Welcome to the Weekly UTLC Newsletter: Week of March 3, 2026 |
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Teaching Tips: Mid-Semester Feedback |
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Mid-semester feedback helps you recalibrate clarifying expectations, adjusting pacing, or refining assignments, and builds trust by showing students their input matters. Resources such as Leveraging Mid-Quarter Student Feedback and Gathering Mid-Semester Feedback offer practical strategies for collecting and responding to feedback in ways that strengthen communication and support student success. Here are some quick suggestions:
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- Keep It Brief & Focused: Use 2-3 short, learning-centered questions (e.g., What is helping you learn? What is making learning harder right now?) A 5-minute anonymous check-in is often enough.
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Look for Patterns: Pay attention to recurring themes and focus on changes that will benefit the majority of students.
- Close the Loop: Share what you heard, explain what will (or will not) change, and thank the students for their input. Transparency builds trust.
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Mid-semester feedback is a small investment with meaningful returns. Taking a few intentional minutes now can strengthen engagement, clarify expectations, and foster a shared commitment to learning for the remainder of the semester.
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Open Office Hours with ITS |
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Open Office Hours with ITS: Learning Technology’s Instructional Design Team: Tuesdays 10am–12pm
Drop in for a conversation with an instructional designer! We can assist with course and assessment design, discuss teaching questions, and help with Canvas, Teams, and other learning technology.
No registration is needed; you can just join online.
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Tech Tips: Course Analytics
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Course analytics can be a great way to show you trends in student grades, participation, and engagement across a course. At mid-semester, these data can help you quickly identify students or assignments that may need intervention, rather than relying solely on anecdotal impressions.
Analytics also support targeted outreach by allowing instructors to message students based on participation or performance criteria directly within Canvas. Here’s a quick step‑by‑step to get started. You can also explore additional guides from Instructure for more support!
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- Open Course Analytics from your Canvas left-hand course menu or from the right-hand menu on the Home page to view engagement and performance data.
- The first tab, Course Grades, can identify assignments or weeks where class performance drops.
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You can use the Weekly Online Activity to spot participation patterns or disengagement trends.
- You can filter by student or section to identify individuals who may benefit from support.
- You can message students directly from Analytics using grade or participation criteria for timely outreach.
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Please keep in mind that there is a lot of information the Course Analytics section and it's not always intuitive, so please book a consultation if you need further assistance.
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The UTLC is now active on social media. Follow us on Instagram (@utlc.uncg), Facebook (UNCG UTLC), and LinkedIn (University Teaching & Learning Commons) to stay informed about weekly teaching tips, upcoming events, and resources that support teaching and learning at UNCG.
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Local happenings: Elon University's 22nd Teaching and Learning Conference!
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Anthology Course Evaluation Pilot |
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The Anthology Course Evaluation pilot is ongoing! We are piloting Anthology Evaluate as a possible alternative to class climate. After successful Spring and Fall 2025 semesters, we are hoping to recruit more participants to "load-test" the system and collect data on two different possible question sets. Evaluate offers two sets of research-backed common question choices, the possibility of adding custom questions, the ability to access your reports online, and teaching evaluations that can be completed in class (for face to face classes), with the potential of raising response rates.
If you're interested in participating, please opt-in by March 23. If you have questions, please email Joyce Clapp at jfclapp@uncg.edu.
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Save the Date: Spring Biergarten |
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Please save the date for our Spring Biergarten, Thursday April 30 from 4 to 5pm! More details will be provided in the coming weeks.
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Save the Date: May Professional Development |
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May will feature several professional development opportunities! We will have more details about these events in the coming weeks, including exact times and locations, but we'd love to get on your calendar! Please save the date (and register) for the following:
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Faculty Engagement & Development Opportunities |
Check out these upcoming opportunities from the UTLC and other partners on campus. Additionally, the university workshop calendar has opportunities.
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- Self-Paced Training Options| Online, research-based workshops cover a range of essential topics.
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UNCG Libraries Webinars | Research and Application Webinar Series (Spring 2024 recordings) | Zotero Webinar Series (recordings)
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New to Teaching | Access this Canvas site to learn about how students learn, preparing for class, grading, office hours, engagement, active learning, and more.
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Safe and Trans Zone Training on Canvas | Enroll in this self-paced online course to complete Safe Zone 1.0, 2.0, and Trans Zone if you cannot attend an in-person workshop.
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Web Accessibility 101 | This asynchronous, self-paced course focuses on the fundamentals of making online content accessible.
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