GradNav presents upcoming opportunities!
GradNav presents upcoming opportunities!

Improv-ing Your Communication Skills: Using Games to Build Connection

Grad Success is offering a Winterim professional development for graduate students and postdocs, Improv-ing Your Communication Skills: Using Games to Build Research Communication SkillsRegistration is open on a first-come, first-served basis (25 spots available), and location will be provided to selected applicants.

New to improv? Learn more about the benefits of improv training and join us to:

  • Feel more confident and comfortable responding to questions
  • Practice communicating your research and the significance of your work to broad audiences
  • Use your improv theatre stills to engage and build connections
  • Meet other graduate students in a fast-paced and fun learning environment

Date: Thursday, Jan. 12 (9 a.m.-3 p.m., lunch provided) & Friday, Jan. 13th (9 a.m.-noon)

Instructors: Dr. Lisa Kelly, Associate Artistic Director of Theater Cedar Rapids and Assistant Director of Student Success & Development; Kristen Hartsgrove Mooers, Lecturer, Theater Arts; and Dr. Samuel Tanner, Associate Professor, College of Education.

Students can contact grad-success@uiowa.edu with questions or to discuss accommodations.

Individual Development Plan

Would you like support creating your Individual Development Plan? The Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a personal and flexible planning tool designed to help graduate students plan and achieve their professional goals. See the Grad Success resources or make a career exploration appointment with a Grad Success team member to learn more about this career development tool.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

CIRTL MOOCs take place on the EdX platform and use video-based modules, discussion boards, and peer-reviewed assignments to teach participants about different aspects of evidence-based STEM teaching over the course of 8 weeks. Registration is required; there is no cost to participate and no enrollment cap. For more information, visit the CIRTL MOOC website.

Advancing Learning Through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching

This MOOC provides current and future STEM faculty members with effective teaching strategies and the evidence that supports these strategies.  This course builds on “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching.” The Intro course is recommended, but not required, as a prerequisite for participating in this course. No cap.

Workshops

Workshops have live, real-time online sessions and require independent work outside of those meetings. Registration is required and is limited to CIRTL members and alumni.

Communicating to Learn: Incorporating Scientific Communication into STEM Courses

Many instructors are eager to help students develop critical skills that extend beyond the classroom or the major. This is sometimes explained as teaching students to “think like a scientist” or “think like an engineer”, but how do we actually accomplish this goal? In this workshop, we will highlight the value of “communicating to learn” and show how communication-based assessments and activities can promote critical thinking and foster deeper learning of technical content. No cap.

Decode a Troublesome Concept or Skill for Your Learners

This two-part workshop is for anyone who needs to explain a concept or skill to students in any instructional role: an instructor, a guest lecturer, as a teaching assistant or tutor holding office hours. The main deliverable of the workshop is to develop an analogy for a particular concept/skill that will make your learners say “Aha! I truly understand what you mean!” Cap: 20.

Preparing Your Teaching Demo for a Job Interview

As part of the interview process for a faculty position in the U.S., you may be asked to lead a teaching demonstration. In this interactive workshop, we’ll discuss ways to go into your teaching demo with preparedness, confidence, and adaptability. The workshop will help participants generate a) questions they will need to answer ahead of time in order to plan an effective teaching demo and b) strategies for adapting to challenging situations that might occur during a teaching demo. Cap: 50.

Events

Events have live, real-time online sessions; event series includes a handful of events that revolve around a unifying theme in STEM teaching and learning. Events run on a drop-in basis and do not require advance registration. Participants can attend as many or as few events as they like in a given series.

Be Your Own Driver: Imagining Post-PhD Career Versatility (event series)

This series supports graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at all levels to articulate and build upon professional skills acquired within and outside of academic experiences. As these sessions empower participants toward the pursuit of liberating and versatile occupation possibilities, we will also resist perceived and received norms of the employment “use” of a graduate degree. No cap.

How CIRTL has Impacted my Career: Hearing from CIRTL Alumni (event series)

Join us to hear CIRTL alumni reflect on how they came into these positions: what made them pursue this career path; its benefits, stressors, and rewards; and how CIRTL shaped their interests, skills, and community. No cap.

Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio Courses

The Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio offers a rotating roster of 1-semester-hour courses designed to fit with your schedule and to help you take your scholarship and career to the next level. They all also count towards the Public Digital Humanities Certificate. Spring 2023 offerings include: 

Careers Beyond Academia | GRAD:6540 

Jan 17 - Feb 14 | Instructors: Stephanie Blalock & Tom Keegan 

  • Prepare to search for and apply to various careers outside of academia that will make use of digital scholarship and digital skills training 
  • Discuss the opportunities and challenges of transitioning to careers adjacent to and beyond academic environments 

Promoting Your Scholarship | GRAD:6551 

Feb 21 - Mar 28 | Instructors: Alyssa Varner & Connor Hood 

  • Explore ways to effectively communicate and promote your research 
  • Practice designing eye-catching promotional assets and presentations 
  • Investigate options for creating materials to enter the job market, including portfolio websites, CVs, and résumés 

Basic Data Handling in Excel | GRAD:6515 

Apr 4 - May 2 | Instructor: Nikki White 

  • Learn to manage and examine spreadsheet data for the humanities and social sciences 
  • Explore basic data types, data record organization, summary reports, charts, and more 
  • Prior experience working with data or Microsoft Excel not required 

New CIRTL Website

CIRTL’s new website launched on December 1st! Please let us know if you notice any errors or if there is content that you can no longer find (contact us at info@cirtl.net.) We’d also recommend you double-check your local site for any unanticipated impacts. As a reminder, the previous Cross-Network event feed will no longer work on local sites. See our new How to Share CN Events page for alternative options. We will continue to add new pages as we hear common requests. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!

Postdoc Academy Courses

The Postdoc Academy courses provide a comprehensive and flexible professional development program targeting the needs of postdocs.  Their two courses will run:

  • Succeeding as a Postdoc (January 2023) Enroll Here
  • Building Skills for a Successful Career (May 2023) Enroll Here

For more information, see the Postdoc Academy website.

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