Brian Craig, Jeffrey Gulley, and John Phillip Gray 

The future of global education can be advanced with the use of the interactive student polls. Real-time polling can be an effective teaching method to help learners’ wandering minds (Price, 2021). With online platforms for synchronous learning, such as Bongo, instructors have the ability to poll students with just a few clicks of the mouse. Instructors can create polls that call for the following types of responses from students: (1) yes or no; (2) true or false; (3) multiple choice; or (4) a custom poll. One study found that the use of polling technology in the classroom “increased student engagement and reinforced the substance of the course material.” (Kam and Somner, 2006). This presentation will explore current research on the effectiveness of polls in education. The presenters will offer examples on how polls can be utilized and provide best practices for conducting polls with online learners. 

Audience: Faculty

Track: NextGen Learning

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Michael Keathley, Misty LaCour, Stephanie Thompson, and Eric Holmes 

Purdue University Global has historically placed emphasis on the knowledge that writing plays an integral part in student academic and career success. Especially as a primarily online university and within today’s Digital Age, the ability for learners to grow their written communication skills is vital (Flammia, 2015; Zumbrunn & Krause, 2012). Students must know how to write much more than just academic essays. However, not all faculty, advisors, administrators, and other non-student stakeholders are trained in composition pedagogy. Therefore, strategic leadership must support those who work with our students for a Writing Across the Curriculum initiative to advance and for students and alumni to be successful (INWAC, 2014).  

Audience: Higher Education Administrators, Faculty, Staff

Track: NextGen Learning

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Session

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Amy Sexton, Melinda Linscott, Sina Tidwell 

A critical aspect of students’ college experience is their peer relationships. Building connections with peers helps students feel more motivated and invested, which leads to higher grades (Acosta et al., 2021). In academic support, the peer-to-peer tutoring model improves cognitive and social development in students and tutors (Nguyen, 2013).  The peer tutoring model has been described as “the most powerful influence in undergraduate education….” (Colvin, 2007). Historically, the Academic Success Centers (ASC) have hired degreed tutors. Recently, we reimagined this model and hired peer tutors for the new Learning for Success Center.  This collaborative presentation by ASC staff and a peer tutor will overview the Center’s services and resources. The presenters will also share how faculty and staff can help students connect with peer tutors. Finally, we will discuss the benefits of peer tutoring for both students and tutors as they each shape their futures.

Audience: Higher Education Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Students/Alumni

Track: Student Focus

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Session

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Jeffrey Scranton and Melissa Scranton

I attended Purdue University Global on a Gift of Knowledge scholarship, graduating in June 2021 with a master’s degree in Information Technology and a concentration in Business Intelligence and Analytics. I have been a Systems Analyst for a large electric cooperative for seventeen years, programming in several different languages and serving as webmaster. In this presentation, I will discuss the benefits of this degree program that go beyond the technical knowledge learned, including how to conduct research, professional writing, effective communication, how to give powerful presentations, and collaboration on team projects (Ravisankar, 2020). Many people only see the technical side of IT, but the skills that go beyond this are just as important in helping me achieve my career goals with my employer. In addition, learning about and applying the project development life cycle has given me the skills to manage large projects on my own (Schiff, 2017). 

Audience: Higher Education Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Employers

Track: Classroom Foundations

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Kelvin Beckett 

The most influential adult educator in the last century was the Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire. Freire (1970) advocated for a critical pedagogy in which students are empowered through dialogue with the teacher to critique structures of power and oppression (Roberts, 2007). Elizabeth Ellsworth is critical of critical pedagogy. She says that “strategies such as empowerment and dialogue give the illusion of equality while in fact leaving the authoritarian nature of the teacher/student relationship intact” (Ellsworth, 1989, p. 306). “‘Emancipatory authority,” she continues, “implies the presence of…an emancipated teacher,” a teacher “who knows the object of study ‘better’ than do the students” (Ibid., p. 307). But no teacher is free of “learned and internalized oppressions” (Ibid., p. 308). 

Ellsworth identifies as a poststructuralist philosopher. If structuralist thought is bound to reason, poststructuralist thought is bound to discourse, “literally narratives about the world that are admittedly partial” (Ibid., p. 304). Ellsworth advocated for classroom discourse which acknowledges that “there are partial narratives that some social groups or cultures have and others can never know” (Ibid., 319). For her, however, this is a “condition to embrace and use as an opportunity to build a kind of social and educational interdependency that recognizes differences as ‘different strengths’ and as ‘forces for change’” (Ibid.).

In this session, we will explore the idea that instructor and students are equals, engaged in discourse leading to some form of change. Participants will be asked to reflect on their own classrooms and the extent to which they embrace – and resist – poststructuralist thought.

Audience: Faculty, Students/Alumni

Track: Classroom Foundations

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Session

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Jessica Gordon and Sheila Rucki 

Faculty need to consider the influence of the virtual classroom as a setting where factors related to social determinants of health enhance a sense of safety, security, and well-being. Incorporating concepts from the social determinants of health is critical to creating a positive learning experience (Porter, et.al, 2020). Quality of the learning environment is enhanced by the kind and number of interactions, as well as the resources available to students and faculty alike. Critical to academic success of the student is faculty’s knowledge of the variables that impact learning, including culturally diverse student backgrounds, home environments, and resources available (Thornston & Persaud, 2018; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). In this presentation we will explore the complex factors that may impact the lives of our students and the numerous methods for faculty to develop connections with students in the online learning environment. Consequently we will suggest interventions that provide a supportive and personalized experience so students can achieve their goals. 

Audience: Higher Education Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Students/Alumni, Employers 

Track: NextGen Learning

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Session

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