Below are descriptions of workshops that I have developed and facilitated for the community at Colorado School of Mines (Mines). Workshops are typically 1–3 hour sessions designed to foster teaching and learning knowledge and skills. Audiences for these workshops include graduate students, faculty members, and members of the Mines community.
Creating an Inclusive Classroom Environment During this workshop, participants explore the impact of classroom environments on student learning and student performance, consider a range of strategies common in engineering contexts, and identify strategies that can be incorporated in a classroom setting to create a more inclusive environment.
Introduction to Active Learning This workshop explores the research behind active learning and introduces active learning strategies that can be incorporated into a range of classroom settings.
Active Learning in Large Classes In large classrooms (ranging anywhere from 70-1000+ students in a class), it can be difficult to determine how to engage such large numbers of students during a class session. In this workshop, participants consider active learning strategies that could be incorporated in their contexts and brainstorm ways to incorporate student engagement in their large classes.
Dynamic Lectures This workshop focuses on strategies that instructors can incorporate into their existing lectures to make their lectures more dynamic. Participants explore research on how learning works, consider a range of strategies that can be embedded in existing lectures, and practice outlining a class session to incorporate one or more strategies.
Embracing Challenges: Helping Students Persist in the Face of Obstacles In engineering education contexts, students often encounter challenges and setbacks that can be difficult to overcome. In this workshop, participants explore the concept of growth mindset (the belief that we can improve with hard work and practice) and strategies to help students develop a growth mindset and the ability to view challenges as opportunities for continued growth and learning.
Beyond the Technical: Helping Students Develop Professional Skills Professional skills (such as communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills) in engineering are crucial competencies for students to develop. In this workshop, participants explore a range of professional skills, determine the importance of these skills in engineering contexts, and consider strategies to help students develop these competencies.
Spring into the Semester with a Student-Centered Syllabus The syllabus can be a useful resource to help students understand the structure and purpose of a course. In this workshop, participants consider ways to make their existing syllabus more student-centered to set up a positive learning environment for students.
Providing Helpful Feedback Feedback is a crucial component in learning, and it is important for students to learn how to give and receive constructive feedback. In this workshop, participants consider characteristics that make feedback beneficial and practice giving feedback in a constructive way. This workshop can be targeted for a range of audiences from students to instructors.
Teaching in the Time of COVID-19 Series During the Spring 2020 semester, campuses across the US switched to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructors were suddenly faced with a range of new and magnified challenges. In this series, we discussed a range of topics to help faculty teach during this challenging time, including (1) communication, (2) building community and facilitating interactions, (3) course structure, and (4) assessments. This series was less formal in structure and provided an opportunity for participants to ask questions specific to their situation.
