Center for Teaching & Learning

“Facilitating Critical Reading and Public Research Communication in Higher Education”

Current public discourse indicates that academics (specifically) and intellectuals (generally) communicate in ways that are often inaccessible to the broader American public (Avila Montaño, 2022; Kotsko, 2017). Similarly, college and university faculty report that contemporary students face challenges in critical thinking and meeting academic expectations, arriving on campuses less prepared than ever (Manno, 2024; Heubeck, 2024; Horowitz, 2024). As educators, these concurrent realities compel us to enhance our efforts to help students achieve the educational outcomes we desire and are mandated to deliver. I employ collaborative reading reflections and podcast script-writing activities to bridge this gap in my courses. I do this to simultaneously teach students how to critically analyze and comprehend academic research while encouraging them to practice articulating these ideas to audiences beyond academia through podcast scripting. In this teaching slam, I will provide an overview of these two activities (a. collaborative critical reading and b. podcast script-writing), share completed examples, and, time permitting, present data on how students responded to these assignments.

“Walking Classes in Local and Comparative Perspective”

In this brief presentation, I will reflect on walking classes as pedagogical practice. The discussion is based on my experience facilitating walking classes and assignments in my urban sociology classes across a diverse range of cities, including Toronto, Singapore, and Burlington. Drawing on material from walking methodologies and pedagogies and student feedback and interaction, I will reflect on initial insights on walking as a particular tool for student engagement and learning outside the classroom. Particularly, I will reflect on the strategies and practices to incorporate walking classes and assignments as ways to foster community engagement and exploration with student collaboration and creativity in content-based courses with a particular interest in local and global citizenship.

“1-minute Random Student Presentations for Metacognition, Accountability, Peer-to-peer Learning, Confidence, and Attendance”

In my project-based course (Senior Experience in Engineering Design, aka SEED) with 100 students working on 25 projects, I take attendance by choosing 5 teams at random each weekly class to spend one minute orally sharing four things with the class.

• Something you learned last week, and its impact on your project
• Something you are proud of from last week, or think that other teams would benefit from knowing
• Something you need help with, and why
• Something you plan to do this week, and why

This activity encourages student metacognition about their learning, holds them accountable for their actions and attendance, creates peer-to-peer learning, helps students learn each other’s names, teaches students about the other projects, gives them practice and confidence talking in front of an audience and about their project, and eases my workload taking attendance.

“Transfer of Learning in the Undergraduate Writing Tutor Curriculum”

In Fall 2022, we distributed an IRB approved survey to UVM’s undergraduate writing tutor alumni asking about the later-in-life impact of their writing tutoring experience and education. Our survey was adapted from the Peer Tutor Writing Alumni Research Project (Hughes, Gillespie & Kail 2010) and the goals were to 1) assess the short- and long-term value of writing tutor training and writing center experience, 2) inform current tutor training and writing center practice from the perspective of former tutors, and 3) contribute to ongoing scholarship about Peer Writing Tutor Alumni (Brufee 2008; Dinitz and Kiedaisch 2009; Driscoll 2013; Everts 2020; Harris 2002; Hughes, Douglass 2003; Hughes, Gillespie & Kail 2010; Hutchinson, Jiang, Avalos 2023; Kedia 2007; Lerner 2003; Purdy 2003; Welsch 2008; Whalen 2005).

In this lightning talk, I will share the transferrable skills our writing tutor alumni identified, how we have been addressing reported downsides, and how we facilitate transfer with current writing tutors using the “high road” approach (Perkins & Salomon 2005; Mattison 2020) of scaffolding career readiness activities.

“Experiential Education to Address Complex Problems”

This presentation discusses the methods and outcomes of an undergraduate social science research methods class in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics (CDAE) at the University of Vermont (UVM). The course is required for all (approximately) 500 majors in this department. It will review literature on experiential, service-learning education, co-creation of knowledge and mixed methods research, arguing that the approaches prepare students to address wicked (complex social) problems. It then outlines the methods of the class and how these approaches are incorporated into class via a class research project with a community partner.

“Changing Attitudes Towards Psychosis via Civic Learning and Inquiry-Based Pedagogy”

Nationally, there is a lack of teaching on psychosis (e.g. schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses) in higher education. Few clinical psychology programs offer relevant training, and students may be discouraged from exploring this area (e.g. O’Connor & Yanos, 2021). This absence perpetuates stigma, and contributes to provider shortages (e.g. Kopelovich et al., 2022). UVM students (N=11) attended a new course in spring 2025: Psys6990E CL Psychosis. The class has a Civic Learning (CL) designation and instruction was informed by Inquiry-Based Learning for Higher Education (IBL-HE; Archer-Kuhn, 2022). IBL-HE stimulates students’ critical thinking and dialogue. The course fosters university-community relationships, via engagement with Vermont initiatives providing social justice-oriented support for people experiencing psychosis. Local guest speakers’ expertise includes lived experience of psychosis. In a final assignment, students describe clinical or advocacy-related actions they will take. For program evaluation purposes, students completed pre-course measures of stigma and confidence working with psychosis. Post-course outcomes are predicted to show change (data due May 2025). This teaching is inspired by national work I am part of via SMI-FATE (Serious Mental Illness –Future of Academics, Research and Training), a collaboration between members of the American Psychological Association (Division 18) and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

“Using Checklists as an Inclusive Instructional Design Strategy to Help Support Online Learners”

To succeed, students enrolled in asynchronous, online courses need to be able to selfregulate and utilize appropriate executive functioning skills. These skills are known predictors of achievement in online asynchronous courses1. However, students new to online learning, or who consider themselves neurodivergent learners, may find it difficult to keep themselves organized in an online learning environment. To address this void and as part of an inclusive instructional design strategy, a module completion checklist was designed and implemented for all courses within an existing online graduate program. A checklist has many benefits for students and faculty members. Checklists can help students with task initiation, planning, prioritizing, time management, tracking progress, management of complex learning environments, goal setting, self-monitoring and staying motivated. Checklists can also help support students in the transition to new and unfamiliar learning environments. For faculty members, checklists can positively impact faculty workload. Research has shown that courses with checklists resulted in students turning in assignments 2-5 times earlier than those students working without checklists. This presentation will describe the results of our analysis of checklist usage for all courses across an online graduate program. References 1. King FB, Harner M, Brown SW. Self-regulatory behavior influences in distance learning. International Journal of Instructional Media. 2000;27(2):147-155.

Co-authors: Carolyn Siccama, Jan K. Carney, Shamima Khan, Tom Delaney, Thomas E. Griffin

“An Attempt at Improving Redox Chemistry Outcomes in a Water and Wastewater Engineering Course with Minimal Interventions”

Chemistry is important to many branches of engineering, including civil and environmental engineering. Based on observations in upper-level environmental engineering courses, students are unable to apply fundamental redox chemistry concepts. This project assessed if the incorporation of two 75-minute modules – “the chemistry of the Flint Water Crisis” and “microbial degradation of pollutants” – would improve affective and cognitive chemistry outcomes. These modules interweaved redox chemistry fundamentals (e.g., half reactions, electron donors and acceptors, electrode potential) with big-picture, real-world problems. Results of post-module assessments were compared to pre-module assessments covering multiple redox chemistry topics. Further, a post-course survey allowed students to report on their own learning gains and confidence gains related to chemistry. After the modules, students were much more likely to attempt redox chemistry questions on a written assessment, but performance on most questions was still poor. Students also reported lower gains in confidence in using chemistry compared to past cohorts. Whether students completed one or two general chemistry courses did not result in significant differences in performance. Simply put, the short modules were not sufficient. Moving forward, a new course has been created that will spend much more time on chemistry fundamentals and their application to environmental engineering.

Co-authors: Matthew Scarborough, Amy DeCola

“Exploring Faculty, Student, and Staff Perceptions of Generative A.I. in a Civic Learning Project for First-Year Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Students” 

This case study describes the design and outcomes of a campus-based civic learning project implemented at the University of Vermont in fall 2024. Using a reciprocal model of student and campus partner engagement, the project aims to understand patterns of challenges and benefits for the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) within the classroom and other university administrative operations.  It thus addresses a systemic challenge: while our campus works towards centralized policies and guidance on GenAI, the existing policies and practices are varied or lacking. These gaps and inconsistencies leave students, instructors, and staff to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI on their own. Our goal is to generate a snapshot of attitudes and practices, which will enable leaders to engage students and faculty around important themes. The civic learning project was developed in coordination with campus partners (Writing Center, Writing in the Disciplines, Libraries, Center for Student Conduct) to engage first-year engineering and mathematical sciences students in the data collection process. Students were placed into 19 teams. Teams conducted research on current campus policies and identified one campus group (faculty, staff, or students) to interview using a standard set of interview prompts, including questions related to AI technologies currently used (if at all) and respondents’ perspectives on benefits and challenges to the campus community. Students summarized and presented their findings during the final presentation session in December 2024 and completed a final reflection survey to document interview responses and their own critical reflection of the project. We will present the common themes identified through the project and reflections from the campus partners on new opportunities for campus support that emerged from the project.

Co-authors: Courtney D. Giles, Sheila Boland Chira, Deanna Garrett-Ostermiller, Jennifer Garrett-Ostermiller (Vermont State University), Susanmarie Harrington, Graham Sherriff

“Evolving Photovoice: A Journey from Reflective Practice to Participatory Research in Agroecology Education”

This lightning talk explores the evolution of Photovoice in undergraduate agroecology education—from a reflective pedagogical tool to a dual-purpose method for participatory action research. Grounded in the UVM Institute for Agroecology’s three pillars (Centering Equity, Transforming Food Systems, and Transdisciplinary Participatory Action Research), I will demonstrate how Photovoice has been implemented within the place-based experiential Agroecology & Extension (AX) fellowship program. Drawing from initial implementation data, I will highlight how this visual methodology enables students to document their lived experiences while developing skills applicable to community-engaged research with food system stakeholders. This presentation outlines an emerging direction in our Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, investigating how students transition from subjects of reflection to agents of research through this methodological approach. By integrating reflective practice with research skill development, Photovoice creates pathways for more transformative agroecology education while building student capacity to facilitate stakeholder-driven food systems change.

Co-authors: Karen Nordstrom, Emily Hoyler, Vic Izzo

“Transforming Photovoice from Evaluation Tool to Research Pedagogy in Agroecology”

This research talk examines the planned transformation of photovoice methodology within the AX Summer Research Fellowship program from a student-selected, culturally relevant evaluation tool into a comprehensive pedagogical approach for teaching qualitative research methods. Previously, fellows engaged primarily with quantitative research through farm-based mentorships, while photovoice emerged as an evaluation framework in response to student concerns about extractive research practices. For the upcoming cohort, we will implement a structured photovoice curriculum that builds upon this foundation to teach accessible techniques for conducting farmer-centered qualitative research through guided prompts, collaborative analysis, and mentored field applications. This pedagogical innovation contributes to SoTL by bridging participatory action research with critical pedagogy and experiential learning theory, proposing a model that honors student agency while developing practical research skills. We will share insights from previous photovoice implementation as an evaluative and community-building tool, followed by our implementation plan, anticipated challenges, and evaluation framework for assessing effectiveness in expanding students’ research capabilities beyond quantitative methods.

Co-authors: Emily Hoyler, Karen Nordstrom, Vic Izzo

“Case Study: Students’ Perception of the Use of Generative AI in Learning and the Civil Engineering Profession”

This case study explores the integration of two Generative AI (GenAI)-based writing assignments into a senior-level civil engineering design course. The goals of this case study are to (i) cultivate a culture of AI among students, (ii) enable them to critically evaluate the AI outputs and their limitations, and (iii) assess and discuss the ethical use of AI within the civil engineering profession.

Twenty-seven students participated in two writing assignments: one requiring AI use and the other optional. The first assignment encouraged students to explore the design of steel structures and using GenAI to generate a one-page write-up, with instructions to critically assess the AI output, verify facts, and reflect on their experiences.

In the second assignment, students analyzed two articles about GenAI’s implications in civil engineering, discussing how GenAI could enhance efficiency and safety while addressing ethical challenges in the field. Students were instructed to document their use of GenAI, modify the AIgenerated content, and compose a reflection on their experience with the AI tool.

A qualitative analysis of student responses revealed common themes, including curiosity about future potential with GenAI, the balance between AI-assisted tasks and their own creativity, and concerns about the reliability of AIgenerated content. The findings highlight the importance of integrating GenAI into civil engineering curricula to prepare students for responsible AI use in their profession.

Co-authors: Priyantha Wijesinghe, Holly Buckland Parker, Ethan Stein

“Five Years of Choice-Based Assessment”

In Fall 2020, five instructors implemented choice-based assessment in their courses, centered on a menu of options for students to demonstrate their learning, and a points-based grading system where more points were available than what was needed to earn a top grade. The authors studied students’ reactions to choice in these courses, finding greater engagement and motivation, and decreased stress (Pope et al., 2025, in press). To understand and report on the instructor experience with choice implementation, they also surveyed Teaching Assistants (TAs) and recorded their own experiences through guided journaling and group meeting notes. Themes that emerged from these reflections include a desire to increase students’ intrinsic motivation and adapt to external stressors (i.e. COVID-19), satisfaction of seeing students cleverly using the system to meet their goals, concern about students falling behind and how to track them, and relief as students take responsibility for their grades. The authors have continued to use choice in their courses, refine their approaches, and discuss their experiences as a group. In this presentation, the authors will share reflections on choice-based teaching and learning strategies over the last five years, including recommendations for those who may consider implementing choice in their own courses.

Co-authors: Allison Anacker, Marieka Brouwer Burg, Holly Buckland Parker, Lisa Dion, Jen Garrett-Ostermiller (Vermont State University), Rachel Plouffe, Lizzy Pope, Luis Vivanco

“The ‘Ticket Home’: A Scalable Survey System for Rapidly Identifying Barriers to Learning”

Frequent student feedback offers numerous benefits, but busy instructors rarely solicit it. To help, we deployed a large-scale weekly student feedback system that identifies barriers to learning and “muddiest points”. Completing this 3-question online survey before leaving class is a student’s “Ticket Home.” We analyzed usage trends and targeted surveys to assess the Ticket Home’s ability to solicit meaningful feedback, keep students and instructors using it, minimize time burdens, promote metacognition and just-in-time teaching, and improve classroom climates by helping students’ voices to be heard and valued.

11 classes teaching 422 students used the Ticket Home in Fall 2024. To reduce instructors’ time burden, an undergraduate Teaching Assistant read and summarized student responses for each instructor. At the semester’s end, we examined the time commitment and usage trends, and we used generative AI to help identify common student feedback and exit survey comments.

Exit survey responses were strongly positive. 100% of instructors and 61% of students agreed (6% disagreed) with “I would like to keep using the Ticket Home in my future classes.” The Ticket Home is now active in 10 Spring semester courses. Results support the utility of frequent feedback and offer an example for scaling other teaching interventions.

Co-authors: David Jangraw, Anna Shoudt, Courtney Giles

“Evaluating Introductory Biology Students’ Experiences with Communication Assignments ”

A common problem in introductory STEM classes is providing motivation for student engagement. In an e ort to stimulate engagement, the Professor of an introductory biology course asked students to communicate with non-science audiences through diverse activities: an essay, a handout for high school students, a planned conversation around a challenging topic, and an infographic. To explore whether and how the students engaged with these assignments, we asked students in two sections of the course (total enrollment 80 students) to complete a survey that included ranking the activities and reflecting on their experience. A total of 63 students (79%) responded. Analysis of their responses indicate roughly a third of respondents ranked as most interesting each of the more complex assignments (handout, planned conversation, and infographic). Their reflections showed emotional, cognitive, and metacognitive engagement with the assignments. These activities significantly enhanced student understanding of complex biological concepts, fostered deeper connections between course topics, and improved students’ communication skills. Notably, students reported increased confidence in communicating scientific information to various audiences and found the activities valuable for exam preparation and understanding the real-world relevance of biology. These findings suggest that incorporating diverse communication activities into undergraduate science courses can e ectively enhance student learning and engagement beyond traditional lecturebased approaches.

Co-authors: Linden Higgens, Bonnie Gerhart

“Higher Education has a Leadership Problem”

What did you think I meant by the word “leadership” in the title of this talk? Differing assumptions about what “leadership” is and means and the various cultural and contextual influences on those beliefs have significant impact on the way we as educators help develop leadership capacity in others. Research exploring the implicit leadership messages found in educational programs and curricula challenges educators to transform not only how we talk about leadership, but how we design and structure programs and experiences intended to “develop leaders.” This talk will explore major themes from literature on liberatory and transformative pedagogy for leadership learning and development and offer suggestions for auditing and adjusting our teaching practice to advance more inclusive, accessible, and equitable leadership beliefs and practices.

“Intentional Use of AI for Occupational Therapy Case Study Assignment”

The use of artificial intelligence in occupational therapy (OT) education is not well-researched. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in the clinical setting and students need to understand how to use AI ethically and understand its limitations. Students on fieldwork struggle with the daily cognitive task of treatment planning for their caseload. A recent study by Mansour & Wong (2024) demonstrated that the use of AI in the academic setting was a valuable educational tool and reduced student cognitive load. Students also demonstrated an improved understanding of the ethical concerns regarding the use of AI. This current study replicated the study by Mansour & Wong using a newly created pediatric case study, instead of the adult case study used in the previous study.

The study aimed to: 1) Demonstrate the potential use of AI as an effective educational tool by providing data on changes in students’ confidence and ability to generate intervention ideas both before and after using ChatGPT. 2) Explore the impact of generative AI on the educational experience of OT students in terms of engagement, learning efficiency, and satisfaction 3) Identify and discuss the benefits and limitations of using AI technologies like ChatGPT in OT education, particularly focusing on its role in supporting evidence-based practice and maintaining patient safety and confidentiality and 4) Determine if the results from the Mansour & Wong (2024) study can be generalizable to a varying demographic of students using a different patient population for the case study.

This presentation will discuss the design process of the research project related to the use of AI in the learning activities, student learning outcomes, and student feedback on their perceptions of the use of AI in clinical practice.

Co-authors: Margaret Maynard, Kate Barlow, Stephanie Sandherr, Tara Mansour