Welcome to the weekly UTLC Newsletter supporting teaching and learning at UNCG:
Week of February 4, 2025
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Teaching during politically heightened times can pose unique challenges that require us to attend to the well-being of all students and faculty. The UTLC's Teaching During and Post Election blog post (Nov 2024) provides insights on how emotions impact learning, strategies for effective teaching, and reminders about available campus resources. Let's revisit a few of the tips from this post related to Trauma-Informed teaching:
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- Trauma impacts learning. “Neuroscientists have discovered differences in fundamental brain function among college students with co-occurring trauma and depression symptoms” (Schaefer & Nooner, 2014). Trauma can stem from various sources, including personal, social, and political events. As instructors, we should be aware of trauma-related behaviors such as:
- Impairments to attention and memory (difficulty focusing, attending, retaining, and recalling)
- Challenges with emotional regulation
- Anxiety about deadlines, assessments, group work, or public speaking
- Anger, helplessness, disruptive behavior, or dissociation
- Withdrawal (non-responsive to communication) and isolation
- Perfectionism and/or wanting explicit details about assignment expectations
- Confusion related to simple or complex tasks
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Differences Between Dialogue and Debate: As instructors, we often hope to get our students to a place of dialogue with one another about difficult topics. This can be difficult if our students have not learned the difference between dialogue, discussion, and debate. Consider giving your students a brief primer on dialogue, discussion, and debate, and be explicit about which of the three you are asking them to participate in, removing any ambiguity that can cause anxiety.
- Debate focuses on the development of counterarguments. Often used to arrive at a winning conclusion, debate can be useful for weighing ideas against each other. Emotion can be high during debate.
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Discussion focuses on the conceptual and is rooted in academic detachment. Often used to explore concepts using established data, discussion can be helpful for developing understanding of new ideas.
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Dialogue focuses on establishing shared understanding and meaning. Often used to build community and understanding the lived experience/perspective of others, dialogue can explore areas of differences and conflict, while focusing on shared meaning making.
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Know campus resources for student support: The campus has several resources available to support our students navigating difficult moments. Instructors should familiarize themselves with these resources to better assist students:
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Know your support resources: The UTLC is available to meet with instructors to develop a plan for your specific course and situation. Don't hesitate to seek support when needed.
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Reminder: VOISES Panel Today at 2pm
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Join us for a student VOISES panel centering the experiences of Black students. TODAY Tuesday, February 4th at 2PM in Faculty Center.
Open to all faculty, staff, and graduate teaching assistants.
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Midterm Grades: February 14 - 21, 2025
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Reminder that midterm grades are required in all undergraduate courses. Grades are submitted in UNCGenie starting Friday, February 14 and are due Friday, February 21st.
Providing students with information on why midterm grades matter is an important part of the process. New Student Transitions & First Year Experience created a Midterms Matter resource that may help in shaping your conversation with students.
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It is time to prepare your first set of Starfish reports. These reports provide students with a valuable early semester checkpoint, but contextualizing these reports for students is important.
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If students are doing well, please don't skip the Kudos box. This recognition of strong work has been reported by our students as encouraging; they appreciate knowing their hard work is seen. Encouragement is part of developing growth mindsets in students, which are essential for learning.
- Offer concrete feedback on how to improve.
- Offer a reminder of office hours and how to get in contact with you.
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Use the Starfish Early Alert Overview for Faculty and Staff as a reference guide for details on all flag types and sample comments.
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Check out these upcoming opportunities from the UTLC and other partners on campus. Additional training opportunities are available at workshops.uncg.edu.
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COURSE ACCESSIBILITY CHECKLISTS AND SUPPORT
Updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that all campus digital content (public facing websites, digital course materials, digital campus resources – including campus trainings) meet the WCAG 2.1 (level A and level AA) standards for accessibility by spring 2026.
UNCG has several campus resources that you can utilize now to make the transition easier, with more tools and resources on the way.
- Accessibility Checklists outlining the minimum expectations for meeting the new standards.
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UDOIT Cloud is a Canvas scanning tool that will scan your course and provide you with quick solutions that ensure your course is compliance.
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Accessibility.uncg.edu is a comprehensive accessibility website that offers tools, resources, and quick guides to creating accessible digital content for campus.
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FACULTY ENGAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT
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Faculty Tea & Conversation with Integrative Community Studies (ICS)
Save the date for March 4th or March 19th to enjoy some tea and cookies while learning more about the Integrative Community Studies (ICS) program. ICS, also known as Beyond Academics, could be a possibility for your research, teaching, and service agendas. For more information and to RSVP, view the ICS Faculty Tea & Conversation flyer.
Ongoing Opportunities
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Upcoming Events, Training, and Workshops
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FEBRUARY
4
2:00 - 4:00 PM
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UTLC VOISES Panel – Centering Black Student Experiences
Join us for the VOISES Panel on Tuesday, February 4th at 2:00 PM in the Faculty Center, where we will center the experiences of Black students at UNCG. This panel offers an opportunity to hear directly from students about their perspectives, challenges, and successes, fostering meaningful dialogue and deeper understanding.
This event is open to all faculty, staff, and graduate teaching assistants who are committed to enhancing the learning environment for our students.
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FEBRUARY
17
2:30 - 3:30 PM
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Workshop: Teaching Effectiveness: Models and Rubrics
This Workshop will focus on current evaluation of teaching effectiveness models and rubrics that may serve as a template or starting place for units-level processes as part of the UNCG Teaching Effectiveness Policy.
In the Faculty Center
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FEBRUARY
25
9:00 - 10:00 AM
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Coffeehouse with the Provost's Office
Join us and the Office of the Provost for a faculty coffeehouse to gather informally with colleagues while enjoying an assortment of catered hot beverages and breakfast snacks. We will also be giving away UTLC swag so we hope to see you there!
In Mossman Atrium
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TEACHING EVALUATION PILOT
UNCG is administering a pilot of a new teaching evaluation system. The pilot and the current system (Class Climate) will run in parallel for two years; when the Class Climate contract expires, administration will make a decision about which or neither system to keep.
Anthology uses research validated common questions, along with offering units the chance to add custom questions. It’s mobile friendly, which may increase response rates. You can see more information here: Evaluation of Teaching Pilot Project.pptx
If you are interested in participating in the Summer or Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 Cohorts, please click the button below to fill out the interest form.
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