In order to propagate and inform faculty about innovative teaching practices, we have established and offered the Connected Learner Summer Institute to faculty who wishes to adopt engagement pedagogies and support the development of learning materials.
A sample of the topics covered :
- Active learning
- Design Patterns for active learning
- Mentor-Mentee assignments and guidance
- Inclusive curriculum
- Social learning
- Think-Pair-Share
- Camtasia video creation/editing | Captioning with Kaltura
- Educational Research/IRB
- zyBooks
- Gamification
- Kahoot/Socrative
- Intersectionality
Cohort Successes
” I attended the 2018 Summer Institute, a part of the Connected Learner Project at UNC Charlotte. My role as an adjunct professor at UNCC and a full time professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC allows me the opportunity to teach undergraduate and graduate students in large and small class settings and online. The Summer Institute is the most valuable workshop that I have attended in my 25 years of teaching. The workshop started with a review of research which provided a solid foundation for supplementing classroom instruction with active learning approaches. The hands on nature of the workshop and networking opportunities allowed development and practice with actual techniques and design patterns. I was teaching an evening class at the time, and I remember taking a design pattern and applying it to my classroom instruction – an immediate learning boost occurred for the students and the exercise gave me renewed enthusiasm for the classroom. I was able to take the best practices from the institute and offer a workshop on active learning at Catawba that was attended by over fifteen faculty. I am able to apply design patterns in every class I teach and it is so much fun to see students engaged and having fun while learning! Thank you for an outstanding experience in every way.”
– Pamela Thompson, Department of Computer Science, UNC Charlotte
” I was part of the inaugural Active Learning Summer Institute in 2016. Through this forum, I was introduced to the various aspects of active learning the goals, the advantages and the potential pitfalls to bear in mind. What I learned through this institute and continued to learn through discussions with the community of colleagues formed through the institute were instrumental in my success in completely flipping three classes (two graduate and one undergraduate) that I teach in CCI. I have continued to participate in the Active Learning Summer Institute since then and have also served as a mentor to other junior faculty participating in the institute. Every year, there is something new to learn, to explore and to share through this institute”.
– Harini Ramaprasad, Department of Computer Science, UNC Charlotte
THE CONNECTED LEARNER 