Concurrent Sessions

The Teaching Professor Annual Conference represents the best thinking on issues related to teaching and learning today. Concurrent sessions are peer selected in several ways. Outstanding presenters from the previous conference—as evaluated by conference attendees—return for invited sessions with either an updated or reprised version of their top-scoring presentation. After an open call for proposals, the conference advisory board members choose selected sessions through a rigorous blind review process. Finally, the advisory board determines trends or topics not addressed by the selected sessions and creates content in these areas.

⸻ Look for sessions in these tracks: ⸻

Assessing Learning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion For Mid-Career Faculty
For New Faculty Outside the Classroom Preparing Your Course
Student Engagement Technology Tools for Teaching The Online Classroom

Assessing Learning

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Feedback Frameworks: Strategies for Closing the Loop to Enhance Learning

Nichole Barta, Gonzaga University
For all attendees

In this session, participants will examine how course-level feedback frameworks can facilitate data-driven discussions between students and instructors to promote learning. Central to our discussion is the concept of “closing the feedback loop”—ensuring that feedback not only informs learners but also leads to improvements and deeper learning. Drawing from recent research, we’ll address the challenges students face in providing constructive feedback and the role that structured training, peer-review rubrics, and ‘feeding up’ principles can play in overcoming these hurdles. By the end of the session, participants will have a deeper understanding of how feedback frameworks support various learning outcomes and the skills to adapt and implement these frameworks within specific course contexts.


Integrating AI Feedback Tools and Blended Grading to Develop Growth-Minded Students

Kim Chappell, Fort Hays State University
For all attendees

Developing a growth mindset and increasing student learning is achievable. This session will explore blended grading strategies and AI feedback tools for developing growth-minded students. Participants will leave the session with principles, strategies, and practical feedback strategies using AI feedback tools that can be implemented across any discipline. Key takeaways include principles for growth-focused assessments; methods for blended grading; practical feedback strategies using AI applications; and tips for building grading policies & practices.


Item Analysis: It’s more than just numbers!

Cindy Decker Raynak, Pennsylvania State University
For all attendees

Do you dread when students see their grades after a quiz or exam? Do you brace yourself for the almost inevitable contentious arguments and complaints? Does it seem like every assessment has a question or three that some students describe as unclear or unfair? Are you actually testing the content you’re teaching? During this session we will examine how item analysis can help to minimize these kinds of unpleasant interactions through mindful testing; turn exam debriefs into engagement activities for students; and gather information for instructional improvement all at the same time. And, as a bonus, you will be assessing student learning. Though we will use objective testing in this session as examples, we will also discuss how one might use item analysis strategies to evaluate and enhance other types of assessments as well.


Questioning Quest: Unleash Critical Thinking through Skillful Inquiry

Russ Farmer, Staci Saner, and Jerry Rabalais, University of Louisville School of Medicine
For all attendees

Participants in this workshop will be introduced to the innovative Questioning Aid for Rich-Realtime Discussion (QARRD) framework and tool. Designed to enhance faculty questioning skills, this methodology provides a structured approach to fostering critical thinking or clinical reasoning skills in learners across diverse educational settings. Participants in this session will be able to explain to a colleague how strategic questioning of learners can improve their critical thinking skills in multiple situations; identify at least two different questioning strategies they can implement tomorrow with their learners; and share this free tool with colleagues and improve the types of questions being ask of learners.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Advancing Equity, Active Learning, and Mastery in OER Introductory Statistics

April Crenshaw and Anita Polk-Conley, Chattanooga State
For all attendees

This presentation discusses the complete redesign of an introductory statistics course using open educational resources and Excel to increase student success. The outdated course materials were replaced with relevant examples and mastery-based assignments. Early results show improved performance, reduced costs, and increased active learning. The presentation details the redesign process, lessons learned, and strategies for leveraging technology and OER to advance equity, active learning, and mastery of statistics.


Beginning with Ourselves: The Hardest Part of Culturally Responsive Teaching

Ava Belisle-Chatterjee, Columbia College Chicago and Gloria McDaniel-Hall, National Louis University
For all attendees

Implementation of new, mandated standards or ways of incorporating culturally responsive teaching or DEI methodologies can be met with different reactions, including fear of the unknown and the uncomfortable. In this presentation, the facilitators share how they have and continue to be engaged in taking on the challenge of addressing the unknown and the uncomfortable within themselves, in their journey to incorporate the State of Illinois’ Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading (CRTL) Standards. Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s Four Pivots are offered as a framework for doing this difficult work. The presentation will end with a call for commitment to action for more such reflective work to be done as part of the efforts in higher education to make culturally responsive introspection and strategies integral components of self-discovery and reflective teaching.


Code-Switching through the Collegiate Experience: The Post-Secondary Educator’s Role in Supporting Minority Students’ Identity

LaQue Thornton Perkins, Saint Leo University and Sheretta Hopson, Lindsey Wilson College
Advisory Board Session | For all attendees

Racial Code-switching is a phenomenon that is generally associated with minority groups’ adjusting their authentic self-presentation and other behaviors in the workplace to avoid the stereotypical perceptions associated with race. By doing so, minority groups yield their cultural norms and attributes and mirror the more dominant groups’ norms/attributes to appear more professional, more educated, and more equipped for leadership roles within the workplace. Some studies have shown that racial code-switching can be influenced by scholastic experiences, participants in this session will be exposed to the origins of the phenomenon, methods that can be utilized during the collegiate experience to support minority students’ identity, and the role that post-secondary educators may fill in preparing their minority students for success in the working environment while maintaining their racial and cultural authenticity.


Communicating Inclusivity Across the Curriculum

Juliane Mora, Gonzaga University
For attendees new to the topic

Inclusivity as a set of practices and behaviors to make students feel welcome and valued in higher educational settings is on the rise, but not evenly across all disciplines. To continue this trajectory, this session offers insights and practices for communicating inclusivity across the curriculum, particularly in subjects and areas that traditionally struggle to recruit and retain diverse students. Participants will examine theoretically supported practices and how they can be applied to their respective disciplines or fields (humanities, STEM, business, education, medicine, etc.) and have time to workshop applications of these strategies to their own classrooms. Key takeaways include lessons learned from research on inclusive teaching, an understanding of how inclusivity is relevant to every discipline, and strategies to implement and share with colleagues in their campus communities.


Scientists Write Too: Utilizing Writing-to-Learn Activities to Foster Inclusivity and Belonging in STEM

Emily Jo Schwaller and Mascha Gemein, The University of Arizona
For all attendees

Why use writing to promote inclusion and belonging in the STEM classroom? How do I teach writing in my discipline? In this 60-minute session, we draw from local program data and interdisciplinary scholarship to offer an overview of a variety of Writing-to-Learn interventions that promote inclusivity and belonging in the STEM classroom. You will leave with a concrete understanding of the link between Writing-to-Learn activities and inclusion/belonging in STEM. We will share actionable resources, examples, and techniques that help counter stereotype threat, recognize linguistic bias, foster disciplinary belonging, and promote self-efficacy for students. The workshop will provide time to try out techniques, discuss implementation across different contexts and assessment plans, and create concrete next steps to implement one sample technique in your own teaching.


Trauma-informed Academic Advising: A Pathway for Fostering Inclusion

Karen Gordes and Violet Kulo, University of Maryland Baltimore
For attendees new to the topic

Experiences of trauma are widespread within our higher education student population with individuals from marginalized communities having a higher risk of repeated exposure to trauma. This session will provide an overview of the neurophysiological connection between trauma and re-traumatization on student learning, engagement, and performance. We will discuss academic advising models that support trauma-informed practices and review the application of the six principles of a trauma-informed approach to support relationally focused, culturally sensitive student advising encounters. A review of strategies will be provided on how advisors can foster meaningful connections, generate a culture of belonging, and avoid re-traumatization with their academic advising as well as how advisors can provide real-time, first line of support for students presenting with a traumatic experience.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
How Can the Three Principles of Universal Design for Learning Be Infused into Course Learning Experiences?

Chelsea Tracy-Bronson, Stockton University
For all attendees

The purpose of universally designing learning experiences is to account for learner variability within the classroom. By taking into account undergraduate student’s unique identities, strengths, learning needs, communication styles, and engagement preferences, the college classroom can be inclusive and equitable to a broader range of students. This session will provide practical application ideas and strategies for the UDL principles so that professors can address systematic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and create an inclusive college course.


How Does a White Male Professor Help Create a Sense of Belonging within Classes Comprised Predominantly of Students of Color?

Sean O’Connell, Northeastern University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

This session focuses on a white male professor trying to create a greater sense of belonging in a class focused on race and ethnicity, and comprised of predominantly students of color. Some of the strategies include acknowledging his limitations as a white man; employing a values affirmation activity; explaining intention behind feedback; focusing on culturally relevant content and using SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) strategies such as asking students for mid-semester feedback; and collaborating with students on classroom ground rules.

For Mid-Career Faculty

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
A Model for a Faculty Teaching Certificate

Dawn Lucas and Ellen Blue, Pfeiffer University
For all attendees

Teaching, beyond lecturing and grading papers, is an art that takes time, training, reflection, and guided practice to master. A faculty development program that is intentional, structured, and engaging prepares faculty for continuous growth and benefits the institution, faculty, and students they serve. The Pfeiffer University Faculty Teaching Certificate is an opportunity for professors to access resources and experiences designed to prepare them for institutional and instructional responsibilities; foster an understanding of best practices in higher education teaching; develop a philosophical framework for teaching and instruction; and foster an understanding of diversity and inclusivity of institutions of higher education.


Faculty Professional Development Activities Using Your LMS

Marisa Fordunski, Plaza College
For all attendees

This session is dedicated to the organization, offering, and tracking of professional development activities at small to medium-sized institutions of higher learning. The presentation will display how administrators can utilize their college’s/university’s Learning Management System (LMS) to achieve this goal. By the session’s end, attendees will have learned how to use Canvas course modules as a means of categorizing Magna Digital Library topics (organization); provide in-module active links that lead directly to specifically chosen Magna Digital Library videos (offering); post in-module discussion questions for faculty responses and access completion certificates (tracking); and provide direct links to field-of-study and virtual faculty-roundtable (DEI, Bloom’s Taxonomy, etc.)

For New Faculty

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Enhancing Vitality and Teaching Effectiveness through Reflective Teaching Communities

Nichole Barta, Juliane Mora, and Kristin Finch, Gonzaga University
For all attendees

Early career faculty often face numerous challenges, including navigating the complexities of a rapidly evolving pedagogical environment, acclimating to a new institutional culture, developing their professional identity, and creating a support network. These challenges can heighten the risk of burnout and disengagement. This session introduces the Reflective Teaching Community (RTC) approach, a framework designed to promote faculty vitality, enhance teaching effectiveness, and foster a sense of belonging. Participants will examine how structured dialogues, peer observations, and feedback sessions can contribute to faculty support, with a focus on prioritizing both faculty well-being and fostering a positive student learning experience. Key takeaways include lessons learned for delivering and implementing an RTC program; an understanding of how the RTC framework supports early-career faculty in enhancing teaching effectiveness and vitality; and strategies for tailoring the RTC framework to specific contexts.


Peer Observation in Higher Ed: Strategies for Enhanced Support

Sarah Grace, University of Arizona Online and Kate Bunton and Mascha Gemein, University of Arizona
For all attendees

This session addresses peer observation for faculty development, a vital component of higher ed. Participants will examine the purpose, benefits, and challenges of peer review in enhancing teaching and learning. Key takeaways: 1) Aligning methods with modern pedagogies/environments to maximize faculty growth; 2) Updating criteria and training to focus on mentoring over evaluation; and 3) Fostering collaborative culture valuing teaching excellence and student outcomes. By engaging in research discussion, exercises, and idea sharing, attendees will gain strategies for transforming peer review into a collaborative, forward-focused process. Revitalized practices can become a cornerstone of development, benefiting student achievement. Participants will leave equipped to advocate for improved practices at their institutions.


Pedagogy, Andragogy, and Heutagogy: Fostering Transformative Learning in Higher Education

Olga Hilas and Tina Caliendo, St. John’s University
For all attendees

Traditional modes of instruction in higher education are often based on pedagogical principles and practices. However, an increasing number of adult learners are returning to universities and colleges to begin or complete postsecondary degrees and/or advanced certificate programs. To address the needs of these learners and foster the development of autonomy, capacity, capability, and strategies for lifelong learning, educators should be familiar with the Transformative Continuum of Learning (TCL). TCL is a process that involves progression from pedagogy to andragogy and then to heutagogy. This session will provide participants with the knowledge to differentiate among pedagogical, andragogical, and heutagogical educational approaches; apply key principles of TCL to realistic instructional scenarios; and determine which approaches are most appropriate for your learners and courses.


Preparing Faculty to Address Teaching Challenges Using Critical Incident Videos

Carla Randall and Cynthia Randall, University of Southern Maine
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

The Critical Incident Video (CIV) Project evaluates the usefulness of CIVs for faculty development. CIVs are 1–2 minute videos that depict specific unresolved teaching challenges such as student incivility, preparedness, and attitude. CIVs allow participants to practice communication skills, deal with conflict, set boundaries, and think through possible outcomes and consequences. CIVs offer opportunities to respond to uncomfortable or problematic teaching situations through cognitive rehearsal, in the form of role-playing, in an environment designed to promote exploration and learning. Role-playing with debriefing is useful in building confidence and decreasing anxiety when encountering similar situations. Attendees will be asked to resolve the teaching challenges depicted in the CIVs through role-playing and explore ways to use CIVs in faculty development.


The New Science of Learning: Using Tech to Promote Durable and Transferable Learning

Amanda Maknyik and Tanya Wakelin, Durham College
For all attendees

This session explores interweaving technology and the science of learning to enhance durable and transferable learning. Tools such as digital interactives, immersive simulations, and generative artificial intelligence can create engaging and personalized learning experiences that promote long-term retention and application of knowledge. Participants will gain insights into the principles of memory creation, explore evidence-based strategies to promote durable learning and investigate ways to leverage technology effectively in the learning environment. Key takeaways include the importance of aligning technology with the science of learning to foster durable and transferrable learning; strategies for incorporating engaging technology tools; and practical applications to enhance teaching practices and create impactful learning experiences for college students.


“What is Your Brand?” Utilizing Branding Strategies to Foster Campus Connections and Student Success

Cynthia Steele, Alabama State University
Invited Session | For all attendees

Successful companies and organizations have recognizable brands. Similarly, colleges and universities recognize the need for continuous branding, but internal branding in higher education remains underappreciated (Mampaey et al., 2022). Internal branding serves as a valuable tool for professors to cultivate relationships linked to improved retention, wellness, and academic performance (Felten & Lambert, 2020). Educators can leverage resources to incorporate their brands into courses and teaching approaches. By developing unique professional brands aligned with campus mission and culture, professors can authentically connect with students and foster meaningful engagement.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
What Do New Faculty Need to Support Course Delivery and Role Transition?

James Lomen, Cassy Magliocchi, and Carolyn Ives, Thompson Rivers University
For all attendees

New educators in post-secondary education are often selected on their advanced skills and knowledge in their practice field, with the intention that they can impart that wisdom to a larger group of learners. Although expert clinicians have an abundance of knowledge to share, their skillset alone is often not enough to confidently make the role transition into academia. Grounded in a shared lived experience of novice nursing instructors, this presentation is intended to provide a basic ‘toolkit’ for new post-secondary instructors who are seeking tools to translate their expert knowledge into a structured and meaningful course delivery. A short meaningful set of concepts and strategies found to build the backbone of instructional support has been curated with the help of our Center of Excellence in Learning and Teaching team.

Outside the Classroom

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Living Up to Our Potential; Faculty Members are People, Too

Ken Alford, Brigham Young University
Advisory Board Session | For all attendees

Working in academia can be a truly wonderful “place to call home.” There are so many things we can each do to make “our academic home” a happier, more welcoming, more congenial, and more productive place. During this hour, we’ll share a wide variety of “Best Citizenship Practices” gleaned from great teachers, staff, and administrators from many outstanding academic institutions during the course of the past 40 years. Come join with us, and let’s have a great time together!


(Self) Coaching for College Professors

Michael Alleruzzo, Carnegie Mellon University
For all attendees

College professors face unique workplace challenges. These have been exponentially exacerbated since 2020. This session will focus on a framework for college professors to diagnose their current academic, professional, and personal challenges and analyze what they can do to navigate through and around them in healthy ways. We will also explore what coaching is, what it is not, and why seeking a credentialed professional coach might be the right option. Engagement activities will include structured reflection, participant discussion, model completion, and style assessments.


Teaching Squares: Non-Evaluative and Supportive Peer Observation

Jennifer Todd and Tonya Buchan, Colorado State University
For all attendees

Teaching Squares is a peer observation program that allows faculty, instructors, and GTAs to observe, learn from, and support each other in their quest to become better instructors. It is designed to be a non-evaluative, supportive, and growth-based process. Participants are coached in giving individualized, supportive, and constructive feedback using observation forms aligned with the Teaching Effectiveness Framework. Through the observation process, participants are encouraged to not only give feedback but also reflect on their own practice. Participants will leave with information and materials to implement this program at their own institutions.


“Teaching with ChatGPT, Getting Tenure: Nested Dolls”

Thomas Mennella, Western New England University
Invited Session | For all attendees

This nested presentation will address two different pressing issues in higher education: dealing with the explosive evolution of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and achieving meaningful scholarship at teaching intensive institutions. Results from a study that measured student use of, performance with, and perspectives on ChatGPT will be shared. However, this project will also be used as a case study for publishing peer reviewed work at an institution with little to no infrastructure to support more typical research and scholarship endeavors. Participants will leave understanding the impact that GAI usage has on student performance, with priorities for guiding student opinions and best practices with GAI, and with a roadmap for demonstrating scholarship and contributing to the discipline of pedagogy in higher education.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
How Can We Re-envision Office Hours to Increase Participation and Engagement?

Ana Paula Benaduce and Lisa Brinn, Florida International University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

The attendance of students to office hours is a point of concern for several professors. Despite being usually the only scheduled time for such interaction outside of class, students often choose not to attend office hours for various reasons, including feeling intimidated by the professor, lacking confidence in their abilities, or simply not understanding the purpose of office hours. To address this issue, we decided to rebrand office hours as happy hours. This change resulted in a significant increase in student attendance and engagement. To evaluate the students’ perspective on this name change, we conducted a focus group, which revealed that the rebranding was not the only factor. Our findings suggest that renaming and location had a significant impact on students’ participation, and they also highlighted the importance of creating an inclusive and welcoming environment.


How Can We Successfully Address Students’ Mental Health and Well-being?

Diann Moorman and Kimberly Skobba, University of Georgia
For all attendees

Given the economic, academic, and fiscal challenges, the current U.S. economy is posing to our students and their families, it is imperative that college campuses ensure the availability of mental health and well-being resources to promote student success by cultivating a culture that supports a more active, healthy, and engaged student community. A good number of these services are necessary to provide opportunities for students to stay connected, build community, and receive support from the University’s mental health team. It is estimated that 4.29 million students would have graduated from college had they not been struggling with mental distress. This session will discuss the successful student-focused well-being programs available at a southeastern research university and make suggestions for additional options.

Preparing Your Course

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Backward Design, Forward Thinking: Leveraging AI in Crafting Courses

Ian Selig and Alesia Jennings, Western Carolina University
For all attendees

Higher education is on the cusp of a transformative shift with the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into pedagogical strategies. This session underscores the profound potential of AI in revolutionizing the tried-and-true backward design process for course preparation. Attendees will gain hands-on experience using AI to streamline the formulation and refining of learning outcomes, create evidence-based evaluations, and enhance overall learning experiences. This AI-driven methodology is versatile, offering enrichment to diverse academic disciplines.


Boosting Learning, Decreasing Stress: Designing Courses with Wellness in Mind

Rob Eaton, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Invited Session | For all attendees

Even before the pandemic, mental health challenges had become rampant across college campuses. Far too often, such challenges undermine students’ ability to learn and graduate. Often unwittingly, professors can help—or hinder—the learning of students with mental health challenges. This session highlights course design choices that can unwittingly exacerbate some students’ mental health challenges. More importantly, I’ll share alternatives that reduce unnecessary stress and disappointment, while enhancing learning for all students. Each suggested practice is practical yet grounded in theoretical research. Participants will better recognize the extent to which mental health challenges affect our students—and how our course design choices sometimes compound those challenges. They will also come away with evidence-based, practical ideas for tweaking courses in ways that will decrease unnecessary stress for some students while boosting learning for everyone.


Boundless Iteration: Integrating Student Voice in Curricular Re-design

Matthew Austin and Carly Croman, University of Arizona
For all attendees

Why is student voice essential in curricular redesign at any scale? How might we meaningfully integrate student voices in our unique contexts? What does it look like when iteration is at the heart of this work? This session will explore these questions (and others that emerge) through reflection, connection, and facilitated discussion. You can expect to deeply engage with the nuances of this topic and distill your insights into action steps. Let’s gather to learn from each other and inspire further exploration of student-driven design decisions.


Becoming Expert Learners: Teaching Students How Learning Works

Michelle Blank, Goshen College
For attendees new to the topic

All faculty want their students to learn. Unfortunately, we have all been inundated with myths that result in ineffective learning strategies. Through advancements in neuroscience and research in cognitive psychology, these myths are being debunked and more effective learning strategies are being uncovered. By including some of these effective learning strategies in your course design and providing scaffolded practice for your students, they can move from novices in your field toward becoming expert learners with the tools to more fully engage your content. In this session we will explore, model, and learn together using five research-backed learning strategies that you can employ in your classroom. Each participant will leave with concrete applications and activities to start a course refresh that will lead to deeper, more lasting learning.


HyFlex Courses: The Best Practices from Development to Implementation

Dana Tribble and Aubrey Holt, Arkansas Tech University
For all attendees

Life circumstances are changing more frequently than ever before for students as well as faculty. Hyflex courses offer flexibility for everyone to engage with the course in a manner that works best for them. Best practices will include approaches to undergraduate and graduate courses developed and implemented for hyFlex delivery including designing assignments for three modalities (face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous); how to get students to engage across modalities; and how to adapt to changing needs during implementation.


Leveling Up Your Service Learning Course

Kathryn Corvey and Amy Chatham, University of Alabama at Birmingham
For all attendees

Service learning is highly valued by students but has been criticized for focusing primarily on the benefits to students, while little attention has been paid to the benefits to community partners. Through course design that fosters collaboration, incorporation of projects utilizing research modalities that allow students to practice technical skills while providing more useful products for community partners, and utilization of new technologies, it is possible to “level up” service learning to foster higher-value collaboration with community partners. By the end of this session, participants will be able to define service learning; describe recommendations for course design; describe recommendations for integrating research modalities; identify technology that may be used to facilitate service learning courses; and describe examples of courses that have utilized these approaches.


Supercharge Your Slide Deck for Student Learning

Jeremy Rentz, Trine University
For all attendees

All the world’s a stage, particularly your classroom, where slides can set the stage, provide drama, and sing backup vocals. Unfortunately, most educators do not know how to take full advantage of slides for their student audience. Further, many are unaware that their current slides could hinder student learning. Fortunately, impactful, student-focused slides can be generated or quickly modified using a few simple principles that incorporate a little brain science. For teachers who primarily handwrite notes, supercharged slides could bring even more dramatic results to your students, reducing student cognitive load associated with all the notes on the board, providing context for new ideas with pictures, and exploiting dual coding to reinforce learning.


Using Concept Mapping and Storyboards to Plan Your Courses

Rebecca Potter, Kaplan North America
For all attendees

In this session, attendees will engage in a discussion about the use of concept mapping and storyboarding when planning a course. Concept mapping helps articulate the big picture of the course. Discussion will include ways to convey the need, design, and development process. Storyboarding keeps the course development aligned and consistent. This session will discuss successful ways the presenter and audience have experienced storyboarding. Enjoy effective and efficient course planning by utilizing concept mapping and storyboarding.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
How Can Instructors Prepare Dual-enrolled Students for College Courses?

Olivia Rines and Regina Johnson, Harford Community College
For all attendees

Many colleges are experiencing explosive increases in dual-enrolled students in gateway courses. However, these students often struggle to acclimate to the college environment and face unique academic challenges. Thus, instructors have had to pivot their pedagogical approaches to meet the specific needs of this growing student population. This presentation offers strategies for helping dual-enrolled students meet college expectations and become independent learners by exploring what it means to be “college-ready,” how to clarify essential differences between high school and college, and how to prevent common challenges dual-enrolled students face. Participants will learn proactive strategies for supporting dual-enrolled students, including creating transparent course materials, standardizing instruction across course sections, and transforming the orientation process for students.


How Can We Help Students Market a Liberal Arts Degree to Future Employers?

Anne Stuart and Sandra Sego, American International College
For all attendees

The number of liberal arts majors has dropped dramatically over the past decade as students seek professional degrees they equate with high-paying jobs. Yet, many of the skills that employers seek are those traditionally taught within the liberal arts. When instructors frame their courses on the development of marketable skills, students will see the value of a liberal arts degree. Students can market themselves to potential employers by emphasizing the skills they gained in their courses. Using examples from our courses, we will guide participants through identifying the marketable skills in their courses, how to make this skill building explicit to their students through class assignments, and using various active learning methods to help students develop the skills.


How Do I Teach (Better) With ebooks?

Sarah Nichter, University of the Cumberlands
For attendees new to the topic

Ebooks are rapidly becoming more prevalent in college courses. However, faculty continue to bemoan that students don’t complete all the assigned reading for class. Yet, college students now may be reading more than generations before. The good news is that reading online is still reading; thus, familiar concepts about reading still apply. However, students aren’t ‘reading’ like we used to. They ‘search’, ‘find’, ‘skim’, and ‘dive’. Understanding the features of the ebook for your class enables you to guide your students to ‘find’ and ‘dive’ more often. Key takeaways from this session include strategies for digital reading; leveraging the features of an ebook to teach content; and supplementing the ebook when relevant.

Student Engagement

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
De-centering the Instructor: Addressing Disengagement by Sharing Power with Students

Sarah Rutherford, Cleveland State University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Is the way we teach giving students silent permission to disengage? Instructor-centered models of teaching undermine student learning because they invite students to misplace the responsibility for their own learning on the instructor. How we teach is connected to how we hold power in the classroom. If your students are disengaged, showing limited interest in homework, having trouble following directions, or are frequently absent, examining how you exert control in the classroom might open new solutions to bring students more fully into the learning environment. Through personal reflection and group activities, participants in this session will examine classroom power dynamics through the lens of critical pedagogy and discuss how evidence-based teaching strategies like active learning, ungrading, and curriculum co-creation can be implemented to engage students by sharing power.


Empowering Your Learners with Learning Science: Strategies for Success

Staci Saner, Laura Weingartner, and Russ Farmer, University of Louisville Health Sciences Center
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Learning science can optimize teaching practices and foster effective learning environments for all. This is a true learner-centered environment. In this session participants will learn how subtle and manageable changes in instruction can provide significant learner improvement; the science of learning challenges conventional student study techniques; and apply cognitive processes that underpin learning to promote deep understanding and durable memories for learners. We propose an integrated approach to teaching (in any modality) to design instruction that resonates with diverse learners. This amalgamation represents a powerful toolset for educators seeking to maximize the impact of their teaching practices and elevate the learning experience for ALL learners. This workshop will include electronic polling software and small group activities to demonstrate different strategies.


Foundations for Success: Defining Critical Teaching Behaviors for Student Learning

Lauren Barbeau, Georgia Institute of Technology
For all attendees

As teachers, student learning is our goal. While we cannot guarantee this outcome, research on teaching and learning offers insight into what we can do to support student success. Staying current on this research, however, is time-consuming and can be overwhelming. Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTBs) prepare instructors to foster student success by providing foundational knowledge of effective teaching practices and ideas for their implementation. Grounded in the fundamental assumption that teaching success is at the core of student success, session participants will use the CTB framework to reflect on their current instructional practices and pedagogical areas of interest to identify strategies they can implement to promote student learning while reinvigorating their teaching.


Growth Mindset Student Professional Mentoring: Going Beyond Academic Support

Carolyn Compton, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

This presentation highlights a faculty-student mentoring program aimed at psycho-social and professional practice support for social work students. Literature on higher ed student mentoring programs suggests positive impacts on social identity and support (Laws, Hales, Busenbark, 2020). For professional practice academic programs (like social work), which have intense curriculums, professional skill and identity development is just as important as academics. Mentoring helps these students manage stress and fortify their professional skills (Wang, Lee & Pina, 2002). This is particularly true of mentoring programs that are framed by a growth mindset approach based on Dweck’s self-theories. Such mentoring contributes to engagement and professional confidence. This presentation will showcase implementation successes, pitfalls, and outcomes and provide tips for multi-disciplinary applications.


It’s Just More Fun: Developing Group Creativity through Play and Improv

Jessica Hill, University of Arizona
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

To meet the demands of a rapidly changing world, students need to be equipped with the skills to create and innovate in team settings. Preparing students with the skills to think quickly, creatively, and collaboratively can be achieved in lots of engaging ways—but why not make it fun for all involved? This session will explore how the playful pedagogy of improv comedy along with a design studio method can help students be more confident and collaborative in creative endeavors. Come prepared to play, improvise, and create, and leave with some activities that you can use to spark group creativity in your classroom.


Keeping Your Students Engaged in Any Instructional Modality

April Millet, Penn State
For all attendees

Attendees will enjoy an active learning experience while learning how to create engaging student-centered experiences using instructional strategies in conjunction with Moore’s three types of interactions to maintain engagement throughout the course. The session will lean heavily on active participation employing instructional strategies to ask participants to share their favorite or most successful instructional strategies with other attendees. After the session, attendees will understand the importance of using all three types of interaction when creating courses; will recall examples of how interactions were used to increase engagement; and be able to apply various instructional strategies to their own courses. In addition, attendees will walk away with access to the resources that will be co-developed during the session using a number of online tools.


Lecturing: Seven Simple Strategies to Increase Student Engagement and Learning

Christine Harrington, Morgan State University
For all attendees

Lectures, when done well, can be one of the best ways to help novice learners develop the foundational knowledge needed to succeed. Attend this engaging, interactive lecture and walk away with evidence on and practical guidance related to implementing the following seven lecture strategies: activating prior knowledge, highlighting the big ideas, effectively using multi-media, elaborating through examples, offering brief opportunities for students to reflect, engaging students in retrieving practice, and facilitating critical thinking through questioning. By the end of this session, you will be able to summarize the research illustrating the benefits of lecturing and explain how to incorporate seven evidence-based, inclusive practices into a lecture.


Low-to-No Prep Student Engagement Activities

Jennifer Merrill, Skyline College
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Many educators would love for students to actively engage with course material but don’t have the extra bandwidth to create or prepare activities. The activities presented in this session require no or easily accessible materials, can be prepared ahead of time or done spur of the moment, and work well in various disciplines. The benefits and costs of dedicating class time to these activities will be discussed and time will be set aside to engage in a couple of the suggested activities.


Using Game-based Teaching to Engage Reluctant Learners

Andrew Davies, Virginia Commonwealth University
Invited Session | For all attendees

It’s challenging enough teaching eager, motivated students—but what if you’re asked to introduce your area of expertise to a room full of skeptics? How do you convince apathetic students to care about something they don’t see as relevant? In this presentation, I’ll share my solutions to this predicament and outline the principles that are making my Fundamentals of Typography course more engaging, even for the most reluctant learner. I’ll give examples of the games and gamification tactics I incorporate into my curriculum, while also sharing cautionary tales of mistakes to avoid. Drawing on my understanding of the cognitive science behind why these principles are working, I hope to inspire you to similarly experiment in your own classrooms.


Why Our Students Can’t Think Critically, and What We Can
Do About It

Louis Newman, Stanford University
For all attendees

Teaching our students to become critical thinkers has long been a central goal of higher education, but doing so has never been more challenging—or more important—than it is today.  The educational impact of the pandemic, combined with the pervasive influence of social media and the growing prevalence of disinformation, have hindered our students’ ability to analyze, evaluate and contextualize the information they encounter everyday.  As educators, we often assume incorrectly that our students will learn these skills simply by taking our courses and internalizing the modes of thinking we model for them.  These times call for renewed clarity about what critical thinking is, how to teach it effectively, and how to convey its importance to our students and to society at large.


Why So Serious? Integrating Game-based Learning in Higher Education

Kristine Pedernal, Melanie Dauncey, Aldona Nowak, and Andria Phillips, York University
For all attendees

As a professional program, Nursing faces significant challenges in balancing content requirements while creating engaging learning environments. Game-based learning (GBL) is an active learning strategy where games are used as a tool to promote engagement with course content and encourage communication and collaboration with other learners. GBL encourages creative thinking and problem-solving while motivating learners to learn difficult content in a playful environment. This presentation will share lessons learned in the development and facilitation of games-based learning strategies that were used by faculty to teach undergraduate nursing students in large and small classes and various in-person and remote settings. Plass et al.’s (2015) Integrated Design Framework for Playful Learning will inform a discussion about potential opportunities for infusing GBL into other courses.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
Does a Choice-system Model Improve Student Success?

Timothy Oblad, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
For all attendees

Understanding student success, courses should first, implement ways to minimize student shortfalls. If students were able to make choices in some of the coursework, would this improve their learning outcomes? Perhaps an opportunity to choose the coursework in which they wish to engage because of experience, interest, or intrigue would promote active learning and students would feel like a stakeholder in the classroom. I have been developing a choice model in my courses and students who participated have been very successful. These results have shown a shift in student motivation in that students are showing more intrinsic interest and engagement in class materials rather than rote motivation. This choice model and the research behind choice research and other important predictors of student success will be presented and discussed.


How Can Utilizing Peer Reviewers in Discussions Enhance Student Engagement?

Sharron Cuthbertson, Florida Gateway College
For all attendees

Discussions with peer reviewers are more focused on establishing a dialogue between the reviewer and the student. The back-and-forth exchange between them is designed to help understand the “why” of what they do in the field. Peer reviewers ask questions that provoke a deeper level of thought and make connections to the information learned throughout the course.


How Can You Design an Experiential Learning Project to Benefit Students, the Program, and the College?

Scott Smith, Tennessee Tech University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

This presentation will highlight the advent and development of a ten-plus-year experiential learning project embedded within the curriculum of a COSMA-accredited Sport Management program. The presentation will detail how this project not only provided an experiential learning environment to more than 750 students (undergraduate and graduate) during ten years but also created more than $100,000 of net revenue for a needy cause within the College where the Sport Management program is housed. Thus, this project not only met the definition and guidelines of experiential learning but also allowed the course to be designated a “service learning” course for the students.


How to Engage Students in Building a Supportive Classroom Culture?

Tiffany Sayles, Talladega College
For all attendees

As Instructors, one of our greatest areas of influence is the culture in which we instruct our students. We have the ability and responsibility to cultivate classroom cultures conducive for all students to engage and learn. This occurs through establishing class expectations while building connections. Jon Gordon stated, “It is the culture you create that is going to determine whether your players perform and execute”. When we are intentional to establish cultures conducive for all learners to learn, we effectively equip our classroom players to perform and execute the learning objectives of our respective courses.


How to Support Active Learning through Surveys and Polls?

Melissa Wells, SUNY Empire State University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Increasing student engagement and active learning for students in digital formats leads to increased student outcomes, retention, and upward mobility. In asynchronous courses, this may be challenging for instructors. By incorporating tools that increase active engagement, like surveys and polls, students have demonstrated greater enjoyment, completion, and time on task. In this presentation, we will uncover the “why” and the “how” of utilizing surveys and polls as part of formative assessment in asynchronous online coursework.


What Steps Can We Take to Holistically Engage Students with Experiential Learning?

Kristy McDonald and Brandon Everest, Northwestern Michigan College
For all attendees

This session tells a story of an institution’s broad uptake of experiential learning (EL) across campuses and curricula. The presentation will focus on efforts to create appropriate training, professional development and support of faculty and staff offering experiential learning opportunities (ELOs). The session will also offer models for professional development, including specific activities as well as institutional assessment. Attendees will receive materials to expand ELOs in their own courses and consider possible initiatives at higher levels of their institutions.

Technology Tools for Teaching

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Bringing the Unreachable Within Reach: Application of Immersive Technologies

Tarsha Rogers, Elizabeth City State University
For all attendees

Immersive technology has no doubt skyrocketed across the U.S. over the last five years. A growing number of institutions of higher education have implemented both virtual reality and Esports on their campuses to support academic programs. These spaces serve as a hub for technological innovation and open up endless opportunities for students to harness experiences beyond what has been physically impossible without adequate financial resources. Theoretical underpinnings for immersive learning experiences and implementation will be reviewed and the ways it can be used to meet course goals will be highlighted. Lessons learned from the implementation of technologies to enhance learning as well as the types of technologies, i.e. VR headsets, 360 cameras, and theoretical practices utilized to ensure a student-centered approach will be shared with attendees.


Empowering Educators: Purposefully Integrating Generative AI

Tanya Wakelin and Amanda Maknyik, Durham College
For all attendees

This session explores how Durham College’s Centre for Teaching and Learning in Oshawa, Ontario, incorporated the intentional integration of GenAI into our teaching and learning practices, aligning with essential learning objectives and job readiness skills. To support faculty in effectively utilizing GenAI, we established a comprehensive framework, explored GenAI tools, created valuable resources for faculty-student communication such as directives and customizable presentations, and provided guidance on assessment adaptation, academic integrity, ethics, and privacy. Key takeaways include providing all Durham College-developed GenAI assets under CC BY-SA 4.0.; sharing insights from an institution-wide GenAI framework implementation; and examining the advantages, challenges, opportunities, and practical applications of specific GenAI tools in the teaching and learning context.


Engaging Students in Active Learning Experiences through the Use of Technology Tools

Eleni Caldwell, Wake Forest University
Invited Session | For all attendees

Participants will engage with technology tools that have been proven to create active learning experiences for students. Faculty should leave with a basic understanding of each technology tool and ideas to integrate the tools into their discipline. Exploration of examples will generate ideas for future use. During this session, participants will dive into technology tools that can be used in remote, hybrid, or in-person settings; explore how to implement these technology tools to create active learning experiences; and collaborate on ways to integrate tech tools into their disciplines.


Harnessing AI for Dynamic Classrooms

Heidi Gregory-Mina, Northeastern University
For all attendees

Uncover AI’s transformative classroom potential. Learn how AI enhances teaching with personalization, administrative automation, and boosted engagement. Gain strategies for AI integration, creating tech-savvy environments, and optimizing outcomes. Key takeaways include Personalized Learning – AI tailors content for adaptive, individualized learning; Streamlined Efficiency – automate admin tasks, enabling impactful teaching; and Enhanced Engagement – use AI to captivate students, fuel participation, and enrich classroom dynamics.


U.S.E. AI Wisely: Empowering Ethical AI Use in Education

Ashanti Bryant Foster, Prince George’s Community College
For all attendees

In an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) permeates diverse domains, this 90-minute interactive workshop is designed to empower faculty members to guide students in the responsible use of AI. Recognizing the importance of equipping educators and students with ethical and responsible AI skills, this session will provide valuable insights and practical strategies. Participants will explore key concepts, engage in hands-on activities, and gain actionable takeaways to foster responsible AI usage in educational settings.


What’s in Your Digital Toolbox? Six Great Technology Tools

Jerri Jackson, Jan Miller, and Reenay Rogers, University of West Alabama
For all attendees

Educators everywhere are always looking for NEW and FREE engaging tools/resources to enhance both teaching and learning. Tools that allow them and their students to be creative and informative, as well as make teaching and learning fun and engaging. What’s in your Digital Toolbox? will introduce to some and demonstrate to others six excellent technological tools that can be used in face-to-face classrooms, online environments, training sessions, and by individuals to promote learning and engagement. Participants will have the opportunity to explore six emerging digital resources/tools (Simple Show CANVA. Wakelet, Piktochart, Pixton, and Stop Motion Studio); learn six benefits of the resources/tools; and be allowed to explore three of the resources during the session.
It is strongly encouraged that participants bring a laptop.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
How Can AI Elevate the Quality of Educational Presentations?

Zawan Al Bulushi, University of Arizona
For all attendees

In today’s educational landscape, college professors face numerous challenges in effectively engaging and communicating with students. Delivering impactful lectures requires visually appealing presentations with comprehensive content. Join us to explore AI-driven content generation tools and techniques, personalized learning experiences, accessibility considerations, and ethical implications in education.


How Can Faculty Use Technology Enhanced Learning to Introduce Students to Libraries?

Gregg French, University of Windsor
For all attendees

Post-secondary students have been transitioning away from physical research materials in favor of digitized sources for decades. This shift was exacerbated by the pandemic, as students began exclusively working from home. Since returning to campus, a disconcerting trend has developed, which has involved students continuing to solely depend on digitized sources to complete their research projects. Rather than taking an antiquated pedagogical approach to this issue, this session will describe how educators can harness the opportunities offered to us by technology to introduce learners to college/university libraries. More specifically, this session will detail how instructors can develop online learning modules that can be incorporated into pre-existing courses; ultimately, creating a blended learning environment that will benefit students as they begin their research projects.


How Can Faculty Use Virtual Reality as a Teaching Tool in Higher Education Classrooms?

JJ Wallace, Transylvania University
For attendees new to the topic

This session will introduce Virtual Reality (VR) as a teaching tool for higher education classrooms. Participants will learn about VR’s impact on student learning outcomes and be introduced to VR’s multidisciplinary nature and strategies for classroom implementation. Participants will also explore VR experiences they could use in their classes Lastly, participants will explore important topics that will impact their ability to implement VR use in their classrooms. Topics include accessibility, limitations, risks, and best practices. Lastly, examples of successful VR implantations at our institution will be provided.


How to Use Google Earth Story Maps In Undergraduate Courses?

Luciana Caporaletti, Penn State University
For all attendees

One of the challenges for any instructor is keeping students engaged while learning. Digital, hands-on activities are an effective way to do that. In this session, attendees will be introduced to Google Earth story maps and how they are currently used in two courses at Penn State University. They will discover how these story maps can be used in a variety of disciplines, including the sciences and humanities, and discuss how these story maps can foster inclusivity, increase global awareness, and introduce a new perspective. During the session, attendees will follow a tutorial to create their own story map that is relevant to their discipline. Attendees will be asked to share their story map with colleagues for feedback. A journal article that can be used in their course will be provided as well. For this session, a laptop with a Google account is recommended.

The Online Classroom

60-Minute Concurrent Sessions
Backward Design Your Online Discussions

Tom Cantu, Montgomery College
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Online courses sometimes seem formulaic: read the book, take the quiz, submit your assignment, oh… and post in the discussion. This interactive session will guide participants through a process of backward design to identify key components including course and curriculum goals; discipline thinking as it is represented in their course; and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes embedded in the final exam, final paper, or final project. Participants will then use that information to craft engaging discussion activities that serve as scaffolding, preparing students all semester long for the performance required on the final assessment. This approach re-creates  “the classroom experience” bringing the discussions front and center in the course to intentionally re-create a professor’s favorite teachable moments.


Lights, Camera, Engagement: Using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) to Supercharge Your Online Instruction

Alym Amlani and John Shepherd, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Discover how you can use the power of Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) to revolutionize your online teaching. OBS helps you to create captivating synchronous sessions that leave a lasting impact on your students. In this session, you’ll learn to create dynamic presentations using multimedia, overlays, and screen sharing to make your content visually engaging; boost student engagement with interactive elements like chat integration and scene transitions; elevate your teaching game using OBS, matching the engaging techniques used by streamers and meeting the expectations of tech-savvy students.


My Dog Ate My Computer! Compassion Fatigue and Online Students

Tirizia York, Galveston College
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Participants will learn strategies for coping with the pressures of burnout and compassion fatigue based on the latest research and discover ways to manage the stress as an educator, mentor, and advisor in the online teaching environment.


Teaching in the Accelerated Asynchronous Online Classroom: A Balancing Act

Desiree’ Caldwell, Gwynedd Mercy University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Active learning, which can seem difficult to include in the asynchronous online classroom, challenges students to engage in the process of investigation, discovery, and interpretation. When teaching online, instructors are typically provided with a pre-designed course and a guide, which contains the learning materials, discussion forums, assignments, and assessments. Strategies for incorporating active learning can include synchronous online meetings, choice boards, cooperative group work, case studies connected to real-world issues in their program’s field, role-play, personalized feedback, peer reviews, and problem-based learning activities. Learn how you can intentionally implement a balance of active and passive strategies that increase students’ engagement with the instructor, course content, and peers in the asynchronous online classroom. Come to learn, engage, and implement!


The Role of Online Learning at a Place-based Institution

Mark Frydenberg, Bentley University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

As institutions returned to in-person learning following the pandemic, the question remained: how do we carry forward the benefits of online learning in a university that is primarily place-based? This session will present data-driven recommendations for diversifying online modalities in undergraduate courses, balancing flexibility, and preserving the university’s identity as a place-based institution. Learn about student and faculty preferences, concerns of university stakeholders, and how to create a process and make recommendations to balance online and in-person learning that aligns with the values of your own institution.


Tools to Maximize Motivation in the Online Classroom

Franklin Schindelheim, Touro University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Preservice and in-service graduate education students’ time constraints have made the online learning environment a priority for education professionals. The face-to-face graduate classroom is rapidly giving way to the asynchronous world. In this presentation, the presenter proffers innovative ways for teaching professors to excite and motivate their online students. Participants will explore the benefits of recording video micro lectures as well as learn how to use video apps to motivate their online students to post videos that invite interaction from their peers and professor. Along with innovative ways to produce micro lectures for online professors, graduate candidates are featured in the presentation where they use the video format to present brief case studies and present the level of performance descriptions of their students.


20-Minute Mentor Sessions
Can We Reframe Online Discussions into Dynamic and Engaging Conversations?

Beth Petitjean, Saint Louis University
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

Discussion boards are crucial spaces for online learners to interact with each other, especially in asynchronous courses. Yet, students are sometimes less than interested in participating with their peers in this type of assessment. How can instructors encourage more lively online discussions? This session posits that by reframing their concept of what online discussion is, as well as their own role in the discussion, instructors can create dynamic discussion prompts that give students agency in choosing what they want to talk about and how they talk about it, as well as creating opportunities to promote inclusivity. Instructors will consider how designing prompts that require active learning, collaboration, or alternative materials allows students to bring something different to the conversation; explore themes they find relevant; and lead the conversation themselves.


What Can Be Done to Create Community in Online Courses?

Stacy Creel, The University of Southern Mississippi
Specific to in-person teaching | For all attendees

What does student engagement look like in an online course? How do we get students to connect with: each other, the course content, the faculty, and their community of practice? The challenges faced in delivering content to a global student audience can be addressed with carefully crafted content, leveraging technology tools, engaged faculty, and active student learning. Assignments are designed so that students engage with their physical community and their learning community. Screencasting, video production, and interactive game tools are some of the technology tools used to make connections along with live course activities like small group work and role-playing. Being a distance learner does not have to mean being distant.