CATE Events
April 30, 2025
CATECon
Spring CATECon is here! Join us on Wednesday, April 30th, from 9am to 1pm in CMB 2.112A for three targeted sessions aimed to jump start building your Canvas course, backward designing your course schedule, and drafting your syllabus.
February 26 & 27, 2025
Texas Teach-Up 2025 at Moody College
Texas Teach-Up (TxTU) is the signature event of the Provost Teaching Fellows program and brings instructors from all colleges and schools together to celebrate and reflect upon their teaching practices. During the event, instructors are invited into the classrooms of their peers for a non-evaluative, reflective class observation. These take place during real-time, in the regular course location, and are designed to be a snapshot of a typical day in the course—not a showcase or master class. Afterwards the observers, instructor, and a facilitating “docent” gather in one of several nearby “coffee shop” locations on campus to discuss what they saw and reflect on how it intersects, aligns with, or differs from their own teaching and classrooms. Instructors can observe one course, two courses, or five, and are encouraged to check out a course outside of their discipline. The CATE team will be on the scene observing and participating in discussion of Moody College courses! For more information about Texas Teach-Up 2025, visit UT Austin's Center for Teaching and Learning.
Though this event has now concluded, you can check out insights gathered by CATE here!
February 11, 2025
Hook 'Em on PBL Faculty Showcase
Project-based learning (PBL) is an approach to teaching and learning that employs authentic, student-led, semester-long projects. After attending training, developing their own PBL courses, and teaching those courses during the 2024-2025 academic year, the first cohort of CATE's Hook 'Em on PBL Practicum will present their experiences in an expo style format! Individual Moody Faculty members will present at different times throughout the event. Between presentations, attendees will have open time to visit the presenters' booths and chat, ask questions, and enjoy snacks. February 11, 2025 at 12-2pm in CMA 5.136 (LBJ).
Event Agenda
12:00 – Welcome
12:10 – Katie Bradford, CMS
12:30 – Korey Pereira, RTF
1:00 – Sean Upshaw, ADV
1:20 – Ashwin Rajadesingan, CMS
1:40 – Natalie Czimskey, SLHS
For more information about this event or PBL as a pedagogical method, please email the Coordinator for Teaching Excellence, Shelly Furness: rachelle.furness@austin.utexas.edu
January 10, 2025
New Faculty Training
The Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence (CATE) is here to support new faculty members in their new role in Moody College of Communication. This training session is an opportunity to meet incoming Moody College colleagues and prepare for a strong start to the Spring 2025 semester. Training will take place on January 10th, 2025 from 9am to 3pm in DMC 2.508 (Jones Conference Room). Training will cover important topics, including: Moody College Teaching Culture of Excellence, policy, syllabus development, student engagement, and important Moody College resources. Water bottles and light refreshments will be provided.
January 9, 2025
New Teaching Assistant Training
The Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence (CATE) is here to support new graduate student Teaching Assistants (TAs) in their new role in Moody College of Communication. This training session is an opportunity to meet incoming Moody College colleagues and prepare for the TA role in preparation for a strong start to the Spring 2025 semester. New TAs will receive training on January 9th, 2025 from 9am to 1pm in DMC 4.212. Training will cover important topics, including: duties and responsibilities, professional conduct, assisting with Canvas and digital access, peer-facilitated learning approaches, scoring and feedback, and establishing credibility with students. Water bottles and lunch will be provided.
January 8, 2025
CATECon
Treat yourself to a collegial spring course planning experience at CATECon- Wednesday, January 8th, from 9am to 1pm in DMC 2.508! Three targeted mini sessions provide the most up-to-date instructional design support to draft your syllabus, set up your Canvas course, and plan for effective use of technology. Refreshments will be served, and door prizes will be awarded.
December 3-9, 2024
PBL Final Project Observation Opportunities
As part of the first Hook ‘Em on PBL Faculty Practicum, Moody College faculty members are providing opportunities to observe their students' final projects:
December 3rd at 3:30pm: Sean Upshaw's Issues in Black American Advertising and Public Relations
December 3rd and 5th at 11am, 12pm, or 1pm: Natalie Czimskey's Beautiful Brains
December 4th and 6th at 12pm: Katie Bradford's Conflict Resolution
December 5th at 9:30am: Ashwin Rajadesignan's Social Media Analysis
December 9th at 3:30pm: Korey Pereira's Sound Design
Moody College faculty can observe the presentations for PBL teaching practice conversation. Please email Shelly Furness directly to save your spot! rachelle.furness@austin.utexas.edu
August 26 - November 7, 2024
PBL Observation Opportunities
As part of the first Hook ‘Em on PBL Faculty Practicum, Moody College faculty members are providing opportunities to observe different phases of their classes:
August 26th, 12pm-1pm: Entry Event for Natalie Czimskey's Beautiful Brains
September 4th, 12pm-1:50pm: Project Launch of Katie Bradford’s Conflict Resolution
September 4th, 1pm - 3pm: Project Launch of Korey Pereira's Sound Design
October 1st, 9:30am-11am: Collaborative learning to support benchmarks for Ashwin Rajadesignan's Social Media Analysis course
November 7th, 3:30pm-5:00pm: Strategic Planning for final learning products in Sean Upshaw's Issues in Black American Advertising and Public Relations
Up to three Moody College faculty member spots can be reserved for the observation and PBL teaching practice conversation. Please email Shelly Furness directly to save your spot! rachelle.furness@austin.utexas.edu
August 22, 2024
New Faculty Training
The Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence (CATE) is here to support new faculty members in their new role in Moody College of Communication. This training session is an opportunity to meet incoming Moody College colleagues and prepare for a strong start to the Fall 2024 semester. Training will take place on August 22nd, 2024 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in DMC 2.508 (Jones Conference Room). Training will cover important topics, including: Moody College Teaching Culture of Excellence, policy, syllabus development, student engagement, and important Moody College resources. Water bottles and light refreshments will be provided.
August 21 & 23, 2024
CATECon
Attend CATECon for fall course planning support! CATECon sessions will update you on new policy, best instructional design practice, and educational technology options. Each session offers a demonstration and workshop time. Refreshments will be served. Door prizes will be awarded to those present. Sessions will be held in DMC 2.508 (Jones Conference Room)
9:00 am – Syllabus Development: Start with the end in mind! Craft your course learning outcomes to align with activities and assessments. Chunk learning in the academic schedule. Participate in a Simple Syllabus demonstration.
10:00 am – Canvas: Boost your Canvas presence to exceed minimum expectations. Demonstrations will be conducted live in Canvas as you actively build components in your course.
11:00 am - Educational Technology: Participate in a demonstration of the Ally tool in Canvas to address digital accessibility issues. Find out where to get help with remediation of course materials. Experiment with MS Copilot as a licensed AI tool for faculty and students. We will demonstrate foundational prompt engineering and touch on how to start the conversation around AI in your syllabus.
August 19-20, 2024
New Teaching Assistant Training
The Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence (CATE) is here to support new graduate student Teaching Assistants (TAs) in their new role in Moody College of Communication. This training session is an opportunity to meet incoming Moody College colleagues and prepare for the TA role in preparation for a strong start to the Fall 2024 semester. New TAs in The Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations will receive training on August 20th from 9am to 12pm in The Lab (4th floor of DMC), and new TAs in all other Moody College departments will receive training on August 19th from 9am to 1pm in DMC 5.208. Training will cover important topics, including: duties and responsibilities, professional conduct, assisting with Canvas and digital access, peer-facilitated learning approaches, scoring and feedback, and establishing credibility with students. Water bottles and lunch will be provided.
July 9-11 2024
Summer Design Series
The CATE Summer Design Series targets timely topics to upskill your pedagogy just in time for considering updates to your fall course design. All sessions are held virtually via Microsoft Teams from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.
Tuesday, July 9 - Designing for AI and Human Collaboration with MS Copilot: Participants build prompt engineering skills to use MS Copilot for an array of instructional design tasks. You can tighten syllabus language and create effective rubrics in minutes.
Wednesday, July 10 - Designing for Authenticity with IRIS: Participants will use an IRIS (issue, relevance, interdisciplinary, sustained inquiry) approach to create authentic learning experiences. Through engagement in modeled classroom protocols, participants identify an authentic issue in the field that students can research and attempt to solve using the ‘tools of the trade.’
Thursday, July 11 - Designing Assessment as Learning for Student Growth: Participants will take away strategies for low-stakes feedback loops that encourage a culture of ‘failing forward,’ productive struggle paired with ‘ungrading’ approaches to support a growth mindset, and backward planning to chunk manageable feedback cycles with opportunities to improve.