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: ⸻
Boosting Learning, Decreasing Stress: Designing Courses with Wellness in Mind
Rob Eaton, Brigham Young University–Idaho
60 Minute 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.
Creating Online Orientation Modules for Your Courses: A Hands-On Approach
Michelle Baker, Penn State University
60 Minute Session
For attendees who are new to this topic
Have students ever asked you a question whose answer was included in the syllabus? Or said they couldn’t find course materials for an assignment? A solution to these issues is the Student Orientation Module. Research has shown that easy-to-navigate courses are associated with better student engagement and overall success. A well-organized student orientation module can create a strong first impression of a course for students, put important course resources at their fingertips, communicate course expectations, and reduce anxiety students feel when beginning a course. In this session, participants will learn how to build an effective student orientation module that can be used for an online course or a face-to-face class with an online course site. By the end of this session, participants will have an outline for a student orientation module they can build for one (or more!) of their courses. Participants will also have access to resources for building a student orientation module.
Engage Your Learners at First Contact: Create an Interactive Syllabus
Art Brownlow, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Careful design of the course syllabus is important. We all know that a syllabus should be clearly organized for comprehension and visually attractive to elevate interest. Various types of syllabi, such as illustrated or infographic syllabi, have been used for years to accomplish these goals. But what if instructors take the extra step to create not only a visually attractive syllabus but an interactive digital syllabus that immediately captivates the learner’s attention and creates excitement about the course? This session will introduce the concept of the interactive ebook syllabus to participants. By the end of the session, attendees will understand the importance of engaging and interactive syllabi and they will master skills that will allow them to create their own syllabus ebook.
Planning Your Course with Creativity and Integrity: No More Plagiarism!
Martine Peters, Université du Québec en Outaouais
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Are you fed up with students plagiarizing? Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of cases of plagiarism has exploded. Some students have taken the easy way out and have copied and pasted a little, or even a lot… Have you felt powerless and frustrated in the face of this phenomenon? To prevent plagiarism, academic integrity must be at the heart of course planning. In this session, we will discuss the various roles you can play to foster integrity and creativity among your students. Various concrete actions will be suggested to help you rethink your teaching and assessment strategies. Activities will focus on modifying assignment instructions and rubrics to prevent plagiarism. Participants are encouraged to bring the instructions and rubric for one of their assignments to apply the practical tips discussed in the session. Several resources will be offered to participants.
Supercharge Your Slide Deck for Student Learning
Jeremy Rentz, Trine University
60 Minute Session
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 actually 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.
How Can I Utilize a Four-Step Curricular Alignment to Improve Course Design?
Karen Gordes, Violet Kulo, and Christina Cestone, University of Maryland Baltimore
20-Minute Mentor Session
For attendees who are new to this topic
This session will provide emerging faculty with an easy how-to framework for verifying the curricular alignment of their courses. The four-step process is grounded in the principles of competency-based education and backward curricular design. The first two steps will train faculty how to effectively evaluate if their learning objectives and assessments align with both course and program learning outcomes. Steps three and four will provide verification that course materials meet established accreditation standards and represent a longitudinal progression of learner competency, both of which are essential requirements of most health professions educational programs.
How Can You Flip Your Class Without Extensive Time or Redesign?
Thomas Mennella, Western New England University
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Flipped learning achieves deep student learning, increased student engagement, and improved student satisfaction. But it also takes a lot of time and preparation. Traditional flipped learning requires instructors to create videos and redesign their courses. In this session, I share what I call the “hybrid flip”. By adding a few key assignments and repurposing how and when lecture-based instruction is used, instructors can reap the benefits of flipped learning by investing a fraction of the time and preparation. Participants will leave this session understanding the essential elements of flipped learning and with the tools needed to adopt a hybrid flipped approach for their courses. These include ‘RSQ’ assignments and tailoring existing lecture slide decks to address formatively assessed student confusion in real-time.
A 360-degree Assessment Strategy for Classes with Diverse Abilities
William Thurber and Kathleen Pierce, Ontario Tech University
60 Minute Session
For attendees who have some experience with this topic
Our challenge was a diverse range of entering competencies in a first-year business communications course. Previous experience found that self-evaluation and peer evaluation alone did not provide sufficient learning for our students. Our strategic plan was to re-engineer our assessment plan. First, to scaffold formulative self- and peer-assessment with the instructor-provided summative assessment to create a 360-degree view of student performance. Then, to utilize self-assessment as the basis of reflection and the opportunity to create customized self-designed learning plans adding empty rubrics to the performance-based criteria (Harman, Teaching Professor Conference 2022). The observed results indicated improved student mindsets and a more positive learning environment.
Designing Assessments with the Intent of Informing Instruction
Nichole Barta, Gonzaga University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
This session describes how to design an assessment to measure whether students are achieving learning outcomes. Effective assessments promote self-regulation and self-evaluation, produce data that identify areas of growth, and allow instructors to provide meaningful feedback to students. We will describe and discuss how to make instructional moves based on assessment data. Session learning outcomes include creating assessments that will measure students’ progress toward learning outcomes; explaining how to use assessment data to provide meaningful feedback to students that results in greater academic achievement; and demonstrating how assessment data can inform decisions in teaching and learning.
Developing Student Feedback Literacy Using Authentic Feedback Spirals
Frederique Laubepin, University of Michigan
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
The shift toward authentic and learner-centered education has prompted educators to reexamine feedback practices and consider student feedback literacy as a competency in its own right. This session will discuss the development of student feedback literacy in a Public Health graduate-level online course through the implementation of authentic feedback loops and spirals. We will highlight the importance of integrating feedback literacy into course learning outcomes and framing it as such for the students; focusing on authentic practice; and using loops or spirals to provide opportunities to practice and deepen both feedback skills and disciplinary knowledge.
Improving the Security and Quality of Online and Classroom-based Examinations
Alym Amlani and John Shepherd, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Are you finding it difficult to create exams that are rigorous, secure, and consistent? This session will discuss the lessons and design principles learned from the development of collaborative, online test banks for three introductory-level courses. While initially motivated by the significant increase in academic misconduct cases, the resulting test banks created proved to be valuable in their own right. Through collaboration amongst faculty, and iterative review of the questions developed, the quality and consistency of exams across sections were improved. The presenters will demonstrate how you can review exam performance data to systematically improve and refine exam test banks using metrics such as question discrimination, difficulty, grammar, and structure. These same principles can be applied to publisher-supplied test bank questions to improve their security and quality.
Using and Writing Rubrics to Assess Learning Rather Than Product
Jenelle Abnett, Neumann University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Rubrics are more efficient to assess student learning than using checklists or letter grading. By using a rubric, professors can measure learning outcomes, objectives, and skills rather than just the final product. When well-written rubrics are presented with the assignment, students understand the learning that comes with the work, the expectations of the assignment, and the grading scales that will be used. With the use of rubrics, research shows that students feel more connected to the learning and achieve better outcomes. This session will show the benefits of using rubrics and how to effectively construct them. It will offer the opportunity to create a rubric for a course assignment attendees use in their teaching.
What’s Luck Got to Do with It? How Can You Use Systematic Formative Assessment as a Tool in Developing and Nurturing a Growth Mindset in Students?
Ramona Hall, Cameron University
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Carol Dweck has written extensively on fixed vs. growth mindsets. It is essential that educators take measures to foster a growth mindset in their students. From this session, attendees will learn: how to identify growth and fixed mindsets; creative and engaging strategies to formatively measure students’ mindsets; and ways in which the findings from these measurements can be used to foster and nurture a growth mindset in students. Having movement from awareness to action as its primary objective, this session would be relevant to all conference attendees.
What Are Effective Practices for Designing Assessments in Online Learning Environments?
Violet Kulo, Karen Gordes, Erin Hagar, and Christina Cestone, University of Maryland Baltimore
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Assessment is a critical element of any teaching and learning environment. When developing assessments, instructors need to consider the purpose, scope, and content of assessments. The characteristics of face-to-face classroom assessment such as learner-centered, context-specific, and ongoing do not change when assessing learners in online and hybrid environments; however, they are implemented in different ways. Of utmost importance, instructors should ensure that their assessments are aligned, practical, reflective, iterative, and learner-centered (APRIL). This mentor session will provide the theoretical background and practices for designing effective formative and summative assessments in online and hybrid learning environments.
Invited Session
Cognitive Engagement in the Higher Education Classroom: Practical Strategies to Deepen Student Understanding and Critical Thinking Skills
Pamela Kramer Ertel, Middle Tennessee State University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Student engagement involves capturing student attention, curiosity, interest, and enthusiasm in the learning process which impacts student motivation and learning achievement. Engagement plays a critical role as a pedagogical strategy for enhancing learning. This session will focus specifically on the exploration of practical strategies for cognitive engagement as a variety of strategies are discussed and demonstrated so that they can be used to effectively engage students and deepen their learning. Participants will have the opportunity to create an action plan for implementing these strategies within their respective disciplines. After this session, participants will be able to: define what is meant by “cognitive engagement”; describe two benefits of cognitive engagement; and develop a plan to implement at least two student cognitive engagements.
Invited Session
Remixing Group Work: Increasing Engagement with Cooperative Learning Structures
Melissa Schettler, William Penn University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
As educators, we are aware that engagement is key to successful learning; however, it can be challenging to create learning experiences in the classroom that foster engagement among students. Creating highly structured cooperative learning opportunities increases instructors’ scope of influence over students’ engagement, thus leading to more significant learning. Participants in this session will engage in 2–3 cooperative learning structures that can be utilized in various classrooms and settings. The presenter will offer tips and tricks for successfully implementing cooperative learning in the classroom, and finally, participants will brainstorm opportunities for implementing cooperative learning in their own courses. Participants can expect an engaging presentation full of active learning and fun! Participants will: engage in 2–3 cooperative learning structures; identify tips and tricks for successfully implementing cooperative learning in the classroom; and identify an opportunity within a course they teach to implement a cooperative learning structure.
20 +1 Best Practice Activities for College Freshmen
Nancy Linden, Savannah State University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Participants will learn how to engage college students with twenty or more best practice activities for today’s classroom. The most important takeaways from this session are the use of cell phones, instant gratification, and rewards while learning new concepts from the college lecture. This is a fast-paced presentation session that will demonstrate engagement while learning, so participants will have both content knowledge and experience.
Beyond Engagement: Empowering Undergraduate Learners through Agency
Michelle Blank, Goshen College
60 Minute Session
For attendees who have some experience with this topic
The world is out of control! That may be the sentiment many of us have had throughout these past few years, both in our lives and in our classrooms. Imagine regularly feeling that lack of control with regard to your own learning. Yikes! According to learning science research, this is where many of our students are. They have been conditioned to be compliant and follow the rules; not to engage in true learning, not to take risks, and certainly not to fail. What if we changed that? In this session, we’ll build on the active learning strategies you are currently utilizing as a means of empowering undergraduate students toward becoming empowered adult learners with the agency to make decisions and the motivation that comes from creating. After exploring examples from both praxis and research, we will apply the principles of learner empowerment to design for agency through both learner and teacher decision-making and as motivation.
Building Cooperative Teams in Your Classroom
Melissa Michael, Southside Elementary, and Laura Perkins, Siloam Springs
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
How do we get students from different backgrounds and experiences to work together as an effective team? Often, teachers put students in groups and expect them to begin working together immediately on complex problems. Teambuilding lays the groundwork for effective cooperative teams. During team building, students come to know, trust, and respect their teammates. This is important before they began analyzing and exploring content together at a deep level. This session highlights strategies teachers can use to build cooperative teams in their classrooms. Session participants will have the opportunity to experience some effective teambuilding strategies and reflect on how to implement them in their classrooms.
Cultivating Connections in the College Classroom
Jeremy Rentz, Trine University, and Michelle Blank, Goshen College
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
”When the flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower” (Den Heijer). As instructors, we want all students to “bloom”, so we must actively cultivate our course environments, particularly relationships. Instructor-to-student connections go well beyond rapport. They have the capacity to build trust that enhances the learning of all students. Likewise, strong student-to-student connections in our classes also promote student learning. Unfortunately, the current student-to-student connections in our classes are likely weaker than we imagine. These underdeveloped connections can hinder in-class discussion, group work, and group projects, cornerstone strategies in many teaching toolboxes. Join us to discuss why cultivating both types of connections in the collegiate setting can be powerful and learn new strategies for your own relationship building.
De-centering the Instructor: Addressing Disengagement by Sharing Power with Students
Sarah Rutherford, Cleveland State University
60 Minute Session
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.
Engaging Instructional Strategies to Meet the Needs of Neurodivergent Students
Elizabeth Lapon, Joan Swanson, and Leslie Buddington, Franklin Pierce University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
How can faculty best support and meet the needs of neurodivergent students? This session introduces participants to instructional strategies and best practices that promote engagement through classroom-based activities and meaningful discussion. Participants will learn the initial results of a study that sought to investigate if teaching strategies for special education students increased faculty self-efficacy to meet the needs of neurodivergent college students; to examine college faculty’s evolving beliefs and attitudes about neurodivergent students; and to examine the results of implementing best practice special education strategies on the collegiate level. Participants will experience several of these activities and strategies which they can implement in their classrooms and will build their self-efficacy when working with neurodivergent students.
Can Intentional Group Work Orientation Produce Better Outcomes in Group Work?
Amanda Gonzales and Steven Cain, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
20-Minute Mentor Session
For attendees who have some experience with this topic
In this session, we’ll discuss what we identified as being some of the most important contributing factors to successful group work. Through facilitated reflection on personal strengths at the outset of a group project, we produced better outcomes both with respect to assessment performance and student experience. We also built onto other studied group work interventions, such as the importance of establishing a team charter and having a clear delegation of responsibilities, reflecting on past group work successes and failures, and anticipating potential conflict before it arises. Anonymous student feedback showed these efforts provided overwhelmingly positive group work experiences, and our assessment and survey data show that the intentionality and quality in these group orientation activities were an even better predictor of success than previous grades.
How Can Rubrics and Writing Conferences Help Engage Students with Empathy and Rhetorical Awareness?
Susan McDowall, Central Community College
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Teachers often lament that they spend significant time responding to students, but they are unsure of the impact of those efforts. This session discusses how to rethink rubrics in conjunction with writing conferences to meaningfully connect with learners in ways that will help them develop their skill sets. Specifically, the rubric is reconsidered as a medium of student connection and reflection, while the writing conference sets cements this work.
How Can I Increase Engagement by Teaching Students to Work Effectively in Teams?
Nirmani Wijenayake, University of New South Wales
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Student engagement in learning can be enhanced via teamwork as it provides students with a sense of belonging at university. The success of teamwork is dependent on students knowing how to work effectively in a team. While most courses have team-based assessments, students are often not taught how to work in a team. Therefore, teamwork is consistently rated as one of the most disliked and stressful activities by students. To overcome this, a short program was developed to teach students how to work effectively in teams and build learning communities. The program seemed to have helped students form better connections with their peers from the beginning of the term, leading to better engagement in the course overall. Students are naturally more inclined to become competent at a task through teamwork as mastery occurs together and their sense of community grows over time.
How Does Innovative Pedagogy Promote Engagement, Reflection, and Understanding of Diverse Perspectives?
Samantha Clifford, Northern Arizona University
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Utilizing engaged pedagogy helps students connect their experience to academic material and make learning meaningful and relevant. Through intentional instructional strategies, a transformative education can occur, where perspectives of self and how we interact with the world are challenged and questioned. This leads us toward a better understanding of ourselves and the differences and similarities we ascribe to others. Through critical reflexivity, students can gain the ability to analyze the contextual and historical processes that contribute to personal reactions which impact behavior. In this session, participants will learn techniques for constructing reflexive prompts for their students, grading rubrics and other techniques to reduce grading load, and establishing a learning environment where collegial discussions can occur in relation to difficult topics.
How can I Structure my Lecture to Encourage Student Discussion, Collaboration, and Participation?
Helena Mawdsley, University of Florida
20-Minute Mentor Session
For attendees who are new to this topic
This session describes methods for structuring in-person or synchronous remote class discussions based upon empirically supported principles of Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive processes, Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and active learning. Attendees will learn several quick and efficient strategies that they can use for every lecture class. The strategies encourage students to contribute to class discussion, collaborate with peers, and participate in active learning.
Advisory Board Session
Integrating Technology to Transform the Learning Environment
Tywana Chenault Hemby, Voorhees University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
The technological ground of the educational landscape is constantly shifting. As such, educators must find easy and engaging ways to utilize technology in the classroom to better meet the needs of our students. This workshop will provide simple ways to transform the learning environment by enhancing your current content and supporting your student learning outcomes. Get ready to explore ways to integrate technology based on Bloom’s Digital Technology and learn how a small liberal arts university is putting the “V” in virtual reality in the classroom.
Advisory Board Session
Video is Here to Stay: Learn more about Edpuzzle and Flip to Engage and Assess
Madeline Craig, Molloy University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
This session will focus specifically on two educational technology tools that help make video a more interactive and engaging experience to assess your students’ learning. Video is becoming more commonplace in so many aspects of our lives. Edpuzzle and Flip are two ed tech tools that integrate into your Learning Management System and can be used to engage your learners and assess learning outcomes in your course. Come to this session to experience these tools from the student’s perspective and then sign up for an educator account. We will also share ideas on how to effectively integrate these tools into your courses.
Invited Session
Collaborative Technology Tools: Promoting Conversation and Deeper Understanding
Eleni Caldwell, Wake Forest University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Participants will engage with technology tools that have been proven in creating 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.
Invited Session
Support Student Learning through Podcasts and Video Tutorials
Robb Beane, William Penn University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Do you have an online library of video and podcast tutorials for your students? If the answer is ‘no’, you can learn how to do both during this session. With podcasting and video tutorials becoming ever more present in the fabric of our lives, their use in academia is still restricted mostly to the occasional assignment or suggestion. There are countless benefits to the use of asynchronous interactive educational tutorials by instructors for students. As instructors look to develop and include online tutorials in their repertoire of knowledge and skills, what does it take to create and publish both podcasts and video tutorials for use in their courses? The base from which all tutorial use should start is course standards and pedagogy. With only two tools, you can create your own online learning library of tutorials. Through the use of anchor.fm and screencast-o-matic, you can build a library of resources that your students can access at any time.
Building Community with a Social E-Reader
Staci Saner, Laura Weingartner, and Russ Farmer, University of Louisville School of Medicine
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Engaging learners is critical to build community and motivate learning in asynchronous online courses. This session introduces participants to Perusall, a free online social reading platform where learners interact by collectively annotating assignments with questions and responses to classmates. Group engagement in course materials creates intrinsic social motivation and increased accountability for students to complete assignments. Instructors who use discussion boards can also use social e-readers instead to allow learner reflection throughout the content (versus only answering summary questions). After this session, participants will be able to: discuss how intrinsic motivation is created by collective engagement in coursework; identify how they can incorporate a social e-reader into their teaching; and annotate and respond to learner comments within the Perusall platform.
Podcasting Meets Pedagogy: Challenging, Engaging, and Inspiring Students
Jon Boroshok, Southern New Hampshire University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Podcasting for pedagogy is a great opportunity! Getting today’s students to read is difficult, but podcasting shares engaging content students can listen to any time, any place. Students listen while multitasking—you can be the distraction! We’ll demonstrate “Co-Designed,” a student-faculty podcast from Southern New Hampshire University and show podcasts as delivery vehicles for students’ projects. We’ll share scholarly research, how to use it for students’ projects, and how they’ve led higher levels of learning. The session includes time for discussion, questions and answers, and brainstorming. Participants will learn: why podcasts and undergrads are a match; how to start your own podcast; how to make the best use of existing podcasts; how student podcasts are a higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy; how to turn lectures into engaging podcasts/discussions to inspire critical thinking; and how to overcome resistance to reading.
Using Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning
Natasha Nurse-Clarke, Lehman College, CUNY
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
The use of technology has become increasingly important in recent years making it even more critical for educators to find ways to incorporate it into their teaching. Technology can be used in a variety of ways to enhance learning, including providing access to information and resources, helping students learn problem-solving skills, and facilitating communication. In addition, using technology can help make learning more fun and engaging for students. In this session, we will explore the various technology tools that can be leveraged to enhance teaching and learning. The presenter will provide a pedagogical framework for choosing and using technology in education and a “Teaching with Technology Toolkit” that will provide the foundational tools to get you started. Whether you are a tech-savvy educator or someone who is just getting started with using technology, this session is for you!
How Can I Support Persistence for Community College Students Using Digital Annotation?
Madeline Ruggiero, Queensborough Community College CUNY
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
When community college (CC) students are engaged in active learning through social constructs such as the use of digital annotation tools in the classroom, they are more likely to persist. Research reveals that using digital annotation tools with assignments provides (CC) students with the academic and social integration needed to continue. The demographic profile in CCs consists of a majority of low-income students who are less likely to enroll in school full time due to familial and financial responsibilities, and therefore struggle to complete college. Studies show that students who feel they don’t belong are the ones who do not persist with their studies. Attendees will gain ideas on how to engage students in active learning by using the social annotation tool Hypothesis. Creative assignments will be presented such as annotating the syllabus and online music lyrics.
Advisory Board Session
Hey Alexa, Help Me Promote a Sense of Belonging in My Online Classroom
LaQue Thornton Perkins and Khalilah Louis Caines, Saint Leo University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Recently, there has been a greater emphasis on creating a sense of belonging for students in higher education. A sense of belonging is related to a student’s perceived connectedness throughout their educational experience and is associated with increased student engagement, achievement, and retention in higher education. Online educators are tasked with identifying innovative ways to promote a sense of belonging in their classrooms. While the online classroom may present some challenges to student engagement and connection, there are also opportunities to leverage technology to promote a sense of belonging in online classes. Pedler, Willis & Nieuwoudt (2022) found “that university students with a higher sense of belonging reported higher motivation and enjoyment in their studies whereas students who reported lower levels of belonging reported lower levels of motivation and enjoyment” (pg. 2). The presenters will share lessons learned from incorporating technology in undergraduate and graduate online courses to increase student and faculty connectedness. Attendees will engage in an interactive discussion to further identify practical ways to utilize technology to promote a sense of belonging in the online classroom.
Effectively Scaffolding Student Learning in an Online Classroom
Karen Gordes and Violet Kulo, University of Maryland Baltimore
60 Minute Session
For attendees who are new to this topic
This session will provide emerging faculty with an easy how-to framework for incorporating effective scaffolding techniques within their online courses. Participants will learn the principal foundations and types of scaffolding grounded in the literature and why this instructional method supports student learning and can promote student and instructor interactions in online courses. A variety of practical options for implementing scaffolding specifically in an online platform will be modeled using the acronym CEDAR (Chunk material, Examples provided, Divide assessments, Align content/objectives/assessments, Reflection embedded). Attendees will leave with a toolbox of effective strategies that can be immediately applied to virtually any course mediated through technology to meet a diverse set of learner needs.
Evaluation of Student Engagement in a Large, Asynchronous Online Course
Paul Sale, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Most recently, technologies have been developed to increase interaction with peer students, instructors, and the course content. The purpose of this presentation is to present a mixed methods evaluation of student engagement in a large, asynchronous online course. An evaluation of 2,200 student Perusall annotations from a large, asynchronous research methods course will be presented. Participants will: examine the Perusall annotation platform; gain a better understanding of student interaction patterns; and participate in a discussion regarding student engagement in online platforms.
Online Peer Tutor’s Effect on Student Learning
Van Carpenter, South University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Peer tutoring has been demonstrated to be effective across nearly all modalities of teaching and learning. Quantitative research confirms this, but why? What is it that makes a good practice? What theories are in play? What can be done to make it better? What practices will make sure it is successful? This presentation will aim to demonstrate what students get out of peer tutoring. It will demonstrate what makes peer tutoring work. Finally, it will interact with the relevant educational theories and demonstrate how they may be applied across the broader field of online education.
How Can Communities of Practice be Used to Improve Online Teaching and Learning?
Ann Marie Ade, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
This presentation will define Communities of Practice (CoPs) and discuss how they can be used to improve online teaching and learning in a variety of educational settings. Information will be shared on the CoPs that are currently being used to improve writing as part of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Writing Matters. This session will also explore the benefits of CoPs and how they may work for others. Participants will take away: the definition and examples of CoPsl; the positive impacts of CoPs on online teaching and learning; and an exploration of possible uses of CoPs at attendees’ institutions.
Invited Session
A Time for Action: Empowering Trans-Spectrum College Students
Jonathan Howle, Columbia University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
This session is a call to action for higher education professionals to take meaningful action in order not to just support—but empower—trans-spectrum students in 2023. We are still in an era of “lots of talk and no action.” This session will provide some specific steps forward to empower college students at all levels. Participants will discuss implications from the latest research on trans-spectrum students’ experiences in colleges across the United States; identify specific strategies they can utilize to make their courses and campuses more inclusive of trans-spectrum students; and will design a plan to bring Campus Pride Index to their campuses or improve their current Campus Pride Index rating.
Invited Session
Sharing Wisdom: Intentional Self-care as Educators of Color
Dar Mayweather, University of North Carolina Wilmington
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
The goal of this session is to provide a healing space for educators of Color and allies who are living/working in racialized spaces. This presentation opens an essential discussion for POC and allies that are navigating raceless pedagogy, frameworks, and theories, while constantly being on guard about one’s own experiences and remaining engaged in supporting students. This is challenging and often discouraging for POC and allies. Through a discussion of race-centered theories and self-care, this presentation aims to refresh and empower educators of Color and allies to remain engaged in their work on campuses across the U.S. During this session, participants will: be exposed to theoretical research around Critical Race Theory and other racial education concepts; have a dialogue about positive and negative coping mechanisms associated with race; and learn strategies to communicate personal self-care needs and practices, while simultaneously caring for others.
Advancing Equity in Every Class: Practical Course Design and Teaching Strategies
Flower Darby, University of Missouri
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Equity-minded teaching can be defined as evidence-based course design and teaching strategies, which, when paired with critical self-reflection, help all students have an equal chance to succeed in any class, especially historically underserved students. Based on The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (2022) this session will present theory and practical tips that follow the cadence of how we teach: design strategies for before the term, day-to-day approaches to enact during the term, and reflections to engage in throughout and after the term. Whether you teach in person, online, or some combination of both, you’ll gain small yet impactful approaches you can implement in your next class.
Enhance Inclusive Teaching with Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
Karen Gordes, Mary Jo Bondy, and Erin Hagar, University of Maryland Baltimore
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
We must recognize that our students do not live in an education bubble, nor do they come to higher education with a clean slate. Many have experienced trauma, particularly, our students from marginalized communities. This session will provide an overview of the connection between trauma, re-traumatization, and its impact on student learning, engagement, and performance. Participants will be provided the foundations of trauma-informed pedagogy (including a review of the six trauma-informed principles adapted for higher education) and an academic tool kit on how to generate an inclusive, trauma-informed learning environment designed to support learners across the continuum of trauma experiences, particularly trauma experienced from biased and discriminatory cultures.
Decolonizing the Curriculum
Samina Hadi-Tabassum, Crystasany Turner, Penny Smith, and Lilly Padia, Erikson Institute
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
At our university, we were teaching an outdated model of child development in which there were silos for courses: a course on cognitive development; a course on linguistic development; a course on social and emotional development; a course on physical development; and a family systems course. In the past year, we took apart the curriculum and envisioned an interdisciplinary and interconnected curriculum that had six new domains: child characteristics and developmental domains; home, family, and cultural contexts; communities, organizations, and neighborhoods; policy, systems, and societies; and child development praxis. We then reviewed our framework for DEI principles and created a rubric for faculty to critically reflect on their teaching, textbooks, and syllabi in the program.
The Brown Boy Crisis: Educators Must Step Up to Meet the Challenges of Educating Non-White Males
Robert Woods, City University of New York
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
This session takes educators, graduate students, scholars, and policymakers inside the minds of African, Hispanic, and Native American males who fail to overcome the barriers schools often have to stumble their academic success. Thought to be monolithic learners, these groups have the highest dropout rates, and are disproportionately disciplined, suspended, and assigned to special education classes. Their school experiences have metastasized into a national crisis aimed at disadvantaging America’s next workforce. Participants in this session will learn to: identify the enormous diversity and learning styles among these three groups of male learners; what these students want, and what they expect from you; help foster inclusive curriculums with ways to incorporate their learning styles into lessons; and identify school barriers that now hinder their academic success.
The Inclusive Classroom…Where Everyone Gets to Thrive!
Susan Eason and John Mayes, Jr., San Jacinto College
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Classrooms are crucial for improving learning through inclusion and for minimizing negative classroom experiences. This session will provide strategies for creating an inclusive classroom environment where all students thrive. Trends that colleges and companies are adopting to insure inclusive and diverse policies will also be presented. We will explore barriers to student learning and strategies for building community among students. Our culture and past experiences form our identities. We will explain and provide examples of microaggressions, implicit bias, intersectionality, stereotype threat, imposter phenomenon, and strategies for addressing these. An inclusive classroom starts with us! Committed people are the first line of defense against non-inclusive behaviors. Come and learn how you can ensure that you have an inclusive classroom environment.
What Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies Effectively Support Higher Education Students?
Todd Finley and Patricia Anderson, East Carolina University
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Eighty-five percent of college students have experienced one or more traumatic events in their lives (Frazier, 2009), ranging from neglect to substance abuse. The effect of trauma on many older adolescents is emotionally and academically detrimental (Harris, 2014), and includes “work avoidance, learned helplessness, and lack of self-efficacy” (Bohannon, Clapsaddle, & McCollum, 2019), as well as inconsistent work, poor or failing grades, distractibility, and isolation. Beyond identifying the signs of trauma-response behaviors and responding with support and empathy, professors can promote student resiliency through relationship-building exercises, verbal encouragement, promotion of anxiety-coping strategies, and stabilization of learners’ nervous systems through programs such as the Community Resiliency Model (CRM)®.
Advocacy Project: Systems Level Service Learning in the Health Sciences
Sita Patel and Alinne Barrera, Palo Alto University
60 Minute Session
For attendees who are new to this topic
Service learning is a pedagogical approach that strengthens engagement and social commitment. The Advocacy Project is a policy-level service learning approach used in a Clinical Psychology doctoral course on Mental Health Disparities. The project includes experiential training in how to conduct policy advocacy, partnership with a local organizations, investigation and selection of a current proposed piece of legislation, and direct face-to-face contact with a legislator to advocate the issue. Content analysis of qualitative course evaluation data suggests that students found the Advocacy Project to be “expansive…engaging…innovative…boosted confidence about the impact we can have.” This presentation will demonstrate why policy-level service learning is valuable in helping students develop a systemic perspective and skillset in health sciences.
Do You Want Learners to be More Self-Directed? Help Them
Staci Saner, Russ Farmer, and Gerard Rabalais, University of Louisville School of Medicine
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
An underpinning of self-directed learning (SDL) is that learners are responsible owners of their learning process. Unfortunately, many faculty assume students/trainees already know how to be self-directed. This is not the case; most learners have been in teacher-directed environments most of their life. Faculty need to show learners in the health professions how to become self-directed, lifelong learners. This workshop discusses critical components of SDL and focuses on how faculty can promote SDL and teach it to learners. We will include electronic polling software and small group discussions to identify concepts to help our learners become life-long learners. Participants in the workshop will: acquire skills to enhance their ability to help learners be more self-directed; learn how to use the tool of learning science to promote self-directed learning; and identify strategies to implement with learners to help them develop their SDL skills.
Improve Critical Thinking in the Clinical Learning Environment
Staci Saner, Russ Farmer, and Gerard Rabalais, University of Louisville School of Medicine
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Faculty teach in lots of venues, such as classrooms, group settings, bedsides, and clinics. Clinical faculty teach while providing care for patients accompanied by learners in inpatient and outpatient settings. Learning science has given us well-described teaching strategies that facilitate learning in the classroom setting, but how should we incorporate these while teaching during patient care responsibilities? This session is designed to guide the clinician-educator to ask strategic questions and help the learner develop and utilize critical thinking skills. Participants will: use a guide of educational tools, specially designed for busy clinician-educators, to practice strategic questioning skills; describe how they will implement learning strategies at their institution; and develop an implementation plan for their faculty that serve in supervisory patient care roles in inpatient and outpatient settings.
Strategies to Avoid Your Students Saying: Ugh not Another Class Project
Sabrina Timperman and Amanda Colón, Mercy College
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
While exams have their place in academia, it is clear not every student is a great test taker. As instructors, we must ask ourselves if are there alternative ways to assess learning. Project-based learning is one way to provide students with an alternative method of showing they have met the required competencies. But every instructor knows planning and designing projects can be an intimidating affair. How do we construct a project that promotes critical thinking and analysis, increases content knowledge, enhances creativity, and dare we say, is fun and engaging? In this presentation techniques adapted from Dr. Sandra McGuire’s, book Teach Students How to Learn will be used to design creative projects which promote content, creativity, and self-reflection. Join us in this journey of exploration, reflection, and learning, and walk away with ideas you can implement in your class right away and understand the importance of self-reflection, critical thinking, and creativity in designing classroom projects.
Can Simulation-based Learning Replace Lectures to Foster Student Success?
Kelli D. Whittington, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
This 20-minute mentor session will describe the process the faculty at Southern Illinois University Carbondale have undertaken to transform the curriculum to a flipped classroom approach using simulation-based learning. Strategies for engagement, the need for formative and summative evaluation, and class session development will be shared and examined.
How Can Game-based Learning be Incorporated into Virtual Simulation to Enhance Learning?
Natasha Nurse-Clarke, Lehman College, and Brenda Hernandez-Acevedo, City University of New York
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Virtual Gaming Simulation (VGS) is an innovative technology in nursing education that combines simulation-based learning with game-based elements. VGS has the potential to improve students’ engagement with simulation-based activities and enhance the overall simulation experience. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the effects that VGS has on knowledge retention, student enjoyment, satisfaction, and confidence levels among undergraduate, pre-licensure nursing students. Furthermore, the presentation will address the central research question: What is the effect of VGS on knowledge retention, student enjoyment, satisfaction, and confidence level among undergraduate student nurses? Participants will understand that VGS: is a valid tool for teaching and preparing nursing students for the clinical environment; and can help students feel more confident and prepared before caring for actual patients.
Advisory Board Session
Scholarship Advice for Teachers
Ken Alford, Brigham Young University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Time is always in short supply. So, what can teachers realistically do to become more effective researchers and scholars? This session shares research, writing, and scholarship advice gleaned from outstanding professors during the past forty years. Some of their suggestions may surprise you. Come join us!
Empowering Students to Reach their Potential: A Mentoring Program
Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol and Kerrie Farkas, Millersville University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
How do you develop a quality mentoring program that enables students to take ownership of their learning experiences, take risks, and grow both personally and professionally? Join us for an interactive session that discusses innovative and effective mentoring approaches based on recent literature and our eight-year longitudinal study of 40 student interns where we built a mentoring program that fostered student growth by providing the structure and support needed to allow them to step out of their comfort zones, take initiative, and take ownership of their roles. At the end of the session, participants will be able to: explain best approaches for mentoring; compile a collaboratively shared toolkit of mentoring techniques; and develop a Big Idea, SMART goal, and action plan to implement mentoring initiatives in their own institutions.
Enhancing the Distance Education Community through an Online Scholarship Expo
Chad Clark, Bradley University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
As more universities and organizations add online modalities of instruction, building a sense of community among distance education learners is becoming a common challenge. Many residential students are often afforded resources that are not extended to online students within the same institution. One mid-size private university sought to identify and assess current online learner needs related to their feelings of community and launched an online scholarship expo to allow students a flexible option in presenting their scholarly activities. This interactive session will: explore challenges and opportunities in the development of an online scholarship expo; discuss innovative ways to identify existing opportunities; and explain how to create events or tools for online learners to enhance their sense of community and increase retention and overall satisfaction of online learners within your organization.
Mentoring with Accountable Grace: The Silver AG Effect
Ashanti Bryant Foster, Prince George’s Community College
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Students are responsible for completing assignments on time and reaching out when they need support. However, research has shown that students with anti-social concerns aren’t accessing the available resources. During the pandemic, flexibility and grace were extended across campuses nationwide for both faculty and students. Now that many campuses are returning to near-normal conditions, Accountable Grace (AG) is necessary. AG is the delicate balance of grace and accountability for self and others and shares many of the characteristics that faculty, staff members, and students need to fully support student success. In this workshop, participants will: explore Ag- The Silver Effect; reflect on current practices; and practice the Silver Effect with real-time feedback.
Project STARs: Strategies to Achieve Results in Performance/Retention
Mindy Barna, Christi Glesmann, and Alisa Parmer, College of Saint Mary
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
The purpose of this project was to address educational disparities, inclusivity, student performance and experience, and retention. The STARs approach empowers first-year students through a sense of belonging, success advising, an academic support course, and wrap-around services. Project STARs created a pathway to connect with students earlier and more frequently. Alongside Project STARs, was the development of Project BOLD (Belonging, Overcoming obstacles, Leadership development, Debt-free). At this time, Project BOLD has received grant money to support our Student Success Advisors and provide 100 nursing scholarships. In sharing our experience, we hope to assist others in decreasing inequality and educational disparities, while increasing academic student performance, retention, and the student experience.
The Mindful Educator: How and Why We Practice
Taryn Greig and Sarah Duncan, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Cultivating a regular meditation practice has been shown to enhance focus, reduce stress, and increase compassionate action. Given these findings, mindfulness meditation can be a powerful tool to support educators in performing their roles. While many of us have heard the terms meditation and mindfulness before, we may still be left wondering what these practices involve and how they are relevant to the work that we do. This session will draw on research in this area, along with the facilitators’ own personal experience, to explain why making meditation a habit can improve your classroom experience and that of your students. Participants will be given an opportunity to experience the benefits of meditation and mindfulness directly through guided practice and will leave this session armed with practical tools to cultivate mindfulness daily.
Collaborative Learning: Can You Build Culture through Student Clubs?
Barbara A. Manko, Gannon University
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
Many responsibilities come with being a teacher or professor beyond the work of communicating course content. Along with advising and mentoring, student well-being and engagement, and career and professional development, professors, instructors, and temporary faculty at the university level are responsible for activities outside of class and student social clubs. These social clubs have many positives that will be explored—such as fostering a sense of community, allowing for personal and professional development, and increasing retention rates. They are not without challenges in their implementation and execution, and a variety of factors must be considered to ensure success.
How Can You Engage Students by Having Them Participate in Real-world Industry Outreach and Extension Projects?
Darryl, Holliday, University of Holy Cross
20-Minute Mentor Session
For attendees who have some experience with this topic
Professors are challenged with engaging their students to interact with the content and create their own knowledge. Research shows that effective teaching methods can stimulate student engagement which is associated with positive learning outcomes, retention, completion, employability, and post-graduation involvement. However, most engagement in the sciences at the undergraduate level is focused on classwork. With predominately research professors teaching courses, and most graduates working outside academia, there is a disconnect between theory, research application, and industry application. Employers expect students to be able to apply their knowledge on the first day on the job. Our focus on out-of-the-classroom undergraduate engagement activities such as research, industry-funded projects, and a student-run business led to increased student success both in university and after graduation.
Invited Session
A Teaching Effectiveness Framework for Faculty and Student Success
Jennifer Todd and Tonya Buchan, Colorado State University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Developed at The Institute of Learning and Teaching at Colorado State University, the Teaching Effectiveness Framework (TEF) is comprised of seven essential, interrelated domains of effective teaching practices—for face-to-face and online instruction—each grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning. This workshop will guide you in defining student success and aligning it with your or your institution’s definition of instructor success. Participants will leave this workshop with a personal plan to focus their own teaching efforts to support student success and their own teaching success. At the end of this workshop, you will be able to: define student success for their course; identify elements of your own success as an instructor; use the TEF to choose a focus for professional development; be familiar with the online resources of the TEF Toolkit.
Invited Session
Maximizing Your Communication Toolkit: Tools from Positive and Cognitive Psychology
Shannon Scott, Texas Woman’s University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Communication is an essential skill to develop community, address conflict, and motivate others. In this interactive session, we will identify specific techniques from cognitive and positive psychology that can help you to approach communication, even difficult communication, using a strengths-based, positive approach. The audience will practice skills such as active-constructive responding and active, empathic listening. The audience will also practice providing negative feedback positively, making an action request, and setting boundaries. At the end of this session, the audience will be able to utilize listening strategies; identify a boundary response plan; create a positive action request; and provide negative feedback positively.
CARES Model: CTE Training for Peer-to-Peer Observation
Sarah Fedirka, Katy August, Nicole Williams, and Christine Denecker, University of Findlay
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Peer observations are routinely used in tenure and promotion decisions. Far less frequently are faculty trained in observation practices. In the Fall of 2022, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) at the University of Findlay (OH) began the Collaborative and Reflective Educational Support (CARES) program. This program trains faculty as CTE-certified classroom observers using the Danielson Framework for Teaching (FFT). The CARES program represents an evolution in the university’s observation culture, reflecting a move from evaluative to formative observations and a renewed focus on the FFT as a foundation for our work with students. In this session, participants will: discuss the benefits of peer-to-peer observation; understand the updated Danielson Framework for Teaching; and learn how to train faculty to conduct collaborative, interdisciplinary peer-to-peer observations.
Leading and Learning through Critical Friends
Paula Cristina Azevedo, Marcia Baldanza, and Nicci Dowd, Marymount University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Three new School of Education faculty with diverse experiences and interests organically formed as critical friends to support efforts to improve teaching, enhance service, and advance scholarship towards tenure. Participants will: understand the role critical friends could play in new faculty development; have the opportunity to reflect on their own practices; and explore and use the critical friends toolkit developed by the presenters.
Transformational Coaching: Bridging the Gap in Professional Learning
Julia Osteen and Jaclyn Spivey, Lipscomb University
60 Minute Session
For all attendees
Catalyst Coaching was developed to promote educators’ professional development through customized learning and transformational coaching. Research indicates the value of efforts, such as coaching, that are responsive to faculty members’ needs and reflective of higher education’s ever-changing landscape. In this interactive session, attendees will learn about the evidence-based foundations and structure of the yearlong program. Data after the first year highlighted that participants experienced an increase in persistence, resilience, positive emotion, and happiness while negative emotions decreased; 90% returned for a second year of the program. Presenters will share reflections about the program and comments from participants, and attendees will walk away with a model for faculty coaching in higher education.
How Can I Support Faculty and Graduate Students Writing a Diversity Statement?
Tina Huey, University of Connecticut
20-Minute Mentor Session
For all attendees
For many, writing a teaching philosophy statement, and especially a diversity statement seems daunting. Graduate students and their faculty mentors, as well as department heads, often rely on centers of teaching and learning to provide guidance to begin, elaborate, and complete the process. Faculty development workshops and consultations are sometimes the only space where reflection on teaching practices occurs, and often on an urgent time frame that presents challenges for the process of writing a diversity statement. Principles of coaching, reflective writing prompts, and guided reading of samples and rubrics will be shared. The session will also discuss the limitations of designing support for faculty and graduate students writing a diversity statement.
