Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons^™

Give ‘Em Something To Smile About: Connecting With Online Students Through Humor, John Huss

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Humor and higher education are infrequently mentioned in the same conversation, but much empirical evidence supports the contention that the use of humor is related to positive student perceptions of the instructor and learning environment (Banas et al., 2011; Garner, 2006; James, 2004; Suzuki & Heath, 2014). The literature certainly establishes a foundation to consider humor as a critical element of any instructor’s online teaching arsenal and such an inclusion may be particularly pertinent at this time, given the undeniable shift in higher education dynamics as more institutions, both by choice and circumstance, witness unprecedented growth in their web-based programs. …

Let’S Talk: Learning To Communicate Well In Emergency Online Learning, Kim Cuny, Jenny M. Southard, Erin Ellis-Harrison

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

In this article, we use the lens of Tinto’s (1987) separation and transition phases to reflect on lessons learned when moving classes with oral communication components from in-person to online. We believe that being mindful and intentional in how we include oral communication instruction, opportunities for improvement, and incorporating feedback can positively impact retention and persistence of students. First, we describe the timelines of events, then we connect Tinto’s essential features of effective retention programs to oral communication pedagogy, and finally offer resources and strategies for incorporating oral communication into courses.

The Importance Of Building A Social Presence In The Online Classroom, Amanda W. Joyce

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

While important, many of the guidelines put in place to prevent disease transmission during the Covid-19 pandemic (social distancing, quarantining, facial coverings, etc.) have created challenges to building student-student and student-faculty relationships. However, these relationships are, according to the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison et al., 2000), essential to learning. The purpose of this piece is to explore strategies to build social presence in the classroom to benefit students and faculty alike. Strategies such as the strategic use of discussion boards, collaborative assignments, class announcements, extra credit, and more are discussed in the context of improving student learning without significantly …

Pre-Service Teachers And The Next Generation Of Agile Teaching Through Crisis, Makayla Carmichael, Maria L. Manning

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Pre-service teacher candidates have experienced extreme stressors from COVID-19 through both the lens of postsecondary students and clinical practitioners. This duality provided a complex understanding of crisis management within instructional settings for future incoming teachers. This article discusses trauma-related student behavior brought on by COVID-19 and introduces agile teaching practices such as reflective practices and integrated use of technology. Reflective practices help educators unpack teaching practices and apply ideas and concepts in novel ways. Technology tools help to strengthen relationships, communication, and collaboration reducing crisis related behavior. Future implications include addressing technology inequity and crisis planning.

Personal Volcanoes And The Pedagogy Of People: Perspectives On Navigating Turbulent Times, Kristen M. Platt, Lydia Strattan, Colleen Bodnar, April Hatcher

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

The year 2020 brought about more unexpected turbulent times than anyone could have imagined in the years prior. At the University level, students and faculty were sent home from campus as rates of COVID-19 soared around the world. This turbulent, life-changing eruption disturbed the status quo for everyone on the planet in ways not anticipated, and the effects will linger for years to come. This manuscript discusses four perspectives on navigating the pandemic that can translate to future preparedness plans for students and faculty alike.

“I Had To Adapt To Continue Being A Student To The Best Of My Ability”: Identifying Occupational Therapy Students’ Processes Of Adapting To Academic Disruption, Laura H. Vanpuymbrouck, Linda M. Olson

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

In the wake of COVID-19, practitioners, educators, and students had to shift to virtual interactions while experiencing significant unknowns and valid fears. This project describes the lived experiences of 37 occupational therapy students who lived through this international pandemic examining their reflections of how occupational therapy theories and models of practice could inform approaches to adapt to the changing context of their lives. Narratives of students collected as part of routine educational assessments in an introduction to occupational therapy theory course were examined using methods of content analysis to understand the perspectives of students’ needs, supports, and mechanisms of adaption …

Cohort Analysis Of Four Graduating Classes Of Occupational Therapy Students' Knowledge Of Aging, Lavona Traywick, Brittany N. Saviers, Terry Wayne Griffin, Teressa Brown

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

At the same time that the number of senior adults in the United States is steadily rising, there is also a rising shortage of allied health care professionals, including occupational therapists, to meet the current and expected needs of the senior adult population. There are national standards that all occupational therapy programs must meet; however, there is not a set national curriculum. It is assumed that students will enter their respective occupational therapy programs with a base knowledge of aging due to prerequisite requirements. To test that assumption, with Institutional Review Board approval, over four consecutive years 192 first-year, first-semester …

Active Learning And Occupational Therapy Theory: A Mixed Methods Study Of A Course Redesign, Mackenzie L. Feldhacker, Diana R. Feldhacker

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

The use of theory to guide practice is what distinguishes an occupational therapist’s professional judgment and reasoning from simply technical skills. However, occupational therapists continue to lack confidence and skills in understanding application of theory to inform practice. Thus, effective course design related to theory is imperative in professional formation. This study assessed the effectiveness of a graduate-level occupational therapy theory course redesigned using andragogical, learner-centered, and active learning principles to address gaps in applying and understanding theory. A mixed methods retrospective cohort design was utilized. This included a pretest/post-test survey along with end-of-semester course and instructor evaluation. Eighty-four students …

Affordable Learning Kentucky: Strategies For Affordability And Success, Kelly Smith, Cristen Ross, Lori Werth, Ilona Burdette

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Kentucky Virtual Library’s Affordable Learning Steering Committee, an initiative of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), is a working group of librarians from universities around Kentucky exploring ways to advance Kentucky in the Open Educational Resource (OER) / Affordable Textbook movement.

The panel presentation included an overview of their work to date and a discussion with the audience about Kentucky’s needs and strategies related to affordable courseware for students on topics including working with campus bookstores, adding course resources to library collections, using e-reserves dynamically, promoting faculty use and creation of open content, and campus textbook initiatives.

Panelists included …

Tilting Beyond The Classroom: Utilizing Transparency Components To Develop Student Centered Administrative Processes, Casey E. Humphrey

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) has been shown to benefit student’s ability to be successful within the classroom. Transparent concepts produce positive outcomes within organizational systems as well. However, there is no research that analyzes how the TILT framework can be used to analyze and develop academic policies within educational institutions. This manuscript discusses the potential benefits of utilizing TILT components in the creation of academic policies and processes in order to promote successful student engagement within an occupational therapy academic program.

An Educational Partnership To Promote Lifelong Leaders, Jana Mayer, Cynthia Harter, Michelyn W. Bhandari

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

This study focuses on the impact of intentional teaching in the areas of interpersonal and professional skills for students in grades 5-8, and a collaboration between students in the EKU School of Business and Model Laboratory School to apply skills learned in order to develop leadership and entrepreneurial strategies. The study illustrates the positive relationship developed between Model and the EKU School of Business through trainings and events. A series of brief evaluation surveys and other school-level data were used to demonstrate the results of the year-long collaboration. Overall, results demonstrate how both groups of students benefited from the experience.

Personalized Learning: Tools For A Covid World, Karen Clancy, Whitney Powell

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Advancing technology allows us to personalize everyday life, from shopping and business transactions to information-seeking, healthcare, and education. Contemporary college students often seek personalized learning experiences that yield high-impact outcomes. Such experiences require successful partnerships between faculty and students. Case studies demonstrating how faculty/student partnerships helped students accomplish personalized learning outcomes are presented. The focus on personalized learning is even more pertinent in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The increased reliance on virtual learning and independent study may encourage and challenge educators to implement personalized learning methods to maximize learning outcomes and elevate student engagement.

Teaching Students Effective Learning Strategies, Hung-Tao Chen, Megan Thomas, Katelyn Mcclure

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Much research has focused on the effect of learning strategies such as completing practice testing and highlighting. Previous research has found that practice tests and distributed practice are the most effective while elaborate interrogative, self-explanation, and interleaved practice are moderately effective (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Other common strategies, such as summarization, are found to be ineffective. Many college students use these ineffective learning strategies, and it is therefore important to teach students to use good learning strategies. The current study compared a video-based teaching method on effective learning strategies versus a text-based method. Undergraduate students (n=109) were taught effective learning …

Debriefing As An Instrument To Promote Student/Faculty Partnerships, Heather B. Norris, Keri New, Catherine Edwards

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Student/faculty partnerships are essential to academic success. Key components of the partnership include mutual trust, respect, and open communication. Faculty can integrate debriefing and therapeutic communication techniques in student conversations to foster a collaborative learning environment.

Transparent Roles In Feedback In The Student-Faculty Partnership For Teaching And Learning, Leah Shea Simpkins, Shirley P. O'Brien

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Faculty devote effort and energy promoting learner-centered opportunities that reinforce course content. Through the use of varied pedagogical strategies, appreciating the transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) process, faculty-structured learning opportunities can promote students thinking critically about their performance, building a repertoire of skills to advance learning at higher levels. The feedback that faculty provide and the format given can enhance student-faculty partnerships and success in the service-learning or practicum classroom. Feedback considerations for type (verbal, written, or a combination) and time are paramount to promoting faculty and student partnerships. The method of feedback delivery should be taken into consideration …

Social Constructivism In Learning: Peer Teaching & Learning, Cindy L. Hayden, Cheryl Carrico, Cassandra Catherine Ginn, Alexis Felber, Shelby Smith

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Social constructivism is an educational theory that can be applied in collaborative ways to facilitate student peer teaching and learning. University faculty may be unfamiliar with how to plan, structure, and instruct students in peer teaching and learning projects while providing an emotionally supportive environment. This article will identify characteristics of course activities that promote peer teaching and learning. Two student examples of a three-component peer teaching module will be highlighted along with the grading rubric. This article also describes an assignment module that was offered in a face-to-face second-year course in a professional allied health program. These assignment guidelines …

Tacit To Explicit Knowledge Transfer In A University Health Care Program: Use Of Student-Professor And Professor-Professor Collaboration, Geela Spira, Allen S. Keener

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Student feedback indicated difficulty applying Occupational Therapy values such as “participation in meaningful occupations” into clinical interventions. Two instructors of a components-based course and a theory course collaborated to link practical OT interventions to conceptual OT models. Use of a model for transfer of tacit knowledge was utilized. Each instructor kept a reflective diary. An iterative process for a semester attempted to transfer learned explicit knowledge into an integrated intuitive ‘art of the therapy’ which incorporated Occupational Science core concepts. Worksheets were developed to make the pathway more explicit. By semester’s end, students completed a comprehensive plan for client care.

Examining Collaboration In Faculty And Student Partnerships Of A Community College Pilot Mentoring Program, Raquel Corona, Madiha Shameem

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

This essay presents a study of a pilot mentoring program at a community college in the New York City area that was structured in alignment with Students as Partners. The faculty and peer mentors in this pilot program were partnered to work together to mentor a group of incoming freshmen exiting remediation. The study focuses on the mentor partnerships specifically. Through the analysis of end-of-semester reflection mentors composed together, we reflect on how they collaborated to mentor their students and implement a program for mentees.

Developing Student Leadership Opportunities Through Mentoring, Shirley P. O'Brien, Bethany Wheatley, Elizabeth Hannon, Olivia Ann Lauer

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Graduate assistants fulfill many roles and functions within the university setting. The partnership formed with supervisors is critical for mutual development and implementation of programs, building professionalism and student confidence. Supervisors provide many opportunities through coaching, sponsoring and connector roles. Intentional collaboration maximizes best practices supporting graduate student leadership development.

Lessons Learned In Designing Active Learning Modules For The Stem Classroom, Anna M. Christianson

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

For students to become real partners in their education, they must shift from a model of passive absorption of knowledge to one of active participation in constructing knowledge. To encourage this shift, I have designed a variety of active learning modules for my introductory chemistry classes, from short participation polls to full-length case studies. When well-implemented, in-class activities can be a valuable experience for students to practice applying their knowledge with instructor guidance. In this report, I will share both successes and challenges encountered in designing student-friendly active learning modules in an introductory science course.

A Child Of Books: Building Little Free Libraries With Student Partners In Teaching And Learning, Hayley Hoffman

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

The lack of equitable access to books for children has a lifelong impact on their literacy development. Pop-up libraries, such as the popular Little Free Libraries, are intended to address this divide by providing access to books year-round. Drawing from the author’s previous experience with the project, this essay explores the ways in which building a Little Free Library as a class can allow students at various grade levels to act as partners in teaching and learning.

The Quality Literature Quadrant (Qlq): A Reflective Tool For Examining Stereotypes In Texts, Emily Zuccaro Lang, Sonja Heer Yow, Ricky Mullins

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Because texts often reflect the culture and values of a society and can either disrupt or reinforce stereotypes, it is imperative that faculty and their students alike participate in critical analysis and reflection of the literature and texts used in their classrooms. Critical reflection can reveal whose voices are privileged and whose voices are left out of the literature. In this paper, the authors discuss how faculty and students can use a reflective tool--the Quality Literature Quadrant (QLQ), as a means to examine stereotypes in literature and texts.

Teaching Personal Selling Strategies And Tactics With Popular Culture Examples: An Active Learning In-Class Group Activity, Philip J. Boutin Jr.

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

An original in-class activity to enhance students’ understanding of personal selling strategies and tactics was developed that was informed by multiple teaching and learning theories and techniques from the extant literature, including: active learning (e.g., Bonwell & Eison, 1991); social learning theory (e.g., Bandura, 1971); cooperative learning (e.g., Li & Lam, 2013); constructivism (e.g., Learning-Theories.com, 2015); social constructivism (e.g., Creswell, 2014; Vygotsky, 1978); and educational entertainment or edutainment (Rapeepisarn et al., 2006). For the activity, student groups select and analyze three scenes in movies or television shows in which characters use personal selling activities in an attempt to close a …

Ungrading Across The Disciplines: Reflections Of A Professional Learning Community, Travis L. Martin, Matthew P. Winslow, Michelle A. Gremp, Stacey J. Korson, Gaby Bedetti, Ellen Hutcheson Mcmahan, David Stumbo, Elaina Short, Holdyn Morrow

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

A group of interdisciplinary scholars formed a Professional Learning Community (PLC) in the spring 2020 semester. Their topic of consideration was “ungrading,” defined by the group as any pedagogical practice that moves a student’s focus away from grades and toward learning and growth. This essay provides an account of each instructor’s experience as a member of the PLC, highlighting both practical and theoretical considerations for instructors interested in incorporating ungrading in their courses. It also provides perspectives of students who experienced ungraded approaches first-hand.

Using Individual Artistic Expressions To Enhance The Shared Learning Experience, Katie Salmeron, April Hatcher

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Students as Partners is a groundbreaking teaching method which combines pedagogical elements from traditional, flipped, and independent classrooms. While ideally suited for small, discussion-style (fewer than 20 students) or even upper level independent study courses, this pedagogy is daunting to anyone teaching a large lecture course. Throughout several semesters of an undergraduate anatomy course, we have worked to incorporate more free-expression type assignments in order to allow students to have some autonomy in the direction of their learning. Within the last two years, we have successfully implemented unit-based coursework incorporating the key elements of the Students as Partners philosophy. In …

Best Practices For Encouraging Instructor/Student Communication And Partnerships In Online Learning, Amanda W. Joyce, Jennifer Morrison, Tanya Romero-González, Martin Kane

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

When students and instructors communicate well, students’ GPAs, GRE scores, educational engagement, personal development, and satisfaction with their learning experience all improve. Similarly, when instructors are transparent in their course decisions and involve students as partners in their education, student retention, academic sense of belonging, student-instructor interactions, and networking opportunities all improve. However, face-to-face techniques for student/instructor communication, like informal before-class conversations or in-class question-and-answer sessions about assignments, can be challenging to implement in an online environment. The purpose of this piece is to discuss evidence-based strategies for improving transparency and communication in an online learning environment.

Freedom For The (Distance Education) People! Ten Practical Ways To Bring Liberatory Pedagogy To Your Online Class, Jason Johnston

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

With the rapid growth and adoption of online programs in higher education comes a concern that education is becoming even more industrialized, reducing student liberty. This paper first critiques online learning with the concept of industrialized education. Then, it outlines and applies the revolutionary approaches of liberatory pedagogy. Finally, this paper explores and describes ten practical ways for teachers and instructional designers to apply liberatory pedagogy in online courses to empower students as partners in their own learning.

Ada Compliance In Online Courses: Free Tools And Resources For Creating An Inclusive Environment For Both Students And Instructors, John Huss, Shannon M. Eastep

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Online courses must be accessible to students with disabilities, yet instructor training in accessible design is often an afterthought, leading to legal vulnerability and a breakdown in the learning partnership between student and instructor. Based on feedback from faculty members who shared their familiarity with expectations from the American Disabilities Association (ADA) and Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act, as well as challenges and perceived barriers, this session demonstrated free tools, practical suggestions, and important design tips for bringing all courses into compliance., even for those instructors with less than sophisticated technological expertise.

A Function-Based Intervention For College Student Tech Use In Class, Steffen Wilson, Brianna Williamson

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

The purpose of the intervention described in this paper is to provide guidance and support to help college students develop a personal tech-management strategy, so that they can reap the benefits and minimize the pitfalls of their personal technology use in class. Results presented suggested that this intervention can help students begin to develop a self-management strategy for their off-task tech use.

Students’ Perceptions And Engagement Utilizing Group Assignments, Kathleen Mae Fischer, Taran Thomas Williams, Joseph David Hannigan, Pauletta Gay Baughman

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Educators have a vast array of teaching and learning techniques available when planning classroom projects. When introducing lecture content, an educator needs to choose the method that focuses on maximizing student engagement while incorporating the students’ perceptions and needs. Research has widely shown that placing students in groups not only increases their educative retention level, but also maximizes student engagement skills necessary to prepare them for the workforce. For our exercise, we started by dividing the class into small groups. Each group received a specific classroom topic with project presentation guidelines. Next, we allotted students class time to meet as …