Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL)
The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning is dedicated to promoting, enhancing, and assessing teaching effectiveness and student learning. We assist faculty, academic units, and teaching assistants in improving instruction. In addition to the events listed below, we are always available for individual consultations or special activities within a department or college. Most of the workshops count toward CITL certificate program continuing education credit. Please check back often to see what events have been added. Want reminders of what teaching sessions are coming up soon? Join our CITL listserv by sending an e-mail message (must be from your University of Illinois address) to listserv@illinois.edu, and in the body of the message write only the following: subscribe CITL
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Virtual field trips can help bring students to far flung places while still in the classroom, and can even help improve your traditional field trips by augmenting them with virtual reality. Come learn how to quickly, easily, and cheaply put together a quality virtual field trip you can use with your classes! Registration required, bring your own device.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Monday, February 4, 2019
Most teachers get evaluated by their students at the end of the course by implementing ICES. But by then, it is too late to make changes that will make a difference for your current students. You should check in with your students before it is too late. Come to this workshop to learn how to design, implement, and interpret Informal Early Feedback (IEF).
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
The Illini Gadget Garage is a collaborative repair center that assists consumers with troubleshooting and minor repairs for personally-owned electronics and small appliances. Join us to learn how to fix your own devices during this free Pop-In Repair Clinic offered in CITL’s Innovation Studio (Armory 172).
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Thursday, February 7, 2019
This two-part series offers tips on what you can do to increase your confidence as a teacher. In Part 1, topics include creating a comfortable teaching and learning environment, making the material your own, and tips on using your voice effectively. You will be asked to create a 1-2 minute lesson to present during the workshop.
Tech Services representatives will lead this hands-on exploration of the development process to create a simple Alexa Skill and deploy it to a Echo device.
Friday, February 8, 2019
A gentle introduction to the University's new cPanel web hosting platform, including basic orientation to the various tools and resources it provides, and an opportunity to gain some hands-on experience building a simple personal website. No previous knowledge of web programming necessary, bring your own device.
Monday, February 11, 2019
This workshop will introduce you to the basics of 3D modeling with SketchUp. You'll learn how to use this affordable software to mockup and render a floor plan, import existing 3D assets, and create a simple flythrough of your space.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Thursday, February 14, 2019
This two-part series offers tips on what you can do to increase your confidence as a teacher. Part 2 will focus on public speaking skills such as posture, movement, and responding to students' questions. For this workshop you will also present a 1-2 minute lesson in order to practice your newly learned skills.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Learn to respond to student writing in ways that are efficient, consistent, and valuable to students. You will consider goals and how your response can be a part of your teaching method. A toolkit of strategies will help you tackle a daunting pile of term papers, essays, lab reports, etc.
A remix is a piece of media (songs; photographs; videos) which has been altered from its original state by adding, combing, and/or redefining portions of the original. This workshop will explore how to develop remix assignments to challenge your students to not only consume popular media, but to contribute to our cultural landscape. . .
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
This presentation will discuss how to create multimedia projects that have cinematic imagery and engaging stories. This workshop will take you through the entire media production process: from initial concept to final professional product, highlighting the technical and instructional resources available at the Media Commons @ the UGL.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Many of us rely heavily on visual documents and exercises in the classroom. How can we be sure our classes are both engaging and accessible for students with visual disabilities? In this interactive workshop we will explore the benefits of universal design on the student experience, and work in groups to create course materials and activities that are accessible for all.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
The use of humor is effective in motivating students, relieving anxiety, and building rapport. It is also awesome. We’ll talk about why you should bring humor into your class, the types of humor available to you, the types of humor to avoid, and more! Absolutely no giraffes or harmonicas permitted!!
Thursday, March 7, 2019
With the rise of Virtual/Augmented reality experiences and 360 cameras many consumer level tools are becoming available to work with audio in an immersive, object-based context. The most accessible and widely adapted of these tools is Ambisonic Audio.
Monday, March 11, 2019
Spark is a suite of free, cloud-based applications that allow you to easily incorporate multimodal assignments within your course. Whether you want students to work with text and imagery, build their own webpages or create a simple video, Adobe Spark removes the learning curve and tech support typically required. Registration required, bring your own device.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Using copyrighted materials in class? Using copyrighted materials in research? If the answer to one or both of these questions is “yes” then this workshop is for you. Come and discuss how to use materials in your courses and research in a lawful manner.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
The Illini Gadget Garage is a collaborative repair center that assists consumers with troubleshooting and minor repairs for personally-owned electronics and small appliances. Join us to learn how to fix your own devices during this free Pop-In Repair Clinic offered in CITL’s Innovation Studio (Armory 172).
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
What is this thing you’re supposed to include in your application? Some institutions call it a teaching philosophy, some a teaching statement, others a teaching philosophy statement. Come to this workshop to begin the process of identifying your teaching philosophy, deciding which parts of it belong in your statement, and avoiding common mistakes.
Dr. Andrew Wilson, a teaching associate at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School, will demonstrate some of the approaches that he has developed in his own courses and discuss the practical application of Design and VR-inflected pedagogy in the humanities.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Having one or more portfolios focused on learning can give students a huge advantage in understanding their learning style and retaining access to the evidence of their learning while at the University of Illinois. In this workshop we will introduce you to Digication, an ePortfolio tool provided free to all faculty, staff and students, and discuss some ways to think about
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Come learn the basics of soldering electrical components with the help of the Illini Gadget Garage. This quick, hands-on workshop will introduce you to common soldering tools and techniques while putting together your own small soldering project.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
In this workshop, we will discuss all the steps necessary for providing a fun, interactive learning experience to all the students in your laboratory class. Topics include: course planning, group work, providing effective demonstrations, experiment review and more.
Friday, April 12, 2019
It’s actually pretty common to teach material that might be a bit of a stretch for you. Using ideas from Therese Huston’s excellent book Teaching What You Don’t Know, we’ll discover some strategies for comfortably and confidently teaching material that is not your specialty.
Friday, April 19, 2019
Dexter is a free chatbot platform that uses the RiveScript, an easy to learn AI scripting language. It allows users to quickly create chatbots for multiple uses, including both web and hand-held interfaces as well as Alexa apps.
Friday, April 26, 2019
The Illini Gadget Garage is a collaborative repair center that assists consumers with troubleshooting and minor repairs for personally-owned electronics and small appliances. Join us to learn how to fix your own devices during this free Pop-In Repair Clinic offered in CITL’s Innovation Studio (Armory 172).
For more teaching information, visit our main CITL web site. To join our CITL listserv, send an e-mail message (must be from your University of Illinois address) to listserv@illinois.edu, and in the body of the message write only the following: subscribe CITL