CTL Seminars
Keeping the Human in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science: Innovative Pedagogies in an Era of Artificial Intelligence
This seminar will serve as an incubator for faculty in the humanities, arts, and social sciences to gain a deeper understanding about artificial intelligence (AI), a new and rapidly evolving technology that will fundamentally transform higher education. Participants will learn about, discuss, and develop effective ways to address a wide variety of pedagogical needs in an era when computers can do the thinking, writing, and creative work for our students. Throughout the seminar faculty will explore three majors pegagogical implications of AI technologies (ChaptGPT, Bard, Bing). First, participants will learn about ways that AI can be successfully and productively build into course assignments; second, they will discuss effective ways to introduce students to AI's role in learning (its potentials as well as it limits). Finally, participants will have an opportunity to create or modify their course assignments to ensure that students are not taking shortcuts that ultimately harm learning outcomes. Faculty accepted in the seminar will be expected to familiarize themselves with AI before the start of the seminar through a series of curated articles/podcasts on the latest developments in the field.
Co-facilitators: Robin Kietlinski, Social Science and Lilla Tőke, English
-
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time and part-time faculty
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
Monthly Fridays in person from 11:00 to 1:30 pm with lunch provided, on 9/22, 10/13, 11/10, and 12/1;
Asynchronous work due on: 9/29, 10/20, 11/, and 12/8.
-
INQUIRIES
NEH Seminar: Oral History in Interdisciplinary Community College Pedagogy
Oral history is an interactive method and inquiry process on a topic, as well as how a topic is remembered. The goal of Oral History in Interdisciplinary Community College Pedagogy is to introduce the oral history methods through a series of year-long workshops. The faculty will engage in interviewing, deep listening, discussion with guest speakers, and analysis of oral history materials in their disciplines. Through this engagement, the faculty will explore how oral history practices can help recenter their teaching practices to the vantage points of individuals and communities of minority groups whose perspectives are often marginalized in published materials and media. The seminar is particularly interested in non-history disciplines, where the oral history has not been commonly adopted in teaching and research. For more information about this seminar, visit the CUNY Commons page at https://oralhistory.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Co-facilitators: Thomas Cleary, Library, Molly Rosner, LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, Tomonori Nagano, Education and Language Acquisition.
-
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time and part-time faculty
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $1,000. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- Eight meetings on the third Thursday of the month from 1:00 to 4:00 pm (maybe HyFlex) on 9/21/23, 10/19/23, 11/16/23, 12/14/23, 3/21/24, 4/18/24, 5/16/24, and 6/20/24. An optional showcase event will be scheduled some time in May or June.
-
INQUIRIES
LaGuardia Mindfulness Corps
Supporting students with guided mindfulness practices when they begin college can help them recognize the benefits of short and no-cost self-care behaviors that have been shown to reduce burnout and stress (Cavanagh et al., 2013; Kinnunen et al., 2019). With funding awarded by the College Completion Innovation Fund, the LaGuardia Mindfulness Corps project launched in Fall 2022 to provide First Year Seminar (FYS) students with such support. With a focus on enhancing student wellbeing and creating a community of mindfulness practitioners, FYS instructors from across the disciplines incorporated mindfulness practice into their classes. Student experience survey responses from the pilot cohort suggest that mindfulness practice 1) increases both concentration and self-compassion and 2) decreases anxiety. Students reported a significant increase in weekly practice at post-test, with 71.8% students post program saying they were practicing mindfulness. Now as the project moves into its second and final year, it will expand its scope to include all faculty and students. To this end, we invite faculty and staff who are interested in exploring how effective, accessible mindfulness practices help students cope with potential barriers to college success to apply. The benefits and practice of mindfulness meditation will be introduced to participants in a five-session professional development seminar, designed to help faculty integrate mindfulness activities into their teaching practice and staff into their interactions with students.
Co-facilitators: Koun Eum, Social Science, Ellen Quish, CTL, Paul Arcario, Academic Affairs, Deema Bayrakdar, Women’s Center and LGBTQIA Safe Zone Hub
-
ELIGIBILITY
The seminar is open to 15 faculty and student-facing staff.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $500. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- The fall seminar dates are Wednesdays, from 3:30 to 5pm on 9/13, 9/27, 10/4, 10/25, and 11/29. We will offer the seminar again in the spring.
-
INQUIRIES
Deepening Our ePortfolio Practice Beyond the FYS: Fostering Career and Transfer Readiness
ePortfolio practice at LaGuardia helps students reflect on their learning and make connections across their courses and co-curricular experiences while learning about their discipline and careers. Although ePortfolio work starts strong in the FYS, many students engage less with their portfolios after completing the FYS. In response, a recent grant-funded Academic Affairs initiative is supporting ePortfolio Design Studios for students. In these sessions, students share their ePortfolios with faculty and former students to receive feedback on how to strengthen the content so it may be shared with professionals in their industry or faculty at transfer institutions. The first ePortfolio Design Studios included students in Education, Business, Natural Sciences, and Computer Science.
This CTL seminar will support faculty interested in planning ePortfolio-related assignments, activities, or co-curricular opportunities beyond the FYS and before Capstone courses to support students’ ongoing exploration of academics and careers while reflecting on their experiences at LaGuardia. These assignments and activities can also prompt students to work on their ePortfolios in preparation to participate in an “ePortfolio Design Studio,” where they will receive $100 gift cards for their efforts. Seminar participants will be expected to participate in at least one ePortfolio Design Studio session during the year; participation in a Design Studio along with their seminar work with ePortfolio team members and a peer mentor will inform discussions about the support needed around ePortfolio use at LaGuardia. Participants will be encouraged to implement activities in Spring 2024 as part of their seminar engagement and participation.
The goals of this seminar are:
- To identify one or two courses after the FYS where ePortfolio can strengthen transfer and career readiness;
- To create an assignment, class activity, or co-curricular activity around career readiness that prompts students to work on their ePortfolios leveraging the content produced in the FYS course and in preparation to be part of the ePortfolio Design Studio sessions;
- To identify and recommend ways to support students’ ePortfolio engagement at the program level and beyond the FYS. If the participant has program oversight responsibility, participation in this seminar will allow planning for a program-wide implementation.
Co-facilitators: Caterina Almendral, Education and Language Acquisition, J. Elizabeth Clark, English, Pablo Avila, CTL, David Brandt, CTL
-
ELIGIBILITY
This seminar is open to all faculty who teach courses in the middle in their respective programs (beyond the FYS and before the Capstone course) and who want to strengthen the use of ePortfolio in those courses.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $1,500 or 1-hour of Reassigned Time. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- This is an in-person year-long seminar that meets on Fridays from 10 to 12:30 pm on the following dates in fall 2023: 9/29, 10/27, 11/17, 12/1.
- A Winter Institute and Spring 2024 meetings are TBD based on participants’ availability.
-
INQUIRIES
COIL Seminar: Developing Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy through International Virtual Exchange
Through LaGuardia’s Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program, LaGuardia faculty are paired with faculty abroad to design a shared unit that is integrated in their respective courses. Their students then engage virtually in collaborative tasks, using digital tools, such as Zoom, Slack, and Padlet. By emphasizing intercultural empathy, respect for diversity and perspective taking, COIL cultivates the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, and it underscores LaGuardia’s commitment to global learning and students' career readiness.
The seminar will introduce participants to COIL pedagogy and support them in developing COIL projects with their international faculty partners. Offered jointly with the COIL team at Queens College, this seminar also seeks to strengthen transfer pathways between LaGuardia and Queens. Faculty teaching courses articulated with Queens College are encouraged to apply. Priority will be given to first-time COIL participants. Prior to the seminar, each faculty participant will work with the COIL team to locate a partner from an international institution. During five 1.5-hour seminar sessions in Fall I, 2023, they will be guided to develop content for their COIL units in accordance with their course learning outcomes, select relevant technology platforms, and develop assessment tools informed by LaGuardia’s Global Learning Core Competency.
Seminar facilitators will support faculty throughout their implementation of COIL projects in Spring I 2024. Ongoing team mentorship will be complemented with two 60-minute check-ins for several teams at a time to allow for productive collegial support. At the end of Spring I 2024, COIL faculty and students will participate in COIL Faculty & Student Showcase. Possible QC campus visit for students and faculty might take place during or after implementation.
Co-facilitators: Olga Aksakalova, English, Anita Baksh, English, Pablo Avila, CTL
-
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time and part-time faculty in Academic Affairs. Priority will be given to first-time COIL participants.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- Fridays from 9:00 to 10:30 am on 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 11/10, and 12/8.
-
INQUIRIES
Language Across the Curriculum for STEM Faculty
We have previously offered the seminar Language Across the Curriculum, but this year the seminar will have a specific focus on STEM pedagogy. STEM faculty often don’t have the pedagogical tools to support multilingual and linguistically diverse students. This seminar will help instructors move from a “language-blind” to a “language-aware” approach to teaching and learning.
We will explore the role of language diversity in the STEM classroom and how to use that diversity as a tool for teaching and learning, instead of an obstacle. Topics of interest include:
- How can I effectively help students understand word problems?
- How do I draw on my language background in the classroom?
- How can I build an inclusive classroom environment while also teaching my subject?
- Given the parameters of my class, how do I assess linguistically diverse students?
The main goal of Language across the Curriculum is to contribute to developing a multilingual campus environment which understands multilingualism as a resource in teaching and learning and invites all students to build on their language skills.
Co-facilitators: Leigh Garrison-Fletcher, Professor of Linguistics and ESL, whose research focuses on second language and literacy acquisition, and Lucy McNair, Professor of English, whose work focuses on translation and multilingual writing.
-
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time and part-time faculty in Academic Affairs. Priority will be given to STEM faculty.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- Spring 2024, Wednesdays, exact dates TBD
-
INQUIRIES
A Deep Dive into Advising and AI
“A Deep Dive into Advising and AI” will review advising-related information (from our website, program handbooks, office manuals etc.). The information may include program-based advising recommendations, FAQs related to academic programs and processes, instructions on administrative processes such as appeals and waivers, and support services for students. With this information in mind, we will answer the following question: What is the best way to streamline information gathering, and how best can we disseminate this information to students, faculty, advisors, & staff? We will consider existing technology, including Ask LaGuardia, and explore other options, including Chat GPT and other language learning models.
We will hold a TBD kick-off in February and will hold 4 sessions in Spring I, with anticipated asynchronous work. Planned outputs may consist of formalizing a process for information collection, tagging information for efficient retrieval, and a white paper with written recommendations and implementation plans for tools to use going forward.
Co-facilitators: Joshua Goldblatt, Academic Affairs, and Elizabeth Jardine, Library
-
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time and part-time faculty in Academic Affairs, up to two per department.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- In-person Kick-off: Friday, February 9, from 9:30-3:00 pm (session may be shortened; lunch included)Monthly Fridays, remote from 9:30-11:30 am on March 15, April 12, April 26, and May 24.
-
INQUIRIES
Writing in the Disciplines
At the heart of Writing in the Disciplines (WID) pedagogy lies the assertion that writing, itself, plays a key role in critical thinking. Writing can be a powerful tool to cultivate students’ engagement with course material and their understanding of their own thought processes. Writing is the medium through which students can begin to learn and deepen their understanding of discipline-specific content and modes of inquiry. It is also the medium through which they can begin to produce knowledge.
WID pedagogy holds that writing to learn and learning to write are intimately linked. When you present students with problems and ask them to identify and challenge assumptions in writing, writing itself becomes an act of problem solving. Continuous writing practice helps students improve their writing and better understand core concepts. The Writing in the Disciplines (WID) seminar will support faculty as they develop strategies to guide students to use writing to formulate and shape their ideas, and to make sense of course content. It will provide faculty with a workshop-based forum to design, adapt, and incorporate a range of writing assignments and activities into their courses. These will be discipline-specific materials, designed by faculty for the specific courses they teach. They will include in-class, ungraded activities as well as “high stakes” assignments, such as research papers, lab reports, business plans, and other materials. Faculty will receive the resources, support, and feedback necessary to explore and integrate these strategies into their courses.
Faculty will be asked to workshop their syllabi and course assignments, hold honest discussions with their peers about teaching, and develop materials that can support student learning.
Key themes to be explored will include: “writing to learn,” coaching the writing process, various assessment and grading practices and responding to student work. Together, we will also address questions about grammar, and have discussions about how to use technology effectively, including AI and Learning Management Systems (Blackboard/Brightspace) in writing pedagogy. This workshop will address the concerns of STEM, Health Sciences, Social Science, Business and Technology, and Humanities faculty. We will discuss writing about data, images, graphs, literature, history, linguistics, journals, and other kinds of informal writing, etc. The seminar will incorporate a substantial amount of new material, including deeper discussions about the affective dimensions of writing, how to think about writing across different modalities, writing and online forums/platforms, and alternative assessment practices.
This seminar is open to full-time and part-time faculty members, including those who completed the seminar five or more years ago and who wish to refresh their WID pedagogy.
We encourage any faculty member scheduled to teach a writing-intensive course for Spring I who has not completed the WID program to sign up for the seminar. Faculty members who are interested in teaching writing-intensive courses in the future must take the seminar to get certified. All urban studies and capstone classes in the college are designated writing intensive.
Co-facilitators: Karen Miller, Social Science and Joshua Tan, Natural Sciences
-
ELIGIBILITY
This seminar is open to full-time and part-time faculty members, including those who completed the seminar five or more years ago and who wish to refresh their WID pedagogy.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full- time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Adjunct faculty may receive the equivalent as non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- Spring 2024. Meetings schedules will be determined based on the availability of the participants.
-
INQUIRIES
OER Seminar, Spring 2024
Open educational resources (OER) are open access learning materials that anyone is welcome to create, use, and remix. Given the high price of commercial textbooks, free OER alternatives are one effective tool in reducing the price of higher education and increasing access to learning materials. Furthermore, OER open up more possibilities for culturally relevant and equitable educational opportunities. OER also present a unique opportunity to further develop a college-wide practice for collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning at LaGuardia. By incorporating open educational practices, faculty can meet students’ needs with greater editorial control over teaching materials. The seminar invites instructors and staff to explore their past, current, or desired use of OER at LaGuardia. Seminar co-leaders will present and discuss a variety of experiences with OER, from authoring a textbook to implementing OER in high enrollment courses. Other key topics include:
- Copyright, licensing, and citation in OER
- Publishing, modifying and archiving OER
- Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning
- Open pedagogy and student creators
Co-facilitators: This seminar is co-led by Assistant Professor Joshua Tan, Natural Sciences, Associate Professor Ian McDermott, Library, and a facilitator from MEC TBD, all of whom have experience developing and teaching with OER.
-
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time and part-time faculty and staff.
-
SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $500. Adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay or a PD fund if eligible.
-
DATES
- This seminar meets via Zoom. Dates are TBD
-
INQUIRIES
CTL Workshops
Creating Development Focused Classroom
Have you ever been frustrated when students don’t remember what they were taught last semester? Or last week? This workshop will consider how a focus on development can help us create activities that will help students learn and develop. Development is an often-neglected concept in education, too often used only to indicate students who “need more.” Sociocultural perspectives, however, tend to focus on “learning and development” as separate but always related processes, framing education as a way to promote both. This perspective moves theories of pedagogy away from traditional transmission models involving individual minds. Through a shared interrogation of our own practices and exploration of basic sociocultural concepts such as scaffolding, zone of proximal development, collaborative processes, and higher psychological functioning, this workshop provides an opportunity to (re)think about what and how we do in the classroom.
Specifically, we will examine college and learning as a way to nurture the development of “higher psychological functioning,” not just as a place to learn specific material. “Scaffolding” will be discussed as a way to support students in gradually mastering activities and producing assignments that create students’ learning and development, rather than simply assessing them. The concept of ”zone of proximal development” will be explored as a tool of assessment as well as a guide in designing instructions that lead to meaningful learning and nurture greater development. Finally, we will reflect on how this approach to learning and development promotes inclusive and equitable pedagogical practices and addresses the educational needs of all learners.
Co-facilitators: Lara Beaty, English and Dušana Podlucka, Social Science
-
ELIGIBILITY
-
DATES
- Wednesday, October 25th from 2:30 to 4:30 pm.
-
INQUIRIES
Reading in the Disciplines
Research and anecdotal evidence from LaGuardia faculty suggest that only a small portion of students read the assigned readings and struggle with comprehending the text and its integration into writing, especially discipline-specific assignments. Faculty commonly expect students to come to class with reading skills and habits necessary for successfully mastering the course content.
Moving away from remedial to socio-cultural perspectives of reading and learning, this workshop will provide a snapshot of how to address the above-mentioned issues through the immersion of participating faculty in creating and practicing reading strategies that facilitate the development of students’ metacognitive and discipline-specific reading skills. Participants will have a chance to sample strategies that:
- promote students’ engagement with assigned readings and, consequently, students’ participation in class, overt teaching of critical reading skills, and reading comprehension
- increase the frequency and intensity with which students approach assigned readings.
The workshop will also provide an overview of a possible future seminar on designing and integrating reading assignments into the curriculum and provide space for participants to generate topics of interest for future seminar focus and activities.
Co-facilitators: Xin Gao, Natural Sciences, Jose Fabara, Education and Language Acquisition, Dušana Pudlucka, Social Science
-
ELIGIBILITY
-
DATES
- Friday, November 3 from 10:00 to 12:00 pm
-
INQUIRIES
Giving Shelter: LaGuardia’s Initiatives to Confront Housing Insecurity
When basic housing needs---running water, heat, and a bed---are unmet, academic success suffers. This workshop explores the causes and consequences of homelessness as experienced by unhoused students, and institutional and pedagogical solutions.
“Giving Shelter” is a two-session workshop that explores the causes and consequences of homelessness as experienced by LaGuardia's unhoused students and offers intentionally designed institutional and pedagogical solutions by a community of informed educators and activists.
When basic housing needs---running water, food, heat, and a bed---are unmet, academic success suffers. Community activists and LaGuardia staff will address the scope of homelessness among CUNY's community college students, identify the effects of housing insecurity upon physical, emotional, and cognitive well-being, and present current and projected solutions to the cycles of poverty and housing instabilty that effect a thriving education.
The “Giving Shelter workshop follows the problem-based inquiry model created by former LaGuardia Philosophy coordinator John Chaffee in Critical Thinking. It includes:
- Description of the problem of housing instability: its causes and consequences, possible solutions, and potential benefits to our community of educators and learners;
- Critical discussion with diverse campus and community representatives; and
- Perspectives and information relevant to housing instability and accessibility supported by reliable and credible references and resources.
Co-facilitators: Rhonda Mouton, Student Affairs, Michele Piso Manoukian, CTL
-
ELIGIBILITY
-
DATES
- October 13, and November 10, 2023 from 10:00 to 12:00 pm hybrid
-
INQUIRIES
For the online application form click here.