The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) proudly recognizes Khalid Ballouli, Augustus Fountain, Katherine Ryker, Scott Smith, and Sarah Williams as recipients of the 2024 Garnet Apple Award for their innovative teaching. Don't miss the opportunity to honor their achievements at the 2024 Oktoberbest: A Symposium on Teaching on October 25.
The CTE congratulates 36 graduate students recognized by the Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFF) for their commitment to excellence in academia and beyond, highlighting a significant milestone in their professional journey at USC.
Discover enhanced educational tools with Zoom and Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View (UCV) at USC. Zoom offers seamless video conferencing, integrated with Blackboard, while UCV provides enhanced features. Fall 2024 courses in UCV are now available. Training sessions for UCV are provided by the CTE and eLearning Services to support educators in utilizing these tools for enhanced teaching and learning experiences.
Ten faculty from various departments across the University were chosen by the Office of the Provost and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) for the Provost's Inaugural AI Teaching Fellowship. Over 12 months, they'll integrate GenAI into course design, assess its impact on learning, and share findings. The CTE recommends including a GenAI policy in course syllabi to foster transparency, academic integrity, and student preparedness.
The 2nd Annual Focus on First-Generation Symposium, held on March 15, 2024, featured Dr. Darris R. Means discussing strategies to support USC's first-generation students, supported by initiatives promoting their academic success and well-being.
Supported by a teaching resource development grant, GTA/IAs develop teaching resources that enhance the quality and depth of undergraduate student learning at the University of South Carolina.
Teaching in a medical school requires a unique set of skills and an ongoing commitment to excellence. The Reflective Teaching Practices for Medical Educators (RTPforME) program is designed to engage medical school faculty members in a transformative journey of reflective teaching practices.
CTE awards faculty Innovative Pedagogy grants for the revision or development of exemplary courses as an invest in the improvement of courses taught by faculty who provide students with exemplary, highly engaging learning experiences, offered either in an online, blended, or traditional format.
Graduate students awarded grants for the development of instructional materials, modules, cross-curriculum assessments, or other resources that will enhance the quality and depth of undergraduate student learning
Six recipients received the Garnet Apple Award for Teaching Innovation which honors exceptional faculty at USC who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to best teaching practices and a record of developing innovative strategies to enhance student learning.
As a way of recognizing instructors who go the extra mile, challenge and inspire students, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) launched the Thank a Teacher Program in the fall of 2022.
Panopto is a single platform for instructors to create and manage their video content. After an extensive trial and testing period in December of 2021, UofSC purchased full licensing for Panopto. On August 10, 2022, it was made available for all UofSC instructors. Panopto is a very robust system for creating videos, editing them, and providing the instructors with the ability to store the videos and to link the videos directly into their Blackboard core.
The Quality Standards for Online Courses (QSOC) were developed to provide UofSC faculty, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), and support staff a new set of quality standards for the design, revision, and review of online courses. As a result of the new standards, faculty and instructional designers have access to an instrument that can be used as a starting point when designing and revising quality online courses.
Five Graduate Teaching and Instructional Assistants (GTA/IAs) awarded grants for the development of instructional materials, modules, cross-curriculum assessments, online learning innovations, or other resources that will enhance the quality and depth of undergraduate student learning at the University of South Carolina.
3 Faculty awarded grants for the revision or development of exemplary courses to integrate virtual environments technology (virtual reality, augmented reality, and/or 360-degree video)
Grants for the development or revision of exemplary undergraduate online courses for Winter Session 2023.
The Garnet Apple Award for Teaching Innovation honors UofSC's most exceptional faculty who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to best teaching practices and an ongoing record of developing innovative strategies to enhance student learning in their courses. 5 recipients received this year's award and are to be commended for their accomplishments.
UofSC is now a member of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). The OLC is a collaborative community of higher education representatives dedicated to improving best practices for quality online learning and programs.
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression," British writer Andrew Grant said. That same mantra should be followed when revamping or developing your syllabus as this is the first document that your students interact with. The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) has numerous resources available to ensure our instructors have everything they need to create a strong syllabus.
With face-to-face interaction strongly discouraged, how would one go about spreading the joy of music? This is a challenge J. Daniel Jenkins, associate professor of music theory, had to address swiftly. In the fall of 2020, Jenkins taught online for the first time in a graduate course called "Public Music Theory." The main purpose of the course was to engage the public with music theoretical knowledge. The online structure of the class created a barrier to public and student engagement. While teaching online can cause different problems to arise, Jenkins advises educators to have patience and flexibility. While being thrown into online teaching can be a stressful situation, finding ways to keep your students motivated and engaged is rewarding.
Abhijit Guha is an associate professor of Marketing in the Darla Moore School of Business. He teaches a large MKTG 351 course (300-400 students). Abhijit took the challenge of teaching virtually during the pandemic head-on and thrived.
Tina Marie Devlin is an adjunct faculty member in the Arnold School of Public Health. Tina implemented many strategies during the pandemic to engage students. Her learning modules included Blackboard Collaborate Ultra lectures, short videos, journal articles, discussion board assignments, a midterm exam and a virtual group project.
In response to an increasing need for faculty in the medical schools to network and engage in reflective teaching practices, CTE developed the Reflective Teaching Practices for Medical Educators (RTPforME) program. In a cohort model, RTPforME consists of live, interactive webinars, asynchronous modules, one-on-one consultations with an instructional designer, and a final teaching project. Participants are provided with a Cohort Leader, an experienced instructional designer who coaches them through the program.
The goals of this program are to prepare faculty to teach exemplary online, blended or hybrid courses and to build their capacity in the areas of pedagogy, course design, course development, distributed delivery, and online course administration. By providing a self-paced series of micro-courses with a capstone project in a cohort model, the program is designed to maximize flexibility for participants.
All told, the rapid change of courses to different teaching and learning formats during COVID-19 created challenges across the education landscape. This article explores three pedagogical principles and frameworks for the design, development, and delivery of online courses.