FCTL Events Calendar

Past Events

Workshop: Prepare for January’s Early Spring Session

Are you teaching during the Early Spring session? Learn how to adapt a 15-week course to a 3-week session in January. 

Date, Time, Location

• Monday, December 18 from 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
• offered via Zoom
• will be repeated in later Spring for Summer session courses

Advising Workshop: Hope for Students’ Futures

The arrival of the Hope Scholarship brings tremendous opportunity for our students. However, students need guidance on maintaining eligibility, which further elevates the importance of advising. In this workshop, we’ll cover advising practices that are crucial to helping students navigate the eligibility requirements of the Hope Scholarship. Fortunately, the advice we give for the Hope Scholarship coincides with best practices in academic advising, so all faculty advisors are encouraged to attend. This workshop is facilitated by: Mark Medwid (Director of Faculty Advising), Chris Da Costa (Director, Office of Academic Advising), Lindsay Petrarca (Asst. Director, Office of Academic Advising).

Date, Time, Location

• Wednesday, October 25 from 12:30–2:00 p.m.
• hybrid: in person or virtual

Conference: New England Faculty Development Consortium (NEFDC)

The FCTL will sponsor a team of 4–6 RIC full-time faculty to attend the NEFDC conference in October. The theme of the conference is Breaking Convention in Teaching and Learning: "Teaching and learning everywhere is experiencing dramatic disruption, forcing educators to rethink what it means to prepare students for an uncertain future. While some disruptions certainly present opportunities for justice, change also introduces new challenges. How do we intentionally disrupt taken-for-granted conventions of higher learning rather than feeling as though the disruptions are happening to us? What practices have we put into place that work in disrupting conventions?"

We are recruiting a team of RIC faculty interested in attending the conference, incorporating the information into their classes, and sharing the information with other RIC faculty at a future FCTL event (e.g., panel discussion, teaching showcase, or other similar event). Full-time faculty must attend the event in-person, briefly meet with the RIC team before and after the event, and share what you’ve learned in an FCTL teaching roundtable, teaching showcase, or similar event.

Date, Time, Location

• Friday, October 20 from 8:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
• College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA)

Past Events

Lunch 'n Learn: How Do I WID When There Are So Many Bodies in the Room?

In this presentation, Dr. Mary Baker (Anthropology) and Dr. Mike Michaud (English, Writing Board) will team up to discuss the challenges of adapting WID curricula when there are 25+ students in the room. In particular, they’ll focus on how to use writing as a tool to teach course content and assess student learning without creating additional workload for the instructor. 

Date, Time, Location

• Friday, March 7, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• offered via Zoom

Lunch 'n Learn: Did AI Write That?

Join Dr. Mike Michaud (English, Writing Board) in this discussion session. We’ll share experiences with and strategies for managing AI in college writing assignments. Faculty who teach WID classes are especially encouraged to attend, but the event is open to all RIC faculty who assign, teach, and grade writing.

Date, Time, Location

• Friday, February 23, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• offered via Zoom

Lunch 'n Learn: Behind the AI Curtain: Friend or Foe?

Learn the shocking truth with RIC’s own AI expert, Dr. Timothy Henry (CSIS, Cybersecurity Institute). Get a behind-the-scenes look at how AI works. Brainstorm with him and other faculty on ways to use it in classes.

Date, Time, Location

• Friday, February 16, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• offered via Zoom

Understanding Diverse Learners Video Club

It’s like a book club, but with videos! You’ll have a week to watch a set of videos. This set focuses on: (a) Reaching neurodiverse students, (b) Creating a sense of belonging for BiPOC students, (c) Strategies to create an inclusive environment for gender variant students, and (d) Designing courses to enhance student veteran success. Each video runs approx. 20-50 minutes (total time is just shy of 3 hours). At the end of the week, we will hold a group meeting to discuss the videos and help brainstorm specific ways to implement the strategies in your courses. This will be offered three times during the semester to help accommodate different scheduling needs (you only participate in one of the weeks). Each group can decide whether they want the meeting day to be virtual or in-person. The available weeks are:

• Week 1: Watch videos between February 2-9. Meeting date is Friday, February 9 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.
• Week 2: Watch videos between February 21-28. Meeting date is Wednesday, February 28 from 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Week 3: Watch videos between March 18-25. Meeting date is Monday, March 25 from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Choose Your Own AI Adventure

This event is a special opportunity for faculty from CCRI, RIC, and URI to meet in virtual space and explore the uses of AI in the classroom. Participants will be able to choose from among various workshops geared toward using AI to support their teaching and their students’ learning. Examples of workshops offered include: Developing a course (writing a syllabus, developing assignments, etc.); Preparing lessons (creating PowerPoints, interactive learning); Supporting student success (teach students how to use AI in their studying); Maintaining Academic Integrity, etc. Save the date -- additional details are coming soon

Date, Time, Location

• Thursday, January 11 from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
• offered via Zoom

Design Your Syllabi to Motivate and Engage Students

As you prepare for the semester, consider adjustments in your syllabi to support student success. Several topics will be covered to create a more inclusive syllabus that promotes greater equity and motivation for students. The focus is on strategies that can be more easily implemented before the semester starts. You are encouraged to bring along any syllabus to revise during the session.

Date, Time, Location

• Tuesday, January 9 from 9:00–10:30 a.m. on Zoom, and repeated on
• Tuesday, January 9 from 1:30–3:00 p.m. on Zoom

TILT Assignments for Greater Student Success

“TILT” is an evidence-based technique for making assignment expectations more understandable and transparent to students, which helps them produce better work as a result. Faculty can TILT any assignments in any discipline, whether it involves writing, presentations, solving problems, science labs, group work, reflections, and more.

Date, Time, Location

• Monday, January 8 from 10:30–11:30 a.m.
• offered via Zoom

Course Policies: Flexibility with Accountability

Course policies establish an instructor’s expectations for students; however, at times, they may conflict with students’ needs for flexibility. This session explores ways to build flexibility into your course that support emergent student needs while still allowing the course schedule to proceed as planned.

Date, Time, Location

• Monday, January 8 from 9:00–10:00 a.m.
• offered via Zoom

Engaging Students in Asynchronous Courses

This session highlights three key areas to consider when planning asynchronous courses to enhance student engagement: Engaging students with content, Engaging students with other students, and engaging students with the instructor. It does not address the use of Blackboard, but examines best practices and provides tips that you can implement before the semester starts.

Date, Time, Location

• Thursday, January 4 from 9:00–11:00 a.m.
• offered via Zoom

Mini Course Design Institute: Foundations of Inclusive Course Design

Join the FCTL for our new Mini Course Design Institute on the Foundations of Inclusive Course Design. It will cover several basic areas that will help you either revise an existing course or create a new course based on best practices in inclusive teaching and learning. Among the topics covered are: introduction to inclusive course design, a robust learning objective framework for more significant and enduring student learning, learning assessments, inclusive course policies, and syllabus design. The information is relevant for any course modality (in-person, asynchronous, hybrid), and faculty who complete all sessions in the institute will receive an FCTL certificate on Foundations of Inclusive Course Design.

Date, Time, Location

• Wednesday, January 3 from 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
• in person and on campus for this session

Please Note: Seating is limited for the in-person January session. The Institute will be offered multiple times throughout the year and additional modalities will be available.

Coming soon...