Nominations Sought for Undergraduate Teaching Awards

Nominations are currently being accepted for Penn State Undergraduate Teaching Awards. Anyone wishing to nominate an exceptional instructor can complete the online nomination form. We encourage nominations of online instructors, as well as instructors of face-to-face courses.

You may submit a nomination at any time. However, to be considered for a 2019 award, your nominations should be submitted prior to June 30, 2018. Nominations received after that date will be held for the 2020 review cycle.

For more information, please visit the Teaching Awards page or contact Brenda Yingling.

Teaching Students to Give Useful Qualitative Feedback

A timely blog post from the non-profit IDEA Center. The IDEA Center provides one of the most comprehensive, well-researched, and respected student ratings instrument in the nation.

Leveling the Playing Field? ALCs and Gender

March 8, 2018

In a recent article from EDUCAUSE, Leveling the Playing Field? ALCs and Gender, authors Walker and Baepler discuss how women students in large introductory sciences classes suffer a "gender penalty" even when controlling for academic performance. Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) appear to reduce the gender penalty for women.

While the Penn State's Learning Spaces Leadership Committee is working to increase the number of ALCs available to faculty, faculty can make changes in how they teach their large intro courses that meaningfully engage all students in their own learning. Contact your Schreyer Institute Liaison to explore new strategies for teaching more actively and inclusively.

Instructor Empathy Towards Students

Faculty participants are needed to complete a short survey about empathy towards students. Researchers from The Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education are conducting a pilot test of a survey adapted to measure instructor empathy and gather reliability and validity evidence for future uses of the measure.

Participation in this assessment is completely voluntary and the responses within this survey will be kept completely confidential and no identifying information will be collected. Deadline is April 13.

Please use the following link to complete the survey: http://bit.ly/InstructorEmpathy. Questions about the survey should be sent to Stephanie Cutler.

2018 Stylus Author Webinar Series

In 2018, Stylus Publishing is offering a series of webinars to help readers connect with their authors. Dr. Katie Linder, host of the You've Got This podcast, will facilitate conversations with Stylus authors about their latest books and writing process. The following webinars are included:

• February 23, 2018 @ 1pm PT, Joan Middendorf on Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks
• April 20, 2018 @ 1pm PT, Linda Nilson on Creating Engaging Discussions
• May 18, 2018 @ 1pm PT, Saundra McGuire on Teach Yourself How to Learn

Register for complimentary access to the webinar series as well as access to the webinar re-plays and transcripts, which will be available following the live events.