Campfires are meant to serve as a follow-up to our 30-minute Sparkshops. These workshops are designed to support you in turning Sparkshop ideas into manageable, meaningful, and practical elements of your teaching practice.

In higher education, students are often asked to synthesize large amounts of information under tight deadlines. Traditional text-based approaches tend to focus on memorization and linear note-taking, but research shows that students learn more when they engage in active, creative, and reflective practices. Visual mapping, such as concept maps, mind maps, and other diagrammatic techniques, offers a playful, curiosity-driven way for students to organize ideas, see connections, and interact with course material.

This workshop presents strategies for using visual mapping in a range of classroom settings. Participants will examine examples of how these techniques can support lectures, group work, discussions, and assessments. By representing information visually, students can reduce cognitive overload, spot patterns, and reflect on their understanding in a low-stakes, high-impact way.

60-minute in-person session provides an overview AND gives participants hands-on practice with activities and examples, with time to think about applying them in their own courses. 

This offering is part of our UDL Sparkshop and Campfire series'. Select the "UDL" tag below to view more upcoming CTL programs on this topic.

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