Krista Benson, School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Abigail Gautreau, History

Most faculty are familiar with receiving ADA-compliance paperwork from disabled and neurodiverse students at the beginning of the semester and making accommodations. This workshop explores the practice of designing classes with the assumption that neurodiversity will be present in the classroom, either because of neurodiverse students or neurodiverse instructors. We explore some common practices in discussion-based learning and our own practices that don't accommodate neurodiversity, but instead take advantage of its presence.

Theme: Equity-Minded Approaches

Yi Zhao, Political Science

One way to enhance learning experience is to engage students in designing assignment questions for their fellow students. This method, coupled with requiring students to facilitate discussions on debatable or controversial issues, can drum up student interest and deepen their understanding. This session explores how to help students perform these tasks and avoid pitfalls as well as how to invigorate dialogues on debatable issues while maintaining civility.

Theme: Student Engagement Refresh

Jennifer Bourbina, Biomedical Sciences

Flipped courses honor diversity in prior knowledge, ways of learning, and expressing understanding. They are associated with increased student satisfaction, attainment of transferable skills, academic success, and social connection. The session will focus on designing flipped courses and will close with a troubleshooting Q & A session over potential hurtles to this pedagogical approach.

Theme: Equity-minded Approaches

Sookkyung Cho, Letitia Jap, Alex Wilson, and Abigail Walsh, Music, Theatre, and Dance

More than 40 music students participated in Community Engagement Music Project, speaking and performing for audiences at community organizations including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, a library, a veterans' home, and a homeless shelter. Students were involved in conducting site-visits, designing concert programs tailored to audiences, rehearsing, speaking about the music, and performing. Students learned how to engage and connect with a broader community through their musical identity, experience the profound impact of their craft, and develop versatility in their music-making.

Theme: Student Engagement Refresh

Hannah Seidel, Music, Theatre, and Dance

Grades, pressures, and goals are real; so is the anxiety experienced when students fear the trying and failing that can lead to understanding. How can we as teachers increase students’ comfort with discomfort? This session shares tools drawn from Dance/Movement Therapy and postmodernist structured improvisation that have helped my students (and myself) increase our willingness to keep going when we don’t have all the answers.

Theme: Student Engagement Refresh

Rachel Campbell, Sociology, Bradford Dykes, Statistics, Brian Hatzel, Physical Therapy and Athletic Training

How can students, from their first year, be supported in understanding and describing the value of their liberal education to their personal, academic, civic, and career development? In this session, we will discuss a set of first-year student success outcomes being piloted this upcoming year and how reflection might be used to evaluate student learning. Participants will then consider how reflection can be integrated into their classes as students learn to tell their educational stories.

Theme: Reclaiming a Liberal Education

Ellen Shupe, Psychology, Zsuzsanna Palmer, Writing, and Mihaela Friedlmeier, Psychology

International Virtual Exchange (IVE) is a high-impact pedagogy in which GVSU faculty collaborate with international teaching partners to design meaningful, curriculum-based exchanges between their students. In this interactive session, facilitators will introduce ways IVE can be used to enhance impact and engagement and discuss the use of virtual exchange at GVSU, highlighting recent examples and resources available to faculty interested in getting started. Participants will then be given time to work together, discussing ideas for integrating IVE into their courses.

Theme: Reclaiming a Liberal Education

Darien Ripple, School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Dauvan Mulally, Writing

This session provides an overview of the GVSU Back to Nature Learning Community (BNLC) linking INT100 – Reflect, Connect, Engage with WRT150 – Strategies in Writing which has students engage in the natural world in order to influence their sense of place, ecological literacy, and understanding of sustainability. The session will review an IRB approved research study intended to better understand the learning process of students engaged in experiential education by observing their comments and actions while interacting in nature-based learning.

Theme: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Feryal Alayont, Mathematics, Nicholas Lerma, Movement Science, Michael Scantlebury, Hospitality and Tourism Management, and Anthony Spencer, School of Communications

Undergraduate research is a transformative learning experience that not only deepens understanding but also enhances student retention, GPA, and self-efficacy. To broaden access to these benefits, course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) integrate research projects directly into the curriculum. In this session, presenters will explore various CURE models, providing insights into their implementation and success. They will share strategies to boost student engagement, buy-in, and achievement in CUREs, along with practical advice for instructors on managing the associated workload efficiently.

Theme: Student Engagement Refresh

PART A: Introducing Virtual Place-Based Learning to Integrate Theory and Practice

Christina Ponzio, Literacy, Education Foundations and Technology

Integrating theory and practice is fundamental for university learning, but can be a challenge when bound to the four walls of a classroom. This session will share a virtual place-based learning experience embedded into a course for undergraduate teaching apprentices (TAs). During each class, TAs adapted a model lesson, which they enacted via Google Meet with students at a middle school outside Detroit; we convened as a professional learning community to reflect on students learning outcomes to connect theory and practice.

PART B: The 3rd Teacher: Physical Environment Alterations and Management in the Classroom

Sara Alsum-Wassenaar, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Temporarily adjusting classroom furniture to meet social and conceptual needs can positively impact learning and social/emotional climate.  A cutting-edge example from a class taught in Fall 23 will be discussed and practical take aways will be offered.  In this session participants will engage in furniture management techniques for active learning classrooms (and other spaces) and learn methods for using floor and wall space in engaging ways. 

Theme: Experiential Session

PART A: Welcoming Students and Establishing Belonging and Presence from Day 1

Eric Covey, School of Interdisciplinary Studies

A demonstration of how students spend their first week in my courses. We begin by playing a short game, followed by a discussion of the outcome tailored to the course. On days two and three, students circulate between QR-coded stations, getting to know the course, their instructor, and classmates. I use information I collect this first week to help ensure everyone who is there on the first day is also there on the last day of class

PART B: Cultivating a Sense of Community & Civility

Elizabeth Davis, Angela Girard, and Lora Rademacher, Kirkhof College of Nursing

Re-envisioning course orientation in higher education is essential as we focus on establishing a welcoming learning environment. Utilizing critical caring pedagogy, faculty redesigned course orientations to highlight the importance of caring, civility and develop a sense of community.  Shifting from traditional review of course expectations, syllabus, and assignments, orientation begins with team building activities, small group trauma informed icebreakers and self-reflection opportunities. Changes have created a culture of civility where students can feel safe in their learning environment.

Theme: Experiential Session

Brittland DeKorver, Chemistry and Elizabeth Flandreau and Natashia Swalve, Psychology

Participants in this 45-minute experiential workshop will be introduced to UDL principles and role play what it is like to be a student in a large lecture class is designed with UDL principles. Then, participants will work to determine their own priorities for implementing UDL principles in their classrooms. Session leaders will conclude with a roundtable to discuss practical steps toward implementation.

Theme: Experiential Session

Paul Hillman and Dawn Brackmann, Management

In this 40-minute session (two 20-min sessions), faculty will be provided their own Meta Quest VR headsets to explore XR applications in education. They'll experience immersive learning environments, discover how XR can enhance teaching in their disciplines, and learn about the "XR Basic Literacy" badge through an initial orientation. Led by two faculty from a year-long Seidman Faculty Learning Community on XR integration. Capacity is limited to 25 faculty for the back-to-back sessions.

Theme: Experiential Session

PART A: Constructive Debates on Controversial Subjects

Polly Diven, Political Science

To contribute to class participation and constructive engagement, I conduct two types of debates during each semester of US foreign policy (PLS 312). Students research and present one side of a controversial issue (US aid to Ukraine, US alliance with Israel), while the rest of the class asks questions and engages the topic. In one debate type, students move across the room to register their approval of an argument. In the second type of debate, students vote on the topic before and after the debate to determine if the teams were persuasive. I will reenact these two debate types during this FTLC session.

PART B: Effective approaches to initiate a productive dialogue on challenging topics

Benjamin Feng and John Capodilupo, Biomedical Sciences, David Eick, Meghan Cai and Carmen Fernandez-Florez, Modern Languages and Literatures, and Mike Messner, Student Academic Success Center

Having productive dialogue on difficult topics in the classroom or research lab can be challenging and may limit the teaching and learning of challenging courses. We explored multiple approaches to generate productive dialogues on difficult topics in our classrooms. In this session, we present different methods that may suit distinct learning environments for in-depth discussions on challenging subjects. In addition to creating welcoming and respectful environments, mastering critical communication and research skills helps facilitate productive dialogue on hard topics.

Theme: Experiential Session

Zach DeBruine, College of Computing

How can you embrace AI and Large Language Models in your classroom? Here I share how we have used ChatGPT in my "AI Innovation" class to accelerate scientific inquiry, facilitate problem-solving, and help students develop skills they might never otherwise have acquired. Interdisciplinary discussion is welcome!

Theme: Student Engagement Refresh