Higher Education Commons^™

Engaging Hyflex: Bridging The Remote/In-Person Engagement Gap Through Instant Polling Slides, Yvonne Houy

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

To provide learning opportunities for unpredictable student needs during the pandemic, I offered HyFlex courses in Spring and Fall 2022. Students could either attend my class in person or remotely through WebEx. Engagement by remote students increased dramatically after I started using Slido’s instant polling to create opportunities for communicating opinions and could gauge comprehension through open-ended and multiple choice responses live.

In the first half of my first HyFlex semester engagement among the in-person students was high, with a consistent 100% of students speaking at least once to the whole class during each class session. However, one-third of remote …

Measurement And Scale Development Skills For Public Health Doctoral Scholars, Manoj Sharma

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Web-based synchronous teaching is gaining popularity all over the world. In web-based synchronous teaching, both pedagogical robustness and the building of content expertise are mandatory. I taught a new doctoral course, HED 763 Measurement and Scale Development in Social and Behavioral Health in the Spring of 2022. The specific teaching techniques that I used were (a) enhanced pedagogical features that included delivery as web-based synchronous, organizing the course in Canvas and making it available from day 1, recording all lectures beforehand in Panopto, utilizing case studies, employing WebEx and its breakout sessions feature, guest lectures, and having weekly skill-building activities …

Increasing Student Engagement: Case-Based Teaching And Learning, Necole Leland, Lisa Nicholas

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Case-based learning (CBL) is an active learning approach using hypothetical or real life problems that help learners develop clinical judgment and problem-solving skills (Bastable, 2023). CBL can be used in multiple settings, including the classroom, the clinical environment, and simulation. CBL can be used in most disciplines to bring real life scenarios to life for learners. Learners identify the problem in the case, develop multiple approaches to solving problems, discuss different viewpoints or assumptions, propose alternate decisions, and weigh consequences (Young & Paterson, 2007). CBL helps make connections that transfer theoretical knowledge to practical application (Billings & Halstead, 2020). CBL …

Uncovering Teaching Faculty Personas To Understand Comfort Levels In Using Technology In Their Online Classes, Suzanne Becker, Ted Weisman

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Faculty’s knowledge about, and comfort with, the use of technology tools are key components in online teaching. Faculty are not only expected to be adept with basic computer functionality, like creating and editing documents and managing files, but also in navigating their institutions Learning Management System (LMS) and utilizing course teaching technologies and tools. Together these areas comprise a significant portion of design and facilitation of an online course and are related to learning outcomes. When engaging with the online learning environment, it is thus critical for each instructor to consider their personal level of comfort utilizing various online technology …

Interweaving Research And Teaching, Monika Neda

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

This work describes a teaching practice that is based on creating an assignment for students to work on a research project. The students will use methods learned in the class to solve a research problem and then present their findings though a class presentation.

Virtual Learning: The Mentorship Model, Gabriela Zuniga

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Students who serve as teaching assistants play a critical role in students' university experience. This reality is hightened in enry-level courses targeted to first year students. It is important that these teaching assistants play an active role in these transitionary students' university career to increase students' self-sufficiency. The mentorship model is a framework in which teaching assistants for a course targeted to first-year students create community by meeting with students, tracking their progress, and introducing them to nuances about higher education that they might have otherwise been unfamiliar with. The outcomes addressed in this research comes from a diverse student …

Modeling Collaborative Research Practices With Zotero, Julian Kilker

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The early stages of research when students explore topics and evaluate resources are critical. Yet researchers can be overwhelmed by evaluating sources, organizing resources and notes, and working with collaborators. During these stages it is particularly important to model meaningful research relationships to support student success. I address these challenges by having students explore Zotero, a free “research assistant” application and web portal, as they work on structured research assignments. While Zotero is known as a powerful citation manager, my practice focuses on its features that are most relevant to storing, organizing, and sharing resources while working on both informal …

Collaborative Two-Stage Testing: A “Less Sad And Intimidating” Way To Test, Andrew Kauffman

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Traditional individual testing discourages collaboration, increases student anxiety, and does not provide timely and useful feedback. Two-stage tests are an alternative method of assessment that deepens learning while also promoting higher-order thinking skills, such as collaboration, communication, and peer instruction. In a two-stage test, students first complete and turn in the test individually and then, working in preassigned groups of 3 to 4, answer the same test questions again. The individual part of the test is weighted at 85%, while the group part is weighted at 15%. To encourage total participation and address concerns about fairness, students are told that …

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Meetings: Associations With Student Engagement And Workforce Development, Joanne Ullman, Sadie Bylund, Jessica Castillo, Christina Saliba

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

No abstract provided.

Auto-Grading For In-Class Flipped Classroom Exercises, Ed Jorgensen

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

For technical courses like computer programming, in-class inverted classroom style, low stakes practice exercises have been shown to help student increase skills and build confidence with the material. One of the key challenges for the use of such in-class exercises is the overhead associated with scoring and returning such materials or worksheets which can be a significant burden particularly for larger classes. When such exercises can be converted to multi-choice, an automated scoring system can be used. Conceptually similar to Scantron, the system uses standard paper and is scanned by standard copy machines.

Incorporating Career And Research Experience For Student Success, Jenna Heath M.Ed., Melikabella Shenouda B.A.

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

In order to support students’ acquisition of career and professional development opportunities necessary for stable career placement, we connect students with vetted community partners through internships. To ensure proper workforce development and research skills, our internship program requires concurrent enrollment in COLA 402 - an internship development course - that is offered every semester, both in person and online. The curriculum is unique in that it is centered around real-world scenarios that student interns may expect to encounter in their workplace and/or during their hiring process (e.g., mitigating workplace conflict, interviewing, personal branding, networking, professional communication, resume reviews); such topics …

Revisiting Your Inner Child: Increasing Fys Students’ Engagement And Sense Of Belonging, Melikabella Shenouda

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

First time full time freshmen are exhibiting the desire to get involved on campus, yet much apprehension still remains. This may be attributed to the recent return of in person instruction after the impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic, as well as the palpable distance that lingered with remote learning. As such, students’ transition from fully asynchronous / web-live synchronous instruction back to in person education has been tumultuous to say the least. Freshmen continue to express written interest in campus involvement; however, several are anxious and hesitant when it comes to actually committing to group interactions, public speaking, and …

Resident Scientists-In-Schools: Harnessing Altruism In Stem, Alison Sloat

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The Resident Scientists-in-Schools and the STEM Teacher Development Academy program helps to diversify and expand the STEM pipeline in CCSD schools.

An Integration Of Online Education's Career Readiness And Life Design Badging Program Into A Milestone Course, Sheila Janofsky

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

No abstract provided.

Using The Touchstones Discussion Method For Common Reader Discussions​, Nathan M. Slife, Chelsie Hawkinson

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The Touchstones Method empowers students to find their voice within an inclusive and collaborative discussion.

Instructors can use this method to facilitate discussions of the UNLV Common Reader Program. This program provides incoming undergraduate students with a common intellectual experience discussing a select text.

Principles from the Touchstones Methods can used to facilitate conversation of any text that is used in this Common Reader program.

Counseling Skills For Educators, Craig Hall

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is touted as a diverse campus. Indeed, students represent a wide range of demographics concerning race, gender, identity, socioeconomics, physical and mental ability issues, as well as non traditional students and those the intersectional representation of multiple demographic groups. It is incumbent upon educators to provide safe spaces for all students. This is an equitable practice. How can educators be more equitable? By using counseling skills in their education such as: empathy, active listening, belief in the capabilities of students, and avoiding labeling students. It must be noted that the use of counseling skills …

Why Ask That? Low Stakes Questions Build Engagement, Van Whaley

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

A few low-stakes questions during the term build engagement, encourage persistence, and can improve learning outcomes.

During labs, students work together to learn Anatomy & Physiology… plus answer these Engagement Booster Questions.

The Need
Students need to meet classmates. After two years of online-only education, returning to in-person labs is a new experience many students find uncomfortable and challenging.

The Existing Resources
Students in the same lab have several similarities that include enrolling in the same lecture section, similar schedules, the same completed prerequisites, similar majors, and career aspirations.

The Goal
Building engagement between students should help more students complete …

Working Smarter, Not Harder: Using Canvas Outcomes To Promote Student Success, Jacob D. Thompson, Beth Barrie

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Promotes the adoption of Canvas Outcomes. Canvas Learning Outcomes can bolster student success, improve program assessment and course design, and ease assessment burdens on administrators, colleges, departments, and faculty.

Ai And The Future Of Academic Integrity, Jesse Fitts, Rachel Bovard

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

In this poster, we provide recommendations for assignment types in light of the AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Video Homework: Visualizing Homework Assignments To Help Comprehension, Jorge Ramon Fonseca Cacho

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Multimodal delivery of information has been shown to be preferred to one mode of delivery. Instead of only providing homework assignments to students as a PDF, printed paper, or a Canvas LMS text prompt, we propose augmenting the assignments with a video explaining it verbally, or conversationally, and visualizing the assignment. Not all students process information the same way and some may be more responsive and engaged to audio visual content than just text such as visual learners or individuals who struggle reading long text prompts.