Thursday, May 30

     Ashley Finley

The relationship between rubrics and assignments is essential. This workshop will utilize AAC&U’s VALUE rubrics for Critical Thinking and Civic Engagement to explore the connection between direct assessment of student learning and assignment design. Drawing upon participants’ own existing assignments and engaged learning practices, we’ll discuss considerations for rubric alignment and opportunities for strengthening assignments, with a special focus on developing assignments for the assessment of students’ civic engagement.

For Thursday morning’s workshop,bring hard copies or a device to access two of your student assignments– one with a critical thinking goal and the second focusing on civic engagement. If you don’t have either, an alternative is an experiential learning assignment. And if you have none of these three, bring two assignments of your choice to re-vision.

Critical Thinking VALUE Rubric      Civic Engagement VALUE Rubric resources for Thursday

Resource:  VALUE ADD (Assignment Design and Diagnostic) Tool

• Equity-minded teaching & learning values self-care. We all need rest to work against burnout, to embrace hope, to process complex ideas. Swim, walk, nap, journal, rest on the beach, visit Elkhart Village for ice cream, etc.

– Generative AI –  Palm Ballroom         

           Jodi Pierre, Research & Instruction Librarian, UW-Green Bay         

          Kris Purzycki, Associate Professor, English, UW-Green Bay

          Kris Vespia, Director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning and Professor, Psychology, UW-Green Bay

With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), educators across the Universities of Wisconsin must now address the impacts that tools like Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT will have on their classrooms. This session will use experiences from across campus to discuss GAI basics and some of the ethical questions raised by its use. Presenters will also share multiple methods for incorporating these tools into your assessments and course design. 

–  Transparency – Palm Garden D

          Angie Stombaugh, Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, and Associate Professor, Nursing, UW-Eau Claire

Instructors are continuously looking for strategies to create a more inclusive environment within the classroom. While many ideas exist, the changes are usually labor-intensive and challenging across multiple courses. This workshop session will explore the process of creating assignments with the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) Framework to tackle that challenge. This workshop will introduce the framework and its core principles of Purpose, Task, and Criteria and how it can benefit you and your students.

       Jenna Cushing-Leubner, Associate Professor, World Languages Education, UW-Whitewater         

      Heather Pelzel, Co-Director, OPID’s Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars; and Associate Professor, Biology, UW-Whitewater

Currently, there is a movement in higher education to replace traditional modes of grading with alternative methods, such as ungrading and specifications grading. At their heart, these alternative grading approaches re-center learning outcomes, seek to increase student motivation in learning, and provide more control to students. They value what the student has learned over finding how the student has fallen short. This session will start with facilitators sharing their experiences using alternative grading practices. Following an initial discussion of their experiences, the participants will engage in a conversation about the challenges and benefits of alternative grading approaches. We will touch on issues such as whether grades accurately reflect learning, grading as power, grade Inflation, and the power of zero. The panelists will share examples of materials they’ve created through handouts and digital access for attendees.

– Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) – Palm Ballroom

          Valerie Barske, Co-Director, OPID’s Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars; Professor of  History and Coordinator, International Studies and Peace Studies, UW-Stevens Point 

          Cyndi Kernahan, Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, and Professor, Psychological Sciences, UW-River Falls; former Co-Director, OPID’s Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars 

This interactive breakout session offers newcomers and seasoned SoTL practitioners an opportunity to re-invigorate their commitment to evidence-based teaching and learning.  We begin by sharing our experiences with SoTL as an established international multi-disciplinary field and our local history. We will then create a space for participants to share “why we SoTL,” specifically how we navigate our specific contexts, identities, and purposes to use SoTL as a potential vehicle for addressing some of the most pressing social, moral, and ethical issues in higher education.

UW Stout & Ashley Finley