On-campus Workshop on Student Distress

The Counseling and Testing Center, along with the Health and Wellness Office, is sponsoring an on-campus training by Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Charles C. Morse, Director of Counseling and Matthew R. Barry, Outreach Coordinator:

“Recognizing and Responding to Student Distress”
Wednesday, February 8th
12:00 – 1:30pm
Cleary Dining Room

During this engaging and informative training faculty and staff will learn how to identify students in distress as well as how to best respond and refer them to the appropriate resources.

Lunch will be provided.  Space is limited so please register early by emailing Jessica Greene at jtgreene@stonehill.edu.

Annual Faculty Technology Showcase

The Department of Information Technology would like to invite you to the annual
Faculty Technology Showcase
Wednesday December 14th
9-11:30am
Duffy Academic Building, room 019

Join us for this excellent opportunity to learn what your colleagues are doing with technology!

Attendees will receive a Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer and participate in a drawing for an HD portable webcam.

Exam Accommodations Information for Faculty

Dear Faculty:

It is that time of year…the final exams period is upon us. Students are responsible for making their own exam accommodations arrangements with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). ODS is available to proctor exams during open office hours Monday-Friday 8:30a-4:30p.  We encourage  faculty to proctor students exams with accommodations whenever possible.

The Exam Accommodations Process entails the following steps:
1.      Students fill out their Exam Accommodations Forms with Faculty

2.      Students submit their Exam Accommodations Forms to the Office of Disability Services at least 7 days prior to their scheduled exam. If this timeline is not followed, ODS cannot guarantee students specified exam dates, and will work with the student to find a mutually agreeable time for the student to take their exam in the Office of Disability Services. 

3.      Faculty submit student’s exams to ODS at least 24 hours prior to when the student is scheduled to take their exam. Exams can be dropped off or e-mailed to eorlando@stonehill.edu. ODS is not responsible for exams that are sent via Interoffice Mail.

4.      Faculty pick up the student’s competed exam. ODS is not responsible for exams returned via Interoffice Mail.

We encourage communication between students and faculty regarding this process. Please feel free to contact the Office of Disability Services if you have any questions. We appreciate your cooperation with exam accommodations. Best of luck with final exams! Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Orlando, MA
Associate Director of Disability Services and Academic Achievement

Conference Spotlight: Teaching Professor Conference

Every year, The Teaching Professor puts on a conference dedicated to “the pursuit of teaching and learning excellence”. The 9th Annual Teaching Professor Conference will take place from June 1-3, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington, D.C.  The conference is very popular and has sold out the last two years, so be sure to register early.

For information on the 9th Annual Teaching Professor Conference, visit their website here.

CFP: Teaching Academic Survival Skills Conference (due Jan 15)

The 23rd annual Teaching Academic Survival Skills Conference will be taking place in Ft. Lauderdale, FL from March 20-23, 2012. The conference will welcome abstracts “focusing on college students, classroom experiences, teaching strategies, study skills, student services, administrative services, and the use of technology in teaching and learning are invited.” Activities will include keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and focus groups.

If you are interested in the 2012 TASS Conference, visit their website.

Conference Spotlight: CUR National Conference

The CUR (Council on Undergraduate Research) holds a biannual conference in even years, with the Annual Business Meeting immediately preceding. The conference includes “over 100 workshops, presentations by representatives of funding agencies, social interactions, and poster presentations” and is designed for faculty, administrators, policy makers, and representative of funding agencies. This year’s conference will be held at the College of New Jersey from June 23-26, 2012.

For more information on attending this conference, visit their main webpage.

Conference Spotlight: The SoTL Commons

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at Georgia Southern University will be putting on their 5th Annual “The SoTL Commons” Conference on the campus of Georgia Southern from March 7-9, 2012.

The conference ” is a catalyst for learning, conversations and collaborations about SoTL as a key, evidence-based way to improve student learning.”

It will feature keynote speakers Pat Hutchings, Mick Healey, and Craig Nelson from The Carnegie Foundation, University of Gloucestershire, and Indiana University, respectively.

If you’re interested in attending the 5th Annual “The SoTL Commons” Conference, visit their website.

CFP: Conference on Team-Based Learning in Higher Education (due Dec 15)

The 11th annual TBLC Meeting will be held on March 2-3, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Florida. There will be pre-meeting workshops on March 1st, and the conference will feature presentations, workshops, oral presentations, and posters.

The TBLC describes themselves as ”a group of educators dedicated to supporting faculty from a variety of disciplines who wish to implement team-based learning.  Our recent conferences have included educators from a range of backgrounds, including medical education, other health-related disciplines, graduate and undergraduate education, professional schools, and K-12 education.”

If you’re interested in submitting a poster abstract for the 2012 conference, the deadline is December 15, 2011.

For information regarding poster abstracts, registration, and hotel reservations, visit the conference website at http://www.tblcmeeting.org.

CFP: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education International Conference (due Jan 19)

The 32nd Annual Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education will be holding their international conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from June 19-22, 2012. The theme of this year’s conference is “Learning without Boundaries?”. The questions that will be explored are:

- Does learning have boundaries?
- What boundaries do we have or need?
- Are boundaries productive? Constructive? Liberating?
- Which boundaries need to be re-drawn, crossed, broken or maintained?

Participants will explore the above themes in the forms of research, teaching practices, learning environments, language, culture, disciplines, and learning support services.

Information on proposal submissions (due January 19, 2012), guidelines, and the online submission process, visit the conference’s website at www.mcgill.ca/stlhe2012sapes.

University of Delaware Problem-Based Learning Workshop

The University of Delaware will be holding a Problem-Based Learning workshop on their campus from January 4-6, 2012.

According to their website, “This workshop will demonstrate problem-based learning (PBL) and model ways that PBL can be used effectively in all disciplines. We will begin with a problem, and participants will work in teams to experience first hand what this instructional approach entails. We will then move to the main focus of this program: writing effective problem-based materials. Participants will leave the session with new or revised problems for use in their courses.”

The conference is meant to be an affordable but effective training session in the latest PBL methods.

For general information on the conference, visit the website at http://www.udel.edu/inst/.

Information on accommodations and travel can be found at http://www.udel.edu/inst/workshops/IntroPBLJan2012/travel_accom.html.