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8th Annual Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium

Wednesday, February 14, 2024 | 8:30 am - 2:30 pm (Central Standard Time)
University Center East, Evansville, IN

Register  Program  Abstract Booklet  Abstracts in SOAR

You are invited to the eighth annual Celebration of Teaching & Learning Symposium, hosted on-campus at the University of Southern Indiana. The Symposium includes works focusing on improving and transforming student learning, academic success, and curriculum in higher education as we celebrate the love for teaching and learning. It provides opportunities to share and discuss teaching and learning efforts framed as Teaching Practice or the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) with colleagues from across the region.

The program features a keynote presentation "Clicking into Place: Harnessing Learning Data for Practical Classroom Improvement" by Dr. Benjamin Motz (Indiana University) during lunch and includes lightning, standard, and poster presentations.

word-cloud-abstracts
This word cloud was generated from the 2024 presentation abstracts.

*Please provide any dietary requests by February 7 if you plan to attend the keynote luncheon. Register by February 12 to enter the door prize drawing.

The Symposium will provide you with opportunities to engage with other participants across disciplines and areas of work. Benefits include the opportunity to share and get feedback on your work, spark new ideas, make your teaching scholarship visible, and initiate or strengthen connections.

  • Share your efforts in supporting student learning and success and advancing your teaching practice.
  • Gain knowledge of evidence-based strategies and technologies that support student learning and success across settings and disciplines.
  • Foster reflection on your teaching practice, including improving and measuring student learning.
  • Interact with participants across disciplines and institutions

Clicking into Place: Harnessing Learning Data for Practical Classroom Improvement

Presented by Dr. Benjamin Motz, Indiana University ben-motz-image

Keynote Slides

Abstract:
What are your students doing?  How are they studying?  How are they engaging with learning materials?  Historically, the answers to these questions have been completely unobservable to teachers, because studying occurred outside the classroom, in the privacy of students’ apartments, libraries, and local coffee shops. But nowadays, our digital learning platforms are brimming with data, as student’s clicks on learning resources, readings, and course activities are being logged moment-by-moment. How can we make constructive use of these data, in a way that benefits student learning and success?  In this talk, I'll put a spotlight on the transformative potential of these clicks, with a focus on providing instructors with practical takeaways they can bring to their own classes, and I'll also describe large scale studies where we've observed substantial improvement from relatively simple student interventions. Throughout I'll also share tips about how we should be interpreting these data, protecting student privacy, and giving students agency in how their data are utilized. Participants will learn how to turn the seemingly abstract world of learning data into practical tools for boosting student achievement.

About the speaker:
Dr. Ben Motz (he rhymes with boats) is an Assistant Professor in Indiana University's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. He received his BS from Indiana University, MS from University of California San Diego, and his PhD at Indiana University, all in Cognitive Science. His research is at the intersection of cognitive psychology and education, characterized by large-scale experiments and analyses on students from real education settings that test theoretical predictions from the psychological science of learning. Motz's work has deep roots in the classroom, where he spent a decade as a full-time teaching faculty member, and a common theme is the use of technology, both for its potential to improve student learning, and for its ability to improve research methods. Currently, Dr. Motz runs Terracotta, a learning management system plugin that makes it possible to rigorously and responsibly conduct controlled experiments in students' online coursework, and the INTERACT Incubator, a diverse collective of researchers, education stakeholders, and technologists, seeking to improve research infrastructure for improving equity in STEM education.

Detailed program  Abstracts in SOAR

Program overview (times in Central Standard Time). All sessions are held in UC 2217-2218 and UC 2219-2220.

  • 8:30-9 am | Registration and Coffee
  • 9-9:10 am | Welcome
  • 9:15-10 am | Sessions 1A an 1B
  • 10:15-11:15 am | Sessions 2A and 2B-lightning
  • 11:30 am -12:45 pm | Keynote luncheon
  • 12:55-1:35 pm | Posters and dessert
  • 1:45-2:30 pm | Sessions 3A and 3B-lightning
  • The Symposium will be held in University Center East, 2nd floor on the campus of the University of Southern Indiana. This building is connected to the Performance Center, is near the Welcome Center, and is across from the Screaming Eagles arena.
  • Entrances to University Center East are through the Performance Center and the breezeway with "The Cone" structure.
  • Parking Lot C is the closest to the event. Parking is free.
  • Accessible parking spaces are available next to the Rice Library and in Parking Lots C and N.

View the key dates and call for proposals (guidelines/instructions).

Early Submission

  • Friday, December 1: Early deadline for submitting proposals
  • Friday, December 15: Notification for early proposals

Regular Submission

  • Wednesday, December 13: Regular deadline for submitting proposals
  • Friday, January 10: Notification for regular proposals

Presenters will have the option to include their abstracts and presentation materials within USI’s Scholarly Open Access Repository (SOAR), which is indexed on Google Scholar and provides additional visibility of their works.

Thank you to our 2024 Symposium Committee members, who serve on the organizing committee, proposal reviewers, and session facilitators.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) is proud to offer the annual Celebration of Teaching & Learning Symposium. We are grateful for the continued support provided by the Office of the Provost, David L. Rice Library, and Online Learning.