Professional Development Workshops
CETL provides a variety of faculty development programs to help you design your courses, improve student engagement, create better student learning outcomes, and enhance your teaching career.
Workshops and online courses help you learn more about specialized topics related to course design, teaching practices, or student learning.
Spring 2025 Offerings
Online Quality Initiative Training
This professional development was developed as part of the larger Quality Online Initiative to enhance student learning in online space and comply with federal mandates on instructional practices.
Essentially, members of the development team want to enrich the student experience, improve online teaching effectiveness, close equity gaps, and increase student success and belonging in online courses offered at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
To create robust training, the following considerations were made:
Choose evidence-based standards, tools, and strategies while adapting to local context (integrate use of local language and initiatives)
Be clear about criteria and ensure understanding among involved groups; Online Course Quality Standards work together as the foundation of new course design and development
Build in support and a culture of continuous improvement; show strategies, examples, etc.
Provide opportunities for progression
Integrate quality standards and rubrics into professional development
Realize the standards and tools will change with time; don’t treat as one-and-done but as ongoing
Recognize these quality standards have application beyond online courses
The training will be available beginning January 2025 and will feature two one-hour synchronous sessions that comprise module one. This will be followed by 5 asynchronous modules available on demand via D2L. Upon completion of the programming, faculty will be given a badge indicating they have successfully completed the training needed to teach online courses at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Thurs, Jan 23, 2025 11:00 am
Thurs, Jan 30, 2025 11:00 am
Thurs, Feb 20, 2025 11:00 am
Thurs, Feb 27, 2025 11:00 am
Mon, Mar 24, 2025 10:00 AM
Mon, Mar 31, 2025 10:00 AM
If you are interested, you can register here.
Using AI Today to Improve My Teaching for Tomorrow
Facilitated by Dr Lauren Singelmann
In this interactive workshop, faculty members will explore the art and science of prompt engineering to enhance classroom activities and assessments. Designed for educators seeking immediate, impactful changes, this session will provide practical strategies for integrating AI into the continuous improvement of their course materials in a sustainable and manageable way.
Course Design Remix
Facilitated by Dr. Jennifer L. Schultz
This workshop will explore learning-centered course design that systematically and explicitly aligns the three core elements—learning outcomes, activities, and assessments. It will leverage David Whetten's (2007) Principles of Effective Course Design: What I Wish I Had Known About Learning-centered Teaching 30 Years Ago publication. Attendees will have time to discuss their courses, approaches, and experiences with learning-centered course design, and engage in action-oriented dialog and planning.
Dates: March 31 @ 3:00 pm
Delivery mode: Zoom
Empowering Inquiry: Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers
Facilitated by Dr. Sonika Masih
This workshop will explore approaches to mentoring undergraduate students in the research process through The Undergraduate Research Center's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP). Participants will learn how to design and implement structured approaches tailored to individual student needs, to guide students in conducting meaningful research and presenting their findings. This session will provide insights into fostering critical thinking, academic growth, and professional development in undergraduate education by showcasing student success stories and practical strategies.
