Friday Ignite Talks
6:30-7:30 PM - Walters Hall, Room 100 (during reception)
Alexithymia in the Digital World; Attitudes Towards Online Therapy
Alexithymia, a condition that is hallmarked by a difficulty in recognizing and describing emotions in oneself, is linked to poor mental health and less responsive therapeutic outcomes (See, Ogrodiczuk, Piper & Joyce, 2011 for a review). While much work has gone into learning about related differences in emotional processing (Jardin et al., 2019; Levant, Allen, & Lien, 2014) and mental health (Dubey & Pandey, 2013), less attention has been directed towards designing a therapeutic practice to be suitable to individuals with alexithymia. In the present study, we used the Online Counseling Attitudes Scale (OCAS) and the Face-to-Face Counseling Attitudes Scale (FCAS) to measure therapeutic preferences of both those scoring high (score > 61) and controls who scored low (score < 51) on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). Unlike controls who indicated that they would feel less comfortable in online counseling, individuals high in alexithymia indicated that they would be equally comfortable across therapeutic modalities. These data suggest that online counseling may serve as a good alternative to Face-to-Face counseling when treating individuals high in alexithymia.
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Elliott JardinMiami MiddletownFaculty
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Samuel Nidorf
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Stephanie CroccoNo College Association
Fit Friday Fun: Do college students enjoy physical activity in the classroom?
Background: There is strong evidence that incorporating physical activity into the classroom is impactful to elementary students' learning and enjoyment of physical activity, but what about college students? Physical Activity has been studied in younger students and researchers found those who participated in classroom physical activity showed positive impacts on their psychosocial functioning and wellbeing.
Methods: Fit Fridays were incorporated into an Introduction to Exercise Science 1000 level course at a regional college campus in Cincinnati, OH. Fit Fridays used physical activity to help students better understand concepts related to course material, learn what muscles are involved in different movements, learn relaxation/stretching techniques, and learning how to collaborate with classmates.
Results: Nine out of fifteen Fridays of the 2022 Fall semester involved doing physical activity. Seven out of nine Fit Fridays we’re done together in class and two out of nine Fit Fridays were done outside of the classroom on the students' personal time. Seventy six percent of students answered a survey at the end of the semester reflecting on Fit Fridays. 100 percent of students who answered the survey shared positive thoughts or stated that they enjoyed Fit Fridays. Additionally, 100 percent of students stated that the instructor should keep Fit Fridays in future semesters.
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Kelsi BeckerUC Blue AshFaculty
Student Belonging On the Regionals
Student attrition is widely recognized as one of the largest issues facing higher education institutions. One strategy used to reduce attrition is to increase students’ sense of belonging on campus. The present exploratory study aims to identify correlates of student belonging and to identify group differences in belonging amongst students at the Miami University Regional Campuses. We plan to use these data to later develop a pilot intervention to improve levels of student belonging on campus.
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Elliott JardinMiami MiddletownFaculty
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Molly ClaywellMiami Hamilton
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Tiffany StewartMiami Hamilton
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Ellie Earls
Building problem solving resilience with logic puzzles
Many developmental math students lack confidence and when faced with an unfamiliar problem, their first instinct is to shut down. To help my students break away from their “I don’t know” responses, I changed the class "warm up" problems from review to logic puzzles. These problems do not require advanced math skills, but also do not have trivial solutions. Students are encouraged to discuss with each other and are expected to show their thinking, and attempts towards a solution. Assessment is based on their reasoning but not necessarily the correct solution.
This lightening talk will present the problems, sample rubric, and observations/student feedback.
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Monica HennessyUC Blue AshFaculty
Promoting Transfer through Caring: Using online and F2F weekly check-in surveys
Mood, motivation, and personal wellness check-ins have been demonstrated to increase engagement in online participation, promote a climate of care, and foster mutual support (Clemens, 2011; Costa and Mims, 2020; Huberty et al., 2021). According to the Active Minds Student Survey, students overwhelmingly report difficulty maintaining a routine and staying connected with others (Active Minds, 2020). In exploring how to address connection, Buskirk-Cohen and Plants (2019) report that student success can be supported by a feeling of belonging, and Rainey et al. (2019) report that the feeling of belonging, related to the perception that the professor cares about students, may have a strong impact on minoritized students. We need to care about how connected students feel in their courses because there is evidence that this emotional connection contributes to students being able to retain and transfer what they learn from one class to another. Bostosik (in Ferlazzo, 2017) writes, “Transfer of learning occurs when the student is motivated by the topic, motivated to learn, has previous knowledge on the subject, and knows how to connect new information to existing information.” We hypothesize that if we can help students feel more connected and motivated in their classes, they may be more likely to transfer their learning to serve them beyond the classroom experience.
We have been conducting weekly check-in surveys about emotional states and personal insights in several sections of math and English courses since August 2022. These check-in surveys ask students about their confidence, feelings of being overwhelmed, feeling about having time to do the work for the course, interest in the course content, and motivation levels. In addition, we asked open questions about how they might transfer what they learn in the course to other situations. We report on the trends in student emotional wellness we have found and what they perceive they can transfer from the course.
In this 5-minute lightning talk, we will present the instrument we used to collect the student perception data, the results of the quantitative data, and the analysis of the qualitative data. We will conclude with recommendations for how to use these check-in surveys in classes and the implications for transfer generated from this practice.
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Ruth BenanderUC Blue AshFaculty
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Gene KramerUC Blue Ash
The art of compound gin.
This presentation provides a brief history of Gin and instruction on how to make compound gin. This is a hands-on presentation where participants can touch and smell the most common ingredients used in making gin. This ain’t your grandpa’s bathtub gin.
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Joe CavanaughWright State LakeFaculty
Saturday Conference
Breakfast & Welcome
Students hang posters in Bleeker Street Commons, Muntz Hall
8:15 AM - 9:15 AMLobby of Muntz Auditorium
Keynote - Dr. John T. McNay, Professor of History
Bread and Roses: An Academic Tale
Regarding the work that we all do, John McNay will review the political and academic environment as it has developed in Ohio over the last couple of years. He will examine the several controversies over attempts to control what we can teach, how we can teach, and what tools we can use. He will discuss threats and successes regarding academic freedom and shared governance. And he will suggest strategies to ensure our ability to continue to do the vital work of quality education in Ohio.
9:15 AM - 9:45 AMRegarding the work that we all do, John McNay will review the political and academic environment as it has developed in Ohio over the last couple of years. He will examine the several controversies over attempts to control what we can teach, how we can teach, and what tools we can use. He will discuss threats and successes regarding academic freedom and shared governance. And he will suggest strategies to ensure our ability to continue to do the vital work of quality education in Ohio.
Muntz Auditorium
Sessions at 10:00 - 10:30 AM
Knowing Him by Heart: African Americans on Abraham Lincoln
I would like to be part of the author's panel to discuss my recently published book, Knowing Him by Heart: African Americans on Abraham Lincoln (University of Illinois Press, 2023).
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Matthew NormanUC Blue AshFaculty
221
Can De-Localization Re-Regionalize? How Crisis Pedagogy Can Re-Root Regional Education
In his essay “The Rootless Professors,” Eric Zencey uses a Vermont native’s refusal to identify a town two miles away as home, not as “a classic instance of the parochialism of rural life” (16), but rather as evidence that Zencey himself, professor-observer and outsider to the place in which he works, embodies a rootlessness detrimental to education and to place. For more than a decade of place-based themes in my composition classes, including a campus community garden and numerous localist reading and writing assignments, I have observed the continued deterioration of local ties on my regional campus and in the surrounding community, a trend that reached a crisis point during the move online due to COVID and enrollment concerns. But amid challenges of dual modality teaching, pleasant surprises and opportunities have emerged. While brick-and-mortar campus community has struggled, broadening of classroom community to include all of Ohio University’s campuses has refocused attention on region, which in a nationally and globally placeless economic and education environment predating COVID by decades, can offer alternatives to long-running hegemonic (essentially colonial) assumptions about regional education, about Appalachia, and about place in general. Transcounty and transcampus enrollments present opportunities for regional research assignments re-rooting discussions of history, culture, and diversity in place.
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Matt WanatOU LancasterFaculty
223
Teaching the Whole Student
The role of a university professor has evolved over the years, particularly in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Changes to the typical duties or teaching methods of professors at institutions of higher education range from contractual modifications to pedagogical nosedives into technology. Many of these changes have been welcomed and yield a positive effect on teaching and learning, but some shifts in the role of a university or college teacher have proven very difficult. One transition is the need to be more aware of and responsive to students’ well-being and overall health, effectively requiring professors to be not just teachers, but counselors to their students in matters unrelated to academics. We may naively think that life outside of the classroom has little influence and thus little significance on the learning of our students in the classroom. However, being aware of and responding with understanding and support helps students far more than avoiding or ignoring dilemmas or issues outside our typical purview. Teaching not just the academic student, but teaching the whole student is the principle of helping the student in ways accessible to a professor that results in improved well-being overall. I share insights regarding ways educators can be more aware of and respond to students, within acceptable bounds, to help them both academically and personally.
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Eric TaylorKSU StarkFaculty
225
Enhancing Teaching Efficiency
In a general sense efficiency involves a process where the same level of output is obtained from less of the input(s) employed, or more output is gained from the same amount of input used, or ideally more output arising from less of the input used. Alternatively, you can improve efficiency if you get a higher quality output from the same or less input. More specifically, efficiency often involves a reduction in time or costs or increase in revenue or profits. Improving learning is an important goal in and of itself, but enhancing teaching efficiency can achieve this with less or no costs. This paper is intended to highlight methods of teaching that will improve learning outcomes without significant costs in time spent in instruction, student studying time, faculty preparation time…
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Joseph CavanaughWright State LakeFaculty
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Diane HuelskampWright State Lake
225
Please Call Me /Tanía/: A Pronunciation Initiative
Efforts to promote inclusiveness throughout regional campuses in Ohio are increasing; however, is the statement "everyone is welcome in the classroom" truly understood? Indeed, what seems a simple question entails complexities – ones that are understood within the current literature, but also ones that have yet to be defined. What we know now is that promoting a positive classroom environment involves far more than teaching procedural routines that everyone follows. Every student brings their background, and unique characteristics, and the context where students interact can be invigorated through mutual respect. Such respect begins by addressing everyone correctly (accurately pronouncing everyone's names) in the classroom.
The presenters (faculty and students) would like to start a discussion on an important topic at regional campuses in Ohio: Are we making the "effort" to pronounce students' and faculty members' names accurately? What does this "effort" entail? As we see an increase in students from diverse cultures, how far are regional campuses from cultivating inclusive classrooms? Through discussion and reflection, the presenters will share personal experiences from an autoethnographic framework. This round table will end with a mini-pronunciation workshop through which the audience will learn to pronounce common names in English and in other languages.
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Angel AñorgaUC Blue AshFaculty
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Tania Bryant, James Hobbs, Banshree Patel, Achely PowellUC Blue Ash
235
Readiness Assessment Activities for Post Pandemic Students
Teaching and learning during the past two years has forced teachers and students to take part in teaching and learning in ways that were not considered possible just a few years ago. This has forced professors to learn new strategies for student engagement within the learning environment. Given that many students now prefer online learning, it is possible that some students will not be able to keep up with the expectations of this ever-evolving environment. We will reflect on what we have learned from remote learning and how it has influenced and improved our teaching.
It is concerning that students are often not prepared for what is expected of them in the online environment and may be at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding the cognitive and non-cognitive skills required of college students. Sample activities prepare the students with the skills they will need to master for course success. This includes the required hardware, software and digital platforms. As well as trouble shooting, resources and helping students to navigate ways to deal with computers and internet that don’t meet the minimal requirements needed for success.
Some solutions involve the use Readiness Assessment Activities during the first week of the course. These activities force the instructor to consider every activity and assignment type that will be used for the course, as well as student to student and student to professor interactions. We will give examples of Readiness Activities that we have used in the past several years.
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Sheri BarksdaleUC Blue AshFaculty
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Brian HunterUC Blue Ash
238
Reasons Students Choke Under Pressure and What We Can Do
Why do we fail to perform our best when it counts the most? The answer to this question will change the way that you think about learning and assessment. This workshop adapts some of the major themes from Choke (2010), a book by the cognitive psychologist Sian Beilock, that were discussed as part of a faculty learning community at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. We will detail how three major topics from this learning community (working memory, stereotype threat, and brain differences between the sexes) contribute to students performing below their capability. We also will present example interventions that workshop participants can take away and use to help manage and prevent poor performance in their own classrooms.
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Patrick OwenUC Blue AshFaculty
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Ashley ContrerasUC Blue Ash
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Jackie GibbsUC Blue Ash
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Jennifer Kroger, Debra FrameUC Blue Ash
227
Sessions at 10:30 - 11:00 AM
First-Year Writers' Assembly: A Comprehensive Approach to Improving DFW and Retention Rates of Incoming Students in Developmental Writing Courses on the Regional Campus
The First-Year Writers' Assembly is a new program on the Trumbull campus that works directly with incoming students who place into developmental math, reading, and English courses at Trumbull. While this a new program, it has already shown some success, and I would like to share this idea with colleagues from the Kent regional campus (as well as other institutions). My hope is that the other campuses and/or their Student Success Centers can benefit from our work. While our completed report won't be available until the end of Spring, I can share our findings from fall and our plans for the future. Our campus Dean and Assistant Dean charged me with this task last year, and this is the fruit of that labor. I think others will benefit from this presentation.
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James CanacciKSU TrumbullFaculty
221
Attracting Adult Learners over 50 to Regional Campuses
Attracting Adult Learners over 50 to Regional Campuses to focus on midlife transition by helping them renew their life's purpose, build new social networks, incorporate wellness practices, and foster inter generational and community engagement.
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Kent LutzUC Blue AshFaculty
223
Teaching across campuses
During the isolation state of the pandemic, we learned quickly to teach remotely, and most students adapted to this model. Coming back from the pandemic we learned that some lessons are still useful. At Ohio University regional campuses, the isolation helped us develop strategies to reach students remotely and across campuses. I will present what we learned from teaching remotely and how we continue to teach across several campuses in physics and physical science classes.
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Gabriela PopaOU ZanesvilleFaculty
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Gabriela Popa
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Michael KoopOU Chillicothe
223
Online Galleries and Visual Learning Strategies: Promoting Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom
The purpose of this presentation is to provide the theoretical foundation for using online galleries and visual learning strategies. Specifically, the presenters will discuss how these strategies promote critical thinking skills and help students better engage with the material in the classroom, and moreover, how those strategies can be integrated across disciplines. The presentation will provide viewers with an opportunity for a real time interactive use of those strategies and will conclude with a Question-and-Answer session provided by the presenters.
Participants will experience:
• How visual learning strategies promote critical thinking in the classroom.
• How technologies can aid in generating visual learning strategies.
• How to develop online galleries as discussion forums.
• Real and effective classroom examples of visual learning strategies.
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Annette RedmonUC Blue AshFaculty
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Dr. María OrtizUC Blue Ash
225
Proficiency Instead of Partial Credit: Implementation of Specifications Grading in an Organic Chemistry Course
Specifications grading is a mastery learning assessment strategy wherein students are provided short assessments regularly throughout the course over very clearly defined student learning objectives. Partial credit is not awarded for these assessments and students are assessed based on whether they met or did not meet the learning objectives. Students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency with the content before the end of the course. In the current study, specifications grading was implemented in two different first-term Organic Chemistry lecture courses. Student success was evaluated by comparing the grade distributions in the course, student performance on the ACS standardized final exam, and course evaluations to prior course sections that used a traditional summative means of assessment.
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Matthew DeMatteoUC Blue AshFaculty
225
Can We Talk About Inclusion and Diversity in the Classroom? An Active Conversation for Integration and Possible Solutions
Education has a substantial impact on the decisions that students make and their overall mindset towards the broader world. Thus, it is important for educators to be purposeful in the information that students receive and how it is presented. Moreover, research has shown that providing a multicultural curriculum in a class by including materials from underserved populations has numerous benefits such as improving the performance of students from underrepresented backgrounds, providing enhanced social awareness of all students in the course, and empowering students to tackle social issues. With this in mind, we focused on finding curriculum content that emphasizes inclusivity and diversity in the classroom only to find multiple obstacles at levels ranging from federal to state to personal objections. Unfortunately, these obstacles have caused the inclusion of multicultural topics and practices in classrooms to be challenging, and even halted, in some areas of education. This presentation will examine practical multicultural curriculum practices, the current barriers to implementing these practices and what we can do to navigate them. We hope to open a discussion of the best methods by which multicultural content can be integrated into classrooms and how to overcome the obstacles towards their integration.
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Nicholas BurkhartUC Blue AshStaff
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Deb Frame, PhDUC Blue Ash
235
IMPACT Methods to Develop Self-Confidence and Grit in Students
Do your students lack self-confidence and grit? Do you want to change that for your students? This round table discussion is designed to discuss pedagogical methods and techniques used to develop self-confidence and grit in first year and second year college students. Our students struggle learning and retaining the course learning objectives when they lack self-confidence and grit, so let’s discuss and analyze a variety of methods and techniques that will build our students up and teach them to be resilient. The presentation will discuss the impact that authentic relationships have on building an inclusive learning environment with an identity. Methods used to create an inclusive classroom environment will also be discussed. In order for our students to develop self-confidence and grit, they must feel safe and supported.
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Alex KemphausUC Blue AshFaculty
238
Promoting Problem-Solving Skills with the Think Aloud Method
Many students do not enter college with the competency in the problem-solving skills needed to be successful in their program. Problem-solving is an extension of metacognition, which is the practice of understanding one's own thoughts. A tool that could support the development of both metacognition and problem-solving is a Think Aloud (TA) exercise. In a TA activity, students annotate their thought process as they work on a complex problem during a class discussion. During this, students engage their own thought process, the processes of peers, and eventually the instructor's as well. Participants in this workshop will complete an example TA activity with the aim of applying it in their own research or teaching. Data on students’ perceptions of and performance on TA exercises in an introductory pre-professional biology class from 2021-2022 will be shared.
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Joseph BaumgartnerUC Blue AshFaculty
227
From Classroom To Boardroom: Bridging Neurodiverse STEM Student Success
The value of diversity in an organization is becoming more widely understood, with increasing investments being made in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. These initiatives often focus on diversity of identities, such as gender, ethnicity, and cultural background. While supporting diversity of identities is hugely important, it is also crucial to understand how to value and support neurodiversity–the range of differences in brain function and behavioral traits–within organizations.
Neurodiversity is not uncommon. The CDC reports about 1 in 6 children are diagnosed with neurodevelopmental differences in the US, and a 2015 Cambridge University study found that “people working in science and engineering jobs are more likely to have autistic-like traits than less technical professions.” A Harvard Business Review article explores this higher population in STEM fields, explaining that “research shows that some conditions, including autism and dyslexia, can bestow special skills in pattern recognition, memory, or mathematics.”
Neurodiversity can benefit a company’s ability to innovate and problem-solve, yet many employees with neurodevelopmental differences have encountered less-than-ideal experiences getting hired, being supported at work, and growing in their careers. In this session, the presenter will introduce the industry business case for intentionally building neurodiverse workforces, best practices for executing robust inclusive hiring tactics and techniques and industry-driven case studies of successful employers who have built thriving environments where neurodiverse employees thrive.
Neurodiverse STEM students thrive in classroom settings under the supportive tutelage of faculty and staff. In this session, we explore how to bridge neurodiverse STEM student success from classroom to boardroom equally benefiting both employees and employers.
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Nadia Ibrahim-TaneyNo College AssociationFaculty
228
Transforming Experience: The Potential of Augmented and Virtual Reality for Enhancing Experiential Learning in the Classroom
Research points to the cognitive benefits of simulated learning (Gee, 2003). Virtual and augmented reality are a fun, challenging, and popular way to engage your students. They promote critical thinking, communication, and active learning across multiple disciplines. This hands-on workshop is intended for faculty who may be interested in incorporating active learning tools into the classroom. The presenter will share ways in which she utilizes virtual and augmented reality “experiences” in the classroom. While the presenter will focus on how she uses these techniques in a marketing and general business environment, she will also demonstrate the appeal of using this technique in several other disciplines (e.g., chemistry, biology, art, medical, etc.). Moreover, the presenter will share qualitative classroom data and discuss future plans for quantitative data results this is an active workshop for participants. Accordingly, participants should bring “smart phones” as the presenter will bring Google Cardboard headsets to enhance experiential learning through virtual reality.
This presentation will help participants (1) leverage emerging technologies to create groundbreaking student-centered learning experiences, (2) design interactive learning activities to improve student retention and engagement, and (3) design and develop a virtual or augmented reality experience.
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Lori WortylkoUC Blue AshFaculty
236
Sessions at 11:00 - 11:30 AM
Student Poster Judging
Bleeker Street Commons, Muntz Hall
Considering Sexual Health Resources on Regional Campuses
In 2018, our research, “Accessing Sexual Health Resources: An Analysis of the Ease-of-Access of Sexual Health Resources on Ohio Regional Campus Websites and Social Media,” was published in the AURCO journal. As addressed in our abstract, that study analyzed access to sexual health resource information on the websites and social media pages of 23 regional college campuses in Ohio. Our research asked two main research questions. First, how accessible to students are sexual health resources online? Second, is there a discernable difference in availability and ease-of-access of those online sexual health resources between main campus and regional campuses? A modified version of the College Resources and Sexual Health (CRaSH) inventory was used to examine each site. Results suggested that it was difficult to easily locate sexual health resources on the campus websites and affiliated social media sites. Our article offered a call to action for regional campuses, one that is even more important today as access to sexual health resources has been dramatically altered by federal and state legislation over the past few years. This presentation will discuss the study results in the context of today’s climate and discuss how regional campuses may be able to help our students as they navigate challenges related to sexual health.
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J.A. CarterUC Blue AshFaculty
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Jessica J. WarnerMiami Middletown
221
Lessons Learned about Online STEM Education Before, During, and After the Pandemic
During the spring semester of 2019, I was on sabbatical preparing an investigation into the efficacy of online education for introductory astronomy at UCBA. I knew that the flexibility of these online courses would make them an attractive option, particularly for the non-traditional, non-science majors that often enroll in them. During the fall of 2019, my small study began in earnest. The pandemic hit the very next semester, forcing everyone online whether they were prepared or not. I quickly realized, for better or for worse, that I was about to learn more about online education than the narrow scope of my study intended. The goal of this presentation will be to describe some of my results from the fall 2019 study, to highlight some of the broader best practices in online STEM education that I developed through the pandemic, and to discuss future opportunities for learning in this area.
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Joseph GallagherUC Blue AshFaculty
223
ChatGPT in the classroom - Early Student Impressions
ChatGPT, a language model for dialogue from OpenAI, has taken over the academic world by storm. The fabric of higher education is poised for change with such a revolutionary technological product and the faculty members will soon face with re-evaluating their course content and how their pedagogies. While there is a plethora of suggestions from experienced educators in various fields, there is a lacking of how students themselves feel about such groundbreaking technologies. Will ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence software (such as Bard from Google) will help them learn the subject matter quickly and help them refine their critical thinking? Or will they lead to more plagiarism and academic dishonesty? These are the questions that need to be addressed. This presentation will highlight and summarize what undergraduate students think about the use of ChatGPT in the classrooms; we present how students can develop superior prompts within the framework of ChatGPT to help them locate the information more quickly, verify its authenticity, and refine it with their critical inputs. The audience in AURCO will get better insights to incorporate ChatGPT in their own pedagogies.
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Subbu KumarappanOSU Agricultural Technical InstituteFaculty
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Urmila Pal ChaudhuriKSU Stark
223
Everything Old Is New Again: How A Professor’s Reflections as a Current Student in the Classroom Resulted in Pedagogical Improvements for Student Engagement and a Positive Learning Environment.
This research presents a reflection of the experiences I had pursuing an undergraduate certificate in Japanese Culture and Language and how those experiences impacted my teaching. When I began my Japanese language classes, I had zero knowledge of the language and had to begin with learning the alphabet and moving forward from there. Learning a new topic as a novice was an experience I had not had since my undergraduate courses, but I realized it is something students in my introductory courses commonly experience. For that reason, I began keeping track of concepts and assignments that I struggled with in the courses I took. Moreover, I thought about resources that I wished were available to me to aid my learning. Accordingly, I started incorporating various tools in my introductory courses to facilitate the students’ learning experience. In this presentation, I will share various tools that instructors can use across disciplines to enhance the student learning experience.
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Trevor PresgraveUC Blue AshFaculty
225
Late work? To accept or not to accept, that is the quesion!
There are reasons to accept late work and there are reasons to not accept late work. In this presentation, I will talk about how and why I changed my mind from not accepting late work to being more flexible about late work. I will discuss the different policies with which I experimented and the reasons I changed them. I will discuss the current policy I am trying and some articles that support late work acceptance. I will also talk about my experience when I was a student. In essence, this presentation is the story of my struggle with accepting late work by students.
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Adity MutsuddiUC Blue AshFaculty
225
Leveraging Instructional Design and Faculty Collaborations to Deliver Innovative Online Courses
Miami University Nursing faculty partnered with a Miami University Regionals E-Campus Instructional Designer trained in best practices in online learning and course delivery to redesign a BSN face-to-face capstone to better align learning objectives and assignments with preparation for roles of new nurses. The course was redesigned to an online, asynchronous format with a new focus on innovation to improve health care delivery. Nursing innovation, using design thinking, is a vital tool to improve patient outcomes through health care transformation. The course was divided into seven modules, each one centered around a phase of design thinking, leveraging content created by University of Pennsylvania’s Design Thinking for Health. Content was developed as interactive lectures that included multimedia materials delivered through Articulate Rise software/Canvas SCORM. Low-stakes knowledge checks followed each segment of content to facilitate the transfer to and recall from long-term memory. Using the Community of Inquiry model, group work was incorporated to increase social presence throughout the course.
Following the redesign, the course was perceived by students as valuable and applicable to future nursing practice. Mean student ratings were significantly higher related to perceptions of learning, furthering career goals, application to practice, and overall course content after changes were implemented.
In this roundtable discussion, we will discuss best practices in creating effective, innovative collaborations between faculty subject matter experts with instructional designers, using our course redesign collaboration as a framework that can be applied to other disciplines.
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Kara Anand-GallMiami HamiltonGraduate Student
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Rhonda CooperMiami Hamilton
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Sara ArterMiami Hamilton
235
On Teaching Literary Analysis: Questions, Themes, and Challenges When Using Alternate Assignments
Given the proliferation of texts, literary analysis is needed more than ever. Other than literary analysis essays, what kinds of assignments do faculty teaching literature classes use to teach this crucial practice?
We explore the implementation of assignments that are not traditional literary analysis essays and consider questions like the following: In what ways do we and can we teach literary analysis? What kinds of assignments do we incorporate, and how do they work? What is the relationship between rhetorical analysis and literary analysis? How are our students understanding and doing literary analysis? How are different kinds of assignments in different contexts working (or not working)? In opening these themes, we consider a range of alternatives, including low stakes practice assignments, meta-cognitive reflections, and creative work in a range of genres and media.
Shifts in thinking in the discipline have changed the nature of the research on the pedagogy of literary analysis, limiting what is available in terms of texts on the teaching of literature, which poses challenges for faculty seeking to effectively incorporate and teach alternative assignments. Some research has addressed these themes (including Andrasick, 1990; McGann, 2001; Koupf, 2017), yet the lack of a robust and ongoing conversation about teaching literary analysis means that now is the time for a roundtable discussion on these themes.
Roundtable chair: Neely McLaughlin
Additional presenters:
Rhonda Pettit Rhonda.pettit@uc.edu
Claudia Skutar Claudia.skutar@uc.edu
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Neely McLaughlinUC Blue AshFaculty
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Cynthia CraneUC Blue Ash
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Robert MurdockUC Blue Ash
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Kevin OberlinUC Blue Ash
238
The Performance of Teaching
Teaching is a skill that requires knowledge of a particular subject matter as well as an ability to pass this knowledge onto others. A good teacher must be a good communicator and understand how it is that people of all ages and demographics learn. Teaching is very much like acting, as this workshop will demonstrate.
The Teacher must possess the same skills as a good actor. We will discuss qualities a teacher must master to be the most successful in reaching their audience. Considered will be not only the audible message delivered by the teacher/actor but also visual communication tools that heighten the effectiveness of the message.
The script (lesson plans) will be the next item considered as we explore the similarities between a good lesson plan and a good theatrical script. Does the information "reach" and "hold" the audience? As a teacher/actor do you present your best work as a "memorized script" style or as an "ad lib" option? What are the benefits of each?
Finally, we will consider the classroom as our stage. What components of the classroom make for a stimulating and successful backdrop for the story line? We will consider classroom layout, seating arrangement options, classroom location, as well as "props" to enhance the teaching experience.
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Richard MillerUC Blue AshFaculty
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Sheri BarksdaleUC Blue Ash
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Kimberly CliffordUC Clermont
227
Warriors in the Classroom: Building Significant Learning Experiences for Military Affiliated Students
Have you ever had a student Veteran or military affiliated student in your classroom that struggled to join the academic community? In this workshop we will explore the vast differences in socialization and culture between higher education and the military. Participants will be able to successfully identify student Veterans in their classroom and meet this population where they are on their academic journey as they transition from military service to civilian life. By following Fink’s Significant Learning Outcomes pathway, we will identify the unique needs of this population and how to overcome the barriers created by the hidden curriculum of higher education to increase retention, solidify a true sense of belonging, and persistence in achieving academic goals among our Veterans in the classroom. Participants will not only gain a better understanding of the population, but also develop a strategy that can be implemented at their institution for servicing our nations heroes. At the end of the session, participants will be invited to take part in a very transparent Q&A with current and former student Veterans.
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Joshua MonsonUC Blue AshFaculty
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Jill CochranNo College Association
228
ChatGPT: Friend or Foe of the Educator?
ChatGPT, an open AI tool, debuted in November 2022 generating a range of emotions from awe to fear on how it may affect human endeavor. ChatGPT is a language model that is” trained to generate human-like text and it can be used in various natural language processing tasks”. Can educators cut through the fog of fear of widespread cheating among students, and find ways to teach and learn that account for various AI tools that may be introduced in the near future? How can the educator community co-opt this tool in their course design, minimizing its adverse effects on learning while also building a framework for teaching and learning that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence? Do we need to radically rethink our course and assessment design? This workshop will introduce ChatGPT, present a few real-time examples of natural language processing tasks, provide opportunities and guidance for hands-on activities by participants using ChatGPT with discipline-specific activities and conclude with a discussion of adaptive teaching and assessment approaches that use ChatGPT.
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Suguna ChundurUC ClermontFaculty
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Kristi HallUC Clermont
236
Sessions at 11:30 - 12:00 AM
Case-Based Learning and Self-Efficacy in the Classroom
Empirical research shows case-based learning (CBL) may have an impactful outcome on student engagement, and knowledge retention across many disciplines, and that CBL, when implemented as a teaching method in addition to lecture format alone, can improve clinical reasoning (Crowther & Baillie, 2016; Roshangar et al., 2020).
This short presentation and discussion among colleagues will focus on what I learned from my classroom experience and masters research project. My inquiry regarding how knowledge is transferred from the classroom to clinical labs prompted me to examine the relationship between clinical reasoning and case-based-learning. The study focused on how utilizing case studies in the classroom affected the following student attributes of clinical reasoning: Self-efficacy, critical thinking, and confidence. As we discuss the outcomes, I will share examples and have participants work through case study examples.
The action research study utilized 22 of my second year Veterinary Technology Students. The results showed positive changes in clinical reasoning. The qualitative data revealed a positive shift in students' self-perception of clinical reasoning after intervention with case studies through the following indicators: an increase in confidence, decision-making skills and an increased ability to recall information learned in lecture when applying it in practical situations in the lab setting. Quantitative data showed an increase in student lab rubric scores after the implementation of case-based learning.
A negative indicator that emerged from student comments that may have hindered positive results was stress. Further inquiry is needed into how to reduce stress in the classroom.
Keywords: Self-efficacy, Clinical Reasoning, Case-Based Learning
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Kelly VearilUC Blue AshFaculty
221
Utilizing Research Examples in a Common Engineering Technology Course
This study includes combination of research and teaching for a common engineering course offered at Miami University Regionals. Fluid Mechanics is a common course in Engineering Technology and it includes students from different Engineering Technology background (e.g., Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology). In Fluid Mechanics lecture meetings, many definitions related to the topics are covered first and then example problems related to topics are solved. Fluid Mechanics is generally more challenging course since it requires visualization of example applications before being able to solve them step-by-step using formulas and definitions learnt in lecture meetings.
Research examples and video demonstrations are shown during lecture meetings in order to make each different Fluid Mechanics topics more attractive and easier to understand for students who have different backgrounds. For instance, when liquid surface tension topic is discussed in a lecture meeting, an example research study outcome based on surface tension of a liquid is introduced to students via images or short videos. This and other similar examples are based on a research activity some of which were performed with student research assistants. Research example images and videos are obtained using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of a single liquid droplet impact on a dry surface. Several parameter effects on single liquid droplet dynamics are investigated including but not limited to fluid properties (e.g., liquid surface tension, density, viscosity) and some environmental variables (e.g., gravitational force). Choosing a single liquid droplet impact simulation study is important because it is part of a research activity and it can help students learn and visualize the topics more easily because of its simplicity with full physical concepts included. In this presentation, summary of example studies from research and integration to teaching will be shared with audiences.
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Murat DincMiami MiddletownFaculty
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Giancarlos CastroMiami Middletown
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Logan StreetMiami Middletown
221
Teaching strategies to enhance students’ problem posing skills in mathematics courses for elementary teachers
This qualitative case study used a Qualtrics questionnaire to elicit experts’ views regarding the role of problem posing and effective instructional approaches related to the use of problem posing in the teaching of mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers in the United States. A thematic analysis of responses to the questionnaire provided by six of the experts who participated in the study suggest that problem posing could serve as a tool for assessing mathematical understanding, or as a tool for promoting critical thinking, among other things in mathematics education. Additionally, most of the experts noted that getting started with problem posing tasks is particularly challenging for many students. Modeling problem posing and creating classroom environments/cultures that promote problem prosing are some of the teaching approaches identified by most of the experts as effective in supporting students’ learning about problem posing. Furthermore, nearly all the expects expressed disappointment at the paucity of problem posing opportunities provided in textbooks for mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers. Implications for instruction are included.
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Thembinkosi MkhatshwaMiami MiddletownFaculty
223
A Case Study of Student Perception of Academic Feedback in a Math Course
Students’ perceptions of academic feedback are closely related to their learning experiences and outcomes (Ekholm et al., 2015; Koenka et al., 2021; Fong et al., 2016). College students, specifically, experience numerous sources of feedback (e.g., instructors’ comments, grades, tutoring and peer review), and multiple feedback modes (e.g., face-to-face, written, electronic) (Carey et al., 2010; Paterson et al., 2020). As educators aim to improve undergraduate feedback effectiveness and promote student success, it is essential to better understand how variation in the nature of feedback and individual student differences relate to students’ feedback perceptions. This study aims at a) understanding students’ perceptions of academic feedback in a math course and b) examining how these perceptions vary with feedback characteristics, source and modality (McCarthy, 2017; Evans & Waring, 2011); with efficacy and usefulness (Wang, 2017) or with learner’s characteristics (Small & Attree, 2016) . Preliminary results from both in-person and online math courses will be presented.
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Adam ChekourUC Blue AshFaculty
223
Case-based learning as a practical approach to tackle prejudice and racism issues in marketing
The use of a case-based approach could be effective to engage marketing students easily in the discussion of controversial topics in the marketplace. This paper shows how case studies could be an effective way to expose marketing students to real-world situations of racial injustice and serves as a catalyst for critical thinking about prejudice and racism issues in marketing.
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Haithem ZourrigKSU StarkFaculty
225
Impact of New AI Tools on Teaching
Even though artificial intelligence (AI) has been prevalent in education for many years now, language translators (Chatbots) have been relatively basic, and not capable of much depth in human communication. The release of ChatGPT recently has changed the equation because it is generative artificial intelligence (AI). That means it can create entirely new content. This has spurred debate among educators around its impact on learning. AI won’t be going away, so as educators, we must learn how to accept it, teach our students to use it responsibly, and even embrace it to aid us in the classroom. AI can positively impact the education process as in the case of personalized learning. However, it also presents the ever-present possibility of enabling student misconduct. The questions are: Do we know what AI is and are we using it correctly, and ethically? According to Mark Ryan, “One of the main difficulties with analyzing the ethical impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is overcoming the tendency to anthropomorphize it.” (2020). Since technology has no ethics, we must make the effort to educate ourselves and our students in its ethical use. The purpose of this roundtable is to start the conversation with faculty to discover uses and best practices in using AI, and ways to empower students with knowledge to use artificial intelligence ethically. Participants will discuss the types of AI that are impacting education, the importance of teaching students to use AI ethically, and how we can rethink education strategies to deal with artificial intelligence.
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Kristi HallUC ClermontFaculty
235
Is it possible to create a flexible, less stressful environment for students?
A student-centered classroom requires both flexibility and organization. Students need consistency and predictability. At the same time, they need opportunities to take responsibility for planning, prioritizing, problem-solving, and self-regulating. I will highlight 3 strategies I developed to help facilitate the use of these key executive function skills by students: 1) flexible due dates, 2) collaborative documents and 3) voice & choice in their assignments. Using any or all of these strategies can create a less stressful learning environment and help motivate students to be engaged authentically in their learning. It is possible to give students flexibility on when they complete their assignments, and keep it manageable for the teacher to track. I designed a process for using collaborative documents that streamlines communication between the teacher and each individual student.
With each class of students, I challenge myself to find the best way to answer the question “what will they learn in my class that will positively influence, perhaps even significantly alter, the trajectory of their lives?” It is essential to me, in answering that question, to find effective ways for students to 1) apply the course content to real-world situations, 2) meaningfully interact / network with the content and each other, and 3) make connections between the course content and their professional goals. During this presentation I will discuss how I use flexible due dates, leverage shared file technology, and provide voice & choice in the classroom to help facilitate those goals.
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Thomas BrinkmannUC Blue AshFaculty
227
Engaging, Educating and Impacting Students Through Success Coaching
Fostering success involves conscious delivery of course content. In addition, the future of learning will include a blend of community engagement and support services into holistic learning for students. This presentation will blend teaching and learning with support services to illustrate a unique teaching pedagogy that incorporates the classroom model with support services and holistic student development. We will share the history of our success coaching model and focus on how support systems are integrated into a Student Success Seminar course to provide students explicit space – both in their course schedules and in their weeks – to engage with support services via their learning community and success coach. We will offer a look at how the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College created a course to house success coaching with the intent to deliberately illustrate and prioritize holistic learning for some of our most vulnerable students. The impressive positive student success outcomes offer all of us the opportunity to learn and adapt cocurricular models for continued success in student learning. After this session, attendees will be able to: identify innovative approaches to classroom teaching that include offering holistic support services to students; adapt success coaching elements into the classroom and reflect on processes to incorporate elements of this model at their own institution; and outline how assessment of the cocurricular success coaching model is evidence for enhancing student success.
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Hannah ThompsonUC Blue AshStaff
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Josh MonsonUC Blue Ash
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Missy GrafUC Blue Ash
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Alice HicksUC Blue Ash
228
Instructor Presence in Online Asynchronous Classes: Intentionality in Interaction Promotes Student Success
Research on course outcomes indicates that instructor presence is a key factor to student success and increased student retention. Instructor interaction with students in online asynchronous courses presents challenges to instructors that differ greatly from those faced by their peers in the traditional, in-person, classroom setting. Similarly, online courses create challenges for learners that differ from those of their traditional classroom counterparts. Not only does the online instructor have a more limited opportunity to build rapport with students, but they cannot immediately answer student questions or read the room to check for understanding as is possible for instructors in the traditional classroom. Further, a lack of intentionality in interaction on the part of the instructor has been shown to lower student engagement. Decreased student commitment can lead to an increase in distractions and time management problems which create circumstances that adversely affect student success and retention. Thus, it is critical that the online instructor is purposeful in interacting with students in order to create a situation most conducive to learning, even to a higher degree than that of the in-person instructor.
In this presentation, I will discuss some of the time-tested tools and technology suggested by experts to improve instructor presence in an online learning environment. Additionally, I will share my experience with implementing these resources in an online asynchronous classroom emphasizing their efficacy and efficiency.
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Brad PriceUC ClermontFaculty
236
Sessions at 12:00 - 12:30 AM
Journey of a Drug: An Active Learning Strategy to Teach Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
Journey of a Drug: An Active Learning Strategy to Teach Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacology is a challenging course for nursing students, specifically when considering the pharmacologic principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) (Freeling, 2021). It is well established in the literature that active learning strategies provide an opportunity for students to engage with the material and develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Creating and implementing active learning strategies aimed at increasing knowledge and engagement is essential to improving learning outcomes in a pharmacology course (Sajjad & Gowanj, 2021). The Journey of a Drug activity was developed to teach complex principles of PK/PD to undergraduate nursing students. The efficacy of this activity was evaluated using a pretest-posttest design to compare students’ scores on a PK/PD knowledge quiz, as well as student self-reported engagement and perceptions of this activity compared to a PK/PD video lecture. Paired-samples t-tests were conducted to compare students’ PK/PD knowledge, student engagement, and student perceptions of the video lecture compared to Journey of Drug activity. There were extremely statistically significant improvements in the scores from the video lecture (knowledge- M= 6.90, SD= 2.26; engagement- M= , SD= ; perceptions- M= , SD=) to the Journey of a Drug activity (knowledge- M= 10.13, SD= 2.04; engagement- M= , SD= ; perceptions- M= , SD=); t(38)=8.8630, p<0.0001; t(29)=3.8475, p=0.0006; t(35)=5.5288, p<0.0001 for student knowledge, engagement, and perceptions respectively. Our results suggest that the Journey of a Drug activity is effective for teaching PK/PD and superior to video lecture for improving students’ knowledge, engagement, and perceptions of the teaching-learning strategy.
References
Freeling, M. (2021). New model of academic support aimed at improving pharmacology knowledge. Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, 27(5), 55.
Sajjad, S., & Gowani, A. (2021). Introducing a flipped classroom in a pharmacology course. British Journal of Nursing, 30(5), 296–300. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.296
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Tricia NeuMiami HamiltonFaculty
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Ashlyn JohnsonMiami Hamilton
221
Cryptography Concepts for Classroom
Information security and cryptography became one of the most important concepts in today’s technology. Many mathematical structures are implemented to create secure cryptostsyems. In this session, we will explore some elementary cryptosystems which can be adopted in a math course such as discrete mathematics. These cryptosystems can easily be studied in a classroom environment as activities and projects. These activities will not only show the importance of mathematics in information security but also present the students the connection between mathematics and real-world problems. Moreover, one of the major applications of mathematics will be observed by students. Such observations and practices motivate students more and increase engagement in math courses.
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Zekeriya KaratasUC Blue AshFaculty
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Charles EmenakerUC Blue Ash
223
Teaching Racial Inequality while White: Questions and Considerations
In this paper the author examines research on the teaching of race and racial inequality through the lens of his experience, as a White male, teaching a series of courses, one specifically being the Sociology of Race. The goal is to address three basic questions. First, what, if any, role should white instructors or mentors play in multi-racial education? Second, what personal or professional challenges might a white instructor expect when teaching such topics from a position of privilege? Third, how should such an instructor understand that privilege when creating assignments and assessing student outcomes? The purpose of the paper isn’t to definitively answer the prior questions, but hopefully to generate dialogue from all interested parties and frame some of the important issues.
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Todd CallaisUC Blue AshFaculty
225
Chemical research with students at regional campuses: Lanthanide compounds that detect capsaicin
Regional campuses typically do not have ample facilities and resources to support undergraduate research when compared to main university campuses. However, the benefits can still be great for students participating in research at regional campuses. This presentation will describe the design and results of a project completed at UC Blue Ash using facilities at multiple campuses. The project focused on the synthesis of a new set of molecules for detecting capsaicin with a luminescence response. Capsaicin is the molecule in spicy foods that tastes hot, and a new method for determining its concentration could be important for the food industry. The synthesis and luminescence results will be presented.
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Chris GulgasUC Blue AshFaculty
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Christopher GulgasUC Blue Ash
235
The Electoral College: A Mathematical Algorithm for Awarding Electoral Votes
The Electoral College is the colloquial name for the constitutional procedure for electing the president and the vice-president of the United States. It has come under scrutiny in recent presidential elections, with arguments in favor of the current system, and with arguments in favor of replacing it with a nationwide popular vote. This presentation argues that the Electoral College should be kept, but it also advances a mathematical algorithm for a more equitable awarding of electoral votes. The 2020 presidential election is used to illustrate how this amended Electoral College would be applied.
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Brent FoxBGSU FirelandsStaff
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Brent M. Fox
238
Using Robert's Rules of Order to Effectively Participate in Meetings
Meetings and committees are part of the work for every member of a faculty. This will be a valuable session for people who chair a committee or are a committee member. Robert’s Rules are most often used with a shared governance system. Understanding these rules allows you to take part in the decisions being made at your institution. Participants will leave this interactive session with techniques for running efficient meetings including how to effectively use Robert's Rules of Order
If you have ever attended a meeting, and not quite understood the rules for participation, then this presentation is for you. Understanding Robert’s Rules of Order allows any member of a group the ability to have their voice heard and take part in the productive discussion that is needed to complete business.
We will discuss the responsibilities of the chair and members. You will learn how to bring new business to the membership with a main motion, and how to refine the motion through discussion and amendments. Other topics include agenda creation, referring to a committee, postponing to a definite time, laying on the table and assuring that your group is following the rules.
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Sheri BarksdaleUC Blue AshFaculty
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Michele D. KegleyUC Blue Ash
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Suzanne BradshawUC Blue Ash
236
Lunch & Awards
Lunch, Student Awards, Closing Remarks
12:30 PM - 1:45 PMBleeker Street Commons, Muntz Hall
AURCO Business Meeting
Representatives from all campuses are welcome
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM238
