Workshops

Each semester, WAC partners with centers, departments, and individual instructors to develop workshops on such topics as teaching with writing, assessing writing, and teaching writing in an age of AI. Here are some of our upcoming and recent events and offerings. Please contact us if you’d like to work with us on a workshop for your department.

Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring

The Center Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring (CTLM) supports instructors at all career stages in their career as practitioners of the complex, dynamic and rewarding craft of teaching. We regularly participate in the CTLM’s Ready, Set, Teach workshop, a 1-day workshop to help instructors start the semester with confidence and coordination. We share best practices for designing writing assignments and activities to enhance student learning in courses of all sizes and disciplines. We also participate in CTLM’s Course Design Institute, an annual three-day workshop aimed at enhancing the quality and effectiveness of course design. In this workshop, we cover designing and using writing as a form of active learning. 

Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning

The Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning (Delta) engages graduate students and postdocs in professional development in teaching, mentoring, outreach, and advising. Each year in the spring, WAC partners with the Delta Program to offer a course called “Using Writing to Teach in Any Discipline,” which focuses on how to design and assess writing assignments to promote students’ active learning. Course participants also explore the implications of the new AI-writing landscape and the intersection of writing and wellness for both students and instructors. We also offer workshops with the Delta Program that cover inclusive and effective teaching practices related to teaching with and assessing writing, how to design and scaffold low- and high-stakes writing assignments, and other professional development.

Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence

The Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence (MTLE) program is a two-semester teaching program that helps early-career faculty with personalized support from a cross-disciplinary community of peers and teaching and learning experts. We workshop with early-career faculty on options for using writing in their courses to help co-create knowledge with their students and help them deepen their engagement with the coursework.

Recent collaborations:

• Education Policy Studies (workshop on linguistic justice)
• Ethnic Studies Requirement Course Instructors (using low-stakes writing to enhance belonging)
• Department of Psychology
• First-Year Interest Groups (low-stakes writing to help discussions on controversial topics)
• School of Social Work (workshop on teaching writing with AI)
• School of Medicine and Public Health (workshop on writing and AI)
• Department of Medical Physics (workshop on writing and AI)
• Department of Political Science (workshop on responding to student writing)
• Department of English (workshop on linguistic justice)