Greetings, Friends, 

As you take a deep breath and get ready for the last of the fall term to-do’s, your Stearns Center friends wish you moments of kindness, patience, grace, and humor, since we know that you are sharing those sentiments with your colleagues and students. 

Before you head out, we hope you’ll take at least a quick glance below to see some of the ways we’ll be available in January and February to support you in your spring teaching. We’re particularly excited about our new grants, our course and assignment design workshops and podcast, our support for Canvas, and our AI Test Kitchen sessions. 

E Shelley Reid, Ph.D. 

Executive Director of Engaged Teaching 

Are you creating or revamping a Mason Apex course or capstone for your major? Do you want to create a high-impact project that fosters critical thinking skills and creativity? Would you like students to draw connections with their previous coursework? Join us for this hybrid faculty development opportunity from Jan. 9-19 that includes two Zoom meetings and several asynchronous online modules. By the end of the bootcamp, you will have an assignment sheet, including grading rubric, ready to implement into your course.

STEM Education Grants

The Stearns Center is offering STEM Education Grants for Spring 2025. Grants support curriculum updates and capacity building. Applications are due Dec. 9th. 

Inclusive Excellence in Teaching Grants

To aid in scaling-up student support and inclusive excellence in teaching efforts across campus, we are offering IET grants. Applications are due Dec. 9th. 

Classroom Inquiry Grants

The SoTL-Classroom Inquiry Grants support faculty examining classroom practice in a scholarly way (data collection, analysis, & dissemination). Applications are due Dec. 9th.

Writing Across the Curriculum Grants

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) invites proposals from academic units seeking to enhance the intentionality and sustainability of writing instruction across disciplines. Applications are due Dec. 9th.

Join guest host and Producer, Kelly Chandler, as she talks with your host, Dr. Rachel Yoho, about how we can make our syllabi more inclusive of all learners and instructors in the first of our “Hear From Your Host” series.

Come back on January 9, 2025 when we publish our first episode of Season 2!

The Stearns Center is hiring for a Faculty Fellow position for Spring 2025. The Faculty Fellow will work to develop STEM specific resources around curriculum design. Applications are due December 8th. Notifications will be sent before winter break.

Are you interested in developing learning experiences where students can apply their skills and competencies in and beyond the classrooms? On Jan. 31, in this first of a two-part series of workshops, you will learn the fundamentals of effective teaching in general as well as how to use transparent assignment design for high impact practices such as internships, undergraduate research and project-based learning.

The David J. King Teaching Award is given annually to a faculty member who has made significant, long-term contributions (over the course of 20 years or more) to the overall educational excellence of the university. Read more on our website; nominate a colleague via email to stearns@gmu.edu by February 12, 2025.

AIEM-Teach Unit Credential: Interested in... curriculum (re-)design? Retention? DFW rates? Supporting all students? Intentionally supporting your faculty in professional development? Units can be defined broadly as any group of at least 4-5 people including individual courses, academic programs, and departments. We offer customizable workshops and the opportunity for your unit to earn a credential and recognition. 

AIEM-Teach Individual Credential: Are you coming up for promotion or need to document your teaching efforts? Are you looking to connect with other faculty interested in teaching from across campus? Consider joining our open call workshops and earning an inclusive teaching credential! 

Make time for your writing by participating in a Friday Faculty Writing Sprint. These writing sprints are opportunities to connect with colleagues and create accountability for your writing plans. NEW this semester! Starting October 4, writing sprints will be held in-person on the first Friday of each month. 

Teaching a writing-intensive course, or want to reconsider how your unit integrates writing into its curriculum? The WAC Program helps academic units reimagine their approaches to teaching and assessing writing at the course and curriculum level. Email us to schedule a consultation.

Join a Faculty Learning Community to explore alternative grading practices (such as specifications grading, ungrading, and contract grading), with a focus on exploring evaluation methods to foster student growth and learning. Meeting schedule TBD by interested participants. Email Breana Bayraktar (bbayrakt@gmu.edu) to learn more about the alternative grading FLC.

Course ReDesign Academy will be mostly online in January--with Zoom meetings January 8-9, 2025--to support your final adjustments for a spring course or your advance planning for summer or fall.  Accepted participants receive a stipend to support course development. See more online, and use our link there to submit your application by December 11.

Join us February 4 and/or 11, 2025 for the first set of AI Literacy Test Kitchens! Whether you're new to AI tools like ChatGPT or experienced, explore prompts and discuss the role of AI literacy and creativity in teaching. Based on "Teaching with AI" by Bowen and Watson, this session will enhance your AI literacy skills and teaching strategies.

Canvas Group Work & Collaboration Dec 10 @ 9:30 am - 11:00 am EST: This 90 minute session introduces participants to collaboration features in Canvas, including group discussions, group assignments, the collaboration tool, and web conferencing. Participants will see how these tools can be used to infuse interactivity and cooperation in their classes. Resource Guides can be found in our community.

Canvas for Different Delivery Modalities - Dec. 10 @ 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST: Join us for additional topics and workflows not covered in depth during Boot Camp. Registration not required. Sessions will be recorded and made available in the Growing with Canvas course.

Canvas Course Design Considerations - Dec. 10 @ 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST: Course Design Considerations highlights the best practices in Canvas for creating student-centered course spaces that can be easily navigated from a browser or a mobile device. This session will cover using the Course Evaluation Checklist and the Mobile App Design Course Evaluation Checklist to guide instructors, course designers, and other users responsible for creating course content.

Creating Mastery Paths in Canvas - Dec. 10 @ 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 pm.m EST: This 90-minute session will introduce participants to Mastery Paths, an advanced module tool that allows instructors to customize learning experiences for students. Explore the ways Mastery Paths can be used to differentiate assignments for required, or optional learning, or choice assignments. You'll be guided through the creation of a Mastery Path module and all of the settings available to personalize content.

Other Canvas training opportunities include Getting Started with Canvas (bi-weekly Zoom intro sessions) and our ongoing Canvas Brown Bag Sessions (weekly Zoom discussions).