Grading for Growth: Toward More Humane, Authentic, and Trustworthy Ways to Evaluate Student Work
2025-03-18 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
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Dr. Robert Talbert, Professor of Mathematics and Senior Faculty Fellow for Learning Futures at Grand Valley State University

Description

Grading as we know it is significantly broken. The traditional approach involving one-and-done assessment, points, partial credit, and averaging is demotivating for students, demoralizing for faculty, time-consuming, disconnected from science, and of questionable statistical validity. But it is changeable, and in fact there is no better time than now to explore alternatives that prioritize student growth and align better with how humans learn. In this talk, we will explore the history and issues of traditional grading, propose a framework for “alternative” grading practices, and see how to implement alternative grading without massive requirements of time or energy.

About the Speaker

Robert Talbert is a Professor of Mathematics and Senior Faculty Fellow for Learning Futures at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University. Through over 25 years of being a classroom instructor, Robert has experimented with and advocated for research-based, student-focused innovation in teaching and learning. He was an early adopter of computer-based learning in mathematics and helped to pioneer the use of flipped instruction at the college level. He turned these experiences into a blog, Casting Out Nines, in 2006 which catalyzed a global online community around instructional innovation.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Robert holds the position of Senior Faculty Fellow for Learning Futures at Grand Valley State, where he works on behalf of the university president to coordinate institution-wide pedagogical innovation projects. He is the author of Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty and the co-author (with his GVSU colleague Dr. David Clark) of Grading For Growth, and gives keynote addresses and workshops to faculty groups throughout the US and abroad. His continued writing projects include the Grading For Growth Substack and Intentional Academia, a Substack publication about productivity and purpose in higher education.

Robert lives in western Michigan with his wife, teenage children, and three cats. On weekends and evenings, you can find him playing bass in one of four bands he belongs to in the Grand Rapids area.

Building a Better Learning Experience: Using Student Data to Enhance Active Learning for Neurodivergent Students
2025-05-14 14:00 - 15:00
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Dr. Mariel Pfeifer, Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Mississippi

Description

This talk will present findings from research about optimizing active learning to better serve neurodivergent STEM learners. Attendees will leave with concrete takeaways, including a general and a specific teaching tip that they can integrate into their courses to foster a more supportive learning environment for all students. Attendees will also receive additional resources to support future pedagogical decision-making.

About the Speaker

Mariel Pfeifer is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Mississippi. She is dedicated to promoting access to STEM fields for students and faculty with disabilities. Mariel earned her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of Georgia, where she received both an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and an ARCS Foundation award. As a trained biology education researcher and cell biologist, she aims to leverage her expertise in research, teaching, and mentoring to help eliminate barriers in STEM education.

Doing “All the Things”: Leveraging Data, Collaboration, and Evidence-based Design to Transform Gateway Courses
2025-10-23 12:00 - 13:00
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Dr. Denise Galarza Sepúlveda, Director of the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI) at the Center for Research and TeachingDr. Heather Rypkema, Head of Learning Analytics at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) and Associate Director of FCI, University of MichiganDr. Alicia Romero, Lecturer III, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan

Description

Gateway courses play a crucial role at most institutions. They can be students’ only exposure to a discipline, or a make-or-break experience that can alter their chosen career paths. For faculty and instructional teams, teaching these courses can feel like having to do “all the things.” There is the crush of content as they prepare students to succeed in different downstream courses, challenges in integrating active learning and authentic assessments, heavy logistical demands, and structural and resource constraints. Given these issues, the task of redesigning these large gateway courses can feel unmanageable or even impossible for faculty. In this talk, Drs. Galarza Sepúlveda and Rypkema will share a model that addresses the complexity of teaching and learning in these courses with a multifaceted and sustainable approach. This model is exemplified in the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI), which provides faculty with the resources, support, and design expertise to help them make high-impact changes while moving away from feeling they have to do “all the things.” Additionally, Dr. Alicia Romero will join the discussion to share her experience teaching the FCI redesigned course for STATS 250. Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis. They will also discuss FCI’s course reports and provide redesign project examples from an array of FCI-partnering courses, including Physics, Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Statistics.

About the Speakers

Denise Galarza Sepúlveda is the Director of the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI), which provides faculty with the resources, support, and design expertise needed to create transformative learning experiences in large gateway courses. Dr. Galarza Sepúlveda establishes the program’s strategic priorities, leads partnership recruitment efforts, and manages a talented team of consultants dedicated to redesigning gateway courses. She also contributes strategic direction to the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching as part of its Senior Leadership Team. Before joining CRLT, she served as director of the community-based learning office in the Division of Undergraduate Education at UM’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Dr. Galarza Sepúlveda received her Master’s degree from Purdue and her Ph.D. from Emory University, both in Spanish. Prior to Michigan, she held a faculty position for twelve years in Lafayette College’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. At Lafayette, she also chaired the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. Throughout her career, she has received curricular design grants, teaching awards, and secured an endowment to support high-impact learning programs.

Dr. Heather Rypkema is Head of Learning Analytics at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan, as well as an Associate Director with the Foundational Course Initiative (FCI). She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University and held faculty positions in Chemistry and Climate Science before transitioning to her current role at the interface of teaching and data analytics in 2018. She supports course and curricular design efforts through data collection, analysis, and triangulation of databases that include institutional, LMS, instructional technology, and survey data.

Dr. Alicia Romero is a Lecturer III in the Department of Statistics at the University of Michigan, where she leads STATS 250, one of the university’s largest undergraduate courses with more than 2,000 students each semester. She coordinates a large instructional team and has spearheaded major innovations through the Foundational Course Initiative, including the integration of structured group work during lecture. She serves on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and advises undergraduate students. In 2024, she was named a finalist for the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize.

Compass: An Experiment in Collaboration
2025-11-13 15:00 - 16:00
Lily Tsai, Ford Professor of Political ScienceAdam Albright, Professor of LinguisticsEmily Richmond Pollock, Associate Professor of Music.Leeland Fredlund, Senior Research Support Associate – Compass Course

Compass: An Experiment in Collaboration

Description

Last spring, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) launched the pilot of its new multidisciplinary offering, 21.01 Compass Course: Love, Death, and Taxes: How to Think–and Talk to Others–About Being Human. The course is designed to expose students with the tools of the humanities and social sciences to consider persistent moral and social questions central to the human experience, ultimately guiding them in shaping the kind of humans they want to be and the society they wish to help create. Compass is the result of a multi-year collaboration involving over 30 faculty from 19 departments, led by a core SHASS team and a student advisory board. Members of the Compass team, including Lily Tsai, Adam Albright, Emily Richmond Pollock, and Leela Fredlund, will discuss the challenges and rewards of large collaborations. They will show how collaborative design resulted in a Compass pedagogy that highlights the unexpected results of multidisciplinary conversations and fosters faculty vulnerability through the teaching of unfamiliar topics, transforming the class into a true collaboration between faculty and students.

All are welcome. Registration is required.

About the Speakers

Lily L. Tsai is the Director and Founder of the MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB) and the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as the former Chair of the MIT Faculty. Her research focuses on accountability, governance, and political participation in developing contexts, particularly in Asia and Africa. In 2014, she founded MIT GOV/LAB, a group of social and behavioral scientists and design researchers who develop and test innovations in citizen engagement and government responsiveness. By focusing on how and why citizens become active in engaging their governments, Tsai aims to bridge researcher and practitioner communities by developing learning collaborations that can respond to governance challenges using empirical evidence in real time. Tsai has written two books, When People Want Punishment: Retributive Justice and the Puzzle of Authoritarian Popularity, and Accountability Without Democracy: Solidarity Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China, as well as articles in The American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Behavior, Comparative Politics, and World Development.

Emily Richmond Pollock is an Associate Professor of Music. Emily’s research focuses particularly on conservatism, the historicization of modernist musical value, operatic institutions, and the relationship between modern musical style and convention. Emily joined Music and Theater Arts in 2012 and regularly teaches 21M.011 Introduction to Western Music and courses on opera, the twentieth century, and the symphonic repertoire, as well as the Advanced Seminar for music majors. She is currently the music major advisor and has served in the past as a Burchard Faculty Fellow and as an advisor to first-years and music concentrators. She remains an active amateur oboist, performing with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and the Mercury Orchestra.

Adam Albright received his BA in linguistics from Cornell University in 1996 and his Ph.D. in linguistics from UCLA in 2002. He was a Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 2002-2004, and is currently a Professor at MIT. His research interests include phonology, morphology, and learnability, with an emphasis on using computational modeling and experimental techniques to investigate issues in phonological theory. Other interests include: Yiddish phonology and morphology; Lakhota phonology and morphology (and many other topics in Lakhota); and the proper treatment of historical change within Optimality Theory.
