2023-2024 CLTL Programming

Affordable Course Materials Panel Discussion 

• When and where: Tuesday, Jan. 30, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Murray Aikins (2nd floor of the Dining Hall)
• Description: The cost of textbooks and other course materials can present a significant barrier for college students. In what ways are Skidmore students impacted by these costs? And what can we do to lower these barriers on our campus? This panel discussion will explain the ways in which course materials costs play out on our campus, identify what our campus is already doing to address course materials costs, and explore ways we can do more together to lower barriers for Skidmore students. There will be hearty nibbles! This conversation is a collaboration between SGA, the CLTL, and the Lucy Scribner Library moderated by Tess Malloy (VP of Academic Affairs, SGA), and Beck Krefting (CLTL Director and Professor in American Studies). Panelists include: Becky Mattison (Senior Academic Materials Associate, Skid Shop), Beth Post (Director of Financial Aid), Lia Ball (Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Chemistry), Marta Brunner (College Librarian), and Sarah Sweeney (Associate Professor and Chair of Art). 

Fear Not, for AI am With You: Strategies for Teaching Writing in the AI Age 

• When and where: Friday, Feb. 2 from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in the Weller Room (Lib 212)
• Description: Writing Center director Caitlin Jorgensen will help faculty move past AI anxiety and improve their writing pedagogy in an age of AI. The wide availability of generative AI has many faculty feeling overwhelmed, and it’s natural to worry about how your students’ use of AI may negatively affect their learning. But writing literacy remains a crucial skill for critical thinking and intellectual growth, and AI is an important part of that skill set. While we can’t promise to “AI-proof” your pedagogy, this one-hour lunch session will give you concrete strategies for teaching writing in the AI age. Lunch will be provided! Please RSVP here by Monday, Jan. 29. 

Spring Book Club: New College Classroom  
Amplifying Student Engagement with AI: A pedagogical workshop designed to develop best practices for integrating AI-based classroom activities. 

• When and where: Friday, Feb. 23, 4-5:30 p.m. in the Weller Room
• Description: Seeing too many blank faces in your classroom? Need to liven up student discussions? Come to our AI workshop where facilitators will introduce various strategies for designing ethical AI-based classroom activities that foster active learning and encourage enthusiastic student participation. Led by Matt Lucas, Harder Chair of Business Administration, and Chelsea Taylor, visiting assistant professor of religious studies, participants will learn how to critically assess human inputs as well as AI outputs across multiple popular platforms and get the opportunity to workshop their own discipline-specific assignments with other Skidmore faculty and LEDS staff. Participants will also be invited to our follow-up meeting on April 19 to discuss student responses to the incorporation of these new AI-based classroom activities. There will snacks! Please RSVP to attend. 

Universal Design for Learning Consultants
This spring, the CLTL is joining forces with Student Academic Services to develop a consultancy program pairing folks on campus who have undergone training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with colleagues who wish to adopt UDL practices in their own course design and practice. Faculty who participate will have the opportunity for an individual consultation (60-90 minutes) with a fellow staff/faculty member trained in Universal Design for Learning. If you think you would benefit from this kind of tailored individual pedagogical support, please email Beck Krefting, who will connect you with a UDL consultant. We will do everything we can to accommodate requests, but there are a limited number of consultancies (first come, first served). This program is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Department of Education. 

Universal Design for Learning Consultants 
This spring, the CLTL is joining forces with Student Academic Services to develop a consultancy program pairing folks on campus who have undergone training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with colleagues who wish to adopt UDL practices in their own course design and practice. Faculty who participate will have the opportunity for an individual consultation (60-90 minutes) with a fellow staff/faculty member trained in Universal Design for Learning. If you think you would benefit from this kind of tailored individual pedagogical support, please email Beck Krefting, who will connect you with a UDL consultant. We will do everything we can to accommodate requests, but there are a limited number of consultancies (first come, first served). This program is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Department of Education.