Learning and Teaching workshops, courses and programmes

Early Career Academic Development (ECAD) Programme

The Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD) and the Wits Research Office have jointly developed a programme to support the professional learning of early career academics (ECAs).

The programme is based on the intention to nurture new and emerging academics within the Wits context and specifically aims to:

• Instil the value of holistic professional learning to enable the teacher, researcher academic citizenship and scholarly academic roles.

• Provide relevant resources and skills to mediate, negotiate and navigate the challenges experienced as early career academics within the Wits and higher education context.

• Provide access to a supportive and collegial Wits and higher education network with opportunities for collaborations, mentorships, and a community of care.

• Provide the dialogical space and platform to explore continuously changing higher education context and the changing demand made on academics and their roles.

The programme will be of particular interest to newly appointed academics at associate lecturer and lecturer levels, the academic pursuing a PhD qualification, and the academic who has a PhD qualification for 5 years or less.

The ECAD Programme plans to provide support for ECADers to complement their disciplinary knowledge and skills by further developing their teaching, research, and interpersonal skills to enable them to effectively transition into productive academics within the Wits context. Successful completion of the programme will be based on participation in:

• mandatory full day ECAD orientation

• a choice of 3 research and teaching workshops, courses or programmes selected from the CLTD Prospectus

• 4 Communities of Practice meetings

• a 4-day facilitated online writing retreat

• Mentoring

• ECAD closing reflective valedictory session

Date: Various dates throughout the 2023 academic year to be communicated to participants.

Mode/Venue: Online (Meeting link will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed)

Coordinators: Dr Robin Drennan robin.drennan@wits.ac.za

Mrs Rieta Ganas rieta.ganas@wits.ac.za

Contact: Candice Michael (011) 717 1475 Candice.Michael@wits.ac.za

Enhancing Mid – Career Academic Transitions (EMCAT)

This Carnegie funded programme is a new initiative for mid-career academic staff members transitioning into professional and or academic leadership positions. In aiming to cohere the research, teaching and academic citizenship components of the academic role, this programme is a collaboration between the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD), the Wits Research Office and the Transformation and Employment Equity Office (TEEO).

The professional opportunities will include:

• Engagements in relation to leadership in teaching, research & academic citizenship

• Creation of personally relevant transition plan supported by an academic portfolio writing retreat

• Dialogue, conversation and networking opportunities through Communities of Practice and small group mentorship sessions

Date: Various dates between February 2022 and June 2023 to be communicated to participants.

Mode/Venue: Online (Meeting link will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed)

Coordinators: Mrs Rieta Ganas rieta.ganas@wits.ac.za

Mrs Natasha Munsamy natasha.munsamy@wits.ac.za

Contact: Ms Candice Michael (011) 717 1475 Candice.Michael@wits.ac.za

Senior Career Academic Transitions

Within the ever-changing HE sector, ensuring that those entering leadership roles are fully equipped to do so is crucial. The Senior Career Academic Transitioning (SCAT) programme is designed to help participants recognise, explore, and develop their leadership style, and how they may seek to adapt their preferred style as the situation requires. Whether the goal is to effect change or maintain stability within the faculty, school or department, the programme can help you build the confidence and leadership skills you will need to become an understanding, resilient and influential leader collectively and collaboratively. This program is designed to support midcareer academics who are actively pursuing a promotion to senior career academics and those in the senior career academic track who wish to strengthen their leadership skills. Participants will benefit from a programme that includes presentations and activities as well as in-session mentoring.

Expectation:

Participants are expected to attend all of the scheduled sessions and to prepare assigned work. This program is meant to be a coherent program through which all participants actively collaborate. A major value of the program is that participants get to know one another, form a learning community, and support one another.

Second Run

Date: 5 July

19 July

2 August

16 August

6 September

20 September

Leadership profiles

Collaboration/collective wisdom and knowledge

Leading in times of change

Mode/Venue and Time:

• Sessions will comprise a combination of contact and virtual. Contact sessions will be scheduled in 2-hour blocks spread over three months at the CLTD.

• Asynchronous/Ulwazi only: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays

• MS Teams or CLTD: Wednesdays o 10:00 12:00 o 1hr themed session o 30 min reflective journaling session, and o 30 min peer mentoring session o (Meeting link will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed)

Coordinator: Ms Nazira Hoosen nazira.hoosen@wits.ac.za

Contact: Ms Candice Michael (011) 717 1475 Candice.Michael@wits.ac.za

Now@Wits

The Now@Wits Programme for new academics, involves an orientation to the Wits context and a stronger sense of self as an academic within Wits; multidisciplinary and disciplinary Community of Practice meets and mentorship through peer review. Through varied engagements, the programme aims to create the conditions for new academics to continuously reflect on their learning and teaching, research and academic citizenship practices as they work towards a probation portfolio. This could advantage both the School and Academic with the opportunity to enhance ongoing performance conversations. Through collaboration with Faculty Representatives, the programme complements professional learning opportunities offered by each

Faculty.

The Now@wits programme foregrounds the need to enhance confidence and contextual exploration while being an academic at Wits. The programme aims to work with an academic’s already established identity to provoke a stronger confidence in generating self-knowledge to enhance learning and teaching, research and academic citizenship decision making and agency.

In full acknowledgement of the current academic workload, the programme is designed to run over 6 months taking careful consideration of the contact and virtual time allocated to engage with the varied sessions. A mandatory series of workshops, and multidisciplinary and disciplinary community of practice meetings will take place over a 6-month period.

• 2 consecutive full day workshops - Introduction to HE, Wits Context. Orientation: environment, management and stakeholder units, policies. Create awareness of the power of self and collective in navigating context to meet the demands of the academic role.

• Four 2½ hour face-to-face / CoP online meetings (2 multidisciplinary focus –CLTD and 2 faculty specific)

• 2 professional learning opportunities within the Higher Education context (internal or external to Wits)

• Peer review as a form of mentoring – build capacity for academics to do peer reviews. Look back feed forward – reflective practice. Group mentoring to occur during the Semester.

• Probation Portfolio - purposeful enough to lead to the completion of the firstyear probation form and build on it for the next two years. Can be a huge value add for self- build, self- scaffolding building on the principles of Continuous Professional Learning at Wits. Threading programme experiences through the Probation portfolio.

• I am a Witsie Celebration – Collective harvesting of ‘new’ and inclusive experiences.

Date: Various dates to be communicated to participants.

Mode/Venue: In person and online (Meeting link will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed)

Coordinator: Mrs Rieta Ganas rieta.ganas@wits.ac.za

Contact: Ms Candice Michael (011) 717 1475 Candice.Michael@wits.ac.za

Academic Role

The role of a university teacher is an exceptionally demanding one that comprises and combines teaching, research, and academic citizenship. This short course explores these roles and focuses on the expectations of a university teacher in a blended learning environment. Teaching methods, practices, tools, planning, microteaching, reviews, and feedback are included.

Who should attend?

University teachers who are new to teaching, or new to blended learning, and anyone interested in learning more about teaching in higher education.

Semester 1

Mode/Venue: Virtual sessions of 2 hours will be scheduled every Wednesday from 10:00 till 12:00 over the 5 weeks on MS Teams. In addition, there will be activities and requirements on the Ulwazi course, the link to which will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed.

Semester 2

Date:

Mode/Venue: Sessions of 2 hours will be scheduled every Wednesday over 5 weeks at CLTD. In addition, there will be activities and requirements on the Ulwazi course, the link to which will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed.

Coordinators: Ms Natasha Munsamy natasha.munsamy@wits.ac.za

Contact: Ms Candice Michael (011) 717 1475 Candice.Michael@wits.ac.za

Assessment in Higher Education

There exists an urgent need in Higher Education to rethink assessment practices. This short course focuses on diversifying assessments and examining the critical role assessments play in learning. The journey begins with theoretical fundamentals and travels through diversity, equity and inclusion considerations, an exploration of tools and methods, curriculum alignment, assessment design and feedback.

Who should attend?

University teachers and anyone interested in exploring different ideas and options for assessment.

Mode/Venue: Sessions of 2 hours will be scheduled weekly on Fridays over 10 weeks at the CLTD. In addition, there will be activities and requirements on the Ulwazi course, the link to which will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed.

Mode/Venue: Virtual sessions of 2 hours will be scheduled weekly on Fridays over 10 weeks on MS Teams. In addition, there will be activities and requirements on the Ulwazi course, the link to which will be e-mailed once bookings are confirmed.

Coordinators: Ms Natasha Munsamy - natasha.munsamy@wits.ac.za

Contact: Ms Candice Michael (011) 717 1475 Candice.Michael@wits.ac.za