Teaching and Learning Days - May 26 & 27
At a virtual two-day event on May 26 & 27, 2021, Merrimack faculty and staff will present best practices, strategies, reflections, tools and more to promote engagement and student-centered teaching and learning.
Register now and a Zoom access link and calendar invite will be shared with you.
Day One - Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Throughout the day we will be soliciting your “One Best Thing” that you will definitely want to do in the Fall. You will have the opportunity share your ideas throughout the day. The idea list will be shared after the event.
Register Now for May 2021 Teaching and Learning Days
Day one sessions will be moderated by Kathryn Nielsen, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Teaching, Learning & Digital Innovation and Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Email Kathryn Nielsen
Visit CETL website
9-10 a.m. - Merrimack College and the Early College Movement
Presenters: Russ Olwell, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Winston School of Education and Social Policy & Student Panel
Email Russ Olwell
Participants will receive a copy of Dr. Olwell’s book, A Guide to Early College and Dual Enrollment Programs: Designing and Implementing Programs for Student Achievement.
Early college and dual enrollment programs are a powerful way to help high school students make a more successful transition to higher education. Merrimack College’s early college experience, starting in 2016, has shown institutions in Massachusetts and beyond how four-year private colleges can create powerful programs that change lives and institutions. This talk will use Merrimack College’s work with Lawrence High School as a case study of what is possible using this model.
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10:30-11:30 a.m. - Higher Education Practices for Neurodiverse Students: Providing Accommodations While Maintaining High Expectations
Presenter: Kathryn Welby, Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Practice, Education & Community Studies, Winston School of Education and Social Policy
Email Kathryn Welby
Higher education is rapidly changing creating more opportunities for students of all learning profiles. The cumulative number of neurodiverse students entering higher education creates a growing challenge for faculty. With an increasing number of students with various learning profiles, abilities, and diagnosed disabilities in our classes, whether on ground or remote, we as faculty, need to think about strategies to teach all our students. This workshop will discuss tips, tools, and strategies to accommodate our students’ diverse learning profiles while maintaining high expectations.
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12-1 p.m. - Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into the Curriculum
Presenter: Simona Sharoni, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Email Simona Sharoni
In this workshop, we will examine best practices and various approaches to incorporating DEI into our teaching and pedagogy. From offering extra credit to students to decolonizing the curriculum and everything in between, faculty will have an opportunity to reflect on their experiences and plans for the future. We will also discuss the resources and support faculty need to expand this work.
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1:15-2:15 p.m. - Connecting Your Teaching and/or Research with Community Priorities
Presenter: Elaine Ward, Ed.D., Associate Professor, Higher Education
Participants will receive a copy of Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s American Sunrise.
Learn about current opportunities to connect your students and Merrimack’s external partners and how to connect teaching and research with community priorities. Learn about exciting ways to harness individual and collective resources to build collective impact.
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Day Two - Thursday, May 27, 2021
9-9:45 a.m. - Defining a New Digital Literacy for the Post-Pandemic World
Presenters: Lyena Chavez, Frances Nilsson, Katherine Turcotte, C.J. Wong, and Gabby Womack
Libby. Browzine. MSW. McQuade’s e-resource collections are diverse and ever-evolving - it’s hard to keep up! Join our librarians for a “speed resourcing” event where each librarian will give a lightning talk on a resource and together we will brainstorm ideas on how to incorporate it into your teaching and learning.
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10-10:45 a.m. - Labbing, Coding and Drawing Without Limits
Presenter: Erin Courville
The pandemic brought specific challenges to courses that rely on physical computer labs. During this session, you will learn about Apporto, our new application that allows you to collaborate easily with your students while using your discipline-specific tools from anywhere! We will provide you with updated strategies for successful mobile use.
Learn all about:
- The ability to use a Mac as a PC, run various shared programs (SPSS, AutoCAD, Photoshop, RStudio, Netbeans to name just a few)
- The ability to view what students are doing in order to assist them with complex problems
- The ability to collaborate via the built-in chat function
- Analytics to measure how often your students spend logged in and using the labs
11:15 a.m.-noon - Iron Chef Challenge
Facilitators: Janet Syed, Erin Courville, Lyena Chavez, Katherine Turcotte, Chip Kennedy, and Ashley Callis
Join colleagues to creatively and collaboratively explore the question, “How do we create an inclusive classroom community?” Participants will work together in a light-hearted competition to learn and share insights into ways they can apply research-based strategies for building an inclusive classroom.
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12:15-12:45 p.m. - Virtual Escape Room Demonstrations
Presenters: Charlotte Berkes, Ph.D., Dana Rowland, Ph.D., and Sharon Shore Taitelbaum, M.Ed.
Put on your super-sleuth hat, grab your imagination and watch how your colleagues are using escape rooms within their classrooms. Educational escape rooms are growing increasingly popular in Higher Education. Gamifying your classroom is a great way to ignite participation and learning in students. Each escape room’s premise is to “escape” by achieving the learning goals(challenges) in the given amount of time. Instructional designers will be on hand for follow up appointments on designing your own Escape Room.
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12:45-1 p.m. - Create Your Micro-
Lecture Q&A
Presenters: Janet Syed & Erin Courville
Review the resources attached to guide you in creating and editing short videos to introduce new learning modules, flip a lesson or lecture, reenact historic events, enhance online learning, demonstrate lab procedures, or document a community event. Drop into this session to ask your questions and ask for advice.