Faculty Teaching Fellows
The Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty (PDoF) and the Center for Learning, Teaching & Research (CLTR) are pleased to announce an opportunity for faculty members to serve as Faculty Teaching Fellows in the CLTR. The new program offers a one-year role providing the opportunity to explore, develop, and disseminate ideas that further support a culture of teaching and learning at Colgate.
Please review the document linked below to learn more about the Faculty Teaching Fellows program and apply to be a participant.
Constance Harsh, Professor of English and Rebecca S. Chopp Chair in the Humanities, will serve as the inaugural CLTR Teaching Fellow. In this role, Connie is leading a collaborative project focused on exploring strategies to strengthen students’ capacities for deep reading and comprehensive reflection. The hope is that faculty can think about how to support students as they seek to extend their attention span in a world full of distractions. In the spring 2025 semester, we’ll host several conversations to pursue this project.
The first conversation will take place on January 31 at 12:15 in 101A McGregory Hall. This will provide an opportunity for faculty to learn more about the project, and consider a plan for the semester that will have two chief aims: understanding the obstacles to reading deeply and paying sustained attention; developing methods for chipping away at those obstacles.
Each conversation this term will be individually announced to the community. To be added to the mailing list, contact Connie or the Center for Learning, Teaching, and Research (cltr@colgate.edu). A few faculty teaching FSEMs in fall 2025 will collaborate on implementing some of the strategies we identify. Reach out if you would like to join this cohort.
Faculty Learning Communities
Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are collaborative, cross-disciplinary groups of faculty members who come together to engage in ongoing, reflective discussions and activities focused on enhancing teaching and learning. FLCs provide a supportive environment for faculty to engage in shared inquiry, explore specific issues together, and develop new pedagogical approaches. Please review the information below to learn more about current and future FLCs.
This Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will launch in the Fall 2025 semester. The overview linked below provides more details about the FLC's work, along with a brief form you can complete to express your interest in participating. Please feel free to reach out to the CLTR (cltr@colgate.edu) if you have any questions.
Designing for Every Learner: Enhancing Access and Engagement (CLTR FLC)
This Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will launch in the Fall 2025 semester. The overview linked below provides more details about the FLC's work, along with a brief form you can complete to express your interest in participating. Please feel free to reach out to the CLTR (cltr@colgate.edu) if you have any questions.
Bridging Coaching and Teaching in Higher Education (CLTR FLC)
The document linked below provides additional information about the work of this faculty learning community (FLC) which will be meeting regularly throughout the 2024 - 2025 academic year. A brief summary is also available that outlines some of the ideas and lessons learned from the fall 2024 semester.
Exploring genAI in Teaching and Learning FLC (overview)
Pedagogical Partnership Program
The CLTR will be continuing its Pedagogical Partnership program during the 2025–2026 academic year. This program is informed by similar programs originally developed at BrynMawr College by Allison Cook-Sather, that included student consultants as partners in the classroom. This original work in the SaLT (Students as Learners and Teachers) program, focused on connecting students, faculty and staff in various forms of co-creation and co-learning. Building on this work, the CLTR seeks to create spaces where faculty, students and academic staff can partner to co-create equitable teaching and learning.
During the fall 2025 semester, a new cohort of student partners will be participating in an orientation course to assist in preparing them for partnership roles with faculty members in the spring 2026 semester. We will also be engaged in outreach to share information about partnership work, and invite interested faculty to contact the CLTR cltr@colgate.edu with questions or to express interest in participating in this program. Below are links to documents providing more information about the program.
Reading Groups
This spring 2025 semester, the CLTR will be facilitating a reading group for the book, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. This will be a great opportunity to connect with colleagues, share ideas and potentially implement some small changes in your teaching.
Dates and times are listed below, and all sessions will be held in McGregory 101A
- Friday, February 7, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
- Friday, February 14, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
- Friday, February 21, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
Lunch will be provided and we kindly ask you to register for the sessions you’d like to attend to assist us in ordering an appropriate amount of food.
Teaching Tables
Teaching Tables represent more structured and moderated conversations around specific topics that are brought to the CLTR from faculty, students and staff. If you have a teaching need, wish to explore a new technique, want to hear from a faculty panel on a specific topic, etc. just let us know. You propose the topic and perhaps suggested presenters and we do all the work to set things up. To suggest an idea please email cltr@colgate.edu.
Reading and Attention (CLTR Faculty Teaching Fellow Session)
Date: Friday, 31 January 2025, 12:15 –1:15 p.m.
Location: McGregory 101A (lunch provided)
Facilitator: Connie Harsh
Constance Harsh, Professor of English and Rebecca S. Chopp Chair in the Humanities, will serve as the inaugural CLTR Teaching Fellow. In this role, Connie is leading a collaborative project focused on exploring strategies to strengthen students’ capacities for deep reading and comprehensive reflection. The hope is that faculty can think about how to support students as they seek to extend their attention span in a world full of distractions. In the Spring 2025 semester, we’ll host several conversations to pursue this project.
The first conversation will provide an opportunity for faculty to learn more about the project, and consider a plan for the semester that will have two chief aims: understanding the obstacles to reading deeply and paying sustained attention; developing methods for chipping away at those obstacles.
You can signal your interest in this project, whether or not you can attend on the 31st, by completing this Google form. (It will be easiest if you reply by January 29.) The form will also give you the opportunity to request a copy of Gloria Mark's Attention Span, which has much relevant material.
Each conversation this term will likely be of general interest and will be individually announced to the community. But we are also hoping that a few faculty might collaborate as they develop their fall 2025 classes to implement some of the strategies we identify. Think about whether you would like to be part of this cohort.
A Conversation about Grading and Learning
Date: Monday, 3 February 2025, 12:15 –1:15 p.m.
Location: Lathrop 107 (lunch provided)
Facilitators: Teo Ballvé and Aaron Gember-Jacobson
Are you interested in integrating statistics in your courses? Looking to provide students with easy to use tools and resources? The Data Science Collaboratory at Colgate University has worked to develop software that addresses barriers to teaching and learning quality statistical practice and accompanying materials for guiding the learning of foundational concepts in statistics. Colleagues in the Collaboratory have created a series of advanced case studies that instructors can use to guide quantitative analyses in courses that use statistics. In this teaching table we will discuss the interactive R Shiny web apps we developed to conduct technically sound statistical analyses that empower instructors and students. These free resources provide exposure to current quantitative research and equip users with the skills to select, apply, and interpret appropriate techniques in real-world contexts, regardless of their prior mathematical or coding experience.
To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
Group Work that Works!
Date: Monday, 26 February 2025, 12:15 –1:15 p.m.
Location: McGregory 101A (lunch provided)
Facilitators: Cat Cardelus and Regina Conti
How can we design group work that fosters meaningful collaboration and equitable participation? What strategies effectively manage group dynamics and address challenges like uneven workload distribution? Join us for this teaching table, facilitated by two Colgate faculty members with thoughtful insights on creating and managing group learning experiences that truly work – for both students and instructors. After brief presentations to spark ideas, we’ll open the floor for conversation, inviting colleagues to share experiences, challenges, and strategies. Together, we’ll explore practical approaches to structuring group projects, fostering accountability, and assessing collaborative efforts. Whether you’re new to group work or looking to enhance your approach, this session promises fresh perspectives and supportive dialogue. To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
Considering Disclosure and Openness in AI Use
Date: Tuesday, 25 March 2025, 12:15 - 1:15 p.m.
Location: Lathrop 107 (Lunch provided)
Facilitator: Jenn Lutman & Jeff Nugent
The educational use of AI is an increasingly varied and nuanced landscape. Many faculty members issue blanket bans on AI use, while others may invite specific or limited use in coursework. While such differing views may be productive, they also mean that students must navigate contrasting messages about what constitutes appropriate or inappropriate use of AI, leaving them with questions about how they should (or should not) disclose AI use to instructors. In this session, we’ll consider the potential of openness as a guiding principle for AI use in the classroom, exploring whether clear expectations for disclosure and dialogue can potentially serve both to uphold academic integrity and support student learning and engagement. What could be the benefits of teaching transparency as a practice that applies not only to citing sources, but to the use of new technologies? What new models or frameworks exist that faculty may find useful in thinking about practices of disclosure and transparency? Join us for this teaching table for some dialogue about these and other questions. To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
Writing Assignments, Assessment, and AI
Date: Tuesday, 1 April 2025, 12:15 - 1:15 p.m.
Location: Lathrop 107 (Lunch provided)
Facilitators: Jenn Lutman & Stacy Kastner
As generative AI tools like ChatGPT proliferate, will writing assignments remain an effective way for students to learn and a reliable means of assessing their learning? Join us for a conversation about whether and how we can ensure that writing assignments and assessments remain meaningful, even as AI tools like Jasper, Claude, and ChatGPT can assist with every stage of the process—from researching and summarizing to brainstorming, drafting, editing, and even responding to and assessing writing. To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
Structuring Effective Peer Review
Date: Thursday, 3 April 2025, 12:00-1:00pm
Location: McGregory 101A (Lunch provided)
Presenter: Jenn Lutman
Effective peer review of writing can support the writing process, improve the quality of students’ work, build community, and even save instructor time. Thoughtful guidance and preparation helps ensure that students engage meaningfully. This 1-hour workshop will explore strategies and resources for structuring peer review to increase student engagement and improve the quality of peer-to-peer feedback. (Lunch will be provided. Though registration is not required, it would be helpful if you would complete this form to indicate your interest in attending.)
Morning Grind with the CLTR
Please come join CLTR staff and Colgate colleagues for some coffee and conversation about teaching and learning. The Grind sessions are a bit "open mic" in spirit, and don't tend to have topics identified in advance...but the conversation is always interesting. You can come anytime and stay for as long as you'd like.
Please stay tuned for spring '25 Morning Grind sessions.
Teaching and Learning Workshops
CLTR staff partner with faculty and facilitate workshops on a range of teaching and learning topics. We also collaborate with colleagues in the Learning and Applied Innovation (LAI) group in ITS to conduct workshops addressing the meaningful use of technology to support instruction. A full list of sessions can be found on the workshop calendar page. Please reach out to the CLTR with any ideas you have for a workshop you'd like to see us offer.