Last month, the Office of Instructional Design hosted an engaging, hands-on conference designed to help faculty explore underutilized tools and strategies for enhancing teaching with technology. We had about 40 faculty members in attendance throughout the day, and it was an exciting day of learning, networking, and practical takeaways. Whether you were able to join us or couldn’t make it this time, here’s a recap of the major themes covered during the event. Plus, read on for how to get access to the session materials!
Gain Access to Conference Resources
If you couldn’t attend or want to revisit the materials from the day, you can still gain access to everything! We’ve set up a Microsoft Teams space dedicated to the conference where all the session resources, including slide decks and supplementary materials, are available. This is a great way to catch up on what you missed or dive deeper into any sessions that sparked your interest.
To gain access, simply send an email to Nathan Hollister at njh5083@psu.edu, and you’ll be added to the group. You’ll have ongoing access to the materials and will be able to continue the conversation with other attendees and presenters.
Opening Session
After check-in and some morning refreshments, we began the day with a lively group activity designed to get people thinking about the challenges they face in their teaching. This was a great opportunity for faculty to engage with one another about what they believe to be the defining characteristics of the Penn State Altoona campus culture, and we saw some insightful conversations emerge.
The activity encouraged participants to collaborate in small groups, identify current pain points or areas for improvement, and brainstorm potential solutions. It helped frame the rest of the day, which was all about using tools to improve teaching effectiveness and efficiency and building a community of practice around those concepts for the upcoming academic year. Those thoughts were captured on a Zoom Whiteboard, which can be found in the Conference Teams space.
Shahub Tossi, Instructor in Management, shares out his group’s thoughts on the defining characteristics of Penn State Altoona’s culture.
Morning Sessions
One of the highlights of the morning was the rotating sessions that focused on the underutilized features of Penn State’s technology systems. These sessions were led by instructional designers, as well as our Student Success Advocate, who shared some best practices and tips for maximizing the use of the tools already available to us at the university.There was a wide variety of tools that were discussed during these sessions. These tech tool driven sessions included the following topics:
- Canvas: New Quizzes, Discussions Redesign, and Gradebook filters
- Kaltura: My Media, Nomenclature, Captions, and Kaltura Capture
- Zoom: Alternative Views and Whiteboards
- Top Hat: Student View, Discussions, Pages as Assignments, and Class Threads Preview
- Outlook: Signatures, Scheduling Emails, Polls to Schedule Meetings, and Adding Calendars
- Teams: Class Teams, Module Development, and Content Creation
- Starfish: Settings, Buttons, Notes and Tracking, and Filters
- Instructor Connections: Conversations and Collaborations with Colleagues
Each session was designed to be interactive, allowing faculty to experiment with the tools, ask questions, and envision how they might implement these features in their courses. All session materials from these sessions can be found in the Conference Teams space.
Ed Levri, Division Head, and Betty Lynn Diamond, Instructor in Accounting, listen to other faculty members discuss areas of improvement at Penn State Altoona.
Afternoon Sessions
In the afternoon, we turned our attention to two timely topics that are transforming teaching and learning: Generative AI and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). These were concurrent sessions that focused on each of these topics separately and allowed for faculty to consider their own practices in these spaces.
The Getting Started and Better Prompting with AI sessions focused on how generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot can enhance efficiency and creativity in the workplace, particularly for faculty and staff. Participants learned about the evolution of generative AI, the resources available at Penn State, and important privacy considerations. Key prompting techniques—simple, conversational, and structured—were explored, with a focus on simple and conversational prompts. Attendees practiced refining prompts to improve AI-generated outputs for tasks such as lesson planning or email drafting. The session concluded with an open discussion on AI’s practical use cases and a Q&A to address individual concerns.
The Top 5 UDL Series: Designing for All Learners in Canvas sessions focused on optimizing Canvas courses to create accessible, inclusive learning environments, as part of a Provost Endorsed program. Participants learned strategies for improving course design, including organizing and simplifying Canvas navigation to reduce cognitive load. The session covered best practices for naming files and content headers, making it easier for students to find resources. Faculty explored tools like Ally for accessibility checks and the Canvas Content and Equation editor for developing universally designed content. Hands-on activities reinforced these concepts, and attendees were encouraged to join teaching circles and other workshops to continue refining their course designs.
Nick Pyeatt, Professor of Political Science, engages with a presentation on UDL principles and ways to enhance his Canvas spaces for all learners.
Looking Forward
Overall, the 7th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference was a great success, and we’re excited to see how faculty implement what they’ve learned in their courses. We hope to continue offering these types of opportunities – or connecting faculty and staff with groups with similar offerings – throughout the rest of this academic year. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or ideas you may have as the year progresses! We hope to see many of you next year!
