Adjunct Faculty Teaching & Learning Conference 2021

Conference Recap

Flower’s keynote, “Moving Forward with Resilience and Joy as Adjunct Faculty,” explored how the approaches we’ve gained during the pandemic have strengthened our practice. Flower also facilitated a session titled “Small Teaching: Practical Ideas to Try Next Week or Next Semester” that explored practical and efficient strategies to engage students and help them persist, learn, and succeed in all class formats. Since faculty have limited time to prepare their classes, Flower emphasized evidence-based suggestions that don’t take a long time to create, facilitate, or grade.

In the session, “3 Small Takeaways: Perspectives from Harper Adjunct Faculty,” three adjunct faculty Andre Berchiolly (English), Samira Chaker (Economics), and Mary van Opstal (Chemistry), reflected on their teaching experience during the pandemic and shared how even very small changes to our course design and facilitation can make a huge difference to our students’ experiences. The conference also included an interactive Quiplash game, remarks from Harper’s President and Provost, and a raffle (10 lucky winners won a copy of Flower Darby’s book, Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes). We were also pleased to welcome adjunct faculty colleagues from College of DuPage, College of Lake County, Elgin Community College, Joliet Junior College, Kishwaukee College, McHenry County College, and Waubonsee Community College.

Conference Resources

• Conference Recording
• Conference Program
• Conference Presentation Slides

Keynote: Moving Forward with Resilience and Joy as Adjunct Faculty

• Facilitator: Flower Darby

Workshop: Small Teaching: Practical Ideas to Try Next Week or Next Semester

• Facilitator: Flower Darby

3 Small Takeaways: Perspectives from Harper Adjunct Faculty

• Facilitators: Andre Berchiolly (English), Samira Chaker (Economics), and Mary van Opstal (Chemistry)
• Reflecting on My Online Teaching, Samira Chaker

Additional Resources

• Flower Darby’s Website
• Flower Darby’s Book: Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes
• Creative assessment option recommendations from Flower:
  • “Structure and Community Can Be Powerful Methods to Address Student Isolation and Promote Learning in Online and In-Person Classes”
  • “Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Stacey Johnson and Reflective Final Exams”
• Flower’s recent articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
  • “8 Strategies to Prevent Teaching Burnout”
  • “7 Ways to Assess Students Online and Minimize Cheating”
  • “6 Ways to Be More Inclusive in a Virtual Classroom”
  • “5 Ways to Connect With Online Students”
• CAST website (Universal Design for Learning – UDL – teaching resources)

Attendance & Professional Development Credit

If you would like to have a record of your attendance on your transcript and earn professional development credit (CEUs) for attending the conference or viewing the recording, you must complete this personal action plan by December 3, 2021.

Questions? Please contact the Academy at academy@harpercollege.edu.