The Symposium for Teaching with Technology 2019: Event Schedule and Session Videos
The Symposium for Teaching with Technology 2019 was held on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.
Below are descriptions and videos of each of the day’s sessions.
Session Descriptions and Videos
Tech-Enabled Modes of Participation Allow for Broader Student Engagement… Even for the Quiet Ones
10:15 A.M. – 11:00 A.M. | Room 122
How can faculty and instructors encourage equal student participation and measure meaningful engagement in their classes? How do different classroom activities, such as discussion, group work, writing exercises, and classroom polling impact in- and post-class student engagement? Find out how integrated classroom polling and video lecture capture are leveraged to engage students in class, and how they can drive new ways to review outside of class. Additionally, learn how a digital classroom tracker is being used to measure classroom participation and influence strategies for engaging students. The digital classroom tracker is part of a project funded through the Office of the Provost by an Inclusive Pedagogy Grant.
Presenters: Valerie Levan, Lecturer in the College, Humanities Core Teaching Coordinator; Linda Smith-Brecheisen, Associate Director, the Writing Program; Mark Hendricks, Associate Director for Financial Mathematics
Making Data Make Sense
10:15 A.M. – 11:00 A.M. | Room A-11
Data literacy is the ability to critically consume, understand, evaluate, and summarize data. ICPSR, Social Explorer, and the General Social Survey Data Explorer make it easy to add data literacy learning outcomes to assignments. Join us to learn how the Libraries’ Center for Digital Scholarship is teaching social science students to use these tools for their research, and learn more about the digital preservation of those data within our institutional repository Knowledge@UChicago, which has added a data repository component.
Presenters: Elizabeth Foster, Social Science Data Librarian; Stacie Williams, Director, Center for Digital Scholarship
UChicago’s New Makerspaces Bring Student Ideas to Life
11:15 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. | Room 122
Makerspace technologies such as 3D printing and digital fabrication are seeing increased use in curricula in higher education. This presentation shows how two instructors at UChicago are taking advantage of the capabilities of the newly-opened Media Arts, Data and Design Center (MADD) to help their students to think creatively and bring their designs to life in innovative ways. Learn how these technologies are enabling instructors to integrate rapid prototyping as a key tool for students to provide meaningful visualization and feedback on their creative designs. You will also learn more about the MADD Center, a brand-new collaborative space in Crerar Library.
Presenters: David Wolf, Senior Director of Art Technologies, Logan Center; Pedro Lopes, Assistant Professor of Computer Science; Amber Ginsburg, Lecturer, Visual Arts
Leveraging Online Quizzes: Beyond the Basic Assessment
11:15 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. | Room A-11
How can online, machine-graded quizzes be used effectively to measure student learning and competency meaningfully? In ORGB 30001 The Human Body, a course for first-year medical school students, faculty and lecturers used online quizzes as a self-assessment tool for students to monitor their own progress, as a way to guide group lab work, and as summative assessments. The lead faculty member will talk about his vision of how online quizzes can be an integral part of competency assessment for students.
Presenters: Callum Ross, Professor, Organismal Biology and Anatomy; Rick Madden, Senior Lecturer and Lab Manager, Organismal Biology and Anatomy; Myra Laird, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy; Michael Granatosky, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Instant Polling for Seminar-style Courses? Yes! For Language Courses? Yes!
1:15 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. | Room 122
New ‘instant polling’ strategies are helping instructors increase engagement with their classes. Creative uses of Poll Everywhere are creating opportunities for different types of activities. In this presentation, hear how some UChicago instructors are leveraging this real-time tool to enhance their classroom teaching practices by employing it in small classes and even outside the classroom.
Presenters: Matt Teichman, Lecturer, Humanities Collegiate Division; Ana Lima, Senior Lecturer; Portuguese Language Coordinator; Chair of RLL Language Coordinators’ Committee
Fast, Efficient, and Easy: Grading Hand-written Work with Gradescope
1:15 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. | Room A-11
Many courses use hand-written tests and assignments to best assess student learning… but it can be tedious work to grade and a logistical headache with multiple instructors or TAs. Some instructors teaching computer science, statistics, and math have been leveraging a technology platform, Gradescope, to make this process faster, more efficient, and much less of a logistical nightmare. Learn how using Gradescope has been “transformational” for instructors and has resulted in better/faster feedback to students on their work.
Presenter: Borja Sotomayor, Senior Lecturer, Computer Science; Associate Director of Academics, Master’s Program in Computer Science
Flipping the Large Survey Course Model: A Collaboration with Geophysical Sciences
2:15 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. | Room 122
In this presentation, learn how the instructors of UChicago’s popular Global Warming course have re-designed the course to employ the ‘flipped’ classroom approach, with the goal of increasing student engagement both inside and outside the classroom using technology advances in video lectures and well-designed active classroom techniques. Learn how instructors worked with Academic Technology Solutions, the Chicago Center for Teaching, and Geophysical Sciences Teaching Support in a collaborative partnership that supported the careful design, planning, and preparation of the course needed to deliver the redesigned course in a way that would achieve its goals.
Presenters: Dorian Abbot, Associate Professor, Geophysical Sciences; Brent Barker, Teaching Support Manager for Undergraduate Labs, Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysical Sciences; Angelika (Kiki) Zissimopoulos, Director for Initiatives in STEM Teaching and Learning, Chicago Center for Teaching; Cecilia Lo, Academic Technology Analyst, Academic Technology Solutions, IT Services
Student Panel: Their Technology Experience at UChicago
2:15 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. | Room A-11
A cross-section of UChicago students share their experiences with technology, from everyday life through how they leverage it for their learning process in and out of the classroom. This panel discussion will explore their thoughts about a variety of teaching and learning topics, including what technologies they typically use in the classes they take, what problems they encounter as students, what technologies they wish they had access to, and what they hope to see in the future. Join us for an opportunity to ask the students your own questions, as well.
Moderator: Mohammad Ahmed, Instructional Designer, Academic Technology Solutions
| Time | Room 122 | Room A-11 |
| 8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. | Registration; Breakfast Served | |
| 9:00 A.M. – 10:00 A.M. | Welcome – Matt Meyer; Keynote – W.J.T. Mitchell | |
| 10:15 A.M. – 11:00 A.M. | Tech-Enabled Modes of Participation Allow for Broader Student Engagement…Even for the Quiet Ones – Valerie Levan, Linda Smith-Brecheisen, Mark Hendricks | Making Data Make Sense – Elizabeth Foster, Stacie Williams |
| 11:15 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. | UChicago’s New Makerspaces Bring Student Ideas to Life – David Wolf, Pedro Lopes, Amber Ginsburg | Leveraging Online Quizzes: Beyond the Basic Assessment – Callum Ross, Rick Madden, Myra Laird, Michael Granatosky |
| 12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M. | Lunch Served 12:30-1:00: Lightning Talks |
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| 1:15 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. | Instant Polling for Seminar-style Courses? Yes! For Language Courses? Yes! – Matt Teichman, Ana Lima | Fast, Efficient, and Easy: Grading Hand-written Work with Gradescope – Borja Sotomayor |
| 2:15 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. | Flipping the Large Survey Course Model: A Collaboration with Geophysical Sciences – Dorian Abbot, Brent Barker, Angelika (Kiki) Zissimopoulos, Cecilia Lo | Student Panel: Their Technology Experience at UChicago – Mohammad Ahmed, Moderator |
| 3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. | Tours |