Celebration of Teaching 2024

This year, our focus will be on Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for teaching and learning. Additionally, we will offer topics related to Educational Assessment and the Review of Teaching.

All sessions are in-person, and will be held in Cornell Hall (700 Tiger Ave., Columbia, MO.)

If you have any questions, please contact us at teaching@missouri.edu

Keynote Speaker: Regan A. R. Gurung

Regan A. R. Gurung is a social psychologist by training and with research encompassing social, health, and pedagogical psychology. He has had over 130 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored/co-edited 15 books. His most recent books are Study Like A Champ (with John Dunloskyand Thriving in Academia (with Pam Ansburg & Mark Basham). He is founding co-editor of APA’s journal Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, co-chaired the APA General Psychology Initiative, and is currently past president of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. He is the recipient of the American Psychological Foundation’s Charles L. Brewer Award for Distinguished Teaching in Psychology.

At Oregon State University, he is Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Professor of Psychological Science, and Director of the General Psychology Program.

Dr. Gurung taught at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) for twenty years before moving to Corvallis, Oregon in 2019.  While at UWGB, he served in many different roles, including Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Department Chair of Human Development; Co-Director of the University’s Teaching Scholars Program; and on the University of Wisconsin System’s Office of Professional Development Executive Committee. He has consulted with and conducted workshops at numerous Teaching and Learning Centers both nationally and internationally.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
KEYNOTE: Rage Against The Machine: Effective Teaching in the Age of AI

Slides from Dr. Gurung’s session are available here.

Engage with Dr. Gurung on more teaching and learning topics on social media here.

Higher education took a close look at teaching and learning during the pandemic but now needs to consider the entry of artificial intelligence into the classroom. The availability of services such as ChatGPT and Claude changes how students learn. Does it also change how we teach? Establishing clear definitions and measures for effective teaching is now more important than ever. This talk will highlight effective teaching and learning practices against the backdrop of AI.

Regan A. R. Gurung, Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Professor of Psychological Science, and Director of the General Psychology Program.
Oregon State University

 12:00 PM – 12:50 PM
Celebration Lunch
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM (Concurrent)
Free Generative AI for Education: Getting Started with Microsoft Bing Copilot (GPT-4 Turbo) and Perplexity AI

What can you do for free with generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools gaining attention in higher education? This session will provide live demonstrations of Microsoft Bing Copilot powered by GPT-4 Turbo (the latest generation language model developed by OpenAI) and Perplexity AI (a search engine that provides direct source linking for transparency and verification). Educators are using these tools to enhance efficiency and student engagement.

The presenters will compare the capabilities of free and paid versions of these AI tools. Since March, all Bing Copilot users have had free access to GPT-4 Turbo, and University of Missouri users also have access to free versions of AI extensions for Office365. (We’ll show the add-on for PowerPoint.) Perplexity offers GPT-3.5 for free to everyone and access to Perplexity Pro for a free trial period. (Pro users choose from the latest AI models like GPT-4 and Claude 3.)

The session will highlight use cases that exemplify the impact of these AI tools in fostering innovative teaching, such as exploring the latest research and pedagogical strategies. Participants will be invited to try out the tools and share their ideas and perspectives.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Distinguish between capabilities and limitations of Bing Copilot and Perplexity AI, free and paid versions.
  • Explore how to leverage these tools for enhancing efficiency and student engagement.
  • Make informed decisions about integrating these AI tools into their teaching practices.

Liz Du Plessis, Manager of Instructional Design
Missouri Online

Tom Roedel, Instructional Technologist
Missouri Online

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM (Concurrent)
Customizing ChatGPT to Create a GPT Teaching Assistant

Explore customizing ChatGPT as a TA: harness prompt engineering, MyGPT, and integrate course materials. Unveil AI’s educational potential, benefits, and future outlook.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Understand the Customization Process: Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to customize ChatGPT for their specific educational settings, particularly in the context of operations management. They will learn the intricacies of prompt engineering, utilizing MyGPT, and integrating course-specific materials such as syllabi and class notes to tailor the AI’s responses to fit the unique needs of their courses.
  • Recognize the Benefits and Risks: Attendees will be able to articulate the potential benefits of employing a GPT-based Teaching Assistant, such as enhanced student engagement, personalized learning support, and administrative efficiency. Simultaneously, they will be well-informed about the possible risks, including issues related to ethics, data privacy, and the importance of maintaining academic integrity.
  • Develop Skills for Crafting Effective AI Responses: Participants will acquire the skills to craft effective and appropriate configuration prompts for AI, enabling them to guide the AI in producing responses that are aligned with the desired tone and content for their educational context. This includes responding to challenging scenarios like replying to aggressive or inappropriate student emails in a way that maintains professionalism and supports a positive learning environment.

Kihyung Kim, Assistant Teaching Professor
Trulaske College of Business

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM (Concurrent)
Broadening Participation in Undergraduate Research

Students that benefit most from participation in a mentored research setting are least likely to seek and be chosen for them. These students fall into several categories such as first generation, under-represented, and lower income groups. Recruitment and support of these students is critical to enabling them to reap the benefits of research as a high impact educational experience. In a panel discussion, we bring together faculty to discuss their strategies for providing mentored undergraduate research across a variety of disciplines and situations.

Included will be: summer research experience programs, drawing from the new SREP program in A&S, creating research opportunities for distance and online students, using Federal Work-study to provide paid research experiences, and building wrap around supports for undergraduate researchers. Panelists will describe their own experiences mentoring undergraduate students, as well as the pitfalls and challenges experienced along the way.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Participants should be able to describe one new strategy for engaging undergraduates in research activities.
  • Participants will be aware of the benefits that undergraduates get from participating in research activities
  • Participants will know how to find and contact appropriate campus resources to support undergraduates involved in research activities

Christopher Josey, Associate Teaching Professor; Director of Honors Program and Undergraduate Research, Communication
Nicole Monnier, Teaching Professor of Russian; Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts & Science
Carolyn Orbann, Associate Teaching Professor, College of Health Sciences
Sarah Humfeld-Conditt, Assistant Director, Office of Undergraduate Research
Linda Blockus, Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

Graham McCaulley, Director, Office of Service Learning
Andre Thorn, Director, Center for Academic Success & Excellence Director

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM (Concurrent)
Helping Students Use AI in Their Career Journeys

This session will feature a brief presentation followed by a Q & A with MU Career Services staff on the use of AI (specifically ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Copilot) in students’ career-related pursuits. Discussion will focus on how to help students learn when and how to effectively use these tools in their career journeys.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Increase knowledge of AI tools and how students can use them for career-related pursuits
  • Increase confidence in helping students use AI in their career journeys
  • Learn about effective and generative prompts for AI tools, specifically in career-related areas

Carrie Collier, Senior Coordinator of Peer Career Advising and Career Counseling; Career Center
Laura Peiter, Senior Coordinator of Peer Career Advising and Career Outreach; Career Center
Amanda Nell, Senior Coordinator of Communications, Career Outcomes & Technology; Career Center
Audra Jenkins,Career Coach, Graduate Student Career Development; Career Center

2:00 PM – 2:50 PM (Concurrent)
Perspective on AI in the Learning Environment

Generative AI (GenAI) is among the most controversial and fastest-growing technologies today. It demands instant change giving us no time to catch our breath, no time to consider consequences, no time to adjust. Education has had to adapt as GenAI itself changes and evolves. While the major players in AI force the pace, educational technology companies add AI features to attract or keep customers, making for an even more chaotic landscape. Learning to use AI responsibly in and out of the classroom and helping students to learn to use it responsibly as we do raises new issues, new considerations, and new possibilities. By looking at AI and learning from different academic disciplines, instructional design, and instructional technology, we seek to create a dialog encompassing different perspectives, examining emerging issues, and explore possible approaches to address them.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Discuss the GenAI developments pragmatically without either the Panglossian optimism or the apocalyptic pessimism so prevalent in the media and much commentary.
  • Articulate the aspects of AI that may help or hinder their teaching and the learning of their students.
  • Explain the possible deployment of AI in teaching from different disciplinary and institutional perspectives and respond to the impacts that AI has on teaching and/or learning.

Guy Wilson, Instructional Technologist IV, Missouri Online
Ying-Hsiu Liu, Missouri Online Instructional Designer; College of Health Sciences
Scott Christianson, Associate Teaching Professor and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Trulaske College of Business

Molly Vetter Dreier, Associate Teaching Professor, College of Health Sciences
Greg Cox, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Health Sciences

2:00 PM – 2:50 PM (Concurrent)
Bringing Joy into the Classroom: Successes and Failures in Playful Teaching in Large Lecture Courses

For two years I have been working to increase opportunities for joy and playfulness in my introductory level, large lecture courses. In this post-pandemic era, I have noticed that students are less engaged with lectures, unwilling or unable to speak up in class, distracted by their devices during class time, and anxious rather than excited to learn.

In response, I have decided to make my classroom a place of joyful learning and engagement with the material. This happens through a variety of methods, including: incorporating hands-on activities, iClicker, place-based and experiential learning opportunities, watching the occasional cartoon, and expressing my own excitement and joy of learning. I teach difficult histories with first person text and video whenever possible to bring out the full expressions of humanity in even the most difficult circumstances. Finally, the classroom is a setting where grace is afforded as we struggle together through the challenges of learning.

In this session I will share my some of the pedagogical resources that guide this effort, successes, failures, and next steps. A group conversation will follow.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Explore opportunities and pedagogical basis for cultivating joy and playfulness, including self-expression, hands-on activities, and in-class gameplay, including what works and what does not in a large lecture setting.
  • Learn about technological solutions to in-class participation such as iClicker, Canvas Discussion Boards, selfie assignments, and QR codes.
  • Have shared their own experiences and challenges and learned from each other’s.

Janna Lancaster, Instructor
Architectural Studies

2:00 PM – 2:50 PM (Concurrent)
Bring your Classroom to Life! How to Utilize Live Demonstrations to Enhance Understanding of Complex Concepts.

The benefits of active learning have long been shown to provide learning benefits and educational gains. Specifically, active learning is known to reduce outcome gaps and improve long-term performance in students from underrepresented groups and create inclusive classrooms. Research shows that learners integrate new knowledge into their understanding only when it is connected to pre-existing knowledge, explaining why analogies are a popular learning tool. Physical demos are a way to implement the idea behind analogies but in a more active way by engaging students directly in the demonstrative process. We will share information on different demos that can be used in any field of study, have participants take part in demos we used in class, and help audience members create their own physical demonstrations using AI technology. We will focus on the use of AI for this process, as one of the roadblocks many instructors face in developing demonstrations is creating the actual demonstration using real-life examples. Using participants learning objectives, we will demonstrate how to use AI technology to provide inspiration for developing physical activities in the classroom.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Gain knowledge about an instructional strategy that promotes active learning and a sense of belonging in the classroom
  • Learn about how to effectively implement the use of demonstrations in the classroom
  • Familiarize themselves with way to develop demonstrations using AI technology.

Amanda Durbak, Associate Teaching Professor, Biological Sciences
Ruthie Angelovici, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences

3:00 PM – 3:50 PM
“Improv with Robots”; Or, How to Teach Writing to Generation AI

How do we teach to Generation AI? New technologies are shaking the very foundations of education ace society at large. As educators, how do we help our students (and ourselves!) adapt our worldview and approach to learning to help us cope with all of the great anxieties but also great potential that these technologies possess? This session explores ways that Generative AI is being used in a scriptwriting class, and we invite you to participate in “Improv With Robots.”

Projected Outcomes:

  • Know more about GenAI.
  • Feel comfortable introducing GenAI in the classroom.
  • Have concrete strategies for using GenAI in the classroom.

Kevin Brown, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Performance Studies
Department of Theatre

3:00 PM – 3:50 PM (Concurrent)
AI-Enhanced Assignments, a Faculty Development Workshop

Since the launch of OpenAI at the end of 2022, Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have gained a lot of attention worldwide. AI tools are in their early stages of development and adoption and we’re still exploring how to best integrate them into education and understand their effects on learning. While AI offers exciting possibilities for enhancing learning, its novelty also raises concerns about its impact on academic integrity and learning. Most discussion around AI in higher education is a reaction to AI’s disruptive impact on teaching and learning. Faculty have little time to figure out the challenges brought by AI tools as survey studies (Coffey, 2023) indicate that students are currently using AI tools. Educators and researchers have been investigating the instructional values of AI tools; how to incorporate AI in teaching, and the impact on teaching and learning within a short time.

In this session, we will discuss the needed mindset change of educators in the era of AI and showcase examples of AI-enhanced assignments. The presenters will demonstrate strategies and rationale in designing AI-enhanced assignments.

Projected Outcomes: 

  • Discuss the pedagogical use of AI and how it can address students’ learning needs.
  • Design AI-enhanced assignments based on student learning objectives.
  • Identify characteristics of course assignments and assessments that can lead to inequities in student success issues due to the advent of AI.

Molly Vetter Dreier, Associate Teaching Professor, College of Health Sciences
Greg Cox, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Health Sciences
Ying-Hsiu Liu, Missouri Online Instructional Designer; College of Health Sciences

3:00 PM – 3:50 PM (Concurrent)
Words Matter for Student Success: How to Use Alerts to Encourage and Inspire Action

Many student success efforts hinge on communicating with students in a way to spur action on the part of the student. Understanding best practices and research drawn from positive psychology, nudging, and student development provides insight into feedback strategies and communicating with students.

Recent literature surrounding effective student feedback strategies has focused increasingly on using a  “growth mindset.” A growth mindset refers to the belief that an individual’s intelligence and abilities are not static (Dweck, 2006). This can impact the way in which a student approaches courses and their content. This mindset also needs to be coupled with clear and accurate action steps about how they can achieve their goal and improve their performance. (Limeri, et al., 2020)

This presentation will review the research, highlight strategies, provide an overview of early alert feedback tools in MU Connect, and discuss opportunities to enhance feedback and student communication

Projected Outcomes:

  • Understand the research around nudging and positive language
  • Understand the MU Connect early alert student process and associated student communications
  • Enhance personalized student feedback for early alert communications to better support student success and outreach processes

Samantha Horton, Student Success Initiatives Coordinator, MU Connect
Bailey Reeder, Academic Early Alert Coordinator, MU Connect

3:00 PM – 3:50 PM
The Sport Management Way; Fostering Gender Inclusion and Trust

By promoting gender inclusion, sport management higher education programs can foster a culture of belonging and acceptance which should spill over to the sport industry. Action research was conducted in this study to seek ways to improve gender inclusion within entry level sport management courses. Using Kemmis Action Research Model (plan, act, observe, and reflect) over the course of three was used to examine gender inclusion in an entry level sport specific course were with the overall goal of improving practices and achieving positive outcomes for female students. This study revealed that female students find it difficult to gain a sense of belonging within sport as they are minority compared to their male counterparts. It also found that over time female students felt a greater sense of belonging when they were not singled out or forced to be the only female during in-class activities or group project course work. As a result of this action research study, sport management professors will be better equipped to create a positive learning environment for female students.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Make a plan based on reflections for upcoming courses for incorporating inclusive gender practices.
  • Learn strategies from others on how the plan and conduct a college class.

Michelle Brimecombe, Assistant Teaching Professor & Natural Resources Graduate Coordinator – Parks, Recreation, Sport and Tourism
College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Featured Presentation: 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM
Champion’s Playbook: Preparing Programs for HLC Accreditation Success
(click to view a recording of this session)

As we approach the Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) accreditation visit in February 2024, the value of collective wisdom and proven strategies becomes critical.

This session is designed to highlight the experiences and successes of champion programs across our university who have led their faculty through outcome revision, course objective revision, alignment of learning activities with assessments, and/or curricular mapping and visualization. With key deadlines set for program outcomes and assessment by June 2024, and curricular mapping by October 2024, the insights shared by these champions will provide practical guidance.

This collaborative forum aims to equip program chairs and faculty with the tools needed to navigate the accreditation landscape. We aim to facilitate a smooth accreditation process and to foster an environment of ongoing improvement and shared achievement in academic program development.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Identify the internal deadlines and requirements for HLC Accreditation
  • Discuss best practices and next steps with Director of Educational Assessment and academic champions presenting
  • Determine next steps for program’s program outcome assessment and curricular mapping.

Jonathan Cisco, Director of Educational Assessment
Office of the Provost

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM (Concurrent)
Open Forum with AI and the Learning Environment Task Force

Please join us for an information exchange with members for the new AI & the Learning Environment Task Force. This group has been charged by the Office of the Provost to make policy recommendations for our university. There are three working groups: ethics, pedagogy, and learning.

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM (Concurrent)
Mentoring International Teaching Assistants in the American Classroom: Overcoming Challenges and Building Inclusivity

International teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter a myriad of challenges when entering the American classroom. These challenges touch upon various dimensions, including the mandatory English proficiency tests, navigating the cultural differences of American higher education, managing the transition between roles, and responding to undergraduate students’ stereotypes about foreign instructors.
We will present an overview on what challenges ITAs encounter in American classrooms. Then, we will feature insights from four ITAs that represent different stages of their academic journey. Through their experiences, we will explore the following questions:

  • What challenges or barriers have you encountered in your role as an ITA?
  • What are one or two strategies or tools that have proven beneficial in your teaching role?
  • How do you envision your faculty mentor/supervisor or the university better preparing or supporting you?

Our panel seeks to provide guidance for faculty advisors in effectively mentoring and supporting ITAs. Moreover, we aim to advocate for the adoption of proactive strategies to foster inclusivity and promote cultural understanding within undergraduate education.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Identify major challenges faced by ITAs.
  • Collect practical strategies for mentorship and support.
  • Promote inclusivity and cultural understanding.

Hsin-I Sydney Yueh, Associate Teaching Professor, Director of Online Education and Internships, Communication
Mary Dickson-Amagada, ITA Panelist – Nigeria
Rachel Long, Moderator – USA
Blessing Okafor, ITA Panelist – Nigeria
Emilia Lucia Ramirez Paguay, ITA Panelist – Ecuador
Na Wang, ITA  Panelist – China

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Strive for Success: Encouraging Independence for Students with Autism

This session will provide information about how to communicate with and support students with Autism. Strategies to encourage independence will be highlighted along with discussing the STRIVE Program. STRIVE is a post-secondary program offered at MU.

Projected Outcomes:

Participants will be able to describe:

  • At least 3 barriers individuals with autism face related to successful post-secondary outcomes
  • At least 3 components of effective programming to address employment skills
  • How to use a strength-based approach to address the employment needs of students Individuals working with students with autism often report difficulties in balancing employment skills and the soft skills (i.e., attitude, communication, problem solving, etc.) necessary for successful post-secondary outcomes.

Jaclyn Benigno, STRIVE Coordinator and Autism Training Specialist, Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment
Cortney Fish, Training Core Director, Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Neurodiverse Educators on Campus: Identifying Issues, Posing Questions

Important progress continues to be made to support the success of neurodiverse students in higher education, through both institutional accommodations and improvements in inclusive pedagogy. At the same time, educators at colleges and universities with ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and/or other neurodivergent conditions continue to face unique challenges as professionals with an invisible disability that rarely receives formal attention. Neurodiverse college educators work in a space where schedules and work structures are usually fluid and changing, work is largely independently motivated and completed, and meaningful accommodations for work often described as ‘the life of the mind’ can be difficult to imagine. This session will bring together both neurodiverse and neurotypical faculty, graduate teaching assistants and other teaching staff who are interested in starting a conversation on these issues. This conversation continues in an upcoming Learning Community for/with Neurodiverse Educators starting in Fall 2024. This Learning Community will work together using a model of co-inquiry to learn more about the challenges faced by neurodiverse teachers in higher education.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Describe some of the professional and personal challenges faced by neurodiverse educators in colleges and universities.
  • Identify potentially important issues and questions regarding the work of neurodiverse educators that warrant further exploration.
  • Consider participating in an upcoming Learning Community for/with Neurodiverse Educators.

Stephen Klien, Associate Teaching Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Communication

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM
How to Use Peer Review, Student Feedback, and Self-Reflection to Enhance and Report on Your Teaching

Evaluation is intimidating, but it is a vital part of scholarship. Just as we rely on the input from others to improve our research and creative work, we can do the same for our teaching. Mizzou currently uses three forms of teaching evaluation: peer review, student feedback, and self-reflection. All three can improve teaching and learning outcomes. In this session we will discuss these processes and learn how each help us improve as educators, with special focus on formative peer review. We will also discuss how the three forms overlap and together can be framed to communicate the teaching practices and learning happening in your classroom.

Projected Outcomes:

Participants will:

  • Explain the purposes and basic processes of the three methods for evaluating teaching at Mizzou: student, peer, and self-reflection.
  • Distinguish between formative and summative forms of evaluation of teaching.
  • Discuss ways the evaluation processes can help improve their teaching and learning outcomes, especially formative peer review.
  • Contextualize their evaluations to accurately reflect the teaching and learning in their courses.

Bethany Stone, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Biological Sciences
Biology

12:00 PM – 12:50 PM
Lunch and CWP Awards
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
Intermediate Prompt Writing

Prompt Writing is a skill that many faculty and students now seek to master. This hands-on session is aimed at faculty who have begun to explore prompt writing and wish to progress to a higher level. The prompt writing techniques that this session will cover are
• Create a basic prompt, then use the AI itself to refine and optimize the prompt to get better results with that AI.
• Create and refine prompts for/from images or other media.
• Create prompt templates for common tasks a faculty member might have.
• Create or modify prompt templates for student use with AI, including for advanced interactions between students and AI (e.g., to allow an AI to function as a tutor, coach, etc.).
• Create prompts to aid with research (e.g., literature review) using online or uploaded documents.

This is a hands-on session and we request that participants bring a laptop or other device.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Create and refine prompts for different AIs and for images or other media
  • Create a prompt template that they or their students can reuse
  • Create or at least modify prompts to help students interact with an AI in a complex chat.

Guy Wilson, Instructional Technologist IV, Missouri Online
Ying-Hsiu Liu, Missouri Online Instructional Designer, College of Health Sciences

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
The End or the Beginning? (Reframing) the Future of Writing Assignments in the Age of AI

Generative AI’s emergence has engendered various concerns in higher education. Among these is the impact of these tools on the writing assignments traditionally used in our courses. After all, students could ask ChatGPT or another service for output to use in an essay or discussion forum post.
However, these concerns may reflect problematic and dated approaches to writing, for best practices in teaching composition may guide our response to generative AI. This presentation will provide a framework of strategies to use in adapting writing assignments to meet this moment. Participants will come to not abandon but rather reinvigorate writing assignments.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI for the use of writing assessments.
  • Describe instructional approaches and strategies that could support using writing assessments in the age of AI.
  • Develop ideas and plans for how to design and implement writing assessments in the future.

Kirk Wilkins, Instructional Designer II
Missouri Online

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
Building Inclusive Learning Classroom Communities (THRIVE)

View presentation materials for this session here.

To improve retention and achievement among students from underrepresented backgrounds, Mizzou and its faculty must introduce inclusive pedagogical practices aimed at removing barriers. Through Mizzou’s THRIVE Inclusive Excellence Program, Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) work towards the overarching goal of helping students feel welcomed, included, and empowered. Each THRIVE faculty member conducts a classroom-based project aimed at implementing an inclusive strategy, evaluating its impact, and reflecting on ways to continue adapting teaching methods. While THRIVE was initially designed for students and faculty to create a culture of belonging in the STEM fields, our 2022-2023 FLC expanded to faculty from diverse backgrounds.

Our panelists include faculty from Biochemistry, Health Sciences, and Music. In this workshop, we will present our inclusive teaching practices and outcomes. Then, we will lead an activity designed for attendees to reflect on their teaching and ways to shift their approaches towards more inclusivity in the classroom. The more we help our Mizzou community create this cultural shift, the more our students, teachers, and staff will THRIVE.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Reflect upon your teaching practices as it relates to inclusion and belonging
  • Workshop ways to help students feel empowered and included within the classroom
  • Develop an action plan for implementing one inclusive practice

Megan Murph, Instructor for Musicology, Director of the Budds Center for American Music Studies; School of Music
Ritcha Mehra-Chaudhary, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Biochemistry; College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources
Kristin Flynn Peters, Associate Teaching Professor, College of Health Sciences
Jenna Wintemberg, Director of Undergraduate Studies (Department of Health Sciences), Associate Teaching Professor; College of Health Sciences

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM
Creating Your Course: Tailoring Learning to Match Your Signature Style!

For this discussion, Sandy will demonstrate how she seamlessly integrates this resource into her Canvas shell, enhancing the learning experience for students. Focusing on highlighting the versatility of materials readily available on campus and empowering faculty to tailor their courses to their unique teaching styles, rather than being constrained by a single resource.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Gain a comprehensive understanding of the tools and resources available through Cengage Unlimited to customize your course and enrich the learning experience for your students.
  • Master innovative strategies to actively engage students, fostering higher completion rates and improved retention.
  • Learn new techniques and insights on cost-saving measures without compromising on the individuality and efficiency of your course

Sandy Keeter, Professor/Program Manager of Computer Programming and Analysis,
Seminole State College

Featured Presentation: 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM
Teaching with AI to Advance Equity and Inclusion
(click to view a recording of this session)
Flower Darby

Equity-minded teaching can be defined as evidence-based strategies paired with critical self-reflection that help all students have an equal chance to succeed in any class, especially historically underserved students. Further, we can incorporate Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT into our teaching in ways that help us create inclusive learning environments and advance equitable learning outcomes. Building on The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (2023), this session will explore advantages and challenges of teaching with GenAI, with a particular focus on values-aligned practical day-to-day teaching strategies that help all students learn.

Projected Outcomes:

  • Describe how teaching with GenAI can be an inclusive and equity-minded strategy
  • Identify at least one technique that integrates GenAI in teaching and learning in participants’ courses
  • Reflect on their individual teaching values and consider incorporating GenAI as an equity-minded strategy

Flower Darby, Associate Director
Teaching for Learning Center