On March 23 and 24, the CFE Faculty Showcase on Teaching returns for its ninth year with a new format. Held every year and a half, the Faculty Showcase celebrates teaching at Carolina by helping instructors learn from each other and connect with colleagues across disciplines.
This year’s showcase will be virtual via Zoom on March 23 and then in-person at the Carolina Club on March 24. The 2021 showcase was conducted virtually, and the event was last held in-person in 2018.
“This year we’re trying to provide some of the best of both worlds,” said Bob Henshaw. Henshaw is the ITS Educational Technologies liaison to the Center for Faculty Excellence and a member of the showcase planning committee. “Everyone who is able to attend in person enjoys the interaction, but some of our faculty members can only attend virtually.”
Attendance has been strong at past events, whether in-person or virtual. Both the 2018 in-person and 2021 virtual events drew more than 200 faculty and staff. The planning committee expects high attendance again this year.
The showcase is open to UNC-Chapel Hill instructors and to faculty, staff and students with instructional support roles. The showcase is free to attend, but registration is required and closes on March 22. In-person attendees on March 24 at the Carolina Club will receive lunch and be eligible for a prize drawing.
ITS Educational Technologies (EdTech), the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) and the Office of Arts and Sciences Information Services (OASIS) are co-sponsoring the event. Planning committee members include Bob Henshaw and Thao Nghi Tu of EdTech, Marissa Stewart and planning lead Emily Boehm from CFE and Matt Osment of OASIS.
For more information and to register, visit CFE Faculty Showcase on Teaching.
Keynote to address “wicked problems”
This year’s keynote speaker is Paul Hanstedt, director of the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington and Lee University. Hanstedt will kick off the two-day event on March 23 with a virtual and interactive presentation, Creating Wicked Students: Higher Education in the Age of Covid.
His talk will explore the “wicked problems” students face upon graduation and what the pandemic has revealed about how we need to rethink higher education.
To dovetail with the keynote, earlier this semester the CFE offered the opportunity to participate in Pedagogy Reading Circles. The reading circles were small groups of instructors who read Hanstedt’s book “Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World.” Participants met a handful of times during the semester to discuss the book and share teaching experiences and strategies.
Sessions designed to be relevant
The showcase will feature concurrent sessions from more than 40 instructors and two dozen disciplines. Speakers will cover a wide range of instructional topics and of-the-moment academic concerns, including the role of artificial intelligence tools in classrooms. The planning committee stressed that “every session is designed to be relevant to those teaching in diverse fields and course contexts.”
Instructors at UNC-Chapel Hill “are doing amazing work with our students,” said Henshaw. “This event is an opportunity to highlight some of that work and for instructors to pick up ideas they can consider for their own teaching practice.”
Of particular interest to the Carolina community is a session on the new-to-UNC Canvas learning management system. In the session, eight instructors will share how they are using different Canvas features and tools in their courses.
On Thursday, March 23, presentations will be virtual via Zoom. On Friday, March 24 sessions will be in person at the Carolina Club. To view the full program schedule and register for the event, visit CFE Faculty Showcase on Teaching.