Resources in Response to This Week’s Events

At this difficult time, I want to take a moment to highlight resources for those who are teaching and course planning for this week and next. CEILS is here to support instructional continuity and recognize the extra burden this places on instructors to pivot class format and course design while also processing your own responses to these challenging events and your desire to support your students. We are offering some options of how you can be responsive to students while protecting your time, or even saving you time. The Undergraduate Students Association has also shared their request for grace in a letter to faculty here. 

Please take our suggestions as just that, suggestions meant for you to take or leave depending on your individual needs and bandwidth. 

Please review the Academic Senate Guidance provided by the Senate. If an emergency situation continues to persist and you are considering further remote teaching, we are here to help. Please reach out to Rachel Kennison, rkennison@ceils.ucla.edu, or Shanna Shaked, shaked@ceils.ucla.edu, with any questions or to set up a consultation. 

Questions regarding midterms and assignments: We have received questions from instructors about approaches to best support student learning during midterms, while we are navigating the unpredictability of the campus situation. Please continue to check for campuswide updates distributed by BruinAlert and the Senate for further information about instruction. Here are some ideas for your consideration:

1. Instead of trying to provide makeup exams to students more impacted by these events, you can consider offering a take-home midterm, or postpone the midterm to next week.
2. Another alternative is to offer the midterm as planned. Then let students know that for those not able to take it, when calculating final course grades, you will replace the midterm grade with the final exam grade if higher. (If a student’s final exam score is lower than that midterm, they can keep the midterm score.)
3. Instead of managing the many student emails you’re likely to receive about late assignments, consider providing extensions to assignments due this week.
4. You also have the option to record your Zoom class and offer it as an option for students to watch later (asynchronously) if they are not able to be fully present for class time. 
5. Here is a resource with more ideas about how to implement alternative assessments.

Resources related to Zoom and BruinLearn:

Instructors seeking support may wish to reference remote teaching resources in Bruin Learn or attend daily office hours provided by the Teaching and Learning Center in partnership with ITS.

To email your class:

• Bruin Learn > Announcements (Your Bruin Learn site must be published first.)
• OR MyUCLA: Faculty > Classes > Email Roster

To set up a Zoom link:

• If you have never logged into your UCLA Zoom account, follow the Getting Started with UCLA Zoom instructions
• You have two options to distribute your Zoom link to your class:
• Post a Zoom link on your Bruin Learn site. Make sure to publish your Bruin Learn site first.
• Email a Zoom link to your class.

Campus resources for well-being: For your convenience, here are campus resources to support your well-being and your students:

1.  BeWell Bruin: Student emotional support resources  

2.  Counseling & Psychological Services

3.  RISE Center

4.  UCLA’s Staff and Faculty Counseling Center

5.  Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center Resources for Emotional Social & Physical Health

6.  Bruin Safety & Well-Being resources from UCLA Office of EDI 

Save the Date! CEILS Scientific Teaching Institute - Foundations of Equitable Course Design & Inclusive Teaching

July 17-24th, 2024

Stay tuned for more details coming shortly! This summer, CEILS will once again offer our week-long course design bootcamp.

You will receive a certificate of completion for participation in this Institute. Record your participation in your dossier as evidence of your efforts to improve teaching and as an activity that helps promote equal opportunity and diversity in education. Such efforts in both categories, on behalf of all faculty, are now a recognized component of the promotion and tenure process at UCLA (see APM 210-1, and Appendix 41).

The CEILS Scientific Teaching Institute is designed to introduce you to evidence-based strategies for inclusive teaching and course design. The experience is facilitated by CEILS staff and other UCLA faculty; and you will receive feedback on your daily assignments, culminating at the end of the week with a syllabus draft, assessment plan, sample lesson plan, and embedded feedback strategy. Tips, strategies, and resources for equity, accessibility, and remote/online design will be integrated into the workshops and course site resources.

See more details on our website: https://ceils.ucla.edu/learning-communities-trainings/summer-institute-on-scientific-teaching/

Are you a UCLA Early Career Faculty in the Sciences? We invite you to join our

Learning Community on Teaching at UCLA

The CEILS team invites you to carve out a little time - one lunch each month - to gather in community and get support from each other on all things related to teaching here at UCLA. This community is designed to support early career faculty across disciplines in the sciences who have joined UCLA within the past 5 years.

All meetings take place on Thursdays in Terasaki Life Sciences Building 1100 from 12:30 - 2pm. Lunch will be provided. Based on the feedback and discussion from the end of winter quarter, the topics this spring will include:

• May 9 - AI in the Classroom - the Good, the Bad, and the Unknown...
• June 6 - End of Year Reflections - Goal Setting for Next Year

Please kindly RSVP to let us know which sessions you will be able to attend (so we can order the right amount of food - yum!). Contact jessgregg@ceils.ucla.edu with any questions. Hope you can join!

Video Presentation - Grassroots Leadership: Preparing Teaching-Focused Faculty to Enact Change

In April, CEILS Executive Director, Dr. Rachel Kennison, worked alongside colleague Dr. Ann Austin of Michigan State University to present at the Critical Issues in Mathematics Education 2024: Bringing Innovation to Scale: Teaching-Focused Faculty as Change Agents Conference virtually at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath). 

If you are a teaching focused math faculty or anyone interested in becoming a change leader in higher education, watch the full presentation here:

Are We Asking the Wrong Questions About ChatGPT?

By: J.T. Torres and Adam Nemeroff

Since the emergence of ChatGPT, one of the most frequent questions we hear from faculty members who request instructional support is, “What should I say about AI on my syllabus?” Most of the time, what they’re really asking is: “How do I police the use of AI in my classes?”

Alternative Assessment Workshop

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. If you have questions or have difficulty reading this newsletter, please email us at media@ceils.ucla.edu.