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Conference Program

What will the AFC Include?

Schedule

8:15am – 9:00am

Registration (Lobby, 200BC)

9:00am – 9:15am

General Session: Welcome (200BC)

9:15am – 10:45am

General Session, Keynote Speaker: Dr. Thomas Tobin, Three Fabulous Design and Teaching Ideas that Take Work Off Your Plate, (200BC)

About the Keynote

10:45am – 11:00am

Break

11:00am – 12:00pm

Morning Workshop Sessions (200A, 200B, 200C, 220, 223 and the Underground)

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Lunch Break (200BC)

1:00pm – 1:50pm

Poster Session and Teaching Innovation Showcase (the Underground)

2:00pm – 3:00pm

Afternoon Workshop Sessions (200A, 200B, 200C, 220, 223 and the Underground)

3:00pm – 3:15pm

Break

3:15pm – 3:45pm

General Session Wrap up (200BC)

Announcement of Poster and Teaching Innovation Showcase Session Winners (200BC)

8:15am – 9:00am

Registration (200BC)

9:00am – 9:15am

Opening Remarks (200BC)

9:15am – 10:45am

General Session, Plenary Speaker: Dr. José Bowen, Teaching Change with a New 3Rs (200BC)

About the Plenary Session 

10:45am – 11:00am

Break

11:00am – 11:45pm

Morning Breakout Sessions (200A, 200B, 200C, 220, 223 and the Underground)

11:45pm – 12:45pm

Lunch Break (200BC)

1:10pm – 1:45pm

Afternoon Breakout Sessions (200A, 200B, 200C, 220, 223 and the Underground)

1:45pm – 2:00pm

Break

2:00pm – 3:15pm

Lightning Round (200BC)

3:15pm – 3:30pm

General Session Closing (200BC)

Keynote & Plenary Speakers

Keynote Session: Dr. Thomas Tobin

Three Fabulous Design and Teaching Ideas that Take Work off Your Plate
Wednesday, January 9

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve experienced learners who can seem less engaged and more challenged. It helps to go back to the basics—to the core ideas and principles that make teaching effective, engaging, worthwhile, and, at the same time, manageable. Collectively, our goal is to build ways to interact with our students that support their continued learning, show compassion and flexibility for their varied circumstances, and fit within our existing time and prep demands. In this interactive keynote session, we’ll explore concrete practices that stem from three research-based low-effort do-them-right-now design and teaching principles, reduce anxiety and pressure for both students and faculty, and allow you to focus on the interactions that you want to have with your students. 

  • access to materials, interactions, and people (in course work and beyond);
  • assessment: how we design testing, grades, and feedback; and
  • engagement strategies that make students want to come to the classroom.

A few promises: this session will not add to your already stretched resources. In fact, our conversation will help you to decide what you can profitably not pay attention to as you develop and hold class sessions with your students. We will also focus on things that you can do without a lot of special equipment, staff support, and development time. Finally, we’ll frame our discussion around ways to honor the various commitments in our students’ and our own lives, in order to find good balance, address systemic inequities, and interact with one another in a supportive way.

Plenary Session: Dr. José Bowen

Teaching Change with a New 3Rs
Thursday, January 10

Learning something new—particularly something that might change your mind—is more difficult than teachers think. A new 3Rs of Relationships, Resilience and Reflection can help us lead better discussions and reach more students. Without sacrificing content, we can design courses to increase effort and motivation, provide more and better feedback, help students learn on their own and be better able to integrate new information now and after they graduate. The case for a liberal (or liberating) education has never been stronger, but it needs to be redesigned to take into account how human thinking, behaviors, bias, and change really work…and maybe AI too. Recent and wide-ranging research from biology, economics, psychology, education, and neuroscience on the difficulty of change can guide us to redesign an education of transformation and change.

Workshops

Distinguished faculty across Temple who have completed our Provost’s Teaching Academy will be facilitating 60-minute, interactive workshops on day 1 of the conference. The workshop topics will build on the theme of the conference and on the topics presented by our keynote and plenary speakers. In the workshops, you will have the chance to take a deeper dive into select topics and apply what you have learned to your own courses.

Breakout Sessions

These peer-reviewed 45-minute interactive sessions generally include a “mini-lecture” format with activities and demonstrations of teaching methods, as well as guided discussions about the topic at hand. Topics include engaging students, deepening learning, harnessing emotion in the classroom, teaching with technology, and maximizing the benefits of different modalities of teaching in higher education. Breakout sessions will take place on day 2 of the conference.

Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks are 15-minute peer-reviewed mini-sessions to learn about creative teaching ideas that colleagues have implemented. The talks are designed to provide brief introductions and explanations of the idea followed by a question and answer period. Talks are presented multiple times, providing participants the opportunity to hear multiple presentations. Lightning Talks will take place on day 2 of the conference.

Poster Session and Teaching Innovation Showcase

Highlighting novel classroom-based research and creative teaching and learning projects, attendees will have access to presentations at a dedicated time on day 1 of the conference. Attendees will also have an opportunity to discuss live the showcased scholarship with their creators during this time period.  

Networking

This year’s Annual Faculty Conference remains a fully interactive event with opportunities to network, catch up with colleagues, and find space to discuss exciting topics.