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Get Ready for Spring with the CFC. January’s Week Zero: Canvas, Syllabi, and More

by | Dec 1, 2025 | Blog, Canvas, Faculty Development Workshop, Teaching and Learning

Week Zero: We’ve got you covered for Spring semester

Finalize your spring courses before the semester begins! During Week Zero, the Coulter Faculty Commons has you covered:

Our team will be available for individual consultations all week (both in-person and virtual), and we’ll host focused workshops on Thursday and Friday to help you finalize your course setup.

Join us for:

  • Canvas Essentials: streamline your gradebook and boost your communication strategies.

  • AI & the Syllabus: explore ways to address AI thoughtfully in your course policies.

  • Syllabus & Canvas Clinic (in-person drop-in support): bring your syllabus, assignments, or Canvas questions and get one-on-one help from our team.

Week Zero flyer: Get ready for Spring with the CFC.
Register for Week Zero

All Week (Monday, January 5 – Friday, January 9)

Our team will be available for individual consultations all week to help you get your spring classes ready — wherever you are in the process. Whether you’d like feedback on your syllabus, ideas for new or revised assignments, or a hand with your Canvas setup and gradebook, we’re here to support you. Bring your questions, drafts, or big-picture plans, and we’ll work with you to make sure your course is ready to launch with confidence.

Schedule a consultation directly or email cfc@wcu.edu to set up an in-person or virtual appointment.

Thursday, January 8

Canvas Gradebook Setup & Best Practices – hybrid | 10:00 – 10:45 am
Because your Canvas gradebook is built from your assignments, it’s important to set it up accurately from the start. In this session, we’ll guide you through organizing assignments, applying weights, and setting grading policies correctly. This is a 30-minute demo, followed by a brief Q&A.

AI & Syllabus Policy – hybrid | 11:00 am – noon
Explore ways to address AI thoughtfully in your syllabus. We’ll look at sample policy language, classroom scenarios, and strategies for aligning expectations with your teaching goals. This session is an interactive workshop.

Syllabus & Canvas Clinic – in-person | 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Work side-by-side with CFC consultants to review your syllabus, organize your Canvas materials, and make sure your course is ready for students on day one. This session follows a drop-in consultation format.

 

Friday, January 9

Syllabus & Canvas Clinic – in-person | 10:00 am – noon
Work side-by-side with CFC consultants to review your syllabus, organize your Canvas materials, and make sure your course is ready for students on day one. This session follows a drop-in consultation format.

Communication in Canvas – hybrid | 1:15 – 2:00 pm
Stay connected with your students with built-in Canvas features. We’ll show you how to use announcements, feedback tools, the syllabus feature, and discussions to build an engaging and communicative course environment. 

CFC November Workshops

by | Oct 20, 2025 | Blog, Canvas, Event, Faculty Development Workshop, Online Learning, Teaching and Learning

November Workshop Line-Up Is Here!

We’re excited to share our November workshop schedule, designed to help you make the most of your teaching tools before the end of the semester. This month, we’re rotating three focused sessions:

  • Canvas Grading Tools (Intermediate) – A 30-minute demo of our favorite strategies and features for time-saving tips and smart grading workflows, followed by a brief Q&A.
  • Canvas Communication Tools (Intermediate) – A 30-minute demo of our favorite strategies and features for keeping students informed and engaged, followed by a brief Q&A.

  • Online Template Session – The CFC continues to offer training to help you integrate WCU’s online template into your courses.

New this month: All sessions will be offered in a hybrid format — join us in person at Hunter Library 156 or participate virtually via Zoom, whichever fits your schedule best.

If none of the workshop times work for you, we highly recommend our new 4-week asynchronous UDL course, which guides you through applying Universal Design for Learning principles to your own course.

Session Descriptions:

Grading in Canvas: SpeedGrader, Rubrics & Feedback Tools 

Simplify your grading workflow while maximizing feedback quality. Learn how to use SpeedGrader, apply rubrics, record video comments, and manage your gradebook with ease. 

Tuesday, Nov 18 | 10:00 – 10:45 am

Wednesday, Nov 19 | 2:00 – 2:45 pm

Communication in Canvas: Be Present, Be Heard 

Stay connected with your students with built-in Canvas features. We’ll show you how to use announcements, feedback tools, the syllabus feature, and discussions to build an engaging and communicative course environment. 

Tuesday, Nov 18 | 9:00 – 9:45 am

Wednesday, Nov 19 | 3:00 – 3:45 pm

Online Course Template Training

The Online Course Template is designed to enhance consistency, support, and engagement for both students and instructors. We will support faculty to adapt the template to fit their course needs while maintaining a cohesive structure across WCU.

Wednesday, Nov 19 | 9:00 – 10:30 am

Thursday, Nov 20 | 1:00 – 2:30 pm

Register for Canvas Workshops

We Recommend: Snafu Edu

by | Oct 16, 2025 | Blog, We Recommend

How to bounce back from teaching disasters? Snafu Edu might just have the answer

November 2025

Recommended by Anabel Livengood, Senior Educational Developer  

Picture this: you, a dynamic college professor, lecturing animatedly and effortlessly in a lecture hall filled with students who are on the edge of their seats and in absolute awe of every word that comes out of your mouth. Does that sound like a regular Monday in the classroom to you? Jessamyn Neuhaus finds this persisting stereotype of what an effective college learning experience “should” look like, troublesome, and the reality is far from that. Instead, Neuhaus’ newest book, Snafu Edu, starts with the premise that – by nature – we are going to make mistakes in the classroom, and that we should instead of trying to live up to impossible standards of an “ideal professor,” humanize the college educator, learn from mistakes, and continue growing as instructors.  

Book cover of "Snafu Edu" by Jessamyn Neuhaus.

Neuhaus, J. (2025). Snafu Edu. Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom. The University of Oklahoma Press. 

As she reminds us: “Teaching effectively is an ongoing process of accruing new knowledge, trying new things, assessing the result, reflecting on what worked well and what didn’t, revising your pedagogical practice, and repeat.” (p. 83) Snafu Edu helps you to do exactly that – it encourages you to reflect on your teaching practice and to build onto your own already existing teaching strategies. In her book, Neuhaus identifies five major root causes of classroom snafus (inequity, disconnection, distrust, failure, and fear), analyzes why and how they might negatively impact both our teaching experience as well as the learning experience of our students, and provides repair strategies for each of these areas.  

I want to leave you with two mini pieces of advice from her book. First: Surround yourself with fellow educators who you can have those conversations with when things don’t go as planned. Why? Teaching is not, contrary to popular belief, a solitary undertaking, and building our own village of instructors we can confide in and seek advice from is crucial for our own well-being and professional development. And secondly, remember to STIR – Stop, Think, Identify, Repair when you find yourself in an unpleasant teaching situation (no worries, she explains this strategy in detail). So, I hope you will find Snafu Edu helpful for when (not if!) it becomes necessary to pull in additional advice and it will help you to continue creating classrooms in which equity, connections, trust, success, and agency are thriving.  

To access the full collection of teaching-related recommendations, visit CFC’s We Recommend.

CFC Announces New Universal Design for Learning Course

by | Sep 29, 2025 | Accessibility, Blog, Canvas, Faculty Development Workshop, Learning Community, Professional Development, UDL

We’re excited to introduce our upcoming course on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an approach that expands how we think about creating a barrier-free classroom and beyond. 

Universal Design (UD) centers on a simple yet powerful concept: creating products and environments that work for the widest possible range of users, regardless of age, ability, or background. Originally developed by a collaborative team of architects, product designers, and engineers, UD is built on seven foundational principles that guide accessible design thinking. 

What is UDL? 

In educational settings, these principles evolved into Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a comprehensive framework for developing course materials and courses that serve every learner. UDL recognizes that students bring diverse backgrounds and abilities, to the classroom. By designing with this diversity of learners in mind from the outset through its three principles engagement, representation, and action and expression, instructors can create more effective learning experiences for everyone. 

This proactive approach doesn’t replace the need for individual accommodations when students require them; rather, it operates on a fundamental principle: when instructors design inclusively from the beginning, this design naturally addresses many accessibility needs while enhancing the experience for all learners. 

Join us in exploring how UDL principles can transform your approach to creating truly equitable learning environments. 

Announcing Our New Universal Design for Learning Course 

We will kick off our first cohort for our new 4-week asynchronous Canvas course on UDL on Monday, November 3. This course is ideal for instructors who want to learn more about the fundamentals of UDL and want to learn together and from colleagues on campus.  

Register for the UDL course

We Recommend: Teach Students How To Learn

by | Sep 26, 2025 | Blog, We Recommend

The Science of Learning Meets the Art of Teaching

October 2025

Recommended by Anabel Livengood, Senior Educational Developer  

One book that I keep going back to and have been recommending to faculty for years is Saundra McGuire’s Teach Students How To Learn. My copy is highlighted, scribbled in, and has oh so many earmarks. Her book became an instant classic for a reason – she explores the importance of how we, as instructors, can have an even bigger impact on our students’ lives that goes beyond the content knowledge and the skills we want to teach. Originally written ten years ago, McGuire (a chemistry professor) provides actionable strategies on how and when in the semester you can (and should) incorporate lessons that help students to develop metacognitive strategies that will make them more proficient lifelong learners – and keep them motivated along the way.

Book cover of "Teach Students HOW to Learn" and headshot of Saundra McGuire.

McGuire, S. Y. (2023). Teach students how to learn: Strategies you can incorporate into any course to improve student metacognition, study skills, and motivation. 

The suggestions in her book cover a wide range of topics:   

  • identifying where and how students formed their current study habits,  
  • developing a growth mindset that embraces challenges and mistakes as learning opportunities,  
  • teaching students specific strategies for reading textbooks effectively,  
  • showing students how to approach and work through assignments systematically, 
  • creating study groups that follow the proven study cycle method,  
  • connecting course content to Bloom’s taxonomy levels,  
  • understanding different teaching styles and how they affect student learning,  
  • as well as developing strategies for underprepared students by adapting teaching methods to meet varying skill levels and backgrounds. 

While Saundra McGuire’s tips were written from the perspective of teaching STEM courses, lessons learned apply to all courses. If you have ever asked yourself, “How can I support my students’ learning?”, this book is for you!  

To access the full collection of teaching-related recommendations, visit CFC’s We Recommend.