Advising Perspectives on Engaging Students beyond the Classroom

Janet Claus, University College; Teri Farr, Department of Sociology/Anthropology; Heidi Verticchio, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders; Shawn Schultz, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

Students increasingly come from environments in which their out-of-class activities have been highly structured by others. In college, academic advisors and faculty help students transition to making independent decisions about activities just as they assist students in making academic choices. More independent students also may be unaware of opportunities or overwhelmed by the variety of options available on a large university campus. As we help students sort through their options, together we design a set of out-of-class activities that are both meaningful and useful in assisting them to pursue their personal and professional goals. In this panel, four experienced academic advisors will discuss the ways they work with students from freshman through senior year (and beyond) to support the creation of a balanced set of out-of-class experiences tailored to individual student needs while also promoting civic and institutional student engagement. Some of the topics discussed include: implementing special interest groups for students, encouraging activities to explore a variety of majors and careers, participating in registered student organizations with both academic and social emphases, and using technology including social media.

Connecting Children to Elders Through Storytelling and Music

Kimberly McCord, School of Music

One of the challenges of redesigned courses is to encourage mostly white, suburban students to develop positive attitudes toward teaching in urban schools. One of the goals of my course is to help students learn to connect better with children and their families. Many families, and in particular Mexican families in Little Village in Chicago, have rich heritages of music. My students collected stories from elders in their family or community and shared the stories with the class through transcripts and video recordings. My students interviewed elders about their pasts and important times when music was a part of their life experiences. Collecting stories was a powerful way to train young pre-service teachers to better connect with the families and communities of their students.

Curriculum across the Curriculum: Using Intro-to-Major and Capstone Courses for Curriculum Integration

John Baldwin, School of Communication; Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication; Stephen Perry, School of Communication; Elizabeth Chupp, School of Communication

Assessment data for the School of Communication (SOC) suggested that alumni in some programs did not always perceive a clear connection between course curriculum and their lives and careers after graduation. So, the SOC developed courses to introduce and conclude these majors. In this panel, speakers from two programs, communication studies and mass media, and the director of advisement present the methods these courses utilize to weave the undergraduate experiences of our students together in a way that anticipates and looks back to various educational opportunities for a more holistic undergraduate experience. These exercises highlight the intersections of extra-curricular involvement, civic engagement, international study, and field experiences (internships) as part of a holistic education. We introduce the philosophy and exercises used in intro-to-major courses in which students imagine a skill set pertinent to job selection and then choose among course electives, student organizations, and internships to anticipate how to develop those skills. Then we consider how the writing and presentation of theory assignments in the capstones allow students in the majors to explore what different courses have done to help them learn and prepare for the job market or graduate school. Finally, we examine these courses for program assessment.

Developing Professional Behaviors Before the Off Campus Experience

Beverly Barham, Department of Health Sciences

A common requirement in many degree programs includes an off-campus student experience. While this experience may be referred to by a variety of different terms, the commonality across the disciplines is that this experience puts students into an off-campus professional setting before they graduate. It is imperative that students be prepared to meet the expectations of this experience, not only in discipline-specific content areas but in their professional behaviors as well. Often, students are required to attend informational and pre-professional practice meetings as part of the preparation for the experience outside of the classroom. Relying on the pre-professional practice meetings as the primary source of information for professional behaviors may not provide enough foundation for students to be confident in their professional behaviors and responses during the off-campus experience. This session addresses a variety of different and effective strategies used by the Medical Laboratory Science Program that can be easily implemented into most pre-professional courses to better prepare students to meet the expectations for professional behaviors in their off-campus experiences.

Does Professional Work Experience of Faculty in Applied Disciplines Influence Teaching or Student Learning?

Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

Additional Materials

Does Professional Work Experience of Faculty in Applied Disciplines Influence Teaching or Student Learning?

If faculty in applied disciplines had worked professionally in the field, would students in their classes be taught or report learning in the same way as in classes where the faculty had no work experience? Is practical experience necessary in order to educate students for careers in more applied fields of study? This session will share the results of a yearlong research study of 4 applied majors (criminal justice, marketing, nursing, and social work), conducted in 15 different undergraduate classrooms on 7 college campuses. There are interesting findings about differences in teaching methods and what students reported learning in classrooms where faculty had worked professionally in their fields compared to those who did not have professional work experience in the discipline. The presentation will briefly explain the research study and findings, then allow participants to share ideas about implications of this research to their teaching methods and student learning in their classrooms.

Lessons Learned about Using iPads in the Classroom

Tamra Davis, Department of Marketing

Additional Materials

Lessons Learned about Using iPads in the Classroom

Have you noticed the number of students bringing iPads or other smart devices to your classroom? Do your students appear to interact with their devices more than they interact with you? Do you want to engage your students using this technology tool? As teachers, we all know that the more our students interact with the materials, the more they will remember. Allowing that interaction to be conducted with a tool they use daily may enhance their longterm retention of the materials. This session will offer some lessons learned about using iPads in the classroom, examine student perspectives regarding technology in the classroom, and provide an introduction to some of the best apps available from both the student and teacher perspectives. Bring your iPad and join the fun! Please download the app NEARPOD to actively engage in this session.

‘Oh for Fox Sake!!’: Incorporating Political Satire and Fake News in the Classroom

Chad Woolard, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

Humor has long been seen as a positive trait for instructors, but the use of humorous video has received less attention. This session will explore the benefits of and ways in which political satire and fake news can be used in the classroom to enhance student learning, providing both entertainment and critical media literacy to students. In the political realm, many scholars are beginning to look at the very powerful connection between humorous media and viewers’ political engagement, suggesting that humorous media can actually facilitate students’ engagement. Humor can be an effective pedagogy for civic engagement instruction, as a technique to foster a good and open communication environment where students feel comfortable to speak about politics, and incorporating political satire through media is also an effective method of teaching actual content and fostering critical thinking.

Oh, Say Can You See: Lessons From Paolo Freire

Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, School of Music

How do you make a world music class appealing to young American students who 1) listen to mostly rap, rock, classical, jazz, and country music and 2) could not care less about a general education class? How do you teach this group of students, the Hip- Hop generation, how to appreciate the “strange” musics of the Other? In this presentation, I will share insights gained from a Paolo Freire-type approach that I employed in all my music classes (World Music, Black Music, Non-Western Literature) this semester. The purpose of the method is to help develop students’ abilities to understand, appreciate, and speak articulately about how people from different world societies use music to define themselves. Participants will play a game, sing, and dance.

Student Agency in Fostering Social Media Relationships: How Students Choose to Promote Their Creative Writing Online

Ryan Edel, Department of English

Additional Materials

Student Agency in Fostering Social Media Relationships

Digital technologies demand that students learn to establish relationships across a variety of digital venues. Yet the concept of the “digital native” fails to account for the fact that most students are only familiar with a limited number of online technologies and that traditional pedagogies fail to provide students with a critical understanding of how their usage habits affect their online relationships. This presentation discusses how students in English 247.02 have chosen to use social media to promote their creative writing to audiences outside the classroom. We’ll consider to what degree their individual decisions were shaped by previous experiences as opposed to insights learned during the course and then how the outside interactions motivated students independently of the grading criteria for the course. The goal for the course has been to help students see their classmates as a cross-section of available audiences, determine the attitudes and habits of likely readers, and then choose the degree to which social media can help them position their works for ongoing audience feedback and potential publication.

Student Free Speech at Illinois State University: A Digital Documentary Exploring Student Speech Acts and Student Learning

Maria A. Moore, School of Communication; Celsy Martindale, School of Communication; Nick Pacotti, School of Communication

As an undergraduate research project, student scholars reviewed pertinent case law on campus free speech rights and documented ISU students’ free speech acts. The documentary explored students’ self awareness, understanding of diversity, understanding of democracy, ability to think critically about social issues, and ideas about the integration of free speech into coursework and campus life. This presentation will exhibit the documentary and include a short discussion session with the producers.

Teaching and Learning Across Contexts: How “Get Involved” Extends the Classroom Experience

Thomas Lamonica, School of Communication

One of the greatest things about a twenty-first-century university is the array of options and opportunities outside the classroom it offers that can enhance learning, build networking, and promote professionalism for students while also opening doors to civic engagement opportunities on campus and beyond. The “Get Involved” project (inspired by undergraduate teaching assistant Carolyn Buglio Blashek in 2006) encourages students to join pre-professional and civic engagement organizations on campus. In the process, they experience the value of organizational business meetings, implement the foundational principles of public relations practice, and enhance their writing skills by producing a short paper. Our class, Introduction to Public Relations, is a 100-level hybrid course with 180 students from 25 different majors (less than 1/3 are public relations majors). The course is led by 3 teaching assistants and the instructor. Because students select and propose the organization with which they want to “get involved,” the assignment allows students to select an organization that matches their interests, furthers their career goals, and, best of all, encourages them to “get involved” on our campus. This session explains the process and engages participants in planning their own “get involved” projects for their introductory-level students or general education courses, providing students with ongoing opportunities for growth and development outside the classroom and within our campus community.

Withstanding the Test of Time: Enduring Lessons from a Course and its Diverse Field Experience

Lucille Eckrich, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations; Stefanie (Blacksmith) Evans

One guiding question that participants of CTLT’s “Reinvent Your Course” workshops are asked to answer is, “Five years after students leave your course, what should they remember or be able to do?” (Fredstrom, 2012). Five and a half years after the former student (elementary education) graduated from ISU and eight years after she took the course (Social Foundations of Education), this presentation shares findings from a dialogical study between the alumna and professor to uncover what, if anything, the former knows, does, and aspires to because of what she learned through the course and its diverse field experience in Chicago. Through asking each other probing questions about lessons intentionally or unintentionally taught or learned in that course, insights about what in university courses matters most and least for students in the long run are sought. Findings from these dialogical data are shared at the symposium in a creative and/or dialogical way by both the former student and her professor, with time to spare for inquiries from and to the audience. Having heard one story and identified components of their own courses that greatly influenced them, participants will leave inspired to focus on those key influencers in their current and future classes.

Action, Discussion & Blogs, Oh My! What Happened when I Flipped My Course

George Peterson-Karlan, Department of Special Education

Additional Materials

Action, Discussion & Blogs, Oh My - After the Flip

Considerable recent attention has been paid to the concept of the “flipped classroom” in which the traditional lecture presentation is removed from classroom time, information content is presented during non-classroom time through a variety of media (e.g., video lecture, expert talk, interactive e-text), and classroom time is devoted to engaging, active learning tasks, including project-based learning, small group discussion and debate, and even doing “homework” in class. This session will provide participants with one professor’s journey into the development and evolution of a hybrid “flipped classroom” redesign of a course in which the primary goal is to help future teachers understand the role of instructional and assistive technologies in the education of students with disabilities. It focuses on the reasons to flip the course, the design concepts used to develop the flipped content and its course delivery site, the assessment of the flipped part of the learning process, and the design of the in-class learning activities and projects. Special attention is paid to this last part of the design and implementation process to answer the question: “My gosh, now that I am not lecturing, what do I do? (And why!)”

Beyond the Classroom: Student Learning and Engagement in Diverse, Out-of-Class Settings

Gary Creasey, Department of Psychology; Alycia Hund, Department of Psychology; Patrica Jarvis, Department of Psychology; Rocio Rivadeneyra, Department of Psychology

It has been theorized that student learning and intellectual growth concerning urban education can be greatly stimulated by out-of-class experiences that support class content. In this panel session, faculty share their authentic experiences (ranging from urban-based field experiences to mentorship programs) and data that document student learning and engagement. In particular, the development of “soft skills,” such as self-efficacy, relationship building, social justice awareness, and project management, will be highlighted. To reinforce the presentation of data and results, college students who participated in these experiences will reflect on these activities. In particular, they will discuss how the activities reinforced course content as well as their own identity development. There will be time allotted for a broader discussion with the audience to field their comments, as well as to add to the dialogue about the types of activities that they offer in their courses and internship experiences.

How I Redesigned My Course for Global Engagement

Maria Schmeeckle, Department of Sociology/Anthropology; Brian Horn, School of Teaching and Learning; Do-Yong Park, School of Teaching and Learning; Archana Shekara, School of Art; Julie McGaha, School of Teaching and Learning

Goal 2 of the Educating Illinois Strategic Plan 2013-2018 is to “provide rigorous, innovative, and high-impact undergraduate and graduate programs that prepare students to excel in a globally competitive, culturally diverse, and changing environment.” Momentum in this direction is building with the development of ISU’s International Strategic Plan and other new initiatives across campus. In 2013, the Office of the Provost supported a workshop, offered through the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, called “Reinvent Your Course for Global Engagement.” Eight participants redesigned one of their courses to be taught during the 2013- 2014 school year. In this panel, four of these faculty members share how they redesigned their courses, what they noticed about student learning and their own while teaching these courses, and what future plans they have for globalizing their courses.

In the Classroom and Beyond: Assessing Where Learning Takes Place

Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations; Kaitlin Ballard, Office of Residential Life, Illinois Wesleyan University; Ramo Stott, Dean of Students; Catherine Poffebarger, Office of the Provost

Additional Materials

In the Classroom and Beyond: Assessing Where Learning Takes Place

Using the ACPA/NASPA Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners (2010) as a framework, we developed a survey instrument and interview process to assess learning in student affairs graduate programs. We will introduce our research and then explain the process of developing the instrument and interview protocol. Participants will take a mini-assessment so they can better understand the competencies involved in this research. Our goal is to help the participants understand how to use and modify our assessment within their departments. We will briefly discuss our results, focusing on where students reported their learning takes place, both inside and outside the classroom. We will end the session with discussion about the process and possible ways departments could use this same model to assess learning in their programs.

Large Classes with Writing Assignments Does Not Have to be Exhausting

Mary Hollywood, Department of History

Students are easily lost in a large lecture class. Many large classes are limited to few if any writing assignments and rely instead on multiple readings and short quizzes or discussions. However, students may walk away from the class at the end of the semester wondering, “Did I learn anything new? Was this class beneficial?” Large lecture classes do not have to be devoid of writing or reading and can successfully merge these two while also engaging the students in outside research. Writing assignments in large classes can incorporate different types of writing, like comprehension-based writing and analytical writing, in a short paper and a larger research-based assignment. This presentation will show how to integrate these writing assignments into large lecture classes without overburdening your grading schedule. The system described in this presentation will outline a way to not only use writing as a teaching tool but also as a way to get to know your students better.

Learning Outside The Classroom: A Residence Life Perspective

Clarissa Brookins, University Housing Services

Research shows that students who live in residence halls are significantly more satisfied with their college experience than those who do not live on campus. They are also more likely to persist and graduate from college. These are only a few of the documented benefits to living on campus. There are many ways University Housing Services (UHS) staff work to achieve these benefits. Programming within the residence halls is one of the ways we engage our residents. Through our R.E.D.B.I.R.D.S. programming model, our staff have the opportunity to teach outside of the classroom and our residents have the opportunity to learn where they live. In this model, we strive to continually expose our residents to moments of learning. This model covers dimensions such as diversity, responsibility, school spirit, and education. This session provides more information about the programming model. Also, specific programs from each dimension and student responses to them are shared.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a Vehicle for Faculty and Departmental Advancement

Jennifer Friberg, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders; Anu Gokhale, Department of Technology; Maria Moore, School of Communication

Additional Materials

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a Vehicle for Faculty and Departmental Advancement

This session was designed by the Cross Chair for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and the 2013-14 SoTL Scholar-Mentors to inform and engage campus administrators about SoTL. Specifically, this panel will address the following topics: the definition and nature of SoTL at ISU, SoTL and Educating Illinois, SoTL as scholarly research, ISU resources and initiatives supporting SoTL, and the value of SoTL for faculty and administration (e.g., tenure/promotion, program review). Participants will be eligible for a SoTL book raffle.

Students as Community Members, Students as Self-Educators

Joseph Matson, School of Music

During the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology’s 2013 Teaching and Learning Symposium, keynote speaker Michael Wesch identified two techniques that foster active learning and community engagement in his anthropology courses: allowing students to manage some of the course content (through wikis) and assigning course work that necessitates engagement with other members of the community. I applied these two techniques to a music course at Illinois State University in the fall of 2013. This presentation explains how I adapted Wesch’s model to a different subject, shares the qualitative results of my experience, and explores ways to improve the model in future courses. As a group, students in my course selected approximately one third of the semester’s course content; each student gave at least one in-class presentation, during which he or she was the professor; and each student attended at least one outside-of-class event, during which she or he actively engaged with her or his community. After one of my students self-evaluated her presentation by saying, “I feel better about this presentation than about any presentation I’ve given in my entire life,” I knew I would use these techniques again.

Themed Living Learning Communities: Facilitating Connections Outside of the Classroom

Bridget Reeland, University Housing Services; David Jaeger, University Housing Services

Additional Materials

Teaching & Learning Across Contexts: Engaging Students In and Beyond the Classroom

Whether interest-based, co-curricular, or major-themed, Living-Learning Communities have long supported the goals of learning outside of the classroom in a uniquely engaging way. Living-Learning Communities provide a distinctive atmosphere for residents who share common interests and cultivate an environment that supports personal growth through academic, vocational, and social programming. For many students, living in a community with 45 other people who share similar coursework, career goals, life goals, or simply personality traits can be a powerful jumping-off point for discourse and learning. Utilizing faculty members as mentors also provides students with guidance from accomplished professionals in their areas of interest. This session shares research on the benefits of Living-Learning Communities, discusses the history of these environments at Illinois State University, and presents successes of these partnerships.

To MOOC or Not To MOOC

Mark Walbert, Office of Academic Technologies

Additional Materials

To MOOC or Not to MOOC?

Although Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) began life as early as 2008, they have been in the news almost daily since 2011 when two Stanford University professors offered a computer science course online to 160,000 students. Much has been written about the transformational potential of this format to increase access to higher education worldwide. Much has also been written about how widespread adoption of MOOCs will mean the end of brick and mortar universities and their faculty. This session will provide some background on MOOCs, give an update on the many changes that have occurred to the market for MOOCs since 2011, foster a discussion of the pros and cons of the format, and will attempt to peer into the future to predict what will happen to this technology-enabled format for teaching and learning.

Connecting Community and Curriculum - An Immersive Method to Student Development

Dakota Pawlicki, College of Education; Dahriian Espinoza, Enlace Chicago; Silvia Castillo, College of Education; Taaj Sims, Elementary Education; Brent Showalter, Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline

Many new graduates entering the field in urban classrooms have difficulty understanding the needs of diverse student populations and are not equipped with the skills necessary for success as they begin their teaching careers. In recent years, teacher education institutions have been attacked for failing to adequately prepare teachers for future success, especially in urban schools. University teacher education programs can adapt to fill this need, and programs designed to empower pre-service teachers with the specialized skills needed to succeed in urban schools can positively impact urban teaching performance, commitment, and, ultimately, retention. In bridging this cultural divide between teachers and students, the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline has initiated efforts to intensively prepare pre-service teachers for urban schools through multicultural and social justice curricula, clinical experiences, and contextual cultural immersion. STEP-UP, a four-week summer immersion program, introduces teachers to the social and economic realities of the their students’ lives, a key component of a successful teacher education program (Cho & DeCastro-Ambrosetti, 2006). Through this programming, undergraduate education majors study how their role as a future teacher fits together with the social, cultural, and educational landscape of the school community. This session gives voice to the many stakeholders integral in the creation of this new generation of teachers, including community members, host families, alumni, and current students. Through an interactive discussion, this panel unpacks the best practices, theoretical framework, and transferable lessons learned, leading to the adoption of this immersive model across the university.

Examination of a Multi-Source Method for Evaluating Effective University Teaching

Adrian Lyde, Department of Health Sciences; Chris Grieshaber, Department of Health Sciences; George Byrns, Department of Health Sciences

Decades of measurement of the quality and accountability of teaching effectiveness in higher education exist. Still, the questions of what “effective” means and how it is measured continue to challenge college and university faculty and administrators. The purpose of this session is to present results from a qualitative study to understand ISU Health Science faculty’s perceptions of their academic department’s multi-source method for annually evaluating teaching effectiveness. The method: 1) is one of four components of the Annual Performance Review process for faculty; 2) uses three primary data sources: student evaluations, external reviews, and a portfolio prepared by faculty describing attributes of their own teaching, including reflection on student evaluation data and external reviews, a teaching philosophy, and a professional development plan; 3) provides a summative score that is used for salary, promotion, and tenure decisions; and 4) has, as noted in the intent statement of the Department of Health Sciences Annual Performance Review process document, a principal purpose to “facilitate growth and professional development.” Primary data will be presented regarding faculty support and opposition to the multi-source method assessment process/ tool, beliefs about whether it serves as an effective developmental mechanism, and possible alternative solutions.

Gaming and Play: Case Studies for Engaging Students in Design

Neil Ward, School of Art

In his 2006 book, How the Brain Learns, David Sousa points out that when we learn by doing we retain 75% of the information after a 24-hour period versus only 5% retention when we learn through lecture. These results show that the best way to increase student learning and retention comes from creating a learning environment that focuses on practice by doing. The innovation comes from creating a hands-on learning environment that incorporates a gaming mindset and play. This session will reference two case studies that use play and gaming theory to facilitate learning objectives. Both case studies are from foundation-level studio art courses and will
address gaming theory, learning objectives, student interaction, and learning outcomes.

Get Into My Ball Pit: Incorporating Purpose and Meaning into your Teaching

Jim Almeda, Health Promotion and Wellness; Susan Ryder, Campus Religious Center; Jose Marroquin, University Housing Services

Additional Materials

Peace of Mind
Spirituality Articles and Reports List

National research (Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, 2010) demonstrates that students who understand the purpose and meaning of their lives are more academically focused, more satisfied with their college experience, and less stressed than their peers. Illinois State University 2010 NSSE data indicates that more than 2/3 of ISU first year as well as senior students have not participated in any activities to enhance their spirituality. Likewise, the 2011 ISU FSSE data reveals that more than 3/4 of faculty are not incorporating spirituality into their course sections. Our session will explore techniques, such as self-reflection, that faculty can use to incorporate ideas of purpose and meaning into their coursework. By assisting students to enhance their spirituality, we will increase awareness of their roles as global citizens to address social justice issues and also assist in the development of life skills to improve resiliency in the constantly changing world in which they live.

How Students Engage In and Out of the Classroom: Results from the 2013 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

Derek Herrmann, University Assessment; Ryan Smith, University Assessment

Additional Materials

How Students Engage In and Out of the Classroom: Results from the 2013 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

This session is designed for anyone who would like to learn more about ISU students’ levels of engagement in and out of the classroom. Student engagement can be broadly defined as the processes that support learning, and several surveys of student engagement are administered at hundreds of colleges and universities every year by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. During the spring 2013 semester, University Assessment Services coordinated the administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to first-year and senior students at ISU. This survey asks students to report on their academic and co-curricular engagement during the current academic year, as well as information about the nature and quality of their educational experiences. Many of the NSSE items can be combined into one of ten engagement indicators, and the scores on these will be examined, as well as some of the survey items that compose them, to determine in which areas students are more and less engaged. Session attendees will receive an overview of the 2013 NSSE results that they can use in their interactions with students here at ISU.

Making Connections: Pirate Style

Yvette Evans, Department of Special Education

As educators, we know the importance of reaching our students, promoting student self-initiative, motivation, and academic success. This presentation incorporates techniques described in the book Drive, by Daniel Pink. He presents key components for reform in the workplace and education to promote individual success. His techniques incorporate brain-based learning that aligns with Universal Design. In addition, I address components from Teach Like a Pirate by David Burgess. Burgess is another creative engineer in the field of education and describes essential hooks for “Pirates” to use in our classrooms. This presentation outlines strategies used to address the importance of student engagement. Included are: using TED Talks as a vehicle to disseminate relevant information, beginning classes with humor to increase serotonin and to decrease anxiety, applying relaxation techniques before exams, utilizing organization techniques, and working with memory-based strategies. By incorporating a few of these techniques into our teaching practice, we will be able to supply students with tools to succeed in the classroom and, more importantly, in life. Come and enjoy being a “Pirate!”

Next Steps for General Education

Jonathan Rosenthal, Office of the Provost

Additional Materials

Next Steps for General Education

How will the revised General Education program be implemented in fall 2014? As an instructor in a Gen Ed course, will my life be irrevocably altered? What are the opportunities to engage with colleagues to find out more about the broader context for my course in the Gen Ed curriculum? How will student learning outcomes be assessed? Answers to these questions (and yours) will be found in this session designed for faculty teaching in General Education.

Reinvent Your Course for Civic Engagement: Faculty Experiences and Perspectives

Noha Shawki, Department of Politics and Government; Winfred Avogo, Department of Sociology/Anthropology; Gina Hunter, Department of Sociology/Anthropology; Wendy VanderNoordaa, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences; Julian Westerhout, Department of Politics and Government

This panel is designed to share the experiences of five ISU faculty who completed the “Reinvent your Course” program with an emphasis on civic engagement. Panelists will share some thoughts, reflections, and experiences pertaining to the process of reinventing their courses and to the teaching and learning outcomes of the reinvented courses. The panel will be structured around a set of questions, and each panelist will provide their perspective on each question. These questions include: What are the two most important things you took away from the redesign process? What would be your advice to faculty members who are considering redesigning a course for civic engagement? What are two important changes you made in your course as a result of the redesign experience? What were two redesigned elements of your course that you believe were especially conducive to student learning and to promoting civic engagement? By addressing some of these questions, panelists hope to engage attendees in a conversation about incorporating civic engagement into existing courses and about best practices and successful strategies for teaching with an emphasis on civic engagement.

A New Look at Honors Designated Courses

Tim Fredstrom, Honors Program; Allison Alcorn, School of Music

Honors-designated sections are an important way we teach Honors students at Illinois State University. To help Honors students get the most from their learning in Honors sections, it is important that the content and structure of these sections be differentiated to meet their unique learning needs. An effective Honors section is not simply assigning more problems to solve, more pages to read, or a longer paper to write. An effective Honors section helps students learn content deeply and make connections beyond the course itself. In this session, you will learn ways to differentiate the course content so that it is both rigorous and compelling, ways to differentiate the learning process students undertake to master the content that increases their engagement and investment in the course, and ways to differentiate the assignments, projects, papers, and exams used in the course so they both promote and assess deep learning.

Creating an Inclusive Culture for Traditionally Marginalized Groups in Academic Departments

Janet Wilson, School of Theatre and Dance; Ann Haugo, School of Theatre and Dance; Wendy Troxel, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations; Beth Hatt, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations; Diane Zosky, School of Social Work; Alison Bailey, Women’s and Gender Studies

This panel presentation will address building inclusive, respectful, and welcoming environments within academic departments, especially for traditionally marginalized groups such as people of color, the LGBTQ community, women, and people with disabilities. The culture of a department impacts students and faculty in the classroom and extends far beyond through co-curricular and off-campus events. This culture also corresponds with successful recruitment and retention of students, staff, and faculty from marginalized groups at the university. Each of the presenters will discuss challenges faced by their academic departments and how they have attempted to respond to them. The issues that these academic departments have grappled with provide examples of teachable moments that, when proactively and directly addressed, have the potential to motivate significant change and transform students, faculty/staff, and the academy. After the panelists’ presentations, there will be time for dialogue with the attendees about experiences in their academic units. Those attending this session will also gain an opportunity to discuss issues of diversity and inclusion on campus and brainstorm strategies for how to better build an inclusive and welcoming environment on campus.

Cross-campus Perspectives Along the Pipeline and into the Urban Classroom Part 1

Jim Pancrazio, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Monica Noraian, Department of History; Judith Briggs, School of Art; Elisha Swanson, Department of Chemistry

Results from longitudinal studies suggest the urban Course Development Grant (CDG) offered by the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline can play a positive and significant role in developing attitudes and encourage students’ engagement with urban schools and communities. Starting in 2006, under the federally funded PARTNER Project, the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline worked with ISU faculty to redesign courses to better prepare teacher candidates for the realities of urban schools. During the period of 2006-2009, faculty in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Fine Arts redesigned their existing courses to create coursework that would be juxtaposed contextually to the needs, assets, challenges, and issues of Little Village, our first Chicago partner community. In this session, panelists will share examples of how their course was redesigned and the relative impact on the future teachers’ identity development. As selected faculty represent the “first generation” of courses redesigned, many of their former students continued along the “pipeline” and are now teaching in Chicago Public Schools. Alumni will present alongside their former professors to share ways in which the redesigned course impacted their individual trajectories to teach in Chicago as well as reflections on their respective teacher preparation at Illinois State.

Cultivating Learning through Gardening

Julie Schumacher, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences; Kevin Pietro, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Students involved with gardens become aware of their environment while also gaining knowledge about gardening, food, and nutrition. The graduate Nutrition students at Illinois State University received funding from the McLean County Wellness Coalition to develop a community garden at a local church. The students learned practical knowledge and skills that are otherwise difficult to learn in a traditional classroom setting. The produce was used in cooking demonstrations, which provided opportunities to practice presentation skills. The majority of the produce was donated to the Baby Fold in Normal. The undergraduate Nutrition students developed a second garden with collaboration from Campus Dining Services and the Office of Sustainability. These students used this on-campus garden to provide local food to Campus Dining, which was featured at Marketplace at Linkins Dining Center, and to educate children from the ISU Childcare Center through exposure to and promotion of fresh vegetables. This presentation focuses on our role as faculty in cultivating community opportunities to enhance student learning, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, through gardening.

From Ideation to Discovery, Part I: Early Stages of Measuring Changes in Student Learning with SoTL

Karen Stipp, School of Social Work; Kate Sheridan, School of Social Work; Christopher Hansen, School of Teaching and Learning

This panel focuses on the initial stages of developing potential Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects to study the developmental and learning outcomes of ISU students. Panelists discuss progress of their work and challenges in clarifying the research question, proposing the project, and designing the study. Panelists will update participants about their projects and explain how this activity has become integrated into their scholarly research agenda. Their experiences should provide ideas for colleagues also wishing to develop SoTL projects. Hansen will discuss his interest in redesigning a pre-clinical literacy course and using multiple approaches to studying its effects on pre-service undergraduate students and elementary classroom teachers. Sheridan and Stipp will share their joint efforts to examine transfer of learning from a junior year assignment in Social Work Research to the senior year Field Practicum. They will present results of a preliminary study that they will use in their SoTL grant application which asked graduating seniors about ways the agency-based research proposal assignment prepared them to find, develop, or use data for measuring agency outcomes in their field practicums.

Online Course Showcase: Faculty Accomplishments from Design a Quality Online Course 2013

May Jadallah, School of Teaching and Learning; Marcena Gabrielson, Mennonite College of Nursing; Eric Wesselmann, Department of Psychology; Rick Valentin, School of Art; Bill McBride, Department of English

Participants from the Design a Quality Online Course 2013 workshop series share their ideas on online course design and teaching in this presentation. The Design a Quality Online Course workshop series completed its fifth round this year, and the participants have acquired knowledge and skills to design a quality online course that provides both you and your students the best opportunity for a successful and rewarding learning experience. The courses showcased in this session represent outstanding examples of effective online course design and provide excellent models for the rest of the campus.

Taking Learning on the Road: Field Trips and the Humanities

Kathryn Jasper, Department of History; Lea Cline, School of Art; Vanessa Schulman, School of Art

Educational reformer and philosopher John Dewey once wrote that “education is life,” suggesting that what students learn and the way they learn should be rooted in experience. Experiential education, and its application in experiential learning, provides a model for education that privileges experience and engagement with the environment, society, and practitioners. But, while this “hands-on” approach to learning has long been recognized as an important pedagogical strategy for teaching the sciences, this approach is not often applied in the humanities. This presentation discusses how on-site learning can add another dimension to teaching history and fine arts. By incorporating outside visits into the curriculum of our art history and history courses, we offer an opportunity to recreate the practices of these disciplines. Excursions to Chicago institutions, such as the Art Institute and the Newberry Library, enable students to make contact directly with a monument or a manuscript. In museums and archives, students are introduced to history and art history as academic disciplines and can practice the basic skills required by those disciplines, namely the evaluation and interpretation of primary evidence. Interdisciplinary teaching represents a growing trend in teaching the humanities, and reading objects allows students to draw at once on historical and art historical approaches. Monuments can be studied from multiple perspectives, as visual objects and historical texts. This manner of interrogating artifacts allows for a particularly rich interpretation.

Teaching Strategies for Promoting Civic Engagement

Noha Shawki, Department of Politics and Government; Dawn Beichner, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences; Robert Bradley, Department of Politics and Government; Patricia Jarvis, Department of Psychology

Service learning is a well-established way to promote civic engagement and responsibility among college students. However, beyond service learning, what are some of the other methods and teaching strategies that we can use to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and outlooks that are needed for civic engagement, community involvement, and meaningful political engagement and participation? Members of this panel, who are faculty from different departments, will share some teaching strategies and learning activities that they have used in one or more of their classes. They will present the learning goals they set for their classes, explain how the teaching and learning strategies they use were designed to further these goals, and share thoughts and reflections on the ways in which they believe their courses have contributed to civic engagement among their students. Panelists hope to engage attendees in a conversation about the many different teaching strategies, activities, and assignments that can help advance ISU’s commitment to civic engagement and the ways in which attendees can adapt the same teaching strategies panelists have used by tailoring them to their own classes.

Tips for Facilitating Effective In-Course Honors Contracts

Tim Fredstrom, Honors Program; Amy Oberts, Honors Program

Each semester, Illinois State University Honors students complete over 400 In-Course Honors Contracts in order to earn Honors credit in a regular course section. The intent of an Honors Contract is to promote greater depth and rigor for Honors students as they explore topics related to the course in conjunction with their personal interests. The purpose of this session is to equip faculty members with tools to guide students through the construction of meaningful Honors Contract experiences. In this session, examples of exceptional Honors Contracts will be shared, as well as strategies to help students focus and execute their projects. Participants will leave this session with resources and ideas that can be used the next time an Honors student asks to complete an In-Course Honors Contract.

Archiving for Posterity: Student Research on Local Topics

Michael Sublett, Department of Geography/Geology; Cody Doran, Department of Geography/Geology; William Kemp, McLean County Museum of History

Additional Materials

Archiving for Posterity: Student Research on Local Topics

Student research papers, especially those of undergraduates, often end up in the recycling bin or bedroom closet at the end of the semester, never again to see the light of day. Efforts to encourage students to present publicly or publish their work yield some success, but most students will just take their grade on the paper and move on to the next course or graduation. This panel discussion highlights an alternative destination for such papers, focusing on the assignments of one Illinois State professor. That alternative destination is the archives of the McLean County Museum of History, an award-winning Bloomington institution that welcomes suitable local area research papers, no matter what the discipline. Among the panelists are (1) the professor who has been saving decades of student papers for delivery to the Museum; (2) a recently graduated student of the professor who will have four of his papers among those delivered to the Museum; and (3) the Museum’s archivist who will receive, process, index, and make this collection available to the public for in-house viewing.

Best Practices in Service Learning

Noha Shawki, Department of Politics and Government; Joan Brehm, Department of Sociology/Anthropology; Deborah Gentry, Instructional Development Center,
Heartland Community College; Deborah Halperin, Action Research Center, Illinois Wesleyan University; Dakota Pawlicki, College of Education

This panel discusses best practices for service leaning and for partnerships between faculty, students, and community agencies. Panelists, who have substantial experience with service learning, will share their experiences and perspectives with attendees. Some of the questions around which panelists’ comments and the discussion will be organized include: How can partnerships between faculty, staff, students, and community organizations be designed to meet the learning goals of faculty and students and the needs of community agencies? How can service learning projects be best designed jointly by faculty, students, and community organizations? What are some of the lessons you have drawn from your partnerships? What are the three most important pieces of advice you would share with faculty who are considering doing service learning projects in their classes? What would you do differently in future partnerships? This panel is designed as an opportunity to think about best practices in developing campus-community partnerships and to engage attendees in a discussion about how such partnerships could be designed to enhance student learning and at the same time contribute to the work and the missions of community partners.

Cross-campus Perspectives Along the Pipeline and into the Urban Classroom, Part 2

Ellis Hurd, School of Teaching and Learning; Brian Horn,School of Teaching and Learning; Mark Zablocki, Department of Special Education; Lucille Eckrich, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

Results from longitudinal studies suggest the urban Course Development Grant (CDG) offered by the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline can play a positive and significant role in developing attitudes and encourage students’ engagement with urban schools and communities. Starting in 2009, and with the federally funded TEACHER+PLUS Project, the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline continued to work with ISU faculty to redesign courses in an effort to better prepare teacher candidates for the realities of urban schools. During the period of 2010-present, faculty in the College of Education, among others, redeveloped their existing courses so that the content of their coursework would be juxtaposed contextually to the needs, assets, challenges, and issues of our partner Chicago communities. New service-learning projects identified by community-based partners would make way for changing passive classroom observations to highly-engaged clinical experiences that also divided time between in-class and out of school, community-centric learning in Little Village, Auburn-Gresham, and Albany Park, the three Chicago neighborhoods with which the Pipeline now works. These courses, along with others that were redesigned before and after, continue to provide the foundation for building an effective urban teacher preparation strand now recognized and approved for an Urban Teacher Preparation sequence under the Civic Engagement & Responsibility minor and the Urban Studies minor at ISU. Panelists will share examples of how their course was redesigned and how they created “space” for pre-service teachers to develop asset-based paradigms for assessing and interacting with communities.

From Ideation to Discovery, Part 2: Latter Stages of Measuring Changes in Student Learning with SoTL

Michaelene Cox, Department of Politics and Government; Jeffrey L. Courtright, School of Communication; Nicholas Hartlep, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

This panel presents challenges to and progress made in three research projects recently funded by the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant program that focused on data collection, data management, and analysis. Featured are systematic, evidence-based studies of teaching and learning to study the developmental and learning outcomes of ISU students. Panelists will update participants about their projects and explain how this activity has become integrated into their scholarly research agenda. Their experiences should provide ideas for colleagues who also wish to develop SoTL projects. Courtright will discuss his efforts to examine changes in student worldviews and intercultural communication competence after exposure to case studies and environmental issues raised in three communication courses. Cox will present her project to explore pedagogical merits of student research, scholarship, and creative conference presentation, with an emphasis on faculty mentoring strategies and student experiences at the annual poster research symposium coordinated by the ISU Graduate School. Hartlep will discuss his efforts to improve K-12 teacher education by re-designing course activities such as journaling, completing surveys, and other assignments, with an eye toward best affecting and enhancing student affective and dispositional attitudes.

Integrated Learning & Assessment in ISULeads Leadership Certificate Program

Erin Thomas, Dean of Students Office; Kyle Rindfleisch, Dean of Students; Mikey McGovern, Dean of Students; LaVance Walker, Dean of Students

Additional Materials

Leadership and Service

The ISULeads Leadership Certificate Program is a comprehensive leadership program, offering students a structure for personalizing their college experience to develop as strong leaders and engaged citizens. ISULeads incorporates learning from curricular and co-curricular campus and community experiences into three pillars: civic engagement, global perspectives, and leadership. During this session, you’ll learn about ISULeads, how individualized learning is integrated into all aspects of the program, and how formative assessment drives student learning. In addition, you’ll hear directly from students and mentors involved in the program as they share reflections and perspectives about their experiences and learning. Student panelists will share how their experiences within ISULeads complement their coursework, help shape their college experience, and prepare them for life after ISU. Some summative assessment data on the program will also be highlighted. The session will conclude with time for discussion and ways ISULeads can further be integrated into campus life.

Learning and Community in Graduate Education: What Fosters and What Obstructs Student Success

Diane Dean, Department of Educational Administration

The literature on undergraduate teaching, learning, and student success is more voluminous than that on graduate education. This presentation describes the results of a meta-analysis of research and literature on what fosters and what obstructs learning, community, and student success in graduate education. The analysis includes considerations such as (but not limited to) curriculum, pedagogies and instructional delivery modes, co-curricular experiences, advising and mentoring, professional socialization and development, and organizational culture. The analysis was used to develop a survey instrument and interview protocol for assessing student and faculty perceptions of learning and community in graduate programs, currently being pilot tested. In this session, we will review the results of the meta-analysis and its resulting recommendations for what fosters and what obstructs graduate student success, as well as the pilot test results. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their knowledge of and experience with graduate education, discuss the recommendations noted in the meta-analysis in terms of their applicability and limitations for their own disciplinary areas, and gain new ways of viewing how learning and communities occur and are experienced by graduate students in their areas.

Supporting Veterans and Military Service Members at Illinois State University, Boots to Books

Jess Ray, Office of the University Registrar; Charles Boudreaux, Student Counseling Services; Harriett Steinbach, Dean of Students Office

Additional Materials

Boots to Books

During the Fall 2013 semester, 419 Veterans and Military Service members were students on Illinois State University’s campus. As a group, they face many challenges and obstacles while trying to achieve their educational goals. Most of these issues are outside of the experiences of the traditional 18-year-old student and deal with the visible and invisible wounds of war. This panel will help faculty and staff establish military cultural competency, including knowledge of the demographics associated with this group of students and additional opportunities for training that are available to faculty and staff. The panel will also share information regarding the support services we at ISU offer Veteran and Military students and what our campus is doing to help this group of students succeed.

Why Good Writing Matters for College and Career Readiness

Janet Look, Department of English

This session provides an overview of the writing assessment and assessment rubric used during a project developed by members of thirteen colleges and universities in the South Suburban Chicago Area. The purpose of the project, started in 2011, was to improve writing through cross-institutional collaboration. Bringing faculty together in a single forum allowed for rich discussions about writing standards, expectations, and assignments that promoted critical thinking and cross-disciplinary integration, along with the development of a user-friendly rubric based on the Common Core and higher education writing standards outlined by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The project crosswalks a standard of what good writing looks like and why good writing matters, not only in the required college English class, but in all content areas and disciplines, allowing students to express what they know through a connection to “real world” communication.

An Educational Strategy to Promote Civility Among Nursing Students

Sheryl Henry Jenkins, Mennonite College of Nursing; Cindy Kerber, Mennonite College of Nursing; Wendy Woith, Mennonite College of Nursing

The purpose of this poster is to describe an educational strategy to promote civility among nursing students in an academic setting. In 2011, we conducted a study of nursing students’ attitudes toward civility. Those results have been published. During this study, we developed a journal club as a method to explore civility. This poster describes how we implemented the Civility Journal Club (CJC) and the lessons we learned. Civility is foundational to nursing practice, crucial for nurse retention and productivity, and contributes to positive patient outcomes. Incivility in nursing begins in academia; nurse researchers have described uncivil behavior as a widespread problem among students. We used a journal club intervention, which combined class discussions of nursing literature, speaker presentations, and active learning strategies to raise student awareness and effect positive behavioral change in nursing students. A total of six sessions, each lasting fifty minutes, were incorporated into course content. Each session included faculty-led discussion based on assigned journal articles and a variety of active learning strategies. The CJC provided a unique way to present this content to students. Lessons learned for faculty include placement of the CJC in the curriculum, scheduling CJC sessions, and creating a relaxed atmosphere conducive to learning.

An Intervention Aimed at Impacting Nursing Faculty Teaching and Learning and Nursing Student Learning Regarding LGBT Health Issues

Marcena Gabrielson, Mennonite College of Nursing; MyoungJin Kim, Mennonite College of Nursing; Lela Nelson, BSN Student Research Assistant; Mary J. Dyck, Mennonite College of Nursing

There is a growing need for nursing faculty to teach about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) health issues to provide students the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver culturally competent care to the LGBT population. Research suggests the LGBT population has unique health risks, issues, and care needs, yet many colleges of nursing have limited to no coverage of LGBT health content in their curriculums. It is critical to assess and address this issue. A 2011 IOM report identified health, access, and care disparities among the LGBT population when compared to the heterosexual population, generating Healthy People 2020 guidelines that include a specific goal to study and improve LGBT health and a new field guide from Joint Commission recommending hospitals create more welcoming, safe, and inclusive environments for LGBT people. We respond to this recommendation by completing a study that included: 1) Conducting a curriculum assessment at MCN to determine coverage of LGBT health; 2) Surveying MCN faculty perceptions of competency in teaching LGBT health; 3) Surveying MCN faculty and students’ knowledge and attitudes about the LGBT population and LGBT health; and 4) Assessing (per reflective essays) student responses to an LGBT health teaching intervention in an MCN undergraduate course. This poster addresses our experiences in conducting the study, results of our analyses, and implications for nursing faculty and curriculums. This research was supported by a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Grant at Illinois State University.

Assessment in the Arts: Making the Subjective Objective through the Use of Scoring Rubrics

Daniella Barroqueiro, School of Art

It is widely held that the arts are inherently subjective; therefore, it makes sense that assessment in the arts is subjective as well. The presenter will discuss the prevalent myth that the arts cannot be assessed because of their subjectivity. As professors of the arts, we are not only compelled to assess our students’ work, but it is required of us. Assessment is authentic when it mirrors work by real people in the real world. Rubrics offer valuable feedback to students and make grading easier for professors. Rubrics make the gray areas clearer by objectifying the subjective. That said, the presenter offers this disclaimer: the business of designing rubrics for assessment in the arts is a tricky one. “Rubrics can stifle voice. Students are used to being graded for conformity” (Davis, 2009). Scoring rubrics, although they are authentic, performance-based assessments, may not catch all flaws or praise all successes. As Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Bringing Discussion Boards to Life: Notes from the Literature

Amy Funk, Mennonite College of Nursing

Additional Materials

Bringing Discussion Boards to Life: Notes from the Literature

Most hybrid and online classes utilize some type of web-based discussion to meet class objectives. Online discussion boards can either be a two-dimensional list of postings or a dynamic learning environment. Curious about how to better use this space for student learning, I began gathering research articles on the role of the instructor, the rules of engagement, and the best ideas for inspired learning. In this poster, I share recommendations learned on my quest to creatively arrange this aspect of the virtual classroom.

E-Collaboration in an Online Research Methods Course

Lydia Kyei-Blankson, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

As the desire to learn in online environments increases, it is essential that we continue to examine the extent to which students are provided with significant learning experiences. More noticeable is the need to examine the extent to which such environments provide collaborative opportunities to facilitate learning. The current study seeks to explore learner experiences in a graduate research online course. Findings generated from this empirical study help inform faculty as they plan to incorporate collaborative online learning activities in their online courses.

Enhancing Student Participation in a Biology Class by Flipping Instruction

Cynthia Moore, School of Biological Sciences

Additional Materials

Enhancing Student Participation in a Biology Class by Flipping Instruction

Using a blended class format with flipped instruction has clear advantages for both students and instructors in upper level courses. Traditionally, BSC 329 Human Genetics, an advanced biology elective, meets for three one-hour lecture/discussion sessions each week. After participating in the Design a Quality Online Course program at CTLT two years ago, the instructor changed the course to a blended format, meeting two days a week and converting the third session to an open lab. The students are assigned online SoftChalk modules containing basic content and review material, which must be completed before the next week. These modules contain text, figures, links, videos, audio recordings, and embedded assessments for each content section. A major advantage of this format is the ability to provide substantial review materials for students who may enter the course with a weak background without spending class time going over basic principles familiar to other students. In subsequent face-to-face classes, students participate in discussion of module topics, hands-on activities, and group projects. This format has led to a noticeable increase in student participation in class discussions and allows substantial opportunities for peer-to-peer teaching with coaching from the instructor.

Explaining the Development of Professional Skills and Attitudes through Out-of-Class Experiences in Psychology

Alycia Hund, Department of Psychology; Daisy Bueno, Department of Psychology

Research suggests that structured voluntary activities are the ideal context for developing professional skills because they provide a unique combination of intrinsic motivation and deep attention (Larson, 2000). Our research project focused on explaining how students develop professional skills and attitudes through out-of-class experiences in psychology. Twenty-seven undergraduate students participated in focus groups by describing their experiences and learning in out-of-class experiences, including teaching assistantships, research apprenticeships, and internships. Thirteen instructors and eight students completed online surveys. We used qualitative analyses to identify the teaching, research, and internship experiences that facilitated the emergence of specific professional skills. Thus far, students are reporting growth in professional, communication, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills. Moreover, students are noting growth in understanding both out-of-class contexts and content domains based on their hands-on experiences. Preliminary trends in faculty responses highlight teaching and learning that occurs outside of classroom settings. These findings document significant expansion of professional skills and attitudes through out-of-class experiences in psychology.

Humanitarian Audiology Class Provides Opportunities for Student Training

Lindsay Bondurant, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders

In 2012, the World Health Organization released new estimates indicating that 5.3% of the world’s population (360 million persons) has disabling hearing loss (DHL). The prevalence of DHL is greatest in developing nations, particularly in South Asia, Asia Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa. However, access to Audiological care in developing countries is limited due to cost, travel, and availability of trained hearing healthcare professionals. There has been a growing movement among audiologists in developed countries to travel to developing countries to provide care in a “Humanitarian Audiology” setting, with initiatives taking a variety of forms, spanning a continuum from careful development of infrastructure with a focus on sustainability to “mass hearing aid dispensing” exercises. With the goal of helping Audiology students to learn best-practice approaches to hearing-healthcare outreach efforts, Illinois State University recently debuted a required course in “Humanitarian Outreach in Audiology” as part of its Doctor of Audiology curriculum. This course was supported by a Teaching and Learning Development Grant from the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; this grant allowed students and their professor to travel to a remote health clinic in rural Appalachia to provide Audiology services over Spring Break 2013.

Linking Interaction, Presence and Student Learning in Online Environments

Lydia Kyei-Blankson, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations; Heather Donnelly, School of Teaching and Learning

Questions related to course structure, interaction, and presence within online courses persist and invite further inquiry into factors that encourage effective teaching and learning in online environments. In this study, elements of two distance education theories, Transactional Distance Theory (Moore, 1993) and Community of Inquiry Framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), are explored in a graduate online course. The interrelationships among student ratings of learner-instructor communication, learner-learner collaboration, and learner- content interaction and social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence are examined to gain a deeper understanding of how elements of interaction and presence ensure optimal and quality online learning experiences. This poster answers the following questions: What are the perceived levels of the different elements of interaction and presence in the graduate online course? What is the nature of the relationship among the perceived levels of the elements of interaction and presence and student learning in the graduate online course? Which elements of interaction and presence do students perceive to be most essential to their learning in the graduate online course?

Loudspeaker: Speeches Beyond The Classroom

Chandler Johnson, School of Communication

Loudspeaker, a nonprofit organization, is taking speeches created by students and posting them on the web for everyone to experience. This poster describes how Loudspeaker transforms speeches into a means of advocacy. Loudspeaker informs individuals about social issues and provides students the opportunity to articulate their ideas through an alternative platform. This organization, located on the web at www.speechneverdies.org, bridges the gap between civic engagement in the real world and concepts learned in academia.

Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners: Report Cards of the Rural Teachers

Miranda Lin, School of Teaching and Learning

Previous research suggests that many teachers lack the requisite background knowledge, skills, and dispositions to effectively teach students from diverse backgrounds due to their limited cultural knowledge and exposure to issues of diversity. Teachers’ lack of awareness of their own limited cultural competence regarding minority and diverse students hinders the use of effective practices with all students and families. There is a pressing need for teachers to engage in cross-cultural experiences and internalized dialogue for learning about themselves and those who are from diverse backgrounds (Brown & Howard, 2005; Garmon, 2005; Killoran et al., 2004) in order to become more culturally sensitive. Teachers have great impact on their students in many aspects (Killoran et al., 2004). It is therefore critical for teachers to develop a self-awareness of culture, bias, and discriminatory practices as well as to examine the effects of their beliefs, attitudes, and expectations on their students (Katz, 1993). This study examined 45 rural teachers’ attempt to understand the various ethnic groups, cultural backgrounds, languages, customs, values, and traditions of the students and their families in the community in which they taught. The inability to see that diversity goes beyond ethnic background was found among many rural teachers.

Opportunity in Kenya: Students’ Perspective of Learning in a Developing Country

Martin Wiser, Department of Technology; Emma Gilmore, Department of Technology

Are you interested in pursuing international research projects? This poster presents the accounts of two students who traveled to Kenya for one month in the summer of 2013 for the purpose of conducting research using a private grant from the Illinois Soybean Association. The purpose of the research project was to find marketing opportunities for the potential use of Illinois soybeans in the Kenyan market. There were many lessons that we learned from this unique experience in relation to the project and how we came to customize our approach to the project. We will share our lessons learned, including how to adapt project scope, leverage in-country contacts, find opportunities for collaboration, and survive the unexpected adventures that may arise. Let us share our experiences with you so that you will benefit from our perspective when planning your own cross-cultural research.

Student and Mentor Perceptions of Undergraduate STEM Research Experiences

Rebekka Darner, School of Biological Sciences; Janet Stomberg, School of Biological Sciences

Undergraduate research is becoming an essential component of training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Guidance for undergraduate researchers (URs) varies, and research experiences have lasting effects on students’ career trajectories. The purpose of this pilot study is to examine URs’ and research mentors’ perceptions of undergraduate research experiences at ISU using a validated survey. We correlate mentors’ perceptions of the research experience with their URs’ perceptions. The survey is used to identify highly effective mentors who will be asked to participate in an interview in an upcoming study. Interviews will give rise to hypothesized best practices for mentoring URs in STEM fields at ISU. This study may also give rise to other future avenues of inquiry, such as how research experiences influence students’ conceptual development of researched topics and motivation toward pursuing research-oriented careers.

Supporting Pre-service Teachers’ Self-efficacy toward Teaching Science in Our General Education Science Courses

Rebekka Darner, School of Biological Sciences; Elizabeth Quinn, School of Biological Sciences

BSC101: Fundamental Concepts of Biology is a large enrollment general education course in which 80+ education majors enroll every semester. In the summer of 2013, a modified curriculum was created for education majors, and this modified curriculum was offered in a major-blocked section for only education majors in the fall 2013 semester. The modified curriculum covers the same biological concepts as the regular curriculum. However, it also incorporates content that will prime pre-service teachers for their upcoming courses in science methods and learning theory. For example, the modification incorporates a project addressing the Next Generation Science Standards, the newly published and highly regarded revised science standards. It generates discussion of important topics related to science education (e.g., the achievement gap, science education and the economy, motivating students), and the course’s pedagogy models teaching methods appropriate for teaching science to elementary grades. Pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy toward teaching science is compared before and after the regular curriculum (data taken in spring 2013), as well as before and after the modified curriculum (data taken in fall 2013) to see if the modified curriculum better supports future teachers’ self-efficacy toward teaching science.

Supreme Court Decision-Making: Interactive Teaching Modules

Michael Gizzi, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences

This project is intended to create a series of three “case-study” teaching modules which help students understand the internal decision-making of the United States Supreme Court, an institution which generally operates in secrecy. Through my research, I have collected more than 13,000 pages of materials (in digital form) from the papers of Justices Harry Blackmun, Byron White, and William O. Douglas. In addition, I have access to the audio library of the Oyez Supreme Court Multimedia Project at Chicago-Kent Law School. This provides access to audio transcripts (with interactive printed versions) of oral arguments in Supreme Court cases. I will develop an interactive website/teaching module (and an Apple i-Books interactive e-book) which will draw together these multimedia resources to help students understand how the court works, with actual historical artifacts in the form of correspondence among the justices, conference notes, memoranda from law clerks, letters to the court from citizens, and voting data.

The American Democracy Project at ISU: An Overview of Teaching and Learning Resources and Opportunities

Noha Shawki, Department of Politics and Government; Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Catherine Poffenbarger, Office of the Provost

One of the key civic engagement initiatives at ISU is the American Democracy Project (ADP). This poster introduces attendees to the ADP and to the teaching and learning resources and opportunities that it offers to ISU faculty and students. It will provide an overview of ADP programs, as well as the grants, professional development opportunities, and other forms of support that ADP provides. Also, this poster presents information about future plans for promoting civic engagement at ISU and strengthening the University’s commitment to civic and political engagement. Specific initiatives and programs highlighted include the Community Engagement Learning Grants, ILSTUViews, the Redesign Your Course program, and the Community Engaged Campus initiative.

The Civic Engagement and Responsibility Minor: An Overview

Noha Shawki, Department of Politics and Government; Ashley Hettinger, School of Communication; Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Wendi Whitman, University College

The Civic Engagement and Responsibility minor is a fairly new interdisciplinary minor at Illinois State University and the only such minor at a public university in the state of Illinois. The minor has grown substantially since it was first introduced, and this poster reflects on the first few years of the minor, sharing information about minor requirements, data about students enrolled in the minor, and placement information about students who have graduated with the minor. Additionally, the poster reflects on how the minor has developed over the last few years and the trajectory that the program is expected to take. The poster will also engage with students’ perspectives on their internships as learning experiences, how the minor has complemented their major and their co-curricular activities, and how civic engagement has helped shape their college experience.

The Grading Dilemma: Examining Learner-centered Assessment in a Summative Culture

Wendy Troxel, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

Formative assessment techniques are those activities that help the teacher uncover how well and how much the students are learning throughout the instructional phase of a course. Sometimes referred to as “classroom assessment techniques” (Angelo & Cross, 1993), they are not graded, take many forms (such as minute papers, concept maps, and application cards), and involve the student in the learning process through the identification of deficiencies while there is still time to clarify important knowledge and concepts before the graded evaluations. Through interviews with selected faculty members, I explored the connections between the use of formative assessment techniques and deeper levels of learning in students as evidenced by improved performance on summative evaluations and subsequent “adjustments” by the faculty members.

The Use of Reflection to Enhance Learning

Jackie Lanier, Department of Health Sciences

Additional Materials

Reflective Writing in the Classroom to Enhance Student Learning and Critical Thinking

The importance of self-reflection is frequently noted in the literature and is becoming an increasingly critical part of professional development and lifelong learning. When learning about complex and sometimes controversial issues, it is important to think critically and be able to articulate your thoughts on the issues. While the importance of reflection is recognized, the question of whether reflection contributes to learning and improved critical thinking remains. As an instructor, I sought to answer this question by studying the use of reflection in a general education course focused on controversial health issues in the United States. After every class, students were asked to write a reflection on an issue or set of questions. Students were surveyed at the end of the course to determine their perceived effectiveness of the use of reflective writing to enhance their learning and critical thinking skills. The results of the survey and my observations as the instructor will be presented. Session participants will learn about the use of reflection in the classroom and its potential contribution to enhanced learning and critical thinking skills.

Using the Expanding Expression Tool (EET): A Multi-sensory Approach to Spoken Language

Kimberly Day, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders; Rebecca Houtsma, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders

Spoken and written expression have a reciprocal relationship in that each builds upon the other. Instruction in spoken language often results in growth in written language. The Expanding Expression Tool provides a systematic approach to teach students to think about language. Through the use of visual and tactile cues, students learn to organize, describe, and define information. Once internalized, this system is easily applicable to classroom vocabulary at any level and across all environments of learning. Because reading and writing are developed through a solid foundation in spoken language, focused time should be spent on this critical piece of the literacy puzzle.