NEW Graduate Certificate in Course Design & Delivery
This five-part workshop series provides graduate student instructors (GSIs) with research-based frameworks and practices for designing and delivering courses that center student learning. The program is organized around an interdisciplinary learning community that explores the following topics:
- developing course outcomes for significant learning;
- designing effective and accessible assessments that align with learning outcomes;
- enacting equity-minded teaching practices;
- understanding how learning works; and
- utilizing active learning techniques.
During the program, participating GSIs will craft and refine course materials including course learning outcomes, course syllabi, formative and summative assessments, and lesson plans that put learning research into practice.
Intended to support graduate students teaching courses in Summer 2020, the program integrates peer mentorship. Each participant will be matched with a CITL Summer Graduate Pedagogy Mentor who will also attend the five sessions of the program, provide feedback on course materials, and serve as a resource in both Spring and Summer as participants prepare and then teach their courses. Participants are also required to meet at least twice with their peer mentor during Summer Session (or complete an equivalent, such as engaging in a peer observation of teaching protocol) to receive the certificate.
Spring 2020 Program Information
Program Dates & Location
Five Fridays in Spring quarter: April 10, April 24, May 8, May 22, June 5
Due to emergency remote instruction in Spring 2020, the program has been converted to a fully remote learning community.
How to Participate
Registration for the Spring 2020 program is closed.
The program is limited to 30 participants in any discipline. Priority registration is provided to graduate students who are teaching as GSIs in the Summer Sessions. Participants commit to: attending all 5 workshops; crafting and refining select course materials, with feedback from their peer mentor; meeting at least twice (or equivalent) with their peer mentor during Summer Session.
About the Facilitators
Kendra Dority is the CITL’s Associate Director for Graduate Programs. She has been an educator at UC Santa Cruz since 2009, serving as a Teaching Assistant and Graduate Student Instructor in the Literature Department and then as a Lecturer at Porter College before building and facilitating faculty and graduate student learning communities with CITL. She received her Ph.D. in Literature from UCSC in 2016.
Mecaila Smith is a Ph.D. candidate in Education, researching how college students interpret, understand, and explain the concept of learning. As a Graduate Student Researcher at CITL, she has facilitated pedagogical opportunities for graduate students. She has taught in the Writing Program at UCSC and in the Humanities Department at San José State University, and has collaborated with the University of Los Andes in Colombia on developing a Center for Teaching and Learning.
Graduate Certificate in Teaching for Equity
This 5-part workshop series addresses key issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education classrooms, and supports educators to develop teaching strategies shown to foster equitable learning outcomes. The program requires completion of three projects related to lesson plans and syllabus design, and is organized around a learning community that explores the following topics:
- identifying common barriers to learning;
- teaching to cultural strengths;
- implementing Universal Design for Learning;
- embracing identity and difference in the classroom;
- promoting active and collaborative learning; and
- scaffolding assignments to benefit student success.
Spring 2020 Program Information
Program Dates & Location
Five Fridays in Spring quarter: April 3, April 17, May 1, May 15, May 29
Due to emergency remote instruction in Spring 2020, the program has been converted to a fully remote learning community.
How to Participate
Graduate students in any discipline are welcome to register. The certificate program is limited to 25 participants. Participants must commit to attending all 5 workshops. Registration for the Spring 2020 program is closed; registration for Spring 2021 will open in Winter 2021.
About the Instructor
Christie McCullen received her Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz in Sociology and Feminist Studies where she researched the affective dynamics of conversations about race in sociology, writing, and theater classrooms. She is currently a lecturer in the Sociology department and at Oakes College at UC Santa Cruz, and she has also taught writing and sociology courses at Cabrillo College and San José State University. Before coming to UC Santa Cruz, she led anti-racist workshops at UC Davis and taught for several multicultural education organizations in California and Costa Rica.