We’ve Moved!
To view our Spring 2024 events, please visit our new website. You can find a listing of our Fall 2023 events below.
Fall 2023 Events
Our events for Fall 2023 are listed below. Please note that, unless otherwise indicated, these events are open to all University of Mississippi-affiliated faculty, staff, and students. (Exceptions are made for graduate student programming and the faculty reading group.) While we would love to serve external audiences interested in our work, our center does not have the staff bandwidth to do so. However, our blog often shares insights from our campus programming and is available for those serving at other institutions.
Feel free to scroll through or navigate directly to a series or program that interests you:
- Generative AI series
- Faculty Reading Group series on Teaching Matters by James Lang (September 26, October 10, October 24, and November 7)
- Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Practices, co-hosted by CETL and the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement
- Pedagogy Podcasts & Puzzles (selected Wednesdays throughout the fall semester)
- What Instructors Need to Know When Working with Neurodivergent Students (September 6)
- A Pedagogy of Kindness (September 20)
- POSTPONED: Yes, And: Igniting Your Pedagogical Imagination (October 2)
- Space Matters: Active Learning Instruction in an Active Learning Classroom (October 4)
- Teaching in STEM series
- Working with Neurodivergent Students and Colleagues (October 18)
- Getting Started with Alternative Grading (November 1)
AI Series
Offered by the Academic Innovations Group & Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Generative AI on the Syllabus
Date: Friday, August 11
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Location: Zoom
Facilitators: Derek Bruff, visiting associate director, CETL, and Robert Cummings, executive director, Academic Innovations Group
What policies on using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools should you have in your fall courses? Should you attempt to ban them? Embrace them? Explore them with your students? And how will you talk with your students about AI tools through your syllabus and class conversations? In this session, sponsored by CETL and the Academic Innovations Group, we will explore these questions and suggest policy options and potential syllabus language for instructors to use.
Although this event has passed, you can read a recap of the key takeaways and explore additional resources here.
Teaching in the Age of AI: What’s Working, What’s Not
Date: Monday, September 18
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm
Location: Zoom
Facilitators: Derek Bruff, visiting associate director, CETL, and Robert Cummings, executive director, Academic Innovations Group
There are now many generative AI tools available to both students and instructors: ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard, Claude, Midjourney, DALL-E, and more. What is it like teaching and learning in this new age of AI? In this session, sponsored by CETL and the Academic Innovations Group, we invite the University of Mississippi teaching community to compare notes on what’s working and what’s not when it comes to incorporating or inhibiting AI tools in our fall courses.
Although this event has passed, you can read a recap of the key takeaways and explore additional resources here.
POSTPONED: Generative AI in the Classroom: The Student Perspective
In this student panel, sponsored by AIG and CETL, we’ll invite students to share with the campus community how generative AI is impacting their learning experience. What generative AI tools have they used? How has their use of AI benefited or impeded their learning? What do they wish faculty knew about AI in the classroom?
This virtual event has been postponed. We will update this page when it has been rescheduled!
Beyond ChatGPT: New Tools to Augment Your Research
Date: Wednesday, November 8
Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: Zoom
Facilitators: Derek Bruff, visiting associate director, CETL; Kellye Makamson, Lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric; and Marc Watkins, Academic Innovation Fellow
As generative AI tools like ChatGPT receive widespread attention, there has been little focus on how the technology can aid research and education. Join us to learn about AI-powered research tools that can augment academic work. We will discuss new research applications of tools like Anthropic’s Claude 2, Google’s NotebookLM, and Perplexity. Attendees will learn how these systems can help your own research and how you can use them with students to design assignments that help them explore critical thinking. We will cover recent updates and real-world use cases to explore how generative AI can be used pragmatically and ethically in research contexts.
Although this event has passed, you can read a recap of the key takeaways and explore additional resources here.
Faculty Reading Group: Cheating Lessons, by James Lang
Dates & Times: Tuesdays from 12:00-1:00 pm: September 26, October 10, October 24, and November 7
Location: Zoom
Facilitators: Josh Eyler
Faculty are invited to join us for a reading group on James Lang’s Cheating Lessons.
Those who are able to commit to joining us for 3 of the 4 sessions will receive a their own copy of the book. Those who would like to join us but have some conflicts can download the PDF of the book via UM Libraries.
Learn more about the faculty reading group here
Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Practices, co-hosted by CETL and the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement
Dates & Times: Tuesday, September 5, 1:00-3:00 pm or Monday, October 16, 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: Student Union 124
Facilitators: Emily Pitts Donahoe (CETL) and Jazmine Kelley (DCE)
CETL, in collaboration with the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement, is pleased to offer this introduction to inclusive teaching, open to any teacher or aspiring teacher at UM. We’ll discuss the common barriers students face in pursuing postsecondary education; outline principles for supporting diversity, fostering inclusion, and promoting equity in the classroom; and help you begin the process of developing inclusive and equitable teaching strategies in your own context.
To register, log in to my.olemiss.edu and follow this pathway:
Employee → Tools and Resources → Training Workshops → Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Practices → Register
Pedagogy Podcasts & Puzzles
Dates & Times: Selected Wednesdays from 2-3:00 pm (Aug. 30; Sept. 13, 27; Oct. 11, 18; Nov. 1, 8, 29)
Location: Hill Hall 214
Facilitator: Liz Norell
Curious about teaching, but loathe ice breakers and think-pair-share activities? You’re not alone! Lots of us are introverts, have social anxiety, and/or have neurodivergent brains that bristle at unplanned socializing.
- This is NOT that kind of space. This is a different kind of professional learning.
- There will be puzzles and a few art supplies. You’re welcome to bring your own puzzle/art project/knitting/crochet/etc. supplies.
- We’ll listen to a pedagogy podcast together.
- The space is yours to make your own.
- No harsh overhead lighting. This is a neurodivergent-friendly space.
You’re welcome to stay afterwards to talk about the podcast episode … OR NOT. It really is up to you.
What Instructors Need to Know When Working with Neurodivergent Students
Date: Wednesday, September 6
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Johnson Commons East Ballroom
Facilitators: Liz Norell, associate director of instructional support
Neurodivergent students (and colleagues) surround us at UM, but we rarely get concrete tips on how to create classroom spaces to ensure these students can succeed. Estimates range from 11% to 30% of students who have some sort of neurodivergence–from autism and ADHD to dyslexia to dyspraxia. This workshop will equip faculty with actionable advice on how to create spaces that allow all neurodivergent students the opportunity to succeed.
Although this event has passed, you can read a recap of the key takeaways and explore additional resources here.
A Pedagogy of Kindness
Date: Wednesday, September 20
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Johnson Commons East Ballroom
Facilitator: Cate Denial, Bright Distinguished Professor of American History, Chair of the History department, and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College
What does it mean to practice a Pedagogy of Kindness? This session will explore three tenets of compassionate teaching: justice, believing students, and believing in students. We’ll reflect together on what kindness (and its lack) has meant to us within academia, and how we can – piece by piece – assemble a kind approach to pedagogy that meets the needs of our students and ourselves in a time of great change.
This event has passed.
POSTPONED: Yes, And: Igniting Your Pedagogical Imagination
Date: Monday, October 2
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm
Location: Butler Auditorium, Triplett Alumni Center
Facilitators: Emily Pitts Donahoe, with panelists Derek Bruff, Josh Eyler, and Liz Norell
Have you ever attended a teaching workshop and thought, “That’s an interesting idea—but I don’t know how it would work in my class.” If so, this session is for you!
In the first part of the workshop, we’ll present a teaching technique chosen at random. Our expert panelists will compete to see who can translate that teaching technique to their own discipline and course in the most creative way. In the second part of the workshop, attendees will have a chance to draw their own teaching technique from the hat and brainstorm about how they might apply it in their own context. Join us to gain new teaching techniques, learn from instructors in other disciplines, and flex your creative muscles!
This virtual event has been postponed. We will update this page when it has been rescheduled!
Space Matters: Active Learning Instruction in an Active Learning Classroom
Date: Wednesday, October 4
Time: 2:00-3:00 p.m.
Location: Brevard 305
Facilitators: Derek Bruff, visiting associate director of instructional support; Amitesh Singh, graduate consultants and physics doctoral student
UM’s new Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation opens next year, and it will offer a variety of new active learning classrooms (ALCs). Research shows active learning instruction leads to more student learning and more student success. That kind of instruction can occur in any classroom, but when it comes to implementing active learning, space matters. This workshop will be held in an ALC and will explore teaching strategies that make the most of the affordances of ALCs, including the ones planned for the Duff Center.
This event has passed.
STEM Lunch Series: Supplemental Instruction and Other Student Supports
Date: Friday, September 22
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Johnson Commons East Ballroom
Panelists: Emily Rowland, instructional associate professor of chemistry; Jennifer Meyer, instructional assistant professor of physics and astronomy; and three undergraduate SI leaders, Abigayle Talbot, Reid Bain, and Kaleb Henry
Join us for an inside look at the Supplemental Instruction program and how it fosters student success, with perspectives from both student SI leaders and faculty whose courses leverage SI. We’ll talk about SI as well as other campus and department structures for supporting student learning in STEM fields.
This event has passed.
STEM Lunch Series: Alternative Grading Practices
Date: Tuesday, October 3
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Coulter Hall 422
Panelists: Eden Tanner, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry; Derek Bruff, visiting associate director at CETL
In this session, we’ll discuss alternatives to traditional grading practices in STEM fields, with a focus on mastery assessment. Our panelists will share their experiences with mastery assessment and invite conversation about other “altgrading” approaches.
This event has passed.
STEM Lunch Series: Student Belonging in STEM
Date: Friday, November 10
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Johnson Commons East Banquet Room
Panelists: Rebecca Symula, instructional associate professor of biology; Susan Pedigo, professor of chemistry and biochemistry; and Jessica Osborne, principal evaluation associate, Center for Research Evaluation
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) awards the University of Mississippi a grant to understand, promote, and evaluate inclusivity in STEM education. In this session, HHMI team members will share and discuss some of their initial research featuring student and faculty perspectives on belonging and inclusivity.
This event has passed.
Working with Neurodivergent Students and Colleagues
Date: Wednesday, October 18
Time: 10:00-11:00 am
Location: Zoom
Facilitators: Liz Norell, associate director of instructional support
Neurodivergent students (and colleagues) surround us at UM, but we rarely get concrete tips on how to create classroom spaces to ensure these students can succeed. Estimates range from 11% to 30% of students who have some sort of neurodivergence–from autism and ADHD to dyslexia to dyspraxia. This workshop will equip faculty with actionable advice on how to create spaces that allow all neurodivergent students the opportunity to succeed.
NOTE: This event is a repeat of the in-person event held September 6.
This event has passed.
Getting Started with Alternative Grading
Date: Wednesday, November 1
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: Zoom
Facilitators: Emily Pitts Donahoe and Josh Eyler
Interested in different approaches to grading? Maybe even thinking about trying an alternative grading model in your own course? Join us for a workshop in which we’ll explore your grading approaches as they relate to your teaching values and your philosophy of education. We will also introduce a variety of different grading models and some strategies for implementation.
This event has passed.