Find the 2020 conference agenda and all session descriptions below. All sessions will be held virtually on Zoom. The day before the conference, you’ll be invited to a Canvas site where you can access the link to each Zoom session. Make sure you’re registered for the conference so you can get access to the Canvas site with session links!
Thursday, November 12
| Time | Title | Presenter |
| 10:00-10:10 | Welcoming remarks | Provost Mike Palis |
| Session 1 10:15-10:45 |
The Benefits of “Best Practice” in Remote Teaching | Kimberlee Moran, FAS Chemistry |
| Session 2 10:50-11:20 |
Asynchronous student presentations with VoiceThread | Susan Miller, FAS Childhood Studies |
| Session 3 11:25-11:55 |
What are students learning in your lecture videos? Interactive asynchronous lectures with PlayPosit | Jacob Russell, Law |
| Session 4 12:00-12:30 |
Usability as an instructional design strategy | Rachel Derr, Nursing |
Friday, November 13
| Time | Title | Presenter |
| 10:00-10:10 | TBA | TBA |
| Session 5 10:15-10:45 |
Orienting students to your Canvas course with module overviews | Andrew Abeyta, FAS Psychology |
| Session 6 10:50-11:20 |
Flipgrid: An innovative strategy to teach therapeutic communication skills to nursing students | Jamille Nagtalon Ramos, Nursing |
| Session 7 11:25-11:55 |
Engaging students through annotation with Hypothesis | Lisa Payne, FAS Psychology |
| Session 8 12:00-12:30 |
Reimagining assessment with frequent, low-stakes quizzes | Melissa Fender, Business |
Thursday, November 12 Session Descriptions
Session 1: 10:15-10:45
The benefits of “best practice” in remote teaching
Presenter: Kimberlee Moran, FAS Chemistry
This poster will review “best practice” for remote instruction including the use of both asynchronous and synchronous content delivery. Tools to provide student accountability will be discussed. This poster will show how the implementation of “best practice” has led to improved student outcomes and heightened student engagement. Finally, the content structure utilized for remote instruction can seamlessly transition to a “flipped classroom” approach once in-person instruction resumes.
Session 2: 10:50-11:20
Asynchronous student presentations with VoiceThread
Presenter: Susan Miller, FAS Childhood Studies
Asynchronous courses can present challenges when it comes to student reflection, presentation, and engagement. VoiceThread is a multimedia presentation tool which allows students to add slides and audio narration. I will explain how I use VoiceThread in my asynchronous online course to have students reflect and engage creatively with both course content and one another.
Session 3: 11:25-11:55
What are students learning in your lecture videos? Interactive asynchronous lectures with PlayPosit
Presenter: Jacob Russell, Law
How can we both ensure that students are watching our pre-recorded lecture videos and that they are understanding key concepts from viewing? PlayPosit allows instructors to embed interactive quiz questions directly into pre-recorded lecture videos. I will discuss how these videos have increased accountability and provided surprising pedagogical benefits for both my students and me as a teacher, during a fully-remote semester.
Session 4: 12:00-12:30
Usability as an instructional design strategy
Presenter: Rachel Derr, Nursing
This presentation demonstrates an instructional design usability strategy. Usability refers to how easily students can navigate, learn from, and use a course (UC Davis, n.d.). Over the summer, I taught a cohort of students in three courses and designed the courses with the same user experience. Shank recommends designing online courses to function similarly to one another, so that once learners understand one course, they will be able to use others more easily (n.d.). Students who are unfamiliar with remote learning or who prefer in-person learning experience stress when placed in an online environment. This may create barriers and unnecessary frustrations, from increased cognitive load when students learn to navigate the online learning platform. In this instructional design strategy, a structured approach increases organization and consistency, thereby, decreasing the cognitive load needed for learners to use the course. A standardized Canvas “Home” page was developed, including quick links to the “Syllabus, ”“Modules,” and “Help.” Navigation menus and grade book set-up remained consistent, as well as where to find assignment descriptions. Additionally, communication is provided at regular intervals with the “Announcements” function. Developing online courses designed to enhance usability is an important goal that impacts our whole campus community.
Friday, November 13 Session Descriptions
Session 5: 10:15-10:45
Orienting students to your Canvas course with module overviews
Presenter: Andrew Abeyta, FAS Psychology
Many students struggle to understand what is expected of them in online courses. While online courses should challenge students intellectually, they should not spend too much energy simply navigating the course. Regular structure and course layout can make it easier for students to feel confident about what is due each week. I will explain how I have implemented module overview pages in my Canvas course to orient students each week and how it has impacted the ease of use for students.
Session 6: 10:50-11:20
Flipgrid: An innovative strategy to teach therapeutic communication skills to nursing students
Presenter: Jamille Nagtalon Ramos, Nursing
Effective therapeutic communication skills are integral components of quality, holistic care. Building nursing students’ proficiency and aptitude in therapeutic communication requires educational preparation, ongoing practice, and thoughtful personal reflection about an individual’s capabilities to communicate. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face classes have been moved to remote learning and traditional ways of teaching and learning had to be re-imagined. A popular pedagogical approach, especially in online education, is having textually-based discussions facilitated through learning management systems; however, this type of method may not be as engaging or effective for all students. Instead of using a discussion board, Flipgrid was used as an innovative strategy to teach therapeutic communication skills to forty-four traditional and accelerated nursing students. These students were asked to identify therapeutic communication techniques that they would like to improve upon and use the Flipgrid platform. Students recorded their responses in a video and audio format (<2 minutes in length) using their mobile device or their computer. The next part of the assignment was for the students to watch their colleagues’ videos and to provide a thoughtful comment on at least one video. This assignment garnered 44 original responses, 45 comments, 4,878 views, and 105.2 hours of engagement.
Session 7: 11:25-11:55
Engaging students through annotation with Hypothesis
Presenter: Lisa Payne, FAS Psychology
There are many challenges to remote instruction; ensuring students complete course readings and encouraging student interaction are two of these challenges. How can we tackle both challenges with one tool? Hypothesis is a social annotation tool which allows for students to annotate course readings together. I’ll explain how I use Hypothesis in my courses to increase accountability for course readings and increase interactions, and describe how it has contributed to student engagement.
Session 8: 12:00-12:30
Reimagining assessment with frequent, low-stakes quizzes
Presenter: Melissa Fender, School of Business–Camden
Administering exams while teaching remotely presents a number of challenges, ranging from proctoring issues to student technology access. What happens when exams are replaced with weekly low-stakes quizzes that students can attempt multiple times? I will explain why I chose to replace exams in my online courses, how the weekly quizzes are designed, and my results thus far.