Piedmont Region Teaching & Learning Hub
What We Do
NC Teaching & Learning Hubs
In an effort to further the shared mission of fostering student success across the state, the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, the NC Student Success Center, and Achieving the Dream (ATD) are committed to support full and part-time faculty, as well as staff educators, from North Carolina community colleges in an effort to build equity in learning and student success through Teaching and Learning Hubs. Our plans are to offer diverse sessions through multiple delivery methods so that all of our Hub institutions can find sessions that they want to and can participate in.
Piedmont Teaching & Learning Hub
Through in-person, virtual and hybrid workshops, and seminars, the Piedmont Teaching and Learning Hub will help faculty learn about, adopt, test, and scale the evidence-based strategies to increase equitable student success. The Piedmont Hub is co-hosted by Davidson-Davie Community College (Grant Jolliff, co-director) and Forsyth Technical Community College (Kristin Redfield, co-director). The Piedmont Hub affiliate colleges are Central Piedmont, Guilford, Montgomery, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan-Cabarrus, South Piedmont, and Stanly.
Fall 2023 Professional Learning Schedule
- Date: August 7, 2023
- Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
- Presenter: Anthony Blair from Vance Granville Community College
- Description: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and learn, and can greatly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of educators in these new teaching environments. This talk will explore the many ways in which AI can be used to generate lecture scripts, examples, and Open Education Resources (OER) material for educators, with a focus on how it can support and enhance the practices of asynchronous online lectures and flipped classrooms.
- Register: Empowering Educators
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: August 11, 2023
- Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
- Presenter: Dr. Tanya Scott of Achieving the Dream
- Description: Enhance your campus communication and foster a welcoming environment for all students with our transformative workshop: “Welcoming Language.” Join Dr. Tanya Scott, Associate Director of Teaching & Learning at Achieving the Dream, for an engaging and interactive session designed to empower faculty and staff to equitize their communication practices. Drawing on the principles of USC Rossier/Center for Urban Education’s six equity-minded principles, this workshop will provide practical strategies and insights to infuse welcoming language into campus-wide communications. From student handbooks to policies and websites, participants will explore hands-on activities and collaborative discussions to tailor these principles to their own institutional context. By attending this workshop, you will gain the tools and knowledge to create a more inclusive and equitable environment, supporting student success both inside and outside the classroom. Join us and be part of the movement towards fostering a campus culture that values diversity, promotes inclusivity, and ensures equitable outcomes for all students.
- Register: Welcoming Language
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: August 30, 2023
- Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
- Presenters: Stephanie Gilbert and Jamey Harlow of South Piedmont Community College
- Description: The why, what, and how of HyFlex. Resources for your HyFlex classroom.
- Register: HyFlex Part 1
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: September 26, 2023
- Time: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
- Presenter: Leeann Wieland, formerly of Forsyth Tech Community College
- Description: Backwards design is a term that is currently floating around the halls of campuses everywhere. What does it really mean, and how do you do it? In this session, attendees will gain an overview of what the term really entails, what the steps are in the process, and how long they can expect to spend in the process. This session is designed as an entry point into the process.
- Register: Demystifying the Course Build Process – Part 1
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: October 5, 2023
- Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
- Presenters: Stephanie Gilbert and Jamey Harlow from South Piedmont Community College
- Description:How to design and customize your course.
How to deliver your HyFlex course.
Resources for your HyFlex classroom. - Register: HyFlex II
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: October 24, 2023
- Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
- Presenters: Piedmont Hub Co-Directors, Grant Jolliff and Kristin Redfield
- Description: Now that you know about backwards design and what it means, the next step is to start into the process yourself. In this follow up session to Part 1, attendees will look at ways to create course level outcomes from course descriptions and module level outcomes from course level outcomes.
- Register: Demystifying the Course Build Process, Part 2
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: November 9, 2023
- Time: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
- Presenter: Taylor Matthews of Forsyth Tech
- Description: Many colleges have made the decision to move towards half-term courses so that students can focus on fewer classes at a time and can complete courses even if “life happens” midway through a semester. Come hear about the successes of one college’s transition and the method that the faculty used to condense the courses so that the student load was still manageable and content-driven. This session is also beneficial for faculty wanting to streamline their full-term courses.
- Register: Minimizing Course Design
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: November 15, 2023
- Time: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
- Presenter: Dr. Tanya Scott from Achieving the Dream
- Description: Enhance your campus communication and foster a welcoming environment for all students with our transformative workshop: “Welcoming Language.” Join Dr. Tanya Scott, Associate Director of Teaching & Learning at Achieving the Dream, for an engaging and interactive session designed to empower faculty and staff to equitize their communication practices. Drawing on the principles of USC Rossier/Center for Urban Education’s six equity-minded principles, this workshop will provide practical strategies and insights to infuse welcoming language into campus-wide communications. From student handbooks to policies and websites, participants will explore hands-on activities and collaborative discussions to tailor these principles to their own institutional context.
By attending this workshop, you will gain the tools and knowledge to create a more inclusive and equitable environment, supporting student success both inside and outside the classroom. Join us and be part of the movement towards fostering a campus culture that values diversity, promotes inclusivity, and ensures equitable outcomes for all students.
- Register: Welcoming Language
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: December 5, 2023
- Time: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
- Presenters: Michael Palmer and Adriana Streifer of The University of Virginia
- Description: While there have long been critiques of A-F grading, the pandemic revealed the ways grading perpetuates inequalities. In response, instructors across higher education have experimented with alternative grading practices. These practices, which vary in their degree of “ungradedness,” emphasize formative feedback, enhance transparency, reduce students’ anxiety, and shift their focus to learning. But how do alternative grading schemes compare to each other and to traditional methods? More importantly, in what ways do they foster or limit equity? In this interactive session, we’ll introduce participants to a Grading Scheme Anatomy capable of systematically guiding instructors to more equitable grading practices. By the end, they will be able to:
recognize some of the ways traditional A-F grading schemes are inequitable
Describe the characteristics that define the range of grading practices
Begin to create more equitable grading
- Register: 15,925,248 Ways
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
Spring 2024 Professional Learning Schedule
- Date: January 10, 2024
- Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
- Presenter: Dr. Tanya Scott from Achieving the Dream
- Description:
Unlock the potential of student data to drive course improvement and promote equity in our empowering workshop: “Course Improvement Using Student Data.” Join us as we delve into the strategies and techniques for leveraging student data to create inclusive and impactful learning experiences that foster student success.
Led by Dr. Tanya Scott, Associate Director of Teaching and Learning at Achieving the Dream, this workshop will provide you with practical approaches for effectively utilizing student data to inform your instructional decisions. Discover how to collect, analyze, and interpret student data to gain valuable insights into their learning needs and progress. By identifying patterns, trends, and areas of concern, you will be empowered to make data-informed adjustments to your course content, instructional methods, and assessments.
Through interactive discussions and hands-on activities, you will develop a deeper understanding of the various data sources available, including student assessments, feedback, and performance metrics. Explore how technology tools and platforms can streamline the data collection and analysis process, enabling you to harness the power of student data more efficiently.
Designed for educators committed to continuous improvement, this workshop will equip you with the knowledge, strategies, and resources to align your teaching practices with the unique needs of your students. By attending, you will gain the confidence to optimize your courses, create engaging learning experiences, and foster equitable outcomes for all learners.
- Register: Course Improvement Using Student Data
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: January 18, 2024
- Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
- Presenter:Piedmont Hub Co-Director, Dr. Kristin Redfield
- Description: So, you have your CLOs and your MLOs. What do you do now? Part 3 of this series will cover ways to make sure that your assignments are in alignment with your outcomes. The focus will be on making sure that you create as few assignments as are necessary to assess what you need to assess while not burdening the students with what they see as “busy work.” Questions such as “How do I assess multiple skills in one assignment?” and “What kind of assessment will best help me know if they understand the material?” will be addressed, among others. This will be a working session, so bring your CLOs/MLOs and assignment ideas! Participants will be encouraged to also take the Rubrics session.
- Register: Demystifying Part 3
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: February 5, 2024
- Time: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
- Presenter: Jennifer Perkins of Central Piedmont Community College
- Description: How many of us hear groans the minute we mention the words “group project”? One of the biggest complaints from both faculty and students centers around non-participating group members. Engaging students in group work can be both a blessing and a curse. How do you use group work successfully in your classes, and how do you guide your students through it? Better yet, how do you put the responsibility for the group dynamics on your students in a way that they can successfully self-govern what goes on in the groups? Finally, how do you assimilate an evaluation of what goes on in those groups into your course grade? This session will provide the tool that one instructor has used within seated classes that has transformed group work into something to look forward to each term.
- Register: Setting the Stage In Person
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: February 27, 2024
- Time: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
- Presenter: Cocoa Dixon of Wake Tech Community College
- Description: How many of us hear groans the minute we mention the words “group project”? One of the biggest complaints from both faculty and students centers around non-participating group members. Engaging students in group work can be both a blessing and a curse. How do you use group work successfully in your classes, and how do you guide your students through it? Better yet, how do you put the responsibility for the group dynamics on your students in a way that they can successfully self-govern what goes on in the groups? Finally, how do you assimilate an evaluation of what goes on in those groups into your course grade? This session will provide the tool that one instructor has used within her classes that has transformed her classes’ group work into something she looks forward to each term.
- Register: Setting the Stage Online
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
- Date: March 5, 2024
- Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
- Presenter: Susan Adams of Achieving the Dream
- Description: Rubrics are powerful tools that promote consistent and transparent grading practices while enhancing student success and learning outcomes. In this interactive workshop, educators will delve into the world of rubrics and discover their potential to transform grading processes and support student achievement. Participants will explore various types of rubrics, understand their benefits, and learn practical strategies for creating effective rubrics that align with learning objectives. By the end of the workshop, attendees will have the skills and knowledge to integrate rubrics seamlessly into their assessment practices, ensuring fairness, clarity, and improved student success. Intended Objectives:
- Explore the benefits of using rubrics for both students and educators. Learn different types of rubrics and when to use each type.
- Discover strategies for designing and developing effective rubrics.
- Explore methods to align rubrics with learning objectives and standards.
- Discuss ways to implement rubrics in diverse educational settings.
- Identify practical tips for using rubrics to provide constructive feedback.
- Collaborate with peers to share best practices and ideas for rubric implementation.
- Develop a preliminary action plan for integrating rubrics into current grading practices.
- Register: Demystifying the Course Build Process Part 4
- Unavailable at this time? All sessions are recorded and viewing links sent to registrants.
Recommendations for Professional Learning
If you have any recommendations for professional learning opportunities, please do not hesitate to reach out to grant_jolliff@davidsondavie.edu.
Contact Grant
Grant Jolliff, PhD
English Faculty and Co-Director of the Teaching and Learning Hub, Piedmont Region
336.249.8186 ext. 6436
Briggs 231