OTL Celebrated 25 Years!

Visit Our Retrospective Exhibit - AAC 3rd Floor

On Tuesday, April 16th, the campus community celebrated the OTL’s 25th anniversary. Festivities began with a reception and formal opening of the museum exhibit, "OTL 25th anniversary: Celebrating the past, present, and future of teaching and learning at DU" followed by a dinner and program. Attendees included guest of honor, Dr. Julanna Gilbert, founding director of the OTL, former chancellors and provost, faculty emeritus, current faculty, and current and former OTL staff.

The exhibit features important milestones and DU faculty, chronicling both the history of the OTL at DU as well as the ways in which the university classroom and classroom technology have evolved over the last 25 years. If you’d like to see the exhibit and participate in the interactive elements including thanking an educator, sharing your predictions for the future of education, or playing with a slide projector, visit Anderson Academic Commons, top floor, between now and June.

Be sure to stop by and see the newly dedicated Julanna Gilbert Teaching and Learning Conference room. We look forward to another 25 years!

Julanna Gilbert, OTL founding director, and Leslie Padgett, original OTL administrative support

Guests enjoying the OTL 25th Anniversary reception and museum timeline

The OTL conference room is now the Julanna Gilbert Teaching and Learning Conference Room

Grading Support and Gathering Student Feedback

It's hard to believe that we are halfway through the spring quarter, and that Sturm College of Law is wrapping up the spring semester!

For those prepping for mid-terms, consider also planning to gather feedback from your students so that you can assess how the class is going, discover any points of confusion, and evaluate aspects of the course that you might be able to adjust to benefit your students. Visit OTL's web page Gathering Student Feedback on Teaching and blog post Designing a Mid-Quarter Student Survey for tips on getting this feedback and following up on it.

As you grade, the OTL has many resources to support you. You can reach out to us with questions or schedule a consultation by contacting OTL staff directly or booking 1:1 time with the OTL Instructional Designers. We also have many asynchronous resources on our Ed-Tech Knowledge Base and our OTL website, including information on using the Canvas Speedgrader. Also, visit our blog post Addressing Bias in Assessment to learn strategies for reducing implicit bias in your grading.

Congratulations to the LEP Awards Recipients!

The OTL would like to congratulate Neurodiversity Institute alums Paula Adamo (CAHSS) and Brian Majestic (Chemistry & Biochemistry), along with Professor Adam Rovner for receiving the Learning Effectiveness Program's UDL award! This award recognizes their commitment to universal design in the classroom and practices that center student success. We celebrate you!

Register to attend the LEP Awards Ceremony if you are interested in celebrating all of the award recipients on May 10 from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Upcoming UDL Spring Programming

You're invited! We encourage you to join DU students, staff, and faculty in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2024 on Thursday, May 16th. The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities/impairments. There will be guest speakers, a student panel, and workshop opportunities for all! Lunch will be provided. Please register for GAAD today!

The OTL is also providing programming to support our growing community of UDL champions and help prepare the campus for the Fall 2024 Provost Conference on Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

The UDL Your Course Series

This series aims to equip faculty with essential skills for designing inclusive and accessible learning environments in higher education. For more information, please visit OTL’s new UDL Your Course Series web page and register for upcoming workshops from our OTL Events Calendar.

Stay tuned for more information about the Fall 2024 Provost Conference on Universal Design for Learning!

Register for the 4D Symposium

You're invited to the third annual 4D Symposium, a university-wide event designed to bring together faculty, staff, and students to explore and advance the 4D Experience at DU. With almost 40 sessions to choose from this year, there are specialty tracks for faculty that explore the four dimensions in theory, research, and practice, in the classroom and beyond. Highlights include sessions mapping course design to the four dimensions, cultivating compassion in the classroom, elevating the four dimensions as a framework for research, uplifting retiring faculty stories of mentoring and purpose, and designing for trust. The Symposium is May 9-10 and registration is currently open.

Help Students Thrive: Take a Coach Approach Training with the Office of Academic Advising

Join the Office of Academic Advising for Help Students Thrive: Take a Coach Approach! This no-cost two-day interactive training will provide you with effective coaching strategies to help students overcome setbacks, navigate challenges, and achieve their goals. Coaching centers the student as the expert in their own life and supports the development of accountability and self-management. You will build foundational coaching skills, such as asking powerful questions to inspire self-awareness, problem solving, and action. An optional micro-credential and digital badge is now available!

This training is open to any DU faculty or staff who provides individual advising or mentoring support to students. Please register using the link below only if you will attend both days. Another session will be offered during winter break. Questions? Please contact Allison.Weihrauch@du.edu.

Help Students Thrive: Take a Coach Approach

Tuesday, June 11th – Wednesday, June 12th

9:00am – 4:00pm

Community Commons 2600 (In-person only)

New This Spring: Get a Student's Perspective

Have you ever wanted to get a student’s perspective/input on an activity or artifact before you actually implement it? Or have you wondered how students might be experiencing your course and wished you didn’t have to wait until the end of the quarter to find out? Or would you simply be interested in having a student who is not in your class let you know what they see/notice as an observer of your class? This Spring, we are piloting a “spin-off” of our existing student-faculty partnership program that provides faculty members with the opportunity to get the perspective of an undergraduate student consultant/reviewer on some aspect of their teaching. Through this program, you might invite a student to simply:

Review your syllabus and give feedback, or ...
Share their thoughts/input on an activity you are planning, or ...
Observe just one or two of your class sessions and take observation notes, or …
Run a focus group/feedback session with the students in your class to learn more about their experience, or ...
Test out/give feedback on your adoption of a new educational technology, or …
Provide their input/perspective on some other aspect of a course you are teaching or planning!

In most case, a “consultation” would likely involve meeting with a student consultant, followed by their “doing the thing” (that is, reviewing your artifact, observing your class, conducting a feedback session, etc.), followed by a meeting with the student to discuss each of your respective observations, insights, wonderings, etc. If you are interested in participating in this pilot, please fill out this brief survey indicating your interest and we will follow up with you! Or, to learn more, please contact Virginia.Pitts@du.edu.

Register for the Teaching and Learning Online (TLO) Foundational Badge Program

The Office of Teaching and Learning is excited to officially launch the Teaching and Learning Online (TLO) micro-credential program for Summer 2024. The TLO program will allow faculty participants to complete a set of criteria to earn a digital badge. Digital badges allow earners to showcase skills, competencies, or achievements gained directly from their learning experiences.

This year's program will begin with an asynchronous cohort community building and introductory course on May 6. Through this introductory course, faculty participants will be asked to unpack their understanding of online learning, connect with colleagues, and register for two short courses offered asynchronously throughout the summer. This summer, we will be offering three total short courses including Creating Community Online, Digital Accessibility, and Teaching with Technology. Faculty do not have to be enrolled in the TLO program to take a short course. For more information about each course and to get registered, access each individual short course through the links below:

Creating Community Online Short Course – June 17-July 1

Digital Accessibility Short Course – July 15 – July 29

Teaching with Technology Short Course – August 12-26

To learn more about the program, check out the TLO webpage. To apply for the program, complete the Qualtrics application.

The OTL is Transitioning to CrimsonConnect for Event Registration

As part of the DU-wide Event Management and Venue Management project, the OTL will be transitioning our event registration into CrimsonConnect.

The OTL and Office for Faculty Affairs will be piloting CrimsonConnect through the spring and early summer. For now, the OTL event system will still be in use. By fall, all OTL events will be in CrimsonConnect.

Look for additional communications and resources soon!