Illinois Summer Teaching Institute

In June, the University of Illinois hosted the 2021 Illinois Summer Teaching Institute (ISTI). ISTI was created to provide faculty with an opportunity to review best practices, different pedagogical approaches with colleagues, and receive hands-on training that would help prepare them for the Fall 2021 semester.

It is critical for faculty and instructors—no matter how experienced or accomplished—to have professional development opportunities, even more so as we emerge from a global pandemic and, simultaneously, move to the Canvas learning management system (LMS). Learning from and collaborating with each other helps us reflect and reset, expand our knowledge, learn new skills, be inspired, and build our confidence, ensuring our professional growth as educators, the academic growth of our students, and the viability of our university.

THE CURRICULUM

The three-week course, “Amplifying Student Learning Across Modalities,” was delivered using the Canvas LMS and divided into three modules that focused on enhancing instruction through the use of multimodal approaches, innovative assessments, and strategies for increasing student engagement.

Throughout the course, participants had many opportunities to engage one-on-one with faculty peers as well as eLearning professionals from across campus and from the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL). The culminating assignment for the course was a fully-developed syllabus incorporating some degree of hybrid design, at least two assessments designed for students in a hybrid or online environment, and at least three new ways to engage students in a hybrid or online environment.

Module 1: Designing your course

During remote instruction, faculty and students were forced to adapt to teaching and learning in new ways. The presentations in this module take a closer look at courses designed for different teaching modalities including synchronous hybrid, distributed attendance, and in-person with synchronous and asynchronous components. Listen as over twenty instructors and staff share their experiences with a variety of teaching strategies, digital tools, and classroom management techniques. Personal as well as practical, this module offers important ideas and lessons to consider as we move forward. What have we gained from the remote experience, and what are the challenges that remain?

Objectives:

• Design your course to remove barriers based on teaching modality
• Deliver lectures in a hybrid course
• Facilitate discussion and group activities in a hybrid course

Module 2: Improving Student Engagement

There are many ways we can improve our students’ ability to engage. We can demonstrate our caring for their learning progress, show them the usefulness of their learning objectives, ensure that our course is accessible and inclusive, and build in many opportunities for them to succeed.

In this module, presenters shared their stories of which instructional strategies and course design elements successfully improved student engagement in their teaching and learning contexts. They also shared many practical tips that will help you integrate them into your course and employ supportive technologies.

Objectives:

• Identify and correct accessibility issues in your hybrid or online course.
• Develop strategies to ensure equity in your hybrid or online course.
• Develop lessons or activities to engage students using new technologies/strategies.

Module 3: Leveraging Multiple Assessment Modalities

What do you think of when you hear the word “assessment?” Grading, test, appraisal, judgment all come to mind. An assessment is a systematic collection of information that informs the instructor and the student about what and how well the student is learning for the purpose of improvement.

In this module, presenters shared best practices in assessments for all modalities, developing assessments for hybrid courses, high-frequency, low-stakes options, assessment design for academic integrity, creating assessments in Canvas, using Zoom and other tools in assessments, and more.

Objectives:

• Develop and plan for implementation of at least two new assessments course
• Facilitate assessments using Zoom
• Create assessments using the Canvas LMS
• Implement a variety of assessments

ISTI Recordings

Recordings of the ISTI presentations and workshops are on MediaSpace and available to anyone with an @illinois.edu login. The presentations are grouped by module. You may watch the recordings in order or easily skip to the module(s) that best suits your current needs. We hope they serve as a valuable resource as you prepare your courses for the upcoming semester and beyond.