Faculty & SWGs

What is SWG?

The Short-term Working Group (SWG) program brings faculty and students together in a joyful, non-evaluative, collaborative learning environment outside of a traditional classroom. The Center for Teaching and Learning’s SWG Team handles administrative tasks and student recruitment so faculty can do what they enjoy most — working closely with a small group of students to complete a project.  

More Information

• Planning a Proposal 
• Ideal SWG Faculty Mentor 
• Key Dates 
• Past Projects  

Planning a Proposal

Interested in putting together a SWG and want to hear more? SWG faculty showcased several projects at the All-Campus CTL Workshop on March 22.  

CTL also hosted a SWG interest session on April 11 for faculty interested in proposing projects for Fall 2024. See key dates on the SWG calendar. Use our SWG Planner (pdf) to work out your ideas and fill your Fall 2024 application when you are ready. 

If you want to be able to recruit for your SWG during the Spring 2024 semester, please submit your proposal by the Early Action Deadline (May 1). If you need extra time to plan for your SWG, we will continue to accept proposals until the Regular Decision Deadline (August 1). Regular Decision projects will recruit from Fall 2024 students.

Joining the SWG Faculty Community on Teams is a great way to stay in the loop about proposal deadlines and opportunities for faculty. 

The best SWG project is one that is beneficial for both the faculty member and students. This could include anything from a task you need to complete, a research-adjacent activity or identifying a skill you want to build in students. Interdependence is key! Once the project goal is decided it should be broken down into four manageable parts to make the goal achievable within four sessions.  

Project Examples 

• Collaborating to redesign and curate course material. 
• Creating inclusive materials for chess instructions. 
• Evaluating the use of bioconcrete to identify important scientific experiments for course-based research and NASA spaceflight experiments applications. 
• Designing and building promotional material to advertise a UT Dallas fall theatrical production.  
• Researching and creating a summer student boot camp for bioengineering majors. 
• Designing a civil rights-themed digital exhibit for the African American Museum of Dallas. 
• Assessing the role of generative artificial intelligence in music composition, analysis and description. 
• Planning events for a new University-wide Neurodiversity Week celebration. 
• Building a giant dinosaur! 

Ideal SWG Faculty Mentor

SWG Faculty Mentors care about cultivating a relationship-rich learning environment, willing to turn up the dial on their approachability and warmth. To the SWG team, an ideal SWG faculty mentor: 

• Projects warmth, friendliness and intellectual curiosity. 
• Creates an inviting, welcoming presence with written and spoken communication. 
• Models excitement and expertise about the project and the future application of its outcome. 
• Expresses a sense of interdependence with the students. 
• Shows willingness to provide guidance and feedback affirming student efforts and contributions while encouraging intellectual risk-taking. 
• Commits to attending an orientation meeting, a mentor training and a faculty debrief lunch. 
• Creates an achievable project for a SWG to complete. 
• Follows the SWG checklist to select students and a meeting space, collects photo waivers, confirm rosters, distributes T-shirts, participates in a joyful faculty community. 
• Cultivates a relationship-rich environment, taking the time to learn student names, show interest in student ideas, and be willing to write letters of recommendation for SWG finishers.  
• Wants to get a project done! 

Key Dates

Faculty SWG Calendar Fall 2024