Teaching Resources
Curriculum Development and Supplemental Funding
Faculty teaching any introductory seminar may request financial or organizational support for advising and mentoring activities outside of class. Augmentation funds have been used to pay for guest speakers, field trips, class reunion dinners, teaching equipment, and other creative course enhancements.
Freshman Seminar instructors also are eligible for a Course Development Assistance (CDA) grant to hire a student to assist with course preparations such as library research, organizing and administering a film series, or building a course website. Some faculty have found an additional benefit for their graduate student assistants, who gain valuable training in research and pedagogy working with introductory seminars. We encourage faculty teaching these courses to use the grants to develop creative teaching tools and course enhancements.
Requests for CDA grants and augmentation funds should be addressed to Ellen Woods, co-Director of SIS.
Supplemental Funding 2011-12 (PDF)
Academic Technology
A specialist in academic technology is available to work with you on course enhancements ranging from web-page design to interactive on-line discussion forums to more complex instructional technology innovations. For more information about developing instructional technology tools, contact Galen Davis (4-9193, gdavis@stanford.edu).
Oral Communication
As the Oral Communication and Writing Lecturer for Introductory Seminars, Joyce Moser offers a variety of possible course enhancements to Introductory Seminar faculty and their students, including workshops in writing, oral communication, or a combination of the two. Sample topics include awareness of one’s audience; the differences between spoken and written language; organizing ideas; saying what’s necessary rather than trying to say everything; narrowing a thesis and providing evidence; learning to talk coherently about research problems; using but not overusing media; facilitating student participation in seminar discussion; and the basics of formal and informal class presentations. Joyce can also provide consultations for students, written feedback on student drafts, labs for individual or group practice, optional videotaping, and assistance at any stage of oral or written preparation.
For more information, contact Joyce Moser (723-4618, moser@stanford.edu).
The Center for Teaching and Learning
CTL is an important faculty resource on teaching. Three associate directors at CTL, one for each of the main disciplinary clusters—science and engineering, humanities, and social science—are available to assist you with every phase of teaching from course design to mid-term evaluation, videotaping, problem-solving, and more. They will meet with you one-on-one and will customize their help to your discipline and teaching situation. You can reach them at 3-1326 or http://ctl.stanford.edu/Faculty/.