Schedule and Sessions

 

UP-TLC

Conference Sessions Schedule and Information

All times are Eastern Daylight Time.

Thursday, May 4

Pre-Conference Workshop, 3–5 p.m., Thursday, May 4 ($20.00 additional fee) 
in Rekhi Hall Room G005 (The Jackson Active Learning Classroom)
Michigan Tech participants should register here. All other participants should register and pay here.

Dr. Christine Harrington will present "The Science of Motivating Students: Doing What Works!"
Perhaps one of the most important student success factors is motivation, yet faculty members often struggle with how to best motivate students and ultimately influence student learning.  Theory and research on student motivation will come alive in this interactive workshop. The focus will be on how motivational theory and interesting findings from research studies can be used to positively influence student learning, putting research into immediate practice in your college classroom and institution. Come and learn what works!

Friday, May 5

9–9:30 a.m. Registration, check-in, and refreshments Rekhi 101
9:30–10:20 a.m. Concurrent session #1  
  Active Learning Track
"Thoughts After One Year of Active Learning - Experiments in Calculus III"
Teresa Woods, Michigan Tech,  Lecturer, Mathematical Sciences and Director, Math Learning Center
This session will share lessons learned after two semesters of incorporating flipped and active learning approaches into a multivariable calculus course with a section size of roughly 50 students. The ideas that will be presented could easily be adapted to other disciplines. Experiences using i-clickers, Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT), “green pen quizzes”, and assorted pre-exam review techniques will be shared. Specific suggestions for shaping classroom norms necessary for these approaches to be successful will also be provided.
Rekhi G005
  Online Learning Track
"WebTA: Automated critiquing of student work in online computer science courses"
Leo Ureel III, Michigan Tech  Lecturer, Computer Science and Coordinator, Computer Science Learning Center
Online courses are student driven with much of the work completed on the student's (not the instructor's) timeline. How do you critique student work and provide feedback when you are not online? WebTA is a tool for providing immediate feedback on computer science programming assignments. Students receive timely, intelligent critiques of compilation, test results, and programming style while they are working on their assignments. WebTA scaffolds student learning, even when you are soundly sleeping at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Rekhi G009
  Assessment Track
"General Education Assessment at Michigan Tech: Piloted Methods for Course-Level Assessment of Science Courses"
Jean Kampe, Associate Provost; John Jaszczak, Committee Chair for University Goal 2; Michael Meyer, Physics Instructor
For the past three years, university goal assessment results for Michigan Tech's General Education program have provided actionable information to improve assessment processes as well as student achievement at the Gen Ed program level and specifically at the course level for two multi-section foundational courses. With a growing interest in course-level, university goal assessment to support student learning, two course-level assessment models were piloted this past spring. In this session, an overview of the university's General Education program will be provided, and recently piloted assessment models for large and small-size introductory science courses will be presented with results.
Rekhi G006
  Other Issues in Higher Ed Track
"To Flip or Not to Flip"
Dr. Christine Harrington
There’s a lot of buzz around the flipped classroom model but does it work? During this highly interactive session, we’ll review the history of this model and then focus on the pros and cons of the flipped classroom, especially in first-year courses. Come explore the research and begin to think about what is perhaps the more important question: Given all of the tools available, how can we maximize learning in and out of the classroom?
Rekhi 214
10:30–11:20 a.m. Concurrent session #2  
  Active Learning Track
Moving from an Experiment to the Norm in your Classroom
Jill Leonard, Prof. Biology, NMU
Active learning has been part of the higher education lexicon for decades with substantial evidence supporting its effectiveness, but it remains relatively rare in many departments and is still not considered the norm in higher education. Many educators test out active learning techniques to good effect, but these techniques often remain the “unusual” or “special” part of the class while lecturing remains the bread-and-butter of the course. In this seminar, we will explore how instructors can move toward a fuller integration of active learning techniques into their pedagogy. Topics to be explored include the effect on students of frequent and consistent active learning incorporation, how to keep active learning “fresh” for your students, tips to help active learning techniques feel natural to you and your students, and suggestions for course structuring to moderate work load for the instructor and students. This seminar will ask participants to consider their own prior experience and develop personalized strategies for consistent active learning practice.
Rekhi G005
  Online Learning Track
"Becoming an Online Teacher"
Stacey DeLoose and Scott Smith, Center for Teaching and Learning, NMU, and Shaun Thunell, Special Instructor, School of Clinical Sciences, NMU
While many instructors have a great deal of experience teaching face-to-face, the online environment is very different. In 2016, NMU launched an intensive Online Teaching Fellows program that leads faculty through that transition. In this session, Center for Teaching Learning staff and an NMU Online Teaching Fellow will provide an overview of the process that Fellows follow to become leaders with expertise in best practices for online course design, quality standards, course development, course delivery, and evaluation. They will share successes, lessons learned, and strategies Fellows take to help colleagues take steps toward becoming successful online instructors.
Rekhi G009
  Assessment Track
"Revising and Assessing a General Education Program: The Northern Michigan University Experience"
Mike Burgmeier, Associate Professor, Library, NMU and Wendy Farkas, Assistant Professor, English, NMU
Beginning in 2013, Northern Michigan University began the process of completely revising their General Education Program and how it is assessed. With the new program going into effect fall 2017, this session will review the structure of the new program and provide details on the assessment process. In addition, we will share data and what we learned about the process from an assessment trial of two English courses being conducted this semester.
Rekhi G006
  Other Issues in Higher Ed Track
"Autism Spectrum Students and the Higher Ed Classroom"
Panel
As a larger number of students on the Autism Spectrum attend college, faculty need to raise awareness of challenges faced and strategies to meet the special needs of these students. In this session, a panel consisting of a faculty member, a graduate student, and an undergraduate student all self-identified as on the spectrum along with Michigan Tech's Student Disability Services Coordinator will share experiences, struggles, and solutions. Opportunties for questions and answers will follow.
Rekhi 214
11:30–1 p.m.
Luncheon Keynote Address
"Dynamic Lecturing"
Dr. Christine Harrington

Come explore how to maximize the effectiveness of your lecture by activating prior knowledge, zooming in on the most important concepts, integrating brief opportunities to reflect and process information, effectively using multi-media, and incorporating retrieval practice opportunities.  You’ll walk away with several easy to implement strategies designed to increase learning.
MUB Ballroom
1:10–2 p.m.   Concurrent Session #3  
  Active Learning Track
"Active Problem Solving in Physics"
Katrina Black, Michigan Tech, Lecturer, Physics
Being able to solve problems is an important skill in physics. In traditional courses, instructors model problem solving in class and students practice without guidance outside of class. In this session, I will discuss how I have incorporated active problem solving in class meetings using whiteboards and techniques for transitioning traditional lectures toward more active class meetings.
Rekhi G005
  Online Learning Track
"Facilitating Group Projects in an Online Environment"
Melanie Reaves, Assistant Professor of Education, NMU
Group work in any course poses challenges for students and faculty alike—different levels of student skill/knowledge, varying levels of participation, and scheduling issues. Add in being in different places geographically, differing levels of skills with technology, and communication through distance technologies, and it would seem you have a recipe for disaster for facilitating a group project in an online course! In this session, I share my own journey with this instructional approach and participants will have an opportunity to share theirs. You will leave with at least 10 practical strategies for facilitating more effective group projects!
Rekhi G009
  Assessment Track
"Degree Program Assessment at Michigan Tech: Positive Impacts for Curricula, Faculty Cohesiveness and Student Learning"
Jeannie DeClerck, Assessment Specialist; Brigitte Morin, Biological Sciences; Patricia Sotirin, SCCM Humanities; Stephen Kampe, Materials Science and Engineering
Degree Program assessment reporting over the past three years, has provided programs with opportunities to examine how curricula are supporting students in developing proficiency for program-level and university student learning goals. In this session, the report depository will be introduced, and faculty will present the impact of these assessment activities on faculty culture, curricula, student learning and more! 
Rekhi G006
  Other Issues in Higher Ed Track
"Think they would never cheat? The good, the bad, and the ugly"
Margaret Landsparger, Coordinator - Michigan Tech's Testing Center (MTTC)
There's pretty good evidence that cheating is more common than most instructors think in the high stakes world of higher education. Giving over 1000 exams each semester, Margaret Landsparger, MTTC Coordinator, has seen many of the ways students are trying to cheat. In this session, she will offer suggestions for how to prevent and detect cheating on electronic and paper/pencil exams.
Rekhi 214
2:10–3 p.m. Concurrent Session #4  
  Active Learning Track
"Active Learning and LEAP Leaders"
AJ Hamlin and Amber Kemppainen, Sr. Lecturers, Engineering Fundamentals, Michigan Tech 
In our First Year Engineering Program (FYEP) we have used a variety of active learning techniques including collaborative learning, pre-lesson videos and assignments, and in-class activities.  To improve student skills in computational problem solving, open-ended problem solving, and life-long learning, we are fully flipping our first-semester course, to give students more time during class to apply class topics in the context of team-based collaboration and available mentoring by the instructional team.  Our instructional team for each 120-student section of the course is one faculty member and five trained peer mentors.  These peer mentors are recruited and trained through the newly established first-year engineering Learning with Academic Partners (LEAP) program.  The LEAP program is an adaptation of the Supplemental Instruction (SI) model developed at the University of Missouri – Kansas City and dates to 1973.  Each LEAP leader is a near-peer mentor for 20-24 students in the course.  The leaders receive substantial training both for interaction in-class with students, and for conducting one 50-minute LEAP session per week with their students using active peer learning techniques.  The LEAP leaders monitor their students’ progress on in-class activities and provide mentoring guidance as needed.   As they work closely with the students, the LEAP leaders are able to identify where students are having the most difficulty with course content and use this information to help them plan and facilitate their LEAP sessions.  Additionally, LEAP leaders assist the section instructor in grading submitted assignments in a tightly controlled way that is grounded on well-defined rubrics.  In this session, we will briefly describe the Big Picture view of the systemic changes we are rolling out in fall 2017 for this first FYEP semester course, which serves approximately 900-950 students and the LEAP Program.  We will focus on demonstrating the interaction patterns we are striving to achieve in the classroom and LEAP sessions.
Rekhi G005
  Online Learning Track
"Online Rookie: Lessons learned from a first time translation of an interactive classroom to online"
Roger Woods, Michigan Tech, Senior Lecturer, School of Business and Economics
After teaching teaching a class on the ground for 3 semesters, I will discuss the first time transfer of material to an on-line offering in summer. I will discuss my methods, what worked and what didn't work
Rekhi G009
  Assessment Track
"Creating a Culture of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment"
Judith Puncochar, PhD, Coordinator of NMU Assessment of Learning Committee (AoL)
Northern Michigan University created a positive culture of student learning outcomes assessment for degree programs through peer-review and feedback designed to enhance assessment conversation and action. This positive outlook on assessment is evidenced by the growth of the Assessment of Learning Committee from 3 to 10 members in 2015, and from 10 to 14 members with a waitlist of faculty and department heads in 2016. This interactive session explores the NMU review process and frames assessment as scholarship.
Rekhi G006
  Other Issues in Higher Ed Track
Video Poster Session
Panel
Got a great teaching idea that you want to share? Make a video poster! Create a 3-5 minute video that explains what you do. Show us your great assignment, demonstration, testing method,presentation tool, simulation method, etc. Then, either post the video in a place it can be publicly linked or make the video file available so that we can post it. Send the link or download information to ctl@mtu.edu no later than April 28, 2017. Videos will be posted here (https://mtu.instructure.com/courses/778826/pages/up-tlc-video-poster-session) so that participants can watch them in advance. Then attend the video poster session (from 2-3 p.m. on May 5) to discuss your idea and video with interested others - and other video creators!.
Rekhi 214
3:10–4 p.m. Concurrent Session #5  
  Active Learning Track
Group Exams: Like Cocktail Hour without the Drinks
Gary Stark, Associate Prof., NMU College of Business
No instructor likes “going over” exams. So don’t. Put your students in groups and make them take the exam again. That is, let them “go over” the exam. They’ll do fine in their little cocktail groups, and you, the gracious host, will help.
Rekhi G005
  Online Learning Track
"Online Teaching for Quality Enhancement"
Ron Strickland, Chair, Humanities Department, Michigan Tech

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when universities first began to offer online courses, the general assumption was that online teaching would enable economies of scale to be achieved. But, early on, I was intrigued by the potential for using the online delivery system to enhance quality, rather than quantity, and I wanted to take advantage of the internet’s capacity to overcome limitations of time and space to bring advanced students at my home institution into contact with similarly advanced students and faculty with specialized knowledge and expertise at other universities. With funding from a small internal grant, I developed an online graduate course. I anticipated that there would be interest in taking the course among graduate students at other universities.  In addition to the tuition funding for graduate students from other institutions, my grant proposal included a request for honoraria for scholars from other universities who would participate as “virtual guest lecturers” in the course.  In this presentation I will discuss the conceptualization, design and development of this highly specialized course, and describe how the course has evolved over the past 20 years.

Rekhi G009
  Assessment Track
"Scaffolding Information Literacy across Courses: Approaches Used at Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech"
Jenn Sams, Instruction & Learning Librarian Team Leader, MTU, 
Michael F. Strahan, Professor and Library Instruction Coordinator, NMU, 
Lauren Movlai, Instruction & Learning Librarian, MTU
Want your students to find better sources and become more critical users of information? This session will examine ways to scaffold IL instruction by looking at examples from Northern's Nursing Information Literacy Program, in which workshops are integrated with the lock-step LPN, BSN, & DNP degree programs, and Michigan Tech's Instruction & Learning Librarians, who work with a wide range of upper level, disciplinary courses in addition to providing direct instruction in some general education courses. Presenters from both programs will also look at how assessment and assessment data can impact the integration of information literacy instruction.
Rekhi G006
  Other Issues in Higher Ed Track
"The World Has Changed; We Should Too - Toward Digigogy"
Bree Carlson, Chris Kirk, and Patricia Hogan, School of Health and Human Performance, NMU
Prensky (2014) contends that traditional educational classes are actually proxies for a small number of identifiable skills or outcomes (i.e., Effective Thinking, Actions, Relationships, and Accomplishments) needed for professional, civic and personal life. He argues that these skills should be taught in more relevant and efficient ways to better serve the needs of contemporary students in a quickly changing world. Digigogy (using learning technologies combined with learner-centered pedagogies) represents a viable paradigm for contemporary education. Presenters identify Prensky's model, discuss digigogy and its need, and showcase example student work done within a digigogical framework.