Curious about teaching and learning innovations on campus? Looking for inspiration for your own courses and experiences with students?
The Center for Teaching and Learning hosts an annual Spring event, Celebrating Teaching Day, an event dedicated to celebrating and honoring the commitment of Georgia Tech faculty and instructors who create engaging, challenging, and supportive learning experiences for their students throughout the year. In 2021, Celebrating Teaching Day was virtual featuring a keynote presentation by Dr. Thomas Tobin, and a poster session. Read on for more details about our 2021 event.
Keynote Address: "Assessment Hacks Revealed: Lowering Barriers while Preserving Rigor” by Dr. Thomas Tobin
Watch a recording of the talk.
Think back to the last time you graded student work. How long did it take? Think about the work that you put into preparing and presenting information that is new to your students. A lot of time, there, too?
What if we told you that your students can actually learn more and learn better if you were to teach less and grade less? And they would act dishonestly less often, to boot? There has to be a catch, right? Well, no.
This interactive webinar session presents a framework of expert-level teaching practices, all backed by the science of how our brains learn. Adopting one of three approaches that de-emphasizes numerical grades in your teaching approach can help to make learners more active, curious, and engaged, all while reducing your workload as an instructor—and preserving the rigor of the activities in which you ask learners to engage.
About the speaker:
Thomas J. Tobin is the Program Area Director for Distance Teaching & Learning on the Learning Design, Development, & Innovation (LDDI) team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as an internationally recognized speaker and author on quality in technology-mediated education, especially copyright, evaluation of teaching practice, academic integrity, and accessibility/universal design for learning.
He holds a Ph.D. in English literature, a second master’s degree in information science, and professional certifications in project management (PMP), online teaching (MOT), Quality Matters (QM), and accessibility core competencies (CPACC).
Named to Ed Tech Magazine’s 2020 “Dean’s List” of Educational Technology Influencers, Tom serves on the editorial boards of InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching and the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration.
His books include:
- Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best Practices (2015) with Jean Mandernach and Ann H. Taylor.
- The Copyright Ninja (2017).
- Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education (2018) with Kirsten Behling.
- Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers (2020) with Katie Linder and Kevin Kelly.
Poster Session:
During this signature Spring event, Georgia Tech faculty showcase their teaching and learning work in a poster session which offers a glimpse into their classrooms. Attendees will explore projects created by innovative and entrepreneurial faculty across campus and have the unique opportunity to share ideas and inspiration among colleagues. In 2021, the poster session were presented virtually.
Presentations by the Class of 1969 Teaching Fellows (watch recording):
- Sang-won Leigh and HyunJoo Oh, Industrial Design, "Inquiry-based Learning in Integrated Product Design Classroom"
- Ellen Mazumdar, Mechanical Engineering, "Tabletop Quadrarotor Platform for Teaching Fundamental Controls Concepts"
- Anne Sullivan, Literature, Media, and Communication, "Two Can Play at That Game!"
- Dobromir Rahnev, Psychology, "Assessing Students Creative Energies in the Classroom"
- Ryan Sherman, Civil and Environmental Engineering, “Integrating Communication Components into Engineering Curriculum"
- Danielle Wilkens, Architecture, "Beyond the Building Report: On-Site Architectural History"
- Kate Pride-Brown, History and Sociology, "Teaching Sociology through The Autobiography of Malcom X"
- Natalie Khazaal, Modern Languages, "Should we use project-based learning in the language classroom?"
- Martin Jacobson, Biomedical Engineering, "Intro-Challenge-Reveal: A pattern for responsive remote skills instruction"
Presentations by the Brittain Fellows, Hesburgh Teaching Award Fellows, and Provost Teaching and Learning Fellows (watch recording):
- Mary Grace Elliot, Brittain Fellows "Musicals in the Composition Classroom"
- Julia Tigner, Literature, Media, and Communication, "Reimagining Tech's Monuments in Public Spaces"
- “Discussing What Makes Teaching and Learning “Effective” by the Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellows
- “Learning about Inclusive Teaching: Insights and Applications” PTLF Anti-Racist Education Faculty Learning Community
- “The Learning Environment Matters: Creating Conditions for Academic Well-being” by PTLF Academic Well-being FLC
- “What is Blended Learning at Georgia Tech?“ PTLF Blended Learning FLC
- "Thinking Beyond Remote: Your Thoughts on Current and Future Experiences" Remote Learning FLC (PTLFs)
Presentations about Georgia Tech Educational Initiatives (watch recording):
- Chaohua Ou, Center for Teaching and Learning and Aselia Urmanbetova, Economics, "Redesigning an Open Textbook by Leveraging Media, Pedagogy, and Student Collaboration"Andrew Schultz, Mechanical Engineering, "Early Outcomes from an Interdisciplinary VIP Course
- "Tammy McCoy, Center for Teaching and Learning, “The Engineering Alliance: Meeting URM Post-Doc Needs in the Face of a Pandemic”
- Sarah Kegley, CTL, “International TA Development”
- Emily Weigel, Biological Sciences, "Examining Perspectives of Teaching among Biology Teaching Assistants"
- Kate Williams, CTL, "Graduate Students practice presentation and networking skills at virtual poster session"
- Melinda McDaniel, College of Computing, Small Teaching Online for Large Online Classes
- Franz Reneau, Academic Effectiveness, "Supporting Academic Effectiveness at Georgia Tech"
- Julaunica Tigner, Engineering, "The Art of Engineering"
Posters presented during the 2020 Celebrating Teaching Day, 2019 Celebrating Teaching Day (see below) and 2018 Celebrating Teaching Day illustrate the wide range of inventive pedagogical initiatives underway by Georgia Tech peers committed to student learning, such as
- The Distance Mathematics Program by Greg Mayer, Academic Professional, Mathematics, Georgia Tech Educational Initiatives.
- Humor in Technical Education, Communication and Innovation by Pete Ludovice, Associate Professor, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Educational Initiatives.
- Water-safety Education for High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate students (WE-HUG) by Xing Xie, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Class of 1969 Teaching Fellows.
You will find a range of disciplines represented at the poster session, as well as Center for Teaching and Learning faculty and members of faculty fellows groups, University System of Georgia Chancellor's Scholars, faculty learning communities, and Brittain Fellows.
Celebrating Teaching Day is also an opportunity to applaud the passion and dedication Georgia Tech faculty bring to the classroom, lab, and other educational connections with students. We also recognize colleagues such as Thank-a-Teacher and Student Recognition of Teaching Excellence: Class of 1934 CIOS Award recipients.
Visit this page to learn more about Celebrating Teaching Day 2020.
Visit this page to see some of the exciting teaching and learning posters from Celebrate Teaching Day 2019.
Visit this page to learn more about Celebrating Teaching Day 2018.