CETL St. Augustine Workshop Registration

As a way of addressing multiple pathways of faculty development, the UWISTA Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning introduces a new format of capacity-building. This Face-to-Face (F2F) unconference takes place once every semester with the aim of fostering a teaching and learning community.

This faculty-led event focuses on allowing faculty to share and reflect on the various instructional tools, strategies and or approaches used in the physical and online classroom.

Format of Event

In 20 minutes or less, presenters (faculty) will share in a small 5–6-person group (table), how they use instructional tools, strategies and or approaches in their classroom. Attendees will be able to choose a presentation of interest and have the opportunity to join other presentations throughout the event. A rotation of the group (attendees) will take place after each presentation.

Format of Presentation

• Introduction - 5 mins
• Demonstration/Simulation - 10 min
• Reflection & Question & Answer - 5 mins

Topics

Working Towards Better Student Engagement in the Classroom

• In the DMME, we have noticed a decrease in attendance of our undergraduate students in the classroom. Even more alarming is that for those that are in the classroom, some are not "in" the classroom because they are distracted talking to their friends, being on the smartphone, or sleeping. We aim to discuss how to bring back students to our classes and how to keep them engaged in the classroom.

Transforming Student Engagement and Real-time Formative Assessment with Plickers

• This session will explore how Plickers can be used to easily create formative assessments, enhance student engagement and participation in the classroom, and gather real-time feedback to instantly assess student understanding without the need for student devices. We will delve into how these data-driven insights allows educators to identify and address any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge quickly and adjust their teaching strategies on the spot, ultimately fostering continuous improvement and enhancing student learning.

Engage, Inspire, Achieve: Transforming Lessons with Nearpod

• This session is designed to empower educators with innovative strategies and tools to create dynamic and interactive learning experiences that resonate with students in both physical and online classrooms. Through Nearpod, we can go beyond traditional teaching methods, leveraging gamified activities, real-time assessments, virtual field trips, and collaborative boards to inspire active learning.

Enhancing Online and In-Person Tutorial Sessions Using Google Slides

• The session will focus on using Google Slides for online and in-person tutorials. Google Slides, increases students’ interaction/participation in the classroom, optimises class time as students can input solutions simultaneously, saves work for later revision, and tracks student participation.

Wheel of Questions: Inclusive Student-Led Learning and Assessment Strategy

• This session introduces a fun and engaging tool, the "Wheel of Questions", to enhance student engagement and promote continuous learning. By the end of this session, educators will be armed with an inclusive strategy that integrates student-generated questions into both learning and assessment. This approach fosters participation, critical thinking, and accessibility in both online and physical classrooms.

AI: What should I be paying attention to?

• The Caribbean faces unique challenges and opportunities in artificial intelligence that demand targeted research and development approaches. Our work should prioritize developing contextually appropriate AI systems optimized for low computational resources while maintaining high capability which is a critical consideration for regional deployment. We must pursue fundamental enabling technologies that can serve as building blocks for broader AI applications in the Caribbean context adopting an interdisciplinary lens, promoting collaborations across fields with consideration to rigorous analysis of safety mechanisms, ethical frameworks, trust-building elements, and bias mitigation strategies.