March 2021 Monthly Newsletter
If you need any support as the semester progresses, please do not hesitate to contact the Office of Faculty Development & Faculty Success or the Office for Teaching & Learning (OTL)!
—Sara Kacin
Applications for the 2021-22 Academy are now being accepted!
The Provost's Office began accepting applications to the 2021-22 Academic Leadership Academy on January 25. The application portal will close March 25.
The Academic Leadership Academy (ALA) was created to support the development of the leadership skills and capacity of WSU faculty and academic staff. ALA aspires to increase the number and broaden the impact of skilled leaders at WSU who can contribute to the mission of the University and enhance the lives of its students, employees, and surrounding community members. Learn more about the ALA by visiting our website.
To learn more about why leadership development is beneficial for faculty and academic staff, we recommend reading this Inside Higher Ed article.
Join ALA Steering Committee Members and current ALA fellows for informational sessions as they answer your questions about the academy! Only one session remains, so RSVP soon!
(Click to RSVP)
Activate your free, institutional NCFDD membership!
- Click on the following link: https://www.facultydiversity.org/institutions/wayne
- Complete a brief registration form using your Wayne State Access ID email
- You will receive a confirmation email from NCFDD. Click "Activate Account" in the email to begin using your membership!
- Do you need to have a breakthrough in your writing and research productivity?
- Do you promise yourself every term that you're going to be highly productive but end up falling short year after year?
- Do you want to learn why NCFDD's Faculty Success Program consistently improves over 90% of participant's productivity every session?
If so, join NCFDD for one of their most popular webinars, where you will learn:
- How to avoid the biggest mistakes academic writers make during the academic term
- How to maximize your research and writing productivity
- How to combat professional isolation and create a supportive writing community
The 14-Day Challenge is an opportunity for you to experiment with daily writing, online community, and supportive accountability. It's very simple:
- You commit to write every day for at least 30 minutes.
- At the beginning of your writing time, you log in to our online community, start the timer, complete your writing, and post your progress at the end.
- You take 5 minutes to support other writers in your group by commenting on their progress.
Upcoming Professional Development Programming from Faculty Development & Faculty Success
Chair Chats
Wednesday, Feb. 17 (9:00 – 10:30 a.m.)
These informal sessions hosted by the Provost's Office will allow both new and experienced Department Chairs to network and share ideas and best practices with each other and offer ideas for future career and leadership development programming. For some sessions, university representatives will be present to inform Chairs of new developments and to answer questions about university functions and units. During the 2020-21 academic year, Chair Chats will be held through Microsoft Teams on the third Wednesday of every month from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. Please contact Jake Wilson if you need help accessing Chair Chats.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of virtual and online networks to supported continued professional engagement and well-being. Join us for a hands-on webinar with Dr. Jennifer Hart of the WSU Department of History to learn how you can harness Twitter to strengthen your network.
Additional Offerings Across Campus
Join C&IT virtually for the Michigan Canvas Users Conference (MCUC) on Friday, March 12, 2021, to discuss the rapid evolution of education and how to design virtual experiences that address systemic inequity!
Online language teaching poses unique challenges and offers unique affordances to instructors and learners. In this panel discussion, participants will hear from several instructors with experience designing and teaching online language courses. Panelists will share their background and tips for ensuring student engagement and increased language proficiency using synchronous and asynchronous methods, as well as discuss some lessons learned since the shift to fully online instruction in March 2020. Participants are encouraged to come with specific questions about designing and teaching online language courses.
In this session, participants will discuss approaches to building student engagement by leveraging social media. For many students, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Youtube, and Tik Tok are all part of daily living. By strategically incorporating social media, professors can increase peer-to-peer engagement and help students apply course concepts. Institutional policies on social media for teaching will be shared, along with example assignments designed by instructors at Wayne State. This will be an interactive session with time for exchanging experiences and ideas.
Social media has become part of our students’ daily lives and many of our lives as well. Movements such as the #SciComm (science communication) and #Twitterstorians (Twitter historians) communities on Twitter and other social media platforms have created a space for experts and novices to engage in dialogue on field-specific topics. Instructors can leverage these existing communities to introduce students to the current discussions within their fields and to allow students to begin engaging in larger discourses. Join the OTL and Wayne State faculty members to discuss ways to get started with social media and to integrate social media platforms in your teaching.
