Helping Students through their Communication Apprehension
by Dr. Tasha Davis When I began my sabbatical last fall, I could never have imagined I would be returning to… Read More
Exploring Identity through a Global Lens
by Sharon Goh, Professor of Student Development / ESOL / Adult Education Participating in the Globalizing Curriculum Faculty Learning Community (FLC), run by… Read More
Taking “Interdisciplinary” to a New Level: Composition and Nursing Collaboration
by Shelley Mitchell, Professor of Nursing I approached our first regular meeting of the Faculty Learning Community on Global Gender and Women’s Studies with excitement… Read More
Nursing Around the World
by Daira Wilson, Professor of Nursing Teaching students to become “citizens of the world” is necessary in nursing education. However, it is often easy to… Read More
The World from Six Feet Away
by Ryan Davidson, Adjunct Professor of English Perspective has always been an essential aspect of individual growth. Learning leads to empathy which leads to understanding… Read More
From ACC Faculty: Virtual Whiteboard Solutions
We understand that teaching virtually is not the same as walking around the classroom, and writing on a whiteboard or even a chalkboard… Read More
Top Benefits of the Global FLC Model
ACC International Programs partners with the University of Texas-Austin Hemispheres Consortium to host two Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) each year to engage a small… Read More
Expressing Humanity through Storytelling
by Brinda Roy, Professor of English It would be an understatement to say I was excited to find out that I was selected to participate… Read More
My Experience in a Faculty Learning Community
by Rebel Sanders, Associate Professor of Biology My experience in the Globalizing Curriculum FLC has been informative, motivating, and given me a sense… Read More
Globalize Your Curriculum, Globalize Your Thinking
by Margarita Burciaga, Adjunct Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management Getting selected/being able to participate in the Austin Community College (ACC) 2019-2020 Faculty Learning… Read More
Pre-learning with videos for less lecture
by – Cynthia Vega This past year I have focused on ways to decrease the traditional lecture style and increase student engagement in classroom… Read More
Practice What We Preach
by – Amy Velchoff Project ACC was founded on the belief that Active & Engaged Learning is important, which I can affirm from my… Read More
Relational Repair in the Classroom
by Hilary Lynch Besides teaching course subjects, professors also manage the relational climate in their classrooms. One session at the Lilly Conference in January 2018 emphasized how professors can better manage these relationships, especially when stress creeps into the classroom. Dr. Pamela Szycygiel, Assistant Professor of Social Work at UNC Pembroke, shared how relationships are main catalysts for change, and our academic environments “have a lot of relating going on.” People learn, grow, and change in the “context of interpersonal and person-to-environment exchanges.” We will work with students who have had negative and unrepaired relationships with authority figures. Some students need to “work on new relationships” and have new positive experiences with those in supervisory roles. As we teach academic subjects, we can also teach students how to repair working relationships when tensions and anxieties surface. Read More
One Question, Much Discussion
by - Mary Havens In a classroom in Austin, a group discussion over plagiarism took place. An EDUC 1300 class of juniors and seniors from Garza High School thoughtfully discussed the topic. It was awesome. Read More
Student Learning Through Writing
by - Suzanne Wilson Summers At this year’s Lilly Conference, I attended a session on “Encouraging Student Learning Through Formal Writing: Notes and Future Practice” put on by G. Kevin Randall from Sam Houston State University. The session focused on best practices for designing formal writing assignments to promote deep learning. Read More
Nursing from a Global Perspective
by - John Nation MSN, RN As a participant in this year’s Globalizing Curriculum Faculty Learning Community, I have had the opportunity to attend fascinating lectures on a wide range of subjects and collaborate with colleagues at ACC on how best to incorporate global perspectives into our courses. As a nursing instructor, a great deal of my teaching focuses on the nursing management of diseases and health promotion in our community and in the United States. While participating in the Globalizing Curriculum Faculty Learning Community, I’ve been able to spend more time considering global issues in health care and nursing. Additionally, the monthly lectures by University of Texas at Austin professors about major global issues have been fascinating and thought-provoking. Read More
Contextualizing Social Issues as Human Rights Issues
by – Jackie Burns, PhD I recently had the privilege of participating in the Globalization of the Curriculum Faculty Learning Community. It was an extended… Read More
Building Community
by – Blanca Alvarado Building community is an important component of my teaching. I use various methods in my teaching that allow students to interact… Read More
Practice What We Preach
by - Amy Velchof Project ACC was founded on the belief that Active & Engaged Learning is important, which I can affirm from my own personal learning experiences. Yet, implementing such practices in the classroom can be challenging. For my Faculty Fellows project, I wanted to work on team building in the classroom, and I chose to focus on EDUC 1301, Introduction to Teaching. This course is intended to be the first course for students who are interested in pursuing the Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT), and who are potentially going to be future teachers. In general, it is important for students to learn how to collaborate effectively, skills that will come in handy for any future profession, but it is especially important to model to these future teachers the types of pedagogies we hope that they will use in their own classrooms. As a secondary focus, I really wanted to work on implementing skits in the classroom. Read More
Group Exams
by - Kathy Frost While at the Lilly Conference 2018, I had the opportunity to learn enough details about offering group exams that I was able to pilot this learning method during the spring semester. The group exam experience aims to foster deep and durable learning using collaboration – students discussing, questioning, critiquing each other – as well as memory retrieval practice at work when testing oneself (e.g., the “testing effect”). Read More
Students Ready to Learn: Chapter Preparation Assignments
by - Barbara Orr, Ph.D. How many of your students have read their textbooks and readings before entering your classroom? Are students ready to learn when they walk in the door? If you find yourself answering “no” to these questions, you are not alone! It was reported by the Lilly Conference presenter, Dr. Lynn Gillette,from Nicholls State University, “A key component for student success comes down to students showing up for class prepared to do the work…Students, in class and prepared to learn, is a fundamental challenge in essentially every educational program at every educational institution” (Gillette, L., March 15, 2018). A student‘s success begins with the knowledge of effective preparation prior to attending class and is NOT homework! One strategy to support students’ active reading skills and support transfer of knowledge from short term to long term memory, is the skill to read a chapter and make notes of the key concepts prior to class for a robust class discussion. Read More
Student Creative Videos as a Collaborative Learning Strategy
by - Kim Taylor After attending the Lilly Conference I became intrigued to learn more about Cognitive Load Theory and how to support our students through reduction of extraneous load through our presentation techniques and instilling more creative interactive collaborative learning activities. Read More
Building Construction in Parallel with Student Learning
by - Joyce Tolofari MSN, RN Structures such as bridges, roads and skyscrapers are ubiquitous. Construction workers, like anyone are required to be physically fit to enable them operate heavy duty equipment like cranes, tractors. They break structures down with heavy equipment, dig holes, engage hammers to create holes, ditches or stabilize a structure. Most of the time, large scale-projects are broken down into small scale structures. Building Construction is a hands-on career where workers use most of their hands, mental stamina, and wits to construct a building that will withstand winds, rains, sun, storms and many other weather conditions for days, months and years to come. The construction worker creates huge structures like skyscrapers, from a mere sand. Workers also need to have good communication skills in collaboration with colleagues to balance structures together to coordinate building safely. Read More
Asking Students for Insight
by - Kelly Stockstad Like many professors, I felt aggravated this semester because my students were coming to class completely unprepared. Not only had most of them not read, many of them didn’t bring anything to class – not their text, not materials to take notes, and, in one case, not even a cell phone. I am accustomed to having some students who don’t prepare for class, but my usual experience was that 10-20% of the students in the class would come unprepared. This semester, only 5-10% of the class members seemed to be prepared for each class meeting. Read More
Social Entrepreneurship as Action Based Learning
Interested in attending the upcoming Lilly Conference? Visit our website to learn about conference scholarship opportunities. by – Dr. Jackie Burns The Austin 2018 Lilly… Read More
Globalizing Curriculum: Inspiring Creative Action
by - Rebekah Starnes As an English professor, students sometimes ask me, “Why is everything we read so dark?” I respond that literature reflects history, which is often depressing, that it’s a way for people to process trauma or comment on social problems. I focus on literature’s transformative function as well—how authors use the power of literature to change the world for the better. Read More
Making Non-fiction Believable
by - Amparo Garcia-Crow I teach in two departments: Drama and Creative Writing. Where the two areas meet (in the way that I teach both courses) is in the introduction of “the Heroes Journey” as described by Joseph Campbell in his book, “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Read More
Putting the Community Back in Community College
by – Meredith Ross-Chong, PhD. We talk about building community in our classrooms which helps students have a greater sense of belonging. That, in turn,… Read More
An Overview of Pam Szczygiel’s 2018 Lilly Conference Presentation on Relational Approaches to Collaboration and Connection in the Classroom
by - Amy Velchoff - I recently had the opportunity to attend the Lilly Conference for the first time, thanks to an FCTL scholarship. At the conference, which took place in January 2018, I attended many informative sessions, but one in particular has stuck with me. The session was given by a licensed social worker who is now an Assistant Professor in the school of social work at the University of North Carolina. Her talk introduced relational theories which, according to the literature, acknowledge that “it is through the relationship itself that learning and change occur” (Mishna & Rasmussen, 2001), as “Our relationships with others become internalized and greatly contribute to our sense of self and others” (Szczygiel, 2018). In other words, healthy relationships can equate to great personal growth, especially for individuals who have had a paucity of such experiences. Read More
Assessing Students’ Use of Strategies
By: Julie Wauchope At the Lilly Conference I learned about many research-based ideas and best practices to help students learn and succeed. I came away excited about creating a curriculum that was student-centered and emphasized student engagement. I wanted to teach students to apply strategies and to identify when, how and why to use them. Most importantly, I wanted a better way to assess the degree to which students could do this. Read More
Hunger in Malawi: Globalizing an Ethics Curriculum
by - Linda L. Cox, Ph.D. In ethics, we ask questions such as, “Who is the subject of rights?” “How should we address global hunger?” “What’s our duty to the environment?” I’ve observed that sometimes these questions and the competing answers can make students feel overwhelmed and paralyzed at the end of the day. One of my goals, then, has been to help students feel they can use their academic work to make a powerful impact in the world. Read More
The Value of Making Connections
by Stacia Ashmore As a species, humans are prone to making connections. We start out as wee tots, exploring the world through the base senses of taste, touch, see, hear, smell. As we grow, we start to connect some “things” to other “things”. Our senses develop subconsciously to make connections that will serve as a foundation for learning. As the logical part of the brain expands, that foundation serves as a “behind the scenes” advisor, preventing us from walking into traffic or grabbing the cookies out of the oven with our bare hands. Read More
Luminosity to Predict Success in Interpreter Training Program
by - Lynne Wiesman The original impetus for this project was to address an issue of compatibility for asynchronous distance classes of an activity called “The Purple Ball”, fulfilled for years in traditional, face-to-face classes and blended, hybrid classes. This synchronous activity requires that students be in one place able to toss around a number of balls all of varying sizes, colors, shapes, and dimensions. The debrief of this activity seeks to challenge new students in Introduction to Interpreting on the implications of the activity to their future, potential career as an interpreter. Read More
Retaining Content Through No Stakes Quizzing
by - Daira Wilson PhD, RN, CNE The Lilly Conference held in January of 2018 was so much more than I could have imagined. This was the first time I had attended the Lilly Conference. I was not sure what to expect and was thrilled with the results. Of the multitude of strategies and ideas that I received during the conference, I really began to think about which strategies would work best for my nursing students. Read More
Rethinking Mantras (Even Those That Serve Us Well)
by - Anja Ketcam One of the mantras that I’ve lived by in my teaching career is that I can’t expect students to know a concept I haven’t taught them. I teach composition, and even though students can write paragraphs when they get to my class, they rarely have a clear sense of what makes a paragraph. Or they’ve been out of academia for so long that they don’t remember. So I start by defining what a paragraph is and what it needs. This technique serves me and my students well, but at some point, I got carried away with my information-based teaching. I started viewing everything through the lens of definitions and knowledge. Read More
How to Encourage Active Listening during lectures with Squarecap!
by - Jessica Listi During the Lilly conference, I met Stephanie Klenzendorf who introduced me to Squarecap - a web-based application for personalized learning. One teaching technique I struggle with is how to engage my students during a lecture. Aside from taking notes, another way to encourage active listening in the classroom is to allow students to ask questions anonymously during a direct teaching presentation. This way, the student is not embarrassed or afraid that he/she will be singled out. Other students can also view the questions asked during a lecture to see if they have the same question(s). The teacher is in control of which questions to show the class, which eliminates irrelevant/distractive questions and/or comments. Furthermore, I notice that students' confidence builds when they are allowed to ask questions during a lecture via Squarecap. For example, while reading "Axolotl," by Julio Cortazar, one student asked if it was possible that the narrator was always an Axolotl, never a human. I loved to share this question with the class because it revealed that the student was thinking outside the box. Like a domino effect, other students started asking higher-level thinking questions about magical realism and how to interpret other challenging material we previously read in class. Read More
Memory, Recall, and Guided Note-Taking
by Carla Coleman According to my end-of-semester course evaluations, the majority of my Brit lit students enjoy my class. However, the same can’t always be said for me. It’s not that my students aren’t overall a great group, but I often find myself frustrated with the superficial and temporary things they’re taking away from our lectures and discussions. I want them to think deeply and make connections! I want them to remember what we covered beyond the discussion, beyond the test, and beyond (dare I say it?) the end of the semester. Read More
Making Metacognition Real
by Herb Coleman At the Lilly Conference held in Austin this past January, I attended an interesting session on metacognition and guided reading delivered by Julie Wulfemeyer of Minnesota State University, Mankato. Metacognition (thinking about thinking) is one of the latest pushes to improve student outcomes. What Wulfemeyer revealed was a shocking study that showed talking to students about metacognition without giving them practical examples can actually be damaging to to student outcomes. In the study, one group of students was told about metacognition, another group was give a metacognitive strategy and a third wasn't told anything. On the post test, the group told about metacognition did worse than the group not told anything. It seems that not telling students about metacognition was better than telling them without strategies. Read More
Follow the String: Using System Thinking
by - Barbara Audet As someone who has taught in multiple disciplines—journalism, mass communications, and student development, it is too easy to create that silo in your head that seeks to separate skills and learning by those subject areas. During my time at the Lilly Conference on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning prior to the start of this semester, I chose to attend a session, Systems Thinking for the Classroom facilitated by Tricia Berry and Keith Smith, both of Kaplan University. Read More
Globalizing my Curriculum to Create Future Globalized Thinkers and Leaders and Social Agents of Change
by - Lillian Huerta This year and last year, I had the privilege of being selected to participate in a Globalizing Curriculum Faculty Learning Community. This great community is sponsored by UT Austin and Austin Community College’s Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning and International Programs. It involves a small group of faculty members who meet once a month to engage in conversations regarding how to globalize their respective courses. In addition, faculty are provided the opportunity to listen to speakers who are other faculty members and/or community leaders and are experts in their fields. The topics range from human rights, gender and LGBT issues, religion, critical pedagogy, poverty, and an array of other topics. Thus, the interchange of conversations and interaction with the guest speakers provide faculty with an array of ideas on how to globalize their courses. Read More
Enlightened at Lilly
by - Edward Blanchard In the world of conferences, food and location are often significant considerations in the minds of participants. Since I live in Austin these thoughts were not uppermost in my priorities for this year’s Lilly Conference. I rather encountered scores of sincere and energized folks eager to enhance their skills and understanding of that mysterious profession in which we claim to be engaged: education. The following impressions and newly acquired viewpoints will, hopefully, help us all to hone our skills and be inspired to pursue a most honorable career. Read More
Guiding Students to Engage
by Nancy Johnson The greatest moments in teaching are witnessing student’s learning in action. To be able to step back and watch the learning process unfold while students engage in analyzing, discussing, and sharing their learning on the content and topics of the course. The pleasure and satisfaction of designing an interactive lecture, in-class activities, and meaningful assignments drawing students into the topic is when I can end my day knowing that students have gain new understanding of the content and involved more deeply in their learning process. Read More
Blogging Squared (Blogging about Blogging) Wading into Web 2.0: Engaging Student Writers with an Audience Through Blogging
by Caryn Newberger In my English 5.0 classes (ENGL 1301 paired with INRW 0320), I face two struggles that are common among many of my peers in both disciplines: How can I insure that my students engage deeply with the reading assignments prior to class? How can I contextualize writing by offering my students an authentic audience? The solution I am piloting involves blogging. This semester, I have assigned my students to write a number of different types of blogs. For some of the reading assignments, I have assigned reader-response blogs to be completed prior to our class discussion of the reading. Read More
Thank you, Lilly conference and the awesome organizers!
by Alessandra Di Lorenzo As a college science instructor, I tend to think that my task as a teacher is limited to the transmission of scientific knowledge via lecture. The Lilly Conference on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning has opened my eyes to the realization that today’s students need different instructional strategies. Read More
Service-Learning
by Lillian Huerta Service-Learning is defined as a teaching methodology that allows students to apply their academic skills/learning to the service that they are providing in the community. Here is what service-learning looks like: Auto mechanic students can teach women from a local women’s shelter to change oil or a flat tire. Students in a sociology course can develop a survey for a low-income neighborhood to determine the health needs of that community. Students studying accounting help prepare taxes for low-income individuals. Students studying marketing can create slogans for a non-profit. Students taking a course in web design can design a website for a school or non-profit. Read More
My Experience at the Lilly Conference
by Rosemary Klein-Robbins There is so much about the Conference that I would like to write about. The level of enthusiasm and excitement exhibited by the attendees was so very apparent. Read More
Teaching Techniques for New Professors
by Amanda Winograd As a new teacher, every day in the classroom feels like a success and a failure. This student asked an insightful question! Another student is snoring, quite loudly. How do you react to that? The idea of being able to engage students and improvise in front of an audience is a lot. At the Lilly Conference this year, I had the opportunity to learn from educators who make teaching look easy, and I came away with a score of techniques to add to my teaching toolbox. Read More
How to create more time for active strategies
by Scott Gibby In my Spanish classes, lecture had always taken up more class time than I wanted it to. I tried so many things to get students to prepare ahead of time, yet homework went undone and students complained they couldn't understand the material on their own. Read More
Stepping Into The Water: Engaging Lecturing at The Lilly Conference
by Cynthia A. Brewer, M.Ed. We all go to conferences for one reason or another. Some go to enhance their learning and perfect their craft, while for others it might be to gain a new perspective, seek out new talent and resources. Then there are those of us who just “crave academic nourishment”, in the words of Steve Urkel. Read More
Using Student Peer Assessments to Develop Professional Skills
By B. Prema Strecker, RDH, MS I attended a session on "Using Peer Assessments to Develop Professional Skills and Cohesive Teams in a Gross Anatomy Course," led by Judy Klimek and Cathryn Sparks at the Lilly Conference 2018. Gross Anatomy is a rigorous "team sport" with information to be mastered and lab procedures to be accomplished by students. Dysfunctional teams are not uncommon. It became a priority for these professors to support team members to provide feedback to each other to promote development of professional behaviors. The goals of their Peer Assessment (PA) process were to: Read More