Welcome back! I hope you took at least a little time to recharge and enjoy the summer weather over the past few months. Although many things around WSU have and continue to change, please remember that CTL is here for you. Whether you are experiencing a technical issue or inspiration related to teaching, we want to support you. Kicking off the semester, Sarah Twill, Ph.D., M.S.W., Professor, Social Work and Lisa Kenyon, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, will be leading a Fall Tips and Sips over at the Wandering Griffin on September 6th from 4:30-6:00pm. Join faculty to discuss a teaching tip over a drink. Time and energy savers, as well as innovative ideas, will be shared to make your semester get off to the right start. Faculty attendees should bring a nifty teaching idea that they can explain to others in under 4 minutes. Keep it simple— no need for preparation or handouts.
As the semester unfolds, we will continue to offer instructional design services, internal workshops on various topics (such as use of PILOT, course design, educational tools, scale up classrooms, distance learning and classroom management), classroom observations and consultation, pre and post-award grant consultation and support, universal design for learning and accessibility guidance, midterm evaluations, book clubs, personal consultation and troubleshooting, consultation on evaluative measures within a course, active learning cohorts, writing boot camp facilitation and space, and external programs such as webinars. We also have available space and educational technologies for design and experimentation purposes. In addition, we also are here to meet your learning management system (PILOT), distance learning and other educational technology hardware/systems support and consultation needs. Last but not least, we are available and interested in providing guidance and technical support on grant proposals and research projects involving educational activities and/or technology.
Taking a quick moment to look back, it is important to acknowledge all of the people who have since moved on from CTL over the past year. It is hard to believe we have had to say goodbye to Chris Beach, Cheryl Silcox, Theresa Dorn, Phil Combs, and Mindy Louderback. We truly appreciated their support and contributions as members of the CTL family and wish them well in their future endeavors. In addition, I want to thank Dr. Sean Pollock for his four years of service as the CTL Faculty Director. He provided stellar support and commitment to CTL and I wish him the best during his sabbatical leave.
Moving into the role of faculty director for CTL, I can honestly say I am so excited to have this opportunity to engage with the WSU community around their educational ideas and research. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of the CTL staff at any time.
Gina Oswald, faculty director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and professor of rehabilitation services.
