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8:30 – 8:55: From Role-Based Learning to Transferable Skills: How Identity-Activated Tasks Support Engagement and Adaptation

Yujian Guo, University of Saskatchewan

This session explores how role-based learning tasks can foster transferable skills by activating learners’ identities and increasing engagement. Drawing on classroom-based research across K–12 and postsecondary contexts, the presentation illustrates how purpose-driven roles help students connect learning tasks with prior experiences, professional aspirations, and real-world problem solving. Participants will examine practical design principles for creating identity-activated tasks that support motivation, engagement, and adaptation in diverse learning environments. The session highlights how role-based pedagogies can move beyond content mastery to support lifelong learning and transferable skill development.

8:55 – 9:20: Human Inquiry, Artificial Intelligence & Asking “Why?”: Rediscovering Our Purpose in Teaching and Learning

Stacey L. MacKinnon, University of Prince Edward Island; Ryan Drew, University of Prince Edward Island; Noah Striker, STEMBLE AI

• As AI reshapes the edges of �þ��� and learning, this session returns to a foundational question: Why? Drawing on two decades of practice, we frame AI not as a threat but as a clarifying force that helps educators protect human judgment, creativity, belonging, and ethical reasoning. Participants will explore a practical Three Horizons model—AI as assistant, thinking partner, and co‑creator—alongside strategies for redesigning assignments, strengthening provenance, and assessing process over product. The focus is on aligning purpose, practice, and AI use so learning becomes more meaningful, transferable, and human‑centered.

8:30 – 8:55: Building Confidence, Curiosity, and Strong Learning Habits Through Collaborative Improvisation and Artmaking

Graham Johnson, Fordham University; John Samuels, Kennesaw State University

• This interactive session will demonstrate how collaborative improvisation and artmaking can cultivate confidence, curiosity, and strong learning habits that support belonging and creativity. Grounded in arts-based educational research and classroom practice, we will model how collaborative improvisation and artmaking can help learners feel belonging, self-reflect, and take social and intellectual risks. Participants will experience simple collaborative music improvisation and reflect on their own �þ��� and learning.

8:55 – 9:20: Supporting �þ��� Who Are Hesitant or Underprepared for Online Learning: Faculty Strategies That Build Confidence and Capability

Tina J. Herring, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• As online and hybrid learning expand, many students remain hesitant to engage or lack the digital, organizational, and self‑regulation skills needed to succeed. These challenges are often misread as low motivation rather than skill or access gaps. This session explores practical, evidence‑informed strategies faculty can use to support underprepared or reluctant online learners while maintaining academic rigor. Grounded in Universal Design for Learning and inclusive �þ���, the session highlights instructor‑controlled choices such as course structure, communication, and assessment scaffolding. Participants review sample materials, and identify sustainable course changes that build student confidence and competence effectively.

8:30 – 8:55: Instructional Design for Future-Ready Learning: Designing AI-Enhanced Language and Culture Courses

Elena Sharafutdinova, Madera Community College & California State University, Fresno

• As generative AI becomes increasingly embedded in higher education, instructional designers and faculty must rethink how learning environments are structured to prepare students for future challenges. This session explores how instructional design can support future-ready learning through AI-enhanced activities in online language and culture courses. Drawing on frameworks such as ADDIE, Quality Matters, and Universal Design for Learning, the presentation demonstrates how generative AI tools, including chatbots, multimedia generation, and custom AI learning agents, can support interactive language practice and cultural exploration. These approaches help students develop transferable skills such as communication, intercultural competence, digital and AI literacy, critical thinking, and self-directed learning.

8:55 – 9:20: From Banking to Building: Narrative Sparks for Resonant Learning

Dianna Montgomery

• To move beyond passive information delivery, educators must design courses that act as narrative sparks, triggering the cognitive integration required for deep mastery. This session introduces a constructivist building model of instruction through three immersive frameworks: documentary-based systems analysis, experiential fishbowl groups, and literary-driven macro practice. Grounded in recent findings, these innovations demonstrate how emotionally arousing narrative moments strengthen functional integration across brain networks to enhance memory fidelity. Attendees will explore how these storytelling tools move students from passive recipients to active constructors of knowledge, providing a scalable spectrum of strategies for any discipline.

8:30 – 8:55: Higher education, the community of inquiry pedagogical framework, and support for lifelong learning

Martha Cleveland-Innes, Athabasca University; Dr. J. Jaldemark, Mid-Sweden University; Dr. M. Håkansson Lindqvist, Mid-Sweden University; Dr. P. Mozelius, Mid-Sweden University

• Higher education �þ��� and learning processes may support perspective and skill development favoring lifelong learning (Håkansson Lindqvist et al., 2024). Dynamic, complex societies now expect learning across one’s lifetime. Known as lifelong learning, it “refers to the process where individuals acquire knowledge and skills …from different sources, either intentionally or not. The sources may be established �þ��� institutions but need not be; sources can be other people, every situation in life, and so on. Learning is an individual process” (Jarvis, 2014, p. 53). This presentation suggests inquiry-based �þ��� in higher education can foster lifelong learning skill development.

8:55 – 9:20: Beyond the Classroom: Enhancing Scientific Literacy and Career Readiness Through Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences

Payton Radcliffe, West Virginia University; S. Alison Bolling, West Virginia University; Julie Hicks Patrick, West Virginia University

• Research experiences enhance competitiveness for future opportunities, while improving scientific literacy. However, these opportunities are not equally available. We present strategies to increase equity in �þ��� research by using national data in course-based �þ��� research experiences (CUREs; Dolan, 2016; Kuh, 2009; Ruth et al., 2022). Building on our prior work (e.g., Patrick et al., 2022), we share student success in developing, testing and disseminating research questions and results. We provide a detailed example of expanding access across group sizes of 6 to 25 students, using case studies and outcomes, illustrating successes and offering practical implementation strategies for instructors.

9:30 – 9:55: Building Creative Capacity for Tomorrow: Strategies That Transform Engagement and Collaboration

AnneMarie Dorland, Mount Royal University

• Creativity is widely recognized as a critical transferable skill, yet many students resist it and instructors struggle to teach it explicitly. This session shares findings from a qualitative SoTL study with �þ��� business students examining barriers and accelerants to creative capacity in collaborative work. Results highlight low creative self-efficacy, fear of judgment, and unclear processes as key barriers, alongside pedagogical practices that build confidence and engagement. Drawing on these insights, I present practical, evidence-based strategies—including structured ideation tools and co-designed learning experiences—that strengthen creative confidence and collaboration. Participants will gain actionable approaches to embed creative capacity development into diverse �þ��� contexts.

9:55 – 10:20: Teaching in Place: Activating the �þ��� as an Interdisciplinary Classroom

Thomas Baranski, Oakland University; Christina Moore, Oakland University

• This session introduces Teaching in Place, an innovative workshop model that reimagines the university campus as a dynamic, interdisciplinary classroom. Designed for immediate application, the session demonstrates how instructors can transform everyday campus spaces into active learning environments. Participants will engage with concrete examples and adaptable activities that promote student engagement, critical thinking, and connection to place. With particular attention to how such a method can be applied regardless of campus environment, attendees will leave with ready-to-use strategies and tools to incorporate place-based approaches into their own courses.

9:30 – 9:55: Creating Communities of Success – Lifelong Supports for Learning

Patrick Holt, Fordham University

• How can we transform the campus culture around tutoring, learning and student success? By focusing on relearning how to seek peer support in community, how to engage with tutors from day one and teach students that they live in a world where accepting support and learning will be required for success throughout their lives. I will describe a cultural change and communication plan focused on getting all campus partners to emphasize college learning as life learning and student success supports as life habits for all learners.

9:55 – 10:20: Reflections on Crime

Elizabeth Moberly, West Virginia University

• This presentation examines the use of reflective writing assignments in an �þ��� criminology course as a tool for fostering critical thinking and deeper engagement with questions of justice. �þ��� must complete both an initial and final reflection paper, responding to prompts centered on the purpose of the criminal justice system, the meaning of justice, and who the system serves. By comparing initial and final reflections, this assignment structure allows students to track the evolution of their own thinking across the semester as they engage with criminological theory and research. This presentation will discuss assignment design, student outcomes, and the pedagogical value of structured reflection in criminology education.

9:30 – 9:55: HyFlex by Design: Rethinking Access, Engagement, and Equity

Ashley Fecht, Creighton University; Natalie Boulton

• Engagement in the classroom has consistently been shown to drive motivation and learning, yet many faculty report that students won’t talk in class. This problem is not new, and years ago “clicker” polling technology was introduced as a way to encourage participation in the classroom, even in large lectures. Years of research on polling technology in the college classroom shows multiple benefits: instantaneous feedback is a key driver of student learning; engagement drives learning and satisfaction; and anonymity is a major draw for students who are less confident. This presentation will review the key literature on engagement and polling software specifically as well as share ways to use it effectively in any type of class.

9:55 – 10:20: Enhancing Engagement to Enhance Learning: The Benefits of Polling Technology in the Classroom

Erica Lamm-Denny, Creighton University

• The rapid adoption of Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT (referred to as GenAI tools thereafter) has reshaped academic �þ��� and learning. For instructors, the use of these tools has greatly enhanced student engagement, streamlined instructional design processes, and improved student assessment methods. For students, it has boosted creativity but also opened more cheating opportunities (Ganiyu, 2025; Kofinas et al, 2024), especially for poorly designed assessments. �þ���’ reliance on these tools when taking assessments fosters a false sense of achievement. It deprives them of critical thinking, independent problem-solving, and basic reasoning capacity (Kostanek & Li, 2025). This 20-minute online presentation aims to explore one question: Can instructors intentionally design assessments that curb opportunities for GenAI-enabled cheating?

9:30 – 9:55: Thinking on Their Feet: Implementing a Dynamic Mental Health Group Therapy Simulation Experience

Andrea Thinnes, OTD, OTR/L, FNAP, Creighton University; Marion Russell, OTD, OTR/L, Creighton University; Carrie Bose, OTD, OTR/L, Creighton University

• This session presents an innovative simulation-based learning experience designed to strengthen occupational therapy students’ competence in facilitating therapeutic groups within mental health settings. Grounded in experiential learning theory and supported by evidence from simulation pedagogy and mental health education, the initiative bridges the well-documented gap between classroom instruction and the realities of clinical practice. By placing students in a dynamic, actor-based simulation that mirrors the complexity of real mental health group sessions, the project aligns directly with the conference theme of transforming �þ��� and learning through immersive, evidence-informed educational strategies. The presentation will describe the development, structure, and outcomes of a comprehensive mental health group facilitation simulation implemented in a graduate occupational therapy program. �þ��� engage in a multi-step process that includes learning foundational group theory, developing a group protocol, and facilitating a simulated group session with standardized patients portraying both known and unexpected client presentations. This learning design is supported by literature highlighting the value of simulation for developing clinical reasoning, therapeutic communication, adaptability, and professional behaviors across health disciplines. Because effective group facilitation is essential not only in occupational therapy but also in fields such as social work, counseling, psychology, and nursing, the content is intentionally applicable to educators across a broad range of practice areas.

9:55 – 10:20: Beyond the Sage on the Stage: Innovative Teaching Strategies for General Education Humanities

Chelsea Frazier, Oklahoma City University

• General education humanities courses are often content-heavy, but even small elements of gamification can transform them into creative, skill‑building spaces. This session shares practical, low‑prep strategies drawn from my own humanities �þ���— including choice‑based historical dilemmas, narrative role‑play moments, ethical ranking activities, “boss battle” review challenges, and movement‑based gallery exercises. These playful structures invite students to think like historians, unlock creativity, and take intellectual risks. Participants will see how these approaches deepen comprehension while building transferable skills such as communication, ethical reasoning, collaboration, adaptability, and reflective judgment. Attendees will leave with flexible, ready‑to‑use ideas for any humanities classroom.

10:30 – 10:55: Transforming Difficult Conversation Training in Nursing Education through AI-Driven Virtual Simulation

Lindsay Iverson, Creighton University; Tamara Oliver, Creighton University; Steven Fernandes, Creighton University

• Effective communication is a critical professional competency, yet learners often experience anxiety and limited practice opportunities. Traditional �þ��� methods and one-time standardized patient encounters may restrict feedback and skill transfer. This project implemented an AI-powered chatbot as a preparatory communication tool prior to live simulation. Undergraduate and graduate nursing students (N=82) participated; survey data were analyzed from 48 respondents. �þ��� engaged with an AI-simulated patient and received immediate rubric-based feedback before standardized patient encounters. Most students reported increased confidence (79.5%), valued AI feedback (93.2%), and felt better prepared for real-world conversations (88.6%), supporting AI-enhanced simulation as an effective adjunct strategy.

10:55 – 11:20: Beyond the Playbook: Teaching Soft Skills That Last a Lifetime

Dr. Karla F. Jones, Queens University of Charlotte

• What separates a good hire from a great professional? Technical knowledge gets students in the door, but communication, adaptability, and emotional intelligence determine whether they thrive. This session explores how sport management educators can intentionally embed soft skill development into everyday course design through experiential learning, real-world application, and career-readiness frameworks. Drawing on literature in workforce development, learning theory, and sport industry trends, participants will leave with practical strategies to make transferable skills explicit, measurable, and meaningful to students, regardless of discipline. Together, we’ll examine not just what to teach, but how to help students see why it matters now and for life after college.

10:30 – 10:55: Brain Hats and Play-Doh: Hands-On Learning for Complex Ideas

Lou Jensen, Creighton University; Mackenzie Feldhacker, University of South Dakota; Miranda Little, Creighton University

• Faculty across disciplines must help students understand complex structures, systems, and processes. This session introduces low-cost tactile modeling strategies that support spatial reasoning and conceptual learning by allowing students to physically construct representations of challenging ideas. Grounded in embodied cognition, these approaches help learners externalize and test mental models using simple materials such as Play-Doh, paper, and LEGOs. Examples from neuroanatomy courses, including modeling neurulation and creating wearable “brain hats”, illustrate how tactile tools deepen understanding of complex anatomy. Participants will engage in a modeling activity and explore how these strategies can be adapted to support transferable learning across disciplines.

10:55 – 11:20: Before the Prompt: Building Intentional Infrastructure for AI Partnerships

Lauren Kelley, University of Delaware

• AI literacy and policy conversations are easier to avoid than to navigate but avoidance has a cost. Before faculty can meaningfully partner with students on AI expectations, they must first do their own work. This session introduces the AI Partnership Model, a four-part framework (What, How, Engage, Why) for becoming conversation-ready. Grounded in student agency, transparency, and relational trust, the model reframes AI integration as a collaborative process rather than a compliance problem. Participants assess their own AI literacy and leave with practical strategies for co-creating expectations with students.

10:30 – 10:55: Can Instructors Intentionally Design Assessments that Curb Opportunities for GenAI-enabled Cheating?

Makhosazana (Khosi) Lunga, University of Tennessee

• The rapid adoption of Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT (referred to as GenAI tools thereafter) has reshaped academic �þ��� and learning. For instructors, the use of these tools has greatly enhanced student engagement, streamlined instructional design processes, and improved student assessment methods. For students, it has boosted creativity but also opened more cheating opportunities (Ganiyu, 2025; Kofinas et al, 2024), especially for poorly designed assessments. �þ���’ reliance on these tools when taking assessments fosters a false sense of achievement. It deprives them of critical thinking, independent problem-solving, and basic reasoning capacity (Kostanek & Li, 2025). This 20-minute online presentation aims to explore one question: Can instructors intentionally design assessments that curb opportunities for GenAI-enabled cheating?

10:55 – 11:20: Designing Discussions for Critical Thinking and Connection

Becky Cottrell, Metropolitan State University of Denver; Alexandra Hood, Metropolitan State University of Denver; Ann Sullivan, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• Traditional discussion prompts often invite surface-level engagement rather than meaningful learning. This session explores how to redesign online participation to build transferable skills and support lifelong learning. Grounded in Fink’s taxonomy of significant learning, participants will consider new approaches to discussion boards that emphasize critical thinking, real-world application, and professional connection. Through brief examples and guided breakout activities, participants will develop a practical plan to review and revise their own discussion or participation activity. Attendees will leave with adaptable strategies that move beyond routine posting and toward intentional, engaging, and skill-driven online learning experiences.

10:30 – 10:55: Co-Creation: A Tool for Critical Digital Pedagogy

Jordan Davis, JD Speaks LLC, Wilmington University

• Critical digital pedagogy (CDP) is an approach to �þ��� with technology that challenges learners to critique dominant beliefs, practices, and oppressive power structures. But to what extent do digital technologies–tools like generative AI and the mobile devices students use to access them–support or thwart these efforts? In this workshop, attendees are introduced to co-creation, a widely applicable technique that invites students to generate course policies, norms, learning goals, and knowledge alongside instructors. The speaker defines and contextualizes co-creation within a CDP framework, and attendees engage with co-creation use cases, including establishing AI guidelines, personal device policies, and academic integrity standards.

10:55 – 11:20: Avoiding Neuromyths in Course Design

Cristina Vélez, Creighton University

• This presentation will highlight a few common neuromyths that exist and strategies for avoiding them during the learning and course design process. Similar to unconscious biases, neuromyths like male and female brains learn differently is wrong. While there are small physiological differences in male and female brains, the process of learning, retaining, recalling, and applying are the same from a cognitive perspective. The session will offer information and suggestions for recognizing common neuromyths and possible techniques for avoiding them.