Workshop Archive

February 4th, 2022 | 12pm - 12:45pm
Virtually in Zoom

As we begin the semester, as faculty, we need to take care of ourselves to be healthy, centered and energized. That way, we can bring the best version of ourselves to the classroom. In this 45 minute session, reconnect with your inner source of energy and vitality to increase self-awareness, destress, relax and rejuvenate the body and the mind through the practice of Tamarkoz. This practice includes Breathing Exercises, Mind Relaxation, Deep Relaxation, Guided Imagery, and Movazeneh (slow-motion movement exercises) and will be virtually lead by Dr. Farnoosh Nouri, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Dispute Resolution and Counseling. 

It has been more than a year since our university and society were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to personal grief, there is a collective sorrow when we think back to what we’ve missed this year including how we used to teach, engage with students, and interact with colleagues. This presentation will reflect on this past year in higher education, what we’ve learned, and set the stage for what the future of teaching and learning could look like at a post-pandemic SMU.

Come and join a panel of several SMUFlex faculty members from across campus as they discuss online assessment in the SMUFlex environment. With all assessments happening in an online environment, SMUFlex classrooms must find a way to assess students in both modalities. Come and learn some tips, and bring any questions you may have!

Our current roster of panelists include:

Tom Carr, Dedman College
Judy Newell, Dedman College
Helen Reynolds, Dedman College
Claudia Stephens, Meadows
Robert Frank, Meadows
Ann Batenburg, Simmons
Amy Richardson, Simmons
Jodie Elder, Simmons
Christine Leatherberry, Dedman Law
Monnie McGee, Dedman College

If you’d like to talk about SMUFlex with other colleagues across the university, feel free to join the  and participate in threads that include, attendance, assessment, and more.  

The Center for Teaching Excellence, along with the Office of Engaged Learning are excited to bring you a mentoring students panel. Experienced mentors will share how they have kept up with students and managed mentoring projects as classes and students went remote.

The Center for Teaching Excellence, along with the Office of Engaged Learning are excited to bring you a mentoring students panel. Experienced mentors will share how they have kept up with students and managed mentoring projects as classes and students went remote.

Spring Teaching Symposium

The Provost Office and the Center for Teaching Excellence in partnership with the Department of Teaching and Learning are excited to announce the Spring Teaching Symposium.

We invite SMU faculty, graduate students, and adjuncts to join us to learn about the fundamentals of teaching. The sessions will share key practices, research-based solutions, and tips for improving student learning. Breakout sessions will focus on three strands:

  • Effective teaching practices
  • Serving diverse students
  • Instructional technology

Faculty-in-Residence Insights Into Campus Life

In this event, you will discover insights into Student Life from a panel of Faculty-in-Residence (FiR) from their perspective of living and serving in one of the eleven Residential Commons at SMU. The panel will highlight valuable observations of campus life on the Hilltop that will assist you in improving your work as a faculty member.

Additionally, the panel will discuss the implications that their FiR role have had on their research, teaching, and service. Following the panel, there will be a short presentation about the FiR application and how you can become a Faculty-in-Residence.

Intensive Course Workshop

Over the past few years, SMU has added a number of intensive class formats to our schedule for students. From Intersessions, Study Abroad, and Taos to weekend classes, we no longer always teach in a typical academic semester.

To support faculty teaching or planning to teach in one of these intensive formats, CTE has created a workshop to assist faculty in designing these classes. In this hands-on workshop, faculty will be able to design their course as well as a class session to take advantage of the intensive format while minimizing the disadvantages.

By the end of the workshop, you will walk away with:

  • Concrete plan for your course

  • Strategies for engaging students and improving learning

  • Completed plan for a day of class and an easy to follow approach for finishing planning your course

Mentoring Students Panel

The Center for Teaching Excellence, along with the Office of Engaged Learning is excited to bring you a mentoring students panel. The panel offers an opportunity for faculty to:

  • Learn about the A2O platform that can facilitate student and faculty mentoring at SMU

  • Hear from experienced SMU faculty mentors about their mentoring experiences

  • Hear from students about their experiences

  • Have their questions about mentoring answered

The Art of Leading Discussion

This session offers a unique set of ideas and strategies for getting the most out of a classroom discussion. In a discussion style format, attendees will have the opportunity to see first hand how to implement effective strategies that seamlessly carry a discussion from start to finish.

Topics covered will include different types of discussions, increasing student participation, sharing authority, using silence to your advantage, and responding to student comments. Participants will leave with a new toolbox of ready to implement discussion strategies.

Carrots & Sticks: Motivating Students to Learn

Do you struggle with getting students to do homework? Wonder how to get effective work out of groups, or encourage consistent progress on a semester-long project? Need new strategies to support critical thinking and encourage students to take risks?

Join seven award-winning professors from arts, humanities, social science, STEM, and professional programs to discuss successful techniques for dealing with these and other teaching issues. Guide your students from showing up to showing off subject mastery.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Success in Courses with Online Components

The use of online components in higher ed runs the gamut from handouts on Blackboard to the flipped classroom to blended courses to fully online courses and even MOOCs. There is no one-size-fits-all model for all students and all disciplines. Rather, faculty members should strategically consider which online techniques and technologies could best help their students succeed.

Reflecting both on the speaker’s day-to-day teaching experiences and on his empirical studies of online outcomes, this session will explore the challenges and opportunities presented by various models, and will give attendees the opportunity to discuss these cutting-edge issues.

All the Content, Fewer Calendar Days

Normally our courses are a full semester long, but SMU provides opportunities for faculty members to teach and students to learn in settings in which the entire course may unfold in a matter of two to three weeks. This presents both challenges and opportunities, as faculty use innovative methods to engage students in that intense environment. Come hear from colleagues who have successfully taught in Taos, May Term, J Term, and summer school: what creative teaching methods did they adopt? How did what they learned in the short-form environment give them ideas that opened up new possibilities for full semester courses?

This panel discussion, followed by Q&A, will provide ideas that we can all use. And those who are inspired to want to try "condensed" teaching will have the opportunity to visit with representatives of SMU-in-Taos, May Term, J Term, and summer school about proposing new courses.

Experiential Learning: SMU-in-Taos

SMU-in-Taos offers a venue for faculty to offer courses using the benefits offered by experiential learning. Research on teaching has shown experiential education can improve student understanding of course concepts. This session will examine the research supporting experiential education and how faculty can take advantage of the Taos campus to support undergraduate and graduate courses.

View the Presentations from the seminar:

  • Mike Adler

  • Sheri Kunovich

  • Andrew Quicksall

Flipping Your Classroom with Just-in-Time Teaching

Much has been made of the flipped classroom as an approach that facilitates active learning. A growing volume of evidence shows that the flipped classroom technique helps students to better learn and better retain material. There are many ways for "flipping the classroom", that is, for switching the order of learning activities that traditionally take place inside and outside of the classroom, and for making the in-class time more interactive. We will describe one particular realization based on a method called “Just-in-Time Teaching" (JiTT). In the JiTT approach, students not only read or watch the new material before the class, but also complete a simple assignment that is reviewed by the instructor prior to the class and used to introduce various learning activities. jiTT is great for enhancing two-way communications between the instructor and students. We will summarize our experience with using the JiTT method in SMU physics and statistics courses and provide practical examples.

Fun Tools for In-Class Assessment

In this session, CTE’s Instructional Designer Dr. Addy Tolliver will highlight three free tools for formative assessment: Socrative, Quizizz, and Plickers as well as practical/low-stress ways in which these tools can be integrated into your courses immediately.

Using Twitter for Classroom Engagement

Twitter is here to stay. However, how do we integrate it into our teaching in an effective way? In this mini-session, CTE’s Dr. Addy Tolliver will show you a variety of ways in which you can integrate twitter into your classroom for student engagement, research, subject matter showcase, and the promotion of good digital practices by your students.

Collaborative Activities for the Face-to-Face Classroom

In this mini-session, CTE’s Dr. Addy Tolliver will feature two collaborative strategies for the face-to-face classroom: Jigsaw and Carrousel Brainstorming.

Teaching with Videos: How to Get Started and Be Successful

Have you thought about using videos in your classroom? Have you ever created your own? Have you heard of the flipped classroom model? Come to the session and learn about different strategies and tools that can be used to teach with videos.

The Road to Tenure Workshop

SMU’s tenure policy provides that "tenure should be awarded only to those who are outstanding in either teaching or research . . . and whose performance in the other is of high quality." Departments and schools have policies that supplement these standards, but it is always clear that both teaching and research must be strong before tenure will be awarded. This program provides information about tenure standards and processes. It also shares important time management advice to help you be sure that short term deadlines don’t overwhelm longer term requirements for excellence in research as well as teaching.

Untethered Teaching: Using Your iPad to Present and Annotate

Are you tired of being stuck behind the podium during your lectures? Do you want to move around the classroom and make notes on your presentations? Do you want to walk around the class, interacting with your students, and get them to interact with the content? Then this is the workshop for you! In this workshop you will learn about different strategies and technologies that can help you achieve your goals. Learn more about Addy Tolliver.

Hands On Workshop: Creating Videos for Your Students

In this hands-on workshop you will work on creating a video for students in your class and learn about best practices and tools that might assist you in that process.

Inquiry Models of Teaching: Understanding the Socratic Method

You have probably heard about Socratic seminars, but have you lead one? Do you know what are the parameters of this inquiry-based teaching model? Come to this workshop to find out. Learn more about Addy Tolliver.

Understanding the 2016 Horizon Report

Do you know the technologies are are likely to impact higher education in the near, midterm and long-term horizons? In this session, we will explore the NMC/Educause’s Horizon Report and how it might impact SMU and its students. Learn more about Addy Tolliver.

Design Jam: Re-Designing the Classroom in the Age of Technology

This workshop takes its name from a fabulous book by Allan Collins and Richard Halverson, Rethinking Education in The Age of Technology. The 90-minute workshop will explore a process for innovation in classroom teaching through participation in a design jam. In this hands-on session, participants work individually and in groups to turn ideas into actionable strategies that will improve teaching and learning. This cyclical design process is common in the high-tech industry that focuses on innovation, ideation, and implementation. This session is presented by CTE's new instructional designer, Doug Wilson.

Mini Program: What is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The Art of Storytelling Using the One Button Studio

In this hands-on workshop, learn tips and strategies to produce an outstanding on-camera performance using the One Button Studio, a new way to produce engaging videos quickly and easily for your students. SMU instructional designer and former television news reporter Dr. Doug Wilson will walk workshop participants through the One Button Studio setup and give pointers for making a strong on-camera performance. Faculty will also be introduced to Kaltura, an easy to use but powerful video sharing application now being piloted on campus. Workshop participants will also be enrolled in the One Button Studio online workshop community where they can get ongoing feedback on their videos from other SMU One Button Studio users and from Dr. Wilson.

Electrifying the Classroom: Engaging Students through Music

This session explores the art and science of music as a teaching tool with the power to add a fun and refreshing new dimension to traditional coursework regardless of discipline. Faculty will explore ways to engage students through the use of music technology, music videos, soundtracks, film scores, and videogame music and will leave the session both empowered and inspired with effective strategies to enhance student engagement.

Student Response Systems: Nearpod and Poll Everywhere

Student response systems provide faculty with a quick and easy way to assess student content knowledge. In this session, we will showcase 2 different student response systems currently available to faculty at SMU: NearPod and PollEverywhere.

Re-Design a Spring Course

Ready to get a jumpstart on the spring semester? In this session, begin work on your spring classes by reviewing your syllabi, your use of Canvas, and everything else you need to do to get your spring class in great shape.

The Active Learning Classroom

SMU's pilot active learning classrooms (ALCs) provide new tools to engage students and promote deeper learning in re-vamped, upgraded classrooms. This hands-on workshop orients faculty to the Active Learning Classroom concept and highlights the advantages of the new interactive projectors installed in each ALC, as well as classroom assignments and activities for faculty members to consider for use. This workshop is designed to offer faculty creative insights into ways these new classroom ecosystems can be used to enhance traditional lectures and promote deeper student learning. This session is presented by CTE Instructional Designer, Dr. Doug Wilson.

Get Your Students Talking in Class With a Circle of Voices

Do you want your students to contribute more in classroom discussions? This mini-program will showcase the Circle of Voices strategy that can be applied to classrooms of all sizes. Learn from CTE Instructional Designer Dr. Addy Tolliver as she highlights this collaborative teaching method and discusses its benefits with practical ways to employ it in your classroom.

See One. Do One. Teach One: Peer-Learning and the Active Learning Classroom

Peer learning is a teaching strategy to promote student learning and engagement. Using this approach, students assume an active role in their own learning by taking on the roles of teacher and learner. In addition, peer learning also helps develop leadership and communication skills. This session explores the benefits of peer learning for faculty and students through hands-on examples. This session is presented by CTE Instructional Designer, Dr. Doug Wilson.