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Hybrid Flexible (HyFlex) Instruction: What, How, Why, and When to Use?
No full textThe Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the daily lives of students and revealed the importance of technology as an integral part of teaching in today’s educational arena. As public health measures reduced virus transmission and enabled the return to in-person learning, the lasting impact of the pandemic required instructors to adapt to an ever-evolving academic landscape. The HyFlex structure provided much needed flexibility for students to mitigate education disruptions. HyFlex is a learner-centered model that combines three instructional modalities: 1)online asynchronous, 2) online synchronous, and 3)face-to-face in-person learning . Students have the choice of these three learning modalities and can change learning modes during the course’s progression without compromising academic goals and integrity. Previous studies have shown that HyFlex courses have a higher rate of student retention than online or asynchronous courses, suggesting that this flexibility positively influences student success. Yet, there are few studies that explore how effective HyFlex learning has been for students. The shortage of empirical studies investigating HyFlex in higher education led us to explore the effects of HyFlex on student engagement and academic stress during the transition back to campus instruction. During Spring of 2022, we surveyed ~750 students in courses employing HyFlex learning on our university campus. The study included undergraduate and graduate students and spanned 6 separate courses in 3 colleges across disciplines, including physiology, nutrition, computer science, and business. Survey topics included student perceptions of course content and technologies, stress related to academics and Covid-19, student engagement and self-directed learning, and overall satisfaction with the course. During this session, we will outline the key elements for the successful use of the HyFlex model from instructors’ experience and will discuss the results of our study to highlight how using HyFlex impacted our students, particularly as it relates to student engagement and academic stress in the transition to a post-pandemic era
Beyond Google Docs: Utilizing Video and Library Resources to Create Engaging Virtual Escape Rooms
No full textCreating a virtual escape room can be as easy as putting together a Google form. Crafting an engaging activity is trickier. By utilizing library resources to craft puzzles and filming short videos to foster a narrative, virtual escape rooms can be fun learning resources that teach about almost any subject. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I created a virtual escape room to help students learn about library resources. The narrative of the escape room focuses on a Bigfoot spotted roaming the library. To make the activity more engaging, several short videos were filmed to foster the narrative. Most escape room puzzles revolve around students utilizing library resources to complete objectives. The interactive nature of databases and other library resources make them an excellent tool for virtual escape rooms. Although filming video can be intimidating, even simple videos add quite a bit to narratives. This poster will help attendees learn how they can incorporate these resources into their own activities
Equity in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics
No full textMany teachers are inadequately prepared to teach ethnically diverse students. The knowledge that teachers need to teach marginalized populations effectively goes beyond mastery of the content knowledge and pedagogical skills often taught in teacher preparation programs. Equitable mathematics teaching practices can position all students as capable and can assign competence to students who have been historically marginalized. This presentation aims to examine equitable teaching practices that support mathematics teachers to acknowledge and modify deficit orientations to students, increase expectations for students and their own teaching, and develop or improve a robust set of equity-direct practices. Systemic equity issues will be explored and literature discussing structural and institutional barriers that marginalized student populations often confront will be examined. An overview of literature about a set of five equity-directed pedagogical approaches advocated for ethnically diverse students will be provided. The equity-directed pedagogical approaches will be synthesized using Gutiérrez’s (2007) Dimensions of Learning Equity framework. Participants will engage in self-reflections, activities, and critical discussions regarding equity in the teaching and learning of mathematics
Fostering Open Pedagogy in Faculty Cohorts: Opportunities for Applying the Open Pedagogy Incubator Model
No full textThis poster outlines a faculty cohort model for growing open pedagogical practices in an educational community. We provide an overview of our experience facilitating the Open Pedagogy Incubator, a semester-long program designed to incentivize faculty to go beyond the first step in open education - adopting open course materials - to engagement with open pedagogy.
Since 2020 the Open Pedagogy Incubator has brought together cohorts of six instructors to develop competencies in open pedagogy through a series of hands-on workshops, curated readings, and cohort discussions. Topics include an exploration of select web-based tools and philosophies which center equity, agency, access, and public engagement.
The Incubator supports explicit engagement with open pedagogy in each participant’s courses, reducing costs and empowering students in innovative ways. By developing a cohort, the Incubator also builds a community of learning so that instructors can share ideas, offer feedback, and explore cross- and interdisciplinary approaches to pedagogy. In addition, the Incubator produces a set of public, locally-tailored models for open pedagogy to inspire other instructors with grounded, concrete examples of what “open pedagogy” can mean on campus
Rising Against the Machine : Appeasing the Educators’ Fears of Artificial Intelligence Taking Over Foreign Language Education
No full textThe presentation explores humanity\u27s interaction with advanced technology, particularly the pros and cons of using artificial intelligence in language learning. It discusses the impact of AI on foreign language education, tracing historical use and the emergence of AI-powered tools like Google Translate and ChatGPT. The presentation highlights the growing importance of bilingual skills in an interconnected world and the role of language education in cross-cultural understanding, addressing the concerns about AI advancements as potentially surpassing foreign language teachers in the classroom. Moreover, the authors discuss AI integration in language education, recognizing opportunities like personalized learning and automated translation. However, they acknowledge challenges, such as reduced cultural understanding and unequal access.
The authors provide examples of ways to use generative AI, like ChatGPT, in language instruction, emphasizing advantages in customized listening practice but cautions against overreliance and potential errors. Overall, the presentation advocates embracing AI in language education while maintaining a balanced approach, combining AI with traditional methods. Responsible implementation and research, as they conclude, can maximize AI\u27s benefits without threatening conventional learning
Hätä Keinon Keksii: Consulting the Nordic Model of “Penal Exceptionalism” for a Praxis-Oriented Approach to Higher Education in Prison
No full textDenmark, Sweden, and Norway hold among the world’s lowest rates of incarceration and recidivism. This phenomenon, referred to as the Nordic model of “Penal Exceptionalism” (Pratt, 2008), has proven replicable as Finland – whose prison population once soared – reduced its rates of incarceration after adopting many of the policies and initiatives pioneered by its neighbors (Lappi-Seppälä, 2000). As the United States reinstates Pell Grants for incarcerated learners and New York State passes its own set of progressive reform laws (the Less is More Act of 2021 and revisions to state Discovery Laws and Bail Reform), scholars, activists, and educators might look toward the Nordic countries for guidance on how to serve this evolving student demographic.
It Takes a Village: A Personal Account of Reentry Education and Becoming a Reentry Educator
No full textSuccess after incarceration is not just attributed to the person returning but is a result of the village that one has. This correlates with the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” That same village is needed for a formerly incarcerated person to be successful. The village includes the person’s family, community, employer, place of faith, and support groups. This provides a tight knit group of people who are speaking life into this individual, whereas the streets would speak harm into their life
Book Review: Reform Nation : The First Step Act and the Movement to End Mass Incarceration by Colleen P. Eren
No full textReform Nation: The First Step Act and the Movement to End Mass Incarceration by Colleen P. Eren. Stanford University Press, 2023. 263 pp. ISBN:978-1-5036-3673-
Designing a Mathematics Teacher Education Course for Equity and Antiracism
No full textIn this manuscript, I reflect on the redesign of my graduate elementary mathematics methods course—a redesign necessitated by the pandemic and the shift to online learning that created an opportunity to make equity and antiracism central to the course. I describe my earlier, unsuccessful attempt to add equity as a course topic—an “additive approach” to antiracist pedagogy (Kishimoto, 2018). I then reflect on my Fall 2020 iteration of the course, in which changes to course goals, content, and assessments allowed for an integrated approach to antiracism and equity, working towards TODOS’ (2020a) call to prioritize antiracism in mathematics teaching and learning