COLTT 2021 SCHEDULE
PLENARY/FEATURED SPEAKER INFO LIVE SESSION SCHEDULE & INFO ON DEMAND SESSION INFO
To access all of the sessions please visit our Virtual Attendee Hub. Must be registered.
PLENARY AND FEATURED SPEAKERS
Student leadership discussion with Congressman Neguse
Description: Congressman Neguse will host a conversation with student leaders to address the power of student advocacy in shaping policy on today’s most pressing higher education issues. COLTT attendees are invited to participate in a moderated chat during the panel as Rep. Neguse and the students identify issues, discuss how to effect change in the classroom and the state Capitol, and strategize how to represent student voices within their own institutions and state-wide.
Bio: Congressman Joe Neguse was elected to the 2nd District U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 as the first African-American member of Congress in Colorado history. He is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, House Natural Resources Committee and the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
Open Education: The journey of affordability to inclusion | Amanda Coolidge
Description: Critical to sustaining Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education (HE) is recognizing educators’ use/adaptation/creation of both. OEP/OER are supported when educators have academic freedom and security, yet few HE institutions in Canada/the U.S. recognize OEP/OER in tenure and promotion (T&P). We’ll address the recognition of OEP/OER in T&P, engage participants in breakout groups to discuss barriers, introduce the University of British Columbia’s incorporation of OEP/OER recognition in T&P, and consider how to make the case for OEP/OER credit in T&P. Participants will leave better equipped to further consider and advocate for recognition of OEP/OER in T&P at their own institutions.
Bio: Amanda Coolidge is an uninvited settler on the Esquimalt and Songhees Nation of of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) Speaking Peoples. Amanda is the Director of Open Education at BCcampus in British Columbia, Canada. She leads the province's initiatives in open education from open textbooks to open pedagogy and with a team of nine other people who work across British Columbia to enhance access for students. Amanda has a Masters in educational technology and has had many years of experience as an instructional designer at various universities across Canada.
Amanda has worked in open education in Calgary, Alberta; Nairobi, Kenya and in British Columbia. When Amanda is not at work, she can often be found on the beaches and in the woods of British Columbia traveling with her family in their 32 foot fifth wheel RV. Amanda, her husband, and her son live in the RV seven months of the year and enjoy everything there is about the outdoors and the opportunity to explore across North America.
At COLTT, she will focus on impactful work in Open Education and DEI as well as the share a landmark addition of OER to faculty tenure and promotion evaluation at a BC Institution (University of British Columbia). Check out her keynote transcript, From Lost to Belonging, presented at the Open Education 2019 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
Micro-credentialing: Our next great academic and moral imperative (Micro cred | Badging track) | Don Fraser
Description: We live in a society that values credentials. Having them provides advantages--certain doors open, different conversations happen. You could argue that micro-credentials have always been around and used across society. Education is behind the curve in its adoption of micro-credentials as a way to signal skills and abilities, and it is hurting all learners, but especially new majority learners. It is time for education to take action, to credential learning and skills more frequently, more discreetly and invest in the future of micro-credentials.
Bio: As Education Design Lab’s Chief Program Officer, Don is responsible for driving and coordinating the Lab’s design challenge initiatives and building the Lab’s reputation for unique success in human-centered field testing for equitable postsecondary and workforce solutions. Don is a thought and accountability partner for our education designers, helping them meet their goals, push innovation and architecture in our design processes.
Don’s portfolio also includes providing strategic direction for the Lab’s micro-credentialing team, specifically the Lab’s vsbl platform to deliver their dynamic 21st century skills framework and digital badges, which he helped design in his previous role at the Lab.
As CPO, Don is instrumental in identifying strategic partners to amplify the Lab’s design and micro-credentialing work and associated products. In addition, Don is responsible for funder deliverables, media dissemination campaigns and success outcomes.
Don's session, Micro-credentialing: Our Next Great Academic and Moral Imperative, will challenge COLTT attendees to consider design as a top priority at any stage of micro-credentials and badging development.This session is sponsored by Participate.
WEDNESDAY, August 4, 2021
Crazed Podcast Day 1 with Matt Vogl & Debra Boeldz | 8:00 - 8:55 AM
Kick off both conference days by listening live to special COLTT episodes of the Crazed podcast. Crazed is produced by the National Mental Health Innovation Center at CU Anschutz and hosted by Matt Vogl and Debra Boeldz. The Center's mission is to find, develop and put into practice big new ideas to change the way people approach and think about mental health!
On this episode, Matt and Debra welcome Skip Rizzo, director of the Center for Creative Technologies at USC, where he has led the world in developing tech based tools such as VR, AI, interactive chat-bots etc. to treat conditions like PTSD and sexual trauma. The discussion will focus on his cutting edge work on using technology to enhance education and simulate real-world environments to help people practice improving diagnoses and having difficult conversations with patients.
Session 1 (50 min) | 9:00 - 9:50 AM
Ungrading: Supporting student learning by grading less | Joni Dunlap
Co-Presenter(s): Alexis M. Stoddard
Affiliation: University of Colorado Denver
Description: Students’ experiences in school reinforce grades as the primary educational goal. When grades are involved, however, students are less likely to deeply explore the subject matter and take risks—activities required for learning. Grading requires uniformity, stifling students’ creativity and denying their diversity. As an alternative to conventional summative grading practices, we implemented an ungrading assessment approach that focuses on formative feedback, guided self-assessment, and continual improvement. We will share our reasoning for moving to an ungraded approach in our online courses. We will showcase our specific strategies for making this alternative assessment approach work with and for our students, including how we used learning platforms and tools, along with student feedback. This session is appropriate for instructors who are interested in using alternative assessment approaches with their students.
Let’s talk trash: Strategies for creating non-disposable assignments (OER track) | Nicole Jobin
Co-Presenter(s): Rachael Deagman Simonetta and Caroline Sinkinson
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Let’s talk trash! Picture the recycle bin at the end of term, overflowing with assignments that students hastily trash on the way out the door. What if we could reimagine how that pile could become non-disposable? Led in the spirit of Open Pedagogy where learners collaborate to make knowledge open and available, we’ll share stories of how we leveraged students’ intellectual energy and technology to create non-disposable assignments. In this session, we’ll brainstorm ideas for how to turn discardable assignments into more sustainable materials that support student learning and ownership of their intellectual endeavors. We invite participants to join our breakout sessions to share their own stories or to begin imagining how they might transform their current assignments into more durable, non-disposable projects that promote active, experiential, and deep learning.
Mindful feedback: Contemplative strategies and student belonging | Dawn Colley
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: The creation of a type of embodied, energetic, and compassionate presence within binary code could be perceived as a challenge. One way to approach this challenge is through mindfulness and an intention to be fully human inside of and through an LMS. In this session, we will talk about contemplative and mindfulness strategies to develop or refine the ways in which we give feedback to students. I will be talking about the use of text, audio, and video-based options that create a greater sense of community and compassion, which translates into students wanting to read and respond to feedback. Our focus will be on understanding the different ways in which feedback can feel triggering to students so that we can create personal strategies to cultivate conversations with learners about their growth that are both supportive and welcomed. Participants can expect to finish the session with a greater understanding of how feedback provides information to students and can create a sense of belonging. We will brainstorm when different types of feedback (text, audio, or video) would be most appropriate.
Session 2 (20 min) | 10:00 - 10:20 AM
Faculty development program to enhance belonging | Allison O'Grady
Co-Presenter(s): Marcel Thomas
Affiliation: University of Denver
Description: Faculty need to have community! Join us for a short presentation and discussion on how DU's University College has re-invigorated our adjunct faculty community. We did this through the delivery of workshops that allow our adjunct faculty to earn credentials and monetary awards. These workshops are crowd-sourced and create a fun environment for adjuncts to learn and connect outside of the classroom. We have the data to support program success.
A how-to guide: Transitioning skill-based assessments to the online platform | Sara Wettergreen
Co-Presenter(s): Ashley Huntsberry and Toral Patel
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz
Description: In this session, we will share teaching tips and lessons learned from our experience in converting an in-person, skills-based assessment to the virtual environment. Many healthcare education programs had previously adopted skills-based assessments to be completed in-person. The University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences shifted its in-person communication evaluations with standardized patients to virtual methods. This session will share teaching tips, explain how to conduct skills-based assessments in the virtual environment, and facilitate discussion amongst attendees both in small and large groups. The session will also share comparative student outcome data between virtual and in-person assessment methods.
Quick checks for inclusively designed academic materials | Catherine Stager
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Front Range Community College/Boulder County Campus
Description: Anyone who is creating digital content should be aware of accessibility challenges and / or the Inclusive Design principles that can help eliminate these challenges. Whether the content is an email, a Posting or LMS content, the principles of Inclusive design can help ensure that everyone who interacts with that content will find it usable. No one intends to create barriers. Understanding Inclusive Design can help anyone create information that is more usable by everyone. Whether this is an introduction for you, or you have some finer points you might like clarified, this session is offered to help anyone understand how to make sure your message is what is delivered - without barriers.
Session 3 (20 min) | 10:30 - 10:50 AM
Building community and fostering success by recognizing student type | Margaret Carmack
Co-Presenter(s): Amanda Herwatic
Affiliation: Colorado Technical University
Description: Our institution has recently begun to organize students into sections of their first course based on student type, as identified through the admission’s process. This has increased student success rates and improved student engagement. This was done by addressing online learning isolation for faculty and students. And helping faculty effectively “read” the classroom and create impactful instructional strategies based on this information. Our session will focus on our strategies in:
o Learning to read the online classroom.
o Developing instructional strategies based on what is seen in the classroom
o Keeping students engaged in the online classroom.
o Learning to read the online classroom.
o Developing instructional strategies based on what is seen in the classroom
o Keeping students engaged in the online classroom.
Improve reading by giving the reader control over the formatting of the text | Adobe | Rick Treitman
Co-Presenter(s): Donna Caldwell and Jason Katsoff
Affiliation: Adobe
Description: To help people read PDFs on mobile devices, Adobe now offers Liquid Mode in Acrobat Reader, with controls for not only reflowing the PDF on the mobile screen, but giving the reader control over the formatting of the text so that they may customize their reading experience. Rick Treitman, Entrepreneur in Residence at Adobe will talk about research to date by Adobe and some of our partners, Liquid Mode, and our plans for moving forward in with both reading research and reading tools with the goal of improving reading for everyone.
PLENARY SESSION | 11:00 AM - 11:50 PM
Student leadership discussion | Congressman Joe Neguse
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: US Congressman, 2nd District Colorado
Description: Congressman Neguse will host a conversation with student leaders to address the power of student advocacy in shaping policy on today’s most pressing higher education issues. COLTT attendees are invited to participate in a moderated chat during the panel as Rep. Neguse and the students identify issues, discuss how to effect change in the classroom and the state Capitol, and strategize how to represent student voices within their own institutions and state-wide.
Lunch Discussion (50 min) | 12:00 - 12:50 PM
Plenary lunch discussion | Congressman Joe Neguse
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Congressman
Description: Congressman Neguse will host a conversation with student leaders to address the power of student advocacy in shaping policy on today’s most pressing higher education issues. COLTT attendees are invited to participate in a moderated chat during the panel as Rep. Neguse and the students identify issues, discuss how to effect change in the classroom and the state Capitol, and strategize how to represent student voices within their own institutions and state-wide.
Accessibility & UDL: Unifying efforts in a resource constrained system | Brad Grabham
Co-Presenter(s): Laura Hamrick, Michael Williamson, Kate Miller, and Leyna Bencomo
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: We’ve heard the call--we’re making our educational content accessible, through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Is that enough? No! Could we be smarter about our approach? Yes! We’ll share with you current initiatives underway on our campuses and how we’re meeting our goal of creating rich learning experiences for all in terms of curriculum design, training and support plans, and equitable assessment tools. Our hope is that you’ll be inspired to combine forces on your own campus to propel accessibility and UDL efforts and positively impact student learning.
Session 4 (50 min) | 1:00 - 1:50 PM
Teaching with empathy | Dr. Trish Elley
Co-Presenter(s): Dr. Lynette Cornelius
Affiliation: Colorado Technical University/Business
Description: 2020 has proven to be a challenging time for higher education faculty. Students and faculty both have felt the tremendous stress of the pandemic and how to cope with the stress. There has been a significant digital divide in the country and we have seen this especially with marginalized groups. This session will provide educators with strategies for teaching with empathy. This session will discuss the tools and adjustments necessary to make education more accessible to students. Now more than ever, many of our students have ended up using their smartphones for assignments and to tune into synchronous discussions. As educators, what can we do to better support our students through the use of smartphones and to help them achieve academic success?
Micro-credentialing: Our next great academic and moral imperative (Micro cred | Badging track) | Don Fraser
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Education Design Lab - Chief Program Officer
Description: We live in a society that values credentials. Having them provides advantages--certain doors open, different conversations happen. You could argue that micro-credentials have always been around and used across society. Education is behind the curve in its adoption of micro-credentials as a way to signal skills and abilities, and it is hurting all learners, but especially new majority learners. It is time for education to take action, to credential learning and skills more frequently, more discreetly and invest in the future of micro-credentials.
UCCS Writing Program’s Journey Implementing Multimodal Formats | Jarret Krone
Co-Presenter(s): Jason Katsoff
Affiliation: University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, Adobe
Description: UCCS rhetoric and writing instructor Jarret Krone and Adobe Customer Success Manager Jason Katsoff discuss patterns of strengths and shortcomings along with pedagogical recommendations stemming from a “Multimodal Artifact Assessment” that was done during the Spring 2021 semester. Learn about our program’s journey adopting approaches for teaching multimodal composition— the highlights, challenges, and the possible path forward for the program. The findings and recommendations shared are informed by an assessment of about 80 multimodal projects composed by first-year writing students.
Session 5 (50 min) | 2:00 - 2:50 PM
Get hands-on with hubs: Explore, create, and get immersed with virtual spaces! | Karen Crouch
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: If the idea of creating a virtual space or using immersive technology for teaching and learning sounds daunting to you, come explore Mozilla Hubs. In this fun, interactive mini-workshop you will make a virtual room to use later. Mozilla Hubs is an open-source web application that is VR compatible, and accessible in 2D on computers or tablets on every browser and mobile device. A virtual space allows participants to interact with others as avatars, create and move objects, upload media and more in the virtual environment. The platform can be used in any subject, for example students can display their final artwork in a gallery, meet to solve a scientific problem in a conference space, visit a historical site, or even explore the galaxy. Get ideas to boost student engagement and enhance creativity in and out of the classroom!
Avoid boring and repetitive “discussions” and put some joy back into teaching and learning | Brian Verdine, Ph.D
Co-Presenter(s): Bob Ertischek, J.D.
Affiliation: Yellowdig
Description: Whether you teach face-to-face, hybrid, or online, we know that there’s a lot to be desired from a traditional LMS discussion board. Try as we might, the struggle is real to get students to ask and answer questions, explore the nuances of topics, and challenge each others’ thinking, let alone help each other tackle the most difficult material. It’s time to consider Yellowdig, a virtual classroom that leverages an understanding of human behavior and gaming technology with a patented point system to incentivize active student participation. The digital platform has a modern social media interface that even lets you and your students add drawings and mathematical formulas, record videos, and more. Yellowdig easily integrates with any LMS or can be used as a stand-alone web app, plus it’s FERPA compliant and roadmapped to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Check us out!
Landscape across Colorado panel discussion: CCCS, DU, Arapahoe CC (Micro cred | Badging track) | Noah Geisel, Mike Macklin, Bianca Kumar, & Eric Dunker
Co-Panelist(s): Mike Macklin, CCCS | Bianca Kumar, DU | Eric Dunker, Arapahoe Community College
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Badgescaping: Surveying Some of Colorado’s Microcredentials
There are various Colorado organizations at myriad stages of implementing microcredentials. This non-exhaustive survey of our state’s landscape includes stakeholders ranging from people experiencing the incubation stages to those iterating on their second and third efforts. The panel will seek to reflect on best practices learned both the easy and hard ways, as well as explore questions few think to ask but all of us ought to. Live participants will be encouraged to submit questions at the start of the session and the majority of our time together will focus panelists on responding to the learning needs of participants.
Session 6 (50 min) | 3:00 - 3:50 PM
Adapt, pivot, straddle, stretch, teach! | Michelle Colarelli
Co-Presenter(s): Wendy Madigosky
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz
Description: Did you find that the on-going challenge of designing for in-person, remote, and online learning environments in an integrated fashion meant that a ‘One Size Fits All’ approach translates to a ‘One Size Fits None’ reality. Did you adapt and pivot in so many ways that you found yourself straddling multiple pedagogies? This year challenged us to create a hybrid remote online experience using Canvas and Zoom with goals for returning to In-person Spring 2022. At the CU Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education (CIPE)we have created a successful hybrid remote online learning environment. With a cohort of ~800 students, our course design stretched itself to include asynchronous participation from long distance learners around the world. We successfully integrated them within a group paced sync/async hybrid schedule. We may now be able to meet the needs of our various stakeholders even better! Join us to explore HyFlex course design models for teaching.
Digital MD: Social media and digital scholarship in medicine | Vincent Fu
Co-Presenter(s): Matthew Zuckerman
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz
Description: Discover the Digital MD-explore how digital scholarship is both relevant and valuable to students in every discipline—even in medicine. Join Dr. Matthew Zuckerman, faculty at CU School of Medicine and Vincent Fu, fourth-year medical student-turned educator in uncovering the value and impact of digitally-enhanced learning. Seventy-five percent of medical students use social media and practicing physicians are increasingly utilizing social media as a means to connect with patients, seek advice from peers, and expand their fund of knowledge. At the same time, patients also desire increased digital access to physicians. As telehealth becomes increasingly widespread and the impact of social media continually grows join us as we share our journeys in digital media. Learn about the role of Digital MD--a novel curriculum for medical education, and the increasing importance of digital scholarship in our future.
Badge'splaining: 3 lessons learned with CU Boulder registrar (Micro cred | Badging track) | Kristi Wold-McCormick
Co-Presenter(s): Noah Geisel
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Badgesplaining: 3 Lessons Offering a Macro Overview of CU Boulder’s Micro-credentials
CU Boulder began exploring micro-credentials at a centralized, organizational level nearly three years ago and was able to share at last year’s COLTT that the effort had received Financial Futures funding that would allow the work to grow the support of a full-time Micro-credentials Program Manager. This has afforded CU Boulder to move quickly from ideation to full-scale implementation, recently launching a proposal process open to for-credit and non-credit micro-credentials that may be proposed by both academic and non-academic units. In this rapid fire session, University Registrar Kristi Wold-McCormick is joined by the Micro-credentials Program Manager Noah Geisel to reflect on 3 big lessons learned so far on Boulder’s micro-credentials journey.
THURSDAY August 5, 2021
Crazed Podcast Day 2 Matt Vogl & Debra Boeldz | 8:00 - 8:55 AM
Kick off both conference days by listening live to special COLTT episodes of the Crazed podcast. Crazed is produced by the National Mental Health Innovation Center at CU Anschutz and hosted by Matt Vogl and Debra Boeldz. The Center's mission is to find, develop and put into practice big new ideas to change the way people approach and think about mental health!
Listen in on an enlightening interview with two undergraduate interns at the National Mental Health Innovation Center, Zach Smith and Alex Smith. Alex and Zach will be discussing the mental health impacts of covid looking forward, not backwards. They will be talking about the anxiety of returning to in-person classes, learning to be social again, and how lingering uncertainty and fear may impact their well-being, social interactions and success as learners.
PLENARY SESSION | 9:00 - 9:50 AM
Open Education: The journey of affordability to inclusion | Amanda Coolidge
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: BCcampus
Description: Even before the shift to online learning, instructors have struggled to find instructional materials that are both rigorous and reflect the broad diversity of students. Textbooks often center content and narratives unrepresentative of the students using them. (Prescott, 2020) According to Melanie Forstall Lemoine, Ph.D. of Higher Ed Connects, a student’s culture impacts their learning. In fact, culture has an impact on the way a student receives information, perceives it, and communicates. Culture shapes a student’s beliefs and way of thinking which plays a role in their overall education. To ensure classrooms are equitable places, colleges and universities need to not only acknowledge this, but also engage in it. (Lemoine, 2019). Join Amanda Coolidge, Director of Open Education at BCcampus, as she shares examples of inclusive open educational resources (OER) that are relevant to students’ lived experiences and how instructors can engage in the creation of OER to ensure their students are successful in their learning experiences. Amanda will share the virtual space with instructor, Alegria Ribadeneira of Colorado State University, Pueblo who will share with the audience how she adapted her learning materials to ensure students had affordable, accessible and inclusive OER.
Session 1 (20 min) | 10:00 - 10:20 AM
OER: To the textbook and beyond! (OER track) | David Bourne
Co-Presenter(s): Michael Lampe, Natalia Verara, Maureen Stabio, Radu Moldovan, Gregory Glazner, and Matthew Rustici
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz,
Description: There’s no question that Open Educational Resources (OER) make learning (and college) more affordable for students. Yet many faculty have been slow to adopt let alone embrace OER. How can we open their eyes to the possibilities? We, on the Anschutz Medical Campus, secured funding from the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and our provost to educate faculty about the benefits of OER, how to get started using OER in one’s courses, and OER.
Deconstructing discussion boards: A design sprint! | Rebecca Cottrell
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Metropolitan State University of Denver
Decscription: Are your discussion boards feeling stale and redundant? Do you want to incorporate more active learning and inclusive pedagogies in your online participation activities? Come join us for a design sprint session intended to challenge the status quo of the “post once, reply twice” discussion board!
You’ll be working in small groups, taking on the task of deconstructing our use of discussion boards and designing an innovative solution in just 10 minutes! You’ll collaborate with other colleagues to share expertise and integrate creative thinking as we attempt to beat the clock and develop online activities that are inclusive and engaging! This session will model the use of Design Justice Principles.
Esports in Colorado Higher Education - More than just a game | Danielle Rourke, Senior Higher Education Strategist - Dell Technologies
Co-Presenter(s): Spencer Ellis, Director of Educational Innovation Colorado Department of Higher Education | Joshua Sharp, Director of Esports at CU Gaming | Lindsay Okonek, Esports Coordinator at Colorado College
Affiliation: Dell Technologies
Decscription: Why should educators be interested in esports? Isn’t it all just video games? Yes…and so much more. Over 70% of students identify as gamers. Esports programs often engage students who haven’t participated in other campus activities. Involvement in esports programs enhances and grows global workforce competencies such as critical thinking, communication, and teamwork. The rapid growth of the esports industry is creating jobs such as: coaches, developers, broadcasters, social media managers, marketing staff, event managers, and more. Join us to learn about academic applications of esports and hear first-hand how Colorado collegiate esports programs are changing the lives of their students.
Session 2 (50 min) | 10:30 - 11:20 AM
Being the first: Experiences of OER early adopters/creators (OER track) | Steel Wagstaff
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Pressbooks
Description: Being the first to do anything has its challenges. Being the first to introduce OER at a campus is a big challenge. Being the first to introduce OER by creating or heavily adapting OER is a MASSIVE challenge, but it’s one to which many brave and courageous faculty have risen. We can learn a lot from their experiences and apply that knowledge to make the leap to creating OER for the first time less terrifying.
This panel will feature faculty members who heavily adapted existing OER or created a resource from scratch, whether it be open textbook, ancillary material, or courseware.
This panel will feature faculty members who heavily adapted existing OER or created a resource from scratch, whether it be open textbook, ancillary material, or courseware.
Creating a sense of belonging with NameCoach | Neha Bandekar
Co-Presenter(s): Lisha Bustos, Skaggs School of Pharmacy
Affiliation: Namecoach
Description: NameCoach is an easy-to-use tool that enables students, faculty and staff to record how their name should be pronounced, identify their personal pronouns as well as provide their honorifics, preferred names etc. This session will go over the functionality of NameCoach and leveraging the tool to empower individuals in the community by creating a sense of belonging.
Hostage negotiations for instructional designers | Cory Pavicich
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Coursera
Description: Your faculty client has all the power; you have all the responsibility. Your delivery deadlines loom, and the work isn’t getting done. How might you use empathy and curiosity to de-escalate conflict, build trust, and deliver great learning experiences?
As laid out by former FBI negotiator Chris Voss in his book, Never Split the Difference, this session adapts modern hostage negotiation techniques to resolve difficult learning design situations and drive creative discovery conversations.
This session will offer ample opportunities for attendees to use–or witness attendees’ use of–these techniques. Everyone is welcome, including non-learning designers. Both wallflowers and eager participants are encouraged to join.
As laid out by former FBI negotiator Chris Voss in his book, Never Split the Difference, this session adapts modern hostage negotiation techniques to resolve difficult learning design situations and drive creative discovery conversations.
This session will offer ample opportunities for attendees to use–or witness attendees’ use of–these techniques. Everyone is welcome, including non-learning designers. Both wallflowers and eager participants are encouraged to join.
Session 3 (20 min) | 11:30 - 11:50 AM
You need to unmute yourself: Video conferencing mishaps & comebacks | Amy Arnold
Co-Presenter(s): Nicole Dayney, Training Coordinator
Affiliation: University of Colorado Denver/University of Colorado - System Office
Description: Think you’ve learned all there is to know about successfully hosting and managing video conferences and meetings? Come to this eye-opening session to learn about common mishaps in video conferencing and hear advice on how to avoid these mistakes in the future—if you've seen the 'lawyer cat' incident, we can promise you that after our session, you won't show up as a cat in your future video meetings... unless you want to!
Session 3 Workshops (90 min) | 11:30 AM - 12:50 PM
Session 3 also incorporates two 90-minute workshops that begin at 11:30am and run through a 10 minute break and on through a 50 minute lunch.
Making it count: Recognizing open educational practices (OEP) and resources (OER) in promotion & tenure workshop | Amanda Coolidge
Co-Presenter(s): Ben Harnke (he/his), University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus; Caroline Sinkinson (she/her), University of Colorado Boulder; Leslie J. Reynolds (she/her), University of Colorado Boulder; Melissa H. Cantrell (she/her), University of Colorado Boulder; Merinda McLure (she/her), University of Colorado Boulder; Michael Lampe (he/his), University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus
Affiliation: BCcampus
Description: Critical to sustaining Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education (HE) is recognizing educators’ use/adaptation/creation of both. OEP/OER are supported when educators have academic freedom and security, yet few HE institutions in Canada/the U.S. recognize OEP/OER in tenure and promotion (T&P). We’ll address the recognition of OEP/OER in T&P, engage participants in breakout groups to discuss barriers, introduce the University of British Columbia’s incorporation of OEP/OER recognition in T&P, and consider how to make the case for OEP/OER credit in T&P. Participants will leave better equipped to further consider and advocate for recognition of OEP/OER in T&P at their own institutions.
Making headlines, memes, & GIFs! Creative pedagogy and dynamic engagement workshop | Tre Wentling
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Description: Do headlines spark your interest? Have you shared a meme with others or imitated it yourself? How about the GIF that made you laugh out loud? In this interactive session, participants will experience the very assignment that students are expected complete. Participants will also learn the difference between memes and gifs. They will also try out the online tools that support creating them (e.g., Canva, Imgur). Making Headlines, Memes, & GIFs (MHMGs) is a creative assignment that promotes active reading, writing practice, and oral presentations while giving students agency and the promise for robust in-class discussions. MHMGs advances critical thinking about digital life and being a conscious digital citizen.
Lunch Discussions (50 min) | 12:00 - 12:50 PM
Expert panel: Collaborative learning experience design across colleges | Sophia Strickfaden
Co-Presenter(s): Nancy Denton, Grace Whiteaker, Kathy Sindt, and Amanda Hardman
Affiliation: Colorado Community Colleges Online
Description: We all know the importance of collaboration, but how well we collaborate is key to success. Join our panel of instructional design gurus from the Colorado Community College System to learn how we worked together to implement an organizational change: centralizing online services while decentralizing academic ownership among 13 separately-accredited colleges. Our intentional approach with sharing educational development skills, institutional knowledge, and conscientious energy throughout this transition made all the difference. We’ll share our data-informed decision-making to combine course templates and redesign navigation, and welcome participant questions, advice, and networking in this liminal space between student-centered learning theories and logistical realities.
Session 4 (20 min) | 1:00 - 1:20 PM
Driving student-centered collaboration with open-ended discussion at MITx | FeedbackFruits | Mozes Janse
Co-Presenter(s):N/A
Affiliation: Feedback Fruits
Description: Collaboration is one of the most effective ways of ensuring student engagement, but maintaining the principles of collaborative learning in online settings can be difficult. Effective online discussions can replicate the physical classroom and leverage student interactions to maintain collaborative practices. Join the session to: - Learn how to set up an effective discussion activity in an online setting using FeedbackFruits Discussion Assignment tool - Explore the diverse ways in which the tool can help you boost student engagement - Find out about the use case of MITx, where the instructors from MITx used the Discussion Assignment to scale student collaboration in a blended learning course
Understanding the purpose of realistic classroom feedback | Dr. Derek Sedlack
Co-Presenter(s): Dr. Brent Wilson
Affiliation: Colorado Technical University
Description: Create a more inclusive course assignment where modern student can understand and relate to realistic feedback over exclusive academic verbiage. Learn how to better connect with under-prepared students that respond to real-world environments over traditional sterile academic assignments. Learn how we designed a more open project with realistic feedback to create a more inclusive environment based on broad student backgrounds and qualifications.
A pedagogy of care in online learning | Nicolas Pares
Co-Presenter(s): Mandi Singleton
Affiliation: University of Denver
Description: When we look to design and guide learning with care for our students' well-being and individuality, we can move towards fostering a sense of belonging. To do this, instructors and designers might take the time to honor their student’s individuality, backgrounds, or needs within the class setting. We might also treat our topics or learning activities more dynamically in response to our students' needs or intrigue. Come learn how we humanize online connection and belonging in our design and delivery to move students beyond engagement and toward a deeper motivation for learning.
Session 5 (50 min) | 1:30 - 2:20 PM
Open educational resources: An interactive workshop on OER SUCCESS strategies workshop | Lynnane George
Co-Presenter(s): Angela Dodson, Instructional Designer, Faculty Resource Center and Daniel Benishek, Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Affiliation: University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Description:You may have heard the term “Open Educational Resources,” but what are OER, and how can they benefit students (and you)? OER are free resources you can use, adapt, and re-share to help teach your classes more effectively and at a lower cost to students! This interactive workshop introduces easy steps for implementing OER into a course, department, or program through the OER SUCCESS model:
Start by examining OER
Use OER repositories and rubrics to locate sources
Choose OER conducive to your teaching style
Customize by searching, evaluating, and adding OER
Educate students and colleagues about OER
Survey student engagement, achievement, and retention rates
Seek assistance from OER users and Commons
Start by examining OER
Use OER repositories and rubrics to locate sources
Choose OER conducive to your teaching style
Customize by searching, evaluating, and adding OER
Educate students and colleagues about OER
Survey student engagement, achievement, and retention rates
Seek assistance from OER users and Commons
Adapting a hands-on, group-based lab course to an online format | Janet Casagrand
Co-Presenter(s): Francoise Bentley
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Do you want to adapt or create an online lab course that replicates in-person learning experiences, peer interactions, group work or faculty feedback? Do you wonder how students can effectively engage in weekly online group work while encouraging individual accountability? We will discuss how we transitioned a hands-on, group-based lab course emphasizing the scientific method to an online course. Here is what we learned including maintaining key learning objectives, and student-student and student-faculty interactions along with our approach and technologies, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Participants will respond interactively to questions and brainstorm strategies for their own courses.
Cartooning as an effective tool for teaching experimental design | Aimee Bernard
Co-Presenter(s): Scott Thompson, Postdoctoral Fellow
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz/University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Description: Cartooning can be used as an interactive learning tool to enhance and clarify understanding of complex experimental methods. Cartooning in this way encourages students to think critically about the experimental design process. Using MURAL, a collaborative and digital platform, allowed my students to work together in small groups on the same concept map or cartoon. Cartoons were created from assigned readings using a collaborative and digital platform to visualize one’s understanding of the experimental procedure. Cartoons created on the same experimental method by different individuals are rarely identical, thus exposing the entire class to a diversity of understanding. Further, the digital nature of this approach enables participants to dynamically edit illustrated elements to incorporate new ideas and understanding gained from discussion. During this session participants will be given access to MURAL and asked to work together in small groups to cartoon an experimental design prompt. At the end of the timed period all of the participants will come back to the larger group and share and discuss their cartoons.
Session 6 (20 min) | 2:30 - 2:50 PM
Is scalability enough? A deeper look at Inclusivity in online programs | Kaitlyn Rye
Co-Presenter(s): Jennifer Bohn, Program and Marketing Coordinator and Abby Rose, Course Coordinator
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Are all online programs inclusive in nature? Is technology the answer to higher education's access issues? Join CU Boulder's Data Science team to examine how scalability and inclusivity intersect in the development of fully online programs. Delve into specific examples from the newly launched MS in Data Science on Coursera: from policy and curriculum to marketing and student services. Explore the pivots and collaboration required in the daily practice of balancing learner needs and administrative realities. This interactive session will allow time for participants to consider implications for their own work and strategies to apply lessons learned at their own institutions.
How to lead high-impact focus groups with students – virtually! | Genevieve Spering
Co-Presenter(s): Keeley Powers, CSU Online Student Ambassador
Affiliation: Colorado State University
Description: Do you want to better understand the experiences and perspectives of your students? Or are you looking for an inexpensive and easily executed approach to gather candid and meaningful student feedback? Join us to hear how a CSU Online student and a staff member created a simple, yet effective process to facilitate high-impact focus groups virtually. Discover best practices and find out how to use focus groups to assess student satisfaction, resource utilization, and determine actionable steps to improve the student experience. As a result, you'll walk away from this session feeling empowered and excited to host virtual focus groups using Zoom and Google Forms.
PRIZE DRAWING | 3:00 PM
Stick around to win some awesome prizes - must be present to win!
ON DEMAND SESSIONS
Leveraging power of co-creation to drive student-centered collaboration at MITx | Mozes Janse
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: FeedbackFruits
Description: Collaboration remains an important foundation for effective, engaging teaching, but maintaining collaborative learning in online settings can be difficult. Technology can help combat this difficulty, but in order for this help to be substantial, digital solutions must be a product of meaningful co-creation between educators and tool designers. Join the session to learn about the co-creative roots of FeedbackFruits' pedagogical tools and the ways in which they helped educators at MITx maintain the elements of open-ended learning in online courses through encouraging student-centered collaboration.
Microsoft Word – I didn’t know Word could do that! | Catherine Stager
Co-Presenter(s): Dustin Raiken
Affiliation: Front Range Community College/Boulder County Campus
Description: Would you ever limit yourself to driving a car in first or second gear? Then why do the same with other everyday technologies? Many of us use tools like Microsoft Word, yet we don’t take advantage of ways that can improve overall efficiency—not just for ourselves but for those with whom we share our work. Yep, that’s right. A lot of helpful features, which we highlight in our “IDK Word” guides, can also make our work more inclusively designed. Come to our session and shift into higher gear.
We are lucky to have YOU! Messages to foster a sense of belonging in class. | Sara Avila
Co-Presenter(s): Alpna Bhatia
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: “I see who you are, I value and respect you, and I want to share this learning experience with you” is the primary message that we have tried to get across to our online students during the Pandemic Era. However, the need to belong is timeless and ubiquitous. The lack of sense of belonging results in worse academic outcomes and even poor health! We have found that being intentional, having a target, and being authentic are essential. We will share examples of our strategies to foster belonging as well as our approach, which can apply to online, face-to-face, and hybrid frameworks.
Using VR to create content for the classroom | Dan Tinianow
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Arizona Global Campus
Description: Your students don’t have to have their own VR headset or access to a VR lab to engage in virtual educational experiences. In this session, the presenter will demonstrate how to use an Oculus Quest headset to create an immersive video of a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. In addition, a list of other Oculus Quest VR apps with potential for classroom applications will be shared. Note: Use of Oculus Quest requires connecting the device to a Facebook account.
Creating a manipulatable activity for small group, online breakout discussion | Janet Casagrand
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Do your students struggle with understanding the organization of pathways or processes? Do you want to create an online activity that is more interactive or has objects for students to manipulate? This short presentation will illustrate how to utilize activities with movable objects to allow students to test their understanding of the organization of pathways. Participants are invited to discuss how they might utilize a similar or alternative approach in their own courses and to consider what pathways their students may struggle with understanding.
Emotional response VR avatars for communication training | Clint Carlson
Co-Presenter(s): Amisha Singh
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz/University of Colorado - School of Dental Medicine
Description: Virtual reality (VR) allows users to immerse themselves in different places, eras, roles—real or imagined, but what if we were to harness VR’s power to evoke emotional responses and help students learn to develop soft communication skills? We will demo the Virtual Training Suite to create interactive conversation training experiences around topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion; customer/patient information gathering; and de-escalation techniques. These experiences can be deployed and shared with large groups on all types of devices, in Canvas shells, and can be used online or offline, in-person, and remote. Let’s explore VR’s potential and dive into creating these experiences yourself!
Identity journey maps: A geospatial road trip of math content identity | Dennis DeBay
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Denver/CU Denver
Description: “I’m just not a math person.” Know someone who says this? Perhaps you? Many math classrooms incorporate a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. It’s no wonder why many students are turned off by the subject—they lack a connection to the content that many teachers possess: a love for mathematics. We refer to this as their “mathematical content identity.” Come hear how we are using geospatial story-telling software (StoryMaps - https://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/) to help students explore their mathematical identities and consider ways to use these journals as entry points to engage their own students in believing they too have an identity and connection with math.
Assessing student perception and program need on higher education environment | Rezwanul Parvez
Co-Presenter(s): Brandi Gonzales and Alysha Tarantino
Affiliation: Colorado State University
Description: Our team was tasked with investigating the demand for a 2+2 program in Agriculture with Colorado State University and students’ perceptions about the institution. We conducted an extensive needs analysis, which included surveying Northeastern Colorado high school and community college students to better understand their attitudes with respect to higher education (especially in Agricultural sciences) and future career goals. Learn how our findings inform our concept-to-launch framework for vetting program opportunities to better serve the needs of the community and improve collaboration across academic institutions. We’ll share what went right, what we would do differently next time, and how we will use the data we obtained.
3-2-1 Exit tickets go Online | Alpna Bhatia
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: How do you know if your students are learning, and how can you be sure it’s what you intended? The 3-2-1 exit ticket strategy is an easy way to find out while encouraging students to reflect: Students write three things they learned in a lesson, two things they liked or two interesting facts, and one question they still have about the lesson. Hear about my experience—positive and negative, of setting up this activity as low-stake assessment and feedback throughout my course using Google Workspace integration with Canvas.
Lessons learned: 5 ways to improve our Post-Covid teaching | Len Scrogan
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Denver
Description: Remote teaching and learning have been tough experiences for instructors and students alike. What have we learned that we can easily carry forward or stop doing after the ‘Rona’ is gone? In our session, we’ll identify five specific, practical, and doable tips based on recent student feedback and direct observation. We invite attendees to share what they’ve learned from their experiences and will collect a basket of best ideas on a wiki.
The dreaded peer reviews | Alpna Bhatia
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Giving and receiving feedback can be difficult, especially if it’s with classmates. Many students already struggle with writing, and adding peer review makes it a dreaded activity. We as educators know that peer review assignments help students develop the ability to think critically and communicate thoughtfully and constructively. Hear about the framework we created to guide our students through the peer review process and help them realize these benefits.
Video teaching assignments to promote deeper learning | Robert Flaherty
Co-Presenter(s): Anastasia Hueffner
Affiliation: USAF Academy
Description: Reading textbooks and attending class don't always translate into deep learning. How can we engage students' creativity and get them to understand concepts at a deeper level? This session introduces a student video assignment that requires them to teach concepts to others and record their conversations. We invite the audience to discuss challenges across disciplines for this type of assignment and help crowdsource ideas for improvement.
How did you do that? Using interactive tech to teach clinical skills online | Kristine Gauthier
Co-Presenter(s): Ryan Cloyd, MA, College of Nursing Instructional Design and Glenda Robinson
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz/University of Colorado - Anschutz Medical Campus
Description: Skill attainment requires designing student-centered opportunities to perform both cognitive and psychomotor tasks, which traditionally requires a hands-on approach to practice and demonstrate skill acquisition. Our interactive session will explore how University of Colorado College of Nursing faculty and instructional designers collaborated to develop an online advanced pediatric physical assessment course using Articulate Rise and Storyline. We will share lessons learned with hopes that session attendees will be able to take the skills we, and our students, learned and apply them with their students.
Keeping students (and instructors) on task with Microsoft To Do | Dan Tinianow
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Arizona Global Campus
Description: There are many reasons students are late with class assignments, or fail to submit them at all. One reason is forgetfulness. Some students may be motivated to use a task manager to avoid this, but most will not. This session will show you how to create a task list to keep students on time and share it with them so they can use it on almost any platform. Microsoft To Do is a task manager, formerly known as Wunderlist that is free to use and available on multiple platforms. This session will demonstrate how to set up and share a student task list to help students stay on task. The same techniques can also be used if you supervise faculty in a course.
Technology and laboratory resources in the library | Mozhdeh Saffari-Parizi
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: University of Colorado Denver
Description: Imagine the challenges faced by an academic library providing resources and services for three separate and distinct institutions. Now throw a pandemic into the mix. Auraria Library stepped up its game and has expanded its offerings to include experimental and laboratory tools and equipment to support lab courses that were offered remotely during COVID. Hear about our iterative journey to better meet the wide range of needs of students, staff, and faculty on the Auraria Campus.
Campus web accessibility: Exploring accessibility, inclusion & belonging | Marisha Manfre
Co-Presenter(s): Kevin Stiffler
Affiliation: Red Rocks Community College
Description: Join us to discuss how accessibility is key to addressing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. During this session, we will connect accessibility to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and equity, and we’ll brainstorm approaches to increase campus-wide digital accessibility. We will share examples of student-created works, departmental OER projects, syllabi accessibility reviews, etc. to give you a jump-start on developing a strategy to incorporate and continuously improve accessibility at your school.
Student choice, voice, and ownership in the online classroom | Chelsie Ruge
Co-Presenter(s): Kerry Floyd and Benjamin Kohntopp
Affiliation: University of Denver
Description: Lack of real-time contact between instructor and students can make online learning—especially asynchronous, feel “canned” and isolating. How can you design an online course so they don’t feel like they’re just going through the motions? Hear how our team of instructional designers has been working with instructors to test creative yet simple strategies using tools built into a typical LMS (and some free third-party apps) to allow for more ownership and authentic connection among students.
Canvas inspiration to incorporate inclusive and accessible design | Amisha Singh
Co-Presenter(s): Clint Carlson
Affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz
Description: Canvas shells are something many of us see on a daily basis. Under the circumstances of constant exposure, Canvas can become monotonous and sometimes even invisible in our course planning and experience. But wait, there can be magic hidden in the ordinary. This session is created to reimagine how we intentionally use our Learning Management Systems to mirror our course design and to help our students learn. Uncover the hidden magic and discuss how to build your Canvas shell with your learners in mind. We will discuss concepts of accessibility, community, engagement and seamless technology incorporation. If you are ready for your Canvas shell to shine like new again, this session is built to inspire and empower you!
The role of digitial literacy in STEM education | Hillary Diane Andales | Adobe
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Sponsored by Adobe
Description: Adobe Creative Cloud is no longer just for media and fine-art classes — it’s essential in all classes. Whether your students are making brochures to present historical research, animations to demonstrate scientific concepts, or videos to deliver critical responses to literature, they’ll become digital storytellers and persuasive communicators. Super Typhoon Yolanda survivor, Hillary Andales talks about how to make scientific knowledge digestible for everyone by using Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Audition, Character Animator, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop.
Everything video using Kaltura across campus | James Vlisides | Kaltura
Co-Presenter(s): N/A
Affiliation: Sponsored by Kaltura
Description: Using Kaltura across all areas of campus from the Learning Management system to admissions to recruiting. Kaltura provides a complete platform for managing media content and sharing across campus.
COLTT 2021 Sponsors
