CEILS Monthly Newsletter | Issue #63 | July 8th, 2020 | ceils.ucla.edu

CEILS Special Announcements

Dear Colleagues, The “pivot” to remote teaching has challenged us to rethink the way we teach and the way students learn. At the same time we are examining how we are engaging with students and each other through the lens of anti-racist pedagogy and inclusive teaching. We know it takes time and effort to be more intentional, and so many of you have worked so hard to transform your courses. As part of striving to make our classrooms more equitable, it is important to recognize that according to recent data “The pandemic has accelerated and worsened equity gaps in higher education and its connection to work.” We have created a new webpage, Equity & Social Justice in STEM, that includes guidance to support your self-education on anti-racism in STEM and the Academy.  If there is any way you don’t feel included or your needs are not being met, we welcome your feedback .  We are looking forward to working with you! Peacefully, Rachel, Shanna, Katie and PwintPhyu

CEILS Summer Workshop Series: Teaching Equitably Online To help you adapt your Fall and Session C courses to a remote or hybrid environment, CEILS has created a new summer workshop series: Teaching Equitably Online. In this series, you will work with colleagues, guided by CEILS experts, to discuss and redesign your syllabus, assessments, and class activities. The focus will be on doing so in ways that foster a more inclusive and equitable remote learning experience for your students, in ways that try to mitigate the likely worsening equity gaps in higher education . You are welcome to attend any or all of the workshops. Syllabus Design: July 21st, 1:00 - 2:30 pm Designing Assessments: July 29th, 3:00 - 4:30 pm Designing for Student Engagement: July 31st, 1:00 - 2:30 pm RSVP for the workshops here.

CEILS Anti-Racism Discussion Group Fridays, 3:30-5:00 pm In an effort to take action to combat structural racism, CEILS will be holding a summer Anti-Racist discussion group. We will discuss anti-racist literature, videos, podcasts and articles with the goal of educating ourselves. This is a safe, brave space, in which we will discuss the systematic structures of racism and the work we can do individually and as a community to dismantle them by using the lessons learned in each session. Come as o ften or as rarely as you like. This week we will discuss the topic of "understanding anti-racist ideas and policies" by reading " 6 ways to be antiracist, because being 'not racist' isn't enough"  (A summary of the defining book, How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi), Register here. Note: There is a grad student and postdoc specific group that meets Wednesdays from 12-1:30pm. Future faculty should thus RSVP here.

CEILS Quick Guide: A One-Page Summary of Steps for Shifting to Remote Teaching Suffering from resource overload? Not sure where to start on your course adaptation? On a time crunch? Check out this summary guide to help you quickly navigate the abundance of resources organized by the amount of planning time you have available. View the Summary Guide here.

CEILS One-on-One Pedagogy Consultations Need help planning for summer course design or getting a start on fall planning? Schedule a 30 min. meeting for a one-on-one consultation with the CEILS leadership team Email us at media@ceils.ucla.edu to reserve a time .  Please briefly describe the help or advice you need and we will connect you with someone on the team with the requisite expertise.

Check Out the CEILS Curated Calendar of Events Looking for other online events related to inclusive teaching or equity in STEM? Check out the CEILS calendar of events for a curated list of local and national workshops, webinars, and conferences! We update this calendar regularly so check back often. View the calendar here.

Faculty Tell All: Remote Teaching Spotlight

Announcing the new CEILS Remote Teaching Spotlight Series. Each month CEILS will feature remote teaching highlights from UCLA STEM instructors who faced and overcame some of the most difficult challenges of teaching in an online environment.

July Spotlight: Dr. Jenny Casey Dr. Jennifer Casey, winner of UCLA's 2019 Distinguished Teaching Award, just received the 2020 Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching for her Spring 2020 enhanced general chemistry pilot course (Chem14AE). In this 7-minute video, she describes her approach to a remote version of Chem14AE, how she fostered group work and built engaging and effective community through remote teaching. She talks about the challenges she encountered along with great tips for overcoming these obstacles. This pilot course is supported by a UC Provost Grant, the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and CEILS. Watch the interview with Dr. Casey here.

Do you or someone you know have a success story with remote teaching that you want to share? Email us at media@ceils.ucla.edu

Equity and Social Justice in STEM

Announcing the CEILS Webpage for Equity and Social Justice in STEM

CEILS has curated materials from across the nation that help work towards a goal of equity and social justice in STEM education. Our new webpage is designed to provide guidance to help you learn more about inequities in STEM and strategies to create more inclusive and equitable classroom environments. We have organized these materials into 3 categories: Guides & Teaching Techniques Research and News Events Visit our new Equity and Social Justice in STEM webpage here.

Support for Remote Instruction

The New and Improved CEILS Remote Teaching Guides CEILS gathered all the Remote Teaching resources we've collected this quarter and incorporated them into our existing Teaching Guides to help streamline your course development. View our Teaching Guides here.

Need One-on-One Zoom help or want someone to sit in on your Zoom session? Email lazoomassistance@gmail.com to reach a team of CEILS-trained undergraduates standing by to help out. Indicate when you’d like an appointment, and they’ll respond as soon as possible.

Featured Resource: Accessible Course Resources and Information The Center for Accessible Education has created a toolkit to quickly assist campuses across the country who are moving online virtually overnight in response to COVID-19. They hope this toolkit will help ensure that this rapid change to an online format does not result in lack of access for students with disabilities. View the resources here .

Featured Resource: USC Syllabus Review Guide In this interactive resource, the University of Southern California Center for Urban Education outlines the traditional purpose of the syllabus, uses findings from empirical and peer-reviewed articles to answer questions that are often asked about syllabi, and offers examples of language for syllabi that support or hinder learners’ experiences. View this interactive tool here.

Additional UCLA Workshops for Remote Teaching: Preparing Your Course for Summer Centers across campus are hosting workshops, webinars, and drop-in office hours to help support instructors plan for summer session classes.

To view a full list of available workshops and ways to join, visit the website .

Featured Opportunity

Call for Manuscripts from the Journal of Microbiology & Education Research: Teaching in a Time of Crisis: Special Issue on Pedagogy in COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the approaches that educators use for teaching students and engaging them in the learning process. Thus, the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (JMBE) announces a Call for Manuscripts for a special issue focused on “Teaching in a Time of Crisis.” They invite manuscripts that offer perspectives, reviews, tools and curricular supports, and research findings collected during the COVID-19 crisis that provide insights into teaching during this period. Learn more! .

Teaching Awards

Congratulations to the Teaching Award Winners from the CEILS Community! Congratulations to CEILS Faculty Learning Program participant Tonya Kane and Summer Institute Scientific Teaching Fellow Noa Pinter-Wollman for winning Life Sciences Educational Innovation Excellence Awards. Congratulations to Ben Harrop-Griffiths, one of the faculty working with undergraduate Learning Assistants, in winning a Math Distinguished Teaching Award. Congratulations to Jenny Casey, a Summer Institute Scientific Teaching Fellow for winning the Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching.

National Webinars and Workshops

The Online Summer Institute on Scientific Teaching July 20th - 24th

The Online Summer Institute on Scientific Teaching is designed for STEM faculty, grad students, and postdocs new to teaching. In this five-day institute, participants will experience a thorough introduction to the Three Pillars of Scientific Teaching: Inclusivity, Active Learning, and Assessment. Register now for this free 5-day workshop. Check out the other Summer Institute dates here.

Summer Institutes of Scientific Teaching: Friday Happy Hours  Join colleagues across the country for stimulating conversation and camaraderie each week on topics such as: July 10, "How Flipped Classes Can Transition Seamlessly to Remote Instruction" July 17, "Open Educational Resources and Textbook Affordability" Lightning Round Talks: 8 Great Apps for Online Teaching July 15th, 12:00 - 2:00 pm | Register here

Free Virtual Conference: Preparing for the Challenge of Teaching this Fall July 13-14th Join faculty colleagues, thought and practice leaders from universities and colleges worldwide to discover their perspective on pedagogy, blended learning and how to deliver engaging and effective experiences for students. REMOTE will help you design and deliver a better back to school this fall and beyond. Learn more and register here.

Virtual Conference: American Association of Physics Teachers Virtual Summer Meeting July 19-22nd This conference has multiple virtual workshops on physics and astronomy including a workshop entitled "Developing the Next Generation of Physics Assessments" and "Moving Towards Accessibility in Physics Education with Universal Design for Learning". All workshops four hours and under will cost $50 for members and $100 for non-members. Learn more and register here.

The STEM Leadership Alliance Summit July 13th-16th Register Now! The free STEM Leadership Alliance, associated with  NSF INCLUDES , is committed to bridging the gap between education and industry through STEM experiences for educators and students. The Alliance will foster STEM integration in education that prepares students to compete in a changing global economy.

Fundamentals of POGIL Virtual Workshop July 20-21st | Register here. This free virtual event is an introductory workshop and is designed for those with limited or no previous exposure to Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). Participants will have the opportunity to engage in POGIL activities, observe facilitation strategies firsthand, and learn about POGIL classroom implementation. Additional Workshop for participants: Activity Writing Virtual Workshop  July 27th | Register here. Participants for this Activity Writing workshop must either be registered to attend the Fundamentals of POGIL Virtual Workshop (July 8 & 9, 2020 or July 20 & 21, 2020) OR have previously attended a 1-day or 3-day POGIL workshop .

Webinar from the SEA Change Institute Talking about Leaving STEM Revisited: Entering an Uneven Playing Field  July 21st 8:00 - 9:00 am | Register here. Analysts discuss the consequences for college transition and survival in the early stages of STEM majors that arise from disadvantages of social class, race, ethnicity and gender. Most significantly, these include; under-preparation in the K-12 system, problems arising from choice of majors or career pathways, and the need to work while in college. Future webinars in this series: August 18th,, "STEM Learning Experiences and Their Consequences"  September 22nd, "Dysfunctions of the STEM Weed-Out System"  October 27th, "Dimensions of STEM Persistence"

Call for Proposals: AAC&U Annual Meeting: Revolutionizing Higher Education After COVID-19 January 20 - 23rd, 2021  In this moment of unprecedented transformation and uncertainty, and in the broader context of an urgent need to educate students democracy, can higher education harness the resilience, creativity, and innovation that have been unleashed by the COVID-19 crisis and emerge from it strengthened? Will the inevitable restructuring and reorganization intentionally prioritize quality, equity, and inclusion? The 2021 annual meeting will explore these urgent questions now facing colleges and universities. The Proposal Submission Deadline is July 20th Visit the event website for more information.

Additional Remote Teaching Resources

Check out the CEILS Remote Teaching Checklists!

The Checklist for Quickly Moving to Remote Teaching A detailed checklist, links to resources, and suggestions on preparing your classes for a quarter of remote teaching. The Checklist for Remote Assessment Recommendations Learn more about alternative assessment tools including those that can be used to disincentivize cheating. Quick Steps for Shifting to Remote Teaching (1-page) This quick guide can help you determine steps to take to adapt your class to a remote learning environment based on the amount of planning time you have available. The Instructor-TA Communication Checklist Use this checklist to help guide conversations with your instructional team, including your TAs. See the associated workshop and materials here.

CAT Resources for Remote Teaching: A resource page for remote teaching guides, tips, and resources for instructors and TAs Student Resources for Remote Learning: A compilation of resources for students to help them succeed during this quarter

Remote Resources for UCLA Library Users: Updates on resources and training available through the UCLA Library Remote Control: How to Manage Your New Remote Classes: A new tool to help student learning in a remote environment.

Aspire Alliance Resources to Support Students: The Aspire Alliance has compiled several resources that are specifically tailored to inclusive and equitable responses to COVID-19.

Resources for Teaching Remotely: A Community Page: A CCLE site with resources and a space to connect with other faculty

Remote Teaching Resources for Grad Students and Post-Docs: A compilation of teaching resources on- and off-campus created specifically to share with graduate students and post-docs

In the News

Featured Article: UCLA Instructors’ Foresight Leads to Remote Learning Success for Physics Labs | UCLA Newsroom COVID-19 pandemic further confirmed the benefits of letting students design their own experiments. W hen UCLA announced on March 10 that the final weeks of winter quarter — and later the entire spring quarter — would be taught remotely because of COVID-19, it immediately tested everyone on campus, but in particular students and faculty who had to figure out on the fly new ways to learn and teach.

Turns Out You Can Build Community in a Zoom Classroom | The Chronicle of Higher Education Covid-19 made this spring — well, you know the words: unprecedented, uncertain, weird, insane, scary. But it posed even more challenges for professors who teach in 10-week quarters. After all, those of you on the semester system had already met and connected with your students when campuses began shutting down over spring break. At least you could use the remaining weeks of the semester to build on what you had started in person. Those of us on the quarter system didn’t have anything to build on. We came back from spring break to entirely new courses in virtual classrooms filled with new students, many of whom we’d never met. We had to create community from scratch.

A Survival Guide for Black, Indigenous, and Other Women of Color in Academe | The Chronicle of Higher Education Author Aisha S. Ahmad writes "This week, I was awarded tenure at my university. Brown. Muslim. Woman. Tenured. As I enter this new stage of my career, I can think only of you: the BIPOC woman starting her journey in higher education. The next generation. There are many things I wish I had known when I was new to academic life. I wish to disclose these secrets to you, to help protect your gifted mind from the injuries and injustices that keep Black, Indigenous, and other women of color out of academe."

Online Courses Are Harming the Students Who Need the Most Help | The New York Times A single teacher can reach thousands of students in an online course, opening up a world of knowledge to anyone with an internet connection. This limitless reach also offers substantial benefits for school districts that need to save money, by reducing the number of teachers. But in high schools and colleges, there is  mounting evidence  that the growth of online education is hurting a critical group: the less proficient students who are precisely those most in need of skilled classroom teachers.

The Tyranny of Content: “Content Coverage” as a Barrier to Evidence-Based Teaching Approaches and Ways to Overcome It | CBE Life Science Education Instructors have inherited a model for conscientious instruction that suggests they must cover all the material outlined in their syllabus, and yet this model frequently diverts time away from allowing students to engage meaningfully with the content during class. We outline the historical forces that may have conditioned this teacher-centered model as well as the disciplinary pressures that inadvertently reward it. As a way to guide course revision and move to a learner-centered teaching approach, we propose three evidence-based strategies that instructors can adopt: 1) identify the core concepts and competencies for your course; 2) create an organizing framework for the core concepts and competencies; and 3) teach students how to learn in your discipline. We further outline examples of actions that instructors can incorporate to implement each of these strategies.

Sorry Not Sorry: Online Teaching Is Here to Stay | The Chronicle of Higher Education If there’s one big takeaway from the Covid-19 crisis for higher education, it’s that teaching well online is increasingly, and vitally, important. Maybe you’re thinking: Well, once this global health threat recedes — with testing, tracing, and vaccines — online learning will diminish in prevalence and I can go back to teaching entirely in person. Not likely. The virtual train has left the station. And it’s to your advantage to be on it.

CIRTL - Graduate Students and Postdocs

Attention UCLA Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars! The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is a national network providing graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with online training on evidence based teaching and professional development opportunities. UCLA is a member of CIRTL, giving graduate students and postdoctoral scholars access to all CIRTL online programing across the network, as well as local learning communities and opportunities for professional development on campus. We also have a separate newsletter specifically for our CIRTL@UCLA community where we share information most relevant to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Subscribe to the CIRTL newsletter here . Learn more about CIRTL@UCLA and get connected: https://cirtl.ceils.ucla.edu/

Job Opportunities

Lecturer, Biochemistry University of California, Los Angeles ► Please see posting details here . Lecturer, Organic, Physical, and General Chemistry University of California, Los Angeles ► Please see posting details here . Assistant Director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching Boston University ► Please see posting details here Research Associate, Chemistry Education University of Utah ► Please see posting details here . Adjunct Microbiology Instructor Lee College ► Please see posting details here . Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Emory University ► Please see posting details here . Lecturer, Molecular Biosciences Washington State University ► Please see posting details here . Research Associate, Chemistry Education University of Utah ► Please see posting details here . Instructional Designer, Center for Educational Effectiveness University of California, Davis ► Please see posting details here . Associate Director, Center for Teaching and Learning University of Pennsylvania ► Please see posting details here . Associate Director of Assessment & Evaluation Stanford University ► Please see posting details here . Equity and Accessibility Educator San Jose State University ► Please see posting details here . Associate Dean of Online Learning University of North Carolina, Greensboro ► Please see posting details here . Assistant Professor (Lecturer) University of Utah ► Please see posting details here . Research Associate, Chemistry Education University of Utah ► Please see posting details here

Connect with UCLA's Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences For more information about CEILS events and resources, including a list of STEM education events from previous mailers, please visit the CEILS website at  www.ceils.ucla.edu  or stop by our CEILS office in 222 Hershey Hall.  If you wish to be added to the CEILS mailing list for future newsletters and special announcements, please send your request to  media@ceils.ucla.edu . Please note, this monthly newsletter is circulated through many departmental listservs. Most other CEILS correspondence, including special event announcements and reminders, are sent to CEILS mailing list recipients only. Thanks!