Caitlin Kirby, Hala Sun, and Min Zhuang each presented at the Traverse City Lilly Conference on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning over October 9-11, 2024 on modality impacts on student learning outcomes, transforming curriculum in the age of generative AI, and promoting student wellbeing through a freshman seminar course.
EDLI has had a presence at this Lilly conference for several years. It’s a great opportunity to connect with higher education instructors and faculty developers, particularly around Michigan. We always come away inspired to improve our own teaching and to engage with educators about reflecting on and evaluating their teaching. The keynote by Sheri Stover and closing plenary session by Todd Zakrajsek both emphasized the importance of retrieval practice as a key component of effective student learning. Giving students frequent, low-stakes practice in recalling information is important, and may require some creativity with the availability of generative AI and other online resources.
We also enjoyed attending a presentation by our colleagues in the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation, with Makena Neal and Ellie Louson sharing the iterative process of building a care-based pedagogy for their graduate fellowship program. Our own presentations at the Lilly conference focused on ways that educators can consider how to integrate technology into their curriculum, whether via generative AI or online course modalities, and how to infuse wellbeing into course topics.
Hala’s presentation was titled “Transforming Curriculum and Assessment in the Era of AI as Educators.” This work explores how instructors employ teacher agency to change their assessment strategies in response to widespread availability of generative AI. It encouraged educators to consider how prepared they feel to make curricular and assessment changes given their understanding of generative AI, and how willing they are to integrate it into their teaching practice. Considering these two dimensions can provide clarity about next steps in adjusting curriculum and teaching approaches.
Min and Caitlin presented “Effect of Course Modality on Student Performance in Biological Science Sections.” This work comes from a partnership with the instructor team for MSU’s large-enrollment biological sciences courses, which serve as a key gateway to most STEM majors at the university. We found that, when controlling for student demographics and engagement in formative assessments, students’ exam grades were not significantly impacted by their modality (online or in-person) during synchronous hybrid instruction in fall semester 2021. The presentation audience was highly engaged, which was helpful for providing feedback on how we might use this data for administrators and instructors to make choices about modality options for large-enrollment gateway courses like this in the future.
Finally, Caitlin also presented a poster on the College of Arts and Letters’ development and evaluation of a Freshman seminar course that focuses on university acculturation and wellbeing. Course topics center on diverse components of wellbeing, including academic, mental/emotional, and physical, and introduce students to mindfulness practices and various university resources. This course has been developed as part of a Learning Commons led by Morgan Stanley and Jonathan Ritz. In our pilot semester in Fall 2023, we found significant increases in students’ university navigation skills and students reported significant personal impacts from the course. You can view the poster with audio annotation on the Lilly conference website.