[Suman Ganguli]

Hi all,

I really enjoyed our first seminar! I was wondering if we have access to the active learning activities that we did with Steve Hinds. I suppose part of the goal of the seminar is to develop some materials like that specific to MAT1275, but it would be nice to get started with some of those approaches this semester.

Along those lines, what’s the best way to share teaching materials? Is that something we can use OpenLab for? E.g., I’m happy to upload tex files of my quizzes and exams, and it would be nice to collect links to useful materials we come across elsewhere on the web.

Regards,
Suman

PS: Finally, I liked Steve Hinds’ comments about 3-ring binders, so I went to the CityTech bookstore to get one for myself, and turns out they have a bunch of CityTech 3-ring binders on the clearance shelf–$1.29 each! I bought a handful, and told my students about the sale…

[Jonas Reitz]

Thanks, Suman! And thanks for being first to post on this OpenLab site.

We’ll be uploading Steve’s materials here shortly. I love the idea of having a place to share teaching materials, and this site would be a perfect spot for use by all our fellows.

Thanks for tip about 3-ring binders, too!

-Jonas

[Suman Ganguli]

Thanks for following up Jonas. Perhaps we can use this group as a pilot for how to share & organize teaching materials–seems like it’s something that we could eventually do for every math course (e.g., create separate OpenLab projects for each course where faculty can upload course materials, share teaching tips, etc.; seems like that would be a valuable resource for someone teaching a course for the first time.)

[Lucie Mingla]

Hi All,
First of all I would like to thank our great organizers of the workshop for their wonderful ideas. Also I would like to thank Steve for his generous input as well as all other participants for their valuable effort.
I totally agree that organizing the course materials is really important. What is great about this discussion is that everyone has own ways of organizing them. For example I organize my course materials in my google drive. I even share it with my students, and they have created their own portfolios with their assignments. Sharing ideas is always worth it . I am glad that Suman mentions that having different projects for specific courses would help especially the new faculty. I would say not only them but the experienced faculty as well. We can always push ourselves and each other to look for new resources, strategies and ideas that work best. Thinking about our goals and ways to achieve them will bring a natural reflection, improving and selecting things that did not work that well in the past and store the ones that work. Finally, I would say that organizing the course materials helps achieve what we are looking for in the course.

However, I would like to open perhaps a new discussion. Since our main focus is Mat 1275 maybe it would be helpful for all of us to share ideas about the key concepts of the course, effective strategies that we can use to master those concepts, and what are the open educational resources and technology that help for better results. We can do that even for one unit just to get the experience from each other. I think that harmonizing the curriculum, instructional tools, and strategies plus resources (course materials, open Ed and technology) should be in our focus.

Looking forward to sharing ideas with all of you.
Thanks,
Lucie

[Pedro Luis Mujica]

Hi All dear Collegues/Fellows Gateways

So far, this has been a tremendous experience career
wise. The organizers are doing a fabulous connection between new felows like me with experienced fellows as Doctor Parker.

Everyone in this program has the same objective and is incredibly an honor to be part of such a good wave of elegant and clever proffesionals.

Thank you ALL

[Jonas Reitz]

Thanks Pedro, Lucie, and all the 2016-2017 Opening Gateways Fellows! We’re very excited to see how you have all dived into the material – and we’re even more excited to see how your efforts manifest in the classroom next semester. Thank YOU!

See you all on Friday,
Jonas