Concurrent Sessions
Concurrent sessions are one-hour sessions held simultaneously throughout the conference, giving you the flexibility to choose what best fits your interests. Organized by focused tracks, these sessions offer practical, relevant strategies you can put into practice right away.
Backward curriculum design empowers instructors to move beyond textbook-driven teaching and instead create student-centered learning experiences enriched with emerging technologies, including diverse applications of artificial intelligence. By focusing first on desired outcomes, courses may be designed that foster higher engagement, greater preparedness, and more meaningful participation. This session introduces attendees to the foundational elements of developing clear, measurable course learning objectives and aligning them with program-level outcomes that meet university requirements while elevating student involvement. Effective course design also relies on knowledge and practical experience, an understanding of workplace applications, and a working knowledge of AI tools that can enhance instructional strategies. Equipped with these competencies, teaching professors can craft learning environments that blend strong disciplinary practice with innovative technological integration, resulting in dynamic, student-centric educational experiences.
David Rollins
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Design smarter, more aligned courses with the power of course mapping. This session will guide participants through creating a course map that connects learning objectives, assessments, and materials into one clear, cohesive plan. Explore how backward design strengthens course structure, then begin revising an existing course using practical tools and strategies. Participants are asked to bring materials needed to develop a course map including a laptop (or another device) and course learning objectives. Participants will leave with a working course map and a streamlined approach to course development.
Kay Beckermann
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Amy Duchsherer
University of Mary-Bismarck
In 2019, Online and E-Learning (OEL) at SCC launched the Fueling Innovative Technology (FIT) program to give faculty the time, space, and support to design, pilot, and implement technology-enhanced innovations in their courses. Structured as a year-long cohort experience, FIT guides faculty through four phases: exploring educational philosophy and technology, developing a project, piloting and assessing its impact, and sharing results with the broader community. We hope to inspire other institutions to create spaces for faculty to feel free and supported to develop things that they might not have done on their own.
Jerol Enoch
St. Charles Community College
All students have the ability to succeed in classes; however, most students do not have effective learning strategies, and they resort to memorizing formulas, definitions, and course information just before tests. Additionally, most view homework as a task to complete and submit, not as a learning tool. This session will introduce cognitive science, research-based learning strategies that will help all students experience meaningful, transferable learning. This session will also focus on ways to teach students simple yet powerful learning strategies that can ensure success in courses at every level and in their future careers.
invited presenter
Saundra McGuire
Louisiana State University
Advisory Board Session
The one who does the work does the learning, but AI now lets students generate outputs without doing the cognitive work that builds understanding. How do we design courses where students regularly engage in productive struggle instead of taking shortcuts? This session explores strategies for orchestrating learning experiences where students must do the thinking. We’ll examine three key areas: making the hard work visible and valuable to students, designing for accountability both in and out of class, and building habits of genuine intellectual effort. We’ll look at the broader architecture of learning, including student action in the classroom, making practice meaningful, and building a culture of effort. Practicing what we preach, you’ll have time to work on your own course challenges. Bring a specific situation where students are choosing shortcuts over learning. We’ll share strategies, troubleshoot contexts, and identify principles that work across disciplines and class sizes.
Jeremy Rentz
Trine University
The course syllabus provides an element of certainty for students who are, or may feel, less prepared for the college experience (Artze-Vega et al., 2023). Scholarly work has already highlighted the importance of a welcoming tone, and the effects of syllabus language choices on students’ learning experiences (Chandar et al., 2023). With the goal of maximizing student success and positive experiences, our session will describe a framework using principles of SCARF (Rock, 2008) to design a welcoming syllabus and reframe thinking about this document from a student perspective. Last, we explore ways to incorporate these features into future empirical studies.
Jaclyn Spivey & Laura Morrow
Lipscomb University
Do your students ever see your course as just a collection of disconnected lectures, readings, and assignments? How can we move them from completing a checklist to understanding the big picture? The solution lies in shifting our role from instructor to course architect. This session moves beyond isolated teaching tips to provide a holistic framework for course design and renewal. Attendees will be guided through core principles of backward design, course mapping, and content scaffolding. Using a provided “Architect’s Toolkit,” attendees will work on their own courses, learning to craft a solid foundation of learning outcomes and then build a coherent structure of modules and assessments that logically support those goals.
Bahram Moghaddas
Khazar Institute of Higher Education
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping higher education, prompting urgent questions about how to preserve and strengthen durable skills such as metacognition, critical thinking, and ethical reasoning. This session introduces a dual approach that positions both students and faculty as active participants in ethical AI use. Presenters will explore how guiding students to create and apply an AI Code of Ethics can deepen their understanding of responsible AI practices, while also demonstrating how faculty can model ethical decision-making in their own teaching. Attendees will learn how ethical AI integration can support student learning, gain practical strategies for helping students articulate and demonstrate responsible AI use, and begin developing an AI Code of Ethics tailored to their own courses.
Carolyn Fitzpatrick
Nova Southeastern University
As Generative AI continues to reshape assessment practices, faculty are rethinking how to design assignments that promote authentic learning and reduce reliance on chatbot-generated responses. This session shares practical lessons from developing and evaluating AI-resilient assignments across disciplines, highlighting how AI can be used not as a policing tool, but as a partner in designing reasoning-based activities that are engaging, transparent, and aligned with learning outcomes. Participants will explore concrete design strategies that make assignments more resistant to outsourcing, examine faculty and student responses to these approaches, and consider implementation challenges and opportunities for future tools.
Perry Samson
University of Michigan
Students often treat AI as a shortcut rather than a learning tool. Many will paste prompts into a chatbot without disclosure, trust confident answers without fact-checking, and absorb biased or incomplete guidance without noticing what’s missing or what’s wrong. Where they could use it as a starting point for critical thinking, they may be using it for full assignments. The result: weaker learning, higher integrity risk, and misinformation creeping into assignments. This session equips First-Year Experience faculty with ready-to-run micro-activities: an “AI Use Receipt” for transparency, a “Verify-Then-Use” routine using credible sources, and a “Bias & Assumption Audit” to question outputs and rewrite prompts responsibly. Faculty will leave with templates, syllabus language, and a lightweight rubric that rewards process, judgment, and authentic student voice.
Jill Jolley
California State University Monterey Bay
JJ Wallace
Transylvania University
Abby Bell
Lipscomb University
This session explores how educators can move from awareness to meaningful application of Generative AI in teaching and learning. Centered on human-tech synergy, it equips participants with practical strategies to integrate AI in ways that enhance engagement, efficiency, and equity while supporting Universal Design for Learning. Participants will examine AI literacy as an essential skill, explore frameworks for designing AI-integrated curricula, and see how AI can support personalization, streamline tasks, and increase student participation. Through interactive exercises such as collaborative whiteboarding, guided AI demonstrations, and curriculum sprints participants will gain practical experience with AI tools and reflect on their ethical and pedagogical implications.
Feygens Saint-Joy
Monroe University
Custom AI Study Buddies are reshaping how students access support, practice skills, and engage with course material. This presentation bridges emerging research on Generative AI with concrete, classroom-tested evidence from a pilot study, showing how faculty-designed AI tools can enhance learning, confidence, and ethical digital literacy. This session also shares best practices for creating scalable, course-specific tools that extend student support while promoting purposeful and equitable AI use. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to begin developing their own AI Study Buddies.
JJ Wallace
Transylvania University
Unsure how to integrate AI without sacrificing authentic student thinking? This session reframes AI as an enabler of powerful learning rather than a shortcut. Grounded in evidence-based frameworks, participants will explore how to design AI-enhanced learning experiences that promote agency, curiosity, and connection while preserving productive struggle as a key driver of deep learning. Through hands-on design activities and an exploration of relevant frameworks, attendees will practice creating AI-enhanced learning experiences that keep students at the center and promote rigorous thinking.
Mallory Morris
Thomas University
This session introduces a SAMR-guided approach for redesigning assignments so students use Generative AI responsibly and in ways that deepen learning. Rather than focusing on AI tools or faculty productivity, this session centers on student-facing AI use, cognitive demand, and transparent, ethical scaffolding. Participants will also examine common student learning challenges, review discipline-flexible examples of AI-supported tasks across SAMR levels, and collaboratively redesign one of their own assignments using a structured worksheet and shared document.
Jaclyn Tabor
Lincoln Land Community College
Ready to harness the power of AI as an engaging teaching tool? Unsure of ways to infuse AI tools in the classroom? Need ideas for adding AI tools to both transfer and technical programs? Discover how to seamlessly integrate AI tools into your classroom while building essential digital literacy skills. In this session, learn how to utilize a scaffolded approach with no-cost and low-cost AI tools that integrate AI literacy and enhance course learning outcomes. From flipping the discussion board to running live action roleplay to using a codebook to identify solely AI-generated work, learn about the possibilities AI brings to our classrooms.
Katie Wheeler & Brian Wheeler
Pikes Peak State College
This session explores how structured student choice can be intentionally designed into online courses to increase engagement without adding complexity for instructors. Using an online college readiness/orientation course as a model, participants will see how learning tracks can provide meaningful options that support autonomy while maintaining clear course structure. This session highlights how thoughtfully designed choice can improve motivation, better support diverse learners, and create a more flexible, responsive online learning environment. Participants will leave with practical strategies for identifying where choice can be incorporated, designing clear and manageable options, and using common LMS tools to implement these approaches across disciplines.
Connar Franklin & Sierra Cantrell
The University of Alabama
Online learning unlocks career and educational opportunities for traditional college students, older learners, working professionals, and beyond. Technological advancements coupled with the implementation of best practices afford teaching faculty the opportunity to deliver transformative lessons to these students. Beyond the class environment, online students can complement their learning with hands-on internship placements. This session will provide conference participants with evidence-based strategies for designing meaningful internship experiences that support online learners’ academic and professional growth.
Katie Forsythe
Washington State University
Our knowledge of how students learn has grown significantly over the last few decades. In keeping with this trend, the quality and sheer amount of research on instructional strategies has also grown, and active learning has remained at the top of the list as an instructional approach associated with stronger engagement and improved learning outcomes across disciplines. In this session, participants will examine what active learning is and, focusing on cognitive load, a set of challenges that can interrupt it. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of when and why active learning works, along with concrete strategies they can implement in a wide range of instructional contexts.
invited presenter
Claire Howell Major
University of Alabama
Self-efficacy plays a significant role in shaping how we think, act, and feel about our place in academia. This session is designed to actively build self-efficacy in higher education leaders and students, focusing on the belief in one’s ability to succeed. Participants will gain an understanding of how self-efficacy impacts student engagement and learning outcomes through interactive activities, group surveys, reflections, and collaborative discussions. Attendees will evaluate their own self-efficacy and explore ways to enhance it. While setting two concrete goals and creating an action plan, participants will understand how building self-efficacy is a crucial strategy for influencing learning and success.
Susan Schulhof
National Louis University
Engaging students in the classroom and material can be a challenge for any professor, regardless of discipline. This can be especially true in lower-level courses where students may only be taking the course for a credit to progress further in their chosen field. At community colleges, there is the added difficulty of working in an open enrollment environment, where we often work to get students to appropriate academic levels to succeed. A service-learning civic engagement approach to teaching offers an opportunity to engage students through a practical application of what they are learning in the classroom. It demonstrates the use of the skills gained in the classroom beyond an exam to a real-life experience. This approach empowers students to practice and hone their skills in a real way and demonstrates directly how they could use them in a professional setting. Finally, this approach, at a time when higher education has been criticized for being out of touch or a waste of time, brings students to see the value of education to the community, engaging them in applying their knowledge in service to the world in which they live.
Grace Moser
Monica Hall-Woods
Mara Vorachek-Warren
St. Charles Community College
Move beyond quiet classrooms and surface-level participation by designing team-based experiences that spark meaningful dialogue and deeper learning. This session explores practical, evidence-based strategies for structuring student interactions that promote critical thinking, shared responsibility, and authentic engagement. Participants will leave with adaptable tools to create inclusive learning environments where students actively contribute, build on one another’s ideas, and take ownership of learning. As many students struggle to move from information to true understanding, team-based approaches foster social accountability and position the classroom as an active, meaningful space.
Amy Wallis
Wake Forest University
This session explores the benefits of incorporating short physical activity breaks, known as “brain breaks” or “mind breaks” in a student’s schedule. These brain breaks/mind breaks are brief, structured activities to help foster improved focus, engagement, motivation, stress reduction, coping strategies, self-care, positive self-talk, and strategies for holistic success. This strategy is innovative, offering all students access to services in a playful, non-judgmental, and engaging manner. All strategies are low-cost or no-cost interventions that many times are portable and accessible by all learners. Fostering wellness initiatives open to all students lessen the stigma and opens services to all students by strengthening not only cognitive skills, but also gain tools for academic, mental, social, and emotional well-being.
Lara Vanderhoof
Tabor College
Help students move from “airplane mode” to active learning by addressing cognitive overload in lecture-based courses. This session explores how cognitive load impacts attention, retention, and engagement, and offers simple, practical strategies to reduce overload while strengthening learning. Participants will learn how to design lectures that support processing, embed brief metacognitive moments, and introduce evidence-based memory techniques students can apply independently. Key takeaways include identifying and reducing unnecessary cognitive load, integrating quick metacognitive strategies to boost awareness, and equipping students with practical memory techniques to improve retention and transfer.
Susan Dreves
Grove City College
This session introduces the Active Learning PAIR framework (Process, Apply, Interact, Reflect), which is a four-part instructional approach that moves beyond lecturing and generic group work. For instructors who are new to active learning, it provides a systematic roadmap with scalable strategies, while acting as a catalyst for experienced practitioners to reenvision high-impact innovation in their active learning classrooms. Attendees will apply P-A-I-R lenses to structure active learning activities, implement collaborative strategies to cultivate core 21st-century skills, and use the framework as a structured tool for pedagogical practices and self-reflection to cultivate a supportive and engaging learning environment.
Ching-Yu Huang & Kelly Ford
University of Georgia
Do you ever wonder how some professors have students on the edge of their seats during every lecture? This session explores practical, embodied engagement and public speaking techniques to help you connect to your students through your voice and presence. You’ll understand how to move and speak with presence and gravitas, and use language to its full, impactful potential. Attendees will explore how to access breath, voice, and presence so they can deliver when it counts, how to stay present through difficult conversations, and how to tell stories using language that keeps students interested.
Paul Marchegiani
U.C. Berkeley and Stanford Law School
Explore how artificial intelligence can move beyond efficiency to actively deepen student thinking and engagement. Drawing on faculty surveys and focus groups, this session highlights practical strategies for integrating AI into undergraduate and graduate courses to support analysis, evaluation, and higher-order learning. Presenters will share what’s working, where challenges persist, and how to use AI intentionally to strengthen participation and critical thought. Attendees will leave with actionable approaches for leveraging AI as a tool for more meaningful learning experiences.
John Hatcher
Bevann Dubuisson
Steele Russell
Jamie Davis
Southeastern Louisiana University
Faculty are increasingly navigating classrooms where students feel overwhelmed, hesitant to take intellectual risks, or tempted to use GenAI instead of engaging deeply with learning. This session introduces two research-supported approaches: values-affirming practices and growth-oriented mindsets. Participants will explore how emphasizing shared values reduces threat, strengthens integrity, and helps students engage with complex or uncomfortable ideas, while growth-mindset norms foster resilience, curiosity, and authentic learning.
Amber Emanuel
University of Florida
This session shares findings from a guided, multi-stage study of Peer Observation of Teaching (PoT) at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. PoT is examined as a formative process that supports professional growth for both observers and instructors. Using a structured, multi-stage approach, the study draws on interconnected sources including teaching philosophies, pre-observation materials focused on course goals and learner-centered design, observer feedback, and instructor reflections with implementation plans. Through reflexive thematic analysis, key themes emerged across stages, such as student-centered agency, culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy, active and collaborative learning, and equity-focused course design that supports student success.
Alyssa Cavazos
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
We know that learning requires effort—a degree of cognitive friction that may involve navigating ambiguity, making mistakes, refining questions, exploring resources, receiving difficult feedback, and trying again. In so many ways, Generative AI makes its appeal by bypassing this friction, promising to make our lives easier, more efficient, and “smoother.” In the classroom, this has made it increasingly difficult to discern what submitted work actually represents. In this session, we will explore practical strategies for redesigning assessments to preserve this productive friction, disincentivize cognitive offloading, and increase intrinsic motivation and relevance. Drawing from Analog Inspiration, a card deck featuring 47 values-based concepts, participants will work with both colleagues and custom AI tools to audit their own assignments and identify opportunities for redesign that center student learning, reward growth, and, in some cases, critically integrate AI into the assignment itself.
invited presenter
Carter Moulton
Colorado School of Mines
As AI reshapes how students write, how can instructors ensure they still think? This session introduces Viva, an AI-powered oral assessment platform that transforms student writing into individualized, real-time questions to reveal true understanding. Piloted at The Episcopal Academy and used in Caltech admissions, Viva brings back productive friction by uncovering student reasoning, misconceptions, and depth of thinking. Attendees will explore how oral assessment strengthens metacognition and authenticity, examine design principles for AI-enabled evaluation, and identify scalable ways to adapt oral assessments across disciplines for more meaningful, integrity-rich assessment.
Justin Cerenzia
The Episcopal Academy
Terry Crawford
InitialView
Peer Retrieval Practice (PRP) is a novel method of student engagement in the classroom that incorporates elements of both retrieval practice and peer instruction. PRP sessions allow students to apply lecture material to practice questions in a low-stakes environment. The benefits to students are twofold. First, PRP provides students with the opportunity to test their knowledge individually and determine the efficacy of their study methods. Second, the use of peer teaching in PRP improves student confidence, decreases student anxiety, and makes learning more enjoyable. From an educator perspective, PRP is a method that can be implemented in classrooms of any discipline or size without the need for curricular changes.
Colleen Cole-Jeffrey
Jack Lee
Christopher Fonner
Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine
Students may perform well on weekly quizzes yet struggle to retain knowledge all semester to prepare for exams, capstone work, or future courses. This session presents a strategy of using cumulative quizzes to promote long-term retention, exam preparation, and transfer of learning. Using backward design, participants will identify high-leverage concepts students typically forget and weave them intentionally into regular cumulative quizzes. This session demonstrates how to use question banks to ensure every topic is assessed while randomizing the questions each student receives. The question banks can be repurposed into practice tests—one sequenced to match instruction and another randomized to mirror exam conditions. We will also explore low-stakes incentives that motivate students to practice, diagnose gaps, and prepare more thoroughly for your final assessments.
Tom Cantu
Montgomery College
Course evaluation comments hold valuable insights for teaching improvement, but analyzing hundreds of responses is overwhelming and prone to bias. This session demonstrates how AI tools can systematically analyze qualitative feedback to surface themes, track patterns across semesters, and generate evidence-based improvement goals. Participants will learn practical workflows for AI-assisted comment analysis while critically examining limitations and maintaining interpretive validity. By systematically analyzing student voices, faculty can engage in the same reflective practice and continuous improvement cycles we expect from students.
Travien L. Capers
University of South Carolina School of Medicine
While trust in the classroom (both trust between a student and a teacher and trust between students) is central to learning, the pandemic, remote teaching, the development of Generative AI, and, in some cases, questions around the value of higher education itself, have resulted in decreased trust in our classrooms and on our campuses. How can we overcome this breach in trust to build safe and inclusive learning communities? In this session, we will explore definitions of trust in academic contexts, discuss why trust is so important in the classroom, and share research-validated approaches to rebuild and restore trusting communities in our teaching spaces. Together, we can create learning environments where trust flourishes, supporting student belonging and success.
Hoda Mostafa
American University in Cairo
Marty Samuels
Columbia University
Tonya Whitehead
Wayne State
Sherri C. Young
Muhlenberg College
Intercultural competence is essential for engaging today’s diverse learners. This session highlights evidence-based, culturally responsive teaching practices that strengthen instructor–student connections and reduce barriers to learning. Through reflective dialogue and collaborative activities, participants will explore how intentional instructional design fosters greater intercultural awareness and improves student engagement. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to integrate culturally responsive content, enhance communication across differences, and create more inclusive learning environments that support motivation and deeper understanding across diverse student populations.
Sean Kardar
Dona Ana Community College
This session addresses critical challenges in education: increasing access for more students, closing persistent opportunity gaps, and the imperative to prepare learners for an every changing technology-driven world. As classrooms become more heterogeneous, spanning abilities, backgrounds, and learning needs, instructors require frameworks that move beyond one-size-fits-all approaches. Learner variability provides this lens, helping educators design inclusive environments where all students can thrive. Attendees will examine their own learning experiences to better understand student variability, explore evidence-based strategies using the Learner Variability Navigator framework, and develop practical approaches for personalizing instruction through digital tools.
Camden Hanzlick-Burton
Digital Promise
Mallory Morris
Thomas University
Both language learning and professional development are lifelong processes. As students who are Multilingual Learners of English (MLE) acquire and use language within their fields of study, professors across disciplines can learn to actively engage with their students’ assets and incorporate inclusive practices into their teaching. This session invites participants to reflect on promising teaching practices for MLEs in higher education through the professional development framework of the Vygotskian Space. Participants will identify their current strengths, encounter actionable, evidence-based practices with applications to different disciplines, and set relevant teaching goals for any modality.
Jennifer Valdez
Bunker Hill Community College
You remember the teacher who believed in you before you believed in yourself. The mentor who noticed when you were struggling—not with content, but with belonging. The guide who sat with you in confusion without rushing to fix it. They didn’t just deliver information; they witnessed your becoming. This session reclaims the profound, irreplaceable work of human educators in an age of algorithmic optimization. Drawing on Maslow’s theory and learning science research, we’ll explore one aspect of what it means to be a witness to learning: creating psychological safety that allows risk-taking, communicating belief that shapes identity, sustaining presence through struggle, and recognizing growth as part of someone’s larger story. Through case studies and collaborative reflection, participants will distinguish between feedback and validation, between personalization and being known, between teaching content and forming learning identities. Yes, AI can tutor and assess—but learning requires something AI cannot provide: a human who sees you, believes in you, and refuses to let you disappear. What is your irreplaceable work? Let’s name it together.
invited presenter
Michelle Blank Rentz
Goshen College
In some US states, legislative changes against explicit diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, or DEIA, efforts began a long time ago, but now almost everyone who uses these approaches in their work is worried about how to respond to an increasingly hostile social, structural, and legislative climate. In this session, you’ll learn how to describe, facilitate, and assess inclusive measures in educational development offerings without explicitly referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our goal is to share evidence-based approaches that have broad backing and buy-in. Whether in response to legislative pressure or just to get butts in seats, you’ll uncover three sneaky ways to get even the most recalcitrant participants on board and enthusiastic about . . . *checks notes* . . . inclusion!
invited presenter
Thomas J. Tobin
University of Wisconsin-Madison
In an era of uncertainty, marked by global upheaval, social unrest, and personal challenges, students and faculty alike are navigating the effects of trauma. This session explores how authentic human connection can strengthen resilience, belonging, and meaningful learning in both online and campus classrooms. Attendees will examine potential cultural gaps between faculty and students, emotional dynamics of teaching and learning while uncovering evidence-based strategies for creating psychologically safe classrooms. Drawing from trauma-informed teaching practices, communication theory, and real-world examples, this session engages educators in guided discussions and activities that highlight cultural awareness, empathy, transparency, and relational trust as drivers of engagement, and ultimately, learning. Participants will discover simple yet impactful instructional shifts such as inclusive language, pacing adjustments, and feedback approaches that support both student (and faculty) well-being.
invited presenter
Art Mollengarden
Post University
Do you ever feel stuck trying to meet the needs of a range of diverse learners? Is it possible to teach in a way that is more inclusive and accessible to students? Do you ever wonder how to meet the needs of students who are struggling while ensuring that your strongest students don’t lose out? Through experiential exercises, participants will examine learner variability, uncover unexamined beliefs about how learning happens, and explore how clearly defined learning outcomes support inclusive course design. Attendees will gain practical strategies to apply UDL principles in their teaching, helping meet the needs of diverse learners while maintaining rigor and engagement for all students.
Winnie Needham
Principia College
Josephine Finen
Principia College
Want to help your students build essential job skills without sacrificing course content? Then this session is for you! We will explore how college courses can intentionally help students develop 21st-century skills, critical competencies that enhance success in both academic and professional settings. Participants will learn about the skills, discover practical examples of how to foster them (many requiring little to no prep), and brainstorm ways to integrate these “soft skills” into existing coursework without compromising disciplinary content.
Jennifer Merrill
Skyline College
Students can major in biology, business, or the arts but not in “figuring it out.” Yet, that ability to navigate uncertainty, adapt when plans shift, and connect academic knowledge to messy real-world problems is the very skill they need most. This session equips faculty with simple, practical strategies to weave career readiness and transferable skills into existing courses without adding more work. Through humor, relatable examples, and evidence-based approaches, attendees will discover how to reframe assignments as résumé-worthy experiences, foster confidence in students facing the unknown, and build resilience that lasts long after graduation.
Tranell E. Barton
Delgado Community College
Kindness and gratitude are powerful yet often underutilized tools for shaping resilient, compassionate future leaders. This session highlights how simple, intentional practices—such as gratitude journaling, recognizing acts of kindness, and faculty-modeled appreciation—can enhance students’ empathy, professionalism, motivation, and teamwork. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to embed these practices into their courses, understand how reflection strengthens emotional intelligence and professional identity, and explore how modeling appreciation fosters a more positive, connected learning environment that supports student success.
Maureen Hermann
Creighton University
Student internships and practicums are essential learning spaces across disciplines, yet growing complexities in student needs can leave some learners struggling and at risk of failing. This session highlights how one social work program uses a strengths-based support plan that identifies concerns, sets clear and attainable goals, and outlines targeted supports that both address performance issues and empower students to take ownership of their behaviors. Participants will explore how this model responds to increasingly complex student challenges and will consider how a similar framework can be adapted to strengthen support within their own disciplines.
Lindsey Trout & Kimberly Rice
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
In the realm of experiential learning, engaging students in meaningful and hyper-realistic role play scenarios is one of the most effective methodologies to cement learning. Students that participate in case-based role play scenarios can practice the art and science of effective personal interaction. In addition, these students can demonstrate their competency of the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve course outcomes. In this session, participants will be introduced to role play as a structured experiential learning technique applied in the classroom. After the session, small groups will be formed by general disciplinary interest to brainstorm applications of role play in addressing cases pertinent to their classes. The informal small groups will also loosely structure evaluation rubrics for their role play and discuss student evaluations as a pedagogic tool.
John Ballentine & HL Goodwin
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
Discover how one institution created a sustainable, low-cost Course Design Institute (CDI) using familiar Google tools to support inclusive, learner-centered course design. This session explores how to structure a self-paced, high-impact faculty development experience without relying on expensive platforms or consultants. Participants will leave with adaptable strategies, ready-to-use templates for course design and reflection, and practical approaches to apply transparent, inclusive design principles that promote student belonging and learning across disciplines.
Susan Sturm
Nazareth University
Professional learning is more than a compliance exercise, it is a strategic investment in faculty growth, student success, and institutional excellence. Over the past two years, Tallahassee State College has launched an institution-sponsored program that provides faculty with engaging, relevant, and high-impact training to strengthen teaching and learning. This session shares how the program was designed, implemented, and refined over time, with a focus on the facilitator model that taps into faculty expertise across campus. Attendees will gain practical ideas for structuring similar initiatives, engaging faculty as leaders, and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and sustained professional growth.
David Hoover & Amanda Wallace
Tallahassee State College
Preparing faculty to navigate challenging classroom situations requires more than theory, it requires practice. This session introduces Critical Incident Videos (CIVs), short, unresolved teaching scenarios that help faculty build confidence in addressing issues such as student incivility, lack of preparedness, and negative attitudes. Grounded in findings from the CIV National Research Study, participants will explore how CIVs create opportunities to practice communication, manage conflict, and set boundaries through role-play and guided debriefing. Attendees will leave with strategies to use CIVs to reduce anxiety and respond more effectively to difficult teaching moments.
Caral Randall & Cynthia Randall
University of Southern Maine
Faculty frequently need teaching and learning resources, but decentralization across institutional, college, and departmental units creates silos and adds time-consuming barriers, making it harder for faculty and staff to access what they need. This session will share findings from a study examining the role of a centralized resource hub that compiles relevant and timely resources in a single accessible location. Using surveys, site analytics, and user feedback, the study revealed that centralized resources improved faculty confidence in areas such as Canvas use, accessibility, and course design. Participants will explore strategies for creating sustainable, user-friendly resource hubs and learn how engagement tactics can support just-in-time learning.
Jennifer Banda
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Today’s classrooms can be stressful for both educators and students, with uncomfortable political climates, diverse backgrounds, varied perspectives, and challenging expectations. Particularly true for fields connected to human service, understanding our reactions to clients, patients, and students is critical to ethical and competent practice. Self-assessment and self-regulation are requirements for managing conflict and building resilience in the workplace and the classroom toward translatable workplace practices. This session provides a framework for understanding the challenges present in classrooms and workplaces through a theoretical lens known as Internal Family Systems (IFS). Participants will develop knowledge of key tenets of IFS and conceptualize application of concepts into classroom settings via modeling and curriculum content for student learning.
Michelle Keller
University of Kentucky