myCSUSM
Teaching & Learning at CSUSM
The Four Key Goals
"What is it that you hope every CSUSM college student experiences as a learner on this campus?" The Teaching and Learning Group, a cross-divisional group Co-sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Studies and the Faculty Center, identified the following four key goals:
- Inspires educational experiences that develop every student’s intrinsic desire to learn.
- Helps students develop skills to facilitate their own learning process so that they become agents of their own learning.
- Fosters real-world application of knowledge to local and global societal and economic challenges.
- Recognizes the academic and personal struggles associated with learning and provides a network of resources to address those struggles as students work toward academic success
Generative AI and Teaching
To support faculty education about Generative AI, the Faculty Center directors have developed a Faculty Guidance and Suggestions on Generative AI resource to introduce some basic information relevant for teaching. This is a "living document" that the center directors will update as needed as campus policies develop and new technologies become available.
The Chancellor's Office for the CSU offers a course on “Artificial Intelligence Tools for Teaching & Learning" enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis; register for Artificial Intelligence Tools for Teaching & Learning
Additionally, SDSU’s Academic Applications of AI (AAAI) Micro-Credential is now available to all CSU faculty no matter campus affiliation. AAAI prepares you to apply generative AI (gAI) technology efficiently, effectively, and ethically to level up learning in the classes you teach.
Support at the Faculty Center
To support teaching and learning at CSUSM, the Faculty Center provides a variety of resources:
Classroom Management
Our Faculty Guidance and Suggestions on Classroom Management handbook curates information from across campus into a single one-stop resource on a range of services, policies, and supports on working with students and classroom management. We cover academic integrity resources, classroom conduct, and classroom climate.
The Faculty Center Associate Director of Teaching and Learning
In addition to organzing Faculty Learning Communities on teaching and learning, Summer Teaching Institutes, and one-off workshops, the Faculty Center Associate Director of Teaching and Learning also provides one-on-one appointments with faculty members to discuss issues regarding teaching and learning on campus.
Faculty Center Events Faculty Center Directors Appointments
Training Workshop Spring 2024
Future of Teaching: Challenges and Opportunities
Leaders: Dr. Rebecca Lush, Director of the Faculty Center
Dr. Carrick Williams, Interim Associate Director of the Faculty Center
Overview
- Training workshop in-person at CSUSM Faculty Center (KEL 2413) on Friday 4/26 from 10:30-2:00 (lunch provided)
- $200 training stipend (salary) for eligible faculty
- Open to faculty of all ranks and colleges with faculty appointments in Spring 2024
- Deadline to apply: April 5, 2024
Description
The value of Higher Education is being challenged daily by both the general public and by students’ expectations. Although these challenges can feel overwhelming, faculty have the opportunity to meet some of these challenges by evaluating what we are trying to accomplish in the classroom and how we articulate learning objectives. Specific challenges from Artificial Intelligence will require us to rethink how and why we teach the way we do. Students’ expectations about the value of higher education and career preparation require us to be more explicit about why higher education is important to their lives.
Thinking about the Process versus Product
Our goal as teachers is to achieve learning, a more or less permanent change in the mind of the student, and we want them to leave the class and be able use that new information or skill in the future. Learning, however, involves overcoming difficulties and practicing these difficult things. AI can make what used to be challenging and difficult, trivially simple. Add to this, if students question the importance of an assignment or course, their motivation to tackle difficulties encountered is reduced, leading to them to avoid any difficulty at all.
This workshop will provide an opportunity to reevaluate the how and why we teach and what we do with an eye toward the disruption of AI and addressing students’ expectations of the utility of higher education. In both cases, a way to approach the problem is to think about the learning outcomes and learning objectives one has for the course. Rather than focusing on the product one uses to assess something (essay, test, discussion, etc.), the goal is to focus on the process of learning the valuable skills and knowledge from a course. We will discuss how AI can disrupt many aspects of the course and the process of rethinking courses in world where AI is ubiquitous. We will also discuss ways to address students’ questioning of the utility of courses by exploring the skills that students learn that will be useful in their careers and teaching students how to articulate these skills for themselves.
Training Objectives:
- Evaluate course learning outcomes in the face of challenges from AI and student expectations
- Articulate how skills learned in courses can be relevant to students’ careers
- Identify your “why” for teaching and distinguish content knowledge from process and experience knowledge for your student audience(s)
Time Commitment and Compensation
This training session will meet in-person on Friday 4/26/2024 from 10:30-2:00 in KEL 2413. Faculty will receive $200 training stipend for attending the training and submitting a one-page action plan using the template provided at the workshop no later than May 10, 2024 The one-page action plan will be sent to Dr. Carrick Williams in the Faculty Center.
Who Should Apply?
Faculty of all ranks from all colleges with faculty appointments in Spring 2024 are welcome to apply!
Priority consideration will be given to faculty who have not participated in a Faculty Center paid training opportunity in the last calendar year.
For questions about the training or application, please contact Carrick Williams at cawilliams@csusm.edu
How will faculty be selected?
- Expressed interest in reevaluating course learning outcomes to address emerging challenges in student expectations and AI
- Diverse representation of different ranks, disciplines, and colleges
- Space will be limited to 12 participants
Only Unit 3 faculty members who will be on contract with an existing Unit 3 appointment during the entire time frame of the training or professional development opportunity are eligible to be considered for a stipend. Faculty may not request or accept professional development and/or training under this program unless they are on active pay status as a faculty bargaining unit employee. Summer stipends can only be offered to faculty who will be employed the preceding spring and subsequent fall semesters.
Faculty are limited to a maximum of $10,000 in stipends for faculty training and professional development per fiscal year. Faculty cannot accept an offer for a stipend that will cause them to exceed this $10,000 annual limit.
All faculty members accepting a stipend must fulfill all of the stated terms and expectations that constitute completion of the training or development activity to receive the stipend.