Michelle Miller
Effective, Engaging Teaching in a Wired World: Using the Science of Memory to Promote Deep Learning (UMBC Login Required)
Keynote at the Eighth Annual Provost’s Teaching & Learning Symposium
September 27, 2024
Today’s faculty tend to steer clear of memory and memorization in their classrooms, preferring to focus on higher-level thinking skills. But do these goals have to be mutually exclusive? New research suggests that teachers really can have it both ways, using research-based techniques to strengthen both what students know and their ability to use that knowledge. Many of these approaches fit particularly well with educational technologies, as well as with newly available AI tools. This interactive keynote address invites faculty to look at memory in a new light, highlighting technologies and techniques that help students build a solid base of knowledge efficiently, quickly, and with a side order of fun. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in a structured question and answer session as part of the keynote.
Dr. Michelle Miller is a cognitive psychologist, researcher, and speaker focused on supporting higher education faculty in creating effective and engaging learning experiences for students. She is the author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology (Harvard University Press, 2014), Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology: Teaching, Learning, and the Science of Memory in a Wired World (West Virginia University Press, 2022), and a new book forthcoming in Fall 2024, A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can (University of Oklahoma Press). Dr. Miller is a Professor of Psychological Sciences and President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Northern Arizona University.
Helen L. Chen
From Outcomes to Evidence: Using ePortfolios to Document Learning (UMBC Login Required)
November 8, 2023
Portfolios are more than just a technology: they imply a process of planning, keeping track of, making sense of, and sharing evidence of learning and performance. Often described as a “meta” High Impact Practice, using ePortfolios well requires embracing a set of pedagogical practices and an understanding of learning called Folio Thinking. Drawing upon a framework of integrative learning, this workshop will provide guidance on where to begin in designing and implementing an ePortfolio approach to meet the learning outcomes of your course or program. We will share illustrative examples, case studies, and resources, and we encourage instructor questions.
Helen L. Chen is a Research Scientist in the Designing Education Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a co-founder of the Integrative Learning Portfolio Lab in Stanford Career Education at Stanford University. She earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her PhD in Communication with a minor in Psychology from Stanford University. Helen serves on the executive board for the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) and is on the faculty for American Association of Colleges & Universities’ Institute on ePortfolios. Helen’s scholarship and writings focus on engineering and entrepreneurship education, portfolio assessment and pedagogy, reflective practices in higher education, non-degree credentials, and reimagining how learners represent their identities, experiences, and skills through their professional online presence.
Bryan Dewsbury
Assessing Equity – Reflecting on the Elements of a Successful Inclusive Course Experience (UMBC Login Required)
November 2, 2023
In this talk, we will consider the non-cognitive features of the course experience as meaningful, not solely in service of grades, but as valuable constructs for themselves. We will discuss ways to assess the success of our approaches both during the experience, and in the post semester critical reflective stages. This process will reorient our thinking from the consideration of single factors that impact course success and grant us a process to facilitate the process of the permanent, yet beautiful journey towards inclusive course experiences.
Dr. Bryan Dewsbury’s bio can be found below.
Bryan Dewsbury
Beyond Inclusion – Teaching for civic engagement and social participation (UMBC Login Required)
Keynote at the Seventh Annual Provost’s Teaching & Learning Symposium
April 21, 2023
Questions about inclusive teaching practices sometimes limit us to discussions about within-classroom outcomes. In this talk, we will explore the notion of education being a vehicle for social transformation by interrogating its role in wider society. We will also discuss strategies that we can consider in our courses, regardless of the subject matter that prepares students to be fully engaged members of society.
Dr. Bryan Dewsbury is an Associate Professor of Biology at Florida International University where he also is an Associate Director of the STEM Transformation Institute. He received his Bachelors degree in Biology from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, and his Masters and PhD in Biology from Florida International University in Miami, FL. He is the Principal Investigator of the Science Education And Society (SEAS) program, where his team conducts research on the social context of education. He is a Fellow of the John N. Gardner Institute and a Director at the RIOS (Racially-Just Inclusive Open Science) institute. He conducts faculty development and provides support for institutions interested in transforming their educational practices pertaining to creating inclusive environments and in this regard has worked with over 100 institutions across North America, United Kingdom and West Africa. He is a co-author on the upcoming book ‘Norton’s Guide to Inclusive Teaching’ and author of the upcoming book ‘What then shall I teach? – Rethinking equity in higher education’. He is the founder of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Deep Teaching Residency, a national workshop aimed at supporting faculty in transforming their classroom to more meaningfully incorporate inclusive practices. Dr. Dewsbury is originally from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and proudly still calls the twin island republic home.
Derek Bruff
Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in Adaptive Teaching
March 9, 2021
The changing circumstances of higher education require a form of adaptive teaching in which technologies are used to support both on-campus and online learning. As our toolbox of technologies expands, faculty and other instructors aren’t always sure how to integrate those tools into their teaching in meaningful ways. Determining what’s possible and what’s useful can be challenging. In this session, we’ll explore several teaching principles for matching technology to pedagogy, principles that can help us make intentional and effective use of technology however we teach.
Derek Bruff is director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and a principal senior lecturer in the Vanderbilt Department of Mathematics. As director, he oversees the Center’s programming and offerings for faculty and graduate students, helping them develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching and learning. He also consults regularly with campus leaders about pedagogical issues, seeking to foster a university culture that supports effective teaching. Bruff is the author of Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching (West Virginia University Press, 2019) and Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments (Jossey-Bass, 2009). His scholarly interests include educational technology and faculty development, and he writes about these and other topics on his blog, Agile Learning. Bruff is also producer and host of the podcasts Leading Lines, VandyVox, and One-Time Pod.
Peter Felten
Making Relationship-Rich Experiences the Heart of Higher Education
Keynote at the Sixth Annual Provost’s Teaching & Learning Symposium
September 20, 2019
Scholars have documented how relationships with peers, faculty, and staff profoundly influence learning, belonging, and achievement for all undergraduates, and particularly for new majority students. Educational relationships contribute to everything from disciplinary learning to identity development in college, and also have long-term professional, civic, and personal legacies. In this interactive session, we will explore findings from a new national study to consider why and how to design relationship-rich experiences for students in and out of the classroom.
Peter Felten is executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, assistant provost for teaching and learning, and professor of history at Elon University. He works with colleagues on institution-wide teaching and learning initiatives, and on the scholarship of teaching and learning. As a scholar, he is particularly interested in learning and teaching, individual and institutional change, and student experiences and agency in higher education. His books include the co-authored volumes: The Undergraduate Experience: Focusing Institutions on What Matters Most (Jossey-Bass, 2016); Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014); Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching (Jossey-Bass, 2014); Transformative Conversations (Jossey-Bass, 2013); and the co-edited book Intersectionality in Action (Stylus, 2016). He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2016-17) and also of the POD Network (2010-2011), the U.S. professional society for educational developers. He is co-editor of the International Journal for Academic Development and a fellow of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.
Saundra Y. McGuire
Get Students to Focus on Learning Instead of Grades: Metacognition is the Key! (UMBC Login Required)
Keynote at the Fourth Annual Provost’s Teaching & Learning Symposium
September 22, 2017
21st Century students come to college with widely varying academic skills, approaches to learning, and motivation levels. Faculty often lament that students are focused on achieving high grades, but are not willing to invest much time or effort in learning. This session will focus on the importance of helping students acquire simple, but effective learning strategies based on cognitive science principles. We will engage in interactive reflection activities that will allow attendees to experience strategies that significantly improve learning while transforming student attitudes about the meaning of learning.
Dr. Saundra Yancy McGuire is the Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success and retired Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at LSU. Prior to joining LSU, she spent eleven years at Cornell University, where she received the coveted Clark Distinguished Teaching Award. She has delivered keynote addresses or presented workshops at over 250 institutions in 43 states and eight countries. Her latest book, Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation, was released in October 2015. The most recent of her awards is the 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students to Pursue Careers in the Chemical Sciences. She received her B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, her Master’s degree from Cornell and her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she received the Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Professional Promise.
Josh Enszer & Anne Rubin
Panel Discussion on Game-Based & Gamified Learning
April 14, 2014
Josh Enszer is a Lecturer in Chemical, Biochemical & Environmental Engineering at UMBC. In this presentation he shares how he uses principles of gamification and tools in Blackboard to create a game-like environment that motivates students to achieve in ENCH 225–Problem-Solving and Experimental Design and ENCH 442 Chemical Process Control and Safety.
Anne Rubin is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Digital History Education at UMBC. Anne describes her course Replaying the Past in which her students are collaborating with Professor Marc Olano’s (Computer Science & Electrical Engineering) students in video game design to build a game to teach undergraduate students about the Pratt Street riots in Baltimore during the Civil War.
Chris Anson
Beyond the Hype: New Technologies for Providing Feedback
February 26, 2014
Chris M. Anson is University Distinguished Professor, Professor of English, and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in language, composition, and literacy and works with faculty in nine colleges to reform undergraduate education in the areas of writing and speaking.
Derek Bruff
Teaching with Clickers for Deep Learning
February 9, 2011
Derek Bruff is director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and a senior lecturer in the Vanderbilt Department of Mathematics.
Eric Mazur
Confessions of a Converted Lecturer
November 11, 2009
Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University.