UB TaLCK

Teaching is stressful, so we've created a group to address that concern. UBTaLCK, which is an acronym for UB Teaching and Learning Community of Knowledge, is a Community of Practice aimed to assist faculty with best pedagogical practices and classroom strategies.

Our Community of Practice meets via Zoom once per week to address teaching concerns, discuss classroom strategies and share resources along with best classroom strategies and practices suggested by you, for you. What better way to improve your teaching skills than by learning from fellow educators who have the same experiences as you. Utilizing resources found at UB always proves helpful, therefore our group invites and welcomes collaboration throughout UB.

A sampling of topics from our community of practice:

  • Course evaluations: the many levels of importance they play, and what can be done to improve them
  • Gamification in the classroom: pros and cons
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion strategies
  • Rubrics, other grading design and alternate grading styles tips and tricks
  • Peer evaluation: how to provide better feedback
  • Academic integrity: working with our campus resources

when:

Tuesdays, 12:15 p.m.- 12:45 p.m. via Zoom

Proposed spring 2023 schedule of topics:

2/7/23 Scaling activities and assessments to large class sizes
2/14/23 Chat GPT/ How AI is changing Higher Education
2/21/23 Planning for your designing your course in Brightspace; Using 'New' Features in Brightspace such as personalization
2/28/23 Large class engagement/classroom management, innovative pedagogy
3/7/23 Increasing participation and engagement in online and F2F courses
3/14/23
 How many hours do faculty work a week, how faculty manage it, and how to stay motivated
3/21/23 Spring Break  - NO SESSION
3/28/23
Attendance challenges
4/4/23
 Group work. Some students crave it and others hate it. What works at UB, for UB students?
4/11/23
 Fighting against the strong messaging from some that research is more important than teaching
4/18/23
 Managing large classes
4/25/23
 Effective peer-to-peer education
5/2/23
 Classroom etiquette/decorum
5/9/23 
 Semester wrap-up. We will break for summer. Fall Agenda TBD

Founders:

Maggie Grady, Learning Designer
Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation

Jessica Kruger, Ph.D., MCHES®
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior
Director of Teaching Innovation and Excellence in the School of Public Health and Health Professions

Join our community