Celebrating SoTL Commons

From February 15-17, 2023, we hosted our annual SoTL conference - SoTL Commons - in Savannah. With 200 participants from 30 different states and 67 different universities, SoTL Commons 2023 testified to the vibrant nature of a community of enthusiastic practitioners seeking professional growth and instructional excellence.

If you haven't yet experienced SoTL Commons, we encourage you to learn more about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and to join us next year for another inspiring event. The tentative schedule for SoTL Commons 2024, is February 28 - March 1.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Fellows Program fosters faculty engagement and leadership in SoTL through a mentorship program for the development of eligible research projects. Primarily for early career faculty, the fellowship hopes to improve the understanding of teaching and learning.

Applications are now open until April 30, 2023.

The Outstanding SoTL Scholar designation recognizes a Georgia Southern faculty member for their outstanding contribution to SoTL.

Application for SoTL Scholar is now open, and runs until April 30, 2023.

Open Education Week is an annual event for the promotion of Open Education. With several planned activities and programs, this event centers on Open Ed Resources (OER) and their applications for student success and for teaching best practices.

The week starts off with a presentation on "The Naturalness of OER" by Dr. Jason Slone on Monday March 6, 11am - 12pm, followed by daily presentations and closing on Friday, March 10, with a presentation by Dr. Diana Botnaru on "OER in Laboratory Classes."



Considering that over 50% of Georgia Southern's faculty body (part-time and full-time) identifies as female, we welcome you to celebrate March as International Women's History Month by joining us in an open conversation about the challenges, victories, and roles women face in academia.

Women in Academia: Building Community for Professional Growth and Success is scheduled for March 10, 2023, from 1pm - 2pm.

Using mid-semester student feedback as a reflection instrument for teaching and learning is an efficient way of adjusting course alignment, assessments, and learning outcomes for greater student success and learning experience. Check out our page for scheduling and for more information on this effective tool.

Concerned about AI tools in your classroom? Here are our top three articles on AI and teaching and learning:

1. "Lesson Plan: Teaching and Learning in the Era of ChatGPT" by Katherine Schulten.
2. "ChatGPT Advice Academics Can Use Now" by Susan D'Agostino.
3. "Embrace the Bot: Designing Writing Assignments in the Face of AI" by Eric Prochaska.

We also gathered our top five tips on encouraging academic integrity in response to AI tools:

1. Be clear on how generative AI tools can be used in the classroom. Anticipate that your students might use them and create boundaries and expectations that put you in control.
2. Be intentional on building intrinsic motivation by offering engaging coursework that connects learning to applicable work skills. Strategies include emphasizing the importance of skilled learning, creating authentic and effective assessments, and allowing students to voice their opinion on course development and assessment (as much as you feel comfortable with).
3. Incorporate low stakes in class assignments that can decrease assessment anxiety.
4. Incorporate AI tools in your pedagogy with activities such as having your students grade AI generated work for quality, content, and applicability.
5. Stay calm. Educators are stellar in adaptability and resilience.

The Faculty Center's Spring 2023, calendar has exciting new training opportunities. Here are some professional development opportunities for March:

• Navigating the maze: locating Open Educational Resources for your courses. March 8, 11am-12pm.
• Did you know the library had that? Resources for student success. March 9, 4pm-5pm.
• Budgets. March 20, 1pm - 2pm.
• Assignments: Getting the Right Delivery. March 22, 10am - 11am.
• Don't Stress: Designing Group Activities for Student Success. March 29, 1pm - 2pm.

Didn't find what you are looking for? Click below and see the whole calendar for our March training.