On May 30 and 31, more than 200 instructors and professional staff gathered from across the University of Delaware to take part in the Summer Institute on Teaching (SIT). This year’s event continued the tradition of the Faculty Commons’ annual Summer Faculty Institute, simply under a new name.

The change of name, initiated after a conversation with Matthew Kinservik, vice provost for faculty affairs, is meant to demonstrate UD’s commitment to supporting all who teach at UD, including graduate students, adjunct instructors and professional staff.

“At previous workshops, I noticed that, although they were advertised as for faculty, that was too narrow a description,” Kinservik said. “I recognized a number of attendees who were not faculty, including graduate students, staff from Student Life and the Library, along with a great number of faculty members. This made me aware that instruction occurs in many ways and is provided by many people on campus. They all need to feel welcomed to attend programs like this. “That is why I suggested the name be changed to the Summer Institute on Teaching.”

SIT was designed to create an engaged and celebratory atmosphere around teaching and to bring educators from across the campus together to better support all of UD’s students in their successful attainment of degrees.

One participant responded: “... the benefits I experienced went beyond teaching. I also met new colleagues, formed connections with presenters and even got ideas for people I might contact to help move my research forward.”

During the two-day program, participants engaged in workshops and presentations facilitated by faculty and staff colleagues. Four tracks were offered -- shrinking the classroom, right resources, computational reasoning and research in and out of the classroom -- all with the aim of supporting student persistence and success.

Many first-year students find themselves in large, introductory classes, which can present unique challenges for those new to college. The keynote speaker for the first day, Stephanie Foote of the Gardner Institute, shared easy-to-implement strategies for engaging students in these large classroom settings, which may help students pass an otherwise challenging course.

Sean Eversley Bradwell of Ithaca College presented the keynote on day two, titled “What Comes After Diversity? Campus Realities and Classroom Inclusion.” This was followed by an interactive workshop co-facilitated by Nicole Eversley Bradwell, which explored generational stereotypes around the incoming student body. In these two presentations, instructors were confronted with difficult conversations and given the space and support to explore issues of representation in the classroom with their peers.

After their visit to UD’s campus, Nicole Eversley Bradwell conveyed the excitement that she and Sean shared about their participation. “We had a wonderful experience engaging with you and the University of Delaware faculty,” she said. “In our short time with you, it was evident that you are sharing energy that is resulting in amazing work. We have been buzzing with the energy we felt on your campus as we continue to talk about the exchanges we shared.”

The program culminated with a poster session highlighting recent grants awarded to instructors to improve the classroom experience. In total, CTAL has awarded $164,000 in grant money for the upcoming fiscal year to instructors across campus. This poster session was an opportunity for previous awardees to share their work with attendees and for attendees to learn more about the kinds of projects that may be eligible for grant funding. To learn more about future grant calls, visit the CTAL website.

This year’s Summer Institute on Teaching was coordinated by the Faculty Commons whose lead partners for SIT this year included the Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning (CTAL), Academic Technology Services (ATS), the Library and Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS). In addition, the English Language Institute and the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education played important roles in supporting the program, along with the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity.

Members of the UD community interested in presenting at SIT 2019 or who would like to offer suggestions for speakers and topics for the 2019 event should email teaching-institutes@udel.edu.