Open Pedagogy on the OpenLab

Plan Week Spring 2025

Today is the last day of Plan Week. If you haven’t already, please encourage your first-year students to check their email and participate in suggested Plan Week activities.

Fall and summer registration starts soon and many first-year students are registering themselves for the first time. Plan Week prepares them to get the classes they need and the schedule they want before classes fill.

PLAN WEEK
MAR 3–7, 2025
Have you made your plan for next semester?
Plan Week Activities & Peer Mentors will guide you through these steps.

Speak with your advisor
Register for fall/summer classes
Troubleshoot holds
Make sure you’re on track to graduate
Focus on your career path
Create your Handshake account

Plan Week Activities & Peer Mentor Zoom Schedule

Tues – 03/04•1 PM – 3 PM
Wed – 03/05•3 PM – 5 PM
Thur – 03/06•1 PM – 3 PM

BONUS: Participate in Plan Week for a chance to win a $100 Gift Card & other Great Prizes.

Any Questions? Email FirstYear@citytech.cuny.edu

Registration for Fall 2025 opens on March 17th!

College Happens in Many Places

As students transition from high school to college they often struggle to take responsibility for their own education and in particular to understand the amount of study time required outside of the classroom.

City Tech’s First Year Programs developed this graphic to emphasize that College Happens in Many Places:

You can empower students to take responsibility for their learning with pointers from The Companion for the First Year at City Tech — a valuable resource that offers advice about navigating the first year:

Section 2-D explains that for every hour spent in class, students should spend another two hours outside of class completing the work for that course.
Section 2-A encourages students to track what they need to do during the average week. They can use the provided grid to develop a schedule, including time spent in class, at the library, in the Writing Center, at tutoring, in an undergraduate research project, etc., as well as at work and other responsibilities outside of school. This is often an eye-opener for new students!

If you are teaching a class with many first-year students, consider one or more short activities to help students learn to manage their time and learning. These low-stakes activities and sharing can also foster ongoing community and participation in the classroom:

Students review and annotate the course syllabus to understand the course’s expectations, including expectations for work outside of class and the attendance policy.
Students plan their weekly schedule to include due dates from the course syllabus, incremental work they need to do to meet those due dates; appointments they have with tutors and the Writing Center, etc.
Students share ideas about places on campus to study, such as quiet spaces on the library’s 5th floor, or group study rooms, computer labs, and student lounges.
Students share ideas about places off campus to study, including other CUNY college libraries, public libraries, local coffee shops, etc.
Students compile a list of links to these resources, such as the library’s Student Services, the Writing Center’s OpenLab site, and the college’s page of undergraduate research programs.

Consider showing the “Mastering Your Time: Strategies for the First Year” slides and/or posting to your course site.

Photo credit: “‘Things That Should Be on My To-Do List,’ 2011-2013. Artist: Leslie Roberts.” by m kasahara via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Co-Working Thursday

It’s still February, but that to-do list is ever-growing. Come get some of it done while others do the same! OpenLab co-working hours are virtual quiet meet-up sessions for anyone to join to get work done. Breakout rooms are available for conversation or questions. All are held via Zoom, so when it’s time for the session, join and quietly work through your to-do list!

This month, the OpenLab’s co-working session is Thursday, 2/27, 10:30-11:30am. It’s open to all students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

And save the date for the next co-working session: Thursday, 3/27, 10:30-11:30am. Plus you can reach out to the OpenLab Team at OpenLab@CityTech.cuny.edu or via our contact form if you’re interested in requesting an additional co-working session for your group.

Photo credit: “Kodiak (Brown) Bear Sow and Cubs” by Arthur T. LaBar via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC 2.0.

Getting Started with Technology

In this first installment of the Faculty Commons’s series on supporting first-year students, let’s think about how we as faculty and staff can help students getting started with technology at City Tech.

Are your first-year students struggling with wi-fi or email? Do they know where they can get tech help, study, borrow a device, or access free software? You can help!

Students starting at City Tech should be acquainted with the technologies available and required for their success. Faculty teaching students in first-year courses can help by introducing students to the Student Hub, especially the Technology Resources section and the Getting Started with Technology page, where students can find these links:

how to access email and CUNYfirst
how to get on any of the three wifi networks available
how to borrow a device or find the list of free software available to students
where to find open access computer labs a how to log in with their active directory (AD) account.

If you are teaching a class with many first-year students, you might consider incorporating short activities that ask students to find and/or access some of these resources. Below are a few examples that can foster student community and participation, and even bolster comfort with short writing or speaking in class, as they share with one another:

Students work in groups to find computer labs on campus and explain to classmates how to find them, either in class or via a post in Brightspace or OpenLab.
Students who have successfully signed up for wifi or email help other students sign up.
Students access their email and use their accounts to sign up for City Tech’s OpenLab or a New York Times account.
Students use their CUNYfirst credentials to get started with Dropbox, Office 365, and other software.

If students are working with peer mentors (or would like to request a peer mentor), the mentors can help students navigate the technologies and share their experiences.

Still having trouble? The City Tech Student Helpdesk is here to assist!
In person: Namm Complex Welcome Center — Library Building 114
Email: StudentHelpdesk@citytech.cuny.edu
Phone: 718-260-4900

Photo Credit: “Network” by Pavlína Rupová via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Co-Working on Thursday

Have an ever-growing to-do list? Come get some of it done while others do the same! OpenLab co-working hours are virtual quiet meet-up sessions for anyone to join to get work done. Breakout rooms are available for conversation or questions. All are held via Zoom, so when it’s time for the session, join and quietly work through your to-do list!

This month, the OpenLab’s co-working session is Thursday, 11/21, 10:00-11:00am [updated time!]. It’s open to all students, faculty, and staff.

And save the date for the next co-working session: Thursday, 12/12, 10:00-11:00am [updated time!]: open to all students, faculty, and staff. Plus you can reach out to the OpenLab Team at OpenLab@CityTech.cuny.edu or via our contact form if you’re interested in requesting an additional co-working session for your group.

Photo credit: “Floating flowers” by Tom Olliver via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC 2.0.

Co-Working Today!

Every month, the OpenLab team hosts a co-working hour, a virtual quiet meet-up session for anyone to join to get work done. Breakout rooms are available for conversation or questions. All are held via Zoom, so when it’s time for the session, join and quietly work through your to-do list!

Today

Thursday, 9/26, 10:30-11:30am: open to all students, faculty, and staff

And add next month’s co-working session to your calendar:

October

Thursday, 10/24, 10:30-11:30am: open to all students, faculty, and staff

Photo credit: “Steller’s and Scrub Jays” by Linda in Fortuna via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC 2.0.

Today: OpenLab Open House

With the semester winding down, the OpenLab Team invites you to join the OpenLab Open House! Come share your successes from this semester, ask questions, and learn from each other about the OpenLab.

The OpenLab Open House will be on Friday, 5/10/24, from 2:00-3:00pm via Zoom. All are welcome.

Photo credit: “Balloon” by oliver gartmann via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

Co-working session 5/16

One more co-working session to help everyone finish this semester!

On Thursday, May 16th from 12:00 P.M. to 1:00 PM, join the OpenLab team for the final co-working session of the Spring. You bring the work, we’ll bring the friendly presence in the Zoom session (plus we’ll bring work, too).

As with the previous co-working hours, this space can help support you focus on the work you need to finish–in this case, your goal is finishing everything for the end of the semester. If you’re teaching, bring your grading! Or invite a student to join so you can co-work as they finish their project or study for that last exam. Or bring a friend and race to finish your to-do list!

You can work silently in the main Zoom room or move into a breakout room to talk with a collaborator or with one of our team members if you have specific questions we can help you with.

We hope this co-working session is useful for you–and let us know how else we can help!

Photo credit: “frog” by Daz Smith via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

Tomorrow: Innovation – Open Educational Practices for Good

Open Educational Practices for Good

Thursday, May 9, 2024

12:00 – 2:00 PM

Library Periodicals Room – Concourse level

Keynote: International scholar Catherine Cronin

RSVP by May 6^th: https://libcal.lehman.edu/calendar/events/oep

Information: Stacy.Katz@lehman.cuny.edu

Travel Directions to Lehman College

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Catherine Cronin, Co-Editor
Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures

Facilitator: Stacy Katz, Open Resources Librarian, Library
Welcome: Jorge Silva-Puras, Interim Provost, Lehman College

Presenters

Short presentations on how faculty are using Open Educational Practices in their courses

Tailisha Gonzalez, Health Equity, Administration, Technology
Juan Jesús Payán, Languages and Literature
Jennifer Van Allen, Education

Open for Anti-Racism Panel

Sherry Deckman, co-facilitator of the Open for Anti-Racism Workshop, will moderate a panel of past participants on how the workshop has impacted their teaching

Moderator: Sherry Deckman, Education
Panelists: Cindy Bautista-Thomas, Social Work; Harriet Fayne, Education; Jennifer Jolley, Music; Sara Kotzin, Social Work; Stefanos Milkidis, Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences; Maria Plochocki, English

RSVP by May 6th
Information: Stacy.Katz@lehman.cuny.edu

Light Refreshments will be served.

Co-Working March 15th

The weather is getting better, but there’s always more work to do! Let’s get together to work and check things off the to-do lists we all have–or take some time to make to-do lists!

The OpenLab Team is hosting a co-working session on Friday, March 15th, 10:00-11:00AM. Join us to cowork in what we hope is a welcoming space that helps as you focus on accomplishing what you need to finish. Bring whatever you want to work on, OpenLab related or not. We’ll bring bring work, too, plus some good energy for checking things off to-do lists.

You can work silently in the main Zoom room or move into a breakout room to talk with a collaborator or with an OpenLab team member if you have specific questions we can help you with.

Please share this opportunity with colleagues and students–all are welcome. We hope this co-working session is useful for you–and let us know how else we can help!

Photo credit: “Three is a charm (26/365)” by Chung Ho Leung via Flickr is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 Deed