August 2025 - Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence

Good morning and happy August from the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE)! The month’s newsletter includes information about how to sign up for our Students Consulting on Teaching (SCOT) program; links to resources for planning a great first day of class and new CTLE Teaching Resource pages; and registration information for upcoming August and September programs.

STUDENTS CONSULTING ON TEACHING (SCOT)

One of the most important ways the CTLE supports teaching and learning at SU is through our Students Consulting on Teaching (SCOT) program. SCOT program is a short-term partnership between a faculty member and a student consultant who is trained to help faculty gather learner feedback. The purpose is to support faculty in making small, meaningful teaching changes that are informed by both broad research on learning and student feedback in a specific course. Instructors and students consistently report that SCOT is a uniquely effective way to gain insights, build skills, and improve teaching and learning in the classroom. There is still time to be paired with a Student Consultant for the Fall 2025 semester! Sign up today by filling out this short form: SCOT Faculty Sign Up. Questions about SCOT? Contact SCOT Coordinator Ebony Graham at ebgraham@syr.edu.

IDEAS FOR YOUR FIRST DAY OF CLASS

As you plan for your first class meeting, check out these online resources for ideas on how to get students engaged and make a great first impression:

CTLE RESOURCE PAGE UPDATES

If you haven’t visited our curated resource pages recently, you might have missed these recent additions:

Many people will be interested in this new section on our Generative AI resource page for how to design and assign AI Use/Disclosure statements as part of students’ required work:

Generative AI and ChatGPT: AI Use and Disclosure Statements | Syracuse University CTLE

AUGUST 2025 PROGRAMS

Several of our August programs are already at maximum capacity but there are still spaces available in these upcoming workshops and programs:

Lunch and Learn: Supporting Student Success with Productive Error Course Design

This Lunch and Learn will begin with a brief overview of some specific course design principles such as scaffolding, low-stakes assignments, student reflection and self-assessment, and regular in-class practice time, as well as pedagogical practices such as co-creating community agreements and demonstrating approachability, that help create a “productive error” classroom climate. We’ll touch on small, specific ways to increase students’ understanding of the vital role of mistakes in learning how to do anything new, and how many aspects of standard schooling and traditional grading feeds students’ fears about making errors. Then, after some group brainstorming, participants will have time to engage in their own course and assignment adjustments and revisions through the lens of normalizing mistakes and reframing errors as an essential part of building new skills and knowledge. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring their laptops and a syllabus for this portion of the workshop. Registration closes on August 8, 2025.

August 15, 12:00-1:30 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

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Guest Speaker: Melissa Eblen-Zayas, “Pedagogical Wellness”

The extra intentionality we give to support student well-being can sometimes feel like it happens at the expense of our own capacity and well-being – but does it HAVE to? Come to this guest speaker-facilitated workshop, “Pedagogical Wellness is about Students and about You,” to explore ways to support student well-being while also supporting your own well-being inside and outside the classroom.

Dr. Eblen-Zayas is a condensed matter experimental physicist with interests in correlated electron systems, actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning with interests in advanced lab instruction and approaches to creating classrooms and institutions that welcome diverse learners and teachers. She recently co-authored an article in The Physics Teacher titled “Course Modifications to Support Student Mental Health and Move Towards Universal Design for Learning.”

August 18, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Zoom

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Workshop: Alternatives to Timed Exams

Looking for a teaching strategy that will maximize accessibility in your classes while simultaneously hugely reducing stress for you and for your students? Consider using, whenever possible, assessment alternatives to high-stakes timed exams and quizzes! In this workshop, we’ll review some of the drawbacks to utilizing timed exams for assessing student learning and explore a variety of other options for encouraging and measuring authentic student learning. We will be offering two sessions of this workshop: one via Zoom and one in-person.

August 18, 3:00-4:00 p.m., Zoom
August 21, 9:00-10:00 a.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

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Workshop: Co-Creating Classroom Civility

How can college educators work together with students to create and maintain respectful and productive learning environments? Encouraging and ensuring civility between students, and between students and ourselves, can be challenging at times, and politically/socially divisive events and issues create additional pressures on classroom interactions. This workshop explores one high-impact strategy: co-creating with students, and incentivizing ongoing use of a classroom standards, values, and/or “rules of engagement” document. We will be offering two sessions of this workshop: one via Zoom and one in-person.

August 21, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)
August 21, 3:00-4:00 p.m., Zoom

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Workshop: Planning for Learner Variability

This workshop will begin with a short discussion of how and why “learning styles” are a harmful neuromyth and then explore why “learner variability” is a more productive and empowering way to frame the wide diversity of student life circumstances, interests, and educational experiences. Then we’ll delve into specific examples of how to plan for learner variability, including using a variety of modalities and means for assessing learning, to increase inclusion and accessibility for everyone in your class. We will be offering two sessions of this workshop: one via Zoom and one in-person.

August 18, 9:00-10:00 a.m., Zoom
August 22, 2:00-3:00 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

SEPTEMBER 2025 PROGRAMS

Several of our Fall Semester programs are already at maximum capacity but there are still spaces available in these upcoming workshops and programs:

Guest Speaker: Michelle Miller, “Remembering Names: Techniques Anyone Can Learn”

Learning students’ names in a timely fashion and with correct pronunciation is a key technique for setting a welcoming, personalized, and engaging classroom atmosphere. However, most people struggle with learning names, due to the characteristics of human cognitive and memory systems. Led by guest presenter Michelle Miller, this workshop leads participants through effective strategies for name learning, drawing on the presenter’s background in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics and her recent book A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can (University of Oklahoma Press). Read more about her work in this Chronicle of Higher Education interview: How Can Professors Learn Students’ Names? A Scholar of Memory Shares Her Process. Dr. Michelle Miller is a cognitive psychologist, researcher, and speaker focused on supporting higher education faculty in creating effective and engaging learning experiences for students, author of Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology: Teaching, Learning, and the Science of Memory in a Wired World (West Virginia University Press, 2022) and a Professor of Psychological Sciences and President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Northern Arizona University.

September 3, 3:00-4:30 p.m., Zoom

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Information Sessions: Evaluating Teaching using the CTB Framework

What is the Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTB) framework? As Lauren Barbeau and Claudia Cornejo Happel, authors of Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching, write on their website, the CTB Framework “defines instructional practices to create a shared understanding of good teaching by providing a concise synthesis of research-based teaching behaviors proven effective for improving student learning. It consists of six defined categories, representative behaviors, and documentation an instructor can collect as evidence of engagement in these behaviors. Aligned peer observation and student feedback instruments allow instructors to create narrative coherence across their teaching materials.”

This Fall, the CTLE will offer four different in-person information sessions about using the CTB Framework, tailored to meet the needs of specific stakeholders on campus. Each 1.5-hour session will offer participants a “crash course” in utilizing this framework in order to better identify and document effective teaching practices. The first three people to sign up for a session will receive a free copy of the book when they attend the in-person session at 550 Bird Library (CTLE). You do not need to have the book to participate but reviewing the CTB website ahead of time would be helpful. In addition, if you would like to schedule an Information Session for your department, your P&T Committee, or other school/college group, just get in touch: Contact Us.

Teaching Professors Information Session: Using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework to Document Your Teaching Effectiveness

September 12, 3:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

Tenure-Track Faculty Information Session: Using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework to Document Your Teaching Effectiveness

September 15, 2:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

Associate Deans and Chairs Information Session: Using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework for Tenure and Promotion Reviews

September 16, 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

Chairs and Senior Faculty Information Session: Using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework for Peer Teaching Observations

September 17, 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m., 550 Bird Library (CTLE)

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Workshop: Inspiring Authentic Learning with Primary Sources from the Syracuse Art Museum Collections

This workshop will begin with a brief overview of the SU Museum Collections and the opportunities it offers faculty to schedule a class visit and session at the Museum. Then we will explore how these class sessions draw on evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices for authentic learning and helping students build academic integrity skills. The remainder of the session will be participants workshopping assignments and syllabi for how to incorporate a Museum Collections visit into their class. Co-facilitated by Kate Holohan, Curator of Education at the SU Art Museum and Jessamyn Neuhaus, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. The workshop will take place at the SU Museum, and space is limited to 20 participants.

September 23, 2:00-3:00 p.m., Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building

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From Catalog to Classroom: Crafting Course Titles and Descriptions That Reflect Content and Attract Students

Course titles and descriptions are often the first chance to connect with students, both current students navigating registration and prospective students exploring programs. Yet too often, they are written for internal audiences, filled with jargon, out of date, misaligned with actual course experiences, or just plain dull. This Zoom session, facilitated by Megan Oakleaf, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Information Studies, and Lauren Juiliani, Director of Academic Operation, School of Information Studies, explores how faculty and administrators can revise course titles and descriptions to be more accurate, engaging, and student-centered. Drawing on examples and helpful strategies, we’ll discuss ways to make course information clearer, more appealing, and better aligned with learning outcomes. Participants will learn about one school’s experience in preparing faculty to update their course titles and descriptions and leave with a slide deck template for facilitating this process with their own faculty and staff.

September 24, 12:00-1:00 p.m., Zoom

CONSULTATIONS

We are available to support and assist you with any teaching-related issues, including but not limited to syllabus review, designing assignments, soliciting and interpreting student feedback, and navigating student biases and stereotypes about professors. Contact us via the Consultation Request Form on our website.