September 25

Categories: Weekly Digest Tags: 2023

Join UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library and the Levine Museum of the New South for a discussion on the historical social injustices caused by environmental disturbance in Charlotte as explored through the Climate Inequality CLT digital project. Panelists will connect and discuss parallels between pollution, displacement and forced migration in Charlotte’s Historically Black Communities, urban renewal, environmental racism of the past and what it means for residents today. Light refreshments will be available. 

Tuesday, September 26, 6:00 PM, McKnight Hall, Cone University Center (Register)

UNC Charlotte was recently awarded a three-year National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education grant of approximately $500,000 to explore best practices in training STEM graduate students to communicate their research to non-specialist audiences. Read more.

Phi Beta Delta (PBD) is an international honor society open to faculty, staff and students. UNC Charlotte’s Mu Chapter serves as a model for chapters nationwide and has been the recipient of the Phi Beta Delta “Outstanding Chapter Award” four times (1995, 2004, 2010 and 2022). PBD has as its purpose the recognition of experience in the areas of international education exchange and/or international scholarship. It also serves as a means for encouraging interdisciplinary interchange and serves as a catalyst for developing a network among faculty, students, and staff involved. Please consider nominating faculty, staff or students to PBD; the nomination form will close on Friday, October 13.

Part 1: Getting Started with ChatGPT
Join this workshop if you have never set-up an account or are a beginning user of ChatGPT. This hands-on workshop will cover an introduction to generative AI and ChatGPT. Participants will set-up a ChatGPT account, learn how Generative AI produces a response, practice prompting with ChatGPT, experiment with personalized learning techniques, and practice producing instructional materials that could be used in your courses.

  • Monday, September 25, 9:00 – 10:00 AM (Register)

Canvas Analytics for Early Intervention
Learn how to leverage Canvas Analytics for early student intervention! Course analytics offer data on individual and aggregate student activity, assignment submissions, and grades, as well as page views and student participation metrics across all of their devices. In this session, you’ll learn how to leverage Canvas as a tool for identifying students in need!

  • Wednesday, September 27, 10:00 – 11:00 AM (Register)

Part 1: Canvas Studio – Creating Video Assignments
Canvas Studio has replaced Kaltura Capture and My Media for instructional videos! This workshop will cover the basics of using Canvas Studio to create and share instructional media through your Canvas courses. Topics include: how to upload existing media, recording new media, captioning videos, editing media, embedding media on pages, understanding the video Library, and creating assignments that involve video submission and having students submit assignments involving videos.

  • Wednesday, September 27, 3:00 – 4:00 PM (Register)
  • Thursday, October 5, 2:00 – 3:00 PM (Register)

Part 2: Canvas Studio for Video Quizzes
Canvas Studio’s in-video quiz feature allows instructors to embed interactive quiz questions at specific points in videos. Students can respond to multiple-choice, true/false, or other types of prompts while watching the video. This feature enhances student engagement, reinforces key concepts, and provides a way for instructors to assess understanding. Customization includes time limits and multiple attempts. Learn how to use this tool with your videos to increase student engagement!

  • Thursday, September 28, 9:00 – 10:00 AM (Register)

Part 2: Student Study Skills with ChatGPT
Join this session to learn how to better support students’ study skills in the age of A.I.. We will demonstrate how to prompt A.I. tools (like ChatGPT) to develop self-study guides, practice assessments, and serve as a personal learning assistant for students. By the end of the hour, you will have an action plan for how to communicate these strategies to students in your course(s).

  • Friday, September 29, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Register)

Part 3: Student Writing Skills with ChatGPT
Join this session to learn how to integrate AI tools effectively in writing projects. We will demonstrate how to chunk and scaffold project tasks for peer review and instructor support, as well as how to prompt A.I. tools (like ChatGPT) to enhance the writing process at each stage. By the end of the hour, you will have a planning tool and strategies for integrating AI into writing projects.

  • Monday, October 2, 10:00 – 11:00 AM (Register)

Scholarship for Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Request for Proposals is Open
The SoTL Grants Program RFP is open and requesting proposals for SoTL research that is explicitly tied to the teaching and learning goals of our Strategic Plan. Proposals are due by 11:59 p.m. on October 1.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) seeks faculty fellows to provide leadership to programs supporting faculty and student engagement in research projects and dissemination. The goal of the Office for Undergraduate Research is to continue to expand the opportunities for undergraduates to engage in authentic research, mentored scholarship, and creative performance at UNC Charlotte. OUR provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage with the undergraduate research enterprise through curricular innovation, co-curricular mentored research experiences, and dissemination of novel research knowledge to diverse audiences through professional and public conferences.

Faculty Learning Community Fellows
OUR seeks to identify two faculty fellowships for curricular innovation. The responsibilities of these fellows are to organize and lead a faculty learning community on embedding undergraduate research into the curriculum. The fellows, with the assistance of the Director of OUR, will curate a reading list of general and disciplinary resources to provide relevant examples for curricular integration of scaffolded undergraduate research experiences, transferable skill development through Undergraduate Research, Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE), and best practices for teaching research skills and processes through the curriculum. The fellows will recruit willing faculty across diverse colleges and departments, organize and lead a series of discussions, journal clubs, books groups, or other relevant sessions to examine, evaluate, and innovate curricular adaptations that are culturally appropriate for UNC Charlotte from these discussions. The fellows will come from different disciplines in the natural and social sciences or humanities and arts. Goals for this fellowship include engage current faculty members in curricular discussions; encourage current faculty to innovate in courses with Undergraduate Research; develop ideas adaptable to disciplinary curricula for Undergraduate Research embedding; build cohort confidence in exploring curricular UR integration among members; identify additional professional development opportunities for embedding UR into curricula for faculty and teaching staff; and report outcomes to the Director of OUR annually. 

The fellows must be tenured or tenure-track faculty members and be an experienced undergraduate research mentor. Fellows will meet regularly with the Director of OUR to provide leadership for OUR and to communicate progress towards deliverable tasks. The duration of the fellowship is for two years with the potential for renewal for a third year based on outcomes. Compensation is $5000 for the year. 

Undergraduate Research Journal Fellow
OUR seeks to identify a faculty fellowship for dissemination of undergraduate research. The responsibilities of this fellow are to explore, examine, consider different models for undergraduate research journals at UNC Charlotte. The fellow will not only evaluate existing models, but they will seek campus partners, as appropriate, and recommend a sustainable, culturally appropriate model for an undergraduate research journal at UNC Charlotte. Goals for this fellowship include: compile a list of models for UR Journals; engage students and mentors at Charlotte by convening focus groups or soliciting campus input as appropriate; evaluate existing models and recommend a sustainable model for a Undergraduate Research Journal at UNC Charlotte; identify a path forward for publication of issue 3 within one year; advance the implementation of the new model, as appropriate, by seeking campus partners and collaborators; and report outcomes to the Director of OUR annually

Faculty fellows will meet regularly with the Director of OUR to provide leadership for OUR and to communicate progress towards deliverable tasks. The duration of the fellowship is one year with the potential for renewal for a second year to launch the Journal model. Compensation is $5000 for the year.

Latinx Muralismo in Charlotte
Join the Department of Languages and Culture Studies and Area 49 in Atkins Library for an exciting day exploring the Latinx muralismo scene in Charlotte. The day will include a panel discussion with two local artists and an afternoon mini-mural workshop.
Panel Discussion
Being a Latinx Artist in Charlotte: A conversation with Nico Amortegui and Valentín Ramírez -11:15 a.m. – 12:05 p.m – Visualization Lab, Atkins Library second floor.
Muralismo Taller / Mural Workshop
NC-based, Colombian-born artist Nico Amortegui will guide participants through a hands-on, mini-mural workshop. Wear clothes to get messy! Nico is known for large-scale paintings and installations, which can be found locally throughout NC as well as internationally in places like Atlanta, DC, and Tel Aviv. His works are vibrant and expressive. – 4 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. – Area 49, Atkins Library second floor. 
Please join for one or both parts. Space is limited for the workshop and registration is required.

  • Wednesday, October 4

Antisemitism and the Origins of Critical Theory:  Horkheimer and Adorno’s “Philosophical Fragments”

Antisemitism is on the rise and critical theory is in the news. Can we learn something by going to the origins of critical theory, developed in Frankfurt, Germany exactly in response to the conditions that birthed Nazi Germany? Please join Dr. Martin Shuster, Professor of Philosophy and the Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, for a talk and cocktail hour focused on the origins of critical theory in the work of the so-called Frankfurt School. The event also serves to mark the remarkable acquisition by Atkins library of a founding text of critical theory, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Philosophical Fragments (1944), a rare book of which only 300 copies exist, but which later was reworked to become their path breaking and hugely influential text, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947).
Presentation of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Philosophical Fragments (1944 )- 5 p.m. – Special Collections, 10th floor.
Join Dr. Martin Shuster for a talk and cocktail hour – 6 p.m. – Halton Reading Room, first floor.
Registration

  • Thursday, October 12 – J. Murrey Atkins Library

Please visit the Faculty Governance website for the latest news from the Faculty Council including: 

The dissertation defense is one of the ways a new scholar demonstrates readiness to join the academy and is an opportunity to share their research widely. View All Dissertation Defense Announcements.

For up-to-the-minute news from Academic Affairs (faculty awards, research, recognition, initiatives), visit the Academic Affairs Division News webpage.

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Deadline for submission is 11:00 a.m. every Friday.