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.
Thursday, June 13, 2:00-4:15pm: Session 10 (Santa Rita Room)
"Using the 5 Languages of Appreciation to Strengthen Student Engagement"
Chelsea Biggerstaff and Jeff Johannigman (Austin Community College)
"Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival, to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated." - Stephen Covey
Discover secrets to tapping into your students motivation in the classroom. Through the lens of the languages of appreciation and motivational theory, we will examine strategies and techniques that can be used in and out of the classroom to enhance engagement and success.
Participants will be able to identify the negative results that can occur when students and/or colleagues do not feel valued or appreciated, describe the 5 languages of appreciation and what they look like in daily life, brainstorm ways of implementing the 5 languages in the classroom, navigate potential blind spots in communication, apply the principles of the languages of appreciation in and out of the classroom.
Thursday, June 13, 2:00-4:15pm: Session 11 (Eastwoods Room)
"Simplifying Accessible Design: Tools and Strategies for Faculty and Instructional Designers"
Melissa Wong (University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana)
Instructors play a central role in ensuring courses are accessible to students with disabilities, yet many of us feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. Should we check online materials for accessibility? Will we need to recreate all our lectures and videos? How much work would it be to implement Universal Design for Learning? Would it be easier to wait until a student requests a specific accommodation? Proactive approaches that ensure the accessibility of course materials minimize the need for time consuming revisions at a later date. In addition, many strategies for serving students with disabilities enhance the learning environment for everyone, improving student engagement, retention, and learning outcomes. What many instructors seek are simple practices they can integrate into their existing instructional design and revision processes. Through hands-on activities and discussion, participants will learn to evaluate courses and instructional materials for accessibility; design accessible documents, presentations, and videos; and apply the Universal Design for Learning framework to the creation of syllabi, assignments, and lessons. Participants will also develop strategies for integrating simple accessible design practices into personal and institutional workflow processes. Participants are encouraged to bring digital or print copies of their own course materials to work with.