Spring 2018 Teaching Learning Symposium

Classroom management means creating an efficient and productive classroom environment that allows you to reach all of your students. How you design your course impacts your ability to accomplish this objective. This presentation will focus on key aspects of course design and technology tool consideration to create a rich learning environment that supports student success and decreases disruption and confusion. It will highlight instructional efficiencies that make it easier to manage both large and smaller classes, and note technology solutions and Canvas features that can be of benefit in classroom settings.

• 2018 Castle High Tech High Touch.pptx
• 2018 Griep Whole Classroom Discussion.pdf
• 2018 Gilmore Blended Learning Practice and Timely Feedback.pdf
• 2018 Hatch-Tocaimaza Digging Deep to Go Wide.pdf

In this speed presentation session, a series of 5 minute talks will cover "small" teaching tips/hints. Participants will have the opportunity to consider how they would apply a strategy to their class and will receive handouts outlining the strategy, research, steps in implementation, examples, and contacts.

1. Does Prediction Enhance Engagement & Retention? Human Dimensions of Sustainability

   Julia Torquati, Professor, Child, Youth and Family Studies, College of Education and Human Sciences

   This presentation will describe two assignments in an online class. The assignments can also be modified slightly to be used in a face-to-face class. The first assignment requires groups of students to identify 3-5 principles that would promote healthy families and a healthy Earth. The next week, students read the Earth Charter and the Sustainable Development Goals and compare their principles to these two documents. Finally, each group prepares a brief (3-5 minute) video presenting one of the principles in the documents and explaining how the principle is related to human and environmental sustainability.

2. “But How Can I Process More Deeply?” a Class Activity and Video Resources to Deepen Students’ Levels of Processing

   Carolyn Brown Kramer, Assistant Professor of Practice, Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences

   Many students are accustomed to using study techniques and academic habits that lead to shallow processing of course concepts, which in turn produces weak, isolated, and fleeting understanding of the material. This presentation will include a simple class activity from cognitive psychologist Stephen Chew that demonstrates the benefits of deep processing, along with video resources that present specific suggestions and techniques to help students process more deeply.

3. Implementation of Group Assessments to Help Increase Student Understanding

   Renee McFee, Assistant Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

   Use of group quizzes and exams can allow students to work through course concepts and participate in peer-to-peer instruction. Although students believe group assessments help improve understanding of concepts, certain strategies can increase student satisfaction with this strategy.

4. Using Concept Maps in Graduate and Undergraduate Seminars

   Libby Jones, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, College of Engineering

   Graduate and some upper level undergraduate seminars typically involve students reviewing and discussing journal papers. Students new to reading journal papers often struggle with identifying the research questions addressed in journal papers in addition to critically evaluating the methodologies used and the results. In this presentation, I will review a "how to read a journal paper" discussion that I couple with concept maps. Students using concept maps for journal papers better comprehend the papers and better contribute to the discussion on the journal papers.

5. Great Expectations: Discussing Student Success

   Michelle Carr Hassler, Assistant Professor of Practice, College of Journalism and Mass Communications

   These simple first-day-of-class activities can help set a positive tone for the semester and give students - and the instructor - an opportunity to reflect on expectations and goals.

6. Engaging Students in Large Lectures With the A-Team

   Amber Messersmith, Lecturer, Management, College of Business

   Professors' and students' visions for large lecture participation often run counter to one another. Professors want participation from students when posing questions, in hopes the lecture will be engaging and help assess student comprehension. Many students want to remain anonymous, sitting back and listening to lectures instead of speaking up in front of peers. Rather than hoping for one courageous student in a sea of faces to respond, the professor can turn to the A-Team. This team is a rotating group of students assigned to spend one class period during the semester in the spotlight, ready to participate by responding when questions are posed, and held accountable for their classroom participation. If you have a question, if no one else can help, and if you can find them...maybe you can call on The A-Team.

7. Experiences in Teaching Offline and Online Versions of the Same Applied Physics Course

   David Mabie, Assistant Professor of Practice, Biological Systems Engineering, College of Engineering

   MYSM 109 (Physical principles of life sciences and agriculture) was converted into an online course three years ago. There have been several challenges integrating new materials between the offline and online offerings as the course has evolved. This presentation is focused on presenting some of those challenges in identifying how some content works better in the different sections.

8. Class Warm-Up and Cool-Down: Providing a Framework and Practice for Retrieving

   Sabine Zempleni, Lecturer, Nutrition and Health Sciences, College of Education and Human Sciences

   Situation: Several times a semester I talk to frustrated students who take good notes and spend time memorizing definitions but during exams or assignments are at a loss. Students tend to memorize facts and definitions as isolated ideas without connecting them to the overall concept. To practice retrieving concepts, during the first 5 minutes of the class I ask students to complete a framework for the concepts they will work on by filling in as many details as possible from their readings for the day. During the class, students work on applying those concepts. The last 5 - 10 minutes of the class are used to add more details and applications to the framework started at the beginning of the class.

9. Helping Students Visualize a Good Composition: A Tool for the 21st Century Learners

   Katherine Nashleanas, Lecturer, Geography and Spatial Science and Fellow, Center for Great Plains Studies, College of Arts and Sciences

   Most of us want to include more writing for critical thinking in our courses, but what to do with students who haven't had a composition class yet or those who have but still have difficulty writing? Are they going to be penalized? I have what I like to call a "quick and dirty" way to visually teach composition in my geography classes that puts all students on the same playing field and gives them more confidence and mastery of the composition form.

10. Scaffolding Content, Discussion, and Feedback

    John Sangster, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering, College of Engineering

    This format of daily classroom handout can provide one stop shopping for scaffolding the content of your lecture, conducting think-pair-share, getting the muddiest point, and kicking off student recall. As a bonus, preparing it a few days before class provides a review of last year's lecture, and helps to plan out in-class discussions.

11. 3 Simple Strategies to Design Peer Learning

    Sushma Jolley, Instructional Design Technology Specialist, Innovative Instructional Design

    In this presentation, I will explore how you can design the structure of peer learning to improve student’s academic and social cognitive skills.

12. Bringing the Shark Tank to a Large 200 Plus Student Class in Marketing - What Can You Learn about Using Similar Activities in Your Class

    Rob Simon, Associate Professor of Practice, Marketing, College of Business

    I use a “shark tank” format model to add a presentation and competitive element to a large lecture type class. The objective is to have the students make a brief focused presentation that integrates the key elements of the class and to give the students feedback from professionals and graduate students. The students create a marketing plan on a non-existent product or service and try to convince a “judge” of the viability of their marketing plan and why the “Judge” should invest in it.

• Presentation Handouts
• Teaching Hints/Helps Recordings

In this presentation, the principles of good practice in SoTL will be briefly reviewed, and instructions on how to design, conduct, analyze, and write-up SoTL work will be outlined. The focus of this hands-on workshop will be on getting started on an SoTL project: defining the "problem" and refining your research question. How to integrate your SoTL project into your existing workload, finding resources and collaborators, and ethical and practice issues will be considered. For most of this workshop, participants will be engaged in small group discussions facilitated by SoTL grant recipients and poster presenters.

• Concluding Workshop Principles of Good Practice
• Concluding Workshop Nebraska SoTL
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Resources