Individual Consultations

Consultations

General consultation services are available to all UConn faculty at all campuses at no charge. All services rendered in consultations are confidential and shared only with the client. ITL consultants provide supportive and formative feedback and do not provide information or evaluation for tenure, promotion or hiring decisions. Clients however may use the reports as they see fit.

Consultations can span a range of topics and formats, depending on the interests of the faculty. Some of the areas that can be addressed in consultations are:

• classroom related issues or concerns
• student evaluations
• instructional methods: active learning techniques, group work, interactive lectures, etc.
• instructional design of courses or redesign of existing courses
• resources on specific teaching topics: teaching freshmen, classroom management, civility, teaching large classes, midterm feedback on teaching
• presentation skills
• observations or videotaping and feedback
• language issues: pronunciation, accuracy and fluency for non-native speakers
• application of educational technologies to achieve learning and course objectives

Student Evaluations

Many faculty dread reading those end-of-semester student evaluations (even when they are good!), yet these scores are frequently used in making evaluations and decisions for tenure, merit and reappointment. Find out how to turn student comments into classroom action, how to improve your ratings without “selling out”, and how to analyze what those numbers really mean. Please contact Keith Barker or Catherine Ross to arrange a consultation. [Back to top]

Coaching for Presentation Skills

Coaching for presentation skills is available as a one-on-one service to provide faculty with an opportunity to work on their delivery for classroom or conference presentations. Feedback and plans for improvement will focus on both verbal and non-verbal behaviors such as the use of voice modulation, physical presence, use of space, body language, intonation and effective use of pro-social speech. To schedule a consultation, please contact Catherine Ross. [Back to top]

Classroom Observation

For those instructors who would like to be observed and given feedback, consultations can be arranged for a one-time observation or for ongoing work with feedback and successive observations. All observations involve a pre-observation and post observation meeting with the consultant. Faculty will receive a confidential written report for each observation. Please contact Keith Barker or Catherine Ross to arrange a consultation. [Back to top]

Individual Consultations for Faculty Who are Non-Native English Speakers

Consultations for language are offered on a customized basis. Clients can have their pronunciation, rhythm, stress, intonation patterns, grammatical accuracy and fluency in spoken English assessed. Issues around delivery and speaking styles can also be addressed. Faculty will be given opportunities for practice and feedback, and a plan for self-study. To arrange a consultation, contact Catherine Ross. [Back to top]

Application of Educational Technologies

Educational technologies include design, development, and management of class sites in UConn's online course management system, CPS (clickers), ePortfolio, creating video clips or audio files, scanning slides, scanning documents to PDF or an editable format, creating PowerPoint presentations, and using other software such as, but not limited to, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Adobe Acrobat, Respondus, Captivate, iMovie, Audacity, and some open source applications. Contact Janet Jordan to schedule a consultation. [Back to top]