Educational Methods Commons^™

Supporting Teens Through Grief & Loss, Jayshree Panchal, Student Affairs

Professional Learning Day

Teens may appear and communicate in ways that resemble adults, yet they are still in the process of learning to manage their emotions, comprehend their relationships, and establish their identity in the world. When they experience grief and loss, they are navigating through their own unique journey of mourning. This workshop aims to assist you in understanding how to provide support to teens as they navigate the lifelong process of grieving.

Gauging The Evolving Needs Of Residential Students, Amber Lange, Mission & Impact, Dr. Katie Berger, Student Affairs

Professional Learning Day

What if IMSA faculty and staff could offer advice to higher education administrators about the evolving needs of residential students we have noticed while they are living here with us? Well this is your chance! Dr. Katie Berger and Amber Lange hope to lead this discussion at the annual conference for Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and want your input. Join us for a brief discussion about what evolving needs you have seen in recent years here at the Academy.

Ai Beyond The Screen: Exploring Physical Ai, Tami Armstrong, Public Affairs, Dr. Ashwin Mohan, Ai Center

Professional Learning Day

What happens when AI moves beyond the screen and interacts with the physical world? Last year, Dr. Ashwin Mohan worked with a group of IMSA sophomores to explore Physical AI and develop hands-on activities using simple, low-cost tools. In this interactive session, participants will experience their work firsthand and learn how AI can learn from feedback and adapt. No coding or technical background is required: Just curiosity about AI, student innovation, and hands-on learning.

What’S Happening At The Chicago Hub?, Frank Kadri, Outreach

Professional Learning Day

Are you curious about what’s going on at IMSA’s newest hub location? After just one year, IMSA is already making an impact in Chicago. Chat with Chicago Hub manager Frank Kadri about what’s happening, and more importantly, what’s to come, including building a navigation app/website for STEM activities, experiences, partners, and providers that pairs with school selection for elementary and high schools across the city.

My Travels, Experiences, And Teaching Possibilities, Dr. Lee Eysturlid, Academics

Professional Learning Day

No abstract provided.

Building Culture: The Calaverita Engineering Challenge, David Hernandez

Professional Learning Day

In this session, we will explore the cultural significance of “Calaveritas” (sugar skull), an important artistic element of “Día de los Muertos” in Mexican culture. Visitors will investigate the engineering design and production process used to create decorative “Calaveritas”, exploring materials, structure, aesthetics, and manufacturing techniques. Through the design process, participants will create their own “Calaverita” while connecting culture, art, engineering, and technology to understand how traditional designs can inspire modern creative production.

Make It Matter: Designing Meaningful Professional Learning, Cassandra Armstrong, Lindsey Herlehy

Professional Learning Day

You know your content. You have an idea. Maybe you even have a slide deck. But how do you turn that expertise into a 60-minute professional learning experience that educators will actually find valuable? This session will guide participants through the process of designing, preparing, and facilitating a professional learning session-- particularly for Institute Day. We'll explore what makes professional learning engaging and useful, consider how to move beyond "sit and get," and use a simple planning framework to turn an idea into an actionable session. Participants will have time to work on their own Institute Day proposal and leave …

Budget Basics, Brien Martin,Business Office

Professional Learning Day

An overview of budgeting in general, explaining what budgets are used for, how they may be built, suggestions for managing a budget (or multiple budgets), and an overview of the IMSA budget process, which is being revised and revamped as we head into FY2028

Interactive Review Of Imsa’S Emergency Operations Plan, Stefan Bjes,Campus Safety

Professional Learning Day

Emergency preparedness relies on collective confidence and clear communication across departments. This session serves as a "work in progress" collaboration to present IMSA’s refreshed Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and workshop the best strategies for communicating these protocols to the broader staff body. Participants will explore core components of the plan—spanning severe weather, facility emergencies, and campus safety threats—while actively testing how to make these procedures engaging, accessible, and actionable for everyone on campus.

Beyond The Sign-Out: Reaching Across Imsa, Courtney Caruthers , Student Affairs

Professional Learning Day

REACH: a sign-out system and MUCH more! This session explores why IMSA is implementing REACH, how it supports Residence Life operations, and where its impact intersects with Academics, Student Affairs, families, and other campus partners. Participants will see how REACH can connect people, processes, and information to strengthen student support, while exploring what we are learning through implementation and where opportunities for greater collaboration may exist.

Ai Agents, Dr. Phadmakar Patankar, Academics

Professional Learning Day

No abstract provided.

Engaging In And Chaperoning Imsa Experiences, Brandon Ducoing, Emma Wilson Parker, Student Affairs

Professional Learning Day

IMSA’s student experience extends beyond the classroom, and adult presence plays an important role in making those experiences meaningful. This session will explore how faculty and staff can engage with students through events, activities, traditions, and other experiences. We’ll discuss what it means to be an effective chaperone, how to support student independence while maintaining appropriate supervision, and ways faculty and staff can get involved in experiences like CLASH of the Halls.

Course Evaluations: Current & Future, Dr. Paul Gaszak, Dr. Angela Rowley, Dr. Amber Pareja, Andrew Salyer

Professional Learning Day

Course evaluations are an opportunity for students to provide constructive feedback each term about their courses, faculty, and experience at IMSA. In this session, we will review the current state of course evaluations, and there will be an opportunity to provide feedback on how the questions and process should evolve for future academic years.

Grandma's Hands, Eric Rand

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

The purpose of this collaborative community based cookbook project is to archive personal memories, recipes, and experiences that contribute to the story of America. Educators are positioning students to become local historians by interacting with elders in their families or communities retrieving lost or unknown narratives regarding the different dishes. This manuscript provides educators with detailed teacher notes through 4 phases to help them and students work through the semester on the project building on additional knowledge learned through traditional course work. Students will use technology like voice recorders, and graphic design platforms to ground their finished product. Moreover educators …

The Adapted Socratic Circle As A Tool For Learning Sociological Social Psychology, Justin Huft

Feminist Pedagogy

This paper presents an adapted Socratic Circle as a feminist pedagogical strategy for teaching sociological social psychology. Unlike traditional Socratic methods that often privilege rapid recall, professorial authority, and dominant communication styles, this approach reimagines the circle as a collective practice of creating and applying knowledge. Students alternate between inner and outer groups, engaging both as discussants and evaluators, while formal assessment is distributed equally across professor, peers, and self-evaluations. This multi-source structure decentralizes authority, resists meritocratic norms, and affirms students as co-creators of knowledge. The feminist commitments of the activity are threefold. First, it centers process over product by …

Creating Student-Generated Infographics To Foster Civic Engagement Research In A First-Year Seminar, Carlton A. Usher

eJournal of Public Affairs

Infographics, visual tools like charts or diagrams, simplify complex data into accessible formats. This study explores how student-generated infographics foster civic engagement in a first-year seminar. Survey data from first-year students (N=29) revealed 85% rated the project highly valuable, and 87% reported improved retention of societal issues. While research was the least favored aspect, students praised the project’s creativity and peer-sharing potential, with 40% emphasizing its value for visual learning. Most expressed confidence in sharing their work publicly. These findings support the use of infographics as a pedagogical tool for enhancing civic engagement among first-year students navigating academic transitions. Future …

Structuring Clinical Readiness Through The Core Model In Csd Graduate Education, Camille Byrd O'Quin, Elaine Reyna, Angela M. Riccelli, Jessica Bonner, Judy Platt, Nicole Bing

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

This article introduces the CORE Clinical Orientation Model, a conceptual framework designed to support early clinical readiness in speech-language pathology graduate education. Grounded in the field's shift from traditional site-based apprenticeship models toward more structured, faculty-supported approaches, the model addresses documented variability in early clinical supervision and student preparedness. The CORE Model is organized around four interrelated pillars: Clinical Foundations, Ongoing Reflection, Rigorous Clinical Application, and Engaged & Intentional Mentorship. Although the model was developed alongside a graduate clinical orientation course, the course represents one implementation of the framework. This article describes the theoretical and professional foundations of the CORE …

Ai Tutor, Online Course, Or Both? A Randomized Experimental Pilot Study For Evaluation Capacity Building, Lendel Kade Narine, John M. Diaz

Extension Research

Extension lacks literature comparing standalone generative artificial intelligence (AI) with structured professional development for capacity building. Guided by Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, this study evaluated the effects of an asynchronous online course and a custom AI tutor on evaluation knowledge and self-efficacy among Cooperative Extension professionals. We conducted a randomized 2 × 2 factorial pilot study crossing access to an evaluation certificate course with access to a custom Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT). Of 144 registrants, 78 provided matched pre- and post-test data, with attrition differing across conditions. Data were analyzed using a three-way mixed factorial ANOVA. Course …

The Utilization Of Holographic Simulation For Specialized Patient Populations: A Feasibility Study, Laurie Neely, Jennifer E. Tucker, Amardeep Singh, Taylor Mort, Jeremy Fleischmann, Patrick Pabian

Journal of Innovation in Health Sciences Education

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique set of challenges for health care education programs to prepare students to care for specialized patient populations. Lab experiences that incorporated real patients were restricted due to risk of infection. The use of simulation-based learning increased as an alternative to prepare students for the clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perception of holographic simulation (HS) and confidence in clinical observation skills of motor milestones in children in preparation for clinical practice before and after use of HS in the classroom

Methods: Subjects included 36 second year Doctor …

Using Scenario-Based Generative Ai In A Social Studies Methods Course, Timothy Lintner, Ellis Reeves

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly transforming the landscape of educator preparation. This shift is especially evident in social studies. As emerging technologies like AI reshape how social studies is taught and learned, it is essential to incorporate them into course design and student outcomes. Simply put, we must ensure that the next generation of social studies educators can effectively use AI to create real-world, scenario-based learning experiences that foster inquiry and encourage student action-taking. This article examines how AI-supported, scenario-based learning was strategically integrated into a secondary social studies methods course at the University of South Carolina Aiken. From concept …