Celebration of Teaching & Learning Conference

Welcome

Presenters: Amber Handy & Ann Friesema

We want students to learn everything we present to them and retain it forever

Presenter: Bill Burnett

How can we do that? The bugaboo is, to paraphrase Max Bell, “If you give students an opportunity to forget something, they will.”  How do you incorporate Active Learning, Gapping, Repeated but Varied Exposure, Elaboration, Self-directed Learning, and Engaging With Other Minds into a single learning tool? The Capabilities Tool Kit does just that, by leveraging the capabilities in Canvas’s Discussion Forums to structure learning that is deeper and retained longer.

Fostering faculty and instructor wellness through relational teaching strategies

Presenter: Ann Friesema

Faculty and instructors balance multiple roles in teaching and supervising our students at Parkside. A unique model of faculty self-care with a focus on relationships is needed to foster faculty wellness, to prevent burnout, and to model wellness for students. This session will apply Relational Cultural theory to Skovholtâ's Cycle of Caring as a self-care model. Application in the classroom will be discussed and the implications of this model with be explored.

Adventures with Specifications-Based Grading: Lessons Learned

Presenter: Jordan Snyder

In this presentation and discussion, I will describe my rationale for using specifications-based grading and my experiences with specifications-based grading schemes in both online and in-person classes. I will identify strengths of this approach as well as challenges that I have faced in implementing this system with my classes. I will provide resources and considerations for those who wish to explore alternative grading approaches within their own classes and disciplines.

A Common Intellectual Experience: Writing an IFSP across Two Universities

Presenter: Meredith McGinley

Pre-service teachers in Ohio partnered with psychology majors in Wisconsin to integrate research and practice in early childhood intervention through writing an Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP). Outcomes of this high-impact practice are to help the students to become more informed and mindful caregivers, educators, policy-makers, scientists, or practitioners. Instructors can consider implementing this IFSP Project, or something similar, in their practitioner preparation courses as a way to engage their students through hands-on learning and acquisition of course content to help them to effectively make informed instructional decisions and to work together as a team in a systematic way.

Designing Academic Safe Spaces in Online Classrooms

Presenter: Suresh Chalasani

In this session, I plan to share my experience with designing safe spaces for students in the online classroom. Often the classroom, in-person or virtual, is one of the places where issues of struggling students manifest. The goal of safe spaces in the virtual classroom is to promote student communication, connect them with necessary resources --- academic and non-academic --- to help, and create pathways for them to overcome issues. Though there is no common design strategy for safe spaces in the virtual classroom, a consistent safe space module in every online classroom can help strengthen the communities of inquiry and improve retention.

Promoting Connection in the Large College Class

Presenter: Erin Hillard & Jordan Snyder

In this session, we will discuss strategies we have used to promote connection in larger classes (50+ students), balancing large class sizes with a need for students to connect with the material at a deeper level, as well as with each other. Strategies for both online and face-to-face courses will be shared along with reflections on instructor experiences using them in Parkside classes.

Negotiated Syllabus: Empowering Students Through Personal Responsibility

Presenter: Kevin Rickman

Borrowing from the critical pedagogy tradition learned from Graham Crookes at UH-Manoa, I have employed a negotiated syllabus both in online courses taught at Manoa and in-person classes at UW-Parkside. In both classroom formats, the negotiated syllabus empowered students by getting them actively involved in their own learning in a democratic way, and this empowerment has overtly and subtly inspired more personal responsibility for their learning and sharing of knowledge in courses at the levels of daily discussions, larger presentations, and in their writing. Rather than a rigorously strict rubric for grading projects, I have found that students who are given the option to negotiate their syllabus and course projects are more active in researching topics, preparing materials, exploring concepts, and more inspired in the sharing of their findings with their peers.

Panel Discussion - Reflections from Summer Institute: Creating an Anti-Racist Classroom Through Teaching and Learning

Presenters: Shannon Prince, Donna Hewitt, James Kinchen, Sahar Bahmani, Natalia Taft, Erin Hillard, Bill Burnett

Our panel consists of past participants in the 2021 and 2019 Summer Institute. We will each reflect on changes we made to our teaching practice / syllabus because of the Summer Institute experience. We hope our panel will encourage others to participate in the Summer Institute and continue the conversation around antiracist teaching practices and policies.

The following panel discussion has been cancelled due to illness:

Panel Discussion - Inclusivity and Representation in Teaching Theatre Arts

Presenters: Fabrice Conte-Williamson, Rachael Swartz, Brian Gill

A panel of Theatre Arts faculty presents innovative teaching strategies designed to foster an inclusive learning environment and encourage representation of historically oppressed communities in the curriculum.

Supporting Students in Crisis: Mental Health Resources at Parkside

Presenters: Ann Friesema & Amber Handy

This presentation will help instructors to identify students in need of mental health support, offer guidance on how to respond in a moment of crisis, and inform participants about campus resources for student mental health support including the new Red Folder program.

Panel Discussion - Competency-Based Learning for Adult Learners at Parkside: An Overview of Flexible Option BSBA (Bachelor of Science in Business Administration) & PMGT (Project Management) Programs

Presenters: Sahar Bahmani,Suresh Chalasani, Terry McGovern, Sheronda Glass, Han Zhang

In this panel we will familiarize the campus community about the UW Flexible Option (Flex) Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) which is the only competency-based education (CBE) program in the Business discipline offered by the UW System at the undergraduate level. It launched in 2016, it received two rounds of approval by the Higher Learning Commission, one for direct-assessment CBE (2019) and another for credit-based CBE (2020). Additionally, Flex BSBA is the first and the only CBE Business program accredited by AACSB. In Summer 2020, the Federal Department of Education, despite its stringent processes and strict standards for awarding financial aid to CBE programs, approved Flex BSBA for granting financial aid to students. In Fall 2020, Flex BSBA became the first-ever CBE program to undergo a successful peer-review by an AACSB visit team. We hope to encourage other programs at Parkside to consider how a competency-based, flexible program model may attract adult learners to their departments.

Panel Discussion - Community-Based Learning from Professional Development to the Classroom and Beyond

Presenters: Penny Lyter, Hilary Rasmussen, Rusquin Chadez Ibarra, William Parker, Anjuli Brekke

This panel will focus on a campus professional development program designed to increase the quantity and quality of community-based learning (CBL) opportunities for all students across the curriculum. After a brief discussion of CBL as a high-impact learning experience, the panel members will describe their experience participating in the campus Summer CBL Faculty Workshop and the year-long CBL Faculty Fellows program. Panelist will share their view of the impact of the professional development program, challenges and rewards of course/project development, unique aspects of implementing CBL in their course, and student feedback of the CBL experience.