Dear Colleagues, 

As we approach Fall Break and the midpoint of the semester, we hope your courses continue to go well and you are well into the swing of teaching. We also hope you can find some time to recharge and prepare for the home stretch. In this edition of our newsletter, we highlight a blog by CITAL’s new Instructional Designer, Raina Isaacs, about Exploratory Learning. Additionally, we are seeking your feedback on potential new teaching workshops. As always, we share upcoming webinar opportunities and helpful Canvas tips. Finally, we close by celebrating those faculty who attended our most recent Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop. As always, thank you for your continued support and engagement. We remain devoted to assisting you with your teaching and learning needs.

Sincerely, 

The CITAL Team (Ed, Cindy, Gina, and Raina)

Written by Raina Isaacs, Instructional Designer, CITAL

Exploratory learning is an active and inclusive activity that is the reverse of traditional instruction.

In traditional instruction, we teach students the underlying concepts and then ask them to solve problems. In exploratory learning, students are presented with a novel problem first, before learning the underlying concepts.

At first glance, it seems counterintuitive to have students attempt to solve problems before receiving relevant information, but there are many advantages to using exploratory learning over traditional instruction. Researchers have identified at least four learning mechanisms that contribute to the effectiveness of exploratory learning: activation of prior knowledge, awareness of knowledge gaps, curiosity, and discernment of deep problem features.

We are excited to announce that CITAL will soon begin offering in-person teaching workshops! To help us launch this new initiative, we invite you to take a few minutes to complete our brief survey by Friday, October 17th. Your feedback will guide our planning and ensure the workshops meet your needs and interests.

Below are upcoming and on-demand webinars from leading experts in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). These webinars are offered by Top Hat.

Turnitin replaced Safe Assign as our primary academic integrity software in the Fall and is providing a Virtual Customer Summit November 3-30, 2025. This is a month-long global online series of events featuring keynotes, workshops, and product demos. Check out this and other related resources below:

Today's Canvas tip is all about discussion boards! Did you know that you can assign multiple due dates for a discussion board? For example, you may want to assign separate due dates for the initial post and for replies. After creating your discussion board, scroll down to the options section and make sure the "Graded" option is checked. Once the "Graded" option is checked, you will now see the option "Assign graded checkpoints." Checking this option allows you to set separate due dates for the initial post and for replies and to give each their own point value. Note that once you enable the checkpoints and students have submitted their posts, you cannot turn it off. Tune in next time for another Canvas tip!

Appearing from left to right: Carlos Miguel-Pueyo (FORL), Zheng Li (CONHP), Danielle Lavin-Loucks (SOCC), Alyssa Formyduval (OCTH), Ellen Ratajack (PSYC), Raina Isaacs (CITAL), Kirsten Bullock (COB), and Jennifer Hora (POLS).

Please join us in congratulating eight more individuals who completed the APPQMR Workshop in September. They earned this outstanding QM certification for applying the Higher Education Quality Matters Rubric 7th edition in order to evaluate and improve the design of online and hybrid courses. The QM Rubric is a set of 8 General Standards and 44 Specific Review Standards designed to assess the quality of course design.

General Standards include:
1. Course Overview and Introduction
2. Learning Objectives (Competencies)
3. Assessment and Measurement
4. Instructional Materials
5. Learning Activities and Learner Interaction
6. Course Technology
7. Learner Support
8. Accessibility and Usability

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