Faculty Engagement & Collaboration

The Faculty Center for Professional Development is planning a series of workshops/lectures in June and August 2023 in preparation for the Fall semester.  

We are seeking presenters from anyone interested in sharing their expertise in the following categories below.  Please click on this LINK to indicate your interest in one or any of the categories.  We also welcome other subtopics you might want to share within the main categories:

Pedagogy: Inclusive teaching; Making your teaching practices more welcoming; Reflections on teaching online (asynchronous or synchronous); Problem-based learning; Collaborative teaching methods; integrating alternatives to lectures; Game-based learning; etc. 

Assessment: Program level assessment; Creating assessment alternatives to exams; Un-grading/De-Emphasizing Grades; Aligning course content to learning outcomes; Constructing effective online assignments; etc.

Research: Explore faculty/student research collaborations; Facilitating faculty research and scholarship, through grants, mentorship, and other resources; etc.

Student Engagement: Re-engaging students inside and outside of the classroom; Providing constructive feedback to learners; Supporting student identities and needs; Navigating difficult questions in the classroom; Using EdTech tools to engage learners; Discussing stress and anxiety of students in the classroom; etc.

Course Design: Creating a more inclusive and digitally responsive course/program/curriculum; Revamping Your Syllabus; Creating an accessible and inclusive syllabus; Creating a visual syllabus. 

Career Conversations: Embedding career readiness in course design; Experiential learning; career-ready skills; Using the classroom as professional space; Integrating career-relevant outcomes into your teaching, etc.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us at: facultycenter@csi.cuny.edu

Faculty Center Team: Wilma Jones, Fausto Canela, and Michael Castelli

Extended Reality: Make Your Teaching Pop

A virtual session to see how XR is used to teach science, history, the arts, and literature in both online and face-to-face classes was held on Thursday, February 23 from 3:30pm - 4:30pm.  This presentation was a review of trends and concerns around extended reality in education. It was not intended as a skills development workshop. No special equipment or software were needed to attend. All full-time and adjunct faculty were welcome to attend. The event was presented by Beth Evans, Associate Professor and Reference/Instruction Librarian (Brooklyn College)

A zoom recording of this program is available HERE with the passcode: 1g2yz1&r

Recognizing and Helping Students In Distress 

By nearly every metric, student mental health is worsening. During the 2020–2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from 373 campuses nationwide (Lipson, S. K., et al., Journal of Affective Disorders, Vol. 306, 2022). In another national survey, almost three quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological distress (National College Health Assessment, American College Health Association, 2021).  The COVID-19 pandemic created an even greater need for free and accessible mental health services to students struggling with online learning and social isolation.  The CSI Counseling Center has a diverse staff of well-qualified, credentialed mental health professionals who provide direct services to students and consultation services to faculty and staff.  This presentation on February 28, 2023, covered the scope of CSI Counseling Center services, helped faculty and staff learn to recognize signs of student distress, and provided guidance on referring to the Counseling Center.​  The program was open to all full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, and professional staff. 

Presenters: Winnie Eng, Ph.D, Psychologist, CSI Counseling Center; Kim Montagnino Ph.D, Psychologist, CSI Counseling Center; and Daphney Rene, Psy.D, Clinical Social Worker, CSI Counseling Center 

The presentation from the event is available via this LINK.

ChatGPT: Implications and Possibilities 

An interactive session on how ChatGPT works, how it can go wrong, and how they plan to embrace it in the classroom was held on Wednesday, March 8 from 6:30pm-8:00pm. Presentations included:  "ChatGPT: Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer" by Sarah Zelikovitz, Associate Professor of Computer Science;  "Let's Play: ChatGPT or CSI Student" by Susan Imberman, Associate Professor of Computer Science;“Why Did the Nervous Writing Program Director Cross the Road?” by Mary Boland, Professor of English; "Coding, Security, and Administration with ChatGPT" by Joseph Frucsi, Adjunct Assistant Professor, History; and  "ChatGPT in the Workplace" by Paolo Cappellari (Marketing). 

The forum was moderated by Interim Provost Michael Steiper and was open to all adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, and professional staff members.  
A website of resources on ChatGPT can be found HERE and a zoom recording of this program is available at this LINK with the passcode: W#*Ts!y9

Open Educational Resources Showcase @ CSI

Colleagues from across the disciplines shared the benefits of integrating open textbooks or a combination of open and freely available material (Zero Textbook Cost or ZTC) into your teaching to CSI students.  The panel was moderated by the Emerging Technologies Librarian and OER Coordinator, Christina Boyle, who shared more about the support available via CUNY, including grant award monies to adopt or author (individually or co-author) your own open course materials and textbooks.  This program was open to all adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, and professional staff members. 

Presentations were made by:  Charles Liu, (Astronomy); George Vachadze, (Economics); Janice Fioravante, (Media Culture); Michael Batson (COR100); Rachel Kovacs (Media Culture) and Stephen Ferst, Director, Center for Global Engagement.

A resource website for OER can be found HERE and a zoom recording of this event is available at this LINK with the passcode: #3S5vWy=

Social Justice, Antiracism, and Active Media: How/Why I Devised the Course

Edward D. Miller, Professor of Media Culture

While Professor Edward Miller was on Sabbatical leave during the calendar year 2020, and out of the country, several events occurring in the United States compelled him to reflect on how and what he was currently teaching. Post sabbatical, he offered the course as a Special Topics course in Spring 2021.  Professor Miller will discuss how the course has evolved and become relevant over the past two years as well as the process to make the course a permanent one in the undergraduate catalog.

Powerpoint presentation: Social Justice, Antiracism, and Active Media: How/Why I Devised the Course

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The Afterlives of Willowbrook: A Teaching Diary

Hosu Kim, Associate Professor of Sociology

The year 2022 commemorated the fiftieth year of the national exposè on the decades-long neglect and abuse against residents at the Willowbrook State School (1947 – 1987).  In teaching Psychosocial Aspects of Disability on the College of Staten Island, I decided to focus my class on a multi-modal inquiry into the history of my home institution (College of Staten Island) – the inheritor of the Willowbrook State School.

Immediate background to this new initiative came from my own observation to a limitation over the past lessons of Willowbrook’s history in teaching. In learning about systematic neglect and abuse at Willowbrook, students responded in disbelief, pity and empathy. Those common responses were well-meaning, yet often, carry a double side of self-assurance and self-aggrandizement though this wasn’t the original intent. Feeling frustration at the deeply ingrained ableist responses toward the disabled, I set out to explore a connectivity of the campus between the past and the present of the campus and lives across.​

Video presentation: The Afterlives of Willowbrook: A Teaching Diary

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Integrating Computational Literacies in Teacher Education across the Disciplines

Ting Yuan, Liqing Tao, Marta Cabral, Steven Azeka, Alana Gibbons, Stephanie Schmier, and Rebecca Curinga, Department of Curriculum & Instruction

Our poster features how we - faculty at School of Education - experiment with equitable computational literacies across disciplines.

Recent research begins to inform how computational literacy can help build students’ traditional literacies (Jacob & Warschauer, 2018), leverage bilingual learners’ full linguistic repertoires (Ascenzi-Moreno et al., 2020; Vogel, et al., 2020), as well as cultivate preservice and in-service teachers’ computational thinking (Kong & Lai, 2022). However, little is known regarding teacher educators’ equitable practices of acquiring computational literacies in their courses in the higher education classroom (Kafai & Proctor, 2022). The digital and computational-literacy divide for U.S. college students, a gap between those who can and cannot access the Internet and computing education, has been worsened by remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (Jaggars et al., 2021). Such inequitable access has been found regarding gender, racial/ethnic group, and socioeconomic status. Thus, there is a need to understand what equitable teaching practices look like and how the critical dimensions of computing education can be addressed to empower students’ voice and identity in the teacher education classroom. This is an indispensable area of knowledge that can help us promote computational literacies in K-12 settings.

Guided by equity pedagogies, we present our teaching integration in computational literacies. In addition, we hope to share with the CSI audience regarding how teacher educators may better serve as the necessary lynchpin to address equitable learning by facilitating preservice teachers’ computing education across disciplines

Poster Presentation: Integrating Computational Literacies in Teacher Education across the Disciplines 

Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Lightning Talks

What is the meaning of anti-racist pedagogy? What does it mean to decolonize a syllabus?  In this one-hour lightning talk, faculty share their strategies to building an anti-racist curriculum within their classes.  Lightning Talks will be moderated by Professor Mary Boland, Department of English (CSI) and panelists will include:

Cate Marvin: "Speaking to White Supremacy Cultural Norms in the Classroom" (College of Staten Island)

Jen Coane: "Small (Antiracist) Teaching: Incremental Changes to Foster Inclusivity" (Colby College)

Yulia Gilichinskaya: "Antiracism in Academia: Institutions and Individuals" (University of California, Santa Cruz)

​Kara-Lynn Vaeni: "Using the Syllabus to Create An Antiracist Classroom" (Yale University and Southern Methodist University)

Click here for resources shared at the event.  Please find the Zoom recording here.

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Becoming Allies for LGBTQ Students: SafeZone Training

Jeremiah Jurkiewicz, LGBTQ Resource Center/Pluralism & Diversity Coordinator, Office of Student Life

SafeZone Training offers an opportunity for faculty, staff, and administrators to learn how to be allies to LGBTQ+ students.  This two-hour training introduces issues that LGBTQ students face and explores how everyone can help make CSI a more welcoming place for students to thrive.  We will explore terminology, affirming language, and best practices.  All faculty, professional staff, and administrators are welcome.  Twenty spaces available.

Resources shared at the SafeZone Training include: What are Pronouns (YouTube Video); History of They from OED Blog; and Singular ‘They’ from Merriam-Webster

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Tips for Creating Accessible Digital Content

Shivan Mahabir, Assistant Director for Assistive Technology and Stefan Charles-Pierre, Director of the Center for Student Accessibility, Center for Student Accessibility

Join members of the Center for Student Accessibility for a presentation that will help faculty and staff understand why accessible documents are essential and the importance of creating one.  This presentation will provide helpful tips for creating accessible documents in MS Word, Powerpoint, PDF, and Office 365; for creating accessible videos and images; as well as the necessary tools to make electronic documents accessible to all.  All faculty and professional staff are welcome.

Central to the mission of the Center for Student Accessibility (CSA) is a goal to provide equal access for all and assist CSI in staying compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The ADA and The Rehabilitation Act state that all electronic and information technology (EIT) must be accessible to people with disabilities. 

Click here for web resource shared at the event.

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Tooling Around: Five Fun Tools for the Classroom

Jennifer Bonnet, Social Sciences and Humanities Librarian Lindsay Decker, Science Reference Librarian and Christopher Clark, Science Reference Librarian, University of Maine Libraries

Join Jen Bonnet, Lindsay Decker and Christopher Clark for an interactive session introducing five tools that can be easily implemented in the classroom (in-person or online). They will cover Picker Wheel, PollEverywhere, Mentimeter, Jamboard, and Padlet, providing prompts, examples, and opportunities for audience members to interact with the tools just as their students might in a classroom scenario. After the presentation, attendees will have a better understanding of an array of easy-to-use classroom tools that can be used for learning check-ins, engagement opportunities, and icebreakers.

Please click here for the document shared at this event on getting started with these Five Fun Tools 

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Using Loom to Create 3-Min Video Clips

Christina Boyle, Emerging Technologies Librarian (CSI)

Learn how to use Loom to record brief introductions to lessons or lectures, that may include Powerpoint or Keynote presentations, Websites, Google slides, and more. This workshop will show you how to set up a pro account (free for educators forever), install the Desktop App and Chrome Extension, set up your microphone, record and edit your lecture, and embed recording into Blackboard Course or share as a video link.  All faculty and professional staff are welcome.

Resources shared at the event include: Recording a Presentation with Loom and Loom for Introductions.