On April 5-7, 2017, the University System of Georgia (USG) hosted the USG Teaching and Learning Conference at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education in Athens, Georgia. Faculty, staff, and students gathered to share their research, experiences, and other work related to Best Practices for Promoting Engaged Student Learning. Irene Kokkala, Director of Distance Education & Technology Integration (DETI), is a founding co-director of this system-wide conference.

The University of North Georgia (UNG) was well-represented with forty-five UNG faculty, staff, and students chosen to present their work at the conference. Their presentations highlight UNG’s commitment to academic excellence and contribute to the teaching and learning communities of UNG and USG.

The following faculty and staff presented their work at the 2017 USG Teaching and Learning Conference:

“A Tale of Two Labs: Adapting Field Biology Labs into Online Formats”
Eleanor Schut

“Addressing STEM Undergraduate Deficiencies Reading and Writing Scientific Literature Using a Learning Community”
Evan Lampert and Steve Pearson

“An Integrated First-Year Cohort Experience”
Tom Cooper, Alison Hite, Phillip Mitchell, Nathan Price, and Robert H. Scott

“Biology Boot Camp: A Peer-Assisted, Active Learning Program Designed to Increase Student Engagement and Promote Critical Thinking in Biology”
Cathy Whiting

“Building Meaningful Bridges: Innovative Approaches to Learning Communities”
Rosaria Meek, Lance Bardsley, Dan Cabaniss, and Michael Kemling

“Cheating on Online Exams: How to Recognize, Foil, and Prevent It”
Margaret Williamson, Katherine Kipp, and John Williams

“Conditional Feedback: Using Google Drive to Encourage Revision Effort”
Matthew Horton

“Empowering Faculty, Staff, and Students: Applying Growth Mindset to Writing Instruction”
Diana Edelman and Jim Shimkus

“Engage Me! Free or Low-cost Web-based Technology to Interact and Engage Students in Your Classroom and online Courses”
Jim Wilkison and Ching-Yu Huang

“Excel Spreadsheets as a Tool for Teaching and Learning Quantitative Courses Online”
Christine Jonick

“False Assumptions: the Challenges and Politics of Teaching in China”
Laura Getty

“Heightened Critical Thinking: Requiring a Prospectus and Annotated Bibliography in the Research Paper Process”
Donna Gessell

“Ideological Exploration: Responses to Zakaria’s In Defense of a Liberal Education”
Tanya Bennett

“Implementation of a Biology Resource Center” (Cancelled)
Jeanelle Morgan

“Innovative Publishing: Developing Low- and No-Cost Textbooks with UNG Press”
Bonnie Robinson and Corey Parson

“Learning to Talk/Talking to Learn: Using Critical Dialogue to Promote Critical Thinking Learning Communities”
Patrice Prince with students, Chelsea Belezaire, Alexis Schubiger, and Sarah Williams

“Problem-Solving in the Literature Classroom: Creative Responses to Literary Texts”
Leigh Dillard and Macklin Cowart with student, Callie Bryant

“Research Tools for SoTL”
Rebecca Rose

“Spark and Sway”
John Williams

“SoTL Communities of Practice for Research on Teaching and Learning”
Mary Carney and Laura Ng

“The Process of Building OER Materials that Promote Student Engagement” (Listed in email from Marie Lasseter)
Patty Wagner

“The Research Consultation: Teaching Students Critical Thinking Skills Outside of the Classroom”
Virginia Feher, Sean Boyle, Randall Parish, and Karen Redding

“Using a Collaborative Laboratory Exercise to Connect Different Sub-disciplines of Biology”
Swapna Bhat and Evan Lampert

“Yelling Whitman: Teaching Prosody by Performance”
Samuel Prestridge, Esther Morgan-Ellis, and Laura Ng