[...] Center for Teaching & Learning Programs & Institutes
Summer & Winter Institutes

Summer & Winter Institutes

IN THIS SECTION
Contact CTL: The Faculty Development Center
Sullivan Academic Center
Suite S-117
cteachlearn@worcester.edu
508-929-8796

CTL organizes faculty development institutes semi-annually on Professional Development Days which typically fall just before final exams. Recent themes include “College Belonging,” “Who’s in Your Neighborhood,” “Integrative Learning,” “Burning Bright Through Waves of Disruption,” “LASC: Liberal Arts and Sciences Curriculum,” “Community Building in the Classroom, on Campus, and Beyond,” and “Ways of Knowing: Promoting a Culture of Inclusion.”

Group at a table, one woman speaks to the rest, gesturing.

Winter Institute 2025

Dr. Riley McGuire, Associate Professor of English and the Editor of Currents in Teaching and Learning, spoke on "Learning to Risk Effort: Crafting Classrooms Conducive to Trying." Faculty explored discipline-based AI inquiries and as well as special topics breakouts in Critical Information & Media Literacies, R Data Equity, Mid-career Leadership, Team Teaching, What Does It Mean to “Humanize” Online Teaching?, and The Wound of Being Counted Out: Steps to Healing Math Anxiety.
2025 Winter Institute Program
6 faculty standing in hallway with backs mostly facing looking at large banner mounted on wall with a timeline and placing sticky notes

Summer Institute 2025

Dr. Elizabeth Markovits, Associate Provost & Professor of Politics on the Ford Foundation, Mount Holyoke College, presented on "Burning Bright Through Waves of Disruption."
Dr. Markovits' Notes
A group of faculty members sitting at a round table during a workshop, listening and gesturing as one colleague speaks.

Winter Institute 2024

Faculty discussed AI policy, AI tools in the classroom, and AI tools available in the library. They explored sponsored research opportunities with SURG and Celebration of Scholarship & Creativity, and participated in breakout sessions: "Anatomage Table," "Everyday Things," or "Community-Based Learning."
Winter Institute 2024 Program
3 faculty of different ages, race, and gender seated at a table in front of a big screen with data graphs listening to a white woman with long brown ponytail and glasses teach them.

Summer Institute 2024

Dr. André K. Isaacs, Associate Professor of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross, provided a keynote presentation on "Inclusive Excellence: Strategies to Unlocking Student Engagement and Broadening Participation;" WSU faculty also facilitated an "AI Studio" with their colleagues to share use cases within their disciplines.
Summer Institute 2024 Program

Winter Institute 2023

Participants visited the Faculty Art Show, then spent the day exploring Blackboard Ultra through various modes and/or participating in Course Collaboration workshops: "Transfer the Trust," "Trauma Informed Pedagogy," "Special Course Designations: Designing and Proposing FYS, Honors, and Service-learning Courses," "Cultivating Inclusive Learning Environments and Adult Learnings: Try One Thing," and "Re-framing Academic Integrity: Designing Foolproof Assignments (Impossible?)."
Winter Institute 2023 Program
A woman standing at the front of a room with a microphone. people sit at tables looking a her. A projection of a powerpoint slide is behind the speaker

Summer Institute 2023

Dr. Lisa Nunn, Proud First-Gen Grad Student, Director of the Center For Educational Excellence, Professor of Sociology, University of San Diego gave a presentation based on her two books "33 Simple Strategies for Faculty" and "College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life".
Dr. Nunn's Presentation Notes
A group of Worcester State faculty members engaged in a collaborative discussion at a round table during a Winter Institute workshop session.

Winter Institute 2022

Faculty engaged in a gallery walk centered on "What does mentoring mean to you?" Further discussion focused on team teaching, new engagement via course collaborations w/staff partners, first year students: new setting, new expectations, time management & personal well-being, ncreasing inclusivity in courses, course reading angst, exploring “alternative grading," and OER(open educational resources).
Winter Institute 2022 Program
Contact CTL: The Faculty Development Center
Sullivan Academic Center
Suite S-117
cteachlearn@worcester.edu
508-929-8796