Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons^™

Mid-Semester Reset: Approaches For Student Self-Assessment, Self-Efficacy And Support, Paige W. Johnson Ed.D.

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

A full college semester, like any long-term project, benefits from periodic reflection, and reconfiguration to make it to completion successfully. This is the thinking behind creating a mid-semester reset framework for first-semester students aligned with lessons on health and wellness. Students asked to reflect on themselves personally, each class during the semester and create an actionable plan was useful in helping to find their power, remember and reconfigure their motivations and see what they're doing right and well as what they can improve.

Accessible Equations And Other Stem Content, Jerra Strong

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Equations, Formulas, and STEM Content can pose barriers to students with disabilities, but free tools available to UNLV make it much simpler to create accessible equations and math content.

Teaching Challenging Texts And Encouraging Inquiry Remotely, Aisha Ratanapool

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Creating a culture of inquiry in non-research based courses helps students enhance their skills in critical thinking, reading, writing, collaboration, and argumentation. In English 101, some students feel like not having all of the answers about a text after a first read is unacceptable. This practice is designed to help college students understand and confidently discuss complex texts in a remote course.

Using Social Justice Issues To Engage Students, Sandra L. Candel

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The Social Justice Issue is a project-based assignment in which students organize in groups to address a social justice issue of their choice. In addition, students are asked to connect theory and practice (praxis) by looking for resources in their community to offer possible recommendations, solutions and resources.

Topics researched include: Voting Rights; Sexual Assault At Colleges; The Racialization of Cannabis Use; Mental Healthcare; Legalizing Prostitution; Gender Pay Gap; Black Lives Matter; LGBTQA Rights Stigma Suicide & Homelessness; Japan's Patriarchal Society; RBG - Open Supreme Court Position; ICE Inhumane Treatment of Immigrants; Universal Healthcare; and Mental Health Stigma.

This teaching …

Embedding Quizzes In On-Line Prerecorded Lectures, Joshua M. Polanski

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

As we transitioned to on-line education, the problem arises as to how to keep students engaged while listening to a prerecorded lecture. Listening to an hour to two hour lecture and watching a screen is not particularly engaging for the student. To this end, I embedded quizzes periodically within my prerecorded lectures of my DEN 7162 nutrition class for 1^st year dental students that forced the students to engage with the lecture material.

A Learning-Centered Approach To Remote Learning, Michelle A. Arroyo

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Although faculty frequently update the content of their courses, they rarely modify their teaching methods. Many faculty continue to teach as they were taught. During remote and online learning, modifying teaching methods is not only a necessity, but critical to student success. Learning-centered teaching focuses on what and how students are learning. Learning-centered instructors create safe, respectful, and inclusive environments that facilitate student learning. Learning-centered teaching is not a single teaching method, but rather emphasizes a variety of techniques and pedagogies than encourage instructors to create an environment that facilitates students learning online and remotely. As a result, students acquired …

Web-Based System For Students Engagement In The Math Remote Learning Classes, Aleksei Talonov

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

We would like to present practices of using Web-based systems to enhance interactive learning activities in the Math Remote Learning Classes. We mostly concentrated our attention on PreCalculus and Calculus classes. During the last couple of years, we developed a set of course specific materials in the form of lecture notes and out-of-class assignments. Each major assignment is accompanied by clear and coherent guidelines explaining what kind of skills will be attained by practicing this assignment, how it can be done, what amount of time can it reasonably take, when is it due, and where to get help. Speaking of …

Student Group Podcast And Infographic Presentations, Bill Doyle

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The podcast and infographic presentations developed from a move to remote instruction and my desire to transform traditional, PowerPoint-based student presentations into something that would lead to more meaningful collaboration within groups, more engaging post-presentation discussions among the class, and more significant engagement with class readings and their contexts.

Promoting Discussion And Community In Online Synchronous Courses, Nathan M. Slife, Gillian Bowden

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

It can be challenging to engage students in class discussion and build community in synchronous, online courses. This teaching practice addresses these challenges by scaffolding synchronous in-class discussions with asynchronous discussion posts. This practice engenders community and promotes student engagement.

Improving Engagement Of Online Learning With Live Lectures, Jorge Ramon Fonseca Cacho

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Online courses have historically been self-taught or a form of independent study. However, with the 2020 Pandemic a renewed focus on remote/online learning has forced the academic community to revisit what works, and does not work, with online classes. I propose that providing a livestream of a class and uploading the recording to a media sharing website, like YouTube, is more engaging to students than posting a pre-recorded lecture (text or video). I propose that doing this motivates students to keep up with the lectures rather than attempting to binge before an exam, or an assignment is due, and improves …

Virtual Hands-On Lab Exercises, Ed Jorgensen

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Development and deployment of focused topic specific hand-on exercises for upper division technical courses.

Covid-19, Distance Education, And Students Needs, Shahla Fayazpour

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

COVID 19 was an unexpected situation, and it has a negative impact on students. College students' education has been an increasing concern especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Research shows the vital need to develop interventions and preventive strategies for all students including college students (Son et al., 2020). Many instructors had to adapt their teaching strategies with little preparation. Having a clear syllabus, creating new assignments based on students' needs, engaging students for more participation, and providing a positive communication have been essential factors in rapid transition to distance education especially during the Pandemic.

Utilizing Plastinated Head And Neck Dissections For Doctorate Of Dental Medicine (Dmd) Anatomy Laboratories : Observations From The Den 7109 “Guinea Pig” Course, Jessica Immonen

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

This poster documents use of digital dissection tutorials in place of in-person laboratory time for a gross anatomy course in a dental medicine doctorate (DMD) program. Tutorials were developed with a standard digital camera and Camtasia video editing software. Plastinated head and neck specimens prepared by the Von Hagens company in Germany were used in place of standard, embalmed cadaveric donors. Initial student feedback (N=40) indicated that the tutorials were helpful/very helpful (100%), clinically relevant/very clinically relevant (97.5%), were impactful on content retention (100%) and were appropriate/very appropriate with respect to length (3-8 min; 97.5%). After these initial findings were …

It's Like A Video Game: How To Use Twine To Create Scenario Based Learning Online, Amanda Mapel Belarmino

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

How can you engage students online by utilizing the online environment? Solution: a choose-your-own adventure style game. As an Assistant Professor of Hospitality Management, I teach a class in Strategic Management where I used a software called Twine to create a choose-your-adventure type scenario where the students make their own decisions for a business scenario and then see the consequences of their decisions.

Exploring The Impact Of Early Exposure To Research On Dual Enrollment Students: A Qualitative Single-Case Study, Kevin A. Adkins, Jorge L. D. Albelo, Samantha Bowyer

Publications

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) provides a concurrent enrollment model to high schools across the United States. The concurrent enrollment opportunity offers science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college-credit coursework taught by college-credentialed instructors on the student’s high school campus. One faculty member transitioned to Embry-Riddle’s main residential campus following seven years of service with ERAU’s concurrent enrollment program. During his tenure with ERAU’s concurrent enrollment program, in addition to instructing a variety of concurrent enrollment courses, he maintained an active research agenda that involved concurrently enrolled students. His transition was preceded by the matriculation of a subset of these students …

Preface To The Special Issue: Student Affairs At The State Comprehensive University, Phillip A. Olt

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

In this special issue of Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University, authors are encouraged to submit original manuscripts based on new data collection and/or analysis that investigate student affairs within the context of the state comprehensive university. For the purposes of this special issue, “student affairs” is defined broadly and does not exclude specific divisions of practice (ex. academic advising); rather, it may include anything that extends beyond the standard curriculum of academia in order to develop the whole student. This may even include coursework wherein it is oriented toward the student affairs mission (ex. freshman orientation taught …

National Numeracy Network Officers And Board Of Directors, Milo Schield

Numeracy

National Numeracy Network Officers and Board of Directors in the year 2020.

Pilot Assessment Plan: Intercultural And Global Learning, Amy Anderson, Sangita Gosalia, Zoe Krzywda, Kelly Trail, Kelly Bohrer

Learning Teaching Forum

During the 2019-2020 academic year, this project team reviewed tools for intercultural and global learning and assessment. Our objective was to consider opportunities to support student growth and development and assess student learning at the program and/or institutional levels. We looked at some instruments we currently use, along with several others. In addition, we reviewed several content platforms that support student learning. While each had its pros and cons, we identified three tools for a pilot:

• Assessment - The Global Engagement Survey
• Content platform - Solidarity Modules
• Content platform - Global Competency Certificate

Participants will have the opportunity to learn …

Global Learning Academy: A New Model, Kelly Trail, Zoe Krzywda, Erin Gahimer, Tom Morgan, Sam Ortiz

Learning Teaching Forum

The Global Learning Academy is an innovative global and intercultural learning program that combines online courses with a two-week theme-based field experience at key international, U.S., and local/virtual locations. Much like higher education in general, education abroad and international education were turned upside down with the pandemic. In response, we have developed a creative new model that will allow us to meet some of our long-standing priorities around access for a changing student population; interdisciplinary learning on critical global themes; integration with existing academic programs; and flexibility and adaptability in uncertain times. We will share plans for this new model, …

Exploring Vocation In Uncertain Times: Finding Meaning In A World Of Ambiguity, Adrienne Ausdenmoore

Learning Teaching Forum

2020 has been a year of disruption. We have all faced new challenges in our lives and careers that are enough to make us question our priorities and sense of purpose, and the future presents many unknowns. How can we use this time as an opportunity to revisit our own vocational journey? And when students look to us for guidance, are we willing to admit that we don’t have it all figured out? Join this interactive session to explore the ways we teach and learn with our students to be adaptable and resilient in an ever-changing world.

Educating The Educators: Leaning In To Diversity, Equity And Inclusion In The Age Of Zoom, Tiffany Taylor Smith, Leslie H. Picca

Learning Teaching Forum

In this session, we share our experiences and best practices in discussing issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (e.g., systemic racism, intersectionality) in a completely remote setting. We discuss our experiences in "educating the educators" in offering Inclusive Excellence Academy (IEA) sessions, presentations to various units across campus, as well as participating in the "Equity Now!" training sessions through the University of Southern California. In this session, participants may share the opportunities and challenges in educating for DE&I in the age of Zoom.

Remote Community Engagement In The Time Of Covid-19, A Surging Racial Justice Movement, Wildfires, And An Election Year, Merith Weisman

Higher Learning Research Communications

Due to wildfires in fall of 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020, Sonoma State University lost 50 service-learning courses, and as a result, almost 900 fewer students completed a service-learning course than the previous year. During the summer of 2020, the Center for Community Engagement began developing service-learning projects that were designed to be done remotely and address either COVID-19 or engage students with involvement in the fall 2020 election. Later, opportunities to address racial injustice and the wildfires were integrated. The opportunities described require active participation but remotely within the community; however, it is possible that …

Conceptualizations Of Teaching In The Higher Education Classroom, Molly Flavin Broere

Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-method study was to explore how faculty members, who teach at higher education institutions that deliver a liberal arts experience, view teaching and how those views inform their teaching practice. Teaching beliefs can feel like a messy construct (Pajares, 1992) but are important in determining what informs teaching practice. Pratt (1994) also explains beliefs inform conceptions of teaching practice. The conceptualizations of faculty, more specifically their teaching beliefs, were the focus of this study. Thus, this study investigated the following research questions: Given the context of a liberal arts institution, what are faculty members’ conceptualizations of …

Changes That Should Remain In Higher Education Post Covid-19: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of The Experiences At Three Universities, Águeda Benito, Kubra Dogan Yenisey, Kavita Khanna, Manuel Felipe Masis, Rosa Maria Monge, Mehmet Ali Tugtan, Luis Diego Vega Araya, Rekha Vig

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: The goal of the present study is to describe how the transition to remote emergency delivery was addressed in three universities during the COVID-19 pandemic, to determine the satisfaction levels of their students and faculty with this new teaching-learning experience, and to gather their opinions about the future of higher education.

Method: The study uses a mixed-methods approach, including faculty and student surveys and focus groups

Results: The study shows high satisfaction with the emergency remote delivery and clearly reflects the relevance of enhancing the digital components of future learning experiences in higher education and a unanimous preference for …

Interdisciplinary Team Teaching Reflections On Praxis And Pedagogy In An Undergraduate Classroom, Danielle Nielsen, Diane Sabenacio Nititham, Marc Polizzi

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Much scholarship available on team-teaching focuses on K-12 programming, with limited examples in post-secondary education. Adding to the growing research on college-level team-taught courses, this reflection describes how interdisciplinary team-teaching can offernot only a pedagogically innovative experience for students but also highlight the strengths of the faculty in their teaching and research areas. In addition to reviewing the differences between interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary curricula, we reflect on our experience deliveringGlobalization as a team-taught course, designing learning outcomes and course material, and negotiating classroom strategies, highlighting successful components and considering future iterations.

Student Focus Groups: Experiences Learning In Flexsync And Online Synchronous Courses, Brooke N. Burk

Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services Department Publications

In Fall 2020, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) recruited students who were enrolled in FlexSync and online (synchronous and asynchronous) courses to participate in focus groups about their experiences. Recruitment messages were shared via emails from departments and also on the MavLife app during October and November.

A total of 26 students indicated interest and completed the focus groups. The focus groups were scheduled and conducted in November 2020. Six focus groups were conducted in total with the size of the groups ranging from two to four participants and took place via Zoom. Focus groups lasted …

Teaching The Eleusinian Mysteries In An Outdoor Simulation, Paul Robertson

JRCA Pedagogy

I detail an active learning simulation around the Eleusinian Mysteries. I provide a concrete teaching activity with the dual goals of (1) providing experiential learning around ancient Mediterranean religion to engage those with minimal interest in the subject matter, and (2) providing ideas for outdoor instruction which may be advantageous due to health reasons, preference, and/or campus engagement. It is my hope that other instructors are able to freely adapt this lesson in their own classrooms

Somewhere I'Ve Never Been-Part Iii, John Lanci

JRCA Pedagogy

In this essay, I propose that we examine the implications of a shift of fundamental importance, a shift in the way we see ourselves in the classroom and the difficult changes we need to make in the power relationships traditionally at play in our work.4 What follows is not an analysis of power relationships in general, but thoughts about how power flows in the classroom, and how we might modify that flow to encourage more effective teaching and learning. My point: If we empower students to become not passive listeners but active collaborators, they will be more likely to invest …

The (Missing) Human Part: Listening For Students’ Perceptions Of The Value Of Peer Mentors, Adrienne Jankens, Nicole Guinot Varty, Haley Shier, Michelle Borkosh

English Faculty Research Publications

In this paper, we describe an IRB-approved (exempt) study designed to help us understand the impact that engaging with a peer mentor has on student learning in the online, intermediate composition classroom. Our study aimed to both identify the quantity of student interactions with peer mentors in online intermediate composition courses and to understand specifically how these interactions impacted students’ learning. The study focused on this question: “How do students describe the impact of peer mentors on their learning in the writing course?” Using a combination of qualitative methods (student survey, student interview, peer mentor reflection, and local institutional data …

Professional Development For Out-Of-Field Post-Primary Teachers Of Mathematics: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Mathematics Specific Pedagogy Training, Niamh O'Meara, Fiona Faulkner

Articles

Research shows that teachers influence students’ attitudes towards; performance in; and perceptions of a subject. Hence, the need to improve the teaching and learning of many curricular subjects has been well documented for many years. This paper focusses on efforts made to develop competence among out-of-field teachers of mathematics and evaluates the impact of one component of a continuous professional development (CPD) programme on teachers’ selfefficacy and self-reported teaching styles. As part of this CPD programme, teachers engaged in a series of subject-specific pedagogy workshops and while classroom observations were not feasible they did complete pre- and postworkshop questionnaires to …