The poster session will take place in the Alumni Lounge from 3–4 p.m. Join us for some refreshments and the opportunity to explore posters on a variety of teaching-related topics. The poster creators will be available for conversation, as will the breakout session presenters.
Posters
1. Addressing the achievement gap in introductory biology
2. Cultures of support for second-level writing instructors
3. Helping students find their place in the academic conversation
4. Integrating cultural knowledge into any discipline through online interaction
5. Invitation to the visual culture: A secret ingredient for class engagement
6. A journaling assignment: Effect on students’ Diversity Awareness Profile
7. A novel instructional tool for developing student problem solving skills
8. International graduate students’ academic adaptation in the English writing class
9. Student portfolios for undergraduate professional development
10. It’s not about the technology: Digital teaching & learning beyond the buzzwords
11. Tilting the classroom: An accessible methodology for building a more interactive course
12. Useful guidelines for instructors on multiple choice question writing
13. Redefining the poster presentation experience with ePosters
14. Using corporate mentors as live case studies to teach supply chain management
15. Using Maple T.A. online assessment tool to enhance student learning in Engineering
16. Wellness-writing in the classroom: Reduce stress and anxiety through journal prompts
Addressing the achievement gap in introductory biology
Caroline Breitenberger, Center for Life Sciences Education
Ren Leaflight, ASC Administration
Judy Ridgway, Center for Life Sciences Education
The objectives of this poster are to present data suggesting an achievement gap for students in underrepresented groups taking introductory biology, to explain evidence-based interventions that are being implemented in introductory biology courses for STEM majors at OSU, and to discuss instruments that are being used to evaluate these interventions. Participants will be able to use similar strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of courses in their area.
We have initiated a redesign of introductory biology courses for STEM majors, focusing especially on Biology 1113, Biological Sciences: Energy Transfer and Development. The impetus for this course redesign came from data indicating that introductory biology students, especially those from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds, earned lower grades, did not have the prerequisite knowledge needed to begin learning the content in higher level courses, and were not retained in STEM majors. In our course redesign, we have implemented several strategies that are known to reduce similar achievement and retention gaps, namely introducing active learning in the classroom, implementing course-based undergraduate research experiences, and adding peer-led team learning. These innovations are supported by a summer institute providing faculty and staff professional development. We will present preliminary data regarding the effectiveness of the course redesign.
Cultures of support for second-level writing instructors
Chris Manion, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
Cynthia Lin, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
Jennifer Michaels, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
Evan Thomas, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
David Wandera, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
At Ohio State, 29 departments offer second-level writing courses that students must take as part of their GE curriculum. For this poster, The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program will present data from an Autumn 2014 survey of second-level writing instructors across the curriculum. This poster highlights the uneven distribution of support and training that instructors for teaching second-level writing courses.
From Likert-scale questions and open-ended responses, the WAC team found that:
- Among graduate instructors, particular support resources correlate with feeling prepared to teach second-level writing. These support resources are not available in all departments that teach second-level writing.
- Lecturers and faculty tend to value different support resources than graduate instructors.
- Not all instructors feel comfortable working with English Language Learners, but certain kinds of support correlate with instructor comfort.
- While these cultures of support were often centered at the department level, the WAC team found that instructional support centers like WAC and the UCAT shored up department support in some important ways.
Through this data, the WAC team will offer a series of recommendations for how departments and the university at large can better support and train instructors teaching this crucial course in the GE curriculum.
Helping students find their place in the academic conversation
Matthew Tidwell, English OSUN
The presenter, who won the best teaching award for lecturers at OSU Newark in 2015, will share a poster on the challenges and opportunities involved in teaching developmental English composition at a regional campus with a diverse student body. The presenter has found that students, whatever their differences in educational preparation, tend to want the same things: they do not want their education to be solely functional but to challenge them to see things in new ways and expand their abilities. At the same time, students appreciate the opportunity to place their own experience into the academic conversation. The presenter will discuss strategies to create a classroom environment where there are clear expectations and goals, and where academic discourse and intellectual curiosity are modeled, but where each student has an opportunity to shape the experience with their own contributions. When the student feels like they are composing not only words on the page but the classroom experience, they are more likely to retain the ability to critically analyze, a skill needed not only in the university setting but in the wider world.
Integrating cultural knowledge into any discipline through online interaction
Melinda McClimans, Teaching and Learning
This semester we are coordinating a class with a professor at Istanbul University to integrate cultural knowledge along with the subject content. By introducing levels of cultural knowledge sequentially, we hope to stretch the cultural comfort zones for the students at both locations. Today we will share some of this content with you and facilitate activities to reflect on them, and consider cultural knowledge as a component in your curriculum. Our method introduces appropriate material for the learner’s level of intercultural awareness, cultural biases and the role of power in diverse, culturally bound knowledge bases. Educational theory suggests that introducing curriculum in stages which increasingly challenge the students’ world view is effective for challenging stereotypical ways of seeing “the other.” Thus, our curricular stages start with a focus on daily activities in the “other” country because this engages directly what the the individuals in that country find important to their lives, rather than what is emphasized in the media or traditional curriculum. Later stages of curriculum grapple more with the difficult aspects of cultural knowledge, such as conflicting histories and ways of telling the stories of cultural communities. We will pilot the full curriculum in fall with the same professor.
International graduate students’ academic adaptation in the English writing class
Eunjeong Park, Teaching and Learning
An influx of international students has been steadily increasing in the U. S. colleges and universities and, they are considered crucial for the economic and social impact on U.S. Despite their chief contribution to U.S. contexts, international students do not seem to be adapted well to the target culture and language. Prior research shows a lot of international students encounter challenges in their acculturation process while studying in a foreign country. The purpose of the research is to investigate how international students are adapted in the U.S. university setting by mixed-methods research. The participants were international graduate students at a large mid-western university. Thirty-five students participated in the survey research; three students participated in the case study. The results of the survey questionnaire were analyzed with the descriptive analysis. The researcher observed how participants are academically acculturated through writing by conducting interviews and taking field notes during the observations. Furthermore, a corpus method was combined to explore three international students’ second language writing patterns and rhetoric. AntConc, a corpus analysis toolkit, was employed for textual analysis. The results revealed a lot of challenges of international students. Further results and implications will be discussed in the presentation.
Invitation to the visual culture: A secret ingredient for class engagement
Jimin Cha, Arts Administration, Education, and Policy
When I was told that I was going to teach a visual culture class, I was excited. However, soon I experienced several setbacks. Since the majority of students were from non-art backgrounds, it was easy to interest them but difficult to keep them engaged. After few days agonizing about how I could enhance their class participations, my solution was collaboration. With a friend, who has a strong design background, I transformed an argumentative essay into a visual group project. I staged a hypothetical problem and asked them to come up with a creative solution by creating a prototype with random art materials I provided them. At the end, I told them to present a convincing argument why their model is the best compared to the others. To my surprise, this project increased the level of engagement tremendously. This helped me to realize the critical role of instructor to frame and present class contents in ways relevant to students, so they are genuinely engaged, not for a good grade, but to actually learn, which will result a positive impact on students by strengthening their critical thinking and, more importantly, assisting them to shape their own perspectives about the world.
It’s not about the technology: Digital teaching & learning beyond the buzzwords
Tara Koger, Office of Distance Education and eLearning
Ben Scragg, Office of Distance Education and eLearning
Generative, visible, and mindful (learning) – oh my! With so much research and so many buzzwords, how can über-busy faculty find time to integrate research into their busy practice? Better yet, how can they use their own data to make the kind of informed teaching choices in line with emerging research? Even better still, how can faculty feel confident that their students are learning what they want students to learn?
Join staff from the Office of Distance Education and eLearning as they share and hope to build upon exemplary work from faculty engaged in the work of research-based teaching and learning. By integrating concepts of generative learning (Mayer, 2015), visible learning (Hattie, 2010), and mindfulness (Fink, 2003) with the tools of digital scholarship, faculty can provide significant learning experiences for Buckeye students.
A journaling assignment: Effect on students’ Diversity Awareness Profile
M. Susie Whittington, ACEL
Carla Jagger, ACEL
The purpose of this study was to describe change in students’ Diversity Awareness Profile (DAP) scores based on evidence provided in their weekly journaling assignment, classroom opening reflections, and pre- and post- DAP assessments. Anonymous writings of 42 students enrolled in a 15-week university general education cultures and ideas course at Ohio State, provided the data for the study. Using the DAP, students identified their position on a cultural proficiency continuum (naive-perpetuator-avoider-change agent-fighter). In addition, students completed a journaling assignment each week using an assigned critical thinking stem. Finally, written opening reflections were completed at the opening of each class session; students were provided a five-minute writing prompt. Throughout the course, students provided quotes in their writing such as, “I should show more acceptance to other people of different religions.” This quote was from a student who was classified as a perpetuator, someone who reinforces racism and prejudice, on the DAP pre-assessment. The student identified as change agent, someone who feels compelled to eliminate racism by challenging forms of discrimination when witnessed, on the DAP post-assessment. The mean pre-DAP score of students was 74.21 (change agents). After 15 weeks of cultural proficiency education, students’ mean post-DAP score was 84 (fighters).
A novel instructional tool for developing student problem solving skills
Elif Miskioglu, Chemical Engineering, Bucknell University (recent Ohio State Ph.D.)
Learning critical thinking and problem solving skills is the heart of an education. Teaching these skills requires developing students’ familiarity and comfort with handling information. Individual preferences for receiving and utilizing information are described by learning styles, and, arguably, the best critical thinkers and problem solvers are those comfortable and proficient in all learning styles, despite preferences. This session will cover how instructors can use learning styles as a way to measure and subsequently increase the variety of experiences students are receiving. By the end of this session, participants will be able to 1) Describe the Felder-Silverman model of learning styles and identify its applications, 2) Assess the potential benefits of exposing students to a variety of learning styles through course experiences, 3) Apply the “learning style biases” rubric to tasks (assignments, exams). In the interactive session, we will first do a simplified learning styles assignment, followed by description of learning styles and discussion of research suggesting that engaging students in using a variety of styles through coursework can improve critical thinking and problem-solving. The latter portion of the session will focus on introducing and applying a “learning style biases” rubric to assess the learning styles engaged by different assignments.
Redefining the poster presentation experience with ePosters
Tim Rhodus, Horticulture & Crop Science
The inVP (in Virtual Perspective) Technology Team has designed and implemented a prototype ePoster system that can manage a large number of independent conferences, each showing 1 to 100 posters to a live or distance audience. The primary objective of the inVP ePoster system is to test the viability of an online approach for submitting and presenting research posters and observe how creative individuals exploit the possibilities of a system that can design immersive and interactive experiences in place of flat PDF renditions of a paper poster.
Widespread adoption of poster design via software, namely Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator has lead to the creation of very imaginative paper posters showing great detail, along with “lots of text.” Exporting the design file as an Adobe PDF document and sharing the project with an audience from a monitor or projector became know as ePoster sessions within various professional conferences in 2013 and 2014, primarily in the medical fields. However, there was no online, open access to the posters before or after the event.
Audience members will interact with the inVP ePoster system by uploading files, hearing an author describing their project or watching a video highlighting the research results.
Student portfolios for undergraduate professional development
Ann D. Christy, Department of Engineering Education
Portfolios can be useful for encouraging student reflection and for assessing and documenting achievement of learning outcomes. They have been successfully used by students to showcase their accomplishments in job interviews. They can also provide a mechanism for continuous quality improvement of the course and curriculum, and for communicating the achievement of student learning outcomes to specialized accreditation evaluators. For over a decade I have incorporated student portfolios, along with the introduction of topics on professional skills and business practices, in a required professional development course in Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at OSU. The portfolios were originally hardcopy but now are ePortfolios using the u.osu.edu template. This presentation introduces a literature review on student portfolios, describes their implementation in various courses, shares different assignment types that can go into portfolios, and invites audience members to brainstorm how they might implement portfolios in their own courses. This will include identifying what course and program outcomes could be addressed by using this teaching tool in their own academic units, selecting what kinds of student artifacts could be included, and collaboratively developing draft assignments to guide students in producing those materials.
Tilting the classroom: An accessible methodology for building a more interactive course
Alison Polasik, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
The flipped classroom methodology is difficult to implement, but it has been shown to improve student learning. Students are often reluctant to fully participate, and the investment necessary to overhaul an established lecture course is daunting. Over the course of two years, a traditional lecture course for seniors in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering was gradually changed to one that incorporated key elements of a flipped classroom. This tilted classroom requires student preparation before class and incorporates participation-based activities with short introductory or just in time lecture segments. Despite reluctance on the part of students, these changes produce a clear gain in student achievement as measured by exam grades and achievement of course outcomes. A similar approach was subsequently applied in two very different courses: a large introductory lecture with 200+ students and a computational lab for engineering students. This experience demonstrates early promise and provides an accessible path for instructors to incorporate key elements of a flipped classroom even in courses that are ill-suited for it.
Useful guidelines for instructors on multiple choice question writing
Jennifer M. Burgoon, Division of Anatomy, College of Medicine
Melissa M. Quinn, Division of Anatomy, College of Medicine
With increasing class sizes and the need to quickly return exam scores, more instructors are utilizing some form of multiple choice exams in their courses. Composing effective multiple choice questions is not an easy task and requires considerable time and effort. Poorly written multiple choice questions not only do not assess the course objectives, but also can be confusing and frustrating for students. Therefore, it is important for instructors to learn and follow appropriate guidelines to compose quality multiple choice questions.
Using corporate mentors as live case studies to teach supply chain management
Aimee Ulstad, Integrated Systems Engineering
One common method used in teaching supply chain management is the case study approach. Epistemology research shows that students gain a deeper understanding when they can frame place a new concept in an application they understand. The course, ISE3400, blends these ideas with an opportunity to engage alumni, and other business leaders to mentor the students by sharing their company’s approaches to the applications of these subjects. Specifically in this course, the students are placed into diverse groups of 4 students and each group is given a unique external mentor. The students begin by discussing with their mentor, the mentor’s role and gaining a strong sense of their business model. The students generate a group report about their mentor’s company business model. Then, with each of the 5 major subjects, they contact their mentor, usually with a 45-minute phone call, to ask how the company applies the concept, like demand forecasting, and they write about this. Over the term, the students understand the unique business model and how they apply the concepts in the real world. The students not only enjoy this interaction, but the process of interaction with a mentor and reflective papers cements the concepts deeper in memory.
Using Maple T.A. online assessment tool to enhance student learning in Engineering
Avi Benatar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Maple T.A. is an online mathematics-based testing and assessment system for STEM courses that is suitable for both on-campus and distance courses. It is a web-based system for creating STEM assignments and quizzes that supports complex questions. Student responses can include free-form mathematical equations and numeric responses with units that are automatically graded, including partial credit. I used Maple T.A. to create complex assignments with random numbers generated for each student, and Maple T.A. automatically evaluated and graded their responses. The solution algorithm can be very sophisticated and include complex mathematical functions. To help students find and correct their mistakes, I permitted them to submit their assignments up to three times, and each time Maple T.A. informed them which parts were incorrect. Pedagogically this was very helpful for them to learn the course material and they liked knowing that they can improve their grade.
Wellness-writing in the classroom: Reduce stress and anxiety through journal prompts
Jenny Patton, English
Are your students stressed out, anxious or depressed? How are their immune systems holding up under the pressures of overloaded class schedules, work commitments and student loan debt? Are some coping with mental illnesses? One in three college students reported prolonged periods of depression and half of college students rated their mental health below average, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In fact, 70% of college counseling center directors believe that the number of students with severe psychological problems on their campuses has increased. At Ohio State, 91% of our students have reported feeling overwhelmed. Here’s the good news: University of Texas researchers conducted studies that demonstrate journal writing reduces stress and promotes stronger immune systems. What’s missing from their research is how to implement journal writing into our classrooms on a regular basis—without taking time away from our curricula. This presentation highlights this rising concern of sick, anxiety-ridden students on college campuses; summarizes the proven benefits of journal writing; introduces tested wellness-writing prompts, and presents anecdotal and statistical evidence of their success at Ohio State; and shares how wellness writing in the classroom can reduce stress and anxiety, making for a better journey for all.