01 Supporting Teachers to Engage Students in Challenging Topics

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Jenna Rheingans (Educational Psychology)
Susie Lamborn (Educational Psychology)

This presentation focuses on teaching challenging topics by utilizing popular culture to portray a teaching moment and having participants self-reflect on this portrayal. What types of teaching strategies are supported by research? Research can guide teaching practices to support student engagement in challenging topics.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Consider teaching experiences for challenging topics.
2. Self-reflect about the ways we have been taught and the effect it had on us as teachers.
3. What teaching strategies are supported by research to engage students in challenging topics?

 

02 Can I have an extension? Sure! Just use a token!

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Ann Raddant (Biological Sciences)

Rigid due dates can be a barrier to student success, but spending time and energy scrutinizing students’ requests for extensions can place a significant burden on instructors. Utilizing a token economy has allowed for increased flexibility while also maintaining accountability and helping students stay on track. Allowing for a fixed number of “no questions asked” extensions reduced decision fatigue while only contributing to a moderate increase in administrative burden.

Session Takeaways:

By the end of this session attendees will be able to:

1. Identify ways to increase the flexibility of their courses
2. Describe how Canvas assignments can be used to track token use

 

03 Infusing Career Learning into Undergraduate Education

Facilitated Panel Discussion
Benjamin Trager (School of Education)
Benjamin Schneider (Honors)
Erica Meier (Art & Design)
Adam Follmer (Communication Sciences and Disorders)
Theodore Lentz (Criminal Justice)
Morgan Foster (English and Women’s and Gender Studies)
Kim Omachinski (Communication)

The UWM Experiential Learning Teaching Fellows will discuss their approaches to infusing career learning into their undergraduate teaching. The fellows come from a range of disciplines and will discuss various practices, including service-learning, internships, project-based learning, and reflection in their courses. Attendees will learn orientations and techniques for inculcating career learning into their teaching as well as examples of experiential learning infused across the curriculum.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Describe orientations and techniques for inculcating career learning into their teaching,
2. Describe examples of experiential learning infused across the curriculum.

 

04 Continuing the Keynote Discussion: Delving Deeper into the Futures of Higher Education

Facilitated Discussion
Sarah Riforgiate (CETL)
Benjamin Gautsch (CETL)
Connie Schroeder (CETL)

Join us to continue the discussion and explore Dr. Alexander’s keynote address ideas in this interactive online forum. CETL facilitators will lead attendees through a dynamic dialogue, emphasizing the implications, challenges, and opportunities highlighted in Dr. Alexander’s work. This session offers a unique platform for participants to share perspectives, pose questions, and collaboratively forge practical strategies for adapting to the rapid technological advancements and shifting forces affecting education.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will:

1. Identify and explore key trends impacting the educational sector, as identified by Dr Alexander,
2. Share and gain different perspectives through discussions about practical implications of educational trends with interdisciplinary colleagues,
3. Develop tangible strategies to address current educational challenges, leveraging insights from the keynote and shared experiences of fellow attendees.

 

05 Microsessions

Micro Presentation sessions are succinct 10-minute presentations that share a specific teaching technique, assignment, or practice that can be adapted to a variety of class topics and types. These sessions are designed to give attendees great ideas for teaching in simple, concise, small bites to inspire new practices or practice adaptations.

Three ten-minute micro presentations will be clustered at the start of this session, and will be followed by fifteen minutes of Q&A.

A | Conflict Transformation for Teachers

Sarah MacDonald (Division of DEI)

Do conflicts or tense discussions in the classroom make you anxious? Conflict transformation offers a framework and strategies for engaging conflict more constructively and confidently. This presentation first introduces how conflict transformation reframes conflict as opportunity, then overviews four key steps to productively handling conflict moments in the classroom. You’ll learn strategies that can be applied across disciplines and tailored to varied teaching contexts.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Articulate a conflict transformation framework,
2. Describe four key steps to productively respond to conflict moments in the classroom.

B | Simple strategies to be fair, equitable and inclusive

Susan Stalewski (College of Health Professions and Science)

Learn easy to adopt course and grading policies and assignment strategies instructors can use to create a student-centered and inclusive academic course.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Construct a transparent course grading scheme that quantifies the number of assignments students must complete to achieve a specific grade,
2. Consider at least one innovative assignment, such as a “Build Your Own Adventure” , which can foster student interest, engagement, and autonomy,
3. Apply Canvas gradebook settings to facilitate course flexibility and student autonomy

C | Fishbowl Activity: Creating an Inclusive Classroom and Inviting Change

Vipavee Thongpriwan (School of Nursing)
Vicki Swaney (School of Nursing)

Fishbowl activity is a teaching strategy that is often used to facilitate student participation. Students are divided into two groups. One group sits in the inner circle and discusses the discussion prompts while the other sits in the outer circle and listens. We used this activity as a means of self-discovery for students and instructors contributing to deep learning. We aimed to introduce this practical activity for use in graduate-level courses to discuss difficult and sensitive topics.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Describe a specific teaching technique that can be used to promote self-discovery and inclusive environments,
2. Identify ways to include fishbowl activity strategies in graduate-level courses,
3. Construct fishbowl activity and discussion prompts that can potentially be implemented for their own classrooms.

06 Active Learning: Dimensions of Diversity

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Candice Ruh (Communication Arts)

This presentation will engage participants in an active learning activity that encourages reflection on diverse dimensions of identity. Participants will hear examples of how this activity has been used, and will have the opportunity to ask questions about implementing this learning activity in their own classrooms.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be better able to:

1. Identify dimensions of diversity and how such dimensions impact participants’ lives,
2. Consider positioning this learning activity in their own classrooms,
3. Create connections between diversity dimensions, their own identities, and experiences in their extended social circles and classrooms

 

07 The Embodied Classroom Experience

Teaching Topic Exchange (formerly Birds-of-a-Feather)
Rachel Zembrowski (English)

Attendees are invited to join this conversation to address the bodily experience of being in a university classroom. Consideration of student embodied experiences is key to centering accessibility as well as cultivating a positive learning environment for all students. This topic encompasses accessibility of space and materials, mandatory attendance, student physical comfort and mobility, standard classroom layout and format, the ongoing COVID-19 issue, and more. Attendees will be invited to join the conversation verbally, through virtual polls, and through access to a shared document which will be a place to contribute thoughts, notes, and strategies.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Have at least one concrete idea to implement in their classrooms to address student embodied experiences,
2. Connect with other instructors to continue the conversation beyond the session,
3. Be conscious of this aspect of student experience, and allow it to inform teaching strategies moving forward.

 

08 Teaching Soft Skills Through Improv

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Sarah Beth Nelson (School of Information Studies)

Librarians are often trained how to find answers to their patron’s reference question, but not how to fully listen to the patron. Dr. Nelson will demonstrate how improvisation exercises are being used in the higher education classroom to teach interpersonal skills to future librarians, and will lead a discussion on how improv techniques could be applied in other fields as well. We will practice some improvisation ourselves as part of this session.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Draw connections between improvisation guidelines and communication skills,
2. Become comfortable with some of their own discomfort around improvisation,
3. Defend the value of teaching soft skills in many fields.

 

09 Consider the benefits of a transcalar approach to project-based learning

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Stefania Palmyra Geraki (School of Architecture and Urban Planning)

The session will discuss transcalarity in the context of project-based learning, arguing that addressing a topic at different scales can help advance a research agenda by opening new possibilities for the direction of future research as well as by providing additional context and nuance at each scale. The specific methods used in the Fall 2023 course ARCH 650/850: “Living and Working” and their outcomes will be used as a springboard for a broader conversation about how transcalar thinking/working can be used in the classroom. Specific questions that will be asked will include: How can we ensure that a transcalar approach leads to integrated solutions rather than isolated approaches at each scale? Can this scalar approach (and the depth of learning needed to achieve it) be effectively accommodated within the temporal bounds of a semester-long or even year-long project or should it be implemented at the curricular level (if appropriate)? What are the benefits of scalar jumping (which was the approach used in the course in question) compared to a sequential approach (moving from S to L/XL or vice versa)?

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Consider the benefits of a transcalar approach to project-based learning,
2. Identify the scales appropriate to their body of knowledge and research.

 

10 Multicultural Competencies

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Jaquelin Zaragoza (Educational Psychology)
Susie Lamborn (Educational Psychology)

This teaching unit introduces students who plan to become teachers to ideas pertaining to multicultural competencies, which refer to abilities to communicate and work with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. Participants will be asked to participate in brief self-reflection and consideration of teaching styles that connect to cultural aspects of students’ lives. This unit introduces the Tripartite Model of Multicultural Competencies.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Better understand what multicultural competencies are,
2. Practice self-reflection about their culture and the culture of students they work with,
3. Practice ideas for using cultural aspects to lower cultural miscommunication in the classroom.

 

11 Microsessions

Micro Presentation sessions are succinct 10-minute presentations that share a specific teaching technique, assignment, or practice that can be adapted to a variety of class topics and types. These sessions are designed to give attendees great ideas for teaching in simple, concise, small bites to inspire new practices or practice adaptations.

Three ten-minute micro presentations will be clustered at the start of this session, and will be followed by fifteen minutes of Q&A.

A | Escaping the Classroom

Lisa Brennan (School of Nursing)

Learn to integrate digital escape rooms into your classroom to increase interactivity with students. Digital escape rooms are a versatile teaching strategy that can be as simple or intricate as needed for your classroom learning. Step-by-step directions on how to create your own escape rooms that can be customized to in-person, hybrid, or online learning environments with a variety of examples to demonstrate how this tool can be successful in guided learning.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Explain how digital escape rooms an effective interactive teaching tool for in-person, hybrid, and online learning can be,
2. Experiment with the steps to create a basic digital escape room,
3. Construct a Virtual Escape Room that can be used in the audience’s courses.

B | Global media scavenger hunt: Using active learning approaches to explore global issues through a digital search.

Jannatul Ferdous Zinia (Communication Arts)

The ‘global media scavenger hunt’ is a highly interactive and engaging activity to help students develop critical thinking skills and gain a deeper understanding of the complex factors that shape media systems and practices around the world. This classroom activity engages in active learning strategies to make every student participate in hands-on learning experiences, such as group discussions. The goal is to enable students gain a deeper understanding of the complex factors that shape media systems in a more collaborative and inclusive classroom environment.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Adapt active learning strategies for diverse disciplines, fostering flexibility and applicability in various academic settings,
2. Explain how this active learning approach contributes to the improvement of students’ research and communication skills across disciplines,
3. Increase student engagement by customizing the scavenger hunt activity for specific subjects, ensuring relevance and active participation.

C | On the role of the pre-class quiz in increasing student engagement

Glenn Starr (Linquistics)

I will be discussing the use of pre-class graded quizzes, due at least 18 hours before each lecture, that are designed to check student comprehension of the texts and to give them a chance to respond to course content. By having them due approximately one day before class, I am able to incorporate student feedback into the lecture day and personalize the delivery of content for the class. I observed a noticeable increase in attendance and participation using this method.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Integrate student concerns, questions, and experiences into the lecture proper prior to lecture day,
2. Create dynamic and engaging class experiences for students that increase student engagement and attendance.

12 Enhancing Learning: Creating Inclusive Classrooms through Need Analysis

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Megha Yadav (Lubar College of Business)
Natalie Marie Schneider (Lubar College of Business)

Our educational environments should be spaces where every student feels valued, heard, and empowered. This session aims to explore the practical strategy of need analysis in fostering inclusive learning in higher education. By uncovering the unique needs and learning styles of each student, need analysis helps in tailoring educational approaches. Through a dynamic Zoom interactive activity, participants will actively engage firsthand, gaining actionable insights and takeaways to implement equitable strategies for all learners.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Utilize practical strategies for creating inclusive classrooms,
2. Understand diverse learning styles through needs analysis,
   Develop a personalized action plan for integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion into teaching practices.

 

13 Empower Student Participation: Leading Dynamic Discussion Sections

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Anna Rohl (History)

Engaging students enrolled in 100-level discussion sections is an ongoing challenge for many TAs. However, by structuring your discussion sections with the intention of boosting interactivity and critical thinking skills, even the most unenthused students will engage meaningfully with your subject! Attendees will walk through two impactful strategies for teaching students not just information, but ways of thinking about and interpreting materials: routines and varying activities.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Explain why presenting material in a variety of ways enhances understanding of class materials and contributes to student success,
2. Structure a discussion section so that students know what to expect each week, such as opening and closing routines,
3. Utilize methods of building students’ analytic thinking skills over the course of the semester through group and individual activities.

 

14 What can I say, what should I do?

Facilitated Panel Discussion
Susan Stalewski (College of Health Professions and Sciences)
Carrie Flieder (UWM Counselling Center)
Rebecca Freer (Dean of Students Office)
Dorrie Van Kerkvoorde (Psychology)

Do you work with students who demonstrate challenging behaviors, lack of participation, physical and mental health, or other needs? A panel representing advising and program management, the Dean of Students, and the University Counselling Center will discuss strategies for best communicating and supporting students and instructors in challenging situations. This session offers an opportunity to learn from an interdisciplinary team, focusing on student support and success.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Identify at least three strategies for communicating with students who present challenging behaviors, lack of class participation, possible physical and mental health, or other needs,
2. Describe at least two ways to support students by connecting them with campus resources,
3. Demonstrate confidence in engaging positively with students.

 

15 Capstone Courses — Undergraduate and Graduate Perspectives

Facilitated Panel Discussion
Elise Papke (Zilber College of Public Health)
Shana Ponelis (SOIS)
Linnea Laestadius (Zilber College of Public Health)
Connie Schroeder (CETL)

This panel features two Capstones, INFOST 490 Senior Capstone in the BS IST Program and PH 800 Capstone in the MPH Program. The BSIST Capstone is a team-based project, and a challenge has been to ensure students are adequately prepared. The MPH Capstone project is based on specific program and track competencies, and a challenge has been to ensure that the Proposals are completed in the prior semester. Participants will explore unique features, challenges, and plans with panelists.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Describe two unique features of two Capstone course models (undergraduate and graduate),
2. Discuss three ways how BSIST students’ readiness for the Capstone project can be enhanced,
3. Identify two ways how MPH students’ Capstone Proposal process can be strengthened,
4. Explore shared strengths, challenges, and solutions for Capstone courses.

 

16 Microsessions

Micro Presentation sessions are succinct 10-minute presentations that share a specific teaching technique, assignment, or practice that can be adapted to a variety of class topics and types. These sessions are designed to give attendees great ideas for teaching in simple, concise, small bites to inspire new practices or practice adaptations.

Three ten-minute micro presentations will be clustered at the start of this session, and will be followed by fifteen minutes of Q&A.

A | Not Just Math: Discussing Disciplinary Literacy to Help Students Solve Problems in STEM

Leah Johnson (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
Anja Blecking (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
Barbara Lucius (Teaching and Learning)

A variety of disciplines build on basic skills students acquire from prerequisite courses in other disciplines. For example, math skills are important for success in the physical sciences, but students who are strong in mathematics can struggle when they rely too much on their math knowledge to solve science problems. In our 1-credit disciplinary literacy course for introductory chemistry students, we developed activities to make explicit the differences between the math and chemistry disciplines. During this micro-presentation, we hope to share these activities in order to inspire other instructors to explore the specific conventions of their disciplines, and how these might differ from students’ expectations.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Reflect on how students’ understanding of other disciplinary conventions may confuse students learning in new contexts,
2. Recognize examples of activities meant to heighten students’ awareness of how to solve problems in the physical sciences.

B | Writing Assignments: The Challenge of Using Source Examples

Mark Sullivan (English Language Academy)

Do your students struggle with using clear and effective examples from your course materials for your writing assignments? These writing tasks seem easy for instructors; nonetheless, students still struggle with supporting their ideas using clear examples. This session will give a brief overview of the challenge of using examples from readings in writing assignments from the teacher and student perspective. Then, a simple instructional technique will show how your students can integrate examples, such as direct quotations, into their writing assignments.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Build their awareness of this reading-writing challenge by examining some sample assignments,
2. See how students can gain confidence on their writing assignments through a short classroom exercise of how to integrate quotations.

C | Reading in Chemistry? Using the LIM Note Method to Help Students Learn from Text

Leah Johnson (Chemistry and Biochemstry)
Barbara Lucius (Teaching and Learning)
Anja Blecking (Chemistry & Biochemistry)

The LIM note method was developed to help students pull the most important information from dense text, and to interact meaningfully with what they read. It was originally applied at UWM mostly in the context of academic reading in the social sciences and the humanities, but we incorporated the method into our 1-credit literacy support course for introductory chemistry students. During this micro-presentation, we hope to share the components of the LIM method, demonstrate how it can be used to develop reading assignments (even in STEM courses), and present research into its effect on student learning.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. List the components of the LIM method and explain how they work together to help readers understand text,
2. Recognize examples of LIM-informed assignments for a chemistry support course Connect the skills of LIM to student learning outcomes.

17 Getting the House in Order

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Carlynn Alt (School of Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology)
Karen Miyoshi (Zilber College of Public Health)
Yeeilianna Hamilton (School of Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology)
Jennifer Earl-Boehm (School of Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology)
Shirley J Burks (School of Continuing Education)

This group presentation will highlight how one College partnered with the School of Continuing Education to offer 4 topics from the Culture of Racism, Recovery, & Resilience series to promote education and awareness of behaviors that can improve the culture of inclusion. We believe that the development of an inclusive culture for our students must begin with and include our staff and faculty. We will share our journey and our successes following the yearlong program.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be better able to:

1. Identify resources on campus for personal or departmental growth and awareness of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging issues within the work and learning environments on campus,
2. Identify changes within your program/department/school that can make easy wins for improved inclusivity on our campus.

 

18 Using AI to Increase Student Engagement

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Deanna Wesolowski (Ancient & Modern Languages, Literatures, & Cultures)

This presentation will demonstrate how to use AI-generated essays as the basis of an assignment. By shifting away from student-generated essays towards annotation of AI-generated essays, students engage with readings more closely and think critically about the course material. This presentation will show one way of building this type of assignment to increase student success and ease of grading.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be better able to:

1. Recognize how to create an easily gradable assignment using ChatGPT to focus student engagement and critical thinking about course material which they can adopt for their own courses.

 

19 Compassionate Accommodation: Using the Ethic of Care to Support Students and Improve Learning

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Navada Hessler (Sociology)

How do we ensure the successful completion of learning objectives while recognizing how the challenges student’s face might create impediments? Many students struggle with additional obligations and hardships that standard classroom policies only exacerbate. In this session we will discuss adopting an ethic of care approach that centers compassion and accommodation in the classroom. We will challenge our own classroom policies and how we can make accommodations that will help students succeed.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Recognize the various challenges and impediments students face that may hinder their successful completion of learning objectives,
2. Analyze how standard classroom policies might exacerbate the struggles of students with additional obligations and hardships,
3. Learn the principles of an ethic of care approach that emphasizes compassion and accommodation in the classroom setting,
4. Critically evaluate current classroom policies to identify areas where they may lack in providing support and accommodation for students,
5. Develop strategies to make effective accommodations in classroom policies that aid in student success, taking into account their unique challenges and needs.

 

20 Building Disciplinary Research and Inquiry Skills (Without a Research Paper)

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Anna Schmidt (UWM Libraries)
Gillian Rodger (Music)
Stephen White (Theatre)

Information literacy skills — locating information, understanding how it is created, and using that information to learn and create ethically — are important competencies for an educated student and citizen. While many students will encounter research instruction in the context of papers and presentations, in some courses those research outputs are not appropriate. In this session, a librarian and faculty members in music and theatre will discuss collaborative integration of information literacy skills in courses that do not include a traditional research project. Participants will have the opportunity to think about what information literacy looks like in their own discipline, and brainstorm opportunities to develop those skills in students.

Session Takeaways

By attending this session, participants will:

1. Connect practices in their disciplines and professions with information literacy outcomes,
2. Recognize the role of collaboration between disciplinary faculty and information literacy experts in student success,
3. Identify potential information literacy outcomes and assessments in their courses.

 

21 Microsessions

Micro Presentation sessions are succinct 10-minute presentations that share a specific teaching technique, assignment, or practice that can be adapted to a variety of class topics and types. These sessions are designed to give attendees great ideas for teaching in simple, concise, small bites to inspire new practices or practice adaptations.

Three ten-minute micro presentations will be clustered at the start of this session, and will be followed by fifteen minutes of Q&A.

A | A Thinking Classroom in the Generative AI Era

Nadine Kozak (School of Information Studies)

The start of the fall semester brought a combination of new first year students seeking more in-class activities, gaps in learning created (potentially) by the pandemic, and some students’ reliance on generative AI to complete their class work. To address these challenges, I altered my approach, creating weekly activities that required in-class critical thinking using a variety of materials that, for the time being, foil the AI generators. These activities got students thinking in class and led to fewer AI-generated assignments because students already had a start – and a stake – in the assignment and their learning.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Understand how these techniques address issues in today’s classroom,
2. Apply these techniques to their discipline and classes.

B | Metacognitive Test Review: Looking Back to Move Forward

Leah Johnson (Chemistry and Biochemstry)
Anja Blecking (Chemistry & Biochemistry)
Barbara Lucius (Teaching and Learning)

Bloom’s Taxonomy, which characterizes knowledge according to what the learner can do with it, can be used to help students reflect on their own understanding. Metacognitive exam review activities, with guiding questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and other research on metacognition, were developed for a 1-credit disciplinary literacy support course for introductory chemistry students. This micro-presentation will share both the activities and student comments about how completing them affected their learning as well as ideas on the transferability of the assignments to other disciplines.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy and guiding questions to scaffold metacognitive reflection on course assessments,
2. Understand how self-reflection on their course exams/assignments can support student learning.

22 What Does Neurodivergence Look Like for the Adult Student?

Teaching Topic Exchange (formerly Birds-of-a-Feather)
Susan Stalewski (College of Health Professions and Science)

This session is helpful for everyone! Participants will view the documentary Neurodivergence (25 min.), followed by a group discussion of insights and strategies for understanding and supporting the neurodivergent student in our college courses. Neurodivergent is a profoundly personal mixed media experience inside the ADHD mind of director Afton Quast Saler. Follow the filmmaker’s journey as she discovers her ADHD diagnosis during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Session Takeaways

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

1. Articulate key characteristics and challenges associated with ADHD and the experience of the neurodivergent student in higher education,
2. Demonstrate empathy towards individuals with ADHD and the challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals in college courses,
3. Recognize and challenge assumptions and beliefs about neurodiversity.

 

23 Highlighting Global Connections for Student Engagement

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Anita Alkhas (Global Studies)
Pauline Gaignon (Global Studies)

Feeling connected to learning is an essential element for success. Glocalizing underscores the inherent connectedness of our world. By highlighting and exploring local connections to our curriculum – on campus, in Milwaukee, and in Wisconsin, instructors can illustrate the relevance of content to the learners’ real life context and show how the curriculum intersects with their interests and aspirations. In this session, we will explore how this strategy can foster student engagement.

Session Takeaways

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

1. Involve students in expanding and exploring glocal connections for their discipline,
2. Incorporate new glocal connections in their courses.

24 Tools for “High Impact Practice” Assignments, Courses, and Curricula

Strategies in Teaching and Learning
Connie Schroeder (CETL)

High Impact Practices (HIPs) leverage the achievement gap and student success. The Eighty HIPs Quality Features identify what makes the impact “high.” Courses embedding these features become a high impact practice accessible to all students. Apply the HIPs-rich Assignment Builder to modify one assignment with the Eight with HIPs features. Explore additional tools to design HIPs-rich assignments, course outcomes and pedagogical activities and explore how to embed them across an entire curriculum

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Describe the Eight High Impact Practice Quality Features that leverage student success,
2. Design a HIPs-rich assignment,
3. Embed HIPs features across an entire curriculum,
4. Apply the list of additional HIP-rich tools and rubric metric to embed HIPs into their courses.

 

25 Teaching and Learning with Generation Z

Teaching Topic Exchange (formerly Birds-of-a-Feather)
Mary Iaquinta (Conservation and Environmental Science)

Generation Z presents unique challenges. In this session, we will explore these challenges from the perspectives of students and educators to identify new teaching and communication approaches.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will:

1. Compare experiences, thoughts, and feelings of Generation Z students post-covid with instructor experiences in the classroom,
2. Explain the reason for novel teaching approaches,
3. Describe and brainstorm ways to scaffold student development in learning, thinking about learning, and communication.

 

26 Microsessions

Micro Presentation sessions are succinct 10-minute presentations that share a specific teaching technique, assignment, or practice that can be adapted to a variety of class topics and types. These sessions are designed to give attendees great ideas for teaching in simple, concise, small bites to inspire new practices or practice adaptations.

Three ten-minute micro presentations will be clustered at the start of this session, and will be followed by fifteen minutes of Q&A.

A | 10 simple strategies to proactively support student emotional well-being.

Lori Bokowy (Student Health and Wellness Center)

Navigating the challenges of supporting student emotional well-being within the classroom can feel overwhelming and time-consuming. This session provides 10 actionable strategies to proactively support student emotional well-being, all achievable in under 60 minutes. We’ll focus on efficient ways to connect students with emotional well-being resource information and simple instructional strategies that can have high emotional well-being impacts.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Efficiently add student-focused emotional well-being resource information to their Canvas course pages,
2. Identify at least three simple ways to proactively support student emotional well-being.

B | Student-centered Learning: Making Your Students the Focus

Andrew Westgate (Atmospheric Sciences)

Instructor-focused courses inhibit a student’s ability to grow in their learning and allow them to be more passive in their education. Student-centered learning is a teaching philosophy that centers the course onto the students instead of the instructor. Having students engage the content, instructor, and each other in a meaningful way has been the easiest facet of student-centered learning for me to incorporate into the class as a teaching assistant. Through this, I am able to establish an interactive environment that allow students to be participants instead of observers.

Session Takeaways

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Understand how instructor-focused courses can limit a student’s growth and encourage passivity in their education,
2. Learn the principles of student-centered learning, which emphasizes placing the student at the core of the learning experience rather than the instructor,
3. Develop skills to engage students with the content, the instructor, and their peers in meaningful ways, a key aspect of student-centered learning,
4. Master techniques to establish an interactive classroom environment that encourages students to be active participants rather than passive observers,
5. Evaluate personal experiences as a teaching assistant in incorporating student-centered learning approaches and identify effective strategies and areas for improvement.