Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

With the growth of online learning on the horizon at Winthrop University, faculty members can be best served in learning strategies for teaching online by participating in a dialogue with colleagues who are currently teaching in this modality.

This panel session will provide strategies for teaching online from the perspective of Winthrop University faculty currently teaching online across a variety of disciplines. Panelists will share their experiences with respect to common pitfalls and lessons learned; skills needed to be a successful online facilitator; roles and responsibilities; cognitive, social, and teaching presence; engagement; accessible online content; and providing the Winthrop experience.

Participants, both new and experienced with online instruction, will gain insight on a variety of approaches to teaching online, tool recommendations, and time-saving strategies. Participants will be able to ask panelists questions using an online chat tool during the live session.

Perhaps the most influential current mindset strategy is the one developed by Carol Dweck; growth mindset. At the core of Dweck’s ideology is the notion that challenges are what help to change mindsets and that students can learn more effectively when they let go of the idea that their capabilities are fixed. A challenge for both the Professor and the librarian is how to help First Year English composition students who have a ‘fixed mind” about their abilities to do research and also synthesize that research into a research paper. Additionally, other elements of the paper (high quality writing, avoiding plagiarism, and citation concerns) can create a type of ‘stagnation” for students who have pre-conceived notions about their abilities. In this presentation, a Professor and a librarian relay their work together and separately, to help students leapfrog barriers. Using strategies that help them bypass their own fixed mindsets towards the students, the two accepted the challenges they faced and attempted to confront the trials students faced in the classroom. The website mindsetonline.com states, “Mindsets are beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that, or are they things you can cultivate throughout your life?” The idea that there is a choice in how personal capabilities are perceived is highly influential for teaching and learning. What makes for additional impact here is the work towards the nurturing of certain mindsets for students, professors, and librarians.

Service dogs, emotional support animals, therapy animals, animals as accommodations - they're everywhere! Is that ok? Should or can I say anything about them? What are the expectations? Faculty and staff across the country are asking these questions as more animals appear on campuses and lawsuits abound when students are denied access to animals. How do we maintain compliance and sanity? This session will provide an easy to understand overview of the different types of animals we may find on our campuses, how to discern between the types, how and why they may be approved, appropriate and legal interactions, and when we can say, "no;" as well as sharing testimonials from students who have benefited from these creatures.

Several previous studies explored the destructive effect of social exclusion on Asian American college students in U.S. colleges. Previous studies reported that Vietnamese American students, as one of largest Asian American minority groups in the United States, faced numerous challenges in reaching their academic s in higher education partly due to the experience of cultural and social alienation and exclusion. The purpose of this study is to examine how Vietnamese American college students perceive the concept of “engagement” on college campus and beyond and how they develop different engagement strategies to promote their academic and social integration. Structured as phenomenological research this investigation will include in-depth interviews with ten to fifteen Vietnamese college students enrolled in either two-year or four-year institutions of higher education in the Southeast. A preliminary analysis from a pilot study suggests that participants interpret “academic engagement” as their individual determination and perseverance to reach each academic and professional milestone while trivializing the significant lack of support provided to them. Their narratives also reflect the stage of “White identification” as they attempt to assimilate and identify themselves with White peers rather than other Vietnamese American peers.

Winthrop Think College started in August of 2014. The program has 7 students who have completed the program and 15 currently enrolled. Eight students currently live on campus with a residential peer mentor.

The purpose of this session would be to provide strategies for instructors working with Winthrop Think College students and staff.

With the prevailing global knowledge economy, higher education institutions must continue to ensure that their students have strong critical thinking, problem- solving, collaboration, teamwork, and decision making skills. This is so that students can be career and future ready upon graduation from school. Consequently, it is critical that courses, particularly the upper level ones, are designed and taught in a manner that allows the mastery of skills and competencies that are in high demand by employers.

At Winthrop University, faculty members make use of technology tools and applications in the classroom to offer learning experiences that are challenging, engaging, relevant, and yet fulfilling. Since 2010, Geological Information Systems (GIS) has been used as a learning tool in marketing courses at the University. The application has been specifically introduced in those courses to meet both programmatic goals and help students gain real-world business skills.

This session reports on a problem learning class project developed for junior and senior business majors at Winthrop University. The project, which uses the Arc-GIS application, was specifically designed to instill both critical learning and career readiness skills to the students taking the course. The session will present scaffolding activities implemented by the faculty of the course to help the students build confidence with using the Arc-GIS tool. In addition, the session will present the students perceptions to using of the Arc-GIS tool and their reactions to their involvement on the project. Further, this session will discuss instructional design strategies and explore issues related to how affordances that are imbed in many modern learning tools and classroom technologies can be leveraged to foster the acquisition of critical thinking, collaboration and career-readiness skills by students.

It is very easy in academia to get stuck in our offices, stuck in our departments, and stuck in our own silos, as we are wont to say. Yet, from time to time, we manage to branch out and perhaps have an inspiring conversation with a colleague outside of our department. Suddenly, we realize how much overlap our fields have and perhaps, the ways in which we might share that with our students and with each other. Over the past three years, I have co-created and co-taught three different classes with faculty from other disciplines. In this session, I will share the different collaborative models we utilized for each class and discuss the pros and cons of each. More broadly, I will discuss current research on collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching. I will also discuss the general pros and cons of collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching.

Teachers meet challenges as they make a plethora of daily choices. It is a responsibility to learn from past choices. An exemplary teacher is a person who accepts the challenge of lifelong learning experiences in the domains of Leadership, Diversity, and Technology. Moreover, exemplary teachers must demonstrate competencies in the themes of School Context Expert, Master Practitioner, Learning Theorist, Curriculum Designer, and Instructional Leader (American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, 2010, p. 24).

Making the commitment to become an exemplary teacher is a choice one should make with care because it is a decision that will affect the way that one lives one own life and the way others will live theirs. The demands of teaching are great. The demands of becoming an exemplary teacher are even greater. In order to lead and inspire others, one must become the facilitator of his or her own learning and professional growth. In the process, one will become a role model for others to emulate. Being a reflective practitioner is compulsory for continued professional growth.

Using the domains and themes of an exemplary teacher as a framework to guide reflecting on teaching practice, this presentation will discuss how this framework was successfully implemented into a teacher education program via email journaling during student teaching. Specific examples will be provided. Any teacher will benefit from this presentation as effective reflective teaching practices are paramount to improving pedagogy.

This presentation will focus on the Alpha Beta Game, an interactive class activity that seeks to demonstrate how ingroup and outgroup biases develop. The notion of ingroup-outgroup bias is commonly discussed at Winthrop University in the “HXMP 102: The Human Experience” course via an article by David G. Myers originally included in the HMXP 102 course reader, so the Alpha Beta game can be particularly useful as a class exercise in the HMXP course, or any course that touches upon the concept of ingroup-group bias. The game itself, which was first developed a number of years ago by Dr. Roger Baumgarte (former professor of psychology and chairman of the Department of Psychology at Winthrop University), is an interactive group activity that can be played with virtually any numbers of students. It involves dividing the class in half, with each group receiving a specific set of instructions for how to interact with one another using a deck of cards. The key to this game is that the two groups are instructed to behave in ways that are completely opposite of one another: The Alpha group is instructed to share their cards and treat one another with affection and friendliness, and the Beta group is instructed to hoard their cards individually and to treat one another with sternness and a business-like demeanor. Once each group has mastered the rules of their own “community”, they are instructed to send emissaries to visit the other group, observing the interactions of the players and attempting to learn the other group’s rules. The exercise culminates in the class coming back together to discuss their experiences and describe both their own culture’s characteristics, as well as the characteristics of the other group. Inevitably, each group describes themselves in positive terms, while describing the other group using negative terms. By participating in this game and discussing the resulting positive and negative feelings that are generated between the two groups, students learn how easily ingroup-outgroup bias can develop between two cultures that may be operating with different rules or norms, even in an activity as simple as a card game.

My presentation will provide participants with a brief explanation of the game, including copies of the handouts that are given to students in the Alpha and Beta groups. A set of guidelines for the instructor explaining how to facilitate the discussion that follows the game will also be provided (electronic copies of these documents will be uploaded prior to the conference). Additional anecdotes illustrating the effectiveness of this game in teaching ingroup-outgroup bias will also be presented. It is important to note that the proposed presentation is a repeat of a similar presentation that I originally gave at a Winthrop TLC Conference several years ago. Given the ongoing importance of multicultural understanding and the need to overcome cultural biases whenever possible, I feel that presenting this activity once again as an effective teaching tool is both timely and extremely useful for our current times.

In this workshop, attendees will learn how to evaluate a student’s resume using a resume rubric. By the end of the session, attendees will be able to apply the rubric to determine a resume’s effectiveness in landing an interview. This session will begin with an overview of the rubric before breaking into small groups. Each small group will evaluate a sample resume using the rubric. The whole group will then pull back together for a formal discussion.

Prioritizing the use of effective teaching strategies in the collegiate classroom has been an emphasis for several decades. What has changed is the learning paradigm of the millennial generation. This generation offers unique strengths and challenges as we strive to enhance our teaching effectiveness in an effort to move toward student-centered learning. Having a comprehensive understanding of the millennial generation and their characteristics, priorities, and goals will encourage educators to focus energies in the most appropriate areas that will produce high levels of motivation and achievement.

Using the research of Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) work on effective teaching, the seven principles for good practice will be reviewed with an emphasis on our new generation of learners, the millennials. This seminar seeks to promote an understanding of our students and a renewed commitment to create and implement engaging lessons that will enrich our students’ knowledge and foster their dedication to their future profession.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” AAHE Bulletin, 39, (7), 3-7.

Sway is a NEW innovative web-based learning tool that can be used on any device you may have access to in the classroom. Develop your most creative and innovative abilities. This tool can be used to share your stories, experiences, or reflections. Join us as we learn how you can use Sway to build important skills such as research, writing, organizational, problem solving, presentation, assessment and communication. Students can easily create great digital stories also. Learn how to integrate a variety of media components (audio, videos, images, music, social media, documents/charts) in a matter of minutes. Bring your device and you will leave with an interactive story to share.

The explosive growth in online education has resulted to more faculty learning to teach online. Faculty who teach online need to take on a multi‐dimensional role and need varied range of competencies to effectively accomplish tasks and responsibilities. There is a need to assess the competencies for effective and successful online teaching to plan for support and professional development opportunities. In this phenomenological study, interviews were conducted with eight distinguished award-winning faculty who teach online to share their perspectives on the roles, responsibilities, competencies, and tasks of successful online instructors. We present our findings as themes emerging from a constant comparison qualitative procedure. Results show that the major role of online faculty is to design and facilitate courses. Faculty are responsible for providing an effective learning experience, to promote interaction and engagement, and to provide timely feedback or response to students. As major competencies, online instructors must be willing to learn, use, and grow with new technology, as well as, understand student learning and engagement strategies. Distinguished online faculty recommended that novice online faculty should engage in professional development to strengthen their competencies to teach online.

As post-secondary education coursework moves to entirely online formats, questions arise about the rigor of this alternate mode of delivery. Predominantly, concerns include suspicions about the nature of student engagement in an online environment. Along with skepticism about meaningful learning outcomes, critics of online course delivery doubt the rigor of teaching and learning without face to face meetings.

The rigor of an online course is largely determined by the type of student engagement that occurs along with resulting learning outcomes. Student engagement occurs largely through online discussion boards. Although best practices exist in building community and engaging students, variance in online course design and implementation limits the generalizability of existing research regarding rigor. Therefore, the development of evaluative research that assesses student impact of online teaching and learning is recommended.

In order to assess course rigor, a study was conducted to determine the nature of students’ participation in an online discussion board. Student responses to weekly discussion board prompts were downloaded and studied. Postings were analyzed for depth and complexity using an existing conceptual framework. Additionally, all student postings were scored using a rubric that assesses the relationship of prompts to learning outcomes. Finally, students’ perceptions of learning outcomes were collected with the Questionnaire for Reflective Thinking. Together the findings represent course rigor.

The nature of discussion posts was investigated. Findings describe the nature of rigorous learning. The correlational data that represent the relationships between student engagement practices and learning outcomes may be used to guide successive course design and implementation. The research methodology and design utilized will serve as a model for replication across online coursework. Therefore, this session will focus implications for best practices in facilitating rigorous student engagement and learning outcomes as well as the importance for investigating rigor.

Adjunct faculty are a growing and significant portion of teaching faculty at Universities across the United States. They are, however, vastly different from the traditional faculty member in terms of their needs, challenges, goals, and professional development options within their respective role and department. The proposed session would discuss the results of an adjunct faculty needs assessment conducted at UNC Charlotte. Additionally, it would present the steps that have since been taken to better serve adjuncts at this institution in terms of clarity, communication, networking, and professional development. Initial responses from department heads and adjunct faculty will also be discussed to further demonstrate the positive impact of these initiatives.

The Foundations for Teaching and Learning at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is seven-part faculty development initiative offered each year since 2013 and hosted by the MUSC Apple Tree Society. This series provides opportunities for expanding and practicing teaching skills, learning fundamentals, networking, and fun! Participants are eligible to earn a certificate by completing a teaching portfolio and other requirements.

Series topics include getting ready to teach, instructional design, portfolios, teaching methods and techniques, educational technology, and formative and summative assessment

In this session, we will present on essential topics and components of the series, feedback from participants, and lessons we've learned.

We will talk briefly about traditional assessment methods then we will define the formative assessment by giving some examples of formative assessment, we will discuss how to use it in the classroom to engage students more. Based on my teaching experiences in regular classroom, I will introduce a couple of digital apps used as formative assessment techniques. These apps are designed to help you know what your students know and make you aware of which concepts need more explanations before exam day. Some of the free assessment tools that use technology are EDPuzzle, Kahoot, and others. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to create their own assessments using some of these apps.

Participants should bring a personal device or laptop. (Unless we can schedule the session at a lab!)

With the rise and wide acceptance of Online Education, higher education institutions now have a major tool that they can use to reach the goal of broadening their course offerings during the summer sessions. However, some challenges to increasing online course offerings remain. A major issue involves institutional commitment to helping faculty with course development. Likewise learner support is often cited as a barrier to greater online course delivery.

Winthrop University’s Exemplary Summer Online Program (WU-ESOP) is a new initiative that has been developed to help increase enrollment at the University during the summer. Grounded in andragogical principles and Blackboard’s Quality in Online Education, WU-ESOP also aims to strengthen faculty participation in the development of online courses and catalyze the creation of more engaging online learning experiences for students.

In this session, we will discuss the following:

1. Summer teaching and learning innovations and the role that online education stands to play in improving summer enrollment at master comprehensive colleges and universities.
2. How colleges and universities can provide tailored assistance and support to faculty to achieve the goal of increased summer enrollment.
3. The ways in which the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program framework is being used as part of the WU-ESOP to foster course, program, teaching and learning innovations

We believe that the Exemplary Summer Online Program is consistent with the University’s goals and policies for summer and online program offerings. Consequently, WU-ESOP will build upon existing teaching and learning efforts at Winthrop aimed at strengthening students’ achievement, retention and persistence during their undergraduate years at the University.

A hybrid course format, with reduced face-to-face time, presents a number of teaching challenges. This session will describe the evolution of a successful teaching approach to hybrid courses.

A recent analysis showed how the studio teaching approach underlies many active pedagogies. Studio teaching generally consists of combining lecture, group problem-solving, and application activities all in one session. Transferring this approach to hybrid classes requires adaptations.

The author will highlight his recent hybrid MBA class which used a studio teaching approach. This format is not unique to MBA classes and can be transferred to a variety of courses. This session will share the building blocks of this successful format for hybrid courses.

The Center for Teaching and Learning at UNC Charlotte collaborated with teams of faculty members teaching large-enrollment courses to redesign courses into technology-enhanced, active formats. Through the Large Course Redesign program, nine different departments or programs modernized course formats, and eight of the nine moved to blended formats. (CTL, 2017) This session will introduce a variety of blended formats fully implemented in diverse disciplines.

Blended course formats typically reduce class seat-time (deNoyelles, Cobb, & Lowe, 2012) and instead provide online learning to substitute the reduced class time. If done right, blended format can facilitate meaningful learning and be more effective than classroom format by benefiting from the affordances of two different learning environments. (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004) Along with benefits, however, blended formats come with some common concerns. This session will also discuss common benefits and concerns uncovered through the Large Course Redesign program.

A number of instructional design activities are involved in the process of transforming course format into blended formats. One of important activities is figuring out what learning should go online and what learning, stay in the classroom. In addition, the adoption of online learning generally impacts classroom learning to change as well. Considering examples, benefits, and concerns of blended course format, participants will engage in a hands-on activity of sorting out student learning activities for their own course and anticipate how classroom learning will be impacted and change.

Just as learning occurs in the classroom, it also occurs out of the classroom. In Winthrop University’s Department of Residence Life, professional and student staff instructs residential students in the “laboratory of life” with emphases on civility, integrity, communication, conflict management, and community building. With an increased demand from employers looking for students with strong soft skills and the ability to communicate with others, the value of a residential education cannot be overstated. Residential Learning Coordinators get to facilitate this out-of-the-classroom learning regularly. Attend this session to discover ways that Residence Life professional staff blends students’ academic and residential lives through programming, mentoring, and recognition to create a high impact experience.

Service learning opportunities link classroom learning with service to the community. In this session we will describe a service learning project designed to enhance the goals of an undergraduate literacy course and provide a needed service to local schools and organizations. We will (1) share the benefits of this experience for undergraduate students, faculty, and the community partners; (2) discuss the services provided by the Center for Career and Civic Engagement; and (3) provide guidance for faculty interested in adding service learning to their coursework.

In 2016, the University of North Carolina in Charlotte (UNC-C) established the Advisor Institute to provide onboarding (orientation), consistency in training, and professional development and leadership opportunities to both full-time and faculty academic advisors. The Advisor Institute emerged from a UNC General Administration grant called “Optimizing Advising for Student Success.” This grant was awarded to five institutions in the UNC system, which is made up of 17 campuses and serves over 220,000 students.

While UNC-C had experienced improvements in student enrollment and retention from 2004-2014, the four and six year graduation rates, key metrics for the University, have remained steady over the same period. University leaders identified enhanced expectations and opportunities for orientation, training and professional development for academic advisors as a key element to improving student success (and retention and graduation rates) at UNC Charlotte.

As part of the grant, the grant implementation team of the Advisor Institute decided to create a Virtual Advising Toolkit to assist faculty members and full-time advisors across the University to gain greater facility with academic advising processes, policies and resources. The modules for the online tool are being developed with the assistance of the Center of Teaching and Learning. Canvas, the University Learning Management System is used to deliver the online modules.

In this session, I will present the key reasons for the establishment of the Advising Institute at UNC-C. I will also share how the tasks and activities taken place through the Institute are aiming to increase the quality of academic advising at the University. I will also delineate the work that I have been doing, as a Graduate Assistant at the Advisor Institute since fall 2016, to build the online modules for the Virtual Advising Toolkit.