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Past Workshops

2016 SIGCSE Workshop

POGIL

Facilitating POGIL Activities to Support All Students

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

This pre-symposium event is for experienced POGIL facilitators to share experiences and ideas on how to become better facilitators of POGIL activities. In Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), teams of 3-4 students work on scripted inquiry activities designed to help them discover concepts and construct their own knowledge. Using assigned team roles and meta-cognition, learners develop process skills and individual responsibility. The instructor serves as a facilitator, not a lecturer. Studies show that POGIL can significantly improve student performance and retention. For more information, please contact Helen Hu or Chris Mayfield.

Agenda

8:45 a.m.
Continental breakfast

9 a.m.
POGIL: What are your challenges?

9:45 a.m.
Effective responses for classroom facilitation

10:30 a.m.
Break

10:45 a.m.
Addressing challenges

11:15 a.m.
Writing POGIL activities

12:00 p.m.
Available resources and POGIL activities

Workshop Organizers
Resources

Engaging Activities

Creating Engaging and Relevant Classroom Activities and Assignments

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Computer science classrooms need to better incorporate a wide diversity of perspectives and provide equal opportunities for all students pursuing CS degrees and subsequent careers.

This pre-symposium event will provide CS faculty the opportunity to discuss how to create engaging and relevant classroom activities and assignments that will enhance underrepresented students’ interest, success and retention in computer science. Examples of engaging and relevant curriculum will be presented from TIDES institutions and the EngageCSEdu repository. Workshop attendees will then be challenged to consider how to modify their own CS courses to be more engaging and relevant.

EngageCSEdu is a project of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and is generously funded by Google.

Workshop Presentation

Agenda

2 p.m.
Ice Breakers

2:20 p.m.
Culturally Responsive Teaching

2:45 p.m.
Classroom Climate

3:20 p.m.
Engagement Practices: What engages your students

3:50 p.m.
Making an assignment engaging

4:20 p.m.
Sharing assignments and activities

4:40 p.m.
EngageCSEdu and Other Resources

Workshop Organizers
Resources

2015 Westminster Workshop

Unconscious Bias Workshop

41 faculty, staff and adjuncts attended this workshop from 9 a.m.–noon on Monday, May 18, 2015.

This workshop discussed how unconscious bias might affect teaching and advising. Unconscious Bias is a growing concern in industry and academia: recently Google has started running workshops and researching solutions to counter unconscious bias.

Teaching to Diversity in STEM Workshop

Approximately 20 STEM faculty and adjuncts attended this workshop from 1–4 p.m. on Monday, May 18, 2015

This year's workshop included more concrete examples of culturally competent curriculum. Everyone was welcome, whether they attended last year's workshop or not.

2015 SIGCSE Workshop

Teaching to Diversity in Computer Science

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

This pre-SIGCSE workshop will provide CS faculty the opportunity to discuss how culturally sensitive pedagogies can enhance underrepresented students’ interest, success and retention in computer science. Following a discussion on what it means to teach to diversity, examples of culturally relevant curriculum will be provided from TIDES institutions and other colleges and universities. Workshop attendees will then be challenged to consider how to infuse culture into their own CS courses. For additional information, please contact Helen Hu.

Workshop Presentation

Workshop Organizers
Agenda
  • 1:00—1:20 p.m.: Introductions and objectives (Helen Hu)
  • 1:20—2:30 p.m.: What is culture? What it means to teach to diversity. Equality versus fairness. Includes group discussion. (Pat Campbell's slides)
  • 2:30—2:45 p.m.: Break
  • 2:45—3:15 p.m.: Some examples of culturally competent curriculum in CS:
    • Doug Blank, Bryn Mawr
    • Alvaro Monge, California State University, Long Beach: Engage-CSEdu
    • Jaime Spacco, Knox College: Peer Instruction
    • Albert Chan, Fayetteville State College
    • Helen Hu, Westminster College: POGIL activities
  • 3:15—4:00 p.m.: Working time for participants to consider how to infuse culture into their CS courses
  • 4:00—4:15 p.m.: Groups report back
  • 4:15—4:30 p.m.: Next steps and wrap-up
Workshop Feedback

Over 30 attendees participated in the workshop. 18 of the participants answered the completed the end-of-workshop survey (which can be accessed through this link).

Some of the takeways included

"There is no silver bullet but some things can help."
"Cultural sensitivity is about avoiding insensitivity as it is about choosing relevant topics."
"Inclusivity is really hard. This was not a difficult audience but we all still recognize how difficult a problem it is. Imagine trying to reach faculty who did not sign up for this workshop."
Resources

2014 Westminster Workshop

Unconscious Bias Workshop

40 faculty, staff and adjuncts attended this workshop from 9 a.m.–noon on Monday, July 21, 2014.

Assessment Report

Over three quarters of the morning participants (26/34 responses) would recommend the workshop to others. The others were unsure. Those who were unsure felt that the information was too general and more suited to those who were not already involved in diversity issues. Those who would recommend it, wrote about increased awareness, the engagement with colleagues, the importance of the topic and the information provided.

See this link for the full assessment report

Teaching to Diversity in STEM Workshop

Resources

Additional Sessions

Resources

Workshops made possible by TIDES (Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM), an AAC&U STEM Initiative and is generously funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

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