CITRAL serves as the umbrella for teaching research and innovations at UC Santa Barbara.

 

Ecoach is a platform that provides personalized coaching for students in large courses to support effective learning and foster self-confidence and self-efficacy. Since 2017, ECoach has been used by thousands of UCSB students in STEM and social sciences courses.

ecoach

DETAiL

UCSB Data-Enhanced Teaching and Learning (DETAiL) seeks to provide faculty with actionable data and resources to help them implement asset-based teaching. The goal of the platform is to facilitate teaching practices to improve equity in courses, especially large courses.

DETAiL provides a solution to two challenges faculty face, especially when teaching large courses: knowing about students and their learning experiences, and tailoring teaching based on that knowledge. DETAiL solves the problem by integrating data and research-based teaching strategies. Specifically, DETAiL is a data dashboard that provides faculty with aggregated demographic and course-related information (drawn from institutional data), and asset-based pedagogical strategies that have been shown to improve learning. These strategies are tagged to specific features of the demographic characteristics and/or course-related information, so that the faculty members are receiving targeted, “just in time” strategies specific to their students.

Access to Practice (AtP) provides expert support and technological assistance for faculty to implement structured peer-reviewed writing assignments sometimes known as “writing to learn” assignments.  Instructors use the EliReview platform to implement the writing activities in their class. Outside of the UCSB community, contact Linda Adler-Kassner or Maggie Safronova for more on AtP. If you have a UCSB Net ID, you can find information and resources as part of CITRAL's GauchoSpace site.

 

Engaging Humanities is an integrative program that engages faculty and students in innovative humanities study. Engaging Humanities launched in the spring of 2019 with a pedagogy seminar for faculty and graduate students, and the first courses associated with the initiative were offered in the summer. Further courses, mentoring, and instructor development opportunities will be offered throughout the upcoming academic year. The program aims to increase student engagement, persistence, and success in humanities disciplines, with special attention to our economically and ethnically diverse student body. The program enhances the pedagogical practices of instructors and develops innovative curricular models that convey the connection between humanistic study, real-world issues, and a variety of rewarding career pathways. CITRAL will welcome the first cohort of Engaging Humanities undergraduate students with a reception on September 25th. Engaging Humanities fosters innovative teaching and engaged learning in Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA) disciplines through pedagogical education, learning communities, graduate mentoring, electronic portfolios, and innovative programming. EH is sponsored by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Engaging Humanities

Sloan Equity and Inclusion in Intro STEM Courses (SEISMIC) is a collaboration between 10 institutions across the United States.  The purpose of the project is to identify and work on issues associated with equitable teaching and learning in STEM disciplines. CITRAL serves as the convening site for UCSB's participation in the Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses project, or SEISMIC. Together, members of the collaborative will identify and work on issues associated with equitable teaching and learning in STEM disciplines. As part of the collaboration, members of UCSB community will work with scholars from other member institutions to test the role of various innovations in helping students develop higher levels of self-efficacy, effective study habits, and senses of belonging in a university setting. If you have a questions about SEISMIC at UCSB please contact Maggie Safronova.

SEISMIC