2023 Higher Ed Quality in Action Conference

Presence is a well-established construct individual instructors use to engage online students, but how do you create a culture of presence across an entire program? In this session we will share practical strategies to build and maintain an engaged, cohesive student experience from a program's start to finish.

With growing concerns about student wellbeing in higher education, this session provides an overview of trauma-informed pedagogy and its application to teaching and learning. Specific classroom strategies and technologies addressing toxic stress/promoting self-care for students will be highlighted.

The popularity of online education continues to increase, with many institutions offering courses to students worldwide. With online student numbers rising year on year, learner profiles are more diverse than were previously possible, but this has brought with it unique challenges relating to accessing, interacting with, and generating course content. Course content creators, and Instructional Designers in particular, are uniquely positioned to work with Subject Matter Experts (SME) such as faculty to design accessible content for a variety of learner profiles.

When is a course “done”? Is it when you first hit publish, or when all of the standards have been met? This session will address how a course is never truly finished, but in a state of constant evolution toward the best possible version. We’ll talk about instructional and design challenges and enhancements faced along the way of creating a course using a truly collaborative process. Iterative improvement for the win!

Classrooms continue to become more diverse. Students at all academic levels enter the classroom with various, unique needs. How do we ensure that students can participate? That all students are represented in the course? That everyone's needs are met? By designing courses with the Inclusive Pedagogy (IP) framework, faculty, and instructional designers can create courses that support and provide equity for all learners and fulfill QM standards.

For years, faculty have relied on simple voice over PowerPoint to deliver lecture content. However, this method has repeatedly fallen short on engagement and interaction, especially for today's online learner. How do we get learners to actually watch our lectures? Additionally, what strategies can we use to encourage learners to keep going and focus on key pieces of information? At the University of Akron, we'll share the innovative ways faculty have elevated their lectures with interactivity, thoughtful questions, and powerful visuals to get learners to actually watch and engage.

Given what we know about what ChatGPT and other AI tools can—and cannot—do, as educators we must confront two very different issues: First, what should we be teaching our students to prepare them for a world in which they are likely to be using AI tools? Second, how do we assess what students have learned when ChatGPT provides an exceptionally helpful resource for cheating?

Humanizing teaching supports the affective and cognitive dimensions of learning by combining facilitation and course design. Several key practices can reinforce the environment where students can find increased success. Key humanizing elements and strategies will be explored.

This session will focus on design & delivery techniques to better gather and use feedback in your online class. We'll cover: 1) individual feedback ideas for engagement and connection, 2) time-saving ideas for group feedback and auto-feedback, 3) soliciting feedback for continous improvement, and 4) using the feedback loop for "just-in-time" online teaching strategies.

CCCS is reimagining online learning across the state’s 13 community colleges. This session will address our efforts to expand the QM framework to incorporate DEI elements into the criteria for a “healthy course.” We will share resources, successes, and challenges related to promoting equitable online learning experiences.