Syllabus

Exploring Teaching and Learning Practices to Develop City Tech as a Living Laboratory

Seminar Objective

The seminar is designed to make General Education more visible in our classrooms and courses.  We will build an engaging environment for learning through exploration, implementation, and assessment of a variety of proven teaching practices using Civic Engagement, Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, Information Literacy and Teamwork as our focus this year.

Our general education focus for this seminar will coincide with the 2025-26 AIRE General Education Assessment and we ask participants to select one of the following Student Learning Goals:

Oral Communication

Oral communication is a prepared, purposeful presentation designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.

Quantitative Literacy

Quantitative Literacy (QL) – also known as Numeracy or Quantitative Reasoning (QR) – is a “habit of mind,” competency, and comfort in working with numerical data. Individuals with strong QL skills possess the ability to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide array of authentic contexts and everyday life situations. They understand and can create sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence and they can clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats (using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, etc., as appropriate).

Reading

Writing

Full details of the AAC&U General Assessment Rubrics can be found on the Faculty Commons website: https://www.citytech.cuny.edu/aire/gen-ed-rubrics.aspx

Participants will re-design an existing project or assignment or create a new one targeting one of these selected student goals. Participants will implement the assignment in Spring 2025 and share the results of their implementation along with their assignment/project on L4: Living Lab Learning Library. Completion of these deliverables will be acknowledged by a Certificate of Participation in the seminar and, for our PT participants, a stipend (18 hours at their non-teaching rate). FT faculty’s participation and completion of the seminar is considered important and valued department service towards enhancing General Education in disciplines.

*please note: if participants are not able to implement their activity in Spring 2025 due to not teaching the course for which an activity will be created, they will then submit their reflections on General Education Seminar participation to the co-directors, along with the L4 post of the proposed activity 

Seminar Outcomes

Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:

  • Integrate the General Education Student Learning Outcomes of Creative Thinking, Foundations and Skills for Life Long Learning, Inquiry and Analysis, Integrative Learning  and/or Intercultural Knowledge and Competence into their course syllabi and course segments and/or assignments.
  • Use the OpenLab to engage in Open Pedagogy
  • Gather, interpret and apply Kuh’s High-Impact Educational Practices (HIEPs) in their teaching
  • Acquire and use assessment tools
  • Develop/apply strategies for place-based learning 
  • Share General Education philosophy and practices with students and colleagues

Meetings schedule

Our 2025 seminar will be held in-person and online (using Zoom) from 9 am to 12 pm. We will meet in-person twice: First, weather permitting, for a place-based learning experience and second for final presentations. Seminar topics include Open Digital Pedagogy, Assessment, and Place-Based Learning. Our dates are*:

  • Meeting 1: Tuesday, January 14 (In-person)
  • Meeting 2: Wednesday, January 15 (In-person)
  • Meeting 3: Thursday, January 16
  • Meeting 4: Tuesday, January 21
  • Meeting 5: Wednesday, January 22 (In-person: Place-based learning)
  • Meeting 6: Thursday, January 23 (In-person: Final presentations)

*please note: all scheduled meetings must be attended. If any participant will have to miss any of the meetings, they will be asked to withdraw from the seminar and will be invited for the next cycle

Zoom Meeting Link

Seminars will be held on Zoom unless otherwise noted:

LL Gen Ed Seminar Winter 2024 Zoom Link:

Meeting ID:

Seminar 1: 

January 9, 9:00am-12:00pm 

Seminar 2: Open Pedagogy

January 10, 9:00am-12:00pm 

  • Presentation of the OpenLab platform and its features and functionality.
  • Seminar activity and discussion on opportunities and strategies for open pedagogies. leveraging the OpenLab digital platform.
  • Use of OpenLab and L4 in seminar.
  • Introduction to Place-based Learning

Seminar 3: Assessment and Progress Review

January 11, 9:00am-12:00pm 

  • Presentation on Assessment by Guest Speakers on the design and implementation of assessment strategy. 
  • Review of resources provided by the Office of Assessment, Institutional Research & Effectiveness (AIRE) Discussion of access to information on assessment at City Tech.
  • Review of draft proposal for course integration of Gen Ed Learning Outcome into course segment/assignment.
  • Small group discussion of draft proposals and assessment strategy(s) based on selected SLO.

Seminar 4: Review Session

January 16, 9:00am-12:00pm                     

  • Review progress on development of syllabus and/or activity/assignment.
  • Rehearse presentation within defined time limit

Seminar 5: Place-based Learning and the BWRC 

January 17, 9:00am-12:00pm 

  • Introduction to the Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center (BWRC)
  • Discussion on place-based learning. 
  • Guest Speaker Presentation
  • Group discussion on integration of place-based learning activities in courses. 

Seminar 6: Presentation of Participant’s Course Segment/Assignment

January 18, 9:00am-12:00pm 

  • Presentation by each participant of integration of Gen Ed Learning Outcome into course segment/assignment.
  • Invited guests from college administration to join review.
  • Final discussion and reflection

Seminar Deliverables

Submit all deliverables as required below no later than May 31th, 2024:

  • Development of a new or redesigned course assignment/project targeting one of the General Education Learning Goals;
  • Presentation of the activity during the final Seminar meeting on Jan 19, 2023;
  • Implementation of the assignment/project in the Spring 2024 semester (if teaching the course for which an activity will be created) and reflection on the activity implementation included in the activity template posted on L4: Living Lab Learning Library, OR a written reflection on the Seminar participation and a template of the proposed activity submitted on L4.

Seminar Readings/Videos

  • See Seminar OpenLab site READINGS page for all readings and videos.

Contact Information                                                                 

Susan Phillip Javiela Evangelista
Associate Professor Co-Director Associate Professor Co-Director
sphillip@citytech.cuny.edu jevangelista@citytech.cuny.edu