91����

Workshop Leader: Nancy Rempel-Clower

Dates: May 20, 21, 22
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC S2310

Target audience: Psychology Department faculty only.

Description: The Psychology Department currently assesses learning outcomes for the major in the 8th semester using an assessment instrument we have used successfully for many years. The existing assessment instrument, however, would benefit from updating to better suit the current assignments from PSY 495 Senior Seminar that are used for this purpose. In addition, we are particularly interested in being more intentional about how coursework at 100, 200, and 300 levels prepares students for the next level of the psychology curriculum. We will develop one or more ways to assess specific skills or concepts at one or more points within the curriculum prior to PSY 495.

Expected outcomes:  

• Update the PSY 495 assessment instrument.

• Develop a short list of learning outcomes specific to these levels of the curriculum that build towards the eventual learning outcomes for the major. 

• Develop one or more assessment plans for PSY 113 and/or the 200-level psychology courses.   

Workshop Leaders: Joyce Stern, David Harrison, Mark Peltz

Dates: May 27, 28, 29, 30
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC S2327

Target audience: All faculty who advise as well as staff who do advising work will benefit.  We especially encourage faculty in the humanities and social studies divisions to join, so that we can understand and articulate the contribution of these disciplines to the career preparation of 91���� students.

Description: The 91���� student body is deeply nervous about life after college. Students face the myriad challenges of today’s world with a strongly perceived need for future financial stability. Students arrive at 91���� already feeling “behind,” and they respond by over-specializing and over-credentialing. How should we negotiate the real and valid student concerns about job preparation with our values as a liberal arts institution? How do we advise students who avoid entire areas of the curriculum because they do not see the career value of those areas? In short, how do we fulfill both parts of the College’s mission that seeks to prepare students “for the different professions and for the honorable discharge of the duties of life”?

This workshop will address these questions through readings, discussion, and brainstorming about our current practices. You’ll engage with the latest research on who our students are, what’s driving them, and the relevance of the liberal arts. We examine both theory and data about graduate outcomes, employer expectations, student development, and humanist reasoning to understand our current moment and our institutional response. You’ll gain new tools for advising and lowering the anxiety of current-generation students. We will illuminate ways that faculty advising intersects with advising work done by staff partners to support liberal arts-to-career readiness. Together we’ll consider what new structures, policies, and practices we need to have – as individuals and as an institution – to fulfill our mission.

Workshop Leader: Ed Cohn

Dates: June 2, 3, 4
Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: HSSC A1231

Target audience: Faculty, departments, and concentrations

Description: This Rosenfield Program-sponsored workshop will examine the past, present, and future of academic freedom at American colleges and universities, helping faculty both to learn more about the theoretical underpinnings of the concept and to strategize about how to think about curriculum and pedagogy in an era when academic freedom is under assault. Participants will read some of the key texts defining academic freedom, as well as writings that discuss how academic freedom has been affected by changes in the economics of higher education and by changing political contexts. The workshop will include discussions (via video conferencing) with experts in the field from outside 91����.  Outside speakers will include Kristen Shahverdian (the program director for campus free speech at PEN America) and Isaac Kamola (a professor at Trinity College and director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom).

This in-person workshop includes 3 morning sessions and lunch.

Expected Outcomes:  

• Increased familiarity with the foundational texts related to academic freedom at American colleges and universities;
• Increased familiarity with recent debates over the future of academic freedom, including discussions of the relationship between academic freedom and freedom of speech, the relationships between academic freedom and DEI work, and the way academic freedom has been impacted by adjunctification and the changing economics of higher education;
• Faculty will strategize about how potential challenges to academic freedom may shape their classroom approaches in the years ahead, as well as how faculty governance may be shaped by the current climate in higher education;
• Increased feelings of community among 91���� faculty at a time when academic freedom is under growing challenges.

Workshop Leaders: Fernanda Eliott, Shanshan Rodriguez, Peter-Michael Osera

Dates: June 2, 3, 4
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: HSSC N1112

Target audience: Faculty and Staff

Description:  Many of us have been thinking about the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and tools. For instance, we may be intrigued by the challenges and opportunities that tools such as ClaudeAI and ChatGPT bring to our contexts. “Contexts” broadly defined around scholarship (with a focus on an individual’s sense of belonging within their scholarship avenues), teaching (including course policies and academic honesty), producing leaders (our students) to lead in a changing world and society, and our community.

In this workshop, we will reflect on and investigate how AI tools intersect with our contexts and act upon it. The workshop relies on two main components: individual reflection (reserving time for participants to brainstorm and draft ideas and action plans), and group interaction.

The leaders have provided a detailed agenda for this workshop, available at this OneDrive link:

Expected outcomes:  Each day has a specific outcome:

• Day 1) Participants will have a grounded, high-level sense of how generative AI works, its strengths, and its limitations.
• Day 2) Participants will leave with an action plan that focuses on their scholarship and bridges it with teaching resources and outreach.
• Day 3) Participants will leave with practical ideas and resources that can be implemented in their own teaching practices.

Workshop Leaders: Kristen Nichols-Besel, Bill Rudolph

Dates: June 9, 10, 11, 12
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC S2377

Target audience: Faculty and staff who teach classes with assigned writing, emphasizing a process approach

Description: As writing instructors, we emphasize the importance of process over product. Therefore, we share a common concern about generative AI, that its ability to easily generate products can be detrimental to many process-enhanced learning benefits. Yet, we also acknowledge that certain writing tasks may benefit from AI’s capabilities.

Given that our students are more frequently using generative AI for various writing tasks, it is valuable to explore uses of AI that might support student learning during each stage of the writing process; likewise, it is important to be aware, at each of those stages, how AI may replace student thinking and, thereby, undermine learning.

To focus our conversation, we will ask faculty to bring one writing prompt they assign in one of their courses. With that writing assignment in mind, we will consider the following questions for each stage of the writing process:

What do you want students to learn? What do you want students to be able to do? How does the use of AI affect what students will learn and be able to do? To what degree would AI be beneficial or detrimental in meeting your learning goals?

Expected outcomes:  

• Faculty will leave the workshop more prepared to navigate the ever-changing landscape of AI writing tools, understanding the importance of addressing AI in their classes, knowing how to discuss the use of AI through its influence on the stages of the writing process, and being familiar with some current AI writing tools that they can either instruct students to avoid or instruct students to use ethically.
• End product: For at least one of their writing assignment prompts, faculty will include a description that explains 1) the writing process, 2) whether AI can be used during each step, and 3) either how it can be used or why it should not be used.

Workshop Leaders: Mike Conner, Charlotte Christensen, Heriberto Hernandez

Dates: June 16, 17, 18
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: HSSC S3321

Target audience: This workshop is relevant to any department or concentration that involves computational research or data-intensive coursework. Faculty and staff in disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, mathematics, economics, and humanities could benefit from high-performance computing resources. The content is adaptable based on attendees’ needs, making it applicable across a wide range of academic areas.

Description: 91���� is fortunate to have a local High-Performance Computer (HPC) cluster available for faculty and student research. This resource provides computational power for research and data analysis and offers 91���� students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in computational research, enhancing their skills in data analysis, modeling, and high-performance computing techniques.

This workshop will introduce attendees to the computing and staffing resources available to support their computation-intensive projects, providing hands-on guidance on how to set up computing environments and workflows tailored to specific research and teaching needs.

The workshop will also explore strategies for integrating students into research projects. Attendees will discuss how to incorporate the cluster into Mentored Advanced Projects (MAPs) and classroom instruction, fostering a deeper engagement with computational research. Whether you are new to HPC or looking to refine your approach, this session will provide practical insights and actionable strategies for leveraging the cluster effectively.

Expected outcomes:

• Awareness of available resources and where to turn for assistance
• Hands-on practice with fundamental cluster functions
• A basic environment including specific software and tools for individual needs
• An outline of a plan to incorporate the cluster into their teaching and mentoring

Workshop Leaders: Taylor Price, David Perez

Dates: June 17, 18, 20
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: Online

Target audience: Faculty in all departments with written assignments

Description: In this workshop, participants will learn about best practices for giving feedback to student writers, including multilingual writers. We will move from theory to practice: reading and discussing selected research from scholars in composition studies and second language acquisition, then commenting on sample student papers. We will discuss how to write comments that are both effective and concise, when to write marginal vs. end comments, and how to invite students into in-depth conversations about substantive revision. 

Expected outcomes: Participants will leave the workshop with practical strategies and scripts for commenting on student writing in ways that motivate revision and help students develop as writers and thinkers across many disciplines and at many stages of their undergraduate careers.

Workshop Leaders: Wayne Moyer, Elizabeth Queathem, Evan Couzo, Peter Jacobson

Dates: June 23, 24, 25, 26
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC A1231

Target Audience: Faculty from all divisions

Description: Climate change is a “crisis multiplier” that has profound implications for international peace and security (UN Secretary Antonio Guterres at a February 2021 high-level Security Council debate on climate and security). At the same conference, British Naturalist Sir David Attenborough argued that climate change is “the biggest threat to security that the world has ever faced.”

This workshop for faculty will focus on what 91���� can and should do to enhance the importance of climate change in our curriculum as we pursue the social responsibility charge of our mission statement to graduate individuals “who are prepared for life and work to use their knowledge and abilities to serve the common good.” Should climate change be a central focus in our curriculum? If so, what can faculty from the science, social studies and humanities divisions contribute to the discussion? More generally, what could the college do to add a climate change element to existing courses, develop new courses, or enhance program innovation to enrich student learning?

The workshop will discuss the various dimensions of the climate change crisis, as well as current and potential responses at international, national, state and 91���� levels. Participants will be asked to develop a module bringing climate change to bear in a course they are teaching or plan to teach. We will consider ways the college might make use of the generous grant by Craig Murphy ’74 and JoAnne Yates for faculty collaboration, course development and research by faculty and students.

This workshop is supported by the Craig N. Murphy ’74 Climate Change Fund.

Expected Outcomes:

• Better collaboration between faculty teaching courses that address climate change
• Recommendations to the faculty about how we can enhance the discussion of climate change in the curriculum
• Encourage and assist faculty to include modules on climate change in their courses.

Workshop leaders: Jonathan Wells, Jenny Kenkel

Dates: June 30, July 1, 2
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC N3170

Target audience: Faculty and staff; departments or concentrations with classes that either currently incorporate flipped learning structures, or that could do so in the future.

Description:  Flipped learning is an approach to curriculum design and instruction which, in contrast to traditional lecture methods, encourages active learning by situating a student’s first contact with new material at a time prior to class, so that class time itself can focus on the more advanced activities for which students typically require and benefit from the most guidance and support. In this workshop, participants will discuss implementations of flipped learning methods at 91����, acknowledging differences arising from the disparate pedagogical needs and practices across disciplines, while also identifying common features of and challenges for flipped learning that are due to 91����’s unique educational landscape. Participants will explore pedagogical frameworks as well as practical considerations for flipped learning, as described in Robert Talbert’s Flipped Learning (text provided to attendees), and will leave the workshop with ideas for implementing or sustaining elements of the flipped learning paradigm in classes they teach or support at 91����.

This workshop encourages attendance both from those who have previously utilized flipped learning methods, as well as from those who are curious about implementing or supporting flipped learning in future classes.

Participants will receive a copy of Robert Talbert’s book Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty. (This book is also available online through 91���� Libraries.)

Expected outcomes: Participants will:

• Gain awareness of existing implementations of active and flipped learning course structures and styles at 91����
• Gain deeper understanding of course structures and methods across disciplines
• Produce strategies for refining or incorporating flipped learning methods in their own classes.

Workshop leaders: David Borgmeyer, Susan Ferrari, Cindy Schaus

Dates: June 5, 12, 26, July 10, 17
Time: 1 to 3:30 p.m.
Location: HSSC S2310

Target audience: Faculty in all departments and concentrations

Description: Participants will learn about external funding programs supporting research that enhances pedagogy both directly and indirectly. They will also learn about understanding and identifying funding opportunities, developing proposals targeted for funders, navigating the internal and external proposal submission and review processes, and effectively positioning their work to be as competitive as possible. They will make progress towards developing proposals by drafting and workshopping proposal components with their peers. Additionally, they will develop an accountability plan that gives them a manageable timeline for developing a strong proposal, with a goal of submitting at least one proposal in the next academic year.

Participants may also receive a book on grant-seeking, appropriate to their disciplines and preferred funders.

This in-person workshop has a special schedule (one afternoon session per week) to allow plenty of time for assignments. There are five 2½ hour sessions scheduled.

Expected outcomes:

• Increased familiarity with federal and private funders supporting research and pedagogy in academic fields
• Increased familiarity with proposal components and review processes for common grants in their areas of research and pedagogy
• A clearly articulated statement of the significance of the participant's research/pedagogical project
• Identification of a funder and opportunity (or opportunities) for which the research/pedagogical project is eligible and appropriate
• A draft of the primary section of the research/pedagogical proposal for the identified funder and opportunity and an understanding of the other required proposal components
• Increased familiarity with grant budgeting processes
• An accountability plan, including potential participation in follow-on workshop activities, for completing all the components and submitting a competitive external funding proposal(s) in the next academic year

Workshop leaders: Jen Shook, Liz Rodrigues, John Petrus

Dates: July 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC N1116

Target audience: Faculty teaching Tutorial for the first time are highly encouraged to attend, as well as all faculty preparing to teach Tutorial in the coming Fall.

Description: This workshop is designed as a collaborative week-long engagement between Tutorial instructors, with connections to various campus resources and partners. As many know, Tutorial is a unique, challenging, yet rewarding course to teach, and the advising component of the course represents the foundation of Faculty’s role as academic advisors and as facilitators between our students and our Liberal Arts curriculum. This workshop will feature interactive sessions on course material creation and development, as well as discussions and resource development for advising in Tutorial and during the first and second year at 91����. 

Expected outcomes:

• Work towards a complete draft of the course syllabus, especially in key areas such as assignment creation and selection, grade breakdown, selection of primary texts, and integrating the chosen Tutorial topic with course materials in development 
• Draft assignments and receive feedback from fellow instructors on new or existing assignments, methods of evaluation, and strategies for integrating campus resources into assignments, such as the use of a Writing Mentor 
• Review and implement the Tutorial Course Learning Objectives in teaching materials, assignment creation, and in advising planning 
• Introduce relevant advising information in order to develop and enhance advising skills during the Tutorial semester and through the remainder of the first year 
• Develop a cohort among Tutorial faculty and encourage continued collaboration through the Tutorial semester 

Workshop leaders: Dustin Dixon, Emily Guenther

Dates: July 29, 30, 31
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: Online

Target audience: Faculty and staff in all departments

Description: This pedagogy workshop is for faculty and staff who are interested in teaching in prison through the Liberal Arts in Prison Program (LAPP). Participants will not only learn about the practicalities of prison but also explore how the experience might fit into their overall goals as an educator. We will work together to think through how one might adapt a course, including choosing materials, crafting assignments, and facilitating discussions with incarcerated students who are adult, non-traditional students. Together, we will also discuss the unique role of prison education today. The workshop will include sessions led by 91���� faculty who have taught in the prison program. Participants will also be able to speak with former students who enrolled in 91���� courses while they were incarcerated.

Expected outcomes: Faculty and staff will:

• Gain familiarity with LAPP
• Feel more informed about the opportunity to teach in prison
• Learn how to adapt courses they teach on campus to a prison classroom
• Learn about the role of prison education in society
• Hear from formerly incarcerated students about their experiences with 91���� courses.

Workshop leaders: Kayla Reed, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango

Dates: August 4, 5, 6
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: Online

Target audience: Faculty in all departments

Description: Dive into the world of Open Educational Practices and develop a plan to incorporate open resources, scholarship, or pedagogy into the curriculum. From freely available, quality teaching materials to ideas for how to involve students in the co-creation of open knowledge, this workshop will provide participants with a set of new pedagogical tools that centers learners and encourages collaboration.

This workshop is rooted in a framework of open pedagogy, which is interactive, provides real-world motivation for learning, and offers students insight into the processes and practices of producing professional content. Faculty will explore open educational resources (OER), teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for users to own, share, and in most cases, modify. OER can have many benefits depending on the individual or pedagogical goals; for example, there is no cost to students using the OER, which encourages them to use the text immediately. Instructors can also modify OER and include or remove elements that are not connected to the pedagogy or course goals. In creating OER, creators retain the copyright of the work and can make modifications and re-publish whenever they wish. Participants will also consider ethical adaptation and use of OER, see real-world examples, and learn about campus offices that can provide support.

Expected outcomes:

• Participants will leave with an understanding of the benefits of Open Educational Practices.
• Participants will develop a plan to incorporate Open Educational Practices into a course (e.g. use an open textbook, adapt an open slide deck, incorporate a discussion of open access, co-create a syllabus with students, etc.)

Workshop leader: Kay Pranis
Workshop organizers: Brigittine French, Cheryl Fleener-Seymour

Dates: August 5, 6, 7
Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (all day, including lunch)
Location: HSSC C2410

Target audience: Faculty and staff

Description: The Peacemaking Circle training is an opportunity for anyone interested in conflict resolution, community building or restorative justice to increase their skills and knowledge for having difficult conversations. The peacemaking circle is a dialogue process useful for increasing understanding among different perspectives and for creating effective solutions to long-standing issues of conflict or disconnection. The circle strives to create an environment safe for every participant to express their point of view and nurtures the possibility of finding win-win solutions for the benefit of all. Circles have been used in schools, families, workplaces, neighborhoods, faith communities, higher education, social services and the justice system.

The Circle process is an ancient way of coming together as community, kept alive through thousands of years by Indigenous peoples around the world. Modern, multi-cultural societies are increasingly turning to Circle process for community building, conducting challenging conversations, trauma healing and conflict resolution in a wide variety of settings, including workplaces. This experiential session with give participants an opportunity to participate in a Circle while also learning about foundational concepts of the Circle process and exploring potential applications in the workplace.

 This training will introduce participants to the peacemaking circle process and explore:

• foundational values and philosophy of peacemaking circles,
• structure of the circle process,
• creating sufficient safety for authentic, respectful dialog,
• initiation and facilitation of the circle process,
• practical applications of circle process,
• problems and challenges in circles,
• cultural transformation through the use of circles,
• ceremony and ritual of circles,
• conflict as opportunity to build relationships.

This training is intended to provide experience in the circle process as well as an understanding of the foundational values and key structural elements for designing and conducting peacemaking circles. The training will prepare participants to design and facilitate peacemaking circles in a variety of workplace applications.

In a time of deep division and increasing isolation the peacemaking circle process provides both a profound conceptual foundation and pragmatic process illuminating a path towards a society in which everyone belongs, and everyone is valued for their gifts.

Kay Pranis teaches and writes about the dialog process known as 'Peacemaking Circles.' From 1994-2003, Kay held the position of Restorative Justice Planner at the MN Dept of Corrections. Since the initial exposure to the use of Peacemaking Circles in the criminal legal system, Kay has been involved in developing the use of Peacemaking Circles in schools, social services, victim support, churches, families, neighborhoods, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces. Since 2003, Kay has been an independent trainer sharing the peacemaking circle process.

This workshop is supported by Peace and Conflict Studies.

Workshop leaders: David Harrison, Nick Phillips, Todd Armstrong

Dates: August 11, 12, 13
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC N1164

Target audience:  Faculty and staff (new faculty members are welcome), especially from all language departments, internationally--themed concentrations, African Diaspora Studies, and departments with faculty who use non-English sources in their teaching and research.

Description:  How should faculty who teach in 91����’s language programs, as well as the staff who support language learning and the faculty in allied departments, respond to the pedagogical, institutional, and national challenges that are putting pressure on enrollments and making it harder to achieve our learning goals? What are the best ways to ensure that language learning—one of the Six Elements of a Liberal Arts Education at 91����—continues to thrive at 91���� and integrates into every student’s pathway through the liberal arts?

This three-day, modular, non-linear workshop allows participants to attend one, two, or three sessions, with each one devoted to a different area of pedagogy, advising, and the broad learning environment at 91���� and beyond campus.

Session descriptions and intended outcomes:

• Session 1 on Monday, August 11:
  • With data provided by the Dean’s Office, the Registrar, and Admissions—along with comparative information from other liberal arts colleges—we will discuss nuts-and-bolts issues such as the scheduling of language courses, the relationship between language study and other intellectual areas of student interest, course registration, and options for change.
• Session 1 outcomes:
  • Participants will analyze data on language study, course scheduling and course registration provided by faculty, students, the Dean’s Office, the Registrar’s Office, and the Admissions Office.
  • Participants will analyze curricular structures and innovations made at other liberal arts colleges for language study.
  • Participants will discuss new ideas for creating robust structures that support language courses.
     
• Session 2 on Tuesday, August 12:
  • In conjunction with the Institute for Global Engagement, we will explore how the Marcus Family Global Kitchen is being leveraged to create new student interest in humanities courses.  We’ll discuss how food is more than just a recipe or a purchase:  it implies cultural knowledge and identity negotiation that are the hallmarks of language study.   And we’ll learn how to use the resources of the Global Kitchen by making a meal in it!
• Session 2 outcomes:
  • Participants will analyze different pedagogies and course structures for incorporating the Marcus Family Global Kitchen into language study.
  • Participants will explore the relationship between food studies and the cultural and analytical skills inherent in language study.
  • Participants will learn how to use the Global Kitchen by participating in the preparation of a meal.
     
• Session 3 on Wednesday, August 13:
  • How do we create an advising message that captures student interest in global/international studies and helps students recognize the global dimension of their other coursework?  We’ll discuss our current advising structures and the possibilities for innovations that could secure greater enrollments in language study.
• Session 3 outcomes:
  • Participants will analyze data about 91���� students’ interest in global/international studies.
  • Participants will discuss the current advising structures at 91���� and how to leverage them to enhance language learning.
  • Participants will investigate other structures for responding to student academic interests and securing their enrollment in language courses.

Workshop leaders: Tisha Turk, Liz Rodrigues

Dates: August 11, 12, 14
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: HSSC N1116

Target audience: New and early career faculty. Any departments/concentrations with participating faculty; Tutorial program.

Description: This workshop aims to help new and early career faculty design and sequence effective writing and research assignments to promote student learning. Workshop participants will read about and discuss basic principles of assignment design; review models of effective writing assignments from a range of disciplines; and draw on feedback from colleagues in the workshop to develop or revise at least one assignment for an upcoming course.

Expected outcomes:

• Improved writing and research assignments
• Greater attention to writing and research processes, not just products
• Syllabi that keep student (and faculty!) workloads reasonable through grounding in principles of backwards design.

Workshop leader: Sharon Quinsaat

Dates: August 18, 19, 20
Time:  9 a.m. to noon
Location: HSSC S2333

Target audience: Faculty

Description: How do we teach peace and conflict in the current political conjuncture? Against the backdrop of global crises and insecurity brought about by long-standing conflicts, impending wars, ongoing genocide and mass atrocities, and democratic backsliding, this curricular review and planning workshop targets current and potential members of the Peace and Conflict Studies concentration advisory board who would like to contribute to the strengthening of the concentration’s multidisciplinary course offerings to be responsive to contemporary challenges. It will also provide an opportunity for faculty to clearly define the experiential learning component of the concentration, since the linkage between the academic study of peace and active participation in it is central to the field. Lastly, it will assess the broad learning goals of the concentration and develop measurable outcomes. The workshop will feature guest speakers from other liberal arts colleges that offer peace and conflict studies as an undergraduate major or concentration.

Expected outcomes: We will come up with a revised and updated curricular path towards the concentration, more specific guidelines for experiential learning, assessment of learning goals, and new faculty to join the concentration.