ABSTRACTS - Standard Sessions

NOTE: Standard Sessions are approximately 45-60 minutes long (largely depending on how much time the presenter allows for Q&A).

All sessions take place in Butler-Carlton Hall on the Missouri S&T campus

1-120 // AI on Trial: Educators Debate the Future of Teaching Ethics

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Dr. Sam Allen - Assistant Professor of Communication Studies; Randolph-Macon College
     Dr. Ryan Cheek - Assistant Professor of English & Technical Communication; Missouri S&T

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 120

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

In this thought-provoking session, accomplished educators and debate coaches from college and high school arenas will engage in a rigorous debate on the ethical integration of Artificial Intelligence in education. Assuming opposing stances, the speakers will examine the nuanced implications of AI, from pedagogical benefits to privacy concerns. A fellow expert will moderate, posing critical questions and ensuring a comprehensive discourse. The interactive format will culminate in audience participation, inviting reflections that bridge theoretical considerations with practical outcomes. This debate aims to illuminate the complexities of AI in educational ethics, offering insights from seasoned debate practitioners and educators across disciplines and institutions.

1-121 // Are You There AI? It's Me, STUDENT.

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Qiang S. Dotzel - Teaching Professor; University of Missouri-St. Louis

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 121

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

In the age of AI, the significance of student learning lies in fostering deep understanding and mastery of concepts rather than relying on shortcuts provided by web resources or AI tools. To ensure true comprehension, educators should prioritize authentic assessment methods such as problem-solving, critical thinking exercises, and hands-on activities that encourage students to apply knowledge in real-world contexts, ultimately preparing them for the challenges and opportunities presented by the AI-driven future.

1-215 // Embodied Teaching: Musical Praxis in Social Justice Education

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Logan John - Director of the Center for Faith and Service; Westminster College
     Paul Anderson - University of Missouri; Columbia

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 215

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Inspired by 200 years of American music, this session explores the ways Spirituals, Blues, and Protest Songs can enhance social justice education. Drawing on Freire's praxis pedagogy and Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of embodiment, this session will engage, challenge, and inspire social justice educators to incorporate singing, body movement, and reflection in their pedagogical tool set.

1-216 // Bringing the Museum To You

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP (1 hour 45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Nicol Allen - Assistant Professor of Museum Studies & History; Westminster College

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 216

MODE: Face-to-Face (Face-to-Face Presenter + Face-to-Face Attendees)

2 hands on activities that brings the museum to the classroom. We will conduct an exercise in uncovering curiosity cabinets that focuses on creativity with objects. Followed by the creation of a micro exhibit that highlights the themes central to curiosity cabinets and their inception.

1-315 // Academic Integrity in the Age of AI

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VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Laura M. Foley - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online
     Kirk Wilkins - Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 315 (and online via Zoom)

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

You want to trust that your students' work reflects their honest efforts and abilities, but in the age of AI, you might fear that cheating is inevitable in the online environment. Is that the case? Let's discuss how to create a learning environment that supports academic integrity in any modality.

1-316 // From Passive to Passionate: Revolutionizing Education Through Interactive Learning

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Emmanuel Masavo Djegou - Missouri S&T

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 316

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

This topic specifically highlights the strategies and techniques essential for crafting interactive and engaging learning experiences that not only capture students' attention but also ignite a personal interest in the course material. It emphasizes the significance of these approaches within the context of today's attention-driven economy, where captivating and maintaining focus is a valuable asset.

1-317 // How Generative AI Tools Help Faculty and Staff with Their Homework Too

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters: 
     Dr. Jana Gerard - Southeast Missouri State University
     Kris Baranovic - Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 317

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Current generative AI tools can be leveraged to be your personal work assistant. In this session, we'll explore ways to use current AI tools to help with onerous tasks as well as share tips for evaluating new AI tools as they enter the market.

2-120 // Graphing and Data Analysis with the HHMI Biointeractive Data Explorer

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Dave Westenberg - Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor of Biological Sciences; Missouri S&T

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 120

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Participants will be introduced to the free, online Data Explorer tool from HHMI Biointeractive. This versatile tool can be used to graph and analyze data generated in any context and help student explore different ways to visualize data.

2-121 // Can I Use That?: Selecting Technology Tools for Effective Course Integration

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Joshua Merlenbach - Missouri Online
     Alyssa Collier - Application Administrator; Missouri Online
     Manon Allard-Kropp - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online
     Mark Orr - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online
     Rio P. Sloan - Application Administrator-Specialist; Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education: K-12 Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 121

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

This session will discuss the pedagogical and technological considerations for faculty when selecting technologies to use as part of their course. Drawing on practical examples, personal experience, and best practices, we will delve into the criteria for selection, potential pitfalls, and the importance of aligning technology choices with educational objectives. Attendees will leave with an understanding of how to make informed decisions about adopting technologies for their course, and strategies for interacting with vendors.

2-215 // Embracing Uncertainty in Class

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Kirk Wilkins - Missouri Online
     Kris Baranovic - Instructional Design Manager; Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 215

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

A classroom can be a place of organized information and firm understanding, where every question has an answer and responses can be correct or incorrect. The world outside of class unfortunately doesn't have the same tidiness, and that can distort the teaching as well as student understanding. This session proposes ways of introducing the messiness and uncertainty of a discipline into the classroom.

2-315 // Flip Cards: A Tool for Dimensional Analysis

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Lauren Strawsine - Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Westminster College

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 315

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Flip cards are an inexpensive manipulable tool for dimensional analysis (also known as factor-label method) that can help stuck, lost, or perfection-paralyzed novice and advanced learners calculate a variety of science and math problems. In addition to aiding in the visualization of unit cancellation, flip cards normalize guess and check methodology in single and multistep conversions with or without corresponding equations. Along with a demonstration, this session will include a discussion, reflection, and assessment of flip card use in a variety of chemistry courses at a small private liberal arts college.

2-316 // Accessibility, Equity and AI: What's New and Where are we Going?

VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Rob Gibson - Dean of Instructional Technology; Director of Instructional Design; Wichita State University

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 216 (and online via Zoom)

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

This presentation explores the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of educational accessibility and equity. It delves into the latest advancements in AI that aim to level the playing field for students of all backgrounds and abilities, while also discussing the ethical considerations and challenges that arise. The presentation aims to offer a balanced view on how AI can be harnessed for greater inclusivity in education, while also scrutinizing its limitations and potential for exacerbating inequalities.

2-317 // The Big Idea: A Borrowed Approach for Defining the Outcomes and Scope of an Online Learning Experience

VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Lindsay Lutman - Instructional Designer; University of Arizona 

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 317 (and online via Zoom)

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Moving a course from concept, to measurable outcomes, to aligned assessments and content while ensuring a cohesive narrative and meaningful experience for all learners is the fundamental challenge of the course design process. In this session we'll explore how the adoption of "The Big Idea" (Beverly Serrell, 2020) - an exhibit design approach - may offer opportunities to center the learner-perspective throughout the design of an online learning experience.

2-318 // Nurturing Higher-order Thinking with Visualizations to Reflect on the Process of Writing or Coding

VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Badri Adhikari - Associate Professor of Computer Science; University of Missouri-St. Louis

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 1:15 - 2:00 p.m.; Room 318 (and online via Zoom)

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

A student's effort journey is as important as their final outcome. At this session, you will discover a new online editor to easily visualize such a journey for writing and computer programming tasks. Testing the approach at multiple universities involving hundreds of students, we find that such an approach nurtures student learning and empowers educators. The session will conclude with a discussion on how such tools can enhance students' high-order thinking, a skill much needed in the age of AI.

3-101 // A 100% Guaranteed Method for Student Participation and Engagement

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Jesse Kavadlo - Professor of English and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning; Maryville University

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 101

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Instructors know the pain of preparing terrific questions for student discussion only to be met with silence. This presentation will discuss ways of managing expectations with students, creating pre-class work designed to lead into classroom conversations, ways of structuring in-class questions, and use of student self-assessments and follow-up assignments to help ensure that students talk and listen during class time.

3-115 // Creative ways to Assess for Learning

STANDARD SESSION ( 45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Dr. Michelle Schwartze - Associate Teaching Professor of Education; Missouri S&T
     Dr. Katherine Sharp - Assistant Professor of Education; Missouri S&T
     Julia Alexander - Assistant Teaching Professor of Education; Missouri S&T

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 115

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

We will share with you some formative assessment classroom techniques (or FACTs) that can help you assess for learning. Formative assessment should be embedded in every lesson to inform instruction and provide feedback to students. After this session you will have some new ideas for incorporating this assessment and hopefully be ready to engage your students with some FACTs!

3-120 // Empowering Instructors with Microlearning: Flexible Strategies for Effective Faculty Development

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Liz du Plessis - Manager of Instructional Design; Missouri Online
     Bryant "Laz" Lazenby - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online
     Jessica McCallister - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online
     Kirk Wilkins - Missouri Online
     Manon Allard-Kropp - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online / University of Missouri-St. Louis

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 120

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

How do we meet the need for flexible faculty development while creating and modeling effective online learning experiences for faculty? In a discussion centered on this challenge, instructional designers will share what we've learned so far about creating microlearning and badging opportunities for our online faculty development programs.

3-121 // AI Prompt Writing Tips for Teachers (and Students)

VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Eva Grouling Snider - Instructional Consultant; Ball State University

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 121

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are only as helpful as the prompts we give them. In this session, we'll discuss how teachers (and students) can effectively direct ChatGPT to get useful results. In particular, you'll learn all about good "prompt writing," the secret sauce of how we communicate (and miscommunicate) with AI.

3-213 // What do students think of OER? A Survey of Students at a Regional Missouri University

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Dr. James Newman - Associate Professor of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religion; Southeast Missouri State University
     Mary Bangert - Government Information & Literacy Librarian; Southeast Missouri State University
     Stephanie Hallam - Education Information Librarian; Southeast Missouri State University

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 213

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Southeast Missouri State University began an A&OER initiative in 2020 which included faculty workshops and surveys to support faculty use of A&OER. However, until last spring, student voices had not been included in the initiative. Discover the surprising results of a survey and two focus groups about student opinions of textbooks, faculty who use OER, and the impact of OER on course selection and student engagement with course materials.

3-215 // Seeing Students as Persons-In-Progress

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters: 
     Kris Baranovic - Missouri Online
     Dr. Jana Gerard - Southeast Missouri State University
     Catt Friel - Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 215

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Sometimes we get so distracted by teaching content and assessing learning we forget students have lives outside and around our classes. This session explores blurring the lines between students' classroom lives and regular lives, leveraging their experiences to create learning situations.

3-216 // Factors that Influence the Collection, Organization, and Analysis of Data in Small, Rural Schools

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Erin Higginson - University of Missouri-Columbia

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 215

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Data use, or data-driven instruction, has predominantly been studied in the context of large, urban schools. Through these studies a series of promoting and hindering factors that influence the implementation of data-driven instruction have been identified; time, leadership, training, data literacy, comfort (self-efficacy), data coach/expert, and a school data culture. There is limited research for data-driven instruction in the context of a small, rural school. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine if the seven factors identified in large, urban school influence the perceived success (from the teacher's perspective) of their PLC team in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data in the context of a small, rural school district.

3-315 // Strategies on Being Funny in Class

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STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenters:
     Kris Baranovic - Instructional Design Manager; Missouri Online
     Dr. Brad Mitchell - Design Manager; Missouri Online
     Mark Orr - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 315

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenters + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Research supports using humor as a means of easing learning and creating engagement. This session provides several methods of bringing humor into courses without undermining the seriousness or importance of the subject matter or the instructor's authority.

3-316 // Digitally Accessible Design

VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Jessica Bridges - Instructional Designer; Limestone University

Audience: Higher Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 316 (and online via Zoom)

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Imagine not being able to navigate the world. We live in an ever-changing digital world, but what if the digital content was inaccessible? This session aims to provide foundational instruction on digital accessibility, to identify common accessibility issues, and to equip the attendees to improve the accessibility of digital content.

3-317 // Taking the Voice out of Artificial Intelligence (Literally).

VIRTUAL STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Tyler Sorg - Organizational Communication Scholar; University of Missouri-Columbia

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 317 (and online via Zoom)

MODE: Blended (Online Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

Using AI, we can help students develop speech layouts and precisely format wording to be more informative and persuasive (Yang et al., 2022). However, AI cannot create the human element of interpersonal connection (Lui-Thompkins et al., 2022). This exercise will have participants build speeches using both AI and their knowledge which will allow them to see the shortcomings of artificial intelligence but will increase their clarity on the topic.

3-318 // Instructor social presence: An essential tool for online student engagement and persistence

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. Cathryn Reardon - Instructional Designer; Missouri Online

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.; Room 318

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

This session will examine best practices in online instruction in higher education, and highlight the important role that instructor social presence plays in facilitating student learning and keeping students engaged. It will also provide strategies for student engagement in the online classroom.

1-318 // Quantitative metrics to improve the clarity of student expectation for assignments in EE3120 - Electronics

STANDARD SESSION (45 minutes)

Presenter: Dr. B.J. Shrestha - Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering; Missouri S&T

Audience: Higher Education; K-12 Education

Time and Location: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.; Room 318

MODE: Blended (Face-to-Face Presenter + Online/Face-to-Face Attendees)

This is in continuation of last years' presentation named "Baseline observation to determine quantitative metrics to improve the clarity of student expectation for assignments in EE3120 - Electronics (II)" These are reports in parts of a research project, sponsored by (CAFE) Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence, here at Missouri S&T. Among various targets of this research study, inquiring of the effect of scaffolding and collaborative approaches on students' cognitive achievement in EE3120 is one of them and analysis of these approaches quantitatively is a desirable undertaking. This presentation speaks about this matter.