In this poster session, we will introduce our project as a collaborative effort supported by different units. We will quickly go over the concept of a flipped classroom and will show all the different components of the courseware: adaptive grammar, vocabulary, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and pronunciation. We will present the digital tools we are using to create each component: grammar exercises developed by Northwestern University’s Media and Design Studio, integrated Canvas tools such as Quizlet, the lightboard to record videos, and Playposit to create interactive videos.
One of the objectives of the undergraduate physics curriculum is for students to become aware of the connections between the fundamental principles of classical physics and their personal experience. Nonetheless, numerous studies have shown that students’ awareness of such connections tends to deteriorate, sometimes substantially, following instruction. In this poster, which constitutes the first analysis of the effects of contemplative practices on the learning experience in undergraduate physics courses, we present two practices aimed at integrating formal theory with students’ personal, embodied experience: a sensory meditation and a contemplative videography. In written reflections on their experiences with the practices, the students expressed suddenly becoming aware of countless manifestations of formal physics principles in their surroundings, in an important step toward establishing firm connections between the abstract and the experiential. Furthermore, the students reported experiencing a heightened sensory awareness, somatic relaxation, and mental stillness, in significant contrast to their typical experience. Students also described experiencing insight about the essential place of observation in the scientific endeavor, a reawakened sense of curiosity, a natural motivation to understand physical phenomena, and a deepened metacognitive and meta-affective awareness.
Since their debut in the U.S. in 2012, escape rooms have rapidly increased in popularity. These games challenge teams to work together, solving puzzles and using strategy to progress through a plotline and achieve a goal in a limited amount of time. The collaborative nature of these live-action puzzles requires each player to participate in the challenge and prompts even reserved individuals to engage. As a supplement to traditional final exam review strategies, I created an escape room inspired review game for Biology 393: Genetic Analysis that facilitated a fun, unique opportunity for students to apply concepts they learned in class to an abstract challenge. Through the course of the escape room challenge, students solved a sequential series of genetic puzzles, using material objects to represent intangible concepts, each solution unlocking clues to the next prompt. Ultimately, students were challenged to unlock the “Nobel Prize” before the time expired. This type of game proved to be an effective and fun review strategy and can be easily tailored to other subjects.
In my experience, when we teachers are interested in improving our teaching methods by using approaches shown experimentally to be effective, we generally think in terms of either active learning or cognitive science. But we could benefit by thinking these two schools of thought are part of a broader category, evidence-based learning. I propose to offer a definition of evidence-based learning, with an overview of how active learning, cognitive science, and other perspectives are part of a larger multidisciplinary approach. I will point the audience to some key sources for learning more about both the active learning and cognitive science approaches to the evolution of our teaching and learning methods.
Lecturer, Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University
M.A. in clinical psychology from Northwestern.Lecturer in the IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) program at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.Engaged in research on the cognitive learning process in higher education.Have... Read More →
This poster will describe the use of an electronic portfolio assessment system to measure behavioral competencies in medical students at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Our system is designed to measure behavioral competencies such as communication, professionalism, and teamwork by utilizing multiple assessments from a wide range of contexts. In particular, we are interested in detecting patterns in behavior across multiple courses and phases of our curriculum. However, this system also collects a large amount of data, which can be unwieldy for our faculty committee to review. Our visual presentation will focus on how the electronic portfolio has helped us to organize and sort our assessment data in a variety of ways so that both students and faculty can review feedback and measure progress. Effective practices include the ability to map our assessments to behavioral competency domains and display the sorted results via a performance dashboard. We have also developed dynamically updated reports for each student organized by feedback type (rating vs. narrative comment) and course or clerkship. Our poster will also describe a future redesign of our portfolio system and how we hope to leverage new technologies to increase efficiency.
This poster is about a new faculty training initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The program is designed for faculty new to teaching online and blended classes. It consists of two online courses that cover major pedagogical and technological competencies necessary for online instructors. The courses were created to help instructors and teaching assistants understand the differences between face-to-face and online and blended teaching, familiarize them with best pedagogical practices and the LMS environment, and develop their technical skills. We will provide an overview of the training courses, along with their structure, content, and technologies used. We will also outline specific technological competencies (e.g., use of communication and assessment tools) and pedagogical competencies (e.g., instructor presence and maximizing course interactions) necessary for teaching online.
Students new to computer science can find entry-level coursework unrelatable, while their advanced peers complain of boredom. To engage all students appropriately, a student-led team at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) created and taught a summer course using Battleship, a naval strategy game where students program virtual ships to compete in missions and battles. Visitors will get an interactive taste of Battleship activities without having to program. We will share how Battleship adapted to student perspectives, including the widespread fear of command-line programming. With the support of Mimir, a company that supports computer science in higher education, Battleship grew into an open educational resource (OER) with instructional materials freely available to any school.
Stop by the Learning Loft anytime during this session to learn about a brand-new tool for syncing your grades from Canvas directly into CAESAR, developed by Northwestern University Teaching & Learning Technologies. You can also ask questions about any of our other educational technologies, services, and programs.
The custom game app introduced in this poster session utilizes an open platform concept that allows instructors to write their own missions, attribute points, and create the code needed to complete every mission via an easy-to-use online game center. Students navigate the app’s tabs on their own phones or tablets to scroll through possible missions, enter codes, and view the leaderboard. I will showcase examples of missions I wrote and what students see while using the app. My specific reason for integrating the app in my course is to engage students with the target language and culture that I teach, German, outside of class time and voluntarily. A future purpose would be to have students use the app over two or four semesters of language instruction, generating a digital community of interested language learners. The mobile app can be adapted for use by faculty in other departments and derives from the original designer of the app, who uses it in his large computer science courses. The app takes the burden of code development off of instructors, who can instead focus on creating meaningful learning experiences that they tailor according to their own curriculum and learning goals.
Are you interested in making your classes more interactive? If so, come learn about Nearpod! Nearpod is a cloud-based presentation tool that allows instructors to display slides and incorporate multimedia, polling, virtual whiteboards, and much more. The presenter, Jesse Bowman, will demonstrate how he uses Nearpod in his instruction at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
Associate Law Librarian for Technology Initiatives and Instruction, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Jesse Bowman is the Electronic Research, Technology, and Instructional Services Librarian at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. He teaches courses in legal research and legal technology and is always interested in incorporating new tools and technologies into his instructi... Read More →
The lightboard is a glass chalkboard for creating short video lectures. A presenter can face the viewer while writing or drawing on the board with fluorescent markers. The lightboard is newly available to all members of the Northwestern University community in an easy-to-use studio in Mudd Library. The lightboard is well suited to supplemental problems, flipped classroom lectures, or explanations of more complex topics. Students who learn both visually and aurally benefit from lightboard-based instruction, as do those who have trouble taking notes and listening simultaneously. All students appreciate that they can refer back to the video as needed. This demo will allow you to try a mini-lightboard, capture a video on your own cell phone, and take some material on best practices and use cases with you.
Dr. Michael Peshkin, Bette and Neison Harris Professor in Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University, is in the department of Mechanical Engineering. His research is in human-computer interaction, recently in haptics. He has co-founded four companies, the current one being Tanvas... Read More →
Wednesday May 23, 2018 8:30am - 9:50am CDT
Loft Corridor
On PISA Math scores, the U.S. ranks 27th out of 34 OECD countries, the same as Slovakia, despite spending twice as much on a purchasing power parity basis. Companies such as Motorola, GM, and GE are screaming for students well-versed in STEM, but the way students are taught today does not enable them to grasp these concepts easily. Math is an abstract subject, and unless it is taught with the appropriate context, anything above basic operations can be very difficult. Sidekick is a new app that provides math-in-context projects for high school classrooms. Our projects are all based in the real world and are extracted from real problems of existing organizations (governments, companies, and nonprofits). As a bonus, students working on our projects get to interact with people from these organizations and present their findings to a panel of staff. This boosts engagement and hence learning.
COO and Co-founder of Sidekick, Northwestern University
I am a social entrepreneur from Singapore with a background in management consulting. I've had a successful education start-up in Singapore and am working on Sidekick as the COO. I am keenly interested in education and in engaging students and would love to meet with you!
Wednesday May 23, 2018 8:30am - 9:50am CDT
Loft Corridor
SensorGrid is an environmental sensor project being developed at Northwestern University’s Knight Lab by faculty, staff, and students of diverse skills and backgrounds. The Knight Lab provides an open, collaborative environment for interdisciplinary exploration and conversation, where students and professionals learn together and from one another. This hands-on project has facilitated mutual learning opportunities between students within journalism, engineering, and computer science. These diverse teams have been working together to design, build, and develop an autonomous network of environmental sensors that offers communities, journalists, and academics a low-cost tool for collecting high-definition air quality data.
Wondering how to get your students or colleagues to collaborate more naturally with each other? Come learn how to use Google Apps to do peer review and increase collaboration in your classes or department. Plus, start outlining a plan to put it into action! Google Apps is already a popular platform among students, faculty, and staff, and now it is even integrated into Canvas. These tools were created to enhance collaboration, and many of us are already regular users, so there are many opportunities to use this convenient and easily adaptable platform in our work. In regards to collaboration and peer review, research has firmly demonstrated that people learn more from others at their own level of learning; students learn more effectively by having to give constructive feedback; weaker and stronger students benefit the same from getting feedback from weaker and stronger students; and students develop key critical thinking skills through peer reviews. Plus, peer reviews ease the grading pressure and load on the instructor, and grades involving these processes tend to be more reliable. Therefore, there is no need to give it a second thought — start incorporating these practices in your classes and department!
Medical decision making (MDM) is a longitudinal learning experience throughout the four years of medical school, primarily concentrated in the first two years. MDM has been a long-standing anchor in the curriculum, teaching students the principles of evidence-based medicine and the skills necessary to be independent, critical readers of the medical literature in order to apply it to patient care. Throughout the first year of medical school, the curriculum is delivered through periodic large group sessions, followed by small group discussions for deeper practice and application. As learner needs evolve, this course also needs to evolve to remain relevant, authentic, and approachable. In the 2017-2018 academic year, the curriculum was reshaped to engage the student more deeply in the active learning process. By utilizing digital interactivity, the material now concurrently engages all students to actively connect with key concepts, definitions, and calculations. Rather than passively learn about core principles as though they are facts to be memorized, students construct sample research study designs to evaluate their components, strengths, and limitations. In this session, participants will experience the curriculum while simultaneously learning about the specific techniques and structure used to create effective sessions for the evolving learner.
VR has the potential to change the way instructors craft learning experiences. Take your students on a field trip to view ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion or watch C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. This session will include a hands-on demonstration of this exciting new tool using the Oculus Rift.
Stop by the Learning Loft anytime during the day to learn more about the educational technologies, services, and programs offered by Northwestern University Teaching & Learning Technologies. Discover new learning apps for use in Canvas, find funding opportunities, and locate learning communities.
How do we as teachers reckon with the open-ended, ill-defined, and deep problems that cannot be solved using a technical-rational-empirical approach? Join physicist and Olin College founding faculty member Yevgeniya V. Zastavker as she shares her journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning, and ultimately imagines a new, collaborative, and engaging educational paradigm.
Crowdmark is a platform for organizing and grading student work. It is not automated grading; humans grade humans. However, it saves a ton of time (homework grading takes TAs less than half as long as usual) and allows for more feedback. Scores are added automatically; students see graded work fast; and there are no more bogus regrade requests. Furthermore, this requires no change in the format of how you ask questions. Whether on exams or on problem sets, students still use paper and pencil to provide their answers. In short, Crowdmark eliminates much of the drudgery of grading without handing anything important over to mindless robots. In this session, you will have the opportunity to submit an assignment as if you were a student; turn around and grade the assignment as if you were an instructor; and look at your graded work, all in under 25 minutes. (Grades will not be curved, but do not expect an easy A!)
Students often have trouble reading closely and critically. This is a common refrain I hear from professors. Students will often speak in class based on opinion rather than on the text they have read, and rarely do they seriously engage with the arguments and ideas presented in the text. The most common method that professors use to infer whether and how students read a text is through writing assignments and quizzes. However, a necessary prior step is to teach students how to interact with a text as they are reading it. This improves their analytical and critical reading skills and, ultimately, their writing as well. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how to teach critical reading skills using an application called Perusall. This tool allows students to annotate class readings online while engaging in real-time discussion with their peers. This method of publicly annotating and reading the text encourages students to work closely with the text and can generate a more open and directed exchange of ideas. It also allows the professor to offer guidance and feedback on the way students are reading and reacting to the text.
We are challenged to have the time for our students to tackle truly open-ended problems that have the potential to generate novel data and insight. In science, hands-on experiences frequently utilize expensive equipment, which may not be accessible to many of our graduates. Within the small enrollment course Earth and Planetary Sciences 360: Instrumentation and Field Methods, students first gain foundational skills in electronics and programming using the inexpensive open-source Arduino microcontroller platform. Starting in Week 3, I incorporate a problem-based learning framework as students focus on a problem of their choosing within the areas of monitoring environmental mass or energy flux. The real-time output from the sensors on the Arduino platform is a critical part of the exploration and troubleshooting, as the students learn to advance even when several parts of the system are still unknown. This course can be an extremely steep and uncomfortable learning experience for the students, but they gain a strong sense of ownership as they generate primary data using equipment that they build themselves. My broader goal is to help develop the next generation of scientists, who are empowered to tackle our intensifying global challenges, all while access to funding and other resources declines.
Many interesting topics are hard to demonstrate in classes without costly equipment and logistic hassles. Good examples of such topics are ad hoc polls, making measurements, and performing calculations. In fact, many instructors will have thought “Darn! I wish we could do that in class.” Smartphones, which students own and are (perhaps unduly) comfortable with, have many otherwise expensive instruments like built-in sensors that are used for phone operations such as navigation, screen rotation, and personal customization of apps. But they are also nifty tools that make class activities easier, faster, and more fun. We present applications that illustrate the potential for using smartphones in a wide variety of geophysics teaching. Instructors have two options: Forget about these nifty tools and keep doing labs the old way, or benefit from smartphones as mini-computers and tiny, powerful instruments. Our advice to instructors is to see whether smartphones work in their applications.
PhD, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University
I am a seismologist and I am interested in working on tsunamis, earthquakes, and landslides. I am also interested in developing innovative tools in geoscience education.
Wednesday May 23, 2018 11:00am - 11:35am CDT
MC 195
Multimodal approaches (seeing, feeling, and hearing) to learning aid in the capture of students with different learning styles and lock in multiple conceptual aspects. With the use of hands-on ultrasound, students of anatomy and physiology are transformed from spectators to real-time participants. Ultrasound provides real-time visualization of anatomic and physiological principles. In this engaging session, attendees will experience firsthand how multimodal team-based learning principles and ultrasound deepen understanding. Learners, each with a defined but fluid role, work as a group to progress through the lesson. These roles include ultrasound image capture on live models, artistic re-creation of images, and conceptual understanding through instructor-guided discussions. The cardiovascular system will serve as a model to demonstrate these techniques. These interactive multimodal techniques are applicable to many subjects and settings.
Before the start of the 2017-2018 school year, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law held TEaCH LAW, a daylong conference and fair for faculty to share positive experiences about incorporating technology in the classroom. TEaCH LAW has grown and is now an ongoing series of demonstrations and extensive website resource for faculty to learn about new instructional technology tools from their peers. This session will discuss the key elements needed to begin a successful and ongoing initiative that encourages faculty to explore the benefits of different instructional technology tools, from involving key stakeholders across the school or department, ensuring a variety of platforms, developing engaging presentations, and cultivating peer involvement. You do not need to have any previous knowledge about instructional technology to attend. Faculty, staff, and administrators are all welcome.
This panel will discuss a pilot project led by Northwestern University’s AccessibleNU to help instructors more fully serve all of their students by incorporating aspects of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the classroom. The overarching goal of AccessibleNU’s UDL project was to help instructors reduce barriers to learning by incorporating supports for students with disabilities directly into the class environment, materials, and exams. As the participants discovered, incorporating these supports through UDL as opposed to individual accommodations ultimately benefits all students. Faculty and staff panelists will discuss what they learned, how they applied it in their class, and the effect that it had on their entire classroom population. Session attendees will learn the basic concepts of UDL. They will also learn how to build accommodations into courses and improve learning opportunities for all students by applying different aspects of UDL to their overall approach in lecture-based, experience-based, and online classes. Panelists sharing direct experiences will provide examples of varied approaches and successful blueprints that participants can follow in order to begin implementing UDL in their own classes.
Stop by the Learning Loft anytime during this session to learn directly from a developer about some of the amazing learning apps that we have created in Northwestern University Teaching & Learning Technologies. Some of the tools include: Nebula, a discussion visualization tool; Notera, an interactive mapping tool; GradeSync, a tool that allows you to push your grades from Canvas to CAESAR; and Reflect, an asynchronous self-reflection and consensus-building tool. You can also ask questions about any of our other educational technologies, services, and programs.
This session will discuss how to build inclusive teams and will use participant engagement to practice building an inclusive team. The program will start with a brief background on bias (unconscious and conscious) and how bias affects teams. Research demonstrates that successful change occurs in small but specific increments. By starting small, we can make a positive impact in our classrooms and across our campuses. We will also discuss motivation, developing talent, and using data to build inclusive teams. Today’s global environment requires functional teams for best results and creativity. Providing students with the framework to participate in teams while in the classroom will help prepare them to be successful in their not-too-distant future workplace.
Assistant Director, Academic Technologies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Marcia L. Dority Baker is an Assistant Director, Academic Technologies with the Office of Information Technology (ITS) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). She leads the Learning Spaces and Emerging Technologies, AV Design, and Learning Management System (LMS) teams at UNL... Read More →
“I will use [engineering] improv as a standard to which I hold all other classes at Northwestern in terms of classroom cohesion and positive human interactions,” said Grace Goulson, a junior in Civil Engineering. Engineering Improv I & II, The Art of Allowing and The Art of Inspiration, teach undergraduate engineers the basic tenet of theatrical improv, “Yes, and….” This requires the inclusive skills of listening and collaboration. Engineers are critical problem solvers, often possessing a strong desire to be right, which can feed the impulse to say no, crushing participation. In Engineering Improv, students learn to focus their attention outward by saying “Yes, and…” to what their partners offer them so ideas can build and be explored in more depth. Our experiential curriculum is designed to create an inclusive environment where students practice exercises from the texts outside of class, write self-reflective essays on these exercises, and discuss these essays as a group. They also learn and apply improv skills on the stage, in their other classes, and throughout their broader lives. This interactive session will share lessons learned from designing and teaching Engineering Improv I & II and will teach easy and fun improv exercises for fostering inclusion in your classroom.
Adjunct Lecturer, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Byron is an adjunct lecturer for Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, Office of Personal Development. He designed and co-teaches two courses titled, Engineering Improv I & II targeted to undergraduate engineering students. Byron is also a science communication... Read More →
Wednesday May 23, 2018 11:45am - 12:20pm CDT
RB 155
I have adopted five technologies that change the way I teach and change the way students experience my classes. And these changes are for the better — lower DFW rates, higher overall grades, and improved student satisfaction. While one of these technologies is specific to Computer Science (auto-grading systems), the remaining four are not: peer instruction; interactive textbooks; online Q&A; and online grading systems. In this session, I’ll discuss and demonstrate each of these technologies and explain why I can’t live without them.
During this session, we will explore how using virtual teams versus face-to-face teams engages students and produces Cragan et al.’s four essential outcomes for small groups (member satisfaction, productivity, quality, and consensus) that lead to the best end result for the team, for their process, and for the end product. This presentation is part of an initial exploration into how to use virtual teams and face-to-face teams in online, hybrid, and on-ground classrooms. We will explore how using virtual teams (and even aspects of virtual teams in an on-ground class) can improve inclusive teaching methods, as well as the student experience. Participants will leave the presentation having shared their experiences using small groups and with concepts to produce better small group outcomes in their classrooms. The presenter hopes to leave with amazing ideas and new things to try to further the study of using virtual teams and face-to-face teams to improve outcomes and student learning processes.
The topic of cybersecurity is seemingly infinite in twists and turns, as it is pragmatically mystifying to many students, who have little experience with how the internet actually serves information versus what mobile apps and websites display to their customers. This session will explore experiences and techniques related to a goal many instructors face across a variety of disciplines: What are some of the best ways to design courses that attempt to teach highly technical skills and concepts to students who have a strong desire to learn, along with equal feelings of intimidation and frustration? Instruction that relies mostly on drills and repetition will be juxtaposed against gleanings from instruction in the world of the arts applied to major themes within cybersecurity and information systems. Accessibility concerns commonly ignored in the field will also be addressed.
Traditional library instruction, which often situates librarians as the “sage on the stage” lecturing on databases and subject headings, can challenge the attention span of both students and faculty. With the introduction of new forms of technology in our classrooms, librarians are working to integrate active learning with Solstice projection technology into library instruction in ways that ask students to collaborate to discover information sources, compare results, and analyze and evaluate the sources they find. This session details the possibilities that come with integrating active learning into library instruction, and it will ask attendees to imagine and discuss how students can grapple with the concept of authority, different kinds of scholarly sources, and the research process, all when visiting the library for an hour-long session.
You’re thinking you want to bring a shiny new learning technology into your course, with an eye to spice things up a bit. Take a deep breath and ask yourself these questions. Is the technology accessible to all students? Does it protect student privacy? Is it fun? And perhaps most importantly, does it serve your learning objectives? This panel, moderated by Dan Murphy, director of online learning technologies, brings together three staff members and one faculty member in the Distance Learning department of Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies to discuss what goes into making an informed decision to bring new educational technology into a course.
Director of Online Learning Technologies, Northwestern University, School of Professional Studies
Interested in:- improving online course content and teaching with learning analytics- providing students with learning analytics data as feedback on their in-class performance to improve motivation and engagement- new learning technologies for online courses
Lecturer and Senior Learning Designer, Northwestern University
I have spent most of my life designing innovative learning environments, from my early work with hi-tech mobile classrooms in Australia’s rural communities, to over ten years as an instructional technologist and designer in the Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence at Columbia... Read More →
Digital projects are more than just alternatives to papers or dissertations these days — they are now more than ever becoming a popular choice for students and faculty as a tool for presenting their research. Faculty who want their students to create interactive websites, videos or recordings, or podcasts will learn how to meaningfully adopt production-based assignments by balancing their pedagogical goals with the addition of real-world technological skills to their syllabi. Sometimes even soft skills are learned when forcing students to interact with the world! We will explore as a group the considerations (such as assessment), challenges (keeping the focus of the course on the content), and resources needed (both physical and intangible) to implement this type of coursework, as well as view examples of successful student projects.
Instructional Technology Lead, Media and Design Studio, Northwestern University
Cecile-Anne Sison is the Instructional Technology Lead of MAD Studio, a Humanities-focused unit of Weinberg College. For over 15 years she has consulted with faculty and taught students on incorporating technology into their classes. During the pandemic, she participated in NUIT’s... Read More →
Stop by the Learning Loft anytime during this session to learn directly from a developer about some of the amazing learning apps that we have created in Northwestern University Teaching & Learning Technologies. Some of the tools include: Nebula, a discussion visualization tool; Notera, an interactive mapping tool; GradeSync, a tool that allows you to push your grades from Canvas to CAESAR; and Reflect, an asynchronous self-reflection and consensus-building tool. You can also ask questions about any of our other educational technologies, services, and programs.
Pick up lunch in the Atrium and then choose your own lunchtime adventure. Head to a presentation, a panel, or an interest group lunch discussion session, all beginning at 12:45 p.m., or have a seat at any of the tables in the Atrium or the Loft and dine with colleagues.
Wednesday May 23, 2018 12:30pm - 1:20pm CDT
Atrium
Graduate school can be intimidating, and students in a professional program may not have been in school for decades. While they often bring great excitement and appreciation for the coursework, they can sometimes bring a different set of anxieties about their capabilities and time management, among other things. Additionally, there is simply a lot to learn even before they arrive on campus. With an eye toward building a welcoming, collaborative, and inclusive community, and focusing on better managing student retention from acceptance through matriculation, Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Communication program built a pre-orientation Canvas site called Countdown to Coursework. The purpose of the Canvas site is for students to engage with the program and each other while gently (re)introducing them to a sampling of the work they will experience at Northwestern. This session will talk more about the strategy and outcomes of using Canvas in this way and will give a tour of the pre-matriculation student experience.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a case-based, student-centered educational strategy integrated into the first two-year curriculum at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM). In PBL, students work in small groups to identify and solve problems in a clinical case. Under the guidance of a faculty facilitator, students critically think through a patient case and explain the underlying pathophysiology, allowing for integration of basic science principles with clinical knowledge. Concept maps (CMs) have been utilized in PBL at NUFSM since 2007. In 2017, digital concept mapping was introduced. A literature review of CMs in medical education found that CMs promote meaningful learning, enable feedback, serve as an assessment of learning, and allow educators to comprehend how a learner can understand relationships among concepts. Although CMs can be developed in multiple modalities, the specific tool can enhance or deter from the potential learning and evaluation benefits in PBL. Lucidchart, a digital concept mapping tool, was piloted in the 2017-2018 academic year with PBL directors noting an enhancement in the organization and complexity of CMs generated from PBL cases when compared to non-digital CMs. In 2018-2019, Lucidchart will be studied as a tool to enhance and evaluate student learning in PBL.
Enjoy your lunch while having a meaningful, guided conversation about assessing learning without papers and tests with like-minded individuals. The interest group lunch sessions provide an opportunity to chat with fellow attendees in an informal setting about topics of interest. All interest group sessions are facilitated by TEACHx presenters who have expertise in the area of discussion.
Managing Director, Library, Academic Technology, Harvard Law School
Lisa Brem worked for ten years as a research associate at Harvard Business School, creating case studies and teaching notes with Professors V.G. Narayanan, Noam Wasserman, and F. Asis Martinez-Jerez. Since 2011, she has been working to promote the use of innovative technologies and... Read More →
Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Candy Lee is a professor at Medill, teaching in journalism and in integrated marketing communications. Previously she was vice president of marketing at The Washington Post, overseeing multiple functions, from marketing to research, and originating innovative programs.Prior to joining... Read More →
Wednesday May 23, 2018 12:45pm - 1:20pm CDT
RB 254
Enjoy your lunch while having a meaningful, guided conversation about e-portfolios with like-minded individuals. The interest group lunch sessions provide an opportunity to chat with fellow attendees in an informal setting about topics of interest. All interest group sessions are facilitated by TEACHx presenters who have expertise in the area of discussion.
Enjoy your lunch while having a meaningful, guided conversation about gamification with like-minded individuals. The interest group lunch sessions provide an opportunity to chat with fellow attendees in an informal setting about topics of interest. All interest group sessions are facilitated by TEACHx presenters who have expertise in the area of discussion.
Enjoy your lunch while having a meaningful, guided conversation about inclusive teaching with like-minded individuals. The interest group lunch sessions provide an opportunity to chat with fellow attendees in an informal setting about topics of interest. All interest group sessions are facilitated by TEACHx presenters who have expertise in the area of discussion.
Assistant Director, Academic Technologies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Marcia L. Dority Baker is an Assistant Director, Academic Technologies with the Office of Information Technology (ITS) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). She leads the Learning Spaces and Emerging Technologies, AV Design, and Learning Management System (LMS) teams at UNL... Read More →
Enjoy your lunch while having a meaningful, guided conversation about web conferencing and synchronous online learning with like-minded individuals. The interest group lunch sessions provide an opportunity to chat with fellow attendees in an informal setting about topics of interest. All interest group sessions are facilitated by TEACHx presenters who have expertise in the area of discussion.
Have you heard about instructional design, but you’re not sure exactly what it is or how it might be useful in your courses? Are you an instructional or learning designer interested in our Learning Designer Community at Northwestern? Come to this session to learn more about learning design as a discipline and the benefits of partnering with a learning designer. We will start with a panel, then move to facilitated small group conversations where you can get personalized feedback from one of our community members on how to address your course design challenges. The Northwestern Learning Designer Community's mission is to establish and cultivate a thriving instructional design community that engages in collective inquiry into best practices that reach across all disciplines of study represented at Northwestern University. The round table facilitators for this session are Alyssa Dyar, Shannon Leftwich, Rick Salisbury, Derek Thurber, and Lei Zhao.
Chemistry lab courses have one hour a week to impart all information to students about the experiment they will do that week: experimental background, details on new techniques, safety concerns, and more. I set out this year to alleviate the burden on this single hour of class time by providing students with graphic-novel-style readings to self-teach some of the important content that cannot fit into the lecture hour. This effort represents a first step in flipping the course format for the lecture. Through illustrated guides to course topics, students have an opportunity to engage with the material differently than they might read a textbook or listen to a lecture. This is the student-reported strength of the approach: Challenging material becomes more accessible to all students when the presentation format changes. In this interactive presentation, we will look at some of the materials that have been used in General Chemistry in the past year, as well as student reactions to them. Once the project goals have been established, discussion will turn to how the audience could implement these ideas in their own classrooms — whether or not they possess artistic drawing abilities.
Large class activities are typically used for unidirectional distribution of information from an instructor to students. Despite the ease of this type of instruction, student engagement with the material is often minimal or lacking. At Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, we have developed an innovative approach to teaching called simulation case-based learning, which adapts typical case-based learning approaches and integrates with additional interactive technologies. As the education session and the simulation scenario unfold, students work in small groups and engage with material to synthesize and apply previous content to a new clinical scenario. This integrative approach allows for an inclusive learning environment where all learners are able to solve problems and apply knowledge. Facilitated discussion between questions ensures that all students progress through the case. The simulated environment brings learning to life and requires students to actively retrieve previously learned material to apply to a new situation. This presentation will describe the features of this new, innovative approach to learning described as simulation case-based learning and will provide the participants an opportunity to experience the active learning environment.
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education, Northwestern University
My primary interests center around the use of simulation as a method of instruction. Specifically, I am interested in curriculum development, assessment of students, and the development of novel teaching strategies.
This session will give participants insights into online teaching from the perspective of newer online faculty. They will speak to their experiences of preparing to teach online, the process of designing their courses for this new format, lessons learned related to student interaction in teaching online, and any aha moments they’ve encountered. They will also speak about the online student audience and how this group can differ from students in a live classroom. Additionally, they will comment on how teaching online has affected their teaching skills.
This panel discussion will explore experiences, lessons, and research on the use of public digital learning portfolios across a professional graduate degree program — the Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change (MSLOC) in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Digital learning portfolios can be described as a collection of evidence, represented online, to show a student’s learning journey over time and to demonstrate their capabilities. Portfolios are generally used in three different cases: for assessment, for learning, or to showcase competence (e.g., as digital resumes). MSLOC has used digital learning portfolios since 2015. In this session, we’ll focus on sharing our insights and portfolio program developments resulting from past and ongoing Northwestern Digital Learning Fellowship awards (2016-2017 and 2017-2018). In MSLOC’s case, online means public, on the web, using WordPress as a common portfolio platform. Our experience points to the value of reflection and synthesis, the tension between showcase and learning, and the opportunity to frame digital learning portfolios as a key element in the development of a student’s desired professional identity. Panelists include MSLOC instructors and students who can speak to their perspectives in each of these areas.
Instructor and Manager, Organizational and Leadership Coaching Certificate Program, Northwestern University
I teach courses on coaching and consulting skills, team elements of organizational learning and performance, and research for master's students. Come talk with me about coaching for learning and performance!
While online courses continue to proliferate, instructors struggle to get their students excited about participating in discussion boards. As part of Northwestern University’s Educational Technology Teaching Fellows program in 2017, faculty member David Noffs and learning designer Jacob Guerra-Martinez collaborated on a project to determine the effectiveness of gamifying specific elements of online courses. During the first phase of their research, they documented steps to develop a model for gamifying course elements. Phase two of their work, supported by Northwestern’s Digital Learning Fellowship program, is the actual design and testing of a game element called Discussion Hero, an interactive discussion board. It was piloted in Winter 2018 in a graduate online course in the School of Professional Studies called Learning Environment Design. Discussion Hero is a gamified discussion rubric that turns discussion boards into debating boards. It encourages diverse points of view, questioning, challenging, and respectful debate. It combines the traditional awarding of points with a progress meter that allows students to visually see how they are performing on their discussion posts. This panel will feature faculty and student perspectives on this new tool and what the future holds for its adoption in other courses.
Lecturer and Senior Learning Designer, Northwestern University
I have spent most of my life designing innovative learning environments, from my early work with hi-tech mobile classrooms in Australia’s rural communities, to over ten years as an instructional technologist and designer in the Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence at Columbia... Read More →
Last fall, students in Professor Jon Hanson’s first-year Torts class had a new kind of assignment. Teams of four produced “Tort Reports” — eight-minute documentary videos about a topic of their choosing. The topics connected tort law to real-world problems that students cared about, ranging from climate change to liability for haunted houses. The videos were reviewed by over 100 alumni of the torts class, and the best five were shown at the first annual Tortys, a dedicated film screening and awards ceremony. What did students learn from this experience? How did it complement the rest of their torts class? How enjoyable was it? How did the teaching team grade these projects? What was the role of teaching fellows, library staff, media services, and more? What were the challenges and the opportunities presented by this not-very-typical assignment? Discuss these questions and more with a panel of students, teaching staff, and support staff from Harvard Law School.
Managing Director, Library, Academic Technology, Harvard Law School
Lisa Brem worked for ten years as a research associate at Harvard Business School, creating case studies and teaching notes with Professors V.G. Narayanan, Noam Wasserman, and F. Asis Martinez-Jerez. Since 2011, she has been working to promote the use of innovative technologies and... Read More →
Active learning can involve opportunities for students to go beyond the classroom and interact with the community. This allows them to learn in different settings, thus involving those beyond the campus. This panel will provide examples of how we have managed these partnerships, including remarks from some students discussing the challenges and value-adds.
Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Candy Lee is a professor at Medill, teaching in journalism and in integrated marketing communications. Previously she was vice president of marketing at The Washington Post, overseeing multiple functions, from marketing to research, and originating innovative programs.Prior to joining... Read More →
Student, School of Communication, Northwestern University
Evelyn Hudson is a senior in the School of Communication studying Human Communication Sciences at Northwestern University. Outside of the classroom she is an educational advocate for children in special education and a research assistant on clinical research trials for children with... Read More →
Stop by the Learning Loft anytime during this session to learn about all of our learning communities and the various opportunities to receive funding for your educational innovation project at Northwestern! You can also ask questions about any of our other educational technologies, services, and programs.
Matthew is a collaborative solution seeker with almost 20 years of experience in higher education IT. As the Blended Curriculum Lead in Teaching & Learning Technologies at Northwestern University, he develops and implements innovative programs and services to help instructors, departments... Read More →
Students have to write papers in their major, but they often don’t get much explicit training or feedback during their courses. Many papers are written at the end of the quarter, which doesn’t offer much time for reflection or revision. While scaffolding of assignments can help address this, often these projects can be onerous for faculty and students to undertake, particularly on the busy quarter schedule. Furthermore, many social science elective classes have a range of students from different backgrounds and skill sets, which can make the peer review process challenging. I’m curious how others incorporate writing practice in small but meaningful ways so that students can get help where they are, as first-year students or even as seniors about to graduate.
Assistant Professor of Instruction, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Clipperton’s research focuses upon institutional design and change, problem-solving, and pedagogy/teaching and learning. Her recent work has focused upon gender in the discipline of political science. Her research incorporates ideas and approaches from political science, complex... Read More →
According to recent polls, half of the younger university-age generations experience gender as fluid and existing on a spectrum, the most recent iteration of resistance against the traditional male-female gender binary. Current efforts at promoting inclusivity, like the practice of identifying one’s chosen pronouns (e.g., she, her, hers), highlight the particular issue of language in this context. How can we best cultivate gender inclusivity in classroom discourse amid the challenge of gender-normative language and with students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? Are some disciplines inherently more gender exclusive or inclusive by their very discourse? Does promoting gender-inclusive language affect the discipline itself? This session will include a brief presentation of various scenarios and research that frame the context and challenge of gender-normative discourse, gender inclusivity, and language across diverse disciplines (e.g., visual arts, languages, and psychology), as well as examples of some solutions that have been proposed or put into practice in university contexts. This initial presentation will serve as a catalyst for the core of this session, which is group discussion of the issue, the proposal of potential solutions for diverse scenarios and contexts, and the collective development of ongoing strategies for making our classrooms and courses more gender inclusive from day one.
The goal of the Reflective Track is to provide opportunities for you to deliberately reflect on the conference experience, examining how you might apply the content to your own practice. During this final facilitated discussion session, you will take time to review your notes from the day and reflect upon your progress toward your goal. You will also connect with your peers to consider how you might be able to apply some of your insights from the day to your own teaching.
Didactic lectures may be the least effective approach to deep and lasting learning. During the 2017-2018 academic year, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine undertook a continuous quality improvement project aimed at converting 10 percent to 15 percent of in-person didactic lectures to asynchronous video lessons. The content from the preceding week’s sessions was then applied in synthesis and application sessions (SASs) using active learning strategies. Lessons learned from the process of selecting content for conversion, recruiting faculty and assisting them with video production, and developing and implementing SASs will be discussed. Students will present their perspectives on the successes and failures of this quality improvement project.
Jim Brucker is the Director of Instructional Design & Development (ID&D) at the Feinberg School of Medicine. His ID&D team partners with faculty to create high-production instructional and promotional video, interactive learning modules and other instructional design approaches. ID&D... Read More →
Stop by the Learning Loft anytime during this session to learn about a brand-new tool for syncing your grades from Canvas directly into CAESAR, developed by Northwestern University Teaching & Learning Technologies. You can also ask questions about any of our other educational technologies, services, and programs.
Relax, refresh, and reflect on the day over cookies and conversation in the Atrium. Follow up on interesting ideas, connect with presenters, and arrange to meet someone whose ideas you’d like to explore — or steal and adapt — in our closing session.
