CELT Notes for September 2, 2026: Savor these first few days

Note from Director Christy Vrtis

Happy first day of classes!

I love the buzz on campus right now as nearly all of our students are back. The crowd of first-year students waiting for their “belfie” this morning made me smile. I ran into several former students who are excited for their classes and for the year to begin. I could hear students saying hi to other students, promising to catch up over coffee soon, and stopping by faculty offices to say hi and chat between classes.

For me, it’s a beautiful reminder of why we do this thing called teaching in higher ed.

So today, I encourage you to savor this feeling of excitement, anticipation, belonging, and connection. It’s a new year and there is greatness in the air!

Look for CELT Fall Programming Announcements coming next week. And if you have faculty development programming you want or need this fall, please let me know!

Warmly,

Christy

1:1 Consultations | vrtich01@luther.edu | Valders 240 | 563-387-1587 

Active Learning Resources Available for Check-out in CELT

From left to right:

1. Individual 2-sided White Boards with Markers and Erasers.
2. Box of Fidgets
3. Reusable Name Tents
4. Analog Inspiration Cards for Class/Prep. (Cards to inspire human-centered learning in the age of AI)

First Fall CELT Programming Activity: Range Book Group

If you haven’t yet heard, New York Times bestselling author David Epstein will be joining us on campus to deliver the Farwell Distinguished Lecture and talk about the value of a liberal arts education on Thursday, Sept. 24.

CELT will host a pop-up book group prior to the talk to discuss Epstein’s 2019 book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. This book is the precursor to Epstein’s new book Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better. 

The Pop-Up Book Group discussion of Range will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 23 beginning at 8:00 a.m. in the CELT Conference Room, Valders 242. All who have read the book are welcome to attend the discussion, even if you did not register and request a book. 

Note from the Instructional Technologist Erin Zidlicky

A Friendly Reminder: Don’t Let Your VoiceThread Content Disappear!

https://luther.voicethread.com

We wanted to share this important reminder so you can make sure your VoiceThread account, and more importantly your content, remains available.

VoiceThread manages inactive accounts differently depending on how the account is being used:

• Never accessed: Accounts are archived one year after they are created.
• Accessed, but owns no content: Accounts are archived after two years of inactivity.
• Owns content: After two years of inactivity, the account owner will receive an email reminder asking them to log in and keep their account and content active. If they do not log in within 30 days, the account is archived.

Once an account is archived, there is only a 30-day window to reactivate it. After that, the account and its content are permanently deleted and cannot be restored.

What should you do?

If you have created or own content in VoiceThread, we recommend simply logging in periodically…especially if you haven’t used VoiceThread in a while. A quick login can help ensure that your account and content remain active.

Important: Once content has been deleted from VoiceThread, it is no longer recoverable. Full database backups are also discarded after 30 days.

Take a moment to log in to VoiceThread today and make sure your account and content are still active!

https://luther.voicethread.com

Additional Faculty Development Opportunities

Free Open Educational Resource Community of Practice

We are pleased to announce that the Iowa Open Education Action Team has opened the call for participants in our fifth annual OER Communities of Practice. 

The Iowa OER Communities of Practice (CoPs) program is a free professional development opportunity that supports instructors and instructional designers who want to connect with peers over a shared interest in open educational resources (OER). 

This year, the Communities of Practice will contain two tracks: 

• Adopting and Exploring (recommended for those new to OER)
• Creating and Open Pedagogy (recommended for those with some OER experience)

Those who complete the program will receive a certificate from Iowa OER for their participation and may be highlighted in a blog post about the program’s outcomes.

If you know any instructors or staff at your institution that might benefit from participating in this program, please share the informational page about the program and the application form. The call will remain open until September 23rd, so we will send out reminders about the program in September.

Questions about the program can be referred to Abbey Elder at aelder@iastate.edu

From Preus Library

The library now has access to a new ebook that may be of interest to faculty: 

Damico, A.M. & Yang, M.M. (Eds.). (2024).  News literacy across the undergraduate curriculum. Bloomsbury.

The ebook includes practical classroom strategies to help increase news literacy on campus by teaching students to think critically and research further.