The first Teaching Partners meeting of the fall term is Monday, September 16, from noon to 1:30 p.m., in the University Club Gold Room. Lunch will be served. There is limited capacity so please RSVP if you plan to attend. Teaching Partners are the first to know about new resources and services available through the Teaching Center, and meet twice per term to engage in peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing. Even if you can’t attend the meeting, you can still join the Teaching Partners community. If you have any questions, contact us at teaching@pitt.edu.

The Teaching Center works with faculty to achieve excellence and innovation in teaching, learning, and scholarly activities at the University of Pittsburgh. Visit our YouTube page to learn more about what we do or browse this website to learn more about how we can help you as fall term begins.

As we begin a new school year, we are pleased to announce several new resources and services available to the University community. The Mentoring Academy was launched in April to offer faculty the opportunity to participate in a program based on the National Research Mentoring Network curriculum. Trained faculty facilitators will lead the program, which will offer workshops on eight mentoring competencies over four sessions, resulting in a credential for participants. Read about the more new resources in this week's newsletter.

Every instructor has experienced challenges with designing an engaging, rigorous assignment. Whatever your assignment challenge, we’ll help you “hack” it in our workshop on August 15. You will learn about some common assignment challenges and collaborate and receive feedback from colleagues in order to design, redesign, or improve your assignment. Visit the University Calendar to learn more and register.

In our latest installment of TC60, we look at the Open Lab @ Hillman, a joint venture between the University Library System and the Teaching Center. This is a new space where users have the opportunity to interact first-hand with immersive and emerging technologies that can enhance teaching and learning. Learn more about the Open Lab @ Hillman and the opportunities it provides in our latest edition of TC60!

The Teaching Center, along with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, will be piloting Ally in Blackboard this coming fall 2019 term. Ally provides instructors with guidance on how to correct accessibility issues with course content, which means learning materials will work better with assistive technologies for students with disabilities as well as on mobile phones and tablets. Instructors interested in piloting Ally in Blackboard this fall can visit our website to learn more.