York College Active Teaching & Learning Institute

The Institute is a new initiative created by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Educational Technologies, in collaboration with the Collaborative Learning Center at York College.

What is it?

CTLET, in collaboration with the Collaborative Learning Center, is launching an Active Teaching & Learning Institute offering York College faculty comprehensive guidance for face-to-face, online and hybrid teaching that engages students in achieving the college's General Education goals. (Note: There will no longer be a separate York online/hybrid course instruction training program.) Course modules are spread over 3 semesters--spring, summer and fall, and will be offered online, with a few face-to-face sessions flexibly scheduled to accommodate participants. While open to all faculty who have not previously participated in the CUNY or York online/hybrid instruction training programs, for its first cohort (maximum 25 faculty), the Institute will focus on new hires and adjunct faculty.

What will participants do?

In the first semester, participants will critically examine their teaching beliefs, their understanding of our students, their course's goals and content in relation to Pathways, YC's mission and goals, the curriculum, students' goals and motivation; they will research teaching and learning resources specific to their field and reach out to York and CUNY colleagues to build a teaching network; they will create or review existing course objectives; design learning activities and assessment instruments; and experiment with a diverse set of teaching strategies and technologies for the face-to-face, large and online classrooms. Throughout, participants will creatively think about and tackle common issues of students "being underprepared," "not doing the reading" or "not participating." Participants will collect all reflections, ideas, work created or reviewed and draft a teaching portfolio. In Fall 2019, participants, with support from CTLET and the Collaborative Learning Center, will implement what they learned, engage in peer review and observations, respond to student evaluations, and discuss findings with colleagues in their departments. In late Fall 2019, participants will get the opportunity to present their new teaching experience and any findings at a Teaching@York College Symposium. Upon successful completion of the Institute, participants will present to their chair their teaching portfolio, including evaluations from students, peers, mentors and CTLET staff.

Compensation

Upon successful completion of all assignments, active participation in all face-to-face sessions and fulfilment of all evaluation and observation requirements, participants will receive a stipend of $1,200 (NTA rate for 24 hours) to be paid in two installments in summer 2019 and winter 2020.

Timeline

Application: February 14 – February 21
First online assignment: Friday, March 1st
First face-to-face meeting: Friday, March 8 (2 hours)
March – May (total 11 hours):  bi-weekly online sessions with peer interactions (total 8 hours). Thursday May 30: face-to-face session (3 hours)

Learning objectives
Alignments and scaffolding
Teaching philosophy and portfolio
Issues, challenges and strategies in teaching and learning
Putting thoughts in action: designing assessments, learning activities and assignments
Peer-review and feedback
Friday June 7: face-to-face session (2 hours)

Revising learning activities based on peer-feedback
July - August: flexible online sessions (4 hours)

Continuing design learning activities and assignments
September-December: (5 hours)

Implementation
Reflecting on the teaching experience
Collecting students' feedback
November: Share the teaching experience and findings in a Teaching@York Symposium

Application

(Note: Faculty who have previously participated in the CUNY or York online/hybrid instruction training programs are not eligible to apply.)

Application is open now until end of day Thursday, February 21. Accepted faculty will be notified by Wednesday, February 27 the latest.

Application Form for Active Teaching & Learning Institute

Center for Teaching, Learning and Educational Technologies (CTLET) home page