The Center and You!
Thank you awesome faculty for all that you have done for our students to successfully launch the 2024-2025 academic year! Whether you worked over the summer to prep for a class that you haven’t taught before (or in a while), or participated in crucial elements of your program or department or the college, or you advocated for and supported our students, or you you took a much deserved break to re-energize and recharge, or engaged in professional learning, or all of the above…you are appreciated. As we reflect on the Mattering, Belonging, and Innovation themes of Coordination Day, we know that in order to create a sense of Mattering and Belonging for our students, we need to also create this for ourselves. There is a community of faculty support at The Center that is here to support you as you support our students-–please do not hesitate to contact us.
MATC Professional Learning Opportunities:
MATC offers a wide-range of professional development courses in a variety of delivery modes and durations as part of our efforts to design meaningful professional development that provides just-in-time training opportunities for you to explore what you need when you need it. All of our offerings are free to MATC faculty and eligible for FQAS hours, so that you can plan and develop your own professional development goals and outcomes.
Innovation Grant Opportunity for Mattering, Belonging and AI Projects
The college is pleased to announce an Innovation Grant to support projects that foster mattering, belonging and the incorporation of artificial intelligence. Proposals should focus on creating opportunities or developing systems that enhance these areas. Requests should not exceed $5,000. To apply, complete the attached form and submit it to Araceli Robles Estrada by Friday, September 6, at 5 p.m. A committee will review each proposal, and confirmation will be sent by September 20. Don't miss this chance to bring your innovative ideas to life!
Restorative Practice Seminar
Join us on Thursday, September 12, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Downtown Milwaukee Campus, Room M605, for an introductory workshop to:
Gain an understanding of restorative practices, principles and philosophy.Connect with colleagues around issues of race and equity.Engage in practices of restoration.Learn how you can get involved in the Restore MATC Initiative.
HSI Day of Engagement Is September 13
Join us for HSI Day of Engagement on Friday, September 13, 8:30 a.m.-noon, Downtown Milwaukee Campus, Room M605. This year’s theme is “Collective Efforts for Hispanic Students,” which aims to bring together higher education leaders, faculty, staff, students and community members to discuss strategies and best practices for advancing educational opportunities and outcomes for Hispanic students.
Collaboration Connection:
What's New With FQAS
As part of our culture of plan, do, check, adjust, leaders from the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) office paid a regular visit to MATC last year to review our Faculty Quality Assurance System processes. As a result of their visit, they found that we were doing some things really well, and WTCS also found some areas for improvement, specifically the need to establish a Faculty Performance Process that includes goal setting, review with a supervisor, and a performance evaluation process for all faculty. The Center for Teaching Excellence is working in partnership with Human Resources, Learn Pillar leadership, and faculty, to create a process that meets the requirements of the law and works within our own system constraints. Please know that it is our has been our goal to:
- Meet the TCS 3.05 compliance requirements,
- Faculty input into the design
- Collaborative process focused on faculty development (not punitive)
- Integrate the other work faculty are already required to complete, so we are not just adding more and more.
- Acknowledge those who are going above and beyond
- Provide a way to share best practices
- Comprehensive review of quality instruction
- Consistent measures of performance and evaluation across Pathways
- Align with the FQAS cycle
- Sustainable process that is manageable given span of control ratios
Career Essentials Updates:
Thank you to all faculty who participated in Career Essentials assessment in the Spring 2024 semester! Student performance data is available on the myMATC --> Assessment --> Career Essentials. Data summaries are organized by institution, Pathway, subject and course. All faculty and staff engaged with academic programs and cocurricular activities are encouraged to discuss assessment results, including identifying areas for improvement. Please contact learning-outcomes@matc.edu or stop by M244 if you have questions or need support with Assessment.
We are excited to offer a new professional development opportunity. Please join one of the seven Career Essentials Professional Learning Communities where you will meet monthly with colleagues, discuss our assessment practices and how we can improve them, and faculty can earn FQAS hours. Please indicate your interest by September 6, 2024.
There is a new Assessment flyer for Faculty and Career Essentials flyer for Students available as well!
Student Voices:
Collaborative Syllabus Building
Looking for ways to incorporate student feedback and voice at the beginning of the semester? One way to do so is through collaborative syllabus building techniques. Susan Nusser, MATC English Faculty and CTE Faculty Coach, shares a Shared Expectation Discussion Board assignment that can help student engagement and co-creation. Read More...
Do you have an exercise that you’d like to share? Let us know!
Friendly Reminders:
Suicide Prevention Training Available for Students
A message from MATC Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Dear MATC Faculty
Because mental health concerns often first appear between the ages of 18 and 25, it’s our goal to provide our campus with a wide range of suicide prevention and mental health resources.
One new way that we’ll be supporting that initiative this year is through a 30-minute online training program called SOS for Higher Ed where participants learn:
- How to recognize signs of suicide risk
- How to have caring conversations that encourage someone to seek help
- How to build community connections that foster positive mental well-being
- An overview of available student mental health resources, on and off-campus
We encourage everyone to take 30 minutes to learn these lifesaving skills. Please share this information with your students or incorporate it into your Blackboard shell.
For students who are struggling, help is available. Visit matc.edu/caps for resources or call/text/chat 988 for support 24/7.
Keeping You Posted:
Changes to Blackboard’s Interface
In the September 2024 edition of Online Campus News You Can Use, learn all about important changes to Blackboard's interface and training opportunities that faculty and staff should know about, as well as tool updates, tasks and upcoming events to help faculty deliver high-quality online instruction.
Additional Professional Learning Opportunities:
2024 WTCS Faculty Summit--Save the Date!
The Wisconsin Technical College System Office is excited to host the second WTCS Faculty Summit. This fully virtual, free event is designed for faculty, presented by faculty and features topics that impact faculty! The summit is being held over two days, offering different times to support everyone, full and part time/adjunct faculty:
Wednesday, November 13, evening sessions
Friday, November 15, morning sessions
Please save these dates and plan to join us for this professional learning opportunity to learn from and connect with your colleagues from across the System. If you’re looking for ideas of topics to share, check out last year’s Faculty Summit sessions here: 2023 WTCS Faculty Summit Resources
Interested in presenting and sharing new ideas that you have implemented in the classroom? The Request for Proposals (RFPs) will be coming out soon.
Facilitating the Integration and Evaluation of Equity Considerations into Assessment and Program Improvement: A Rubric to Guide your Way
In this free webinar, we share the creation of a rubric that aligns with outcomes assessment processes aimed to improve student learning and development in higher education. More specifically, the rubric was created to align with professional standards and explicitly evaluates equity-related aspects of each component of the outcomes assessment process. Additionally, we highlight the rubric as a necessary step in a broader change management effort. We then share procedures of the initial use of the rubric to evaluate outcome assessment reports. After analyzing rubric scores (e.g., G-study) and qualitative feedback from several raters, we then describe additional support resources intentionally created to facilitate more reliable ratings. We freely share the rubric, training reports, and support materials to enable a culture of improvement in higher education institutions.
Inspiration, Research, and Best Practices
Part of The Center’s mission is to keep you informed about current best practices and pedagogical approaches. Each issue of Center Connections includes links that are meant to be engaging, thought-provoking, and applicable to various classroom environments. For information on MATC's free access to Magna Commons publications, please see The Center's website. Enjoy the rabbit hole!
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Milwaukee Area Technical College
The Center for Teaching Excellence
