Virtual Concurrent Sessions
The Teaching Professor Virtual Conference presents the best thinking, solutions, and strategies on teaching and learning topics faced by educators 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: ⸻
Topical Area 1: Preparing Your Course
Advisory Board Session
Cheating is a Choice—Instructional Strategies Promoting Better Learning Decisions
Lolita Paff, associate professor, Penn State Berks
Most decisions are based on internal cost-benefit analyses. “Do I work an extra hour or go out with my friends?” “Do I write the term paper or buy one online?” The decision to buy a paper makes sense if the perceived marginal benefit from buying is greater than the perceived marginal cost. Put another way, a student will buy the paper/HW/assignment (or just not do it) if the marginal benefit of completing it is less than the marginal cost of time and effort.
As cheating has become more sophisticated, so has the academy’s responses, with a great deal of attention on reducing access to the “supply” side of the market. Frequently missing from the conversation are the ways teachers can (and I would assert should) influence demand. Join us as we explore: circumstances and factors associated with academic dishonesty; course characteristics designed to reduce motivation and opportunity to cheat; and instructional strategies that promote academic honesty.
Blending Competencies into Course Design—What’s in Your Recipe?
Vicki Mason, Lynette Savage, and Christopher Nelson, University of Providence
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
In an era of academic scrutiny and escalating student debt, it is critical that academic programs meet industry needs. Employers want graduates who can demonstrate workplace competencies and career readiness. Directors of our Pharmacy Tech Certificate, BSHA, MHA, and MSN programs, reached out to stakeholders and authoritative leadership in their respective disciplines to identify workplace competencies for career readiness. We started with a base of outcomes, blended in competencies, added dashes of spicy assignments and folded in individual student learning plans within the LMS. We developed this with no outside resources within our existing LMS. We believe that other schools have the opportunity to cost-effectively leverage their LMSs to accomplish the same outcomes. Join us as we share what we have cooked up and participate in recipe sharing ideas! Takeaways from our menu include “Are we designing courses from an academic perspective or with stakeholder and industry input? Do too many cooks really spoil the broth?” and “Do we need a new set of recipes in course development?” While this is a healthcare example, this recipe is applicable across academics. Bon appétit!
Designing a Course Around Career Readiness
Rachel Smydra, Oakland University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
As the primary architects of curriculum, faculty are largely responsible for creating courses that foster learning outcomes. Given the cost of higher education and the amount of debt students incur, higher education stakeholders have become more concerned about the investment and value of a college education. In reaction, university leaders have been promoting student career preparedness through career-readiness initiatives. However, for most faculty in the humanities, the idea of connecting content or activities to career readiness or helping students articulate the value of the degrees or their skills fails to align with the culture of their disciplines. Adopting a process that includes mapping course design elements to desired outcomes, along with building clear connections between knowledge and activities, can assist faculty in facilitating career readiness.
Blended Learning Design with Agile Time Boxes: An Agile Learning Environment
Sarah Khan, Yan Shen, and Jakia Salam, North Carolina State University
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
We will present our design of a large blended learning (BL) course for Information Technology (IT) education. Based on the first principles of instruction and agile project management, we organized weekly learning into three phased sprint cycles: Phase 1: 4-Day Online Learning, as the planning phase, provides multimedia materials of basic concepts and models problem solving using IT. Phase 2: 1-Day In-Class Learning, as the execution phase engaging students in solving a real-world problem facilitated by instructor guidance. Phase 3: 2-Day After-Class Learning, as the post execution phase encourages students to integrate online and in-class learning by organizing notes and solving transfer problems. BL designed with problem-centered principles and time/process management strategies can enhance learning effectiveness and motivation. It also allows easy adaptation to BL environment and transition to fully online learning.
Topical Area 2: Assessing Learning
Using Universal Design and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy to Reimagine Assessments
Meghan Owenz and Red Yuan, Penn State University, Berks
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
How can you motivate your students to read and review notes on a weekly basis? Multiple-choice quizzes are the most common assessment tool utilized to check student understanding of their learning. By nature of the structure of this assessment, some students perform poorly despite understanding of the material. Combining Universal Design for Learning with Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), we aimed to improve learning outcomes for all students by focusing on students who have been marginalized by standard assessment methods. The session begins with a discussion of applying principles of Universal Design for Learning to assessment design and providing alternatives to traditional assessment measures. Next, we will analyze the influence of test anxiety on test performance based on our research. Finally, we will present an assessment option which can be adapted for virtually any field. Results and student perceptions of the alternative assessment model will be presented.
Assessment for Learning: Formative, Fast, and Fun Interdisciplinary Strategies
Ashley Cherry and Jana Anderson, Lubbock Christian University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
We know that feedback is crucial to improve learning, yet research suggests that it is the timing of the feedback and the ability to act upon the feedback that brings about the most learning gains. However, in higher education, we often rely upon high stakes summative assessment strategies (tests, papers) as our primary feedback tools; these traditional assessment strategies provide little or no opportunity for the professor or the student to act upon misunderstandings or gaps in knowledge. This interactive session will focus on formative, fast, frugal, and fun strategies that we can use every day in our classrooms to more effectively assess understanding and foster deeper learning.
Assessment, Alignment, Authenticity: How to Make Assessment a Learning Strategy
Cindy Decker Raynak and Cheryl Farren Tkacs, Penn State University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Has the specter of academic integrity become more critical in this environment of remote instruction? Focusing on the actual learning with mixed-mode, online, or in-the-classroom assessments, you can both measure learning with integrity and provide your students with a meaningful learning activity. Your assessments can, and should, have a lasting impact on what your students learn when you start with what counts as evidence and that they have met your learning objectives. Creating assessment strategies that align with those learning objectives will, as a result, have the potential to lower the incidence of cheating attributed to student perception of unfair tests, poor study skills, or test anxiety. In this interactive presentation you’ll practice and reflect on how to do that efficiently by using tech tools and assessment strategies that collect and measure that evidence. In addition, we will discuss the concerns of academic integrity in assessment that seems to drive so much of how we evaluate students.
Formative Assessment is a Verb
Patricia Boatwright, Francis Marion University
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
Formative assessment is the single most important thing teachers can do for their students. Formative assessment should be thought of as a verb, not a noun. It should be used during class to drive instruction. Formative assessments gather critical information to elicit understanding during instruction. These high-quality interactions include questioning, classroom discussions, exit tickets, and reflective journals. Having a variety of formative assessment approaches allows teachers and professors to measure and assess and document student achievement. In this presentation, you will learn how to successfully implement a variety of powerful formative assessment strategies that also engage your students in any classroom.
Topical Area 3: Student Engagement
More Heads Are Better Than One: Collaboration in Online Courses
Laurie Bobley and Alan Sebel, Touro College
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
It can be challenging for faculty to design and facilitate collaborative activities in asynchronous online courses. Data related to student experiences in collaborative online activities will be presented. Participants will examine a current assignment normally completed individually and consider its applicability as a collaborative project in an online or blended course. Through interactive discussion participants will be able to share ideas from their own practice. Participants will: identify how and when to use collaborative assignments in place of an individual assignment in an online course; apply best practices to develop an online collaborative activity; select an assignment from a current course that can be converted to a collaborative project; and identify the technological tools that will facilitate collaboration in an online setting.
Is Anybody There? Increasing Online Instructor Presence Using Customized Announcements
Jessica Hilton, Logan University
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Perceived instructor presence leads to more student engagement and success. Inadequate instructor presence and low levels of student engagement are common criticisms of the online learning environment. Instructors typically address these concerns by using weekly written or video announcements. However, announcements are only effective if students read or view them. Applying a Community of Inquiry Framework (CoIF) as described by Pollard et al. (2014) can increase the likelihood that students will read/view announcements by providing timely information that students will perceive as relevant, are directly related to the course content, and are constructed in a way that conveys the instructor cares about student success. This ultimately leads to an increased perception of instructor presence and engagement by students, and a better online experience for all.
Invited Session
Transforming Classroom Culture
Liz Norell, associate professor, Chattanooga State Community College
No matter the format of your class (in-person, virtual, online) you’ve probably struggled with students who aren’t engaged, awkward silences, or energy-sapping class sessions. The most rewarding teaching often comes when a group of students just ‘clicks,’ when you can sense that students are as invested in the learning as you are. But how to create that? This session explains how to bring greater presence / awareness to the classroom as a teacher, and why doing so will boost the presence / engagement of your students. We’ll explore tools for cultivating presence, such as meditation and the Enneagram, engaging in some self-discovery to boost your understanding of what you bring into the classroom. Then, we’ll learn specific techniques to create a more engaging, positive, supportive classroom culture. Ultimately, by creating more heart-centered classroom cultures, we have the power to transform the culture of higher education itself–something that is, frankly, desperately needed.
Fostering Engaged Participation to Promote Relevant and Rigorous Learning
Rebecca Haslam, Rebecca Wigglesworth, Claudine Bedell, Amy Knight, and Amy Saks Pavese, Saint Michael’s College
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
This session will outline a program-wide and multi-faceted approach to engagement using multiple examples from a collaboratively designed Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program. Presenters will share their design process, including specific engagement strategies used to promote relevant and rigorous learning both in-person and remotely. Through reflecting on their practice, participating in interactive opportunities, and exploring connections to theory, participants will develop their own plan for deepening engagement at both the program and classroom level. Learn how to develop a cohort community that fosters emotional engagement; nurture faculty collaboration that is mission-driven to model behavioral engagement; and design program-wide curriculum focused on relevance, agency, inquiry, and active learning to promote cognitive engagement.
Topical Area 4: Technology Tools for Teaching
Zoom in the Active Learning Classroom: Untether the learning
Karl Carrigan and Marc Ebenfield, University of New England
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
Shifting rapidly to a remote learning environment inspired creativity that we can use well after the pandemic ends. This session will feature techniques used to enable active learning in hyflex & blendsync environments. We utilized the Zoom videoconferencing program to allow faculty members to push content to student devices, record an active learning class, while transitioning from micro lecture to active exercises to think-pair-share and more involved case studies. By signing into Zoom with a second device, iPad, or smartphone, we present content wirelessly, annotate, and record lecture portions of the class, and easily move about the space to support active learning techniques. We will demonstrate our methods, discuss the background theory and practice, and invite participants to follow our lead. These techniques can be used in the future to promote hyflex environments or for a variety of student accommodations and making single display classrooms more conducive to group work.
Extending Reality: Creating Augmented and Virtual Spaces in the Classroom
Shadow Armfield, Northern Arizona University and Dawn Armfield, Minnesota State University, Mankato
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
In this session, participants will be introduced to the broad idea of Extended Reality. Presenters will define and demonstrate extended reality spaces including augmented and virtual reality. The presenters will begin with a demonstration of how these ideas/tools can be used to support both teaching and learning in the university classroom. From here, the presentation will move into a hands-on “workshop” where the participants can experiment with these spaces and think through how they can be used to create activities where students demonstrate mastery of the content in the courses they teach. The presenters will demonstrate and encourage the use of five unique tools (mostly free) to support the participants and their students in getting started in using extended realities in their courses.
Pedagogical Video Integration to Increase Efficacy, Efficiency, and Engagement
Robb Beane, William Penn University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
The changes to teaching and learning in the age of a global pandemic have been swift and abrupt. Navigation of how to improve the efficacy and efficiency of the teaching practice is dependent upon acceptance and mastery of a number of technical skills that have been perceived as extra prior to the necessity of scheduling changes at colleges and universities all across the globe. Knowledge of how to create, share, and utilize video to raise the level of engagement with both professor and content can be accomplished with only a few applications and a deeper understanding of instructional pedagogy. Where is the time to discover and learn about these applications and their pedagogical importance? With knowledge of where to look, the programs to use, and basic knowledge of how to use them, instructional integration of video can be done with fidelity. This presentation will cover the what, why, and how of creating and using video to enhance teaching and learning. Attendees will gain knowledge on the pedagogy of video use and find out why it is beneficial, what good quality video is, and how to both create and share instructor created video.
Topical Area 5: Online Teaching and Learning
Invited Session
Using Online Tools and Learning Science to Spark Curiosity and Amplify Learning
Jane Sutterlin, learning designer, Penn State University
Curiosity is defined as having a strong desire to learn or know something. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our students had this level of curiosity about our subject matter? Curiosity can lead to increased knowledge and help students make connections among various pieces of information. So how can we create an environment where students are curious to learn more? In this session, I will provide a concise overview of best practices for teaching and learning, as framed by the field of cognitive science. Participants will take part in practical teaching strategies that can be implemented in the classroom immediately. The session will focus on the ways that online tools can be used in innovative ways to make teaching more effective and student learning more durable. Participants will leave with a collection of resources that can be implemented immediately, and will be able to integrate activities to spark curiosity in their classroom; use technologies to help students deepen understanding of content; and communicate to students learning strategies to help them take more ownership of their learning.
Advisory Board Session
Being BRIEF: How to Capture the Virtual Learners’ Attention
LaQue Thornton Perkins, assistant professor, Pamela Chandler Lee, and Shannon Jackson, Saint Leo University
The National Center for Education Statistics suggests that three quarters of all undergraduate students are “non-traditional” (Oblinger, July/August 2003, p. 37). Non-traditional students are generally identified as adult students 25 and older, who work full-time and attend college part-time (Houser, 2005; Quiggins et al., 2016). Additionally, studies show that because of personal and professional obligations—such as family, careers, and social commitments—nontraditional students spend less time interacting with their professors and peers than their traditional classmates (Lundberg, 2003; Quiggins et al., 2016). Nontraditional students not only struggle to find time to engage in activities outside of class, but they are also restricted in the amount of time that they can attend class or even pay attention while they are there. As a result, it is imperative that these students maximize the classroom (virtual) experience, by making the most of their time while they are in your presence. This presentation will provide a model that instructors can implement in order to help today’s students meet the unique challenges of our time. At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees will have a template for attracting and keeping adult students’ attention, increasing their comprehension, and motivating them to action in a blended environment.
Recipe for Engagement: Connection Strategies that Work
Hope Nordstrom and Julia Osteen, Lipscomb University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
In today’s society, connectedness and relationships are important for students’ learning experiences. Online instructors may be tempted to think it is too challenging to fully engage all of their students. How can instructors maximize the power of best practices in order to whet their students’ appetites and keep them coming back for more? In this interactive session, we will peruse the student engagement buffet and sample a collection of strategies just right for cultivating your online course. We will start with an “appetizer” of research foundations, move to an “entree” of best practices, and end with a sweet “dessert” application to our own online courses. Participants will walk away with robust “ingredients” that can be implemented immediately to help them become Master Chefs of Student Engagement.
Topical Area 6: Teaching Specific Student Populations
Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities
AJ Marsden and Nicki Nance, Beacon College
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
This session addresses issues that faculty members encounter in a classroom comprised of students with learning differences (LD). These differences may range from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to dyslexia to Autism Spectrum Disorders. Beacon College is designed exclusively for individuals with LDs, and therefore the faculty has a unique perspective in the challenges that one faces in the classroom. The four challenges discussed are attention and engagement; memory; behavioral issues; and mental and emotional disorders. After this session, participants will recognize learning disabilities and developmental deficits in otherwise capable students; differentiate between current developmental norms and individual developmental challenges that impair learning; and be familiar instructional strategies to address each of the four categories of learning challenges presented.
Teaching Engineering and Science Remotely? Successful Tools and Strategies
Ahmad Fayed, Southeastern Louisiana University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
In response to restrictions required due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid changes have been made to teaching environments. These changes left educators puzzled on how to acheive the same quality onsite education online without losing the social, experiential, and many other dimensions of the learning process. These concerns are very serious in Science, Engineering, and Technology fields. Teaching engineering, science, and technology, in this uncertain environment forced instructors to find innovative ways of delivering the content, keeping the student engaged, and providing the required lab work and hands-on activities. In this presentation, successful strategies and tools applied in engineering classes will be shared. Solutions include integration of online simulation tools, such as TinkerCAD, CS2N, PhET, LabXchange, into class materials and using instant response tools, such as iClicker REEF, to compensate for the components missed due to remote setting. Presentation will include examples and hands-on practice of some of these tools.
Widening the Admissions Door: A Teacher Education Case Study
Elodie Jones, Betsy Crawford, and Tyra Hayden, Fort Hays State University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Participants in this session will explore how this case study investigates multiple undergraduate teacher education candidates struggling to meet the needed requirements to enter an accredited undergraduate Teacher Education program. Individual case study narratives examine potential themes such as entry into a program, numerous students re-taking a standardized assessment to gain entry and challenging conversations and life decisions with their academic advisor. Beyond accreditation-based admission standards, the session will explain an alternative admissions pilot and evidence that can be utilized for meeting admissions quantifications (i.e., academic achievement, alternative assessment, increasing diverse candidate pool). Any university program with qualified admissions could consider the information shared in this presentation to re-evaluate their admission policies to be fair and equitable for all applicants.
Non-Academic Instruction and First-Year Student Success
Benjamin Blood, Northern Pennsylvania Regional College
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
First-year student success courses best serve students when they address non-academic obstacles to success and provide strategies for overcoming them in conjunction with academic skills and strategies for success. This session will discuss the manner in which the non-academic skills of metacognition, time management, self-discipline, resilience and perseverance, and help-seeking have been incorporated into a corequisite support course for English composition in an accelerated learning program model. This session will also provide suggestions for incorporating these strategies into a range of disciplines and first-year student success models.
Topical Area 7: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion
Accountability with Compassion: Advising Competencies to Increase Student Success
Shani Fleming and Karen Gordes, University of Maryland Baltimore
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Students enter educational programs with a myriad of characteristics, including cognitive diversity, sociocultural influences, and a variety of competing priorities. Therefore, a “one-size fits all” advising strategy is not a best practice for creating an inclusive and productive learning experience. This session will discuss how to utilize higher education advising models for monitoring, guiding, and enhancing student progress throughout a curriculum. Specifically, we will describe three evidence-based advising models: coaching (“GROW”), appreciative, and proactive and provide examples of how these advising strategies can effectively be used to longitudinally monitor and develop intervention approaches along the continuum of student progression. We will highlight how faculty can use these advising models to balance student professional and academic demands while simultaneously creating an environment of inclusivity for a diverse study population.
Introducing Racism and Inequities Through Small Group Fact-Sheet Assignments
Meghan Owenz, Penn State University, Berks
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Students often have difficulty openly discussing race and racism within the classroom. This session provides an overview of antiracist pedagogy and provides one course activity to increase student engagement during discussions of racism and health inequities. Inquiry-based instruction is a pedagogical strategy in which students are provided a question along with scaffolding and resources in order to generate their own conclusions. In this instructional example, students worked in small groups to review fact sheets regarding human service populations. Students were given definitions and guided questions to identify health inequities. Session participants will be provided an overview of antiracist pedagogy, inquiry-based instruction, and the specific resources used within two undergraduate classes to introduce students to antiracism and health inequities.
Maximizing Equitable Learning Opportunities in Hyflex Courses
Jeni McMillin and Kristie Lussier, Collin College
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced teaching and learning into an online environment that has proven challenging for both educators and students. These challenges, however, have compelled many to reconsider the role online learning holds in terms of improving learning opportunities for marginalized populations. Hyflex course models provide students with opportunities to engage in learning environments that allow them to overcome some of the hurdles and issues that have kept them from success in more traditional course modalities. In this session, the facilitators will present various models of hyflex learning and explore the advantages and disadvantages of the presentation mode in terms of improving equity to all students. Participants will be given an opportunity to share their insights and suggestions for increasing motivation and engagement for marginalized students.
Walk the Talk: Design (and Teach) an Equitable and Inclusive Course
Ching-Yu Huang, Virginia Commonwealth University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
How do we design and teach a course that is inclusive and equitable for all students and their learning? How do we address diversity, inclusion, and accessibility issues without feeling awkward and uncomfortable? In this session, we will explore key inclusive pedagogical practices from perspectives for course design that strive to serve the needs of our students and support their success. Topics include an inclusive classroom environment, an equitable course structure (scaffolding to support rigor and maintain high expectations for all students), additional support and accessibility for all, grading for equity, and incorporating diversity into our classroom and curriculum. Participants are expected to participate in small group discussions and will brainstorm and personalize inclusive teaching practices to redesign their classrooms.
Topical Area 8: Teaching in the Health Sciences
The Space to Make Mistakes: Student-Committed Medication Errors
Catharine Schiller, University of Northern British Columbia
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
A medication error by a student nurse often results in the student fearing its potential impact on the patient, unit staff, and the student’s educational journey. Students must navigate two parallel systems during a clinical placement–educational and healthcare–and there can be confusion about what each requires of the student. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the process by which responsibility and accountability for a medication error is allocated and the factors that influence that allocation. It described features of an ideal allocation process, and suggested reasons why the current process often does not meet those requirements. Students are colliding with a post-error environment they view as not meeting ideals of a just culture: fairness, transparency, minimization of fear, and dedication to learning. Findings can be used to drive change that will better support those involved in a post-error process and decrease inconsistencies that are often of concern.
Faculty Strategies to Support Student Success in Online and Hybrid Nursing Courses
Anne Tumbarello, Molloy College
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
This session will examine faculty strategies to support the success of nursing students in online and hybrid courses. Learning Management System tools, faculty teaching strategies, and course design considerations will include the use of announcements, course analytics, virtual office hours, feedback options, group projects, papers, surveys, and exams. A focus on identification of students who may be struggling in a course will also be included.
Just Text Me: Let’s Get REAL with Clinical Supervision
Erin Holt, Mary Huston, Robyn Walker, and Kayla Fisher, Minot State University
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Safe, efficient, and effective real-time supervisory feedback in educational settings has always been challenging. Student clinicians and educators consistently indicate specific, immediate feedback during clinical sessions is their preferred instructional method (Lorino, Delehanty, & Woods, 2016); however, it has become extremely difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. One speech and language clinic found the use of smartwatch technology an innovative way for educators to provide “bug in the ear” feedback to students in real-time with minimal disruption to the session. During this session, participants will learn how to incorporate wearable technology into their supervision, learn effective methods of giving feedback in this format, and adapting level of supervisor supports as applied to Anderson’s Continuum of Supervision.
Topical Area 9: Instructional Vitality: Ways to Keep Teaching Fresh and Invigorated
Advisory Board Session
The Best Citizenship Advice I Have Received
Ken Alford, professor, Brigham Young University
What can teachers do to help their students, peers, and leaders be successful? How can teachers more effectively fulfill their citizenship responsibilities? This presentation shares citizenship advice gleaned from outstanding professors during the past forty years. Some of their suggestions may surprise you. This session will help you recognize and understand a wide variety of citizenship behaviors; evaluate your own citizenship style; consider how you might improve your effectiveness as a contributing faculty citizen; and motivate you to improve your citizenship service.
Self-Care for Faculty: Managing Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Secondary Trauma
Tami Micsky, Slippery Rock University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Higher education faculty face a variety of unique challenges when working with students, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased stress, loss experiences, and grief reactions. To maintain wellness and instructional vitality, faculty should have an understanding of the risks of burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma, as well as methods to counter various risk factors. Participants will utilize tools to assess burnout, organizational components of burnout, personal professional satisfaction, and current coping mechanisms. The presenter will share strategies for incorporating self-care into daily practices and assist participants in creating a measurable, goal-oriented self-care plan.
Put the Hammer Down and Build Your Teaching Toolbox
Jeremy Rentz, Trine University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Professors lecture a lot, even though research says lecture is not the most effective strategy for student learning. The faithful “hammer” in your teaching toolbox, lecture is easy to wield in any teaching format and it makes you feel comfortable. But if student learning is what you truly desire for your classes, you need some new tools. You don’t have to completely abandon your trusty hammer, just put it down now and then so you can engage students in “learning moments”. Learning moments are those times in class when all students are working with course material, and you have stepped out of the way. Surprisingly painless and easily implemented, many strategies are available to construct these learning moments. Focusing on intentional questions to drive student retrieval, we will help you add a variety of powerful tools to your repertoire. During the session be prepared to participate in and create learning moments.
Topical Area 10: For New Faculty
Integrating Active Learning Strategies in the Classroom
Erin Hagar and Violet Kulo, University of Maryland, Baltimore
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
Educators increasingly recognize the value of engaging students in their learning experiences. While short, targeted lectures can be effective tools to communicate content and instructor enthusiasm, lectures as the sole instructional strategy may not result in optimal student outcomes. “Active learning,” often defined as any strategy that asks students to do things and think about what they are doing, can help increase student motivation, engagement, retention and transfer, as well as improve learning outcomes. Active learning (AL) strategies can include learner-centered activities integrated into a lecture, or more robust approaches like team-based or problem-based learning. This session will provide faculty an opportunity to experientially explore active learning strategies that can easily be incorporated into the classroom.
Meaningful Course Design to Increase Student Engagement with Course Readings
Brian Baldi, University of Massachusetts and Rebecca Petitti, Columbia University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Many teachers, particularly new teachers, grapple with engaging students deeply with assigned course readings. Some scholars have suggested that digital reading habits complicate efforts to instill deep reading habits (Miller, 2016). Teachers often report a variety of reasons why students may not engage deeply with course texts, including workload, ability or skill level, interest in material, and surface reading habits. The literature on assigning course readings, however, suggests that students will engage with readings when teachers embed intentional and scaffolded reading activities into their course design (Brown et al, 2014; Miller, 2016; Nilson, 2016). By the end of this session, participants will be able to: choose the right readings, integrate readings into their course design, frame course readings, and teach effective reading strategies. Participants will leave the session with some new resources, tools, and practices that they can try in their own classes.
“I Love this Class”: Five Fundamentals for Every Good Teacher
Anthony Sweat and Hank Smith, Brigham Young University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
Teaching is an art. Just as there are basic principles that make great art, there are also fundamental concepts any teacher can learn to create great teaching and learning. In this presentation for newer university-level teachers, we will cover five fundamentals for effective teaching, regardless of your background or discipline, including: efficient and effective course design, inviting meaningful student participation in learning, creating and maintaining good student rapport, preparing engaging and relevant lectures, and clear and fair assessments. Participants will leave empowered to create and deliver an effective course that yields more positive student evaluations in their formative university teaching years.
New College Faculty and the New College Student: Developing Faculty Skills to Match Student Needs
Neva Cramer and Joan Bowman, Schreiner University
20-Minute Mentor Session
Audience: Has some experience with this topic.
In a changing demographic affected by economics, exposure to trauma, and now a pandemic, the new college student is non-traditional in almost all aspects and requires a new set of skills that has the potential to energize the learning environment and motivate the professor. Come away prepared to form more effective relations with students which build trust and accountability, increase participation through strategies that offer unique opportunities for equity of expression and performance of understanding, and gain a better understanding of the effects of trauma and poverty and how this should inform your classroom pedagogy on a daily basis.
Topical Area 11: Faculty Support
Invited Session
Creating a Collaborative Community of Online Instructors with an Online Teaching Faculty Toolkit
Mandi Campbell, instructional designer and Myrna Gantner, associate professor, University of West Georgia
Learn how a cross-disciplinary group of online instructors both contributed to and benefitted from the Online Teaching Faculty Toolkit, an online teaching resource that served as a bridge between technology and pedagogy to help faculty as they prepared to teach online. The Online Teaching Guides within the toolkit offer instructional solutions and strategies that help instructors engage their students and deepen their learning. In addition to offering concrete, evidence-based instructional strategies, these guides link to Ed Tech Aids that provide instructions for using various tools in faculty-friendly language, a list of references, and a growing number of two-minute videos made by instructors who tested and refined the strategies in their own online classes. Social and collaborative learning theories informed our thinking about the importance of not just offering at-the-ready resources but also establishing a community of online instructors. In connecting faculty, we fostered collective efficacy and benefited from the same kind of socialized learning experiences that we strive to create for our students in the online environment. Participants in this session will critique a faculty-developed Online Teaching Faculty Toolkit that supports the design and delivery of quality online courses; recognize the value of a community of online instructors with a pedagogical focus that works collaboratively to solve common problems of instructional practice; and discuss ways to build the capacity of faculty mentors who can share their online instructional expertise with each other, including those who are new to online teaching.
Moving from Remote Emergency Teaching to Deliberate Online Course Design
Tonka Jokelova and Christina Lesyk, SUNY Canton
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
Historically, limited financial support and discussion suggest that faculty development is viewed as less of a priority than instruction, service, and scholarship, activities viewed as more directly contributing to student success and institutional reputation. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty all over the world were suddenly forced to shift to emergency remote teaching. While online learning has existed for decades, the current education environment of uncertainty and the need for rapid learning environment shifts brought to the surface an even greater need to provide systematic faculty development in online course design. In this session, we will discuss the summer 2020 launch of a new online course design institute attended by faculty from a wide variety of disciplines. The presenters will lead participants in analyzing a three-tiered faculty training (technology, pedagogy, and mentorship) and share lessons learned from both an instructional design and faculty point of view.
Transformational Coaching: Bridging the Gap in Professional Learning
Julia Osteen and Hope Nordstrom, Lipscomb University
60-Minute Session
Audience: Is new to this topic.
Traditionally, professional development for higher education faculty has consisted of a one-size-fits-all approach that is lecture-based or outside expert-led sessions. Instead, current research highlights the need for faculty development efforts that are responsive to faculty members’ needs and reflective of higher education’s ever-changing landscape. Coaching can fill this need. Establishing a higher education faculty coaching program alongside other professional learning programming can support educators’ continued learning. Transformational coaching provides a structure for this type of coaching program. This session will share how one institution implements the use of transformational coaching within faculty development efforts. Participants will walk away with a theoretical basis for such a program, a better understanding of the benefits of coaching, and ideas for implementing a coaching program.