Faculty Lunch & Learns

Communication-Intensive faculty continuously tell us how helpful it is to chat with other faculty from across campus about what’s working and not working in their classes.  In an effort to facilitate this type of educational engagement, CxC is hosting monthly brown bag lunches for C-I faculty.

The schedule is below, so mark your calendar and bring your lunch!  If you have non-C-I colleagues who are interested in innovative teaching methods, feel free to bring them along.  This faculty development is focused on giving faculty good techniques for improving students’ communication skills and increasing their understanding of course content.

Spring 2013

“Using Your iPad for Business,” hosted by the CxC College of Business Studio – How can you get the most from an iPad in a business setting? There are hundreds of thousands of apps available – how do you pick the ones that will help you be more productive? Dave Paradi, MBA has been leveraging his iPad to get work done on the road and in this webinar he will share some of the ways you can make best use of an iPad for business use.  This session will cover a variety of tips and trick, such as accessing files using cloud storage, syncing iPad and desktop files, MS Office apps, delivering PowerPoints from the iPad, marking up PDFs, and more!

>> Tuesday, March 26, 12:00-1:30 p.m., 1700 Business Education Complex 

“Looking for the Pedagogy in Blended Course Design,” hosted by CxC Music & Dramatic Arts Studio – The proliferation of blended/hybrid initiatives and resources is heartening and furthering a delivery model that is reaching maturity. However, there is still much to be examined about what organizations promote as models for designed blended courses and how these models are enacted by practitioners. Dr. Patricia McGee, associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, will present the findings from three studies examining blended best practices, pedagogical practices, and learner preparedness. She’ll also address mission directly by sharing a range of pedagogical strategies and best practices that are directly aligned with learner success through the axiomatic use of technology to support and facilitate learning.  This session will focus on the following themes: (a) identifying effective practices that relate to course priorities; (b) adopting a layering strategy for organizing the blend; (c) utilizing a learner-centered approach in course components; and (d) identifying needs of the blended learner.

>> Monday, March 18, 12:00-3:00 p.m., 245 Music & Dramatic Arts

“STEM Teaching Methods That Work,” hosted by CxC Engineering Studio - Numerous surveys and reports have documented that far too many college students either fail or become bored with science and technology courses, abandoning plans to major in STEM fields.  Dr. Steve Benton, senior research officer at the IDEA Center, will explore the relationship between teaching methods and learning objectives in STEM education. The idea behind this analysis is that the right approach to learning objectives and teaching methods could lead to meaningful improvements in STEM education.  This session will cover the following questions:  Which learning objectives are emphasized in STEM classes? How much learning are students reporting on those learning objectives? Which teaching methods might be employed to support greater student learning? What are student and course characteristics in STEM courses? How can this analysis be used to improve the success and learning of students enrolled in STEM courses?

>>Wednesday, March 13, 1:00-2:00 p.m., 2301 Patrick F. Taylor Hall

It’s Tech Training for You! – Do you wish you knew more about innovations in Office 2013?  Would you like to assign your students multimedia projects but know that some lack basic technology skills that you don’t have time to teach?  Well there’s a great resource just for you and your students – lyndaCampus! Via lyndaCampus, you and your students can access free software, business, and creative skills training 24/7 on more than 1,600 different programs?  Tutorials are broken down into small, 3-5 minute videos so you can get right to the specific function you need to learn, or you can take advantage of some of the professional tutorials like how to choose the best font.  And you can do it all while sitting in the Quad or wearing your fuzzy slippers!  Join us for this fun session to learn more about the resources within lyndaCampus.  We’ll talk about how you can build a customized playlist of tutorials related to your course, reducing the tech-teaching and troubleshooting in the classroom; track students’ usage of the assigned tutorials; and use lyndaCampus as your own personal/professional development tool.

>>Wednesday, Feb. 20, 12:30-1:30 p.m., 104 Design Bldg.

Fall 2012

Special Session by the LTC: “Flipping the Lecture” – Do you want your students to more comfortable with applying their knowledge or solving problems? Then your classroom may be ready for a flip! Join us for this faculty development session where we will explore the concept of “flipping the classroom,” a technique that refers to reversing traditional instructional approaches so that students use out-of-class time for viewing lectures and readings (formerly in-class lectures) and in-class time for interactive lessons and application learning (formerly out-of-class homework). Through this strategy, the classroom becomes a place to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning, maximizing the scarcest learning resource—time.

>>Nov. 19, 2:30-3:30p, 210 Choppin Hall

Engaging Students Inside & Outside the Classroom, co-sponsored by FTC

>>Nov. 1, 12-1p, 109 Middleton Library

Copyright Chat – An exploratory conversation about copyright as it relates to images, audio, videos, and other resources students frequently incorporate into slide presentations, posters, websites, and other commonly assigned Communication-Intensive projects.

>>Sept. 13, 12:00-1:30p, 225 Peabody Hall

Spring 2012

Writing for Deeper Learning – A review of LSU’s NSSE data and implications for teaching and developing writing assignments in the disciplines.

>>Wednesday, March 14, 12:30-1:30, 225 Peabody Hall

Think Video! - Designing student assignments that enhance critical thinking, organizational and communication skills, and deeper learning of course content using “alternative video projects.” (*This is NOT for the professional filmmakers or screenwriters!)

>>Tuesday, Feb. 14, 12:30-1:30, 225 Peabody Hall

Fall 2011

Energizing Writing Projects – See how LSU faculty are empower students to write for a global audience and publish research to Wikipedia.
RESOURCES: Teaching with Wikipedia

>>Wednesday, Nov. 16, 12:30-1:30, 104 Design Building

Taking a Look Outside and In – Join the discussion with top employers about the challenges LSU grads face when communicating in the workplace and how LSU faculty might help further improve students’ communication skills.

>>Tuesday, Sept. 13, 12:00-1:30, 225 Peabody Hall

Spring 2011

Harnessing the power of PowerPoint as a Visual communication tool (not a bulleted outline)

>>Tuesday, April 12, 12:00-1:00, 225 Peabody Hall

Tips, tricks & lessons learned from teaching C-I courses

>>Friday, March 11, 12:30-1:30, 225 Peabody Hall

Helping student writers in your “non-writing” courses. 
RESOURCE:  Perceived Roadblocks to Transferring Knowledge from FYC to Writing-Intensive Major Courses: A Pilot Study

>>Tuesday, Feb. 1, 12:30-1:30, 225 Peabody Hall