April 8, 2013 | SharkAdmin Special guest Emily Lardner, co-director of the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education (The National Resource Center for Learning Communities) and faculty member at Evergreen State College joins us on April 11 and 12 for two days of faculty development with a variety of informational sessions and a lunch-and-learn workshop. Space is limited, so reserve your seat today through AlamoLearn! Thursday, April 11: Why Teach a Learning Community? A Faculty Perspective Select a session: 9:30 am, 11:00 am or 3:30 pm A great one-hour session for those faculty who are still on the fence about teaching in a learning community format. As a strategy for improving student persistence and student learning, learning communities have much to be said for them. Learning communities have benefits for faculty too – but teaching in a learning community is not the same as teaching alone. What are the benefits and what are the challenges? More importantly, what are some strategies to increase the benefits and reduce the challenges? We’ll explore each of those questions. Friday, April 12: The Truth about Learning Communities: What the Research Tells Us 10:30 – 11:45 am Part of ‘Faculty Development Fridays,’ this session will introduce current national literature and research about student learning and engagement that derive from participation in learning communities. Learn how interdisciplinary collaborative teaching benefits students and faculty. Learning Communities Workshop: A Platform for Integrative Learning 12:00 – 2:00pm This lunch-and-learn session will introduce a process for creating integrated assignments that are grounded in faculty’s individual disciplines. Join your colleagues in an exploratory process where participants will to work in teams of 2 to 3 to create integrated assignments for possible use in a future learning community. Space is limited to 40 participants, so register early to secure your seat. You must be registered to receive lunch. To register, log into ACES, click on the Employee tab, and click on the Alamo Learn link. Select My Learning from the menu, and locate the event on the calendar. Each of these events is listed under “Learning Community Workshops.” Click on the event you wish to attend and register.
