The Summer Teaching Institute for Associates (STIA) provides graduate student instructors (Associates) with a formal pre-summer program designed to assist in planning and carrying out of summer courses. Faculty consultants from Instructional Development work with Associates to plan their courses and UCSB faculty mentor STIA Associate groups throughout the summer.

In order to attend, you must be appointed as a summer teaching Associate by an academic department.

Why Attend STIA?

• Work in a collegial environment as you prepare your summer course.
• Avoid the common pitfalls of first-time instructors.
• Discuss the design, implementation, and evaluation of your course.
• Get feedback on your syllabus and course materials from other Associates.
• Improve your teaching skills and knowledge.
• Receive a STIA Certificate of Achievement for full attendance.
• Meet two requirements of UCSB's Certificate in College and University Teaching.

What Do Former Participants Say?

After leaving UCSB and taking a position as a first year faculty member, I continue to use the tools I learned through STIA and other Instructional Development courses. Two examples of how I've incorporated some ID principles into my classes are my emphasis on student-centered learning (many small group activities) and my syllabi with explicitly stated learning outcomes. I continually return to my UCSB folders for additional teaching ideas and I am grateful to have been exposed to all this information prior to my first faculty position.
                                                            – Valerie Andrushko, Ph.D. Southern Connecticut University

Session Descriptions

Attendance at all three general STIA sessions plus the mentoring sessions is required for a STIA Certificate or the Certificate in College and University Teaching (CCUT).

Session 1: Course Design
We will discuss participant concerns and offer solutions for common problems of first-time course instructors. Participants will create and improve their syllabi, discuss ways of achieving specific types of instructional goals, and ways to determine the level of student cognitive skills. Associates who attended STIA in past years will be on hand to answer questions, suggest strategies, and offer tips.

Session 2: Planning Class Activities & Integrating Evaluation
Discussion and information will include why and how to use active learning to enhance student learning and to check student understanding. Classroom Assessment Techniques will be reviewed along with other active learning ideas, including ways of varying instruction to meet a variety of student learning needs. We will also discuss the benefits of planning the final exam at the beginning of the course, ways of building in exam prep throughout the course, creating evaluation tools that meet instructioal goals, and techniques for making grading fair for students and less time-consuming for instructors.

Session 3: Final Preparations and Forming Mentor Groups
The focus of discussion will be on any last minute concerns of Associates and will address a few "what if" scenarios. Faculty mentors will introduce themselves and talk about their experiences teaching in Summer Sessions, offer perspectives on your concerns, discuss strategies for handling the fist class session, and agree upon dates and times for four meeting during either Session A or B.

Faculty Mentors

In addition to the above three sessions, completion of STIA requires four 1-hour meetings during Summer Session.  While teaching your Summer Sessions course, you will meet with your assigned mentor and mentor group to discuss those concerns and issues that inevitably arise when teaching a course. You may also want to identify various ways of dealing with problems that might emerge as well as to talk about the instructional decisions you've made and how you might improve them in the future.

These group meetings will be led by UCSB faculty who are selected by STIA.
Day and time of sessions with be decided by the members of each mentor group.

- in July for Session A and C Associates (location TBA)

- in August for Associates teaching Summer Session B. Dates and times to be worked out within the mentoring groups. (location TBA)

For questions and concerns,
contact Dr. Kim McShane
Office of Instructional Consultation
1130A Kerr Hall
email: kim@id.ucsb.edu

Registration Deadline for 2010: tba

You may register for STIA before hiring procedures and paperwork are complete. However, an appointment as an Associate for Summer Session is necessary to attend the STIA program.