This self directed workshop will provide you with a brief introduction to the resources and strategies that are crucial to good teaching and planning.

Registration for the Spring 2025 course will open Monday, December 9, 2024 and close at noon on Wednesday, February 26th. The course will open for completion January 13, 2025 and close February 28th, 2025. 

Registered participants will receive a registration confirmation immediately, followed by an email within two business days upon start of the course with Canvas access instructions.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.  

The Course in College Teaching (CCT) provides an opportunity for faculty, graduate students, and post-doc instructors from all disciplines to collaboratively explore successful teaching and learning. It is designed to allow participants to share ideas and strategies for successful teaching. This free, non-credit course includes discussion and practice based on information drawn from the teaching and learning literature, as well as from the teaching experiences of individual participants.

The Spring 2025 Course in College Teaching (CCT) will be held asynchronously in Canvas from February 3 through March 23. For more information, see https://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/cct or contact one of the course facilitators Deena Levy at drl21@psu.edu or Mary Ann Tobin at matobin@psu.edu.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

The Ethical Pedagogy short course is an introductory overview of ethical pedagogies as a productive framework. Using these ethical pedagogies as a framework assists instructors in incorporating and engaging in equitable pedagogical practices in their courses. The course includes research-based lessons, workshops and interactive coffee hours, journal activities, and lesson plan/activity development opportunities to support early-career graduate students seeking to diversify and deepen their pedagogy and teaching materials. Upon successfully completing the course, participants will have produced initial teaching materials (e.g., teaching philosophy statement, revised assignment, revised unit, lesson plans, etc.) and earn a certificate of completion.

Facilitated by John Elia and Shannon McClellan Brooks, this course will be conducted in both asynchronous and synchronous Zoom formats and will run from February 10th to March 16th. This non-credit short course requires an application as there are limited spots available. The application deadline is February 3rd, and selected participants will be notified by February 5th. If you have any questions about the application, selection process, or the course in general, please contact John (jre9@psu.edu) or Shannon (sum1423@psu.edu) via email. Apply any time before February 3rd using this link: Microsoft Form

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

The Targeted Teaching Transformation (T3) program is open to any Penn State instructor(s) of record, working as individuals or in small groups. The T3 program pairs you with an expert coach, who will work with you to identify and meet your teaching transformation goals.

You will receive multiple sessions of individual, one-on-one coaching (in-person and virtual sessions available) which you schedule at your convenience over the semester. You will receive a certificate of completion suitable for inclusion in your Faculty Activity Report upon spending at least 10 hours working towards your project goals together.

Instructors will apply through a short online form. Application deadline is February 21, 2025.
   
Apply here: https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0pjr3vsWLsjeRn0

This endorsement is part of the Provost Endorsement Program.

This endorsement engages experienced instructors in implementing inclusive and equitable teaching in their current or upcoming course(s).  This program assumes participants already understand the need for inclusive and equitable practices. Eligible participants must have teaching responsibilities in the current or upcoming academic year so that they can most immediately benefit from the content of the program by applying program concepts to their teaching. Participants will revise a syllabus or assignments for future use, reflect on their teaching based on student feedback and peer interactions, and consider how they might cultivate belonging in their courses.  Once participants have registered, they will be added to a Canvas course and connected with a SITE faculty consultant. 

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Have you ever wondered what makes your students curious? In this interactive workshop, we will explore how insights from recent research in curiosity, wonder, and awe can be integrated into your classroom practice.

Registration will close one hour before the event starts. Registrants will receive a Zoom link at least 45 minutes before the workshop.

In this interactive workshop we invite participants to examine student engagement from a curricular perspective. We will discuss how the ways that activities and assessments are designed can affect student engagement, and how reflecting on the structure of activities and assessments can lead to changes to promote student engagement. Participants will have opportunities to apply what is discussed throughout the workshop and have time to think how they may apply it to their own teaching.

Registrants will receive a Zoom link at least 45 minutes before the event.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Are you curious about doing (more) research on your teaching and learning practice? Are you interested in gathering evidence that can support positive student outcomes across campus? If so, we invite you to join us for this interactive session in which we consider possible projects that you can pursue with your colleagues.

Whether you are new to this kind of scholarship, or if you’ve done it many times before, you will learn more about what kinds of teaching and learning questions your colleagues are interesting in answering, and how you can design studies to answer those questions together.

Please register by 5pm on February 20, 2025. This program supports 15 faculty (first come, first served.)

Commonwealth Campus faculty are invited to participate in the Inclusive Syllabus Workshop Series, a professional development opportunity designed to help faculty strengthen their syllabi to better support student engagement and success. Open to faculty of all ranks and lines, the series consists of three one-hour sessions this spring, where participants will explore strategies to promote a growth mindset and cultivate a sense of belonging through their syllabi. Based on research about learning mindsets and social belonging, the series incorporates The First Day Toolkit, an online suite of resources that supports faculty in refining the messages they convey through their syllabi and on the first day of class. This initiative is a collaboration between the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses, Penn State Harrisburg, and the Equity Pedagogy Network.

Please register by 5pm on February 20, 2025. This program supports 15 faculty (first come, first served) at each of the three locations:

Abington (February 27, 8.15am-9.30am; March 26. 2-3pm & April 4, 8.15am-9.30am)
Behrend (March 3, 8.15-9.30am; March 26, 2-3pm & April 11, 8.15-9.30am)
Harrisburg (February 27, 11.45am-1pm; March 26, 2-3pm & April 4, 11.45am-1pm)

Faculty members traveling more than 30 miles one way from another Commonwealth Campus are eligible for mileage reimbursement.
Participants are expected to attend the first and last session in-person. The March 26th session is virtual.

To register, please complete the following brief form: https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_effkpUgcNWpfZmm

Penn State is part of the international CIRTL Network, which focuses on preparing the next generation of faculty to teach effectively. Join us for this brief overview of how CIRTL programming—both at Penn State and through the 44-university network—can help grad students and postdocs to 1) strengthen their teaching skills and 2) document their professional development through CIRTL certification.

Registrants will receive a Zoom link at least 45 minutes before the presentation begins.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.
   

This Universal Design for Learning (UDL) course is self-directed and asynchronous. The course provides an introduction to the rationale for UDL, supporting research, applications of UDL. We welcome instructors and designers who embrace student variability, strive for equity, and seek to empower students. Participants will explore UDL terms, principles, structures, and applications, and ways to adapt teaching practices.

Facilitated by Mary Ann Tobin, this course is a collaboration between the Schreyer Institute and World Campus Online Faculty Development.

Visit the UDL course page at https://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/udl to enroll before April 1, 2025. You will have 60 days to complete the course.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

While students come to our classes with varying experiences with writing in college, it is often a challenge for them to write in the ways we expect them to as members of a particular field. If you’re a grad student or postdoc who is preparing or facilitating writing tasks in your teaching, you’re invited to bring a current writing assignment or draft of a proposed writing assignment for developmental advice and feedback. Schreyer Institute consultants will facilitate individual and peer activities to help you design writing assignments that support your students in writing like a scientist, critic, analyst, extension communicator, etc. We will consider teaching strategies for setting students up for writing success and providing useful feedback to diverse student writing. Space in the workshop is limited, but you can also schedule an individual consultation at a different time this spring, if desired. 

*NOTE: The date of this workshop has been changed to 2/26.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

This workshop, of special interest to graduate students and postdocs, will introduce the accessibility of teaching materials as a component of inclusive course design, provide an introductory overview of best practices and things to consider when designing accessible materials, and offer participants opportunities to set their own task lists for designing and/or revising accessible teaching materials.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact SITE at site@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.