6th Annual Big 12 Teaching and Learning Conference
Individual Session Descriptions
The following schedule will be updated until the start of the conference. Unless otherwise indicated, all events will take place in the Texas Union.
Friday, June 14, 12:30-2:00pm
Lightning Talks
"Identity Empowerment"
Lisa Sigafoos (University of Texas at Austin)
This Lightning Talk will take participants through the identity empowerment activity that I use with my students. Identity empowerment helps students recognize the importance of valuing identity and accepting other's differences. Students further recognize the importance of learning other;s identity rather than making assumptions about who someone is. Such learning helps foster a sense of classroom community and inclusiveness. Students feel valued and safe to express their true self. It also builds respective for differences amongst students. The identity empowerment activity is based off the intersection of identities wheel created by Taylor, Miller, and Garcia-Louis (2014).
"Express Yourself: Tapping into Talents to Demonstrate Student Learning and Review the Semester"
Nico Osier (University of Texas at Austin)
In my Lightning Talk, I will share a creative way to assess student learning, highlighting considerations for assignment design and providing examples of some of the more original and innovate projects turned in to date (with student permission). To date, a diverse variety of assignments have been turned in using various media including exercise demonstrations, song, paintings, and jewelry making. Considerations for grading the assignment will be shared as well as tips for implementing similar assignments into other classes, including what forms students need to sign in order to use their work as an example in the future.
"Find your Feet: Using Movement in Library Instruction"
Brent Appling and Amy Edwards (University of South Carolina)
Is moving fingers on a keyboard the only exercise your students are doing in a library session? If so, come learn about the effects that movement has on learning. Movement in the classroom can promote classroom cohesion, assist with memory, and provide opportunities for the development of professional communication skills. Many librarians are familiar with movement-based activities, such as gallery walks and jigsaws, but these just scratch the surface on methods available to librarians. During this session, two instruction librarians will demonstrate strategies to incorporate kinesthetic learning activities into a variety of library teaching scenarios. Some of the activities to be shared are designed for small groups of students, while others involve the entire class. Recognizing that new methods of instruction can be challenging, these librarians will present strategies in a scaffolding approach beginning with quick, low-stakes approaches. Beyond sharing the techniques and activities that promote movement, the librarians will present the rationale behind this method of instruction. Join us, and learn about some activities that you can trial in your own instruction settings.
"How to Ease the PhD Attrition Rate"
Marj Atkinson (Independent Librarian)
According to a 2013 article by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 50 percent of PhD students drop out of graduate school. Are there enough staff and services to support all enrolled PhD students? In this session, we'll briefly discuss the possibility of outsourcing personalized services to support these students. Bring your experiences and be ready to share your solutions to this problem.
"Iterative, Innovative, and Collaborative Course Design: Using Canvas Blueprints and Panopto to Sustain Team-Teaching, Support Student Video Projects, and Create Open Educational Resources"
Quinn Stewart and Molly McGee (University of Texas at Austin)
Connecting people to information has been the goal of library and information science professionals for decades, but the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989 introduced the need for a rapid change in strategy and curriculum. To meet these new information needs, the School of Information at UT began teaching a course called "Information in Cyberspace" in 1996, and developed a web-based version in 1998.
Teaching information fluency in a blizzard of rapidly changing Internet technologies while using many of those same technologies in the classroom is a challenging endeavor. Our approach evolved to become a collaborative effort between IT staff, graduate students, PhD. student instructors, and adjunct faculty serving 250-300 undergraduate students each semester.
When we migrated to Canvas for the 3.0 version of this course, we had the capability to develop a collection of required and student-selected optional modules which allows older modules to be replaced by newer ones each semester, and/or updated during the semester. The use of Canvas Blueprints allows us to collaboratively maintain the course while teaching it.
This talk will cover the 2019 version of the course, which not only features this modular system but also integrates a video hosting service called Panopto with Canvas, giving instructors a new means of distributing video content and students new tools for creating video projects. In addition, student video content is hosted in an access restricted environment that meets FERPA privacy guidelines. For the 4.0 version of this course, we hope to create an Open Educational Resource out of this course, as well as embrace Open Educational Practices. Toward this end, we plan to educate our students about these efforts and solicit the contribution of many of their video projects for use in subsequent versions of the course.
Poster Sessions
"The Journey is the Destination: Storytelling in the Cloud"
Beth Toren (West Virginia University)
"Storytelling with Archives" is a transdisciplinary Honors College course developed as part of the Honors College Faculty Fellows program. Primarily STEM majors, most students took the course to fulfill a “creativity and the arts” course requirement.
Students developed confidence in their own voice and creativity along with practical digital literacy skills through the practice of digital storytelling. Lessons combined soft skills such as listening, consensus building and historical empathy with digital production, and the theory and practice of story work applied to their disciplines.
Visitors to this poster have the opportunity to critically examine innovative classroom assessment techniques including daily coded memory cards. They can explore the results of a creative and collaborative course project where students practiced world building to create an alternate universe. Attendees are invited to expand definitions, methods, and applications of storytelling in order to reframe its value in professional and personal life by entertaining ideas such as becoming their own hero in control of a personal narrative.
"Where Pedagogy and Digital Scholarship Meet"
Amanda Koziura and Blaine Martyn-Dow (Case Western Reserve University)
The university's teaching and learning center partnered with the library's digital scholarship center to develop a pilot program that introduces digital scholarship tools to faculty for classroom use. The program aims to improve faculty engagement with library resources, ground such usage in pedagogical best-practices, and lower faculty members' barriers to entry.
For Fall 2017, four two-hour sessions were developed that combined introductory lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities. This series introduced the tools and skills of text mining and analysis, data visualization and communication, and the analytic use of photography and photogrammetry. Pre- and post-session tasks included watching videos, reading articles, and writing reflective essays on the tools‚ pedagogical applications. A small stipend was offered to successful participants to recruit student employees or purchase materials.
This series attracted an interdisciplinary cohort of faculty across ranks. Feedback indicated that participants were more likely to introduce digital scholarship technologies into their courses and research. They returned to the library to expand their digital skills or incorporate the tools into their classes, but they did not use the stipend for student assistance. The series was retooled for Spring 2018 and 2019 to include five 90-minute sessions with provided lunch and non-mandatory attendance.
The development process for this pilot, including its collaborative roots, programmatic adjustments, and responsiveness to faculty needs, will be discussed. This model can be adapted by any library and teaching center seeking to collaborate with other campus partners to bring timely and relevant resources to faculty.
"Hands-On Learning Meets Supplemental Instruction: A Novel Format for Student Success"
Jennifer Fritz and Nisha Abraham (The University of Texas at Austin)
Supplemental Instruction is an internationally recognized academic support model designed to improve student retention in difficult courses. We are developing a novel format for SI instruction at UT-Austin by incorporating a successful active-learning tutoring program into the SI curriculum. Prior to Spring 2019, SI was offered to chemistry, computer science and engineering classes but biology was conspicuously absent. There existed a strong need for an SI program that was flexible enough to accommodate the diverse syllabi and teaching styles across biology lecturers at UT-Austin.
In 2017, a Faculty Innovation Grant was awarded to develop Hands-On Learning, an active-learning approach to student support. Results of the project are impressive with attendees showing significant gains in test scores and course grades when compared to non-attendees in every semester Hands-On has been offered. Hands-On helps at-risk students succeed with attendees earning fewer C's and more B's than non-attendees. Hands-On is also popular. In the Fall 2018, 10 weeks of Hands-On Sessions were attended by 500 students with an additional enrollment of nearly 200 in the Canvas site.
In 2019, the Hands-On program joined with the SI program. HO-SI sessions represent a new frontier in SI instruction at UT-Austin and provide a path for student success. SI trained guides utilizing Hands-On activities offer sessions 8 times per week that promote collaborative learning and are aligned with course learning outcomes. Future plans are to build semester-long experiential activities into the HO-SI curriculum and to offer sessions to second semester biology students.
"Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A Hybrid Model of Faculty Development"
Kristi Dickey and Gina Morris (Oklahoma State University)
The authors, faculty support staff at a four-year land grant university‚ share the research regarding effective professional development, as well as their blueprint for a six-week hybrid model of faculty development that meets the needs of a wide range of instructors, including both tenure and non-tenure track faculty and graduate teaching assistants. Participants of this poster session will receive ready-to-implement strategies for improving university faculty development.