Published: Aug. 21, 2018
Participants work in small groups during a workshop on Universal Design for Learning

Campus was quiet, but the ASSETT team was hard at work! We offered a series of special summer events, prepared new offerings for the coming academic year, and polished up our ongoing programs and services.

Here are some virtual postcards from our staff about we did this summer:

Amanda McAndrew, Faculty Services Portfolio Manager

What, summer’s over? Say it ain’t so, Joe! But, it was a productive one. I pondered questions like how are we connecting students to one another, to authentic audiences for the work they produce, and to experts in the field? How are we encouraging students to be critical consumers and producers of knowledge in the internet information age? For answers, I read, attended conferences, and interviewed teaching and learning center professionals at other institutions. So, I’m teaming up with Caroline Sinkinson in University Libraries for a pilot project, Domain of One’s Own (DoOO), that will investigate how we can help our students develop digital identities and digital literacy. Also, newly on board in ASSETT is our Teaching, Learning, and Technology Initiatives Graduate Assistant, Blair Young. Blair is a grad student in ATLAS’s Information Communication Technology for Development program. She will be assisting us with the DoOO pilot and our Faculty Fellows program. Welcome, Blair! And if you’re interested to learn more about DoOO, check out our upcoming workshops for an information session in November.

Jacie Moriyama, Student Services Portfolio Manager

Summer was busy with planning, delivering, and attending professional development workshops and conferences. The summer has also been bittersweet. We bid farewell to our colleague Clara Smith, who has been instrumental in mentoring and managing our undergraduate student employees.  While we are sad to see her leave, we are pleased to welcome Sam Kindick as our new Lead Student Fellow. Sam is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Classics Department. If you’re around the TLC building, please give Sam a warm welcome. To get ready for fall, I asked the Student Fellows how they’d like to expand their service offering in the area of teaching and learning. Their answer: Helping faculty and graduate students conduct mid-semester evaluations. To learn more or to request working with a Student Fellow, please email us at assett@colorado.edu!   

Joy Adams, Teaching & Learning Consultant

I taught my summer course, “Introduction to Human Geography,” for The University of Maryland. It was my third time to teach it fully online, so I had a chance to try a few new things. I incorporated weekly metacognitive activities based on what I learned during the ASSETT Summer Book Club. To save students some money, I ditched my print textbook and utilized open educational resources (OER) instead. And, of course, I made time for my passionate, ongoing love affair with grading rubrics. I learned a LOT from these experiments and look forward to sharing tips and tricks with the A&S faculty at our upcoming workshops this fall!