What do you do (or what CAN you do) when a student stops showing up to class? From a recent brownbag conversation on the topic, the Teaching and Learning Collaborative compiled concrete, specific suggestions from the Shepard Academic Resource Center, the Care Team and faculty colleagues.
Big takeaways: follow through on attendance policies in your syllabus (changing them out of sympathy does no one any favors); let students know, in word and email, that you noticed they were gone and that you’d like to help them get back on track; don’t shy away from alerting the Care Team (via Early Alert) when a student misses a week of class without explanation. A lucky list of thirteen strategies and insights from that brownbag session are gathered in this 2-page document.
When you add a link on your Moodle course page to an article in a library database or to a streaming video, how can you tell if the link will work for students connecting from off-campus? Most library databases offer the option to obtain a persistent or stable URL for individual articles or videos, and many of those persistent URLs are automatically set up to connect through the library’s off-campus access system. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and unfortunately not all library resources provide an easy, off-campus-friendly URL for specific items. Check out the library’s 
This week from the Teaching and Learning Collaborative: Internationalizing higher education has become a top priority world-wide (Gould, 2017). “Today’s college students must become adept both at interacting, cooperating, and engaging with individuals from diverse backgrounds and at grappling successfully with the kinds of unscripted problems and challenges that characterize life and work in the complex world they will enter upon graduation” (Whitehead, 2015). Expert Dawn Whitehead has spent decades developing integrative global opportunities as well as local experiences that promote intercultural learning. In her article, “
How can white professors at UP achieve a more complex understanding of race and racism? In 
Want a way to gauge whether you are reaching your students? One simple way to gather informal, low-stakes feedback from students is through exit cards. Rather than relying on end-of-semester evaluations to gauge how a class is going, exit cards can give ongoing feedback to help instructors make decisions about instructional techniques, pacing, or classroom management. Exit cards provide an equitable way for all students to share their voice, and they can open up opportunities for further dialogue with students who may be hesitant to share concerns face-to-face. For links to more information and sample exit card prompts, use 
In their roles as instructors, advisors, coaches, and mentors, faculty members are often sought out by students who confide in them about the various academic and non-academic challenges they encounter. Practitioners from various faith traditions have developed the art of compassionate listening as an approach to helping individuals process, heal, and feel truly heard. The Teaching and Learning Collaborative will be hosting a brownbag workshop to discuss the main principles of compassionate listening and how to develop practical skills around understanding a speaker’s words, feelings, body language, and values on Tuesday November 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in Buckley Center room 215.
If your students had a chance to tell you what they think about how faculty and academic staff matter to student mental health, what might they say? As a follow-up to a discussion with faculty by leaders of the Active Minds student group at UP, this week’s installment of the mental health series on 
As another entry in the ongoing Teaching and Learning Collaborative blog series on 
Over the past few years, internationalization efforts have increased throughout the University, according to Kimberly Ilosvay, education. Campus activities with global opportunities are well-attended and courses have been redesigned to included international, intercultural, and global topics for discussion and action. In the quest to expand “culturally-engaging curricular opportunities and promote knowledge, skills, and dispositions for successful interaction in diverse environments,” you might find yourself searching for valid and reliable assessment tools that can be used across campus or simply with one course (Strategic Plan 2020, D 2.5). The following links are various well-known instruments to support your work.
In this week’s installment by the Teaching and Learning Collaborative, Andre Guest asks: Do student-athletes have particular mental health concerns that faculty and academic staff should be aware of? The short answer is yes and no. The slightly longer answer is offered in a brief two part series on the UP Teaching & Learning Community blog: