NUTSHELL NOTES "Teaching tips in a nutshell" - The University of Colorado at Denver's One-page Newsletter for Teaching Excellence

• Newsletter Nutshell Notes. This normally appears every two to three weeks but ceases publication during summer. Twenty-four of these have been produced to date, and single copies are also now mailed to a number of other universities. If you lack a complete set, back issues are available. If you have a useful practice or suggestion of your own, or a piece of literature that you deem is particularly good to present in condensed form, share it by becoming an author of an issue of Nutshell Notes. The only constraint is that your submission must fit onto one page. Send submissions to the address above.

• Individual Consultation. While I am not an advocate for published compilations of teacher evaluations on any campus, I have used the ones produced here to check the student satisfaction ratings of faculty who have made use of this office, and I am gratified when I see improvements in their ratings. The consultations based on surveys and videotapes, and the efforts made through student management teams (see below) have major positive effects. The consultation service is well worth using, and the survey takes only about 20 minutes of class time. Many faculty who don't use this service usually do not do so because the optimum time for doing a survey (between 5 and 9 weeks into the semester) passes before they remember the survey's availability. To avoid forgetting, construct your syllabus for the spring term with a date for an in-class survey. Then phone my office during your first or second week with the time, date, room, and number of students so that I can conduct the survey at the time and place you have scheduled.

• Workshops. Major workshops are free to UCD faculty and involve a national expert presenting on-campus for a full day. Toby Fulwiler of U. of Vermont, Karl Smith of U. of Minnesota, and the upcoming February 18 workshop with Irvin Hashimoto of Whitman College are examples. Reference materials and food are provided. If we have space after UCD faculty respond by a deadline, we then invite faculty from nearby campuses on an at-cost basis. In addition to the content portion of the workshop, one of the nicest aspects lies in meeting people from other departments and other universities. How to best use these?—Register early when the call goes out by flyer.

Shorter workshops from one to three hours long use both local and off-campus presenters. The UCD President's Teaching Scholars have helped construct an array of short one-hour workshops to be offered this spring term. A list of these was in the last issue (v. 2, n. 13). If you have a request or a suggestion for a particularly good workshop topic, presenter, or upcoming videoconference, phone this office and suggest it. It can probably be arranged.

• Student Management Teams. These are described in detail in the brochure, and are among the most effective and least intrusive methods of improving teaching and learning. If you elect to start a team, you should form your team after about 3 weeks into the class. This office funds students for a team, so you will need to let this office know you are forming a team as soon as you decide to do so. Send the names, addresses, and student ID numbers to this office as soon as you have organized your team.

• Maintenance of Resources. Is there a book or videotape you've not found at the Auraria Library on college teaching, or is there an advertised resource that you think we should own? Orlando Archibeque (Campus Box 101) is our campus bibliographer for faculty development. Contact him directly and he will know if the resource you desire has been ordered already, or he can start to make the arrangements to procure it.

• "Boot Camp for Profs." This is a summer, week-long teaching enhancement conference that attracts faculty from throughout North America. UCD and Teikyo faculty get a bargain registration rate for the whole conference that barely covers costs of meals and materials provided.