A day of presentations, demonstrations, and networking opportunities devoted to the exploration of teaching innovation at Johns Hopkins University including the work of DELTA grant recipients. The symposium is intended to provoke conversation, spark new thinking, and advance the ongoing pursuit of teaching excellence.
Date: May 2, 2024, 8:15am - 5:00pm (EDT)
Location: JHU Homewood Campus, Hodson Hall
(also Online via Zoom, see session details below)
Please expand the schedule below to find details on each session
For technical assistance during the event, contact cldtsupport@jhu.edu
Check-in
Lite Breakfast
AM Opening Remarks and Welcome provided by Exeutive Vice Provost, Stephen Gange and Provost Ray Jayawardhana (Hodson 110)
AM Keynote Speaker: Dr. Arthur Levine (Hodson 110)
Higher Education is experiencing exciting transformation in response to the changing world. How will this impact the ways we prepare the next generation of students for the world in which they will live and work? Arthur Levine (President Emeritus of Columbia University’s Teachers College; President Emeritus of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) explores historic trends and future possibilities in his book The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future published by the JHU Press. Come join the conversation about what broader trends will impact how we teach and students learn. It will spark our thinking as we begin a day of discussing teaching trends, case studies, and innovations at Johns Hopkins.
Book sales of Dr. Levine's book to follow AM Keynote until 10:30AM.
Presenters: Mariana Socal, Associate Professor (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Melisa Lindamood, Assistant Vice President of Federal Strategy (President’s Office), Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Keshia Pollack Porter, Bloomberg Centennial Chair and Professor (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Robert Kearns, Director of Online Education (School of Medicine)
At the core of Hopkins' mission is to combine teaching, research, and practice to make the world a better place. Panelists in this session will launch a conversation about how to leverage the University's teaching mission to disseminate knowledge, resources, and research findings to policymaking audiences. Participants will learn how to design instructional materials that address policymakers' most pressing questions in formats that are responsive to their needs; hear about translation and dissemination strategies to connect with key decision-makers, including leveraging the Bloomberg Center in Washington DC; and discuss ways to measure the impact of this work.
Presenters: Rebecca Wilbanks, Sr. Lecturer (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Orla Wilson, Associate Teaching Professor (Whiting School of Engineering), Nandini Pandey, Associate Professor (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Kisi Bohn, Assistant Research Professor (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Jaime Sorenson, Sr. Lecturer (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences)
This panel highlights approaches to teaching writing as part of a students' acculturation to research in a discipline or field. Panelists include faculty from the humanities, natural sciences, and engineering, each teaching a course in which students work on original, often semester-long research projects. Through brief presentations about each course, moderated discussion, and audience participation, this session will investigate what kinds of writing instruction and assignments support students' process of inquiry and research communication to different audiences.
Presenters: Olysha Magruder, Director, Learning Design and Technology (Whiting School of Engineering), Margo Williams, Senior Instructional Designer (Whiting School of Engineering), Denille Williams, Faclty Development Manager (Whiting School of Engineering), Melissa Rizzuto, Instructional Designer (Whiting School of Engineering), Rickey Chapman, Chief Scientist (Applied Physics Laboratory)
Our session will provide a project update for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for Active Learning Laboratories (STEM for ALL) program. A Coursera MOOC, the first of three components, is under development and will provide an overview of active learning and how active learning supports learning in STEM courses. Module content will present active learning strategies for different modalities, techniques to implement in the classroom (including using AI), and authentic active learning videos and case studies recorded and curated by our Center for Learning Design and Technology and current JHU faculty.
Presenters: Christina Harnett, Associate Professor (School of Education), Tracy Friedlander, Assistant Professor (School of Medicine), James Diamond, Assistant Professor (School of Education), Kelly Cooney, Learning Engineer (School of Education)
This presentation features progress in the ongoing development of a faculty training model that supports student digital well-being in online education. The Wellness by Design framework integrates the 5 essential “engines of well-being” identified in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being. Reconceptualizing the “workplace” in education as the classroom, the model fuses these forces, evidence-based approaches in pedagogy and course design, and expert feedback drawn from faculty focus groups to facilitate achievement of digital well-being goals. Wellness by Design is agnostic of content and can be customized to accommodate discipline-specific topics. Participants will view a standardized module from the faculty development curriculum expected to launch in July 2024.
Presenters: Patti Anderson, Faculty Associate (Bloomberg School of Public Health), David Toia, Manager of Immersive Learning Media (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Adjuct Faculty (School of Education)
“Authentic learning” has often been hailed as the gold standard for classroom experiences. But in this age of personality-driven news, audience skepticism, and the emergence of artificial intelligence(AI)-driven content, how can instructors help students learn to communicate in authentic and compelling ways? This session will present approaches and technologies used in the “Media Interviews and Applied Public Health Communications” course. This session will include video of live-news media simulations and an AI-generated video prompt as well as an analysis of student feedback.
Presenters: Beth Resnick, Practice Professor (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Paulani Mui, Assistant Practice Professor (Bloomberg School of Public Health)
Many instructors report struggling to assess individual student competency, attainment, and accountability in group projects. In this presentation, panelists will demonstrate an innovative crowdsourced assignment template on an easily accessible online editing platform to engage students in individual and peer-to-peer learning, accountability, and competency attainment. The assignment fostered ongoing faculty and peer feedback via the built-in online comment function and enabled course faculty to accurately assess group and individual student competency attainment in each of the course learning objectives.
This keynote session will open with a collaborative performance featuring students from the Peabody Conservatory’s BFA Dance Program of the work Ama which brings together the creative work of three distinct artistic practices: dance, hip-hop, and guitar led by three faculty members of the Peabody Conservatory:
The performance will serve as the catalyst for a discussion that will explore the values, challenges, and potential for creative impacts reached through collaboration with individuals, or teams, with diverse skill sets and areas of expertise. Additionally, the conversation will address the shared thread of how each artist continues to engage, grapple, and innovate within the rapidly evolving arts economy, how they embrace and leverage their strengths and weaknesses, both in and out of the practice room/rehearsal studio and, and their individual approaches to upending artistic traditions and how this approach has positioned each artist to emerge as leaders of artistic practice and education in their fields.
Lunch
Birds of a Feather Tables
Presenters: Leslie Bauman, Junior Lecturer (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Maria Bulzacchelli, Director of Public Health Studies (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Cara McNamara, Academic Advisor (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences)
Well-being is essential for effective learning. Ever-present academic stress combined with the psychological distress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic means that today’s college students are facing unprecedented obstacles to well-being and, consequently, academic performance. Integrating well-being practices like mindfulness and positive psychology into curricula offers a promising approach to ensuring students’ holistic development. This moderated roundtable will discuss the following key inquiries: faculty responsibility for student well-being, collaboration with support services, and incorporating well-being practices into pedagogical approaches.
Presenters: Siân Evans, Online Programs Librarian (Libraries), Maggie Rogers, Instructional Designer (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences) Emily McGinn, Digital Humanities Specialist (Libraries) Kathleen DeLaurenti, Director (Libraries)
This session is designed to create opportunities for faculty to imagine how they can include open educational resources (OER) in their teaching and learning practices. OERs are readily available for many subject areas, but finding materials that are appropriate for your specific needs can be challenging. At times, adapting or even creating your own materials is a practical approach. The presenters will guide participants through meaningful questions related to adopting or creating OERs. How can we find high-quality OER that promote meaningful learning? How can we create or adapt OER to fill gaps in curricular materials? How can we create authentic assessments that leverage open pedagogical practices?
Presenters: Joshua Francisco, Open Course Design Specialist (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Ira Gooding, Assistant Director and Senior Advisor (Bloomberg School of Public Health) Heather Schwitalla, Instructional Designer (Bloomberg School of Public Health)
The Center for Teaching and Learning in the Bloomberg School of Public Health is building Open Hopkins, a web application for finding open courses and open educational resources (OERs) from JHU. Attendees will get a sneak peek at the Open Hopkins user experience, learn how JHU faculty and staff can use Open Hopkins to expand their reach and deepen their impact, and participate in an exercise to evaluate the readiness of resources and courses for publication on Open Hopkins.
Presenters: Christina Manceor, Faculty Lecturer (Peabody Institute), Robin McGinness, Faculty Lecturer (Peabody Institute)
Experiential learning (EL) is a key avenue for college students to build career-enhancing skills and create community connections that improve employment outcomes. Drawing on a literature review and mixed methods study on supports and barriers to participation in extracurricular EL for arts students, panelists from Peabody’s LAUNCHPad and Professional Studies will discuss the benefits of EL, factors that influence student participation and engagement (including systemic inequities that may play a role), and examples of EL activity/program models relevant to both curricular and extracurricular learning across disciplines. The presentation will conclude with takeaways educators can use to shape EL programming that is accessible, engaging, and relevant to students.
Presenters: Richard Brown, Teaching Professor (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Amy Brusini, Sr. Instructional Designer (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for designing instruction that works to accommodate the needs of all learners by minimizing barriers to learning. This research-based approach is guided by principles that support flexible and inclusive course design while maximizing learning opportunities for all students. A Teaching Professor from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) will describe how he partnered with the University Writing Program (UWP) to redesign a core course in Mathematics to make it writing intensive; barriers for students were reduced in the form of increased opportunities for active learning and the addition of varied assessment types not necessarily typical of a mathematics course.
Presenters: Laura Flores Shaw, Assistant Professor & EdD Program Director (School of Education), Janet Schreck, Sr. Associate Vice Provost & Associate Professor (School of Education), Chadia Abras, Director of Institutional Assessment & Associate Professor (Provost’s Office)
Assessment of student learning is not a novel idea, and many programs routinely collect student learning assessment data at some level. However, using those data to improve teaching and learning, also called “closing the loop,” is a challenge. Formatively and summatively assessing student learning outcomes based on a proficiency scale is a game changer that can drive improvements in curriculum and instruction while also engaging students in active reflection to improve learning. In this session, panelists will describe a pilot learning assessment program in the School of Education EdD program utilizing a proficiency scale at the program outcome level to improve teaching and learning.
Presenters: Anthony Washington, Director of In-Person Experiences (Center for Talented Youth), Celine Greene, Sr. Digital Teaching & Learning Strategist (Bloomberg School of Public Health)
In today's digital age, the synergy between creativity and technology is undeniable. As advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) continue to reshape the creative landscape, there's a growing concern about the potential for AI to supplant human creators, including our students. This session offers a different perspective—one that emphasizes the role of generative AI as a supportive tool, amplifying human creativity and critical thinking rather than replacing it. Our collaborative dialogue will consider feasible teaching and learning strategies that enrich creativity while maintaining rigor, building mastery, and enhancing student engagement.
Presenters: Margaret S. Chisolm, Professor (School of Medicine), Kamna Balhara, Associate Professor (School of Medicine)
Personal growth occurs when powerful experiences are combined with introspection and helping relationships. Museum-based education (MBE) offers a unique way to consistently catalyze compelling learning experiences; guide introspection; and support rapport, empathy, and compassion to generate quality helping relationships. To appreciate its potential first-hand, participants will be guided through a museum-based activity on Visual Thinking Strategies by MBE experts from the School of Medicine. Afterwards, participants will reflect on 1) the relevance and impact of MBE on personal growth and teaching and learning in general, and 2) how they might incorporate MBE into their own teaching.
Presenters: Sean Tackett, Associate Professor (School of Medicine), Belinda Chen, Assistant Professor (School of Medicine), Nehal Khamis, Adjunct Professor (School of Education), Caroline Egan, Program Manager, (Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation), Shiv Gaglani, Medical Student (School of Medicine)
2023 DELTA Award recipients will share updates on their implementation of generative AI (GenAI) in faculty development programs in the School of Medicine and School of Education. These programs teach the Six-Step Approach to Curriculum Development but vary in length and depth. We will describe how faculty use GenAI as they develop new curricula and how these experiences prepare them to support learners in using GenAI more effectively. We look forward to discussing with session participants how educators can use GenAI to enhance their work while reducing the risk of unintended consequences.
Presenters: Kimberley Chandler, Director of Curriculum (Center for Talented Youth), Kathryn Thompson, Director of Research (Center for Talented Youth), Candice Morgan, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science (Whiting School of Engineering)
In recent years the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become ubiquitous in education, however, the potential efficacy of AI as a tool to enhance student learning has yet to be examined. A team including members from across JHU have been working together to address this concern. This session will present some of the challenges and solutions encountered by an interdisciplinary team as they incorporated AI into a K-12 classroom. This session will also include an interactive demonstration to show how students interact with AI in the course.
Presenters: David Toia, Manager of Immersive Learning Media (Bloomberg School of Public Health), Adjunct Faculty (School of Education), Jason Gray, Instructor and Multimedia/Video Systems Specialist (Peabody Institute), Demere Woolway, Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence Education & Development (Office of Diversity and Inclusion)
Virtual reality offers the promise of unbridled learning opportunities by allowing educators to create nearly anything they can dream. In this presentation, a multidisciplinary team will reflect on creating a virtual reality application to instill DE&I principles into faculty professional development at Johns Hopkins. During this presentation team members will share lessons learned about working with a professional production company, budgeting, overseeing the production design process, and working with actors. This presentation will also be followed by a demonstration of an early release of the product.
Presenters: Sunita Thyagarajan, Associate Teaching Professor (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), Ewa Harazinska, Graduate Student (Krieger School of Arts and Sciences)
At the 2022 DELTA Teaching Forum a faculty member and their graduate teaching assistant proposed to use the Procreate® app to create simple animations that would help break down some of the more complex concepts in chemistry, such as acids/bases, titrations, and electrochemistry. In this symposium panelists will share the student feedback on the utilization of these animations in Introductory Chemistry-II classes in the Spring of 2023, as well as conduct a live interactive demonstration to showcase the ease with which animations can be created by walking the audience through creating their own short sample animation.
PM Keynote Speaker: Dr. Nicole King (Hodson 110)
How can university faculty begin to engage with the city around us in mutually beneficial ways that serve both neighborhood residents and our students? Dr. Nicole King (American Studies, UMBC) will discuss the benefits of learning by engaging and working with local residents in planning and building community-based projects in Baltimore. This talk invites faculty from across the disciplines to consider ways to bring the past, present, and future of Baltimore City into the classroom. By sharing the lessons she’s learned while developing collaborative projects between her home campus UMBC and the city of Baltimore, King will introduce key aspects of community-engaged learning and its potential problems and immense benefits. King will discuss methods for working collaboratively with city residents in building a university invested in the “public good.”
A special thanks to the team at the Center for Learning Design and Technology (WSE) for providing the technical support and presenter preparation for the DELTA symposium!
Following the symposium, we encourage you to read more about the DELTA Initiative, past grantees, and the 2024 Request for Proposals: https://provost.jhu.edu/about/digital-initiatives/delta/