Tech TAs to assist faculty with Zoom sessions through summer

Tech TAs to assist faculty with Zoom sessions through summer

Less than two weeks after Penn State transitioned to remote teaching, the Tech TAs program debuted to provide faculty real-time, on-demand Zoom support so they could focus on delivering lessons and not video-conferencing technology. Thanks to a positive reception and the continuation of remote teaching, Tech TAs will be available during summer courses.

In an anonymous survey of faculty who utilized Tech TAs during the spring semester, 100% of respondents indicated that they would recommend the service to a colleague and that Tech TAs added value to their courses. Additionally, over 90% of respondents mentioned they would use Tech TAs again, and that they helped to meet their students’ needs.

One survey respondent replied to an open-ended question that this brand-new service brought them peace of mind during adverse circumstances. “Tech TAs gave me confidence that everything during my Zoom lessons would run as smoothly as possible,” they said.

Penn State students serve as Tech TAs and are the Zoom technology experts during the synchronous portion of a class. Examples of their work in Zoom during the spring semester included; setting up breakout rooms, tracking students’ attendance, administering polls, monitoring the chat feature, synchronous tech support, and recording sessions.

Additionally, the Tech TAs can help configure Zoom so that students cannot enter a “room” unless the host is present. This will prevent faculty from receiving emails anytime someone enters their Zoom room, and it will help eliminate excessively long recordings.

Faculty can request the help of a Tech TA by completing this Tech TA faculty request form. Upon submission, an email will be sent that introduces the instructor and the Tech TA. After the intro email, the TA will follow up directly to assess specific needs and determine the next steps.

Affordable Course Transformation at Penn State enters its third year

Affordable Course Transformation at Penn State enters its third year

Penn State faculty who participate in the third round of Affordable Course Transformation at Penn State (ACT@PSU) will continue the effort to provide greater access to higher education through affordable course materials. The call for proposals will open on Wednesday, September 25 and the deadline to submit is Monday, November 11.

“It was exciting to work on [ACT@PSU] because it gave me the resources to complete something I had planned for many years,” said Zachary Klingensmith, assistant teaching professor of economics at Penn State Behrend, when asked about his ACT@PSU project last year. “The ACT team introduced me to existing materials that allowed me to create something beautiful, useful, and free for my [ECON 102 and 104] students which will be used for many, many years to come.”

Published research has shown that open educational resources (OERs) are effective in increasing students’ end-of-course grades along with their potential to save student populations millions of dollars. Penn State is supporting the effort to develop OERs through ACT@PSU, a program funded by the Open and Affordable Educational Resources (OAER) Working Group which is charged by Penn State executive vice president and provost Nick Jones.

Faculty who participate in ACT@PSU receive a grant stipend, instructional design support from Teaching and Learning with Technology, and additional support from the Open Educational Resources coordinator and Open Education Librarian.

ACT@PSU will open the call for proposals on September 25. Interested faculty should visit Penn State’s OER website and click on “Schedule Consultation” in the top right corner and choose to meet in person or via Zoom with Julie Lang or Amanda Larson.

Following the consultation, an online application can be submitted along with a syllabus for the course intended for transformation.

Festive atmosphere filled The Dreamery at the inaugural Research Carnival

Festive atmosphere filled The Dreamery at the inaugural Research Carnival

On Wednesday, June 19, freshly popped popcorn, scores of balloons, and a red carpet welcomed attendees inside The Dreamery for the first-ever Research Carnival focused on teaching and learning with technology.

The event was organized and hosted by Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) in partnership with the Center for Excellence in Science Education, Institutional Review Board, Liberal Arts Teaching Group, Office of Information Security, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, and University Libraries.

“[Faculty] come to our research group with many questions about the process of teaching and learning scholarship. Because it tends to be different from the research to which they’re accustomed, many don’t know where to begin when they want to research what’s happening in their class,” said TLT’s faculty programs manager, Crystal Ramsay.

Teaching and learning scholarship (TLS) is understood as systematic investigation into subject matter related to teaching and learning. TLS projects can be smaller in scale, such as answering questions about the impact of specific teaching interventions during a particular semester of a course. They can also be more substantial, like an exploration of emerging technology’s impact on an entire discipline.

Ramsay and her team had a clear vision for how they intended to address the concerns related to TLS expressed by University faculty.

“We wanted to create an inviting, informal, and fun opportunity for faculty, and those who support their teaching mission, to meet with people in the Penn State community who could answer questions and support teaching and learning scholarship efforts,” she said.

By all metrics, it appears as though the Research Carnival hit its marks. Ultimately, 128 guests visited the carnival, and while formal feedback has yet to be collected, the initial reactions were overwhelmingly positive.

“We heard things like, ‘It was great to have these resources in one place,’ ‘Conversations were fun and partners were approachable,’ and ‘[We] got takeaways that can be put to use right away,'” noted Ramsay.

The Research Carnival took place over two months before the start of the fall semester, and it’s clear from the faculty turnout and volunteers who hosted the event that the University community is always striving to deliver the best possible experience for its students.

“[This event] was another reminder of how much people at Penn State really do care about the learning experiences of our students,” Ramsay said, in closing. “It’s great to be a part of a community that is committed to supporting their efforts.”

Faculty share their innovative ideas to engage students at Canvas Day 2019

Faculty share their innovative ideas to engage students at Canvas Day 2019

Digital teaching and learning tools enable faculty to engage students with new techniques and approaches. From integrating learning tools with Canvas that allow users to communicate remotely via Zoom to unlimited storage for photos and videos with Kaltura, the goal for Canvas Day is to build upon Penn State faculty’s experiences with Canvas in facilitating collaboration among peers to enhance teaching and learning with technology.

Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Michael Kubit kicked off Canvas Day 2019 at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center on Friday, March 15, talking about a digital transformation in higher education, and Penn State’s commitment to putting the needs of students and faculty first by taking an outside-in approach to IT services. “Start with our users and work back to the technology,” said Kubit. “Our jobs as IT professionals is to continuously think of ways to deliver technology better, more effectively and efficiently to the university community.”

Citing a 2017 study by a Penn State Information Technology graduate student, Kubit highlighted that 95 percent of undergraduate students owned a laptop or a smartphone. Eighty-three percent used their smartphone for course-related activities for one or more courses, and 25 percent used a smartphone for all of their courses.

Luckily, for the more than 270 attendees of Canvas Day 2019, Ryan Seilhamer, program director of mobile strategy at the University of Central Florida, returned for his third visit to Penn State. Seilhamer presented on the Canvas Teacher app, which highlighted its enhanced communication features in facilitating a course on a mobile device, and on the Canvas Student app to help faculty optimize a course for the best student mobile experience.

Forty-seven faculty and staff presented at Canvas Day 2019, with 15 coming to University Park from Commonwealth campuses, despite forecasts calling for morning rain. Senior Director for Teaching and Learning with Technology Jennifer Sparrow jokingly thanked the Canvas Day planning committee for their foresight in deciding to give away umbrellas to each attendee, adding that the multifunctional, zippered carrying case for the umbrellas doubled as a case for your sunglasses.

The fun and brain-stimulating energy of the day continued with attendees playing a Canvas clue game to solve the mystery and finally put to rest the unanswered questions about what happened to ANGEL, Penn State’s former learning management system. At each morning session, attendees collected clue cards such as one for Lieutenant Colonel Terry Mustard (a.k.a Terry O’Heron, director of operations for Teaching and Learning with Technology). At lunchtime, after attendees tested their knowledge in Canvas trivia, the winning hand for the Canvas clue game revealed that ANGEL met its demise when the Canvas Panda mascot spilled a cup of coffee at the Palmer Museum of Art.

Canvas Day has evolved from faculty training sessions on the basics to becoming an invaluable networking event where faculty share and explore innovative new ways to enhance their teaching in the classroom that advance learning outcomes for students.

A few of the well-attended sessions were Instructional Designer Brett Bixler’s session on “Adding Gamification Elements to a Canvas Course” to increase student motivation and satisfaction; Instructure Director of Product Matt Goodwin’s “New Gradebook in Canvas” explained some of the new features for managing grades; and Instructional Multimedia Designer Mary Ann Mengel showed how students in a criminology course filmed stories that illustrated concepts of police work using 360-degree video.

A group of people standing in a room talking to each other. A girl is scooping ice cream into bowls.

Canvas Day 2019 attendees at One Cool Thing session enjoying scoops of Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream.

Canvas Day 2019 wrapped up with attendees enjoying scoops of Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream and voting for the “coolest” presentation at the One Cool Thing session. Beating out nine other presenters, Ronald Kelly, assistant teaching professor of administration of justice at Penn State Schuylkill, won the One Cool Thing competition for his mini-presentation, “Spice up your course: Student involvement with Bitmoji,” which earned him an iPad. Attendee Hongyan (Red) Yuan, an instructional designer from Penn State Berks, also won an iPad after her name was randomly selected from the list of voters for the One Cool Thing session.

By the end of Canvas Day 2019, it was sunny in the high 60s, and attendees were able to pack away that umbrella to put on their sunglasses. “On behalf of the Canvas Day planning committee, we thank everyone for attending and hope to see you next year!” said Kristen Lytle, 2019 Canvas Day chair and Teaching and Learning with Technology learning tools project manager.

TLT Symposium 2019 sparks one’s imagination for what is possible in higher education

TLT Symposium 2019 sparks one’s imagination for what is possible in higher education

On Saturday, March 16, more than 500 attendees packed into Presidents Hall at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center to kick off the 26th Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State. One of the most innovative professional development events of the year at Penn State, no other conference promises to spark your imagination and stoke your curiosity for what is possible for the future of higher education.

In her opening remarks, Jennifer Sparrow, senior director of Teaching and Learning with Technology, touched on Penn State’s commitment to forward-thinking with initiatives such as President Barron’s vision for One Penn State 2025, a guiding framework for University-wide education innovation with a focus on student success and lifelong engagement. “I am proud that Penn State continues to be cutting-edge and Teaching and Learning with Technology collaborates with faculty to explore how innovative technology can transform education to advance student learning.”

Penn State leads the charge in reimagining student learning by tackling the burning discussions in higher education on topics such as immersive learning, connecting education to the workforce of the future, and promoting access and equity.

A large crowd of 500 people in a room listening to the keynote speaker's address

Keynote speaker Dan Heath addresses a crowd of more than 500 attendees at the 2019 TLT Symposium at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.

After the buffet breakfast, four-time New York Times bestselling author and a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE Center, Dan Heath delivered the keynote address on how to make ideas stick. “Our memories are leaky, fallible, and they deteriorate,” says Heath. “For an idea to stick, it needs to be understood, remembered, and change something.”

Citing the research done by Dr. Michael Palmer, professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia, Heath captivated the audience with his explanation of how Dr. Palmer used learner-centered, backward-integrated design principles to convince instructors to rethink how they create a syllabus to teach their courses. By starting with a goal of what is most important for students to take away from a course and working backward to create the activities and assessments, the core ideas have a chance of sticking long after students leave the classroom.

Heath co-authored four must-read business books, with his brother Chip, including Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and their latest, The Power of Moments.

Energized by the keynote speaker’s message, attendees dashed to the concurrent sessions—two before lunch and two afterwards. The most popular sessions covered topics including 3D printing, 360-degree videos, open educational resources, learning the art of storytelling, the future of digital fluency, and leveraging prototypes of artificial intelligence applications to support data empowered learning at Penn State.

The most anticipated aspect of the Symposium every year is the Open Innovation Challenge, where five faculty innovators have five minutes to present their idea in the hopes that it will ignite the attendees’ curiosity and earn their votes as the most impactful.

Professor of Astronomy Chris Palma envisioned technology that will help students embody solar system formations; Faith McDonald, professor of English, hoped to prepare students with digital stories to face workplace challenges; Dr. Matthew Woessner, professor of Political Science, wanted to create 360-degree videos to take students to distant places through virtual reality; Josephine Wee, assistant professor of food science, wanted students to reimagine classrooms without textbooks and embrace interactive content in real-time; and Rodney Allen Trice, professor of practice in the graphic design department of the Stuckeman School at Penn State, won the challenge with his idea “Walk a Mile,” a series of 360-degree videos and photos that create an immersive experience to invoke empathy. Penn State’s Stuckeman School also houses graduate and undergraduate degree programs in architecture and landscape architecture.

Over the course of the year, Trice’s idea will be explored and developed with the help of TLT staff. “Working on the Open Innovation Challenge is the highlight of my year,” explains Zach Lonsinger, learning experiences designer for Teaching and Learning with Technology. “I enjoy having the opportunity to meet and work with amazing faculty who have this contagious enthusiasm and passion for transforming teaching and learning with their big ideas.”

The conference ended with faculty networking over scoops of Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream while trying out some new technologies such as test driving a BEAM robot and stepping into virtual reality with headsets at the Discovery sessions.

The Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology brings together faculty, staff, and innovators to inspire new ideas for what is possible in the future of higher education. It takes one “sticky” idea to inspire innovation that changes the world. From Gutenberg’s printing press to Thomas Edison’s light bulb, curiosity fuels learning, and educators are charged with stoking it.

“It’s incredible how dedicated our faculty, staff, and students are to show up at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning to share the innovative things that they are doing in the classrooms and to learn more about what is happening in the teaching and learning community at Penn State,” says Sara Davis, 2019 Symposium chair and Teaching and Learning with Technology instructional designer. “I want to thank everyone who attended the 2019 Symposium and mark your calendars, the 2020 TLT Symposium will be on Saturday, March 21, 2020. I hope to see everyone next year.”