February OIT Workshops
for Instructors and Staff

Research shows that teachers receiving ongoing support from instructional coaches are 90% more likely to implement newly learned instructional methods than teachers who do not receive such support. (Joyce and Showers, 2002, "Research on Transfer of Training")

So that's why OIT-sponsored workshops are important to faculty development. These professional development opportunities allow UTK instructors and staff to learn new instructional techniques and technologies, provide opportunities to interact with colleagues, and build ongoing relationships with OIT staff.

As you can see below, OIT offers great workshops in the month of February.

View all Faculty workshops

OIT Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Brad Vander Zanden: Teaching in a Flipped Classroom

Have you heard the term "flipped classroom"? It's a teaching format in which the traditional order of lecture and homework are reversed. In a flipped classroom, the instructor provides students an electronically recorded lecture or presentation that they must view before the next classroom session. Then, when students return to the classroom having viewed the assigned recording, they are prepared to apply the lecture concepts (i.e., do the homework) in class.

Dr. Brad Vander Zanden, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has implemented the flipped classroom teaching format. Before class, his students must watch a designated online presentation and complete and submit a Blackboard Learn quiz. Then, in the classroom, Dr. Vander Zanden clarifies any concepts proven difficult by the quiz results. He also uses clickers to get students' real-time feedback, and guides them in working on programming problems.

Does flipping your classroom sound intriguing? If you would like to pursue this teaching format, Dr. Vander Zanden has some advice for you: "Go into this with the long-term frame of mind… You have to go into this with the mindset of 'I'm again a novice instructor.' But if you stick with it, you will start to see the results."

Watch the video to learn more about Dr. Vander Zanden's teaching experience, and visit the Spotlight Archive to learn how other faculty use technology in their classes and research.

For personal assistance in flipping your classroom, please contact OIT to request development help.

GTA@OIT Call for Proposals

Enhancing Course Delivery with Technology

Are you a Graduate Teaching Associate or Assistant seeking to enhance your course with technology?

Once again OIT is offering Graduate Teaching Associates and Assistants (GTAs) an opportunity to receive a GTA@OIT Grant. Recipients will receive one-on-one instructional design consulting and Technology-Enhanced Classroom (TEC) training. They will also receive assistance in using Online@UT (Blackboard Learn) features, including communication, assessment, and evaluation. In addition, recipients will receive a monetary award to be used for travel and/or professional development purposes. The Spring 2014 deadline is Friday, February 7. For more information, visit [log in to unmask]

IT Community of Practice Lunch:
Best (and Worst) Practices for Online Teaching

Have you considered teaching online? Would you like to know which online teaching and learning strategies have been successful?

Bring your lunch and join us at the February IT Community of Practice Brown Bag meeting as Sandy Mixer and Tami Wyatt, Nursing, present teaching tips and strategies and how to create an online "presence." The meeting will be held from 11:30am - 12:30pm on February 26, 2014, in the Practice Presentation Room (220E) of the John C. Hodges Library Commons. Visit the ITCoP website to view a list of monthly presentations this Spring and recordings from Fall 2013.

OIT Provides EndNote Software

EndNote is used by researchers, scholarly writers, students, librarians, and others to search online bibliographic databases, and to organize references, images and PDFs in any language.

You can also create bibliographies and lists of figures instantly. EndNoteSync! allows you to access your research from anywhere and manage your EndNote library from multiple computers. Endnote X7 is available for both Windows and Mac platforms, and the Endnote app for iPad extends your ability to collect, collaborate, and create from any location.

EndNote X7 will help you simplify PDF management by its addition of formatting tools and its ability to build on EndNote's syncing capabilities. The latest version includes background synchronization so that your work is continually saved, available online, and always accessible through your iPad. In addition, PDF importing and file naming have been enhanced, and new reference types have been added to make organizing your research easier.

Faculty, staff and students can download and install EndNote for free from OIT Software Distribution. For questions about installing or using EndNote, please call the UT Libraries at 974-4171, email [log in to unmask], or go to the EndNote support web page.