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Sheridan Newsletter
February 2025
News from the Center
Annual Sheridan Liaisons Meeting
Friday, February 14, Noon
SciLi 720 (lunch provided) and Zoom
Please join us for this annual gathering of Sheridan's faculty and graduate student liaisons in each of Brown's academic departments and programs. In this year’s meeting, Sheridan staff will provide key updates on the Center, and Dawn King, Deputy Dean of the College for Curriculum, will facilitate a discussion on engaged and field-based capstones. Please register here at your earliest convenience and email sheridan_center@brown.edu with any questions.
Learning Technology Updates for Spring 2025
Sheridan’s Digital Learning & Design Hub has released its article titled "Updates for Spring 2025," which highlights changes in learning technologies for this term. Our featured update is DLD's new enhanced Canvas support documentation resource for the Brown community, available at help.canvas.brown.edu, designed to assist with technical inquiries related to Canvas.
New Resource: Teaching in the Age of AI
Explore our new faculty guide, Teaching in the Age of AI, that includes articles on adapting assignments to minimize AI use or to integrate AI effectively. The guide shares practical steps for modifying assignments and examples of AI-resilient and AI-integrated approaches.
Checklist for Brown Instructors
Are you new to teaching at Brown this semester? The Sheridan Center is pleased to announce a checklist for instructors at Brown: 5 Key Steps for Instructors to Prepare for Teaching at Brown. This resource guides instructors through what to do after their course has been approved in preparation for teaching their course, including an overview of foundational tools and resources for teaching at Brown and access to a customizable version of the ‘5 Key Things’ checklist. The steps include: 1) Review course details, 2) Set up course materials, 3) Post your syllabus, 4) Learn about your classroom, and 5) Explore evidence-based, effective teaching practices.
Spring Programs
Lance Eaton on Generative AI
Wednesday, February 5
4:00-6:00 PM
SciLi 720
Writer and educator Lance Eaton will be coming to Brown to deliver a workshop on “AI-nnovate or Stagnate? Exploring Generative AI's Promise and Perils in Education” on Wednesday, February 5 from 4:00-6:00 PM. Lance was selected by the members of the Sheridan Center’s Teaching Consultant Program.
Please register here!
STEM Equity and Decolonization: Getting Started
Thursday, February 13, Noon-2:00 PM
Lunch served 12-12:30
SciLi 720
Open to all
Creating equitable learning environments is important for student learning. Within STEM, we don't often have the opportunity to learn more about ways to integrate equitable and decolonizing practices in our classroom. This workshop is a great starting point and reflective space to think about how you could change your teaching and learning. We will focus on defining educational equity and introduce Indigenous ways of knowing through Holographic Epistemology. There will be an introduction to what decolonization can mean and look like, followed by a reflective activity to help participants recognize how the discipline reinforces or challenges knowledge creation. The discussion will provide a pathway for participants to make their knowledge assumptions explicit so they can make informed decisions about how to challenge those assumptions. Registration is required.
Save the Date: PSF Speaker (Ellen Usher)
Dr. Ellen Usher will be joining us on Tuesday, March 4 as the 2025 Problem-Solving Fellows speaker. Dr. Usher is a Professor of Medical Education and Scientific Director of Education Science in Mayo Clinic’s Office of Applied Scholarship and Education Science. Her research focuses on understanding human motivation and its impact on learning, teaching, and decision-making across diverse contexts, using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Previously, she directed the P20 Motivation & Learning Lab, leading studies involving over 30,000 participants across K-12 schools, universities, and medical centers. A former Atlanta Public Schools teacher, Dr. Usher earned her PhD at Emory University and served as a professor at the University of Kentucky for 15 years.
Call for Applications
Faculty Learning Community on Anti-Racist Teaching
Open to Brown faculty, postdocs, and staff in teaching roles
720 SciLi
For Spring 2025, Emily Kalejs Qazilbash (Education), Kellie Forrester (Economics), and Jordan Kostiuk (Math) will facilitate a faculty learning community on what it means to engage in anti-racist teaching and how faculty can work with intergenerational teams (i.e., with faculty and students) to leverage student expertise and experience to design anti-racist courses. Kishimoto’s (2018) article, “Anti-racist pedagogy: from faculty’s self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom,” will serve as a jumping off point for the learning community.
The 2025 Anti-Racist Teaching Faculty Learning Community will meet in 720 SciLi from 2:30 - 3:50 PM on the following Thursdays:
February 6
February 20
March 20
April 10
May 8
All faculty, postdocs, and staff in teaching roles are invited to participate. Please register by Friday, January 24. Participants will be eligible to apply for funding to create an “action team” to redesign a foundational course. More details will be provided in the learning community.
Graduate Writing Collective: Spring 2025
Multiple dates (see application for details)
In-person
Are you a graduate student looking to elevate your scholarly writing, gain practical insights into the publication process, and submit a paper to a scholarly journal with the help of a supportive writing community? Meeting in-person seven times across the Spring semester, the interdisciplinary Graduate Writing Collective will explore key academic writing strategies including time management, clarifying arguments, making claims for significance, identifying appropriate journals for submission, working with editors, and writing query letters. With the support of a writing community, participants will revise their draft into a full journal manuscript and submit it for publication.
Space is limited; please apply here by January 27. Because the focus of this collective is revision, participants should have at least a nearly-full draft of a journal manuscript (or a course paper, conference paper, or dissertation chapter which can be revised into a journal manuscript) in hand by the first meeting, or have all data collected and be able to commit substantial time to writing. Participants must purchase or borrow Wendy Belcher's Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks (new copies are $35-40, PDF copies of the worksheets will be provided to participants who borrow the book from the library). Please email Dr. Charlie Carroll with any questions.
Spring Teaching and Learning Communities
Decolonizing STEM Reading Group
Open to all members of the Brown community
To advance equity and inclusion in STEM, we need to focus on anti-racist and decolonized pedagogies to reach those students who are marginalized by systems of oppression. The goals for this reading group are to:
Begin to develop a theoretical foundation on how to decolonize STEM learning spaces
Integrate new decolonization concepts into current STEM programming and teaching
The book we will be reading for the Spring 2025 term, which is free online through the Brown Library or there are limited physical copies provided at no cost to participants through the Sheridan Center, is Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need by Dr. Sasha Costanza-Chock. No prior exposure is necessary to join. Please sign up by January 28 so we can start at the beginning of February! If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Christina Smith at christina_smith2@brown.edu.
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash
Faculty Writing Group
10:00 AM-Noon on Fridays
February 7 - May 2
Zoom
Open to all faculty and staff
Faculty of any rank and any staff are invited to participate in a Faculty Writing Group. Writing groups can be an invaluable source of motivation and accountability, and the Faculty Writing Group is a “guilt-free” group that prioritizes spending time in community and goal-setting together. Each group meeting begins with a brief goal-setting exercise and concludes with a short reflective conversation. Writing projects can be any works in progress, and historically have ranged widely from articles to conference presentations to letters of reference.
Register to receive the Zoom link for the sessions here. Questions can be directed to Annie Gjelsvik (Public Health; Provost’s Faculty Teaching Fellow) at annie_gjelsvik@brown.edu.
STEM Ed Fridays
Select Fridays, Noon - 1:00 PM
SciLi 720 (lunch provided) and Zoom
Are you interested in discussing STEM education at Brown? STEM Ed Friday is a vibrant learning community where STEM instructors and staff members share ideas, experiences, and challenges related to STEM education.
Please register for an upcoming session:
Photo by Martin Springborg
Large Class Learning Community
The Large Class Learning Community is an interdisciplinary group of faculty members that meets monthly to discuss issues surrounding the teaching of high-enrollment classes. If you are interested in joining these conversations, please contact Provost's Faculty Teaching Fellow and Sociology Senior Lecturer Lisa Di Carlo (lisa_di_carlo@brown.edu) to be placed on the contact list. You'll also be added to the group's shared Google Drive, which contains notes from previous years' meetings.
Brown Learning Collaborative
The Brown Learning Collaborative provides opportunities for undergraduate fellows to collaborate with faculty and peer partners in key academic areas: Data Science, Problem Solving, and Writing.
Data Science Course Design Institute
Have you ever thought about introducing your students to a new way of thinking about your discipline through data? Is there a data related tool out there that might enhance your teaching? Are you a little overwhelmed by thinking about ‘what is data science anyway’? If you find yourself thinking about these issues, the Data Science Course Design Institute (DSCDI) is a great opportunity for you to begin to develop new, or enhance existing, data science related content in your course. In addition to the content knowledge, participants in the institute receive a $750 stipend to their faculty research account. Participants are also given priority to collaborate with a Data Science Fellow in Fall 2025.
The institute will begin in February and consists of three modules that can be completed asynchronously each month (one module in February, one module in March, and one module in April) with the entire institute completed no later than May 1st. Participants have the option to attend 3 remote discussion sections for each module. To express interest, please complete this brief form.
Problem-Solving
Fellows
Sign Up for a Problem-Solving Fellow Consultation!
Are you a UTA, tutor, or professor who wants a student perspective on your teaching? Sign up for a Problem-Solving Fellow (PSF) Teaching Consultation! PSFs are undergraduate students trained to give feedback on any and all elements of teaching or assisting in teaching a course. If you are looking to increase the effectiveness of your assignments, lecturing, or general teaching strategies, consider reaching out! Each consultation is confidential, personalized, and led from a student-based perspective! Please fill out our interest form to get started. Questions? Please contact psf@brown.edu.
Share Your Feedback on S/NC
The Problem-Solving Fellows are currently working on a project focused on how students, faculty, and staff think about and advise around S/NC. If you are a faculty or staff member who has thoughts on S/NC, we want to hear from you! Please fill out this interest form to set up a meeting and interview.
Asynchronous Resources and Programs
Creating a Teaching Portfolio
This online, self-paced Canvas workshop from the Sheridan Center guides participants through the process of writing a teaching statement and creating a teaching portfolio. For more information and to register, visit the Teaching Portfolio program website.
Designing and Teaching for Online
This online self-paced Canvas tutorial guides Brown instructors through the design or redesign of an online or hybrid course. There are three pathways (Developing an Online Course, Structuring an Online Course in Canvas, and Teaching an Online Course) that allow instructors to work through the sections at their own pace based on their own needs and interests. The tutorial can be accessed anytime with this direct link (you must be logged into your Brown Canvas account): Designing and Teaching for Online.
Planning Resource: Sheridan Calendars
Interested in knowing when Sheridan Center programs typically run during the year? Please see the calendars below.