In this episode, Angela speaks with Rush University faculty about their experiences taking CTEI's fully online, five-week teacher training course, Online Teaching and Course Design (OTCD). Among other topics, faculty discuss their motivations for taking OTCD, how it helped them with their teaching, and their favorite parts of the course. The key takeaway: make time for OTCD! It's worth it, it's required, and it's what we owe to our students.

We thank our wonderful guests and their thoughtful contributions: Eileen Giardino, Associate Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, College of Nursing; Merima Karastanovic, Interim Program Director and Assistant Professor, Imaging Sciences, College of Health Sciences; and Linda Olson, Department Chair and Program Director for the Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Health Sciences. 

Rush faculty can find the dates of all upcoming sessions on the CTEI website and sign up for the next session, beginning on June 6.

In this episode, Angela speaks with Rush University and guest faculty about how to embrace vulnerability and overcome fear in your teaching practice. With the dizzying rate of change faculty and students have experienced since COVID began, many of us have been forced to rethink how we teach, often by quickly adapting to new technologies or teaching strategies in an effort to connect with and engage our students. In this talk, our guests reflect on the risks they've taken both in the in-person and online classroom, how they did it, and what happened. Hint: it didn't always work out and that's okay! After all, to quote our guest, Professor Lisa Giarda, "you won't know, if you don't try."

Thanks again to our guests and their insightful contributions! They are:

In this first episode of our second season, Angela speaks with two of CTEI's Instructional Designers, Peg Checchi and Laura Smith. They discuss some of the unusual ways they've assisted faculty with their course design and teaching, as well as what they'd like to do to help faculty. Among other topics, a couple of CTEI's relatively new tech tools are discussed, H5P and Canvas Studio, both of which are fully integrated into Canvas. The big takeaway: reach out to [email protected] for all of your teaching and design needs, even the unusual ones. CTEI Instructional Designers are here to help! 

In this final episode of our first season of Teaching in the CTEI, Angela speaks with Dr. Emily Rush, the newest member of CTEI's Instructional Design team. In addition to sharing her wealth of experience in teaching and instructional design, Emily offers some practical recommendations on creating social presence and impactful student learning experiences with minimal faculty effort. Are you looking for ways to promote a sense of community and enhance student motivation and engagement in your course? Well, give this a listen and reach out to CTEI if you'd like some help implementing these suggestions. 

CTEI thanks our listeners for supporting our inaugural year of Teaching in the CTEI! As always, if you have topic suggestions or would like to be a guest on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected]. We wish you a healthy and happy holiday season. We'll be back in 2022!

How well do you know what is and isn't working for your students in your course? What changes could you make now to improve your students' learning experiences in this and future semesters? In this episode, Angela speaks with Dr. Yasmin Cavenagh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Women, Children and Family Nursing, College of Nursing, and Dr. Evguenia (Jenny) Popova, Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Health Sciences, about how they have used midpoint feedback surveys to gather valuable information and make meaningful changes in real time to their courses. Among other topics, they discuss recommended question types, best practices for administering surveys and sharing results, and changes they've implemented already in their Fall 2021 courses based on student feedback. To assist you in creating your own survey, CTEI has also developed this handy resource, Midpoint Feedback Surveys: A Quick Guide. As always, reach out to CTEI and an Instructional Designer for guidance on this and other teaching strategies and tools. 

You don't have to be an expert to teach well with Canvas! In this episode, Angela leads a conversation with thought leaders (and experts) in online teaching and learning about how to harness the power of Canvas to teach effectively in your online or blended classroom. Among other topics, guests discuss best practices for using Canvas discussion forums, groups, grading, and built-in multimedia tools to create a community of engaged learners. The big takeaway: Embrace imperfection, but don't forget to publish! Guests include:

Dr. Bettyjo Bouchey, MBA, Ed.D., Associate Professor of Business and Management and the Dean of Online Education at National Louis University. Twitter @DRbouchey

Dr. Lisa Bunkowski, Ph.D., Ed.D., Associate Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

John Vivolo, MA, Director of Online and Campus Learning Strategies for the Katz School of Science and Health, Yeshiva University, New York City. Twitter @VivoloJohn

The Fall 2021 term is almost upon us! Is your course ready to teach? In this fifth episode, CTEI Director Angela Solic speaks with Matt West, CTEI's Instructional Technologist, and Micah Murdock, Project Manager for our Canvas migration, about what all Rush faculty need to know when preparing your course in Blackboard or Canvas. Whether you teach fully online or in a blended format, Matt and Micah offer helpful tips and recommendations for creating a well-organized and trouble-free learning experience for you and your students. Topics include publishing your course and course materials, using the "Student View" option, verifying due dates and course enrollment, using your course calendar, and taking advantage of CTEI's instructional design services. 

In this fourth episode, CTEI Director Angela Solic speaks with Dr. Evguenia Popova, Assistant Professor and Dr. Bridget Hahn, Assistant Professor and Academic Coordinator, both from the Department of Occupational Therapy in the College of Health Sciences at Rush. Dr. Popova and Dr. Hahn discuss their recent research on resilience and self-care among Occupational Therapy graduate students and strategies that they have used in their everyday teaching to support student well-being. Among other topics, they offer guidance on promoting faculty and student wellness in and outside of the classroom. 

Connect at [email protected] and [email protected]

In this third episode, CTEI Director Angela Solic speaks with Dr. Kathryn Osborne, Associate Professor in the  Department of Women, Children and Family Nursing in the College of Nursing and one of Rush's Canvas Pilot faculty currently teaching in Canvas this summer. Among other topics, Dr. Osborne reflects on the process of getting ready to teach in Canvas, learning the new platform, and collaborating with CTEI staff to develop her course. 

In this second episode, CTEI staff interview faculty and students who have made the transition to Canvas learning management system. Faculty reflect on their own experiences and share helpful tips and recommendations for those now making the big move. The big takeaway...embrace the opportunity and dig deep in that Canvas Sandbox! Guest speakers include:

Chef Kat Kessler, Former Department Chair, Baking & Pastry, New England Culinary Institute

Chef Scott Richardson, PhD, faculty at Valencia College and Johnson & Wales University

Dr. Monica Solinas-Saunders, PhD, Associate Professor, Indiana University Northwest School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Joseph Ferrandino, PhD, Director, School of Criminal Justice, Ferris State University

Claudia Pouravelis, EdD, Associate Dean of Enrollment Management & Student Engagement & Faculty member, Boston College

Dr. Kristin Holland, former faculty, University of North Carolina

Kyra Washington, student, Bradley University