2024 Program

Martina Svyantek, Strategic Initiatives and Accessible Technology Manager, Student Disability Access Center, UVA

Proactive planning or reactive responses? How do you want to plan for your upcoming semester? This session explores the importance of collaboration with Disability Service Offices in course design and teaching. Participants will gain insights into the benefits of this collaboration, strategies for effective communication, and practical tips for implementing accommodations. The session promises to be a valuable resource for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices and promote inclusivity in their classrooms while recognizing the real human needs on every side of the accommodations process in higher education.

• Dorothe Bach, Associate Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, UVA

• Cady Garey, Lecturer, Drama, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

• Charlie Gleek, Assistant Professor, Catalyst Program, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

• Carolyn Schuyler, Visiting Professor, Environmental Thought & Practice, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

• Wendy Smith, Postdoctoral Fellow & Lecturer, New Curriculum, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

• Abigail Whitford, Ph.D. Candidate, Microbiology, School of Medicine, UVA

This session considers how we can intentionally mobilize embodied modalities for learning. Drawing on cognitive science, we discuss how our bodies, environments and embodied interactions can help us think more deeply, creatively, and relationally. We highlight the importance of choice for making embodied learning activities accessible, interrogate structures that have favored sitting and consider barriers for introducing embodied modalities into higher education. You will engage in adaptable sample activities that will spice up your classroom and make the learning and teaching experience richer, more socially connected, and fun!

Sanha Kim, Ph.D. Candidate, Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, UVA

This case study implements a token economy (TE) to guide and motivate chemical engineering undergraduates in a fluid dynamics course to revisit concepts during a semester. In a TE, students acquire tokens by fulfilling class participation standards and exchange tokens to purchase rewards. One type of reward available to students is assignment resubmission, which allows students to practice identifying their original error(s) and explaining how their revision resolved the error(s). The TE’s influence on student learning experience will be assessed around motivation to revisit assignments, time commitment to the class, and approach for completing assignments knowing that resubmissions were available.

Erin Clabough, Associate Professor, Psychology, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

Effective active learning approaches place a greater responsibility on the learner than passive approaches, but they can be difficult to implement. I will present a new model for employing active learning methods based on life-long processes of neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity. I provide 7 knowledge catalysts that work to support, empower, and include all learners on their knowledge journey, mindfully chosen to help explore topics using different levels of scale and principles of Living Systems Theory. The system fosters a less closed/more open attitude and mindset in both teachers and learners, designed to support personal growth and exploration through experiences.

• Peter Alonzi, Assistant Professor, School of Data Science, UVA

• Yihui Yap, Undergraduate Student, College of Arts & Sciences, UVA

This presentation will describe a novel process for engaging students, from any discipline, in developing a syllabus that is accessible and relevant to them. Participants will hear from both a faculty and a student perspective about the steps involved and how to apply this approach for any class. Participants will leave with the syllabus co-designed by students and faculty, including references used and practical materials that can be directly applied.

• Anne Jewett, Assistant Professor, Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, School of Education & Human Development, UVA

• Ottilie Austin, Associate Professor, Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, School of Education & Human Development, UVA

Have you tried to use AI? Join two faculty members as they share how they have collaborated to enhance their instructional practice to support students’ learning with the use of AI. The instructors will share the guidance that was offered to students as they were encouraged to use AI on several course projects. Instructors also debriefed with students to determine how they used AI and whether it was an effective tool to support their work.

Leyf Starling, Lecturer, First Year Engineering Center, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, UVA

In this interactive session, participants will learn how GenAI tools like ChatGPT can enhance the (engineering) design process. Participants will try using these tools for design activities, and we will discuss how to coach students on responsible usage of GenAI in the classroom. Through facilitated dialogue, participants will re-evaluate the utility of GenAI as an effective classroom tool, generate relevant ways to include this in their own courses, and create a network of faculty with whom they can share future ideas in this field.

• Kylie Korsnack, Assistant Director, Teaching and Scholarship Hub, University of Richmond

• Matthew Oware, Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, University of Richmond

• Michael Norris, Associate Professor, Chemistry, University of Richmond

• Emmy Ready, Lecturer, Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, University of Richmond

• Miranda Moe, Undergraduate Student, Teaching and Scholarship Hub, School of Arts & Sciences, University of Richmond

How might we more intentionally bring student voices into campus conversations about inclusive teaching? Co-facilitated by a team of faculty, students and staff, this interactive session will lead participants through a series of activities designed to help each of us adopt a “students as partners” mindset in order to generate ideas and strategies for co-creating more inclusive classroom environments. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from and with all five of our presenters, each of whom brings to the conversation a different but equally important form of expertise and experience in partnership work.

Charlie Gleek, Assistant Professor, Catalyst Program, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

What's at stake when we provide students opportunities for active learning through multiple ways of knowing? Centering learners' somatic experiences in our coursework cultivates deep, sustained learning through play, reflection, application, and experimentation. This presentation demonstrates adaptable teaching ideas, rooted in experiential and embodied pedagogies, which engage learners’ affective, behavioral, cognitive, and non-cognitive domains. Drawing from evidence-based scholarship and interdisciplinary UVA coursework, the session illustrates how synthesizing experiential education with perspectives on embodied knowledge fosters durable learning for students and faculty alike. Ultimately, the presentation asks attendees to imagine and adopt holistic perspectives for teaching and learning into their disciplines.

Stella Mattioli, Lecturer, Spanish, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

This presentation will show how the instructor has been using specifications grading in their Italian courses since Fall 2023, to implement a more equitable way of grading, that could reduce the stress-related anxiety in students, while making the focus on the learning process instead of focusing on the final grade. This grading system can be used in many other disciplines, and it can be modified in different ways.

Meiqin Li, Assistant Professor, Center for Applied Mathematics, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, UVA

In many courses, disparate prerequisite knowledge levels pose challenges and hinder inclusivity and equity. Offering dedicated prerequisite courses may not be feasible due to various factors (delayed graduation). Then how can we ensure students possess equitable preparation for their current courses? For example, how do we equip student with “equity of precalculus skills” to learn Calculus? By taking Calculus course for example, this presentation talks about strategies incorporating prerequisite concepts that are accessible to all directly into the curriculum, to foster a more inclusive learning environment, bridge knowledge gaps and promote student success.

Caleb Hendrickson, Postdoctoral Research Associate & Lecturer, College & Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, UVA

This presentation concerns how, in one UVA Engagements class titled "Living With Images," techniques for teaching visual literacy have been altered and supplemented with practices meant to create a deeper understanding of our physically and socially embodied relationship with visual images. 

• C.L. Bohannon, Associate Dean-Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, & Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture; Community Engagement Fellow, Center for Teaching Excellence, UVA

• Ella Thomasson, Undergraduate Student, Data Science, School of Data Science, UVA

• Emma Potter, Graduate Student, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, UVA

• Lysette Velazquez, Graduate Student, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, UVA

In this panel, students will share their experiences with community-engaged coursework. As a pedagogical approach, community-engaged learning relies on uniquely human and unscripted elements, so how do students make sense of this in contrast to conventional classroom-based learning? What are the mutual benefits of true community-engaged work? What does it mean for students to engage with communities that they will inevitably leave behind? C.L. Bohannon will lead this lively panel featuring undergraduate students from courses across UVA, including Data Science and Landscape Architecture.

Dr. Cate Denial, Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute, Knox College; 2024 Summit Keynote Speaker

What does it take to surface our values related to teaching and regularly enact them in the classroom? How do we adjust when our values and priorities around teaching change? Can we adjust as we gain experience and as we – and the world – change? Join us for an informal conversation with author, educator, and keynote speaker Dr. Cate Denial. Participants will also get a sneak peek of Dr. Denial’s book, A Pedagogy of Kindness, due out this summer. Registration is encouraged. Please note that there is a reading/listening assignment to complete prior to this session.