Breakout Sessions for Friday, April 18, 2025
Presenters: Kara Nuss, Northeastern Illinois University, Melodie Graber, Stephanie Levi Blumer, Hafsa Ansari, Oakton College
Learning Assistants (LAs) are student leaders who provide peer mentoring and support, contribute to culturally responsive learning environments, and support the consistent use of active learning in classes. Learning Assistants work with faculty mentors to co-develop and implement active learning approaches, facilitate student inquiry, and support students in developing their thinking and learning.. Both the LAs and the mentoring faculty participate in distinct pedagogy courses to cultivate knowledge and practice of active learning, fluency in inclusive, culturally-responsive teaching and learning, and student engagement, among other matters. Learning Assistant programs at four-year institutions have been shown to positively impact student success, persistence, belonging, and self-efficacy in courses, while developing the LAs as knowledgeable leaders who thrive themselves. Faculty and staff from Northeastern Illinois University and Chicago State University already have thriving LA programs of their own, and are collaborating to support the development of an LA program at Oakton, emphasizing LA leadership development. During this session, we will describe Oakton’s new LA program, emphasizing the faculty pedagogy course, including its structure, our successes, how we have engaged faculty and students, and what we are learning.
This work is funded by National Science Foundation IUSE Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) grant, award #: 2412937
Jasmine Gillis, Roosevelt University, Anas Vohra, Oakton College, Destiny Jaime-Garcia, University of Illinois at Chicago
We welcome these students to share their experience and use of AI. Some topics may include: How are students incorporating AI into their daily lives and studies? Are there specific courses integrating AI, and if so, how is it utilized? What recommendations do students have for their instructors regarding the use of AI? Additionally, what insights do they have about cheating with AI?
Presenters: Scott A. Kreher, Christopher Anderson, Carissa Buber, and Arti Ayachit Dept. of Biological Sciences, Dominican University, River Forest, IL, USA
Our session will be an introduction to our theory and evidence-based teaching approaches to facilitating understanding of research design with the goal of transfer of learning, in the context of undergraduate, introductory biology courses. Our session will be most useful to people teaching undergraduate biology and will also be relevant to other natural science disciplines. Our approach could also be useful for other disciplines, such as math or any involving critical thinking. We will have a one- hour session that includes a brief project overview followed by demonstrations of two active learning teaching exercises that have been developed based on theory and evidence from the learning sciences and discipline-based education research. Participants will play the role of students to experience the activities and will be given the chance to discuss their experiences. The goals of our project are to develop better methods of assessing understanding of controlled experiments, to develop better methods of assessing specific scientific literacy skills, and to develop better methods of teaching about experimental design in undergraduate-level introductory biology, in both lecture and lab course components. This work represents possible forward momentum across disciplines and will allow hypotheses from the learning sciences to be tested in undergraduate biology classrooms. This work may also benefit teaching in other natural science disciplines at the undergraduate level and possibly benefit teaching for primary and secondary students. Our theoretical framework is that there may be ways to teach research design in such a way to facilitate transfer of learning to scientific literacy, operationalized as evaluation of arguments through a scientific lens. Students who graduate from undergraduate programs in biology should have a solid understanding of experimental design and the logic behind controlled experiments. Arguably, all university-educated people should have some understanding of the process of science, represented by understanding the role of empirical evidence. Furthermore, evidence from multiple disciplines, such as cognitive psychology and discipline-based education research, has led to the hypothesis that if a person understands experimental design, they may be able to apply those skills to their everyday lives, demonstrating achievement of an important goal in science education, known as scientific literacy. This project is supported by NSF IUSE grant #2416520.
Looking for a more equitable, transparent, and meaningful way to assess student learning? Standards-Based Grading (SBG) offers a powerful alternative to traditional points-based systems by focusing on what students actually know and can do. In this interactive workshop, you'll get a brief, practical introduction to the core principles of SBG—then dive into hands-on activities and collaborative discussions designed to help you start building your own SBG-aligned assessment plan. Bring a syllabus or just a list of learning objectives for a freshman level course and take the first steps toward a more student-centered approach to grading.
- Focus of the Session
This breakout session explores innovative strategies for constructing mind maps and concept maps with the support of AI tools, aiming to transform traditional learning approaches. In the age of rapid knowledge expansion fueled by artificial intelligence, conventional methods such as linear note-taking and rote memorization are increasingly insufficient for deep and lasting understanding.
To navigate and apply knowledge effectively in both academic and professional contexts, learners must move beyond memorization toward meaningful comprehension. Mind maps and concept maps are powerful tools for this purpose. They help visualize the interconnectedness of ideas, support long-term retention, enhance retrieval efficiency, and serve as valuable guides in problem-solving.
Despite their benefits, many learners are unfamiliar with these strategies or hesitant to adopt them. This session addresses that challenge by introducing accessible AI tools—such as ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Google AI—to support learners in constructing their first maps. Participants will learn a step-by-step process:
Knowledge Gathering – Using AI tools to collect and structure relevant information.
Initial Mapping – Organizing the information into a multi-layered map using software like MindManager or MindMaple.
Refinement – Reorganizing the maps based on learners’ current understanding and exploring connections to prior knowledge.
Integration – Enhancing maps with supplementary materials such as tables and linear notes for a comprehensive learning artifact.
Examples and practical demonstrations will be provided to illustrate each stage of the process. This hands-on session equips educators with new techniques to foster deeper student engagement and understanding through the integration of AI and visual learning tools.