Announcements

Chris Dickson, Assistant Dean of Student Success, is now also CU's Accessibility Organizer. As part of starting this new role, Chris is organizing a Disability Justice Learning Community. CU Community, Staff, Students, and Faculty are welcome to join this Learning Community by RSVPing at Charles.Dickson@collegeunbound.edu.

CU is also adding clarity to the process for student accommodation requests. Information for students and faculty is outlined in this Accessibility Process document.

Amanda Grace Esons (she/her) is CU’s Institutional Storyteller. She is initiating a pilot method of collecting CU Student Stories as she builds out a more accessible and sustainable method that continues to center the student as storyteller and editor. Amanda conducts and records interviews with students and works with students on the editing in a way that is authentic and collaborative. In this method, students have autonomy over the life of the story, and work with Amanda to create authentic digital stories. We at CU are collectively building a foundation that centers storytelling methodologies with an intentional and consistent practice of care.

Students can complete this form, or faculty can nominate a student to get started. Amanda will then follow up with the student to schedule an initial conversation to discuss method, audience, and the life of the story. These stories can be shared with CU staff and students as a powerful way to inspire and inform, as well as for community building and as a tool for advocacy within student projects and professional lives.

Often, we heard that faculty want to be in community with one another and have a space where they can share their wins, discuss challenges, and exchange ideas.  We’ve been trying to figure out what that could look like and this semester are piloting the use of Google Spaces.

Towards the end of this week, all instructional faculty will get an invitation to one or more Google Space.  Google Spaces are online portals that connect you with a group of CU faculty for asynchronous chat, file sharing, and the like.  It’s a mixture of Google Chat with a very very light version of tools like Slack, Twist, Discord, or Telegram.

We will be creating Google Spaces for groupings of faculty who are teaching the same core course or who are teaching courses that overlap in ideas, themes, and content.  We’re hoping that these spaces become places of community, learning, and sharing.  To learn more, check out this resource (and we’ll have more resources to come).

What if we shared perspective and feedback with the positive first? What if our lens was that of appreciation more than looking to find holes or gaps within an argument? This is the power of Appreciative Inquiry. It helps us find the beauty and best in things before going into critique.

Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to organizational development, focusing on positive change through a 4-D cycle: Discovery, Dream, Design, Delivery.

Utilizing appreciative inquiry with students is crucial to fostering a positive and empowering learning environment. Focusing on strengths, achievements, and what works well enhances motivation, collaboration, and overall student engagement in the educational process.

So how can you begin to use Appreciative Inquiry with your students this semester? Here are ten potential questions that you can use in 1-1 meetings with students or in your assignments:

1. What aspects of our learning environment do you find most inspiring and motivating?

2. Can you share a memorable experience in this class where you felt fully engaged and excited to learn?

3. How have your classmates positively influenced your learning journey?

4. Reflect on a time when you overcame a challenge. What strengths did you tap into during that experience?

5. What goals do you have for your personal growth in this subject, and how can we support your progress?

6. In what ways can we build on our past successes to make this learning experience even more fulfilling for everyone?

7. Describe a moment when you felt a strong sense of collaboration and teamwork with your peers.

8. How can we leverage your unique talents and interests to enhance the overall learning dynamic?

9. Share a project or assignment where you felt your creativity made a significant impact. How can we replicate that success?

10. What learning activities bring you the most joy and satisfaction, and how can we incorporate more of them into our lessons?

Some of you might already be using Appreciative Inquiry or already know of it. Please share your thoughts and additional questions or suggestions with us in Lifelong Learning!

We want this to be a place of open dialogue and learning best practices and tools together. Feel free to write to Sage at Sage.Morgan-Hubbard@collegeunbound.edu to continue this conversation.

We know that students have been occasionally using generative AI (such as ChatGPT and the like) in their course work.  

Please review our temporary policy and our advice to faculty. If you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out to Lance Eaton for additional ideas and approaches.