The Center for Innovation in Teaching, Assessment, and Learning |
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CITAL NEWSLETTER - FEBRUARY 17, 2026 |
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Embracing New Opportunities |
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to our latest edition of your CITAL newsletter. As the weather begins to warm (a trend we hope will continue), there are a lot of opportunities available for faculty development on the horizon. We kick off this edition with a blog about the RATE tool being piloted in the College of Arts and Sciences (also available campus-wide). Next, we remind you to complete the faculty survey on Artificial Intelligence, which will provide the university with insight for our Lilly planning grant and implementation grant proposal. You are also reminded to submit your scholarly and creative works for the annual celebration hosted by the Christopher Center Library later this year. Then we move on to some exciting faculty development opportunities around Quality Matters (QM) and a new Active Learning Workshop. Finally, we share a list of upcoming webinars and conferences, as well as our Canvas tip. As always, we hope this information is valuable and look forward to collaborating and learning alongside you as the semester continues.
Sincerely,
The CITAL Team (Ed, Cindy, Gina, and Raina)
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Helping Students Connect Your Class to Their Future Career |
By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development
Your students may not realize it, but in your classes, they are developing the skills that their future employers are seeking. To help your students understand this connection between classroom and career, Valpo is piloting the RATE tool.
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In this article, Dean Bagel Johnson explains why he thinks RATE will help promote the humanities and Betsy Burow-Flak describes how she uses RATE in her classroom.
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Raise Your Voices (Faculty AI Survey) |
Have you completed the Generative AI Survey? Make your voice heard. You can access the survey here:
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Note: There is also a student survey available. Please encourage your classes to complete this as well.
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Call for Scholarship & Creative Works |
A reminder that the Christopher Center Library is accepting applications for the 2025 calendar year celebration of Scholarship & Creative Works. The deadline to submit your scholarship and creative works is April 8th by 5:00 p.m.
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🌟 QUALITY MATTERS (QM) WORKSHOP
📅 March 10–11, 2026
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (both days) Live on Zoom
✨ Elevate Your Course Design
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Join CITAL for a two‑day, interactive Quality Matters (QM) Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop designed to strengthen online and hybrid teaching. Learn practical strategies, explore QM standards, and collaborate with colleagues in a supportive environment.
🎓 Open to All Valpo Faculty
Engaging, hands‑on sessions and QM certification
Ideal for anyone looking to enhance course quality and student experience
⚠️ Limited Seats — Register Early
Secure your spot while space remains. For more details, click the QM Workshop Info. & Registration Button below.
📬 Questions?
Contact cital@valpo.edu
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✨ ACTIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP
📆 Tuesday, February 24th, 2026
2:00-4:00 p.m.
📆 Friday, March 6th, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Join CITAL for a two-hour active learning workshop designed to provide materials and activities to help with course preparation and immediately incorporate activities into current courses. Learn different types of active learning activities and explore how to design an active learning course.
🎓 Open to All Valpo Faculty
Ideal for faculty seeking to promote student engagement, enthusiasm, and performance.
⚠️ Limited Seats - Register Early
Secure your spot while space remains. For more details, click the Active Learning Workshop Info & Registration Button below.
📬 Questions?
Contact cital@valpo.edu
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Faculty Development Fellowship |
As you know, CITAL is accepting applications for the Faculty Development Fellowship, which provides financial assistance to a faculty member to work on a specific teaching/learning project during the 2026-2027 school year. The Fellow will explore the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) around that project and will work with CITAL to share what they have learned with other faculty.
The award for the fellowship is $3,000. This covers a stipend, faculty development funds to work with other faculty, and attendance at the annual Midwest SoTL Conference in South Bend in April.
General guidelines and the online submission link can be found here:
Faculty Development Fellowship.
Previous recipients of this award and their projects are highlighted here:
Previous Faculty Development Fellows.
Applications and all supporting documentation must be submitted by FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20. All faculty with the rank of lecturer or above are eligible.
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Upcoming Webinars and Conferences |
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Below are upcoming and on-demand webinars and podcasts from leading experts in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
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Do you have embedded YouTube videos in your courses, but are tired of the ads? Good news, Canvas YouTube Migration can help remove the ads.
First, ensure YouTube Migration is enabled in your course navigation. Once enabled, click the migration tool, then click "Scan Course" for embedded. To migrate the videos into Studio content, click the review button. Finally, click the convert button, and the ads will be removed from the YouTube videos.
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Tune in next time for another Canvas tip!
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The Center for Innovation in Teaching, Assessment, and Learning |
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