The Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor is pleased to sponsor the Fall 2017 Teaching and Learning Symposium: Motivation, Engagement, Innovation, and Evidence. This symposium provides an opportunity to engage in conversations about teaching and learning, to hear from experts on emerging issues in improving student outcomes, and to network with others seeking to improve teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The focus of the Fall 2017 Symposium is on course design strategies that support student learning. The interactive workshop-style breakout sessions following the keynote will concentrate on topics deemed of critical interest by past symposium participants and will highlight major principles noted in the keynote address, while providing immediately applicable strategies.
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Welcome: Judy Walker Aaron Douglas Professor of Mathematics and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty and Academic Affairs, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Keynote Speaker: Michael PalmerDirector, Center for Teaching Excellence, Professor and Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Virginia Course Design and the Broken EscalatorWhen you’re on an escalator and it breaks down, the options for rescue are typically self-evident. But what do you do when your course “breaks down” and is no longer leading to the types of student engagement and learning you hope for? In this highly participatory session, we’ll explore three principles of effective course design that will help you step off the broken escalator and help your students discover the value of your course, recognize and appreciate the knowledge and skills they will learn, and learn to love the beauty that makes studying your discipline worthwhile. Keynote follow-up materials For those of you interested in learning more about dreams for student learning, opportunities for student wonder, and transparency, check out these resources:
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Break 2:10 to 2:30 p.m. |
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2:30 to 4:15 p.m. |
Interactive Breakout SessionsThe 90 minute breakout sessions allows for more to dive deeply into specific evidence-based teaching methods and provides opportunities for participation, discussion, and interaction. These interactive workshop-style sessions will concentrate on topics deemed of critical interest by past symposium participants. Choose one from the following sessions: Flipping a Classroom to Increase EngagementMartha Mamo, Interim Associate Department Head, Weaver Professor of Agronomy and Horticulture, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources Read the descriptionDr. Mamo faced a choice: to increase student engagement without lower her standards for student performance. To do so, she launched a course redesign which led to students interacting with content more frequently and deeply outside of class. She then made use of class time for active learning through case studies and the use of a student response system. In this session, Mamo will share her research findings, her course development process, and lessons learned. Participants will finish this hands-on session with a plan for flipping a week or topic of their own. Session follow-up materials
Fostering Efficacy-Based Partnerships with Students: Mentoring Students Toward IndependenceManda Williamson, Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Psychology, and College of Arts & Sciences Teaching Academy Fellow Read the descriptionThe purpose of this break-out session is to facilitate efficacy-building strategies within the classroom to increase academic risk-taking in students. Empirical support for this practice will be reported from a complete course redesign from a large on-line section of Introduction to Psychology, which reduced D/F/W grades from 44% to 15% after one semester. The course was constructed by following recommendations based on Bandura's Theory of Self-Efficacy, which indicates that students' beliefs about the likelihood of their success more directly affect their success on tasks than their ability. Sources of efficacy building include vicarious experience (or mentoring), verbal persuasion and establishing a personal behavior history of task success. During this break-out session, participants will identify weekly challenges presented in their course, explore the dynamics of collaborative group assignments, and implement efficacy-based strategies to establish an early and consistent rapport with students. Material Needed:
Session follow-up materialsGoing forward, it's critical, that if we choose to forge connections with our students, and we choose to mentor with efficacy-facilitating pedagogy, that we begin immediately. Humanity is best perceived when it is conveyed-connect now with students, apologize for any disconnect and partner with them using one or two rapport building practices that we discovered. Video Tutorial: Manda Williamson created lots of videos—welcome video, tutorials, and video lectures-- to guide, engage and motivate students in her large class, PSYC 181, which has about 260 students between five sections. Her goal for the tutorials was to decrease the extrinsic cognitive load in order to help students focus on the germane material. Her goal for the lecture videos was to guide students through difficult material as well as make it come alive for them. Her goal for the welcome video was twofold: to guide students through the course mechanics as well as introduce herself as a live person who greatly cared about their success. The video tutorial explains the process. Dr. Williamson used TechSmith Relay to create welcome video, tutorials, and content lectures. She shared files in collaborative Box folder. The Instructional Design Technology Specialist, Eyde Olson, deployed links and embedded widgets of PowerPoint presentations and .mp4 video lectures in Canvas courses. Teaching Hints/Helps (Small Teaching Strategies Based on the Science of Learning)Moderator: Chad E. Brassil, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences Read the descriptionIn this speed presentation session, a series of 5 minute talks will describe “small” teaching tips/hints that university faculty have found engaging for students while promoting effective learning and implementable without overhauling their entire approach to teaching. 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.
Session follow-up materials |
Adjourn: 4:10 p.m. |