CFE Newsletter

Sections:

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the close of another semester. We know you are to be commended for your efforts balancing student success, scholarship/research, engagement and outreach and your own wellness. You continue to achieve incredible accomplishments as we all find our way through the current stages of a global pandemic, and we recognize this requires resilience, compassion and sacrifice. A heartfelt thanks to those of you who have made time to be part of the work of the CFE this semester.

The end of the semester comes with a duty to reflect on recent accomplishments and things we wish we might have done differently – both potentially pointed out in student course evaluations. Fall 2021 course evaluations will be released to you and your supervisors on December 21, 2021. Below you will find several resources intended to help you make the most of your course evaluations, including the Peer Feedback Template to use if you follow the recommended practice of requesting a trusted colleague to review your course evaluations and summarize the feedback, which affords the possibility of screening hurtful or overly personal attacks while still gleaning improvement opportunities from the students’ perspective.

We also want to encourage you to take the time to update your Activity Insight pages with the course evaluation scores and your contextual comments at this time since annual reviews are right around the corner. You can save yourself time later by attaching PDFs of your course evaluations and other relevant materials now rather than waiting for the annual review deadline.

Finally, as this semester ends and you prepare for the upcoming semester, please know that all of us in the CFE stand ready to help you use your course evaluations to improve your teaching, develop meaningful excellent syllabi, and/or help orient you to your classrooms and academic technology for the upcoming semester.

We wish you a safe, refreshing winter break and happy holiday season!

Most sincerely,

The CFE Team

Fall 2021 Course Evaluation Reports Release on Tuesday, December 21^st

To access your Fall 2021 course evaluation reports, please go to your account and make sure the Selected Term is set to Fall 2021.

Here are some templates and short articles that provide some strategies and tips for contextualizing and interpreting course evaluations.

Ask a Trusted Colleague to Help
Course evaluations can provide insight into your students’ experiences in your class separate from their learning, and guide your teaching for future classes. If reading your course evaluations is a stressful activity for you, consider asking a trusted colleague to read your evaluations and put them in perspective for you using the Peer Feedback Template  assembled by Shihua Brazill, CFE instructional designer. You may want to provide the same service for your colleague.

How to make the best of bad course evaluations
This short article provides good advice on how to interpret common criticisms from students and put them into a bigger context.

Course evaluations as a tool for growth
This short article offers ideas for using reflection to identify common themes and areas to improve in without having to reread and revisit prior course evaluations.

My worst student ratings ever
One faculty’s experience with lower ratings after making a change that did not initially go well and what they learned from this experience.

If you have trouble accessing the articles or would like to review and discuss your course evaluations with a CFE instructional designer, please email cfe@montana.edu to set up an appointment.

Connection Hours with CFE!

Tuesday, December 21 || 10:00 – 11:00 am or 1:00 – 2:00 pm || via Webex

Click here to join via Webex from 10:00 – 11:00 am

Click here to join via Webex from 1:00 – 2:00 pm

We would like to hear from you! Join us anytime from 10:00 – 11:00 am or 1:00 – 2:00 pm via Webex to let us know how you are doing and how we can support you. What things are working well? What things are you struggling with? Share your thoughts with your colleagues and the CFE team.

Workshop: Panopto Basics

Thursday, January 6, 2022 || 10:00am to 10:45am || Webex (register for the link)

REGISTER HERE and the link will be sent to you

Join us for an online workshop and learn how to use Panopto, our new institutionally-supported lecture capture service! In this workshop you will learn how to: 

• Log into and explore your Panopto account. 
• Record, edit, and share videos. 
• Embed videos into D2L/Brightspace courses. 

For more information about Panopto, please visit the Panopto page on the Academic Technology & Outreach website. 

Visit the CFE website for the most up-to-date listing and links for registration. For a full archive of past workshops, visit the Recorded Workshop library

Grant-Writing Bootcamp: From Idea to Proposal

Fridays, January 7, 14, 21, 28 and February 11 || 10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Facilitated by Nika Stoop, CFE Program Lead – Research/Scholarship

Co-sponsored by the Office of Research Development (part of the Office of Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education)

APPLICATIONS DUE TOMORROW!

Go through the grant-writing process from beginning to end while working on your own grant proposal. With feedback from peers and experts, this 5-session workshop over 6 weeks is designed to help novice grant writers understand the requirements of a grant opportunity, collect and create the many parts of a proposal, organize and write about their project, connect with MSU resources, and submit a grant proposal at MSU.

• Learn more about the program and submit your application here

MSU Library Open House - In-Person & Interactive Virtual Activities

January 18, 2022 from 3-6 p.m

The tradition continues. We look forward to gathering with MSU faculty, staff, graduate students, and Bozeman community members to enjoy food and beverages, listen to music, and explore the services offered by MSU Library and our partners. Our theme this year will be a bit different. In the past, we’ve chosen themes centered on classic works of literature, but for 2022, we will broadly celebrate the theme of reading. We've asked partners to select a book and we'll celebrate the joy and importance of reading in our personal, intellectual, and professional lives.

In this section, we are posting some short articles with practical teaching tips:

• Online Equity Rubric. This is a research-based framework for developing aspects of online courses that increase student success. Universal design for learning is an essential component of the online equity rubric.  
• Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything. This book shares how redesigning your syllabus can transform your teaching, classroom, and the way students learn.
• Inclusion By Design: Survey Your Syllabus and Course Design. The Inclusion by Design tool is rooted in theory and research on inclusion, multicultural education, universal design for learning, implicit/unconscious bias, and the hidden curriculum.

• You can also find Teaching Tips and other resources on the CFE webpage

Find graduate student resources here that you can share with your students.  Visit The Graduate School resources for faculty and staff website.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity members receive a weekly motivational email (the Monday Motivator) and access to the full NCFDD Core Curriculum, guest expert webinars, intensive multi-week courses facilitated by national experts, a private discussion forum, monthly writing challenges, and the opportunity to connect with a writing accountability partner. Learn more about how to register.

MSU Center for Faculty Excellence
114/116 Montana Hall Montana Hall | Bozeman, MT 59717
http://www.montana.edu/facultyexcellence/ | cfe@montana.edu  | 406-994-4555