Faculty Workshops & Seminars
Faculty Workshop: Frame and Fine-Tune Your COLL 100/150 Course
COLL 100 and COLL 150 courses introduce methods of scholarly research and lay the foundation for first-year students' communication skills. COLL 100 focuses on “Big Ideas” and gives students opportunities to communicate these ideas in media other than the academic paper (for example: oral presentations; performances; visual, quantitative, digital, or other projects). COLL 150 asks students to delve deeply into a focused topic and provides opportunities to practice their writing skills. Both courses help students make the transition to college-level academic discourse at W&M.
Offered by the Center for the Liberal Arts, along with colleagues from the Writing Resources Center and Swem Library, this workshop is designed for faculty teaching COLL 100 and COLL 150 courses. In the context of students' first-year experience, participants consider underlying principles of communication, the specific goals of 100 or 150, example assignments and syllabi, and ways to integrate the communications/writing component to support their course content. Participants will walk away with a draft syllabus and resources to support assignments. Plan for three full days with homework.
Space is limited to 15, therefore priority is given to participants who can commit to the full three days. Exceptions to this will be made on a case-by-case basis as space allows. Each participant will receive a stipend of $300 for participating in the full workshop. Lunch is provided each day.
To register, please complete form here.
Other Workshop opportunities will include topics around COLL 300 and COLL 350. We will advertise these events via email.
About Faculty Workshops
Individual and group proposals are welcome. One faculty member should be designated as the seminar leader. This person will take responsibility for working with the CLA staff on scheduling and submitting a brief final report with the CLA on the outcomes of the seminar.
We are open to a variety of seminar models. Some examples include:
- Day-long intensive discussions on new COLL course ideas.
- Short workshops or seminars where faculty who have taught COLL courses share experiences.
- Workshops where faculty who have taught non-written communication skills -- not necessarily as COLL 100 -- share their experience and expertise with interested faculty.
- Full-week seminars where faculty aim to develop course syllabi for future COLL courses.
Requests for support to purchase materials that support the work of the seminar (e.g., books or videos) will also be considered.
Please submit your 1-page proposals with budget to Sharon Morris (stmorris@wm.edu).
