Educators Have 'Ah-ha' Moments at USU Conference

“Ditching the Textbook and Adopting Other Resources” was just one of many informative presentations delivered at Utah State University’s Empowering Teaching Excellence (ETE) faculty conference Aug. 19.

The conference, hosted by Academic and Instructional Services (AIS) on USU’s Logan campus, was designed to give teaching faculty from Logan, Eastern and regional campuses the chance to learn from their peers and have their teaching skills expanded and diversified.

Cynthia Furse, professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate vice president for research at the University of Utah, delivered the keynote presentation. She gave “A Busy Professor’s Guide to Sanely Flipping Your Class,” something that has yielded increased satisfaction and academic success for her students. She discussed what works, what doesn’t work and how she managed to effectively flip a large undergraduate engineering class.

Pam Dupin-Bryant, who attended the conference, said she had an “ah-ha” moment while listening to professor Furse’s presentation.

“I’ve been teaching for 20-plus years,” she said. “I spend a lot of time reading educational literature on how to improve the teaching and learning process. However, listening to the speaker discuss how to flip a classroom incrementally, starting with one-third of the course content, really clicked for me. The ‘reverse order technique’ could work well for any new educational strategy. Starting with a little bit at the end of the semester could help educators integrate innovative techniques into their course without being inundated with major change at the beginning of the semester (i.e. help educators avoid burn out). This is an idea that is immediately useful in my courses.”

Other presentations delivered at the conference included “Tools for Teaching Narcissistic & Entitled Individuals,” “Using 21st Century Skills to Engage Learners” and “The Seven-year Deal.”

USU also hosted the ETE Foundations conference one day previously, created for new teachers looking to increase their understanding of core teaching principles and practices. Sessions included Discussion About USU Students and 12 Principles of Effective Teachers. This gave teachers ideas for improvement strategies

“The ETE conferences show USU’s tradition and commitment to teaching excellence,” said Robert Wagner, USU’s executive vice provost and dean of AIS. “It was a great experience for faculty last year and it proved to be a great experience again this year. We are fortunate to be at an institution that really values and encourages the highest quality teaching.”

Those who attended the conference report that they came away armed with educational ideas, tips and tools that could be put into practice immediately.

“I found it really inspiring to see so many faculty turn out for the conferences and then stay and participate throughout the day,” said Neal Legler, assistant director of USU’s Center for Instructional Design and Innovation. “You could feel their passion for teaching. There was a sense of commonality that extended beyond the campus they were from or their official title. They all just seemed to enjoy learning from each other and sharing best practices.

“We had several comments from attendees saying that every session was really good and that they got more out of this conference than out of national conferences they have attended. Even the next day I overheard faculty talking about the conference and the sessions they listened to. We are fortunate to have great teachers here at USU, and that was evident not just in the content of the sessions, but also the vibe of the entire day.”

According to Wagner, the ETE Faculty and Foundations Conferences will be held again in August 2016 approximately two weeks prior to the beginning of fall semester. Other ETE events will be held for faculty throughout the academic year.

Contact: Neil Legler, 435-797-1903, neal.legler@usu.edu

Writer: Samantha Snyder, 435-797-8906, samantha.shelley@usu.edu