April is National Poetry Month, so in its honor, we shine the spotlight on City Tech Writer (CTW), City Tech’s interdisciplinary journal of student writing.
Writing About Anti-AAPI Discrimination (700-800 words max)
Flash fiction (100 words max)
Drama
Personal Essay
You can view CTW‘s slideshow to learn more about the writing contest as well. To get into the mood, check out this video of a round table discussion featuring several of the writers from the 2023 issue, discussing the process of revising and reworking their pieces:
Also notice the Writing About Anti-AAPI Discriminiationcategory. This category is directly tied to May’s AAPI Heritage month–that’s when this category’s winners and all other winning pieces will be published in CTW. The contest is part of an anti-hate initiative.For the category Writing About AAPI Discrimination, contest judges are looking for short reflections from AAPI students responding to the essay and accompanying documentary “Many Years After,” found in the 2022 volume of City Tech writer.
Happy writing–and reading, viewing, and thinking–and good luck!
Plan week is here! That means that from March 19 through March 26th, you can take part in Plan Week activities to prepare for advisement and registration for next semester, to ensure you are taking the right courses and asking the right questions to stay on the path to graduation and achieving your future goals.
The Plan Week website has all the information you need to take part and take advantage of all that the week has to offer. There’s also information about how students can enter to win prizes!
On the Plan Week website, you’ll find information about each day in the week, its events, and what to focus on information to help students plan for their next steps at City Tech. Here is the abbreviated list of day-by-day goals–be sure to check out the website for more details:
Tuesday, March 19: Check Your Holds — make sure you are able to register
Thursday, March 21: Fill in Your Academic Career Planner — plan your semester-by-semester path to graduation and explore your general education options
Friday, March 22: Prepare to Meet with Your Advisor — prepare questions about ways to get involved, to prepare for your career, or address any challenges
As you develop your PLAN, remember that you can use the OpenLab to get a preview of the courses you’re interested in registering for, and to develop a better sense of what students are doing as they progress in your major and move toward graduation and their careers. You can use the filters to find courses in particular departments, look at portfolios made by students in your major, see projects related to your studies, and join a club connected to your interests.
Take full advantage of in these events and resources, and happy Planning!
Welcome to a new year and the Spring 2024 semester! City Tech is welcoming even more new students and faculty members–so welcome to everyone new, and welcome back to everyone returning!
The OpenLab team is excited to work with you this semester as you do great things on the OpenLab–and to help you learn more about using the OpenLab and working in an open community.
This Winter Break, there were some exciting new features added to the OpenLab, and some updates in response to members’ needs. You can read about them in the January 2024 edition of This Month on the OpenLab. We’re especially excited about this new option to change the visibility of posts made on open sites–now in addition to posts being as open as the course is or private between author and site admin, authors have the option to share their work with only members of the group or only members of the OpenLab.
As the Spring 2024 semester begins, check out the OpenLab’s synchronous support:
Open Hours: students, faculty, and staff can sign up for open hours, one-on-one appointments to ask specific questions or ask to learn more about topics ranging from getting started to using a tool to implementing pedagogical approach.
Workshops: All are welcome for our calendar of workshops, plus any group can request a workshop on a topic or technique! The next workshops are on Thursday, 2/1:
Co-working sessions: for quiet working time with others, with the option to move to a breakout room for conversation or questions. The next co-working session is on 2/16:
One super useful bit of help for the start of the semester: step-by-step instructions for how to add students in bulk to your course by using a list of student emails. Being able to add students to courses this way is so convenient, we even spotlighted it!
Everyone can get inspired by what this community has done on the OpenLab by looking through our past In the Spotlight posts or by navigating directly to what interests you through this helpful index of spotlights.
It’s PLAN week! That means that from October 30 to November 3, you can take part in Plan Week activities to prepare for advisement and registration (which starts November 9-17th) for winter and/or spring courses, to ensure you are taking the right courses and asking the right questions to stay on the path to graduation and achieving your future goals.
The PLAN Week website has all the information you need to take part and take advantage of all that the week has to offer. There’s also information about how students can enter to win prizes like gift cards and City Tech swag!
Each day this week has events and will focus on information to help students plan for their next steps at City Tech:
Tuesday, 10/31: Fill in Your Academic Career Planner — plan your semester-by-semester path to graduation and explore your general education options
Wednesday, 11/1: Prepare to Meet with Your Advisor — prepare questions about ways to get involved, to prepare for your career, or address any challenges
Thursday, 11/2: Check Your Holds — make sure you are able to register
As you develop your PLAN, remember that you can use the OpenLab to get a preview of the courses you’re interested in registering for, and to develop a better sense of what students are doing as they progress in your major and move toward graduation and their careers.
Take full advantage of in these events, and happy PLANning!
Welcome to a new academic year! City Tech is welcoming even more new students and faculty members–so welcome to everyone new, and welcome back to everyone returning!
The OpenLab team is excited to work with you this semester as you do great things on the OpenLab–and to help you learn more about using the OpenLab and working in an open community.
This summer, there were some exciting new features added to the OpenLab, and some updates in response to members’ needs. You can read about them in the August 2023 edition of This Month on the OpenLab. The option to have different course templates is a great innovation that will make it easier for instructors to build a course site tailored to the course’s needs.
As the Fall 2023 semester begins, check out the OpenLab’s synchronous support:
Open Hours: students, faculty, and staff can sign up for open hours, one-on-one appointments to ask specific questions or ask to learn more about topics ranging from getting started to using a tool to implementing pedagogical approach.
Workshops: All are welcome for our calendar of workshops, plus any group can request a workshop on a topic or technique!
Co-working sessions: for quiet working time with others, with the option to move to a breakout room for conversation or questions.
There are also great asynchronous options for support:
Faculty members with any questions about getting your course site ready for the semester can refer to the helpful tips posted in the Teaching with the OpenLab module.
Students getting ready to use the OpenLab this semester can use the helpful OpenLab for Students module.
Everyone can get inspired by what this community has done on the OpenLab by looking through our past In the Spotlight posts or by navigating directly to what interests you through this helpful index of spotlights.
As you get busy preparing for the upcoming semester, the OpenLab team is here to support your course building efforts!
Join a Workshop
Click here to view the full schedule and register to receive the Zoom link for the workshops.
Monday, 8/21/23
Getting Started on the OpenLab (express): 1:00-1:30pm
Creating a Course Site: 1:30-2:30pm
Fostering an Interactive Course Site 2:30-3:30pm
Thursday, 8/24
Getting Started on the OpenLab (express): 10:00-10:30am
Creating a Course Site: 10:30-11:30am
Fostering an Interactive Course Site 11:30am-12:30pm
Follow the 5-part Summer Series
In each of the five installments of this asynchronous Summer Series, the OpenLab team suggests tasks to guide you from creating an account through joining the community to creating courses. No worries if you didn’t start last month–follow along with the installments at your own pace and at your own start date.
Co-work with us
Last semester, the OpenLab team piloted co-working session for quiet working time with others, with the option to move to a breakout room for conversation or questions. Join OpenLab team members on Friday, 8/18/23 at 12:30-1:30pm to start working on your course site, build out your portfolio, sort through your email, anything OpenLab or not OpenLab, or just to be a positive force for anyone else joining who needs that energy!
Help is here
Use Help materials and screencasts to guide your work. Search for your specific topic in the OpenLab’s Help section or navigate through the different sections. You can also reach out for email support by sending a message to us at OpenLab@CityTech.cuny.edu or via our contact form.
Want more? Request a workshop for your group, ask a question, or let us know what else we can do to support you!
As students get started showing their work–for further studies or when applying for jobs–an ePortfolio is a great way to get started demonstrating their experience!
This spotlight brings an example of a sophomore student portfolio to show how students can take advantage of class assignments to start building their own portfolios to highlight relevant job skills. Even classes and topics that are not the student’s main interest will give variety to one’s curriculum and contribute to show experience with different tools and approaches.
Adrika Hoque’s ePortfolio also gives some nice examples on how blog posts can be a great format for image analysis, as it lets the author pick their preferred balance between text and images. Even though social media platforms such as Instagram are great in their reach, posts on an ePortfolio allow for a better balance of image and text, allowing for a deeper examination and comparison.
A good example of the potential is the Visual Quote Project post (created in her first year at City Tech) in which Adrika shows her work with different concept drafts and explains each of them. In the end, after the reader is acquainted with the logic behind each, she puts them all side-by-side so we can compare and better appreciate each of the images.
Let’s shine some light on PLAN week, which is now! From March 9 to March 15, students can take advantage of resources and meet with advisors and peer mentors to plan their next steps at City Tech. The PLAN Week page on the OpenLab has all the information you need to take part and take advantage of all that the week has to offer. There’s also information about how students can enter to win prizes like gift cards and Beats headphones!
For more information on each day, there’s more information on both the OpenLab site as well as on the City Tech website–having this info in both places is a great way to find the information whether you’re on the OpenLab or the City Tech website!
Make sure to check out the site, and happy PLANning!
This week, student researchers will begin participating in a series of 14 workshops that will last throughout the semester. These workshops, developed and led by members of City Tech’s Undergraduate Research Committee (plus a few other helpful members of the City Tech community), run each semester for students participating in the Emerging Scholars program or the CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP), and are open to any students interested in the subjects covered.
Not only are the workshops listed on the Undergraduate Research site on City Tech’s website, but they are also shared on the Undergraduate Research site on the OpenLab. In addition to the post announcing the full slate of workshops for the semester, there is also a list of the workshops with dates and times that you can see no matter where you are on the site (in the right sidebar on a computer, or at the bottom of the page if you’re looking on a mobile device). You can add a widget to your site if you want to do something similar on your site, too.
If you join the project, you’ll get reminders for each of the 14 workshops this semester. You’ll also get notifications for other information that gets posted on the site–including internship opportunities, news, and events that are relevant for student researchers and their faculty mentors.
It might not look like spring outside, but welcome back for the Spring 2023 semester!
The OpenLab team is excited to work with you as you do great things on the OpenLab–and to help you learn more about using the OpenLab and working in an open community.
The OpenLab team has been busy adding new features and functionality. For example, you may have noticed some changes to the tools that are on by default in the profile of your course, project, or club. One addition is an Announcements feature, which allows admins of a Course, Project, or Club to post announcements that appear just beneath the avatar on a group’s profile. These provide an easy and prominent way to share announcements with members, such as an upcoming class, event, meeting. In addition to appearing on the profile, these announcements will also be sent via email notification to help ensure that everyone who needs to see them does. Announcements are activated by default, but admins can deactivate them in Profile > Settings, if you don’t plan to use them.
There are other helpful improvements that we described in the January 2023 Release Notes–we’ll be spotlighting some of them soon!
Be sure to check out the Spring 2023 OpenLab support options and join us for synchronous support:
Open Hours: students, faculty, and staff can sign up for open hours, one-on-one appointments to ask specific questions or ask to learn more about topics ranging from getting started to using a tool to implementing pedagogical approach. We’ve added a new tool for registering for open hours, which allows site admins to embed Calendly–many of you use this tool already, and now you can feature your Calendly directly in a page or post on your site–activate the Embed Calendly plugin via Dashboard>Plugins>Embed Calendly.
Workshops: If you missed the OpenLab workshops during intersession, you can request a workshop on any topic or technique! Bring a few colleagues, fellow students, or officemates to learn about how to build something, do something, or use something on the OpenLab!
There are also great asynchronous options for support:
Faculty members with any questions about getting your course site ready for the semester can refer to the helpful tips posted in the Teaching with the OpenLab module.
Students getting ready to use the OpenLab this semester can use the helpful OpenLab for Students module.
Everyone can get inspired by what this community has done on the OpenLab by looking through our past In the Spotlight posts.
The Help materials on the OpenLab are extensive, guiding members through creating and working in Courses, Projects, Clubs, and Portfolios. For example, our help documentation will walk instructors through step-by-step how to add students in bulk to your course by using a list of student emails, a feature we added a few semesters ago. Being able to add students to courses this way is so convenient, we even spotlighted it! Students, this means you might find yourself *automagically* added into a course without having to request membership or join it yourself.
