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Spring 2023 Events

Assessment, Grading & Equity Faculty Learning Community Open Meeting

Authentic Assessments in the Age of AI

Tuesday, May 2nd 2023, 11am-1pm,

In Person Medford Campus*, Email CELT@tufts.edu to RSVP

Questions about the purpose and format of higher education have arisen as new advances in artificial intelligence have created tools that can mimic student performance on many traditional assessments, i.e. they have the ability to respond to prompts and questions, compare and contrast ideas, generate creative works, revise written or coded content, and solve certain types of problems. One reaction to this and other trends in higher education is to promote authentic assessments, those in which students demonstrate their learning in ways that are meaningful and purposeful. Battling the tide of innovation in technology is an exhaustive fight we will not win. Come and join fellow instructors in a discussion of the big questions facing our courses as AI continues to evolve and grow: How can instructors leverage AI in their assessments? What does AI mean for the role of assessments in students learning & in grading? Should students be using AI to learn?

* For those unable to make it to the medford campus, remote hybrid access via zoom is available.

decorative image brain on laptop screen

Spring Student Panels

"Perspectives on the Classroom Experience from Working with Faculty"

Friday, April 14th
1:00pm to 2:00pm
Virtual, Email CELT@tufts.edu to RSVP

Panel Description:

In this panel, student participants of the Pedagogical Partnership Program (P3) will share their experiences. P3 student partners are paired with faculty over the course of a semester to observe and provide feedback through a lens of equity and inclusion. P3 student partners will draw from their lived experiences, expertise as student partners, and pedagogical training to offer their perspectives on aspects of the learning environment might be overlooked and how small changes can make for a more equitable learning experience.

"What can Faculty do to Support our Mental Health?

Monday, February 13th
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Virtual, Email CELT@tufts.edu to RSVP

Panel Description:

Please join us for a student panel that centers the voices and experiences of Tufts students and mental health as they navigate personal, academic, social, and political challenges. In the past few years, there has been a growing awareness that college students are experiencing high levels of distress, depression, and anxiety and are increasingly seeking mental health support. Faculty are watching this play out in their classrooms in a variety of ways, and are appropriately concerned. Tufts CMHS has creatively added to their services by increasing peer support through a relatively new program called Mental Health Representatives. In this panel, three students who work in this program will share concerns they observe emerging for their peers, both in and out of the classroom. They will also share their thoughts about what students may and may not need related to social and emotional support from their faculty.

Teaching on Days After: Educating for Equity in the Wake of Injustice

Tuesday, April 4th
4:30pm to 6:00pm followed by student/alumni conversation
In person Medford Campus (food served) with live streaming option
Room location, directions or zoom link will be provided two days prior
Email celt@tufts.edu to register


Guest facilitator: Dr. Alyssa Hadley Dunn, author of the book Teaching on Days After: Educating for Equity in the Wake of Injustice (New York: Teachers College Press, 2021).

decorative image students with candles

In recent years, we have experienced many “days after;” unfortunately, racial violence, police killings, mass shootings, political violence in the United States and internationally seem endless. What should instructors do on the days after major events, tragedies, and traumas, especially when injustice is involved? A clear message from students affected by these events is “please, acknowledge the injustice and our pain, our anger, our sadness.” Dr. Dunn will engage us in dialogue about what the classroom can look like in these moments and share ways to respond that are honest, human, and compassionate. She will provide practical tools and techniques for creating a safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning environment and addressing the unique challenges and opportunities that arise in the aftermath of a crisis. 

Bio: Dr. Alyssa Hadley Dunn is the Director of Teacher Education for the Neag School of Education, and an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut. A former high school English teacher, Dr. Dunn now focuses her teaching, research, and service on urban education for social and racial justice. Dr. Dunn is the winner of the Critical Educators for Social Justice Revolutionary Mentor Award from the American Educational Research Association and a recipient of Michigan State University’s Teacher-Scholar of the Year Award.

Cosponsored by the Education Department, Tisch College GLADC / SEL-CE Initiative, and the Office of the Provost

Spring Roundtables

"The Troubles with Grade Inflation"

Tuesday, March 7th
3:30pm to 4:30pm
Virtual, Email CELT@tufts.edu to RSVP

Roundtable Description:

The purpose of this discussion is to provide faculty with a forum to discuss their recent concerns around grading - Do our graded assessments actually measure student’s knowledge and skills? How have the ways faculty and students have thought about grades changed over time? What practices, expectations or policies can an individual instructor adopt at the course level to address our concerns about grades? What structures at the university, department level or beyond can we imagine that might address our concerns about grades?

"Reclaiming Your Joy for Teaching"

Tuesday, January 17th
10:00am to 11:00am
Virtual, Email CELT@tufts.edu to RSVP

Roundtable Description:

The purpose of this discussion is to provide faculty who may have lost some energy, zest, and joy in their teaching with a space to acknowledge this within a non-judgmental and supportive community. During this conversation we will explore what has brought us joy from being educators in the past and some approaches to reinvesting in ourselves and finding some new ways to spark that light once again amidst stressful and difficult times. This conversation is not didactic and there are no easy answers, but together, we will generate some options that faculty can try to be creative in ways that might engender excitement for faculty and their learners.

Large Lecture Consortium Spring 2023 Meeting

"Specifications Grading in a Large Lecture Course"

Thursday February 9th
12-1pm
Virtual, Email CELT@tufts.edu to RSVP

Meeting Description:

Discover how one faculty member at Tufts implemented an alternative grading scheme in a large lecture course (~200 students) in Fall 2022. At the session, he will introduce the variety of assessments included in the scheme, including group assignments, a museum visit and a creative final project in place of a final exam. Explore how this impacted the faculty and TA’s grading time and student interactions, and the students' participation and performance. The second half of the session will be an open discussion with peers about our own grading practices in large lecture courses. Given the constraints of our time and resources, how can we maximize students' ability to understand their own knowledge and skills and grade equitably?