Sandra Wilder

Akron Public Schools

At every moment of every day, the brains of our students are bombarded by thousands of stimuli! How do we, as their educators, ensure that the information we share is perceived as relevant, as worthy of learning? How do we create a path for learning given such an overwhelming competition for our students’ attention. An ongoing lack of student engagement leads to dissociation from the content being taught, poor retention of the material, and struggle in making sense of content-based tasks. The answer to overcoming this educational hindrance lies in using cooperative learning with elements of movement. Engage with us in various learning structures that improve student attention to tasks, activation of their learning parts of the brain, and subsequently lead to an increase in student achievement. Our focus will be on cooperative structures that incorporate movement and are easily implemented in both small groups and large classes. Cooperative learning structures are content-free and independent of the learners' age, therefore they can be implemented at any stage of learning and in any content discipline.

Richard Steiner

The University of Akron

When a person is choosing software for giving a presentation, Photoshop is likely not very high on the list—if it makes the list at all. PS has a full complement of tools for creating illustrations and diagrams or just tweaking imported clipart or photographs. For instructors that like to annotate their presentations during delivery or mark things for emphasis, PS has an array of pens and pencils for scribbling to one’s heart’s content. There are also shape tools for quickly drawing a box around something, for example.

There is complete freedom for placing elements on a slide. Plus, these elements may be moved during a presentation—to add motion when illustrating a concept, or just to move something out of the way. In my experience, these PS tools are much easier to use and produce better results than traditional presentation software. Perhaps the coolest feature of PS is the ability to selectively show or hide portions of a slide using layers. Also, with layers, images or graphs can be overlayed with additional features.

In this presentation viewers will see examples of some of these ideas, as well as a strategy for building presentations.

Valerie Ifill

The University of Akron

This presentation discusses the value of community-based learning in higher education to nurture civically engaged college graduates. Lessons learned from three university-community dance partnerships may inspire new teaching approaches across disciplines in higher education. These university-community approaches include a college course where university and incarcerated students learn side-by-side; an interdisciplinary course for 7-12 year old African American girls utilizing dance, code and e-textiles to create art and build self-esteem; and partnering with a local community to develop programming to prioritize health and joy. Strategies gleaned from these partnerships provide models for undergraduate students and faculty to partner to engage with neighbors in the community in meaningful ways.

Paula Reams

Kettering College

Service learning as a pedagogy has become a standard practice in health professions education today. Health care higher education faculty have been front runners in the use and research of service learning teaching. However, translating this to online education has been difficult and troublesome because of the nature of the community aspects of service learning.

In an online program for health professions who are completing their bachelor degree (nursing, respiratory therapist, radiation technologist, dental hygienist, sonographers, etc.), service learning is used to demonstrate end of program student learning outcomes that relate to service and civic engagement as well as an institutional outcome of civic engagement that requires the student to “ responsibly engage in service using knowledge and skill from both general and specialized curricula in wider community-based settings” (KC institutional outcomes). Explanation of how service learning is used as an online pedagogy will be discussed in three online courses.

Kenneth Browner

Lakeland Community College

How can you improve your courses and increase engagement? Ask the experts: your students. And ask frequently. This presentation will offer strategies and insights based on one instructor's effort to collect and utilize student evaluations every one to two weeks throughout the semester. While this approach requires a healthy dose of humility and curiosity, it offers exciting opportunities for professional growth.

Lisa Wiebenga Stroschine

COE College

Christy Wolfe

COE College

Preparing our pre-service teachers for life in the classroom incorporates all aspects of disposition, skill, and knowledge. “Technology training” for future teachers in our program has evolved from 2-3 class periods within practicum operating like a “workshop” (web-building workshop, Glogster workshop, etc) to a full-semester stand alone course featuring weekly hands-on labs complimenting theory and discussion.

In this session we’d like to share how we’ve morphed EDU 219: Educational Technology Lab in response to changing technology in our schools and in general, the advancing needs of our students, and input from our community. EDU 219 is a lab component of Elementary & PE Practicum, Music Practicum, and Secondary Practicum education courses. Creating a curriculum for this broad audience is challenging. We have worked to create an inclusive cross-departmental collaboration, connections for all students outside of our campus community, and a strong technology base for students in the course. As is the nature of technology, the course is (and always will be) evolving.

James McKelvey

The University of Akron

Sydney Chinchanachokchai

The University of Akron

Instructional strategies meeting the demands for experiential learning outcomes in the classroom is a stiff challenge. CBA advisory councils strongly suggest it deliver a more “practiced, hand-on” skillset in graduates entering their workforce. Our accrediting institution, AACSB, adopted standard 13, articulating a precise requirement to prepare students who have actively engaged with academic and professional experiences in classroom and field venues. The marketing department is facing a second market demand to prepare graduates with a field-ready skillset in marketing research, a profession with over 23% projected growth through 2026.

We redesigned the Marketing Research course to include four experiential projects; a secondary data market analysis, a client-based focus group, an online survey, and a laboratory experiment using eye-tracking technology. These projects represent in-demand job-related skillsets.

In fall 2018, we conducted a pilot study to assess students’ quantitative and qualitative opinions about the experiential learning projects. Forty undergraduate students completed a survey indicating how much the projects contributed to their understanding of marketing research and career preparation. Results suggested each of the four projects were vital in making them career-ready.

Bushra Aldosari

Kent State University

Shannon R Brunette

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College

We examined the relationship between gender, students’ self-efficacy toward collaborative learning (SECL), students’ class preparation effort, participation in in-class group activities, and academic performance in four sections of a physics flipped classroom course taught in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. During the third week, participants completed a survey self-reporting demographic information and collaborative learning self-efficacy. Behavioral engagement was measured by examining completion of class preparation and participation in group activities. Academic performance was measured using three exam scores. The instructors designed all classes using the same design. The results revealed, surprisingly, that SECL had a negative direct effect on participation in in-class group activities and academic performance. In the expected direction, the results showed that students’ class preparation effort had a positive direct effect on participation in in-class group activities which in turn had significant direct effects on academic performance. The results suggest that instructors are justified in devoting effort to helping students gain knowledge before attending class so students could retrieve this knowledge in class, and opportunities for spaced practice and retrieval increases knowledge retention.

Tracy Riley

Mount Carmel College of Nursing

Group projects present challenges to those facilitating them, those participating in them, and faculty evaluating them. Depending on group size and composition, students may exert too much control over the collaborative learning experience or fail to participate as full team members. The aim of this session is to discuss the role of focused self and peer evaluations that contribute to collaborative group functioning and provide an effective tool for student accountability and development. Collaborative group projects with firm evaluative structures provide evidence to adjust individual scores if needed. Quantitative and qualitative insight is collected to support score adjustments when necessary. Aligning the evaluative tool with project and course learning outcomes provides additional insight for future project improvement as well. Addressing differences between cooperative group projects versus collaborative ones is foundational to the instructional process. Benefits of self and peer-assessment along with challenges will be actively addressed with workshop participants. Experiences from both face-to-face and online learning environments will be solicited and shared.

Susan Corl

The University of Akron

It is important for teachers to connect with parents, particularly when children are learning to read. However, it is often difficult for parents because they are busy or don’t have knowledge to help their children. Preservice teachers are often told that this is important, but they don’t learn best practices for connecting. The preservice teachers in the Foundations of Literacy class at Wayne College developed a Reader Review Blog that includes reviews of “read aloud books” as well as ways parents can help their children work on reading at home. There are many blogging products on the market, but the best tool for working together as a class is Edublogs by Wordpress. It is flexible, easy to use, and dynamic. The blog platform can be used as a collective blog or expanded to allow each student to have his/her own blog. This keeps the students connected throughout the class and after. Visit our blog at http://readaloudreviews.edublogs.org/

Alan Snow

The University of Akron

A successful teacher develops a teaching philosophy that considers how people learn. It is best if that philosophy is shared with, understood by, and easily practiced by students. Many studies reveal that students learn best when given the opportunity to experience new concepts followed by self-assessment practices. Moreover, as teachers and scientists, we hope that students extend that knowledge by developing and testing their own new ideas. Active learning can be achieved by varied methods that encourage students to go beyond listening or reading. I include small discussions, think-pair-share exercises, group problem solving, brainstorming, concept mapping, and even structured “cheating.” Moreover, these activities model the scientific process and problem-solving approaches. It is important to measure student learning; however, assessment should extend beyond written exams. It is especially useful for students to gain feedback in order to monitor their own learning process. Structured cheating affords the opportunity for self-assessment and timely feedback, critical features of the learning process. This session will introduce structured cheating techniques, summarize effectiveness and student perceptions, model examples, and provide a chance to discuss potential merits across the disciplines.

Mark J. Carroll

University of Mount Union

Contemporary healthcare is increasingly dependent upon interdisciplinary communication and coordination. As a result, health education programs have progressively emphasized interdisciplinary training. The authors contend that contemporary education warrants a change in our approach to training.

Current education is rooted in medical model thinking that uses experiential methods such as shared classrooms and guest lecturers. These methods fall short in meeting contemporary practice demands. The authors explore the history, challenges, opportunities, and ineffectiveness of traditional interdisciplinary education, and propose the idea of moving to a system utilizing problem identification, counseling, and referral as part of the training. Such techniques have already been successfully used in wellness education. Additionally, the authors ask the educators to consider using psychosocial or spiritual foci, such as shared life experiences as part of this interdisciplinary training.

A shift from the current paradigm toward a wellness model that emphasizes identification, counseling, and spirituality would facilitate improved team dynamics, and conflict resolution, for the benefit of the patient or client.

Debra Horning

The University of Akron

Michele Zelko

The University of Akron

Barb Scherer

The University of Akron

We developed an Escape Room activity to provide nursing students with an opportunity to use collaborative learning techniques. The Escape Room format requires teams to work through a series of puzzles and tasks before the patient condition worsens. Our pilot study evaluated the effectiveness of the engaging students in critical thinking and decision-making during an unfolding patient scenario. An escape room activity focusing on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy was designed for nursing students. After learning about this condition in the classroom, they worked in small groups to uncover clues that led to discussion about patient symptoms, identification of a critical event, and intervention decision-making. Students completed a survey to rate the activity and completed four related exam questions.

Student feedback indicated that they enjoyed the teamwork, valued the opportunity to perform the interventions, and that it helped them learn about the condition. The exam question results were compared with students that did not have the activity and revealed slight differences. This escape room activity demonstrates a way to utilize gaming and simulation for learning. Although the pilot study demonstrated student satisfaction, investigators have decided to continue data collection to further evaluate learning effectiveness.

Kyle Zegarac

PowerNotes

Karen Bieber

PowerNotes

Creating better writing through better research. PowerNotes provides a streamlined process for saving, organizing, and tracking information from any source and transforming it into effective writing. Our pedagogical features facilitate critical reading, synthesis, outlining, gathering citations, and drafting. This presentation will demonstrate the capabilities of PowerNotes in digital research and writing and discuss it's use in general note-taking. We will discuss how students are using it in their classes (including non-writing classes), how professors are using it to teach research and writing, and how we are working with schools to enhance online learning with features that facilitate asynchronous feedback, data analytics for curriculum improvement and increasing student retention, and improve digital learning.

Erin Makarius

The University of Akron

William McHenry

The University of Akron

Educators are searching for new ways to capture the attention of multi-tasking, mobile, and easily distracted learners (Reeves & Wittenburg, 2015). Gamification incorporates competition, feedback, points, leaderboards, and learning from mistakes (Deterding, Dixon, & Khaled, 2011). Academic literature suggests that game attributes such as continuous feedback, teamwork, and problem-solving stimulates intrinsic motivation (Reeves & Reed, 2009). Game elements can provide autonomy, meaning, and relatedness, key factors of intrinsic motivation (Glynn, 1994).

This session will demonstrate techniques and elements of gaming, and discuss advantages and disadvantages. Although many assume that gamification will lead to greater engagement and learning for students, this has not been extensively examined empirically. We will analyze data from one section of a management class to explore how gamification influences student experiences and outcomes. In this “Leveling Up Game,” we have awarded points, badges, and “perks” for experiences such as: participating in interactive videos in Brightspace and/or H5P for pre- and post-class introduction and mastery of material; taking self-assessments; submitting short “blog length” posts, examining ethical concerns in a CEO leadership presentation; and participating in Kahoot quizzes. The session will provide an overview of classroom gamification technologies and describe the learning and engagement that may result.

Janet Bean

The University of Akron

Angel Evans

The University of Akron

How do we create transformative learning practices that take on new meaning for students? How can students apply abstract classroom ideas into real-time practice more deeply? This panel will address these questions by providing examples of how metacognitive practices transform the classroom. First, we will introduce the idea of threshold concepts and and ask participants to consider how this model applies to their specific disciplines. We will then discuss metacognition as a strategy that can help students explicitly engage difficult disciplinary concepts, including activities such as reflection, inquiry-based learning, and experiential learning. For the second half of the presentation, we will present a case study from an English Composition II classroom that shows how students applied meta-cognitive learning practices in the context of a multimodal digital project. We will end with a discussion of how innovative projects can get students thinking about their disciplines’ threshold concepts in transformative ways.

Steve Kaufman

The University of Akron

Sean Kennedy

The University of Akron

In this session, attendees will hear multiple faculty members share their insights about open resource implementation. We will share examples of how completely redesigning courses to utilize open resources directly impacts student success and persistence.

Session Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify key aspects of a successful open textbook initiative and how to develop a support model for open projects
• Participants will be able to create their own policies and procedures to help spur interest amongst faculty at their institution who are interested in pursuing open resources

Session Participation:

Participants will have a chance to participate in a moderated conversation with the faculty development teams. We will provide examples of how we managed the workflow, approached administration for funding, developed alignment documents and created resources.

Mark J. Carroll

University of Mount Union

Patrick Pauken

University of Mount Union

This study examines legal and ethical implications of intellectual property. Who owns the information presented in a lecture, or printed in a book, journal article, or on the internet? To what degree should we be allowed to use information from publications for the benefit of education? Free resources have been crucial to innovation and creativity; without them creativity is reduced. The author believes that while requiring use of all ideas to be licensed, owned, and reimbursed to the original thinker would severely hamper the creative process, complete freedom of material is likely to be an equally unsuitable answer. Like highways, information should be regulated but not unduly restricted. Such a system would allow authors to continue to receive motivation and financial reward to pursue their works without unduly restricting the free-flow of information that aids innovation and creativity.

Lauren Houser

The University of Akron

In Marketing, we teach the importance for companies to create value for customers and to consistently communicate in a way that tells an authentic brand story. Using this concept, I have changed the way I engage with students to create additional interest, investment, and learning in my online class.

I will demonstrate how to use the strategy that companies use to generate interest in their product and facilitate customer engagement. When you treat students as customers, and allow them to co-create their online learning experience, it can result in increased engagement and customer (student) satisfaction.

Attendees will learn how to more effectively connect with online students, as well as facilitate an environment that encourages peer communication and a classroom experience. Attendees will be given examples of how to better utilize basic tools to help students feel more connected. Examples include leveraging discussions, engaging with students one-on-one, connecting students to their peers, and helping students design some of their own learning.

Student testimonials will be provided as examples of how these methods impacted their engagement and ultimately their learning in the online class.

Alan Kornspan

The University of Akron

John Roncone

The University of Akron

Seungbum Lee

The University of Akron

Sean Cai

The University of Akron

Universities have become interested in providing opportunities for students on college campuses to become involved in e-sports (Roncone et al. 2019). The University of Akron is one university that has embraced this vision (Lin-Fisher, 2019). Through sport studies courses, research with professors, and competitive and recreational e-sports tournaments, students have been provided the opportunity to become involved with e-sports. The purpose of this panel presentation is to discuss how we provide students the opportunity for involvement and experiences within the e-sports environment. In particular, the panel members will provide an overview of the current opportunities that we have developed for e-sport course work, research, and competitive tournaments. All four discussants are currently involved in the development of e-sport course work, research, and practical application on the University of Akron campus.

Susan N. Kushner Benson

The University of Akron

The focus of this panel discussion will be on the ways in which a unique field-based clinical model has been designed and implemented to promote the identity of the teacher candidates as urban educators. The clinical model reflects a partnership between the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education (LJFF COE) at the University of Akron, the I Promise School (IPS), and the LeBron James Family Foundation (LJFF). Specifically, the clinical model entails a cohort of teacher education students who will spend 7 to 10 hours at the I Promise School each week – earning 6 to 9 semester credit hours (2 or 3 classes), working exclusively in two third-grade classrooms and mentored by two classroom teachers and an intervention specialist, and guided by two university faculty members as they engage purposeful learning community activities.

Andrea Meluch

The University of Akron

Michael Gentithes

The University of Akron

Sarah St. George

The University of Akron

Rhiannon Kallis

The University of Akron

This panel will explore how faculty members gamify their classrooms to increase student engagement. Specifically, faculty members will discuss how they have used polling apps, jeopardy, and other types of in-class “games” to help increase active learning opportunities for students. Four faculty panel participants include Drs. Andrea Meluch, Rhiannon Kallis, Sarah St. George, and Michael Gentithes. Each faculty member will first present how they have used gamification in their classrooms, then the panel will discuss the outcomes of using games in the college classroom context, and finally the panel will engage with audience members about the value of gamifying the college classroom today. Attendees will learn more about the opportunities and drawbacks that gamification provides and have the chance to explore gamification more in-depth.

Ghada Awad

The University of Akron

Nasser Razek

The University of Akron

Have you ever felt that your students do not appreciate the value of your assignments? Do you always wish students could capture the objectives you had in mind instead of getting busy completing the assignment to check a box? Oftentimes, students do not see the value of individual assignments or classroom activities. Therefore, they may not benefit from the learning activities included in the course. If students can reflect on these course components, they may be able to maximize their learning and optimize their satisfaction. We are suggesting intentional and facilitated discussions of reflective experiences with peers that may encourage students to better reflect on their own learning and understanding (Guthrie & Jones, 2012). Utilizing collaborative learning strategies to reflect on classroom assignments and tasks, students discover the values associated with each course component in an engaging exercise.

Ritu Sharma

Case Western Reserve University

Project Implicit focuses on the theme of student success. It is a creative, credible, and innovative tool created by Harvard University that investigates an individual’s thoughts and feelings that exist outside of conscious awareness or conscious control. It allows the educators to ethically serve the students, especially the international pupils, and ensure their success.

It benefits educators by empowering them to identify biases and prejudices and mask them successfully, if not overcome them. This allows chief stakeholders of education to intellectually embrace and serve each student without personal opinions, attitudes and beliefs to hinder them, promoting student success. This is deeply rooted in psychology and is a computer-based measure. The IAT (Implicit Association Test ) is proven to measure implicit attitudes. This is an educational resource and research site for investigations in implicit social cognition. This includes online tests for implicit preferences for racial groups, age groups, religious inclination, gender, weight, skin tone, sexual orientation, and disability.

Mark J. Carroll

University of Mount Union

Problem-based scenarios have long been a valued teaching tool in health education. Students gain valuable practice with taking histories, performing screens, tests, measures, and evaluations. Often these scenarios are written by, and “patients” portrayed by faculty. The critical thinking and problem solving in such an activity is difficult to duplicate through traditional didactic or laboratory activities. The author believes that a new dimension can be added to these activities if the scenarios are written and performed by one set of students, for the benefit of a second set of students. These groups then provide peer review to their colleagues. The research needed to present a sensible and logical case spikes learning and fosters a fun and friendly environment as the student groups attempt to “stump” each other, with only peripheral involvement on the part of the instructor. Repetition of this activity throughout an academic term is excellent preparation for more formally scored lab practicals and clinical placements.

Karen B. Plaste

The University of Akron

Jennifer Bozeka

The University of Akron

Brandi Davis

Akron Public Schools

Ohio adopted K-12 Social and Emotional Learning Standards (Ohio Department of Education, 2019), Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship skills, and Responsible Decision making. University of Akron students from the Early Childhood Inclusive Teacher Preparation (ECITP) in the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education will present posters to address these standards.

These 15 preservice teachers are participating in a unique opportunity at the I Promise School. The I Promise School (https://ipromiseschool.akronschools.com/) is a third to fifth grade STEM school within Akron Public Schools (APS). Students are selected by lottery from the lowest performing students in the APS district. The LeBron James Family Foundation provides support to the school and the students’ families.

UA teacher candidates take two education classes in a block format with the option of including a mentoring class. Students also receive professional development regarding the students at the I Promise School, such as trauma-responsive education, and co-teaching.

The students posters will include:

• A description of the standard
• Background and current research regarding the standard
• How the standard can be implemented into the classroom
• A summary of an interview with a teacher regarding the standard
• Observations of how the standards has been integrated in the classroom

Daniela Jauk

The University of Akron

Insun Park

The University of Akron

We present an interactive poster taking the shape of an open-ended concept map. We share strategies in order to create win-win situations for teaching Corrections in the NE Ohio region. With various strategies we aim to bring community into our classrooms, as well as get our students out into the community and into practice settings. Strategies and processes include:

• A series of strategic planning meetings with the biggest provider of community corrections to enhance our curriculum and create internships in the context of community-based learning.
• The “Corrections Close Up” podcast, a series of mini-interviews with corrections professionals offering practical, vocational information.
• Field trip opportunities (e.g. Oriana House, Inc. multi-facility tour, Summit County Jail etc.) to enhance experiential learning and maximize student benefit (Stacer et al., 2019).
• Bringing the national Innocence Project (IP) to this campus and creating a local chapter of IP as an interdisciplinary student organization across departments to foster research-practice partnerships.

The audience will be invited to further develop the concept map with us.

Nasser Razek

The University of Akron

Inclusion of some common values and principles ultimately leads to the exclusion of others, values and artifacts that differ significantly from the “normative” experience (Strange, 1997). Maximizing student learning about diversity and inclusion in an online platform is always a challenge where interaction is limited to the written comments and postings. Utilizing the voice project as a semester long assignment provides a key solution to this challenge. Each student chooses a specific alternative identity to adopt throughout the semester. Their role consists of advocating for these identities, developing their expertise in that voice by examining literature and relevant reading materials, and communicating with a representative of that group to verify findings and answer cultural questions. The project is designed to challenge students’ preconceived notions giving them the opportunity for a true learning experience with weekly discussion prompts. Rather than solely reading about cultural differences on a particular day in class, this project is process-oriented targeting progressive development of student awareness of diversity and privilege throughout the course and beyond classroom limits. Attendees leave the session with a sample assignment that may be utilized in their classroom.

Dudley Turner

The University of Akron

When any project is part of the class (paper, production, performance, etc.) we can have students critique their own and other students' work using the criteria we want them to learn. Then we can give the "Top 5" award to each as a simple, fun (and inexpensive) motivational effort. This process can be accomplished with or without technology, and having the class discuss the process involves them further.

Here's how I did it and how it can be done.

Adel Alhalawani

The University of Akron

Student engagement in class leads to effective teaching. There are a large number of ideas that can be implemented to ensure that students are part of the lecture and use their electronic devices in a way that serves the goals of the lecture. Mentimeter is a website that allows instructors to a) create interactive presentations, b) present and engage the audience and c) compare and analyze data. In my presentation I will share with the audience how to use Mentimeter to engage students in lecture rooms of different backgrounds. I will also share a few examples of how I used it, its effectiveness and some recommendations to make sure it is used effectively. I expect this presentation to motivate instructors to use new technological methods to engage students in class and to have fun.