The NTLC's Sharing Communities typically consist of groups of 6-10 instructors (sometimes more) who agree to meet at least three to four times during a semester to investigate a topic, issue or problem related to teaching and learning. The conversations are lively, thought-provoking, and beneficial.
2024-2025 Sharing Communities
Teaching the Adult Learner & Online Instruction, Matt Simoneau
Join Matt Simoneau for this online sharing community discussing online teaching and learning with an emphasis on the adult learner. This sharing community will be informed by literature (Brocket, Brookfield, Knowles) that defines the unique needs of the adult learner. The discussions center around best practices for teaching adult learners as well as providing a forum for sharing online teaching experiences. This sharing community will be appropriate for both general education and program faculty.
The sharing community will be online Wednesdays from 12:20pm to 1:15pm on the following dates:
| September 25 | November 6 | December 4 |
| October 9 | November 20 | December 18 |
| October 23 |
Themes for discussion include and are not limited to:
- Overview of Stout online students
- What is an adult learner
- Establishing relationships
- Engaging online learners
- Developing creditability
Please contact Matt Simoneau (simoneaum@uwstout.edu) with questions!
Alternative Grading: Conversations about the Meaning of an "A"
Join Kate Edenborg, Jerry Hui and Michael Selover in this sharing community where we will discuss our approaches to, ideas for and questions about alternative grading in higher education. This sharing community will encourage conversations about the opportunities and challenges involved with trying new ways of assessing and evaluating student work.
Plan to:
- Discuss how we define grading in our classes.
- Develop thoughtful workshops on how the language of grading in syllabi, assignments, and other course materials affects students.
- Implement a preliminary assessment of syllabi focusing on the use of the words surrounding grading practices.
Meeting Times: Tuesdays 10-11:30 AM
- Sept. 17
- Oct. 15
- Nov. 19
- Dec. 10
Artificial Intelligence: Course Applications & Policies Sharing Community
Join Georgios Loizides in this sharing community focusing on AI in university courses. This sharing community will help instructors learn more about AI generated work, its reporting and develop ideas on how to respond to AI generated papers. It will also benefit students by clarifying the rules and expectations regarding the use of AI in creating papers.
Themes for discussion are not limited to:
- Clarifying instructors' rules and expectations regarding the use of generative AI in creating papers
- Developing a common understanding of what generative AI means
- Understand how generative AI is used to generate student class work.
- Develop a coherent and comprehensive response to AI-generated papers for class projects.
Meeting times: Wednesdays 2:30 - 3:25 PM
2021-2022 Sharing Communities
Alternative Grading Systems, Dana Wanzer
Join Dana Wanzer for a year-long sharing community examining alternative grading practices. If you are interested in learning more about this sharing community or getting involved, please come to this session! All folks interested in alternative grading systems are welcome.
Please contact Dana Wanzer (wanzerd@uwstout.edu) with questions
EDI and Math /CS/Stats/CNIT . . ., Andrei Ghenciu and Chris Bendel
Join Andrei Ghenciu and Chris Bendel in a series of discussion among Math. Statistic, and Computer Science . . . instructors who will explore ways to integrate inclusivity, diversity, and equity examples into their courses and assignments. One of the goals of the sharing community will be to identify resources that are available. Attempts will be made to alter at least one assignment to better address EDI issues.
High Impact Practices (HIPs), Jeff Sweat
Does your teaching help engage all students? Are you working to help students integrate and transfer knowledge across disciplines? Are you working to make your learning equitable? Many instructors include experiential and work-based learning, service learning, community engagement, undergraduate research and the like in their courses. Jeff Sweat leads this sharing community in discussions that reach beyond the 11 identified high impact practices to explore and discuss the attributes of high impact practices and identify those practices, in a Covid-19/post Covid-19 era, at UW-Stout.
Meeting times will be determined by participants after registration ends at 5 PM on Wednesday, September 15th.
Please contact Jeff Sweat (sweatj@uwstout.edu) with questions
Reflecting on RES/GLP, Rickie-Ann Legleitner
Join Rickie-Ann Legleitner in this online sharing community that provides a space for faculty who teach RES/GLP courses to share ideas, experiences, lessons, pitfalls, resources, etc. so that we can learn from each other and strengthen our work together.
Meeting times will be determined by participants after registration ends at 5 PM on Wednesday, September 15th.
Please contact Rickie Ann Legleitner (legleitnerr@uwstout.edu) with questions
Reflective Practice with PERTS' Co-Pilot Ascend, Sylvia Tiala
It's everyone's job to recruit and retain students but how do we do that? What strategies can instructors use to to make sure their students feel welcome safe and have a feeling of belonging? This sharing community will be a safe space where instructors will assess and respond to students' feelings of belonging, identity safety, institutional growth mindsets, self-efficacy, social belongingness, social connectedness, as well as trust and fairness. Instructors will use resources from the Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) and the Student Experience Project as they survey their students, review student feedback, learn about relevant practices for improvement, and track improvement through repeated cycles. Participants are able to explore and share experiences a safe space that allows for robust discussions related to how students experience courses. This sharing community will be led by Sylvia Tiala - Director of the Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center.
Requirement: A willingness to use PERT's Co-Pilot Ascend/Student Experience Project's surveys and resources.
Meeting times and delivery format will be determined by participants after registration ends at 5 PM on Wednesday, September 15th.
Please contact Sylvia Tiala (tialas@uwstout.edu) with questions
Teaching the Adult Learner & Mentoring for Online Instructors, Matt Simoneau and Amy Gullixson
The topic for this online sharing community is about teaching the adult learner. Matt Simoneau and Amy Gullixson lead this sharing community with discussion utilizing literature (Brookfield, Knowles) that defines the unique needs of the adult learner. The discussions center around best practices for teaching adult learners as well as providing a forum for sharing online teaching experiences. This sharing community will be appropriate for both general education and program faculty.
Meeting times are scheduled online for Mondays at 3:45 - 4:30 on the following days:
| September - 20 | October - 4 & 18 | November - ! & 15 |
| December - 13 | January - TBD | February - 7 & 21 |
| March - & & 21 | April - 4 & 18? | May - 2 & 16 |
Themes addressed:
- Survey says (Stout Online data and student surveys)
- I'm 18. Am I an adult learner?
- Relationships, relationships, relationships
- Street creds
- Course structures - tips & tricks
- Assessing the adulty learner - did they get it?
- Is it them or me? Becoming a critically reflective practitioner.
- Bringing it all back home.
Please contact Matt Simoneau (simoneaum@uwstout.edu) with questions.
Town and Gown, Kate Edenborg
Kate Edenborg leads online discussions on the concept of “town and gown." While UW-Stout sits in the center of downtown Menomonie, many in the community feel distanced from the university. This group would have the opportunity to discuss this distance and sometimes tension between the town and the college. While could also highlight the connections and the collaborations, the discussion would focus on getting a sense of what the relationship is like now and what could be done to change it. A few texts provide examples of case studies of other campuses and cities and that would be the starting point. There's also UW Community Engagement Colleagues Network that could contribute to the conversation.
Meeting times will be determined by participants after registration ends at 5 PM on Wednesday, September 15th.
Please contact Kate Edenborg (edenborgk@uwstout.edu) with questions.
Teaching in 2020: Applied Ethics on Campus/Canvas
It might be hard to remember that we had a few months of normalcy at the start of 2020. But before we knew it, not only did all faculty have to quickly adjust to teaching all of our courses online we also had many other uncertainties surrounding our lives. This Sharing Community will start out by taking a look back at issues that arose in spring and we will discuss what we would have done differently. We will use some ethical decision-making processes to frame our conversations. At the start of fall, the group will talk about some specific online teaching concerns, such as academic misconduct, course/program integrity and related topics. Later in fall we’ll start to take a closer look at present day situations we and our students are facing. We will start to tackle larger issues that delve into faculty and student interactions and processes. Participants will start thinking about ways we can address timely, yet controversial, topics, such as protests and elections, in our classrooms.
Kate Edenborg, interim director of the Center for Applied Ethics, will facilitate this Sharing Community. The first meeting will be held on in Microsoft Teams. We will plan to meet at least once a month after that. Times and dates will be determined at the first meeting. Contact Kate at edenborgk@uwstout.edu or ext. 1483 if you want to know more.
“Me” and White Supremacy Discussions – Sharing Community
This group will use discussion, self-reflection, and the first 83 pages of Layla Saad’s book, me and white supremacy, to explore topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion. With this sharing community as a safe space, we will examine ideas of white privilege, white fragility, tone policing, color blindness, and more. These discussions support Stout’s goals of recruitment and retention of more diverse employees, as well as individuals’ personal and professional goals of improving teaching effectiveness and interactions with students and colleagues outside of the classroom. Books will be provided by NTLC. Space is limited so please register early at:
Meeting schedule: Thursdays: 2:30 - 3:25
- September 24 - My identities & white privilege presentation
- October 8 - My identities & white privilege discussion
- October 22 - White fragility presentation
- November 5 - White fragility discussion
- November 19 - Tone policing presentation
- December 3 - Tone policing discussion
- December 17 - White silence
- January 14 - White silence discussion
- January 28 - White superiority presentation
- February 11 - White superiority discussion
- February 25 - White exceptionalism
- March 11 - White exceptionalism discussion
- March 25 - Color blindness
- April 8 - Color blindness discussion
- April 22 - IDI (tentative) & reflection
- May 13 - Debriefing & Next Steps
Note: the content of some sessions and discussions can be difficult to consider, such as white privilege, paradigms about race, and identity-based discrimination and harassment. This sharing community is designed to be a place where people engage bravely, honestly, and thoughtfully with challenging ideas.
Small Teaching Online – Sharing Community
As a group, we will share ideas, expertise and questions related to enhancing our knowledge and skills for effectively teaching courses with a full or partially distance-delivered model. We will use Darby’s book Small Teaching Online as a guide for applying learning science in online environments. The book will be provided by NTLC.
Sylvia Tiala of the Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center will facilitate this Sharing Community/Community of Practice. The first meeting will be held in Microsoft Teams. We will plan to meet twice a month after that. Times and dates will be determined at the first meeting. Contact Sylvia Tiala at tialas@uwstout.edu or ext. 5196 for more information.
Sharing Community Topics:
- October - Designing for Learning
- Backward Design
- Engagement
- Media & Technology Tools
- November - Teaching Humans
- Building Community
- Giving Feedback
- Fostering Student Success
- December
- Creating Autonomy
- Making Connections
- Developing as an Online Instructor
Table of Knowledge
Jill Klefstad, School of Education, is continuing to offer this Sharing Community and to provide instructional and non-instructional staff a laid-back, safe and comfortable gathering place to dialogue and share issues related to teaching, learning, and professionalism in higher education. Examples include engaging students, mindfulness, building collaboration across campus, and much more.
Replace Learning Technology Services with this title: Canvas Best Practice Discussion:
Learning Technology Services is working with NTLC to offer a Sharing Community designed to support instructors in advancing their understanding of how to more effectively use Canvas tools. The NTLC Sharing Community encourages faculty to go beyond the basics of Canvas by learning from campus faculty in monthly discussions that showcase how they have creatively designed a course in Canvas and what tools they are using to enhance student understanding. Instructors are learning how to use Canvas in unique ways!
Table of Knowledge
Jill Klefstad, School of Education, facilitated the bimonthly conversations to provide instructional and non-instructional staff a laid-back, safe and comfortable gathering place to dialogue and share issues related to teaching, learning, and professionalism in higher education. Examples included engaged students, mindfulness, building collaboration across campus, and much more.
Online Teaching Pedagogy
Marya Wilson, Operations and Management, facilitated the Online Teaching Pedagogy Sharing Community for the academic year. The group met once a month via Skype for Business. This was a very casual one-hour conversation about ways to be more effective online teachers. This was an important campus discussion given our LSM conversion.
Table of Knowledge
Jill Klefstad, School of Education, facilitated the bimonthly conversations to provide instructional and non-instructional staff a laid-back, safe and comfortable gathering place to dialogue and share issues related to teaching, learning, and professionalism in higher education. Examples included engaged students, mindfulness, building collaboration across campus, and much more.
Online Pedagogy Conversations in Higher Education
Marya Wilson, Operations and Management, facilitated the Online Teaching Pedagogy Sharing Community for the academic year. The group met once a month via Skype for Business. This was a very casual one-hour conversation about ways to be more effective online teachers. This was an important campus discussion given our LSM conversion.
Table of Knowledge
Jill Klefstad, School of Education, facilitated the bimonthly conversations to provide instructional and non-instructional staff a laid-back, safe and comfortable gathering place to dialogue and share issues related to teaching, learning, and professionalism in higher education. Examples included engaged students, mindfulness, building collaboration across campus, and much more.
Teaching and Learning with Geo-spatial Information Systems and Technologies
Innisfree Mckinnon, Social Sciences, served as the facilitator. Information
Online Pedagogy in Higher Education
Marya Wilson, Operations and Management, facilitated the Online Teaching Pedagogy Sharing Community for the academic year. The group met once a month via Skype for Business. This was a very casual one-hour conversation about ways to be more effective online teachers. This was an important campus discussion given our LSM conversion.
Online Pedagogy in Higher Education
Marya Wilson, Operations and Management, facilitated the Online Teaching Pedagogy Sharing Community for the academic year. The group met once a month via Skype for Business. This was a very casual one-hour conversation about ways to be more effective online teachers. This was an important campus discussion given our LSM conversion.
Exploring Racism, Colonialism and Empire
Virginia Lea, School of Education, facilitated a group dialogue for faculty and instructional staff to generate ideas that were used to develop a new course design to enhance Stout students' critical awareness of impact of racism, colonialism and empire on socioeconomic, political, cultural and educational arrangements worldwide - particularly on the lives of current and historically displaced and exiled young people and their families.
Teaching Strategies: Even More Ways to Engage Students and Assess Learning
Deanna Schultz, School of Education, facilitated the group.
Brochure of Sharing Communities
Critical Friends: A Collegial Review of Each Other’s Assignments
This community was inspired by an article that appeared in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, entitled, "Critical Friends." The author, Deborah Bambino, wrote about how she and a group of her colleagues met monthly to examine student work and their own work. Their intentions, through working and supporting each other, was to improve the day-to-day learning of their students and to enhance their teaching excellence. Lorraine Mitchel, English and Philosophy, facilitated discussions with colleagues at UW-Stout with an active exchange of feedback and a supportive culture.
Learning Objectives Based Assessment (LOBA)
Todd Zimmerman, Physics, facilitated group discussions for people interested in finding out more as well as those who had started to implement the shift of focus from having students acquire enough points to get an "A" to getting students to become proficient in learning the course subject matter. A key component of this concept was to allow students to reassess on learning objectives at a later date to give an incentive to learn the material they may not have mastered earlier on.
Teaching Circle
Georgios Loizides, Social Sciences, facilitated a community for faculty members to discuss issues relating to teaching and learning in general. A few topics the group discussed in the past included ways to increase student engagement, successful strategies for the use of laptops in the classroom, and matching teaching schedules to instructor personality.
Exploring Racism, Colonialism and Empire
Virginia Lea, School of Education, facilitated a group dialogue for faculty and instructional staff to generate ideas that were used to develop a new course design to enhance Stout students' critical awareness of impact of racism, colonialism and empire on socioeconomic, political, cultural and educational arrangements worldwide - particularly on the lives of current and historically displaced and exiled young people and their families.
Mothers and Academia
In 2010, the Mothers and Academic Sharing Community began. This community allowed mothers who were in academics share their experiences and learn strategies to balance their demanding roles. Participants read articles, watched documentaries, listened to speakers and discussed issues that were impacting their daily lives. Maleka (Polly) Hashmi facilitated the group, which helped members create a nurturing environment that encouraged women across the campus to openly discuss topics they were concerned about. Lopa Basu, English and Philosophy, Glendali Rodriguez, Construction, Glenda Jones, English and Philosophy, and Julie Watts, English and Philosophy, served as co-facilitators.
Teaching Circle
Georgios Loizides, Social Sciences, facilitated a community for faculty members to discuss issues relating to teaching and learning in general.
Brochure of Sharing Communities
Critical Friends: A Collegial Review of Each Other’s Assignments
This community was inspired by an article that appeared in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, entitled, "Critical Friends." The author, Deborah Bambino, wrote about how she and a group of her colleagues met monthly to examine student work and their own work. Their intentions, through working and supporting each other, was to improve the day-to-day learning of their students and to enhance their teaching excellence. Lorraine Mitchel, English and Philosophy, facilitated discussions with colleagues at UW-Stout with an active exchange of feedback and a supportive culture.
Learning Objectives Based Assessment (LOBA)
Todd Zimmerman, Physics, facilitated group discussions for people interested in finding out more as well as those who had started to implement the shift of focus from having students acquire enough points to get an "A" to getting students to become proficient in learning the course subject matter. A key component of this concept was to allow students to reassess on learning objectives at a later date to give an incentive to learn the material they may not have mastered earlier on.
Teaching Circle
Georgios Loizides, Social Sciences, facilitated a community for faculty members to discuss issues relating to teaching and learning in general. A few topics the group discussed in the past included ways to increase student engagement, successful strategies for the use of laptops in the classroom, and matching teaching schedules to instructor personality.
Exploring Racism, Colonialism and Empire
Virginia Lea, School of Education, facilitated a group dialogue for faculty and instructional staff to generate ideas that were used to develop a new course design to enhance Stout students' critical awareness of impact of racism, colonialism and empire on socioeconomic, political, cultural and educational arrangements worldwide - particularly on the lives of current and historically displaced and exiled young people and their families.
Mothers and Academia
In 2010, the Mothers and Academic Sharing Community began. This community allowed mothers who were in academics share their experiences and learn strategies to balance their demanding roles. Participants read articles, watched documentaries, listened to speakers and discussed issues that were impacting their daily lives. Maleka (Polly) Hashmi facilitated the group, which helped members create a nurturing environment that encouraged women across the campus to openly discuss topics they were concerned about. Lopa Basu, English and Philosophy, Glendali Rodriguez, Construction, Glenda Jones, English and Philosophy, and Julie Watts, English and Philosophy, served as co-facilitators.
Teaching Circle
Georgios Loizides, Social Sciences, facilitated a community for faculty members to discuss issues relating to teaching and learning in general.