Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) combines the latest research in neuroscience and pedagogy and attempts to address the hidden barriers that learners experience in our classrooms. Using multiple means of representation, expression and engagement, UDL provides solutions to challenges that arise with diverse populations, students with disabilities and multi-level learners, but goes a step further - empowering all learners to succeed. In this session, we will explore what UDL is through examples and an evaluation of the literature. The session will also allow participants to discuss ways that UDL principles can be applied in learning environments and wrestle with the challenges of UDL implementation. The session aims to be an introduction to the concepts of UDL and a springboard for further exploration. Participants should leave the session with a conceptual understanding of the UDL principles and concrete methods of application for further exploration.

Two major things that have become apparent to me since I began teaching the Human Experience:

- Students are challenged and sometimes overwhelmed by difficult texts. They will let the instructor “do the work” of understanding the text for them in the classroom if possible.

- Students need help understanding the interconnectedness of ideas across their classes, across disciplines, and in their lives.

On the first point: I have learned that one of my fundamental roles as an instructor is to help students unpack what that they are reading. To do this they must be instructed about how to read, and then the instructor must employ strategies in the classroom to gently (or not so gently) enforce critical reading. If this is not done, then students do not learn to work with difficult texts and to understand them to the best of their abilities. They wait until the lecture so that everything can be clarified for them by the instructor. By helping our students better understand difficult texts we are helping them become better learners and therefore they are building the foundations to becoming critical thinkers.

On the second point: Students often compartmentalize what they learn in one class as only being related to that particular classroom. As instructors we know the pedagogical and developmental significance of students being able to transfer and recognize skills and ideas in various settings. In HMXP we cover readings in five broad areas (self and education, self and the individual, self and community, self and nature, self and the sacred). The themes and readings fit with what students are learning in many other classes on our campus, and they are also related to the students own lives.

If students can make connections between ideas from HMXP, other classes and also their own lives they will have a better understanding of the ideas that we are trying to impart as a part of their university education. They will be able to make connections, assess others ideas and develop their own ideas in a more effective and thoughtful way. This helps build the foundations of critical thought. It helps make them better people, students, employees, and citizens. Therefore I have begun to refer back to the readings and ideas from HMXP in American Government and Comparative Politics. During my presentation I will share the readings in the HMXP reader and discuss how some of the themes are more widely applicable and talk about strategies for application in the classroom setting.

Perhaps no other skill affects students’ intellectual achievement more profoundly than the skill of critical reading. The analysis and assessment of written texts requires specific, learned skills in unpacking a text’s meaning, understanding its claims and implications, assessing its logic and coherence, evaluating its evidence, and drawing logical conclusions based on its claims. Both anecdotal evidence and qualitative research suggest that these skills are lacking in many high school and college students, and though teachers are intuitively aware of how crucial such skills are in the research and writing process, they often struggle to help students practice and apply critical reading strategies in consistent and effective ways. This session will articulate a theory of critical reading based on the concepts and methodology of critical thinking experts Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder and will share practical strategies and in-class exercises designed to help students learn how to read, understand, and assess written texts in order to draw logical conclusions and construct persuasive arguments.

One frustrating problem in teaching is getting students to go beyond facts and surface knowledge to deep learning. The best students already have this vital skill without our help or prodding, but most students need some guidance in going deeper with their learning. Winthrop students who have taken our required course in critical thinking, CRTW 201—Critical Reading, Thinking, and Writing, have been introduced to the elements of reasoning, a foundational building block of our course, based on the work of Richard Paul, Linda Elder, and Gerald Nosich. This presentation will introduce the elements of reasoning, with ideas about how you can make use of this helpful thinking tool in any class you teach. If you teach at Winthrop, you can be assured that your students already have this tool, but you can learn how to reinforce that knowledge in other courses. If you do not teach at Winthrop, you can learn about this powerful approach to better critical thinking.

Many folks on campus are aware that Residence Life has professional staff members that live in the residence halls, but how many know what the live-on staff members actually do? These professionals’ full title here at Winthrop University is Residential Learning Coordinator and Academic Associate (RLC), and they are a far cry from their dorm mother predecessors. Aside from the obvious duties that come with running their buildings, RLCs also engage in a plethora of academic initiatives in attempts to maximize residents’ chances for success in college. This session will be a panel discussion with current RLCs to give an overview of some of the services and initiatives that they work on. They will also discuss ways that RLCs can serve as a resource for faculty, as well as potential partnerships to help faculty and staff connect with residents outside of the classroom.

Sustainability must not be thought of as an independent discipline but as a methodology for all disciplines to incorporate systems thinking with place based learning. Surveys asking about how people define sustainability often indicate that people’s ideas about sustainability are limited to environmental concerns. This misunderstanding appears to limit people’s ability to analyze how human systems have compromised ecological services as well as social inequalities. Compromises to natural and human systems require an approach that considers the complexities of contemporary society in order to develop solutions that limit negative outcomes. This workshop will provide a clear definition of sustainability and provide resources that can be used by educators to expand a student’s ability to understand how human and natural systems interact while exploring solutions that simultaneously advance economic vitality, ecological integrity, and social welfare within each his or her area of study.

Abstract

These days there are many different opportunities to connect with professionals in education at any given time. The key is finding what works for you and your schedule. In this interactive session, attendees will have the chance to see social media, websites, and several apps in action. Participants will also leave with best practice strategies that promote the use of technology in and out of the classroom. The presenter will facilitate an open discussion about implementing technology in courses, while sharing ideas for the classroom as well as professional development opportunities. The session will include building an understanding of: Twitter-what are hashtags, who’s who (followers), and how to use a live format (for class or presentations); Voxer and Edmodo-communication tools that can take group discussions to the next level; and Blogging-a reflection tool that can be used in the classroom or as a professional development component. These tools may be used by participants to connect with students, continue connections made during the conference, form groups with colleagues who have similar interests/discipline studies, or finally connect with educators globally. Is there something that you have wanted to try but wasn’t sure how? Have you felt a need to take your course to the next level to ensure students are getting the most out of it? Here is your chance to grow and learn in a supportive environment while building a professional network at the same time.

Important-This is a BYOD (bring your own device) event.

In recent years, Anxiety has emerged as the number one presenting concern at College Counseling Services across the country. College students are now entering college with less emotional resilience than in previous generations. Left untreated, ongoing anxiety and other mental health disorders contribute to poor social connections, diminished campus integration, poor academic performance, and often withdrawal from the university. University professors and staff members sometimes see themselves pressured into a role of surrogate parents or counselors, positions they did not anticipate or prepare for upon entering the field of academia. This presentation will inform attendees about recent trends in college mental health, the impact of mental health concerns upon the classroom performance and university retention, and how these concerns impact Winthrop University. Additionally, we will engage the audience in discussion regarding strategies to cope with this generation of college student as they present with more and more intense mental health concerns.

We’ve all seen it: Students distracted in class checking their phones under a desk or with Facebook pulled up on their laptops. Social media can often serve as a distraction for students’ education, but when implemented carefully social media can also serve as an effective tool to bringing the “real world” into the classroom. This presentation will review current research and pedagogy on the use of social media in the classroom. The presenter will share practices utilized in preparing and implementing different social media tools as well as specific concerns and challenges that can be problematic in implementing such educational practices. The presentation will also introduce approaches educators can utilize to engage students and prepare them to be lifelong learners through the use of 1) encouraging student collaboration and opportunities for feedback, 2) helping students identify educational resources, 3) connect with professionals and opportunities within their field, 4) become savvy consumers of information available on social media, and 5) highlighting students’ quality work. The presentation will conclude with an opportunity for session attendees to discuss and further share their own experiences with these educational practices.

In a digital environment, teachers and students have access to a wide variety of material that can be used to create discussion, spark inquiry, and prompt critical thinking. One of the social media tools that can be used for this is Pinterest, a free online visual discovery, collection, sharing, and storage tool that allows users to curate and share information through the creation of visual bookmarks called “boards.” Users can “pin” material to their boards either by linking to other online sites or by uploading materials of their own; boards can be grouped by similar characteristics, themes, events, questions, ideas, or other concepts. Pinterest allows users to “follow” other users, to collaborate on shared boards, and to “re-pin” materials from other users to their own boards. As such, it is a powerful tool to allow students to gather, organize, analyze, and evaluate source materials.

In my presentation I will demonstrate how I have used Pinterest in both graduate and undergraduate classes, for both majors and non-majors, to allow students to study concepts, analyze corpuses of data, share information, and reflect critically on their learning processes. I will illustrate the presentation with examples of student work and comments on some of the lessons I have learned in using this tool to ‘flip’ my teaching. The presentation can be delivered in 20 minutes and will require access to the Internet and projection equipment.

https://www.pinterest.com/drkoster/

Creativity… Innovation... Design Thinking... Design Intelligence? The last fifteen years of design centered buildup has generated a slew of hot topics and claims of newness, but what do these terms mean? What do they offer? And how can we make the most of them? The design disciplines hardly have monopoly on design processes and methodologies. Design thinking is used throughout the curriculum, from creative writing to research design. Design thinking is process, analysis and synthesize… solve et coagula. Design thinking uses both analytic and holistic thinking and attractive catch phrases such as “wicked problems”, “problem seeking”, “strategic analysis”, “programming”, “scenario building” and “solution-orientation”. Ok, so what is it? How do I use it? This presentation attempts to clear up the main concepts, theories, methodologies, processes and models of problem solving and decision making that are used in and define design thinking. The topics and materials covered attempt to provide an approachable and coherent view and framework for the classroom; they include using design thinking to foster creativity, facilitate critical thinking and engage students in metacognitive self-awareness, as well as how to get the most out of design thinking to promote dialogue between the instructor and student. While design thinking can still be thought of a “buzz” word, much can be applied to learning and teaching.

While prior knowledge is essential for new learning, prior knowledge that is incomplete, confused, and/or flawed becomes a barrier to learning. Faculty and students themselves are often blind to these misconceptions and flawed understandings until tests or other major assessments reveal them. This blind spot is often explained by the gap between experts and novices. Thus faculty who develop strategies for identifying students’ prior knowledge and strategies for making visible students’ unstated misconceptions and flawed understanding can help remove barriers to learning and potentially accelerate student learning. This workshop will provide the opportunity to review the compelling literature on this topic, examine examples of prior knowledge assessments from a variety of disciplines, practice identifying common misconceptions in different disciplines, and develop assessments and learning activities for addressing these common misconceptions.

Activities:

• Participants will work on an activity as a student might on prior knowledge in particular disciplines
• Participants will work on an activity on how to identify common misconceptions novices bring to their specific discipline.
• These identified misconceptions will then be the focus for participants creating diagnostic instruments and active learning activities to clarify students’ confusion.

Disability Rights are Civil Rights. In 2016, the Americans With Disabilities Act celebrates its 26^th year. Faculty and staff need to be aware of regulations, the potential for personal liability, and understand why accommodations are approved and how to implement them. Attendees will review the accommodation process, note federal clarifications, and discuss what to do if an accommodation may result in a fundamental alteration. A Q&A session will be included to address common concerns related to specific accommodations, such as attendance and assignment due date modifications.

Assistance Animals On Campus : Opportunities to Support Student Success

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA) are important legislation that keep Housing and Disability Services professionals across the country on their toes when it comes to accessible on-campus living and learning. Participants will learn about the particular requirements of these laws, in relation to Service and Emotional Support Animals on campus. We will explain how Winthrop University has worked to accommodate students, both in the residence halls and in the classroom, and what faculty and staff need to know to make this a positive experience for our students and to keep litigation at bay. (Includes discussion of the recent University of Nebraska at Kearney case, and the $144k resolution.)

In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of adult students who have expressed interest in returning back to school to complete their undergraduate degrees. Research, however, shows that many adult students who start degree completion programs do not complete them.

An oft-cited roadblock to degree completion by adult students is lack of recognition of prior learning obtained on the job or through other means. As a result, prior learning assessment (PLA) has now become an important tool used by colleges and universities to facilitate access to higher education by adult students.

The Council for Adult & Experiential Learning (CAEL) has developed a set of PLA standards to award course credit for significant life or career experiences. Based on those standards, an individual with extensive experience in accounting might well have already mastered the knowledge required to satisfy learning outcomes for an elementary accounting course; or again, an experienced journalist might have experience that satisfies learning outcomes in an elementary writing course.

Colleges and universities across the US are using a wide variety of PLA approaches to validate mastery of college-level material. More recently, the PLA portfolio model, which is a process that allow students to document college-level learning experiences for course credit, has received widespread acceptance. Through the use of the PLA portfolio, many colleges and universities now provide a new degree completion pathway, allowing adult learners to complete their programs within a reasonable amount of time.

In this session, we describe some recent PLA practices and consider how they might be implemented here at Winthrop. We will discuss and review some PLA standards that might correlate to certain standard courses here at Winthrop. And we will consider the primary model for PLA, the PLA-portfolio constructed by students seeking PLA course-credit.

The skill of speaking clearly and concisely with short preparation is important. Yet, most of our efforts to improve college students’ oral communication skills fall short of helping them to prepare for the type of daily communications they will have as community and corporate leaders. Instead of assuming that individual or group PowerPoint presentations will contribute to this kind of impromptu speaking skills, we suggest assigning impromptu speeches.

Impromptu speeches have been used in a variety of educational contexts to improve students' oral communication skills. They are typically designed to allow students 2-3 minutes to prepare for a 3-6 minute speech on a topic that is personally relevant or familiar (e.g.. "What I did last summer"). Positive outcomes include improved confidence and lower state-related communication anxiety.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate how we use impromptu speeches, over the course of a semester, to improve unrehearsed communications by students, while simultaneously increasing students’ engagement with the weekly course material. In short, students must prepare to be called on for an impromptu speech on any day of class and the instructor’s prompt will ask them to relate the course content for the day to something of relevance in the recent news, popular media, or their own life. We will provide instructions regarding how to prepare students for impromptu speeches, what to expect from student performance across the semester, sample prompts, the use of video recording for reflection, examples of both good and bad speeches, and feedback from students about the experience.

Capstone courses are generally considered high-impact and transformative for students. In the process of redesigning the officially-designated capstone course for the environmental sciences and studies program at Winthrop University, the author discovered that there is no clear definition of what this senior culminating experience should be. Formats at Winthrop range from community field placements to individual research papers; course goals range from integrative discipline-based learning to career preparation to program assessment. Using course syllabi, catalog descriptions, and a questionnaire for department or program chairs, an analysis will be presented of the variety of experiences, formats, and goals for all undergraduate capstone courses at Winthrop University

Co-teaching is a common practice across schools. While research may be present regarding the effects of co-teaching, there is little literature that simply offers the perspective a co-teacher. As a former co-teacher of six years, I experienced various encounters and relationships that helped shape my current career as a professor of education. From these experiences, I have developed a list of “wisha wouldas” as a reflection. These “wisha wouldas” are basic things I wish I had done or experienced that I feel would have made me a stronger co-teacher. Included in my list of “wisha wouldas” are co-teaching contracts to outline teacher responsibilities, varied methods of communication with my co-teacher such as Google Docs, conflict resolution strategies in co-teaching relationships, and reflection practices for more effective co-teaching. I hope my list of “wisha wouldas” will impact school leaders in supporting co-teaching practices and co-teachers in optimizing their own co-teaching experiences.

Many educators are experimenting with the flipped classroom experience today. At The University of Tennessee at Martin, with the help of the EdX Corporation and a University of Tennessee grant, I participated in a flipped classroom experience involving English 250 (British Literary Tradition I) during fall semesters 2014 and 2015. I also taught the same course in a traditional setting during the same semesters. Comparisons can be made between my preparation before and during the course, students’ in-class performance, students’ formal assessment results, and a survey of their experience. Traditionally, researchers write about the experience resulting in improved performance and retention of materials, and the results for this experience show those aspects.

In addition, I will focus on the environmental changes that I had to make in teaching in both settings. In the flipped classroom experience, students watched one to two 8 to 12 minute lectures and completed quizzes on that experience before coming to class. The in-class activities involved more in-depth examination of texts that were often facilitated by deeper questions from students—questions they were asked to bring from listening to the online lectures. I will share not only my experience, challenges, and rewards as well as their responses.

Having now finished the two-year pilot project, I believe I have a sense of the challenges, rewards, introspection, and future planning that this project has provided.

STEM courses, in particular, challenge educators and learners to learn complex processes, much of which is not intuitive or outside their realm of experience. Blended learning and flipped classrooms allow educators to tackle the rigors of STEM education head-on (Bishop & Verleger, 2013).

Defining blended and flipped: “Course that integrates online elements into face-to-face delivery. Content and materials are available online and typically keeps all or most face-to-face meetings. The inverted, active learning classroom “flips” the in-class and homework activities, often by moving content lectures before class, in that students watch online lectures at home, while class time is spent on working more intensively with individuals and groups on homework and hands-on activities. The learner is freed from struggling with the problems alone at home.

Presentation Goals: 1. Compare flipped STEM classes to online STEM courses 2. Explore the opportunities presented by software and educational technologies in STEM courses. 3. Explore the challenges of the flipped STEM class

4. Share experience and resources for designing blended and flipped STEM courses

This presentation is for every college-level STEM educator who wants to discuss how to design outcomes and mastery learning activities for each week, integrate software and tutorials into blended courses, and select or prepare video content for their courses. I also want to discuss how to avoid common mistakes in both flipped and blended courses, especially how to get students to view the content before coming to class.

The Blackboard course management system includes the tool "statistics tracking." An instructor can use this tool to generate a report that "displays the summary of usage for that content item and [the students] enrolled in the course. The access date, hour and day of the week are all reported for the selected item and [students]." In this case study the researcher will correlate aggregate data about students' visits to numerous content items in a course and their final grade in the course. The instructor will also correlate aggregate data from a study log created to track the number of hours per week that students reported they were studying to their final grades in the course.

While knowing one’s students is often emphasized in discussing teaching strategies, we feel it also necessary for students to know each other. Student-student rapport is not frequently emphasized, and the majority of existing research focuses more on teacher-student rapport. In establishing student-student rapport in our classes, we find ourselves drawing on research from other fields where there is a recent and burgeoning interest in and emphasis on team-building. We find this existing research valuable and inarguably applicable to the way we teach. Our common pedagogical goals led to more discussion and a further analysis of how we work to create student-student and teacher-student rapport in a dance technique class, as well as why we believe it is a necessary component of our teaching. Establishing student-student rapport is beneficial in any educational classroom. Our presentation will include a summary of existing research on the topic, a history of our efforts to establish student-student rapport, and a discussion of the techniques we have found useful in helping students engage with one another. We will also discuss the benefits and make the argument that spending time helping students get to know each other will reap great benefits in the end.

Digital badges are online records of achievements that are awarded to learners for mastery of a specific set of educational contents. Often referred to as micro-credentials, digital badges are being used by many higher education institutions to assess and validate clearly defined chunks of knowledge, competency, or accomplishment.

At present, the use of digital badges is widespread. As a result, the perception exists that digital badges might be over-sold and over-hyped, as an assessment tool. Instructional design practice, however, reveals that learning objectives are best attained when course contents are broken into manageable chunks. In this context, digital badges, serving as visible proofs of learning achievement or mastery of new skills, can thus help build the recipient’s self-confidence and strengthen his/her intrinsic motivation.

Further, a digital badge system that is used as part of a course provides critical feedback to instructors regarding learners’ performance. Thus, from a summative assessment standpoint, instructors have the opportunity to gauge learners’ engagement, persistence and achievement simply by examining the number and types of badges issued in their courses.

At present, there are no agreed-upon measures for what types of learning contents equate to the award of a digital badge. As a result, acceptance of digital badges outside of its issuing organization is limited. However, many third party organizations such as Mozilla are exploring ways in which to increase portability and transferability of digital badges.

In this session, we provide an overview of digital badges. We will also examine how a digital badge system could possibly be implemented at Winthrop. Finally, we will look at the benefits and challenges of implementing digital badges or achievements in different educational settings such as non-credit programs, certificates offerings or regular courses.

The delivery of educational materials through an online platform is becoming increasingly prominent among universities worldwide; however, the presentation of this material often deviates from successful pedagogical strategies for online, or hybrid courses that are beginning to emerge. WUtipia!, first introduced to the campus community at the first annual TLC Conference, is an online learning platform that was developed at Winthrop as a collaborative undergraduate research project. This website was designed to provide educators a way to offer electronic video content in a way that promotes student interaction with the content and, consequently, enhance understanding and retention. Since its introduction two years ago, the site has undergone a major transformation that dramatically enhances the visual appeal and the capabilities of the website. This presentation will reintroduce WUtopia!; the main features of the student and instructors views will be highlighted with special emphasis on the steps you can take to try out the site. In addition, the results of the first WUtopia! Study, which explored the effectiveness of the learning platform, will be presented.

If you are new to online instruction or are a veteran looking for fresh ideas for designing your online courses, this presentation will demonstrate user-friendly design for online courses, including course menu links, instructions, content examples and tips for making the all-important first week of class work to make the whole semester more dynamic. Take away ideas to jump-start your course organization and create a meaningful learning experience for students.

Twenty five years ago the Mathematical Sciences Education Board (Scheaffer 1990) stated that “Citizens who cannot properly interpret quantitative data are, in this day and age, functionally illiterate” Quantitative reasoning then should not be reduced to the ability to perform arithmetic functions but must be conceived as “a habit of the mind, competency and comfort in working with numerical data” (AACU 2015). Moreover, quantitative reasoning is essential for the development of higher order level skills such as analyzing, evaluating and creating. In a world, in which data is produced more rapidly than it can be analyzed, employers note that students will need a wide range of high level quantitative skills to complete their work responsibilities regardless of their field choice. For these reasons, quantitative literacy should be incorporated across the curriculum. Students cannot develop quantitative literacy by only taking isolated courses in mathematics or statistics. Students must be constantly exposed to substantive and contextualized quantitative information so they can achieve quantitative competency. This presentation aims at providing sources, examples, and class assignments, as well as assessments on how to incorporate quantitative reasoning across the social science curriculum.

We explore how the dynamics of the tutor-tutee relationship influence student self- reliance, and ultimately course performance. We examine 333 tutor and tutee pairs at a student success center at a public, comprehensive, university of about 5,000 undergraduates in over 60 different courses during the spring of 2015. We find as frequency and quality of the interactions between tutor and tutees increase that the tutors increasingly foster independent study habits on the part of the tutees. The incorporation of independent study habits was then associated with better course outcomes. In other words, the development of a positive, sustained relationship by a tutor with a tutee appears to aid the development of traditional classroom norms not undermine them.

The “Question Bridge: Black Males” is an interactive, transmedia dialogue among a critical mass of black men. The project began in 2012 as a documentary and has since evolved into an interactive website and mobile app in which black males of all ages and backgrounds ask and respond to questions about experiences via a video camera. The project is designed to breakdown the negative perceptions of black males and create a safe space for honest dialogue and healing. Winthrop University Galleries hosted an exhibit of this project in the Fall 2014 semester in conjunction with a larger roundtable discussion on black male identity

This exhibit further evolved into a partnership between the Department of Social Work and the Winthrop University Galleries. During the semester, social work students learned about issues around race, gender, and identity through traditional, classroom-based presentations and through interactions with the Winthrop University Galleries and the "Question Bridge: Black Males” exhibit. This collaboration was the first in an ongoing partnership between the Winthrop University Galleries and the Department of Social Work.

The presentation will explain the step-by-step process in developing a collaboration across disciplines, including strategies and recommendations on how to connect university projects and opportunities into the classroom experience. Included in this talk will be a discussion about the impact of the "Question Bridge" project on broadening students' critical thinking around privilege and oppression.

As part of the presentation, participants will be introduced to the "Question Bridge" and will learn about how this transmedia project can enrich classroom content on issues around diversity and the black male experience. Participants will also learn how creative and innovative partnerships across disciplines can strengthen and enhance the classroom experience. Finally, the presenters will explore the impact of this multidisciplinary collaboration in terms of both engagement and faculty connections.

Collaborative learning involves a group of students working together towards a common goal. Increasing social cohesion within student groups can increase student engagement and satisfaction, helping to maximize learning outcomes. Instructors, however, often find it difficult to build social cohesion among their students. This leads to a class without any strong social ties among students, many students never learn the names of their classmates. As a result, the impact of discussions, group projects, and other interactive learning activities are minimized. This session will review the literature on cohesion and teambuilding, providing participants with intentional, yet simple, team-building activities. By learning, discussing, and practicing team-building activities, participants will gain skills that can immediately be implemented in any classroom.

Rock Hill and York County economic development and revitalization vision includes raising local area skill sets to shift the economy toward tech and other professional areas, and interesting college graduates in staying in the area. This presentation will bring together employment research, evolving skill needs in growing industries in the local area’s economy, and education and training strategies in university settings.

Employers and educators alike widely converge on the need for industry-specific knowledge, technical competencies, academic foundations, analysis and synthesis, and a variety of soft skills including a spirit of inquiry, work ethic, communication and collaborative skills, and integrity. Global research on skill needs includes OECD’s Learning for Jobs series, the Manpower Group’s Talent Shortage Survey, and the Executive Opinion Survey in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. Local skill needs are informed by educational attainment data and the Rock Hill Knowledge Park initiative’s research on targeted growth industries.

How can a traditional university, as opposed to a technical college or training institute, catch the wave of enhancing skills in the local community? Intellectual, informational, and technological infrastructures already at Winthrop are showcased. Some international programs provide how-to insights: An Italian university’s training course developed for teaching Medical English to employees of a hospital, a Thai course in Business English for corporate employees, and University College London’s short programs across a variety of fields are just a few of many examples of on-site, online, and hybrid instruction focused on specific skill areas.

This presentation will share qualitative research regarding two distinctly different service learning projects from two diverse universities. First, participant voices will be presented regarding Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania undergraduate students serving at a home for poverty stricken lepers’ children in India. Post-hoc interviews focused on prior expectations, the reality of the experience, lessons learned, transformational change, and service learning outcomes. In addition, preliminary data will be shared regarding Winthrop University pre-service teachers perceptions from a short-term study abroad trip within the context of poverty of the Dominican Republic. These students served through leading small teaching episodes within Dominican public and private schools in addition to partaking in other activities (i.e., zip lining, museums, etc.) related to their immersion in the culture. Qualitative data will be presented which aimed to understand to what extent an international service learning teaching experience influence a teacher candidate's dispositions related to future teaching and perceived teaching ability.

Attendees will be provided with successful tips and examples on how to create relationships with international universities and public schools, craft and promote service learning study abroad programs, and results on the perceived impact of international service learning on undergraduate students serving in developing countries. Throughout, the importance of exposing undergraduate students to international service learning experiences will be stressed. Finally, the presenters will share how these types of experiences may impact teaching and learning practices.

This presentation will provide information about how Winthrop’s Kappa Delta Pi (education honor organization) chapter is connecting local teachers with university students, creating opportunities for international teaching experiences, and providing opportunities for meaningful undergraduate research. Three university professors will describe their perspective on the importance and influence of these three new divisions within the organization.

This workshop will discuss the evolution of Title IX and the requirements of colleges and universities to adhere to this law. A focal part of this law is to provide students with comprehensive options to report sexual misconduct, which includes sexual assault and harassment, relationship violence, stalking, and crimes of bias. In addition, this process needs to be equitable for the victim and the accused. This workshop aims to provide a framework when reporting such offenses at Winthrop University and how we help assist students, faculty and staff in navigating the system. Also, this workshop will review the importance of compliance with Title IX and the mandates within the Office of Civil Rights. Attendees by the end of the workshop should have a greater understanding of Title IX and the sexual misconduct policy at Winthrop University.