COLTT 2024 Program

Description: Build or Buy is an old school game where you create your ideal online program. MA in Haiku? Dog Studies? Interpretive dance? Sure. You'll make choices for your program, from staffing to IT to partnering with a vendor or OPM, and spend your budget accordingly. Opportunity cards drawn each round will affect each choice differently, and you're off on the exciting journey that is online degrees! With years of online experience informing these "opportunities", you'll laugh, learn, and wonder how we all have done it! It's a game, of course there are winners and prizes!

Suzanne L'Amoureux is perhaps overly excited about online programs, academic technology and gamification.  She has run online degrees in law and in business at schools including UNC Chapel HIll, Washington State University and Cardozo School of Law.  Her lessons on online ed can be found at her Substack, Intended Consequences.  Suzanne currently lives in Chicago with a small dog named Ted [he's in the game too!] and will endlessly discuss why more universities should emulate The Bear.

Glenda Morgan is a market analyst with Phil Hill & Associates. She covers EdTech in higher education, including online learning, learning management systems and money other areas. Prior to joining Phil Hill she was with the Education team at the research and advisory firm Gartner.

Description: The Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) frames digital accessibility as "All people should have the opportunity to access the same information and services in the digital environment without facing undue barriers or burdens." To enhance awareness and create a more inclusive digital environment at CU Boulder, the DAO will discuss platform-agnostic accessibility fundamentals that you can implement into your digital content today! By the end of this session, attendees will better understand digital accessibility and how to proactively make their digital content more accessible.

The CU Boulder’s Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) is a group with a strong reputation in the higher education community for quality work in digital accessibility. DAO works to improve the accessibility of the digital campus environment and increase opportunities for participation in the digital life of the university for individuals with disabilities. Several staff will be supporting the workshop: Ally Bartley (She/her), Mike Williamson (he/him), Megan Mock (she/her), and Marisha Lamont-Manfre (she/her). Combined, the DAO has over 50 years of experience in digital accessibility.

Description: With new challenges, technologies, and ways of communicating in higher ed, we need creative skills to thrive amidst change. Using generative AI, experimentation with various forms of media, including text, audio, and visual content, become much more feasible, opening up greater potential in creative ideation or completing projects quicker in the classroom. Join Eric Rowse, Senior Solutions Consultant, as he shows practical ways to tap into this potential across the Adobe spectrum of applications including Adobe Firefly and Adobe Express. AI has the potential to be a powerful tool across campus that can inspire and enhance the creative process by generating new and unique ideas.

Description: In part 2 of the Content Accessibility Workshop, attendees will put their learning into practice. The Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) will guide participants as they apply accessible content practices to make an inaccessible Word document accessible. The DAO will also share how to save an accessible Word document as an accessible PDF. Bring a laptop and your questions! Please note: Attendance at part 1 of Content Accessibility Workshop is strongly recommended to participate in part 2 of the workshop.

The CU Boulder’s Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) is a group with a strong reputation in the higher education community for quality work in digital accessibility. DAO works to improve the accessibility of the digital campus environment and increase opportunities for participation in the digital life of the university for individuals with disabilities. Several staff will be supporting the workshop: Ally Bartley (She/her), Mike Williamson (he/him), Megan Mock (she/her), and Marisha Lamont-Manfre (she/her). Combined, the DAO has over 50 years of experience in digital accessibility.

Description: Are you looking to leverage AI in ways that move beyond design efficiencies and into a true transformation of the learning experience? Then join us for a session grounded in a practical approach to student-driven learning and UDL prinicples that provides structure and clarity for how, when, and where AI can be utilized to empower learners and personalize their education.

Andrew is a keynote speaker, presenter, and consultant on personalized learning, artificial intelligence, education technology, and engagement strategies. He authored “Empowered to Choose: A Practical Guide to Personalized Learning,” a book from Dave Burgess Consulting Inc., and he recently contributed a chapter on AI in education to "Snapshot in Education 2023," a book from Edumatch Publishing. Andrew also serves as Digital Learning Coordinator for Nebraska's ESUCC where he is an education advocate, presenter, and host of The Good Life EDU Podcast.

Description: Your learning management system already contains a great deal of data that you could use to improve your school’s retention and graduation rates. AspirEDU’s solutions retrieve data daily and help you identify your at-risk students and best instructors. We are in the dropout prevention business, and we are here to help you!

Description: Paper assessments are an essential part of many courses, and with the rise of generative AI, hand written assessments are no longer a thing of the past. With Turnitin’s Paper to Digital add-on you can continue to enjoy the ease of delivering paper assessments, such as free response, drawing questions, math formulas, short answer, and multiple choice, without the challenges that come with grading and working with paper-bound data. Paper to Digital extends the flexibility of paper to enable dramatically faster online grading, fast and fair feedback to students, a more secure workflow and storage options, and integration directly into your LMS and Turnitin Feedback Studio.

Description: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an exciting new tool in the realm of education, prompting the question, can it be used for Open Educational Resources (OER)? This presentation will cover the basics of what these concepts are and how they intersect, as well as how copyright laws affect these interactions. Current court cases will be discussed with an eye on how they could alter these intersections. Bring your questions and ideas for a robust discussion!

Description: Although for many online education was something first discovered during the pandemic, online learning has been around for decades and has proven its use. Yet is still remains the stepchild in some schools. Many of us have been through peer review of our courses in our careers. But, how often do we see online courses included in the process? Can you use the same criteria for any course review, online or brick-and-mortar? We'll present current state of online peer review. We work in a hybrid environment, with some courses and programs online at our school. The session leaders were the first to participate in an online course review. Come discuss what we learned and consider the future.

Description: Educational conferences in are vital for both faculty and staff professional development. These events facilitate the exchange of innovative ideas, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and inspire individuals to refine their pedagogical approaches and administrative strategies. However, ensuring accessibility and inclusivity at events like these is crucial to maximizing participation and enhance personal/professional growth. By removing barriers and embracing diversity, conferences can become transformative spaces fostering innovation, collaboration, and positive institutional change.

Description: Our session will be a robust discussion about our experience with two pilot programs, Artificial Intelligence and Ethics & Geographic Information Systems. We operationalized courses, certificates, and micro credentials which stack into masters programs as credit for prior learning within the non-credit space. We partnered with other schools and colleges to employ course design models with subject matter experts, instructional designers, and artificial intelligence to accommodate innovative teaching strategies and course drift. These activities align with the newly developing Higher Learning Commission guidelines on accreditation integrity in these non-credit to credit spaces. 

Description: This session is for all employees of the University of Colorado or any other institution that uses Percipio as a learning management system. In this session, you will learn how to navigate the Percipio LMS, and techniques for locating professional development and training tools in the system. You will learn about all the features of Percipio and learn how to organize resources for your needs. You will also learn how to use LinkedIn Learning for career growth in any field. It can be a challenge to find exactly what you need among the thousands of courses in LinkedIn Learning. This session will guide you through the process of finding, selecting, and curating the right courses for your needs.

Description: Written annotation–pen to paper–in books has always served as an individual's way to react and make meaning of the text they are reading. It promotes active reading and conceptualizes understanding. But what if annotation could spark even more? Introducing social annotation in digital spaces enables students to share perspectives beyond those of the author and their teacher. They can participate in collective knowledge construction and consensus-building to extend the interpretation of texts even further, building their skills not only as critical thinkers but as members of a scholarly community.

Description: Is your institution keeping up with student preferences for digital learning? New Panopto and College Pulse research uncovers what students want most when learning with video. From recorded lectures to shorter video content and positive perceptions of AI, attend this presentation to learn what students need and how their expectations affect enrollment choices.

Description: Digital citizenship (DC) refers to an individual’s ability to engage in digital technologies in an ethical way. 25 years ago, dial up internet was the height of technology use and communication, and the moment AIM and MySpace hit the scene, the way humans connect with each other forever changed. This presentation will provide college teachers with an introduction into the salient aspects of DC, help them decide how much direct instruction might be warranted about DC, and ways to open these discussions with their students in a fun and collaborative way.

Description: Are you ready to take your old-school formative assessment methods into the future? Check out the online platform MyOpenMath.com. This free, opensource platform can be used to engage students in class through the use of the LivePoll feature, an updated and expanded rendition of the "clicker" student response system. The platform also provides students with robust practice outside of class with online, auto-graded homework. Myopenmath has a dedicated community of educators who have made vast banks of questions to choose from, or you can utilize the powerful authoring platform to write your own questions.

Description: In his exploration of video game learning principles, Gee (2005) emphasizes their transferability to education. He condenses and organizes the principles into three student-centered clusters: Empowered Learners, Problem Solving, and Understanding. Under each cluster, Gee identifies specific principles aimed at enhancing student engagement and learning experiences. By integrating concepts such as co-design, problem-solving scaffolding, and system thinking, educators can empower students to take ownership of their learning and cultivate deep understanding. Gee's framework offers valuable insights for designing effective and engaging educational experiences.

Description: Many classes require students to acquire large volumes of factual knowledge while also applying that knowledge to learning difficult concepts. This can lead students to confounding memorization with understanding. In this session, I will present two game-based strategies I have used in my Anatomy and Physiology classes to encourage students to apply their knowledge of terminology to making conceptual connections: “Codenames” and “Escape Rooms”. These activities leverage the memorization process to scaffold the development of discipline specific critical thinking skills and can be adapted for both virtual and physical classrooms.

Description: What happens when generative artificial intelligence (AI) meets human intelligence (HI)? High quality work! In this session, we describe an innovative assignment where university students were REQUIRED to use generative AI as starting point for a course assignment. Students then customized the AI generated content using their own knowledge and submitted "before and after" versions of the assignment. In addition to learning about the assignment framework, session attendees will have an opportunity to engage in collaborative discussions and steal ideas. All attendees will leave this session with at least one new idea or actionable strategy that can be used in their own local context.

Description: Participate in brainstorming sessions about ways to leverage AI and where is the line of both ethics and feasibility. Topics will begin in safer areas such as building instructional content but will walk through AI detection and providing student feedback to delve into what AI can and cannot do well and perhaps what it should not do. Content will be based on what Marcus’ team members at Harmonize have investigated and lessons learned as they worked to incorporate AI into their online discussion product.

Description: Join us as we unveil original research involving 200 leaders from the US, UK, and Canada on the use of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and captioning technologies for accessibility. This session will reveal user perceptions, expectations for improvements, and necessary investments. Education professionals will gain insights into the benefits and challenges of ASR tools, including accuracy variability and limited feedback. Additionally, discover how these insights have inspired Verbit's latest innovation, Captivate—a cutting-edge captioning technology tailored for educational environments.

Description: In this presentation, I will share effective strategies and methodologies implemented at our university to enhance AI literacy among students and faculty. Our program emphasizes foundational knowledge, ethical implications, and practical applications of AI technologies across diverse academic disciplines. Our aim is to not only share insights from our journey but also to foster a collaborative discussion on best practices in AI education. By the end of this session, participants will gain valuable tools and ideas for cultivating AI literacy in their own institutions.

Description: We’re long past the days of overhead projectors, but even in-person presentations should be accessible! Join the CU Boulder Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) as they discuss the best practices for presenting accessibly. From captioning to slide decks to verbal descriptions, we will cover inclusive best practices for different presentation modalities that will keep your audience engaged.

Description: Research abounds on the history of higher education. Anyone can look up teaching trends and find an abundance of information. But not all faculty members can look back on their own pedagogical journeys over five decades. How has the classroom changed, and more particularly, how has the teaching and learning relationship between students and faculty evolved? What has endured, what should we hold onto, what should we discard, and what have we learned? This session looks not only at research on university-level teaching, but it also recounts the first-hand journey of one very long-time faculty member in the University of Colorado system--with an eye toward lessons learned for the future.

Description: Learn to craft prompts that guide students in creating personalized learning paths, understanding complex concepts, and honing critical thinking. This hands-on session will transform how you teach with AI!

Description: Join us for a compelling discussion on an exciting study, "Metacognition Mixtape: Promoting Self-Directed Learners with AI." This research investigates the use of a tailored large-language model (LLM) to boost metacognitive awareness and readiness for self-directed learning among graduate Neuroanatomy students. Over an 8-week intervention, participants engaged with the AI model, designed to promote reflective thinking and learning autonomy. Focus group and survey data demonstrate positive impacts during and after the intervention. Come learn about how the model was developed and implemented before engaging in a discussion of the utility and considerations in using AI in this context.

Description: Established research in online learning underscores the significant impact of well-designed online courses on student engagement, comprehension, and academic success (Joosten & Cusatis, 2019; Muljana & Luo, 2019).  This presentation will explore CU Boulder's Office of Learning Technology’s strategic initiatives to improve course consistency. Efforts include a Design Tools-enabled course library and the creation of a standardized DesignPLUS Canvas template, which aims to enhance course quality and consistency university-wide.

Description: This session shares guides and exercises for students to learn to write more productively and at higher quality by co-authoring with generative AI. We describe the results of 4 semesters of iteration with these tools, showing that generative AI can help “level the playing field” for students with less extensive writing backgrounds. We'll discuss how faculty can address student writing challenges more effectively and with less time investment, and we will experiment live and hands-on with selected exercises. We also will discuss the ethical complications of generative AI use by both faculty and students.

Description: Interested in boosting student success in STEM through Universal Design principles? Dive deeper into practical strategies tailored to diverse learners using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) 3.0 framework. Discover a range of low-tech and high-tech curricular, instructional, and assessment practices designed to effectively engage all students in STEM courses. Join us to explore flexible solutions that demonstrate how to adapt learning environments to maximize teaching efficacy and student learning outcomes.

Description: Introducing a groundbreaking initiative aimed at enhancing accessibility and collaboration through the implementation of a BAS program across 13 community colleges. Developed through a collaborative effort, this program integrates grant funded OER courses to foster equitable access to quality education while promoting resource sharing and innovation. Delving into the key components of the BAS program, including the establishment of a collaborative framework among colleges, this presentation will share practical insights and lessons learned from the implementation phase providing valuable guidance for institutions seeking to replicate similar initiatives.

Description: This conversation provides a practical approach to creating a state-wide Learning Design Community of Practice (LDCP). We will discuss how we defined, designed, and launched our LDCP.

Description: Media technology/digital storytelling remain unfilled promises, frequently approached warily and disdainfully by higher educators. This session demonstrates the full power of instructional technology [using a cross-media approach] to deepen 1) content retention, 2) student motivation and engagement 3) timely relevance of media's value and 4) exploration of aesthetic and ethical issues raised through close comparison of a written text with its visual counterpart. Using two contemporary social science books adapted as films, AMERICAN PROMETHEUS to OPPENHEIMER and DEEP SECRETS to CLOSE we'll demonstrate a readily-applied pedagogy for ensuring content that "sticks" --and that matters.

Description: As various AI technologies continue to become integrated within education, it is challenging to develop syllabus policies that address its responsible use. However, crafting effective policies is crucial to promoting academic integrity, preventing misconduct and creating a supportive learning environment. This session offers strategies for crafting syllabus policies that foster responsible AI use. Participants will engage in discussions and activities to critically assess or develop policies which translate appropriate limits on generative technologies in their classrooms to students, empowering both students and instructors to feel confident about learning in a world which includes AI.

Description: The Learning Resources Center (LRC) at CU Denver has framed generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as a set of tools that, within the framework of GenAI literacy, can support students with studying, planning, time management, and other student success skills. For the Fall 2024 semester, the LRC has developed two student-facing workshops adapted for in-person and online delivery. Participants will provide real-time feedback on content and design during partial demonstrations of these workshops. This workshop is an important part of the conversation about GenAI and higher education as it complements what others within Colorado's higher education institutions are doing with GenAI.

Description: Our session will involve a live interactive demonstration of how this can change the engagement in the classroom. We will use Mentimeter (and highlight other software that does similar) to engage participant skills in the classroom and feelings about their facilitation skills. We will demonstrate skills and teaching techniques as outlined in the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observational Protocols) to provide equity in engagement and foster an environment of curiosity. Participants will be asked to engage with the Mentimeter along with the presentation. Co-presenters are student workers who will help role play scenarios one might encounter and how to use the technology, the SIOP skills, and both in tandem to address them.

Description: It is crucial for pediatric providers worldwide to have access to current, evidence-based medical education in a convenient format. This concept was launched with a novel podcast showcasing faculty experts on topics including education, innovation and cutting-edge technology. Now in season 7, “Charting Pediatrics” has reached listeners in 187 countries with over 2 million unique downloads and 370 lifetime episodes and is currently the most listened to pediatric podcast. Podcasts provide a scalable inclusive educational outreach platform in an on-demand format to uniquely meet global learning needs. This melding of teaching and technology may be the optimal vehicle for ongoing education.

Description: This session will explore considerations and tips for using social annotation tools like Perusall and Hypothes.is to support student learning and engagement. Participants will discuss potential benefits of these tools and how they may be leveraged to promote critical thinking and agency among learners. Other topics include: setting expectations, creating assignments, establishing routines, and promoting productive discussion.