Deadline Today: 2023 Winter Teaching Symposium: Being a Light in the Darkness

Join us on Thursday, Jan. 12, for the 2023 Winter Teaching Symposium in the Arkansas Union Ballroom, beginning at 8 a.m. This event is designed to add to your ability to inspire and communicate with your students as well as adding new teaching tips and tricks. Hopefully, all our lights will shine a little brighter as we inspire students in 2023! We've got a line-up of teaching stars and ideas to set off the lightbulbs of teaching creativity.

Schedule of Events

Click here to RSVP
(RSVP Deadline: Jan. 4, 2023)

• 8-8:25 a.m. — Arrival; continental breakfast
• 8:25-8:40 a.m. — Welcome by Chancellor Robinson and Provost Martin
• 8:40-9:25 a.m. — Keynote: "Supporting Learners through a Gradual Increas of Responsibility" by Vicki Collet, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction Department, College of Education and Health Professions (in-person and remote attendance)
• 9:25-9:35 a.m. — Break
• 9:35-10:20 a.m. — Keynote: "Creating a Space for Learning Together; Imagine the Potential!" by Lorraine Brewer, instructor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences (in-person and remote attendance)
• 10:20-10:30 a.m. — Break
• 10:30-11:10 a.m. — Breakout Session One
  Pick any session (note that not all sessions are offered twice)
  (in-person attendance only)
• 11:10-11:20 a.m. — Break
• 11:20-Noon — Breakout Session Two
  Pick any session
  (in-person attendance only)
• Noon-12:30 p.m. — Lunch (Fresh Mex fajita bar)
• Buffet will include grilled chicken fajitas, vegetable fajitas, spicy black beans, flour tortillas, pico de gallo, salsa, sour cream, tortilla chips, shredded cheese and cinnamon sugar sopapillas

Keynotes

Supporting Learners through a Gradual Increase of Responsibility
Vicki Collet, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction Department, College of Education and Health Professions

How do successful professors and mentors adjust their mentoring and interaction style based on the complexity and difficulty of the task, as well as the learner's experience? Collet will introduce her Gradual Increase of Responsibility model to aid participants in supporting a learner in the classroom, in acting as a mentor to students or in coaching others in your field. In a keynote session focused on how you can use the model to offer situational support, she will provide examples, questions and activities. Collet is the author of two books, Differentiated Mentoring and Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner and Collaborative Lesson Study: ReVisioning Teacher Professional Development. She is a Fulbright Global Scholar, the recipient of the Faculty Star Award from the Curriculum and Instruction Department and has been awarded the Literacy Teacher Educator Award from the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers for Professional Development in Haiti: Teacher Learning in Differently Resourced Countries. She has created numerous workshops based on her research that have been provided to an international audience. Her work has also been supported by a Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Teaching Grant.

Creating a Space for Learning Together: Imagine the Potential!
Lorraine Brewer, instructor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

Imagine the possibilities! What might happen if we can create a space in our classes where students feel excited, safe, eager to learn and are engaged with each other and us so we can learn together? Let's discern together why some students are disengaged, what they say they want to happen in their classrooms and how we can inspire them to participate actively with us in learning. Engaged and enthusiastic participation and deep learning are certainly worthy aspirations, so let's explore these ideas with professor Brewer and imagine together what might foster that potential in our classes in the new semester. Brewer has been teaching and winning awards for teaching at the U of A for over 45 years and has taught approximately 50,000 students. She's the recipient of the Imhoff Award for Teaching and Mentoring, the Fulbright Master Teacher Award and the Di Brezzo Award for Service to Teaching at the U of A. She is a former co-director of the Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center and is a member of the Teaching Academy. While she currently teaches and engages students in sections of students that are between 200-400 students, she has taught students in all sizes of classes. This past semester, an average day in her class saw attendance at over 90%, with attendance and participation accounting for only 8% of the total grade. Let's discover how she's kept students learning in class post-COVID.

Breakout Sessions

Note that not all sessions are offered twice (in-person attendance only)

Blackboard Ultra
Kathryn Zawisza, director of Academic Technology and Innovation, TIPS and IT Services

Did you know that there is a more modern version of Blackboard Learn available at the U of A? Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Experience boasts a simple, modern, more intuitive interface that focuses on accessibility and the user multi-device experience. Starting Summer 2023, IT Services will enable instructors to choose if they want to switch to the Ultra Course Experience from the default Original Course Experience. This opens up possibilities for course redesign and simplification! Want to get a sneak peek? Want to request your own sandbox or get added to the self-paced training course? Come hear an overview and demo of Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Experience and discuss the self-paced course certificate that the TFSC will provide upon completion!
Available Sessions 1 and 2.

Teaching and Mentoring International Students
Margaret Butcher, Communication; Adirana Rossiter-Hofer, Supply Chain Management; and Qin Weng, Information Systems

Teaching and mentoring international students bring unique challenges and opportunities due to cultural differences. In this session, specific types of cultural differences will be illustrated and potential strategies for effective cross-cultural interactions will be suggested. By being mindful of these differences and developing tools to flexibly interact with students from different cultural backgrounds, we can achieve an effective educator-student relationship and a rich experience for all students and the instructor as well. Co-sponsored by the U of A Diversity in the Classroom Committee.
Available Session 2 only.

Assessing GELO 6.1: The Capstone Experience
Deb Korth, ARSC Student Success; Denise Beike, Psychology; Richard Cassady, Industrial Engineering; Nathan Kemper, Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness; and Jeannie Whayne, History

In this session, the presenters will provide a brief background of the General Education Learning Outcome (GELO) Assessment Project. Each panel member will describe their experiences teaching the capstone courses and assessing their students. The results of the Fall 2022 GELO data collection process will be shared. The Fall 2023 assessment plan for GELO 6.1 will be described.
Available Sessions 1 and 2

Active Learning: Planning Effective and Engaging Classroom Sessions
Faith Lessner, Biology; Melinda Schroeder, Mathematics; and Leslie Massey, Engineering–First Year Program

Do you want to increase student engagement in your classroom while encouraging less passive learning? Would you like to incorporate more classroom discussion, student participation and collaborative learning during your class sessions? If you answered yes to any of these questions or are curious about adding active learning components to your course, this is the session for you! During this session, they will model some simple tools for developing and implementing active learning techniques in one's own classroom setting.
Available Sessions 1 and 2

Elevating Student Achievement Through Metacognition - Think About It!
Karl Schubert, Data Science, and Kristen Karpinski, Student Success

Do your students reach for tools like Google and YouTube when doing homework or studying for exams? Are you surprised at the number of college students who lack self-awareness and self-regulation when it comes to learning?  This presentation will focus on using the science of learning to better support the learners in your classroom. Attendees will leave with an understanding of the basics of metacognition and how metacognition can elevate students' achievement. Often, just a few tweaks and minimal effort are needed to bring out the metacognitive dimension of your lessons. Practical metacognitive strategies applicable in any discipline will be discussed and techniques for putting metacognition into practice provided.
Available Session 1 only.

Using Student Feedback to Increase Teaching Proficiency
Susan Bristow, Information Systems, and Sarah Jensen, Marketing

Gathering feedback from students during the semester regarding the performance of the class can be beneficial. A peer-facilitated formative assessment is an informative solution to enhance our own teaching and the class. Learn what parts of the class students believe are going well, what might need improvement and what changes could benefit student learning.
Available Session 1 and 2.