Faculty share online teaching strategies that create meaningful connections in support of student learning

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 12:47:43 +0000

The University of Arkansas at ��Ƶlogo Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ATLE) reviewed strategies for substantive contact in online teaching at its meeting Sept. 19.

“Cori Schmidtbauer gave me great ideas for making my online pharmacology class interactive,” nursing instructor LaQuana Smith said. “She suggested online games, unfolding case studies, and using Blackboard Collaborate to record small groups. Thanks Cori!”

Dr. Liz Pierce, associate professor and chair of the Department of Information Science, Dr. Kristen McIntyre, associate professor for the Department of Applied Communication and director of the UA ��Ƶlogo Communication Skill Center, and Cori Schmidtbauer, instructional designer for Scholarly Technology and Resources (STaR), shared their techniques with other faculty in attendance, stressing the goal of creating connection. Pierce explained that the Information Science department built a student profile to understand the characteristics and needs of students in their program. They found that most of their students prefer courses offered in the late afternoon or evenings on Mondays through Thursdays. “Our students arrive to class time around 5 p.m.,” Pierce said. “Holding class toward the end of the day works great, even for international students participating online from places like Singapore. The difference in time zones turns out to be very compatible when we schedule classes this way.” Students also prefer lively, engaging interaction and the ability to ask questions, even in an online experience. Pierce encouraged everyone to design a space that enables them to interact with their students and to make use of experts in the STaR office. “Students want to feel connected to their peers and the teacher,” Pierce said. “We use tools like multiple webcams with pre-set angles and on-screen chats so that students have both audio and text options for asking questions during a lecture. We want to give them a window into the classroom as if they were sitting in the front row.” Many classes are being offered in a “mashup” style. As McIntyre explained, in some classes, about half of the students are in the live classroom, while the other half interact online with peers and the instructor through Blackboard discussions, peer reviews, and other opportunities for connection. “I use low-threat activities to encourage peer-to-peer interactions that build community,” McIntryre said. Some examples McIntyre shared include encouraging students to create a social media connection outside of class, assigning peer reviews, hosting small group workshops online after 9 p.m. or on-campus during evenings and weekends, and inviting online students to participate in her on-campus version of a class anytime they want. “Facilitating opportunities for students to connect with one another requires low effort on my part and pays big dividends for student success,” McIntryre said. “I also require that they meet with me in-person or online within the first two weeks of class, just so we can get to know each other and kick start our connection. They can meet with me alone or in a group.” Schmidtbauer encouraged everyone to create a robust instructor presence in online courses as a way to engage students and avoid student isolation. “Humanize yourself to help students not feel isolated at their computers,” Schmidtbauer said. “Share your hobbies and interests. Post your photo and use 3-to-5-minute audio or video lectures to create a positive tone for the class.” Schmidtbauer suggested instructors maintain a sense of presence by using the many collaborative tools in Blackboard, using “SMART” (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based) goals to achieve teaching objectives, providing timely feedback to students, and using both individual messages and announcements to engage the class. All faculty are encouraged to take advantage of the professional development opportunities offered each month through ATLE. “I love ATLE events,” said Cynthia Johnson, accounting instructor. “You never know what tidbits you’ll pick up. I’ve implemented ideas received at ATLE events that have improved my syllabus, class management, communication, and Blackboard site design. ATLE offers great help, atmosphere, and comradery.” RSVP for upcoming ATLE events at /atle/events/.

UA ��Ƶlogo students reach hackathon finals

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 13:00:21 +0000

University of Arkansas at ��Ƶlogo student teams took two of the nine final spots at the UA BlockChain Hackathon at the University of Arkansas held Sept. 28-29. The hackathon featured 21 teams from Arkansas colleges and universities and was sponsored by nine large businesses such as IBM, Tyson, Heifer International, and J.B. Hunt, who provided challenges focused on using BlockChain technology for teams to present during the competition. Each of the nine sponsors chose a team to advance to the finals where they presented their results against the winners of other challenges. “BlockChain refers to a distributed database platform that allows for the secure processing and management of transactions across a network,” explained Dr. Liz Pierce, chair of UA ��Ƶlogo’s Department of Information Science. “It is the technology behind BitCoin and is also of great interest to companies like J.B. Hunt and Walmart who want to be able to track transactions across many different producers and suppliers.” Two UA ��Ƶlogo teams, representing J.B. Hunt and ArcBest, each won in their challenges and presented their developments in the finals. All of UA ��Ƶlogo’s competitors were undergraduates with little to no prior BlockChain experience or knowledge, while most of their competition came from graduate students from the University of Arkansas’ BlockChain Center of Excellence. Students Karen Watts, Michael DiCicco, and Brenda Nyangweso won J.B. Hunt’s challenge and went on to represent them in the finals, along with Aaron David, Brock Butler, Hunter Wright, Ian Thompson, and Sunny Singh from the ArcBest team. An additional 25 more UA ��Ƶlogo students also took part in the competition: Thomas Emmerling, Naveed Siddiqui, Brenda Chepkorir, Yinqi Chen, Ryan Moore, Peter Israsena, Hengchang Liao, Nicholas Stewart, Zhenlin Jin, Kyle Hooks, Zachary Long, Bushra Sajid, Saba Khalid, Christopher Lewis, Brady Moore, Moteet Bakeman, Mughal Minhaj Uddin, Lucas Rayburn, Hitaxiben Patel, Donovan Valestin, Shibani Lal, Richard Young, Malik El-Amin, Christian Aqui, and Kristen Stewart. Butler, a junior information science major from Hot Springs, and his team created a driver registration system for ArcBest with the goal of improving driver retention. “For the use case, we chose to create a system that would bring in information from government, law enforcement, and independent company databases and api’s. We would store the information within ledgers that would be interconnected through a BlockChain, and that chain of ledgers would be sorted and rated by a neural network,” Butler said. “A neural network is basically a self-improving algorithm that would learn and adapt like the human brain. Our neural network would be able to pull up ledgers about and assign ratings towards the drivers within a mobile app that both drivers and employers could use. The mobile app would allow drivers to see in real-time how well they’re performing and it could become a tool for them to use when looking for a job, and because they could see how they’re doing in their current position.” Watts, a senior information science major from Bryant, and her team, sudoIntellectual, created an electronic bill of lading system for J.B. Hunt that they named “Truck Hunt.” “How does Truck Hunt work? When a carrier arrives at the shipper, as pallets are loaded into the truck, RFID or smart pallets can track what is loaded in the truck. Then the carrier gives a tablet to the shipper that then uses facial recognition to cryptographically sign the bill of lading. As the carrier goes from point A to point B, there are sensors in the truck that collect the temperature data, GPS, and acceleration,” Watts said. “Once the carrier arrives at the receiver, the truck is unloaded and the receiver verifies that everything was arrived in order and they both cryptographically sign the bill of lading. At the point the pdf is finalized and the hash is stored on the blockchain. If there is a dispute then the data from the sensors is also stored on the BlockChain.” further explained Watts, who’s team has since been invited to present their project to J.B. Hunt’s executive committee. Watts’ teammate Michael DiCicco, a junior information science major from Benton, credits UA ��Ƶlogo with providing him with the opportunity to travel, network, and compete at hackathons across the country. “I’ve enjoyed getting to travel so much, and I’ve gotten to go everywhere from Las Vegas to Alabama,” DiCicco said. “It’s also helped me become a better communicator, and I always come back with good takeaways.” Pierce and the rest of UA ��Ƶlogo’s information science faculty could not be more pleased with their students’ performance. “I think it’s amazing that they went in and did so well against competitors with more experience than them, I’m always looking forward to what they’ll show us next!” she said. Eight UA ��Ƶlogo students reached the hackathon’s finals, including (from L to R): Ian Thompson, Michael DiCicco, Karen Watts, Brock Butler, Aaron David, and Hunter Wright.

- University News Archive - UA ������Ƶlogo

Faculty share online teaching strategies that create meaningful connections in support of student learning

UA ������Ƶlogo students reach hackathon finals

- University News Archive - UA ��Ƶlogo

UA ��Ƶlogo students reach hackathon finals