Challenging Misconceptions around Identities of International Students and Faculty

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations
Astri Napitupulu, School of Teaching and Learning

International students and faculty are stereotyped due to their perceived ‘exotic’ foreign culture. Being perceived as representative of their nation, international students are often expected to present a holistic story of their country on various issues. This process is challenging because their experiences are mostly based on personal experiences and individual cultural settings that can be completely different from their country’s stereotypes. International faculty find they are facing a class of mostly White, all-American students. In addition to the generation gap that most educators have with their students, international faculty also have some additional differences from their students. They may perceive that they are not aware of their students’ hopes and aspirations. The goal of this idea café session is to discuss ways in which international students and faculty can relate to their American, mostly White, peers, colleagues, students, and instructors, while being true to their own identities while also helping to expand their peers’, colleagues’, students’, and instructors’ horizons to include complex cultural identities and dispel cultural myths and stereotypes.

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Developing International Partnerships: Experiences from a Transfer Graphic Design Program

Michael Wille, School of Art

This session shares the experiences of how ISU's graphic design program established a 3+1 program in collaboration with Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College. A 3+1 program means that students will complete the first three years of their undergraduate study in their home country, and then if they meet ISU's admission criteria, they will transfer to ISU to complete the last 36 credits of their undergraduate study. Course mapping and ISU faculty on-site teaching in the Chinese partner university during Summer and Winter holidays is an integral part of this type of program. This Idea Café session will share the experiences of working with various collaborators to plan out the program. More importantly, issues such as the reasons and motivations for establishing this program, the opportunities and challenges that arose during the various stages of establishment and implementation, as well as providing a summary of the feedback received from faculty about various perspectives and strategies of the program will be discussed. Toward the end of the session, there will also be discussion for audience questions/observations on the topics of the various ways academic departments can internationalize their programs through international collaboration as well as the related motivations, strategies and concerns.

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Internationalization and Diversity: Common Grounds, Gaps, and Collaborations

Yimin Wang, The Office of International Studies and Programs

This morning's café discussion session explores the relationships between the issues of domestic diversity and global diversity in higher education institutions, and how the goals of educating global citizens and diversity can enrich each other. The session will start with an overview of the histories, definitions, and national/institutional policies and practices surrounding the issues of internationalization and diversity. Specific issues that will be discussed include the differences and similarities of the experiences of international students and underrepresented domestic students; common grounds and gaps between the shared values, knowledge, resources, practices, and services for both domestic underrepresented students and international students; and how the internationalization process of the higher education institutions both challenge and enrich the diversity dialogues as well as services both at the theoretical and practical levels. Case studies from five public universities on the collaborative efforts between increasing diversity and internationalization will be provided for discussion. Towards the end of the session, the audience will be invited to join in the discussion on the topics of the challenges and opportunities for considering the further collaborations of the resources and efforts in educating, serving and empowering both groups of student.

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Using Literature Circles to Encourage Discussion of Social Issues

Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Department of Educational Administration & Foundations

In a time of divisive rhetoric around social issues, helping students to understand these issues and communicate their views is critical. Using a literature circle process is one way to provide factual information and allow students to share different views that each author provides, without having to fully own that idea. This process also allows for multiple sources of information to be shared within a class while students read only one article, chapter, or book.

Talking Points/Discussion Prompts

• What sorts of current social issues are covered in your classes, or could be covered in your classes?
• What is the intent or expected outcome of the social issues conversation in your course?
• What is the response from students when you introduce or discuss current social issues?
• What sorts of activities have you used to promote conversation around current social issues?
• What would be your ideal outcome from a class discussing using current social issues related to course content?
• (After reviewing a handout of methods to facilitate a literature circle activity) what other ways might you conduct a literature circle process within your course(s)?

Cultivating Diverse-Minded Students in All Classrooms

Janet Moore, Department of Mathematics

Additional Materials

Cultivating Diverse-Minded Students in ALL Classrooms- Presentation Slideshow

Illinois State University is committed to developing students who are diverse-minded critical thinkers and engaged citizens. Every course, regardless of content, can be an opportunity for students to grow toward those goals. This session will share the experiences of one instructor’s pursuit to take her non-credit mathematics class and turn it into a semester-long lesson in critical thinking and diversity, without ever necessarily mentioning race, religion, sexual orientation, political preference, socioeconomic status, or other factors more traditionally associated with the concept of diversity. Rather than teaching mathematics as a fixed set of rules and procedures, the lessons in this course required students to be diverse-minded. They had to let go of their old rules and instead engage in meaningful open-minded discussions with their classmates: sharing and critiquing ideas, learning from each other, and developing true mathematical literacy together. Students did not simply learn math facts. They learned about themselves. They learned about their thinking, and they learned how to change their thinking. Then, through classroom reflections and discussions, students made connections between their mathematical experiences and other life situations that require diverse mindedness.

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Holy Comics, Batman! Using Comic Books in the Classroom

Shelly Clevenger, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences

The popularity of the comic book genre has exploded within past decade and the interest in comics has increased, particularly among students. Using comics as a teaching tool in the classroom can engage students and spark their interest in material in new ways. This presentation will provide a description and examples for the audience of how comic books and comic related media have been used in multiple college courses. For example, items such as using comic books as assigned readings, creating a comic book for a class project, discussions and activities about course content portrayal in comics, will be presented. Results from research that assessed the use of these items at ISU will also be discussed to illuminate upon the benefits of using this medium in courses. Participants will leave this presentation with ideas of ways to include comics and comic themed media items into their own courses and inspire students in new ways.

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Implementation of Agile Classrooms

Season Tanner
Elahe Javadi, School of Information Technology

In this project an Agile classroom framework was implemented in two IT project management course sections; the framework was created based on two Agile methodologies for managing project development, Scrum and Kanban. The goals were to inspire a proactive approach to learning by students, to increase learner’s autonomy and accountability, and to enhance collaboration among students. The course was divided into two 6-week learning periods. During the first learning period, students created learning squads and were given a learning backlog for that period. The period was divided into three 2-week learning sprints. Students were given a list of detailed learning activities for each sprint, were asked to work on activities in pairs, and switch pairs at the end of each sprint. The learning sprint ended with a squad assignment, a retrospective, and an informal demo. In the second period, students applied a Kanban methodology to their learning process. They were asked to create activities for their teams, rotate the role of “LearningMaster,” and choose the speed at which they wanted to achieve their objectives within the time period. The Agile classroom was intended to enhance intrinsic motivation for learning and advance students’ satisfaction with their learning process, which were both measured and are reported.

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Learning to Learn: Evaluating Student Development of Critical Thinking through Self-Reflection

Karen Dennis, School of Kinesiology & Recreation
Anna Rinaldi-Miles, School of Kinesiology & Recreation

The mission statement of Illinois State University’s General Education Program is that it: “prepares students to be globally engaged citizens who seek knowledge, appreciate diversity, communicate effectively, act responsibly, work collaboratively, and think critically” (2016). Instructors of general education courses are encouraged to foster and promote these attributes but it can be difficult to assess if these attributes are being developed. The teaching-learning issue under consideration is that critical thinking is often emphasized as a general course objective but often under-evaluated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the critical thinking of students in four sections of KNR 208 Dynamics of US Contemporary Health Issues over the span of two semesters. Students completed an initial self-assessment of critical thinking at the beginning of the Spring and Fall 2017 semesters. At the end of the semester students were asked to reflect on their growth as a critical thinker on the final exam. Data from the beginning of the semester to the end of semester were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to evaluate self-perceptions of the development of critical thinking.

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Responsible Remixing: Resources for Improving the Scholarly Conversation

Anne Shelley, University Libraries

Students increasingly produce media-rich assignments such as videos, posters, or presentations. These projects are often partially made of different types of digital assets (combinations of images, audio, video, and/or text) that are created by others, and students repurpose those works to create their own new products. When working on media projects, students should be aware of quality standards for different file types, as well as parameters for reusing others’ works, such as the Creative Commons licensing structure, public domain works, and making a fair use argument. This presentation will discuss resources that can help guide the student in finding, selecting, and evaluating digital assets, outline strategies for avoiding copyright infringement, and cover best practices for citing sources in creative projects.

Cheating in Online Classes: How Concerned Should Instructors Be?

Jennifer Peterson, Department of Health Sciences

Additional Materials

Cheating in Online Classes: How Concerned Should We Be?- Presentation Slideshow

Currently, online formal education is growing at a phenomenal rate. However, many fear that online courses do not provide the same rigor as on-campus courses. This is due in large part to the perception that students are more likely to cheat in online courses. A number of studies have been completed in this area and, in fact, most have shown that students are more likely to cheat in on-campus courses than in online courses. However, the perception remains. This raises the question as to how concerned educators should be about cheating in online courses. This presentation will provide an analysis of the existing literature on why students cheat, online versus on-campus cheating, whether educators should be concerned about online course cheating, and methods of preventing academic dishonesty. The presentation will close with suggestions for future research to aid in the assurance of academic integrity in online classes.

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Creating a Transformative Learning Experience in a BIS Undergraduate Capstone Course

Rosie Hauck, Department of Accounting

When looking at firms such as Google, Amazon, and Apple, it is common to think of innovation, agility, and quality. Not only are these companies known for providing value and being able to manage complex projects and resources very efficiently, they obviously have a way of working that fosters creativity and learning. How can educators help students develop a literacy that utilizes the same framework, values, and tools to manage their time, energy, and learning that results in a creative and valuable outcome? The capstone course for the Business Information Systems major has been redesigned to address this learning challenge and to provide a transformational and experiential learning opportunity by using Agile Scrum principles for solving complex problems. Agile Scrum’s attention on teamwork, reflection, self-organization, iteration, and empirical learning makes it a valuable approach for any discipline. This SoTL research presentation will breakdown the various Agile Scrum tools used in the classroom as well as the benefits and challenges faced by both students and instructor. Ultimately, students finish this experience with a newfound ability to work successfully in a self-organizing team and develop skills that allow them to solve problems and create high quality outcomes.

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“Fake” News in a Post-Truth World: Enhancing 21st Century News Literacy

Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication

Considerable attention has been given to the concept of “fake news,” especially since President Trump referred to “fake news” in more than 80 tweets since the Republican National Convention. Trump’s messages have created a common understanding of the term, suggesting that a non-legitimate news source—or, in Trump’s case, a source that fails to agree with him—can be considered fake. However, this emerged meaning fails to account for actual “fake”—as in fabricated—news that primarily circulates online. This presentation briefly describes the Trumpian version of fake news in order to have a larger discussion about the literacy needed to identify and critically process the so-called “real” fake news. Examples of various fake news items will be used to help foster better media literacy skills.

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Game-changing Course Delivery with OneNote Class Notebook

Jay C. Percell, School of Teaching and Learning

This session will detail an experience of designing a secondary education class and delivering course content utilizing the Microsoft Office 365 tool OneNote Class Notebook. Discussion will center on the affordances and limitations of the tool, some of which include both collaborative and controlled work spaces, the ease of setting up class notebooks, providing direct and private student feedback, as well as modeling workarounds for challenges and differences across platforms.

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Using Pop Culture to Cultivate Passion For Composition Projects

Charles Woods, Department of English
Matthew Schering, Department of English

As most instructors know, students will gain the most when they truly care about the topic. The question remains what is the best way to engage students in their work? Some composition instructors allow their students pick their own topics so they feel greater exigency. With that said, such levels of academic freedom can be frightening to some students. How can instructors cure this? What can they do to have their students find topics that are important to them? The answer to this may be found in using pop culture to find the latent interests of students. Barry Brummett, and his article “Burke’s Representative Anecdote as a Method in Media Criticism,” will be the centerpiece of this presentation. In this article, Brummett discusses how media, such as television, movies, and music can be used to engage students in the world around them. Brummett states “through types of components, or structures of literature people confront their lived situations, celebrate their triumphs and encompass their tragedies” (479). Brummett feels that media can encapsulate the essence of humanity, and allow people to easily empathize with the world around them. With this as a pedagogical paradigm, instructors can use media as a bridge to engage their students in meaningful rhetorical situations.

Encouraging Literacy through Course Design: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Rachel Sparks, School of Biological Sciences
Britni Williams, Department of English
Erika Rosenberger, Department of Psychology

Additional Materials

Encouraging Literacy Through Course Design: A Multidisciplinary Approach- Presentation Slideshow

In the field of education, it is critical that educators enable their students to learn various concepts, connect these concepts to their everyday lives, analyze and evaluate evidence, and understand how actions impact society as a whole. To do this instructors must engage their students in various forms of literacy—textual, scientific, social, cultural, and informational. The challenge becomes how educators can engage these multiple literacies in a multidisciplinary setting. One solution is to address these literacies through backwards course design. This session addresses three ways backwards course design has been used to address literacy. First, for students to learn the various forms of literacy, the courses they encounter during their academic career must address the subject. How backwards course design can aid in integrating literacy as a learning outcome for the students is addressed during the current presentation. Second, this session looks at the way in which literacies get taken for granted in the classroom, specifically addressing ways in which the foundation of backward course design allows for modification throughout the semester when things don’t “click” for students. Finally, scientific issues such as climate change are under contentious debate in American society, which requires one to be scientifically literate; that is, a background knowledge of the science behind these concepts and skills in thinking scientifically are necessary in order to develop informed opinions.

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Expanding International Literacy: Partnership with INTO

Amy Hurd, Graduate School
Jonathan Rosenthal, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
Brent Paterson, Office of the President

Additional Materials

International Pathway Partnership- Presentation Slideshow

Illinois State University is seeking to enhance diversity, global learning, and a global campus environment through a pathway partnership. President Dietz announced in the 2016 State of the University Address a goal to increase the international enrollment to 5% of the total enrollment within five years and 10% of the total enrollment within 10 years. The current international enrollment is 2%. Although efforts at recruiting international students are ongoing through the regular admissions processes, they are not sufficient, in isolation, to reach the goal for increasing international student enrollment. Forming a partnership with an experienced entity that has a wide international recruiting network, infrastructure, proven business plan, and track record of results will enable the University to strengthen international student preparation programs, extend global marketing efforts, and deliver an exceptional international student experience. The partnership will bring expanded English language development programs, the development of pathway programs, and expanded recruitment of direct admit students. Pathway programs provide English-language preparation with academic coursework applicable toward graduation at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Learn more about these efforts and how they will provide new learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom and develop a global campus environment.

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How do International Students Expand the Literacies of Classrooms?

Dakota Horn, School of Communication
John Baldwin, School of Communication
Yimin Wang, The Office of International Studies and Programs

This panel starts with sharing the results of a meta-analysis of the research literature and media discourse on the challenges and opportunities of international students in American higher education institutions during the past decade, especially in academic fields and classrooms. Using these data as a springboard, the panel discusses the strategies of engaging international students in various kinds of courses and through different kinds of teaching formats such as lecture, pair work, group work, and interactive activities. Enlightened by the critical literacy theory that “the goal of literacy is to make students agents of context, not victims of context” (Pandya and Ávila, 2014), the speakers will delve into questions such as how and when to engage international students’ experiences in the pedagogical design and classroom discussions in a culturally sensitive way. Other issues that will be addressed by the panelists include strategies in accommodating international students’ varying English language abilities in classrooms, ways to understand international students’ multi-facet identities, as well as their varying inspirations, and how that impacts on the instructors’ teaching and pedagogical design.

Reference:

Pandya, J. Z., & Ávila, J. (Eds.). (2014). Moving critical literacies forward: A new look at praxis across contexts. New York: Routledge.

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The Fulbright Experience: Developing Professional, Global, and Pedagogical Literacy

Abby Stone, Department of Sociology/Anthropology
Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication
Klaus Schmidt, Department of Technology
Lea Cline, School of Art
Erin Mikulec, School of Teaching and Learning

With a growing emphasis on internationalization, ISU boasts a number of faculty members who have engaged in various global activities, one of these being the Fulbright program. Fulbright, the premier international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States government, provides opportunities for teaching, research, and professional development around the world. Recipients of this award often find that the experience has lasting effects on their teaching, as well as research, upon their return to the U.S. This session will discuss how participating in the Fulbright program continues to influence the teaching and research of five ISU faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the College of Applied Science and Technology. The panelists will share how their experiences in Italy, Mali, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Finland supported the development of their professional content knowledge, teaching practices, and understanding of the world. The panelists will also discuss how they use their Fulbright experience to support ISU students academically and in their development as young professionals. Additional information on applying for a Fulbright award will be provided.

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Using Popular Culture to Teach Course Content

Shelly Clevenger, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences
Leandra Parris, Department of Psychology
J. Scott Jordan, Department of Psychology
Eric Wesselmann, Department of Psychology

Instructors commonly struggle with how best to reach students, encouraging them to connect course material to their everyday lives. Instructors may use examples from popular culture in lectures and assignments to facilitate students’ connections between course content and their lived experiences. Data suggest this approach can both increase students’ enthusiasm for course material and facilitate deeper learning. However, there are also challenges associated with this instructional approach, and it is easy for both novice and seasoned instructors to stumble when using popular culture examples. This session draws on the experience of four panelists who have used various types of popular culture to teach diverse topics to both children and emerging adults. Each panelist will provide examples from their own experiences and/or research, and make suggestions for instructors interested in utilizing popular culture more effectively in their courses.

A Guide to Educating Students through Accessible Media

Jordan Radford, Student
Linda Summers, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology
Sarah Metivier, Student Access and Accommodation Services
Jen Bethmann, Web and Interactive Communications

Additional Materials

A Guide to Educating Students through Accessible Media- Handout

This panel will provide vital institutional knowledge related to supporting students with disabilities using accessible media. Presenters will help develop an understanding of what accessible content entails and give an overview of tips and tricks for creating emails, documents, and web content (including ReggieNet or course websites) using inclusive and universal design principles. This session will explain best practices of web and media accessibility (color contrast, logical set up of online course management). Panelists will also cover how to recognize inaccessible documents and information and how to convert them to accessible documents. They will also discuss resources and answer questions and concerns regarding accessibility.

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Blending Technologies and Methodologies: A Collaborative Classroom’s Impact on Teaching and Learning

Anna Smith, School of Teaching and Learning
Jay C. Percell, School of Teaching and Learning
Julie Campbell, Department of Psychology
Jennifer Sharkey, University Libraries

Collaborative or cooperative teaching methods are an effective way to engage students and promote active learning. While it isn’t challenging to find examples of in-class or project-based assignments that incorporate these methods, available learning spaces often hinder effective execution of well laid plans for even general small group discussion. Incorporating technological components like laptops or smart devices as part of the activities often adds an extra layer of complexity. Ongoing research continues to support that learning spaces need to be aligned with active learning teaching methods to allow students to fully gain the benefits provided by these techniques and strategies. In the Fall of 2017, Milner Library piloted a classroom designed specifically to promote collaborative/cooperative learning as well as an easier way to utilize technology. During this presentation, three professors who taught in this space during the semester will talk about their experiences within the space, how it affected their teaching and assignment design, and changes they observed in students’ engagement. A brief explanation of the space will be provided as well as professional development opportunities offered by CTLT on utilizing collaborative/cooperative methodology and the Collaboration Classroom.

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Continuing the Conversation: Big Data Comes to School

Bill Cope
Mary Kalantzis

Dive deeper into the topics presented over lunch by this year’s keynote speakers. This session will allow you to ask questions and further explore ideas in a smaller, quieter setting.

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Does Fairness Matter? Giving All College Students a Fair Shake

James Applegate, ISU Center for the Study of Education Policy
Meegan Dugan Bassett, Illinois State Policy Consultant
Levester Johnson, Vice President for Student Affairs
Amelia Noël-Elkins, University College
Lisa Castillo Richmond, Partnership for College Completion
Jonathan Rosenthal, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education

Additional Materials

Doe Fairness Matter?- Presentation Slideshow

Nearly 80 percent of wealthy U.S. 24 year-olds have a four-year college degree. That number falls to just over a third of middle class and one out of ten low income young adults. The top 100 elite U.S. public and private college have made no progress in reducing underrepresentation for students of color in more than 30 years. What is going on here? Does this seem fair? It only seems fair to those who believe that the income of the family into which people are born or the color of their skin determines their ability to benefit from a college education. The good news is that many institutions have made significant progress in giving all students (low income, adult, first generation, and students of color) fairer treatment when it comes to college access and success. Illinois State has made good progress recently. Leaders from ISU and Illinois will discuss why college opportunity is more important than ever to traditionally underserved students, how colleges have made progress in reducing gaps, and what higher education generally and ISU faculty, staff, and administration specifically must do, going forward, to increase their commitment to fairness for an increasingly diverse student body.

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Expanding Civic Literacy through Service-Learning

Jacqueline Lanier, Department of Health Sciences
Archana Shekara, School of Art
Rosie Hauck, Department of Accounting
Harriett Steinbach, Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning

Service-learning gives students the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge and practice skills in a real world setting, while offering time and talent to community organizations that are need of expertise and assistance. In addition, service-learning pedagogy exposes students to the community, social issues, and contributes to the multitude of civic experiences of Illinois State students ultimately leading to civic-minded graduates. Through a panel discussion, faculty from Accounting and Business Information Systems, Health Sciences, and Graphic Design will share their experiences designing and implementing service-learning projects in partnership with a variety of Bloomington-Normal community organizations. They will discuss why and how they use service-learning, how course learning outcomes are enhanced, how student civic learning occurs, and how they work with a variety of community organizations. Staff from the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning will also provide information on the resources they can offer to support faculty in identifying community partners and integrating service-learning into a course.

Does Fairness Matter?: Continuing the Conversation

James Applegate, ISU Center for the Study of Education Policy

In this session, panelists will continue the conversation on ISU’s commitment to fairness for an increasing student body. Nearly 80 percent of wealthy U.S. 24 year-olds have a four-year college degree. That number falls to just over a third of middle class and one out of ten low income young adults. The top 100 elite U.S. public and private college have made no progress in reducing underrepresentation for students of color in more than 30 years. What is going on here? Does this seem fair? It only seems fair to those who believe that the income of the family into which people are born or the color of their skin determines their ability to benefit from a college education. The good news is that many institutions have made significant progress in giving all students (low income, adult, first generation, and students of color) fairer treatment when it comes to college access and success. Illinois State has made good progress recently. Leaders from ISU and Illinois will discuss why college opportunity is more important than ever to traditionally underserved students, how colleges have made progress in reducing gaps, and what higher education generally and ISU faculty, staff, and administration specifically must do, going forward, to increase their commitment to fairness for an increasingly diverse student body.

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Expanding Social Media Literacies through Social Media Analytics

Nathan Carpenter, School of Communication

Additional Materials

Expanding Social Media Literacies through Social Media Analytics- Presentation Slideshow

As social media become increasingly ubiquitous, they have profound influence over students’ working, public, and private lives. Contrary to the myth that young people are digital natives who have deep knowledge of social media technologies, students often lack core competencies when it comes to producing messages for rhetorically-appropriate audiences, critically assessing information, and participating in civic life. To address these shortcomings, scholars and educators such as Vanwynsberghe and Verdegem (2013) have proposed a framework that argues that educators ought to address students’ practical, cognitive, and affective competencies. This presentation showcases several ways in which educators might use social media analytics—the process of collecting, measuring, and presenting social media data—to strengthen these core competencies. This presentation will also introduce participants to accessible social media analytics tools and will provide examples of projects used in the School of Communication’s Social Media Analytics Command Center.

Reference:

Vanwynsberghe, H., & Verdegem, P. (2013). Integrating social media in education. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 15(3). doi: 10.7771/1481-4374.2247

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Making Explicit Connections across Courses: Science and Literacy Methods

Grace Kang, School of Teaching and Learning
Anna Arias, School of Teaching and Learning

Instructors often expect students to bring their prior knowledge and experiences from other courses in order to be successful. Research highlights the importance of being explicit in helping learners make these connections through coherence across courses (Fang, 2014). With the goal of developing greater coherence across the science and literacy methods courses within the elementary teacher education program, the presenters engaged in a self-study to consider the potential links within readings and assignments. In this study, they noticed that the students’ science inquiry lesson plans did not use the strategies and scaffolds to support students in developing deeper understanding of text, which were discussed in the literacy course. Through dialogue, the presenters redesigned the assignments, readings, and related class activities to make explicit links about how to use texts in scientific inquiry. They also purposefully discussed the same texts and used similar language, which created the momentum for students to carry their understandings into both courses. In this session, the presenters will discuss how their collaboration has allowed for greater integration and depth. They will highlight potential ways instructors can collaborate to create connections across courses.

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Millennial College Students: What Keeps Them Engaged in the Classroom? A Multi-Institutional Survey of Agriculture Students

Michael Miner, Department of Agriculture
Aslihan Spaulding, Department of Agriculture
Iuliia Tetteh, Department of Agriculture

Additional Materials

Millennial College Students: What Keeps them Engaged in Classroom?- Presentation Slideshow

Millennial college students who were raised in a “just-in-time” service-oriented culture and currently live in a file-sharing, cut-and-paste world have very low tolerance for delay, expect immediate feedback and recognition, crave structure and do not like ambiguity (Monaco, Martin 2007; Oblinger 2004). They also favor more portable learning environments by switching to tablets and laptops rather than a desktop or a traditional textbook (Oblinger 2004). The problem is that these changes in millennials’ preferences, attitudes, and work habits can potentially make traditional teaching strategies ineffective. The purpose of this study was to survey agriculture students at Illinois State University and Eastern Kentucky University and identify components of the teaching-learning ecosystem that increase the level of interest and classroom engagement of millennial college students. The results of this research will help university educators better adapt their teaching strategies to the ongoing changes in millennials’ learning styles and work habits and therefore enhance the classroom engagement.

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Out of the Box: How the Rayfield Archives Uses Technology to Bring ISU’s History to the Classroom

April Anderson, University Libraries

Additional Materials

Out of the Box: Presentation Slideshow

The term “archives” often brings up images of dark rooms, aged papers, cotton gloves, and old books. For ISU’s Jo Ann Rayfield Archives, this perception—in addition to their off-campus location—makes connecting their collections with campus faculty and students difficult. This session will look at some of the online technologies the Rayfield Archives have used to bring their collections to an online audience. This presentation will discuss how these digital collections have been used in a variety of disciplines and will also show some collections of online ISU yearbooks, catalogs, board reports, photographs, and diaries available in the archives. The session will also explore the use of mobile technology and collection access. Dubbed the “Archives Tablet,” the Rayfield Archives has turned a 27” Lenovo tablet into a traveling archive. With the touch of a finger, users can explore multiple items from a collection instantly, all while the original materials remain at the repository. Session attendees will leave with a better understanding of the physical and digital collections the Rayfield Archives has to offer and how the digitized collections can help in the classroom.

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Preparing Civically Engaged Graduates

Erin Thomas, Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs
Christine Bruckner, Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning

Additional Materials

Preparing Civically Engaged Graduates- Presentation Slideshow
Engaged Citizen Mapping Model 5.0
Engaged Citizen Mapping Rubric 5.0

Illinois State University is committed to developing responsible citizens through meaningful civic engagement experiences. The university community provides students with a plethora of significant curricular and co-curricular civic engagement experiences throughout their college career; however, it has only scratched the surface when it comes to understanding how such experiences impact student learning and their future civic engagement. This session will provide an overview of new civic engagement student learning outcomes and goals designed to be used across the University, both inside and outside of the classroom. Attendees will leave this session with guidance on how to adopt the civic engagement student learning outcomes into courses and programs and resources to effectively assess student learning and growth during and after a civic engagement experience.

Beyond the Simple Narrative: Addressing America's Racial History through English 101

Ryan Edel, Department of English

This presentation is about the struggle to integrate the uncomfortable conversations about America’s racial heritage within the pedagogical framework of a traditional composition course. Students are coming of age in the most divisive political atmosphere since the 1960s. But political discourse is given over to sound bites. Facebook and Twitter allow little room to explain the cultural contexts as algorithms filter the news for users. These digital conversations provide painfully pertinent examples of how writing functions in the world, but it can be difficult to provide sufficient cultural context to help students understand and address their own preconceptions regarding the American experience. This presentation will describe specific texts and conversational strategies that can be used to initiate difficult conversations about race in the classroom. It will also describe how the Emancipation Proclamation, “I Have a Dream,” and the Twitter responses to Trayvon Martin can help students reevaluate the trajectory of their everyday writing. Instructor shortcomings, such as fear of the uncensored thoughts students might share and concern that this “progressive” pedagogy might not serve the marginalized communities most in need of support, will also be addressed.

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Expanding Global Literacy at Programmatic, Departmental, and Disciplinary Levels

Maria Schmeeckle, Department of Sociology/Anthropology

“Global literacy” is a concept that has been used interchangeably with “global competencies” or “global skill sets.” This session considers the following questions: What resources might help departments enhance the acquisition of global literacy for students? How can various internationalized parts of programs become more integrated, with explicit, shared global goals and priorities? What global knowledge, attitudes, and skills specifically apply to a particular discipline? This session will provide resources for furthering global literacy and internationalization beyond the individual course level at programmatic, department, and disciplinary levels. It highlights processes of transformation that could be applied at the level of certificates, minors, majors, interdisciplinary programs, departments, and disciplines. The presenter will discuss guiding questions for collaborative teams, common problems to avoid, examples of discipline-level global learning goals, and larger contexts that can block or enable progress. She draws on resources from the American Council on Education, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Australian web site, Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC) in Action. Emphasis is on suggestions for group process, rather than specific global competencies.

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How Students Engage with “Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic”

Derek Meyers, University Assessment Services
Ryan Smith, University Assessment Services

How much time do students spend on the “Three Rs”: reading, writing, and arithmetic? Does more time spent on reading, writing, and math have a positive impact on perceived learning gains, including critical thinking, written and oral communication skills, teamwork, understanding people from different backgrounds, job-related skills, and being an informed and active citizen? This presentation will examine these questions, among many others, using data from three engagement surveys at ISU: the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE), and Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE). These surveys offer a unique perspective into student perspectives and opinions from high school to the senior year of college about how they consume information, ISU’s role in helping them learn to create meaning of their world through writing, reading, and quantitative literacy, and the contributions ISU makes to student knowledge, skills, and personal development. The faculty survey (FSSE) allows comparison of student reports about how they write, read, and utilize quantitative information with faculty perspectives and opinions on student behavior. Finally, this presentation will explore the potential of adding an additional “R” to the understanding of how students consume knowledge and learn.

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Making Sense of What You Read: Classifying Information In and Out of the Classroom

Danielle Futoran Turos, University Libraries

People rely on organization of information every day, even when they don’t realize it. All information must be organized or classified in some fashion in order to be useful, and the knowledge of how to maneuver within information organization systems is essential to finding the exact piece of information needed. Anything from skimming a news article to analyzing the latest scholarly journal requires the organization, classification, and interpretation of the information presented. This kind of literacy is second nature to librarians and professors, but students often struggle with it. Beyond simply finding information, classification literacy includes putting information in context, relating interdisciplinary ideas, organizing information, and identifying multiple topics in a single text. However, this type of literacy, crucial in a time of information overload and democratization of information and authority, is fading among students. This session will cover ways to incorporate classification literacy into the classroom and deepen students’ understanding of material through critical thinking, rather than passively absorbing information. After all, becoming a literate citizen requires far more than simply being able to understand words on a page.

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Mastering Self-Control in Learning: The Marshmallow Test

Janice Neuleib, Department of English

In The Marshmallow Test, Mastering Self-Control, Walter Mischel explains the effects of self-control on learning and achievement. Some forty years ago, groups of children were offered candy or marshmallows and promised more of the treats if they would wait until the tester returned before eating the treats. Some waited; some ate. The wait times were recorded, and the children were followed over decades. The longer the wait, the higher the GPA, the job income, etc. These results suggest several implications for teaching, especially for the teaching of writing. This session will engage participants in activities that demonstrate the uses of “wait-time” in instruction. Participants will receive materials that demonstrate these practices and that will lead to student success through self-discipline and planning.

2016-2017 Assessment Initiative Awards: Examining the Meanings Students Create

Tracy Mainieri, School of Kinesiology & Recreation
Noelle Selkow, School of Kinesiology & Recreation
Derek Meyers, University Assessment Services

Last year, two faculty/staff teams developed assessment projects to derive meaning from students’ experiences in their programs. Staff in the Dean of Students Office and the Division of Student Affairs noted that underrepresented student attendance at the University’s Homecoming events has been low; given the national trends that are occurring and the recent Campus Climate Survey results, they conducted several focus groups to investigate these students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding ISU Homecoming to learn ways they can make events more diverse and inclusive. Faculty in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation’s graduate program considered ways to better assess student learning and their overall experience in the program. Because no formal and consistent methods of gathering feedback from program stakeholders existed, they administered surveys to and conducted focus groups with students and alumni to learn ways that the program’s recruitment, retention, and outreach activities could be improved. This poster presentation will share what led both teams to develop their projects, the methods used to collect and analyze/interpret their data, and the lessons they have learned while completing these assessment projects and gaining a better understanding of students’ experiences at ISU.

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A Body of Knowledge for Usable Security and Privacy Education

Yousra Javed, School of Information Technology

The importance of usability in security and privacy technologies is now widely accepted. A vibrant and growing research community in usable security and privacy has contributed a wide range of results in the past 15 years. Despite this, the vast majority of computing students are being exposed to very little of this discipline. This presentation describes ongoing efforts to enable broader education in this area, including leading the construction of a body of knowledge for usable security and privacy education to serve as an organizing framework for the discipline as well as creating online learning modules for several key topics for use as resources for faculty and students. The presenter seeks feedback on these resources as well as faculty participants who are interested in utilizing and evaluating the learning modules.

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An Experiment on the Role of Competitions in Teaching and Learning

Elahe Javadi, School of Information Technology

This study employed competitions as an instrument for advancing academic extrinsic motivation in order to elicit and foster intrinsic motivation for learning data analysis, processing, and interpretation. The field examination was conducted in a data analysis-related course with an equal emphasis on knowledge (theory) and skills (practice). Competitions are indispensable components of many skill-based activities. They are believed to enhance participants’ confidence and encourage stepping out of one’s comfort zone. In teaching, however, competitions are a controversial topic. Some research studies have shown that competitions lead to short-term gains at the cost of the long-term deep learning, while other research studies posit that competitions encourage a transition away from just-enough-effort in learning through fostering intrinsic motivation. The research literature also has differentiated between competitive learning (CBL) and competition-based learning (CnBL). In CBL, learners’ scores depend on their rank in the competition whereas in CnBL learners’ scores are independent of their rank in the competition. This study used the latter approach. Students participated in competitions for half of their assignments but their assignment scores did not depend on the ranks they earned in the competition. The study reports students’ motivation for learning, satisfaction with learning process, and learning outcomes.

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Development of Leadership Competence through a Service-Learning Project in a Dietetic Internship

Noel Konken, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
Julie Schumacher, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Minimal research exists to validate student learning as an effective strategy to develop leadership competency, especially in the field of dietetics. The purpose of this study is to assess the change in leadership behaviors and perceptions as reported by students before and after their leadership project during their graduate dietetic internship at ISU. The concentration Leadership & Project Management was implemented in 2011 in the ISU Dietetic Internship, and since this time, competencies of the concentration have been realigned to meet community needs while providing opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. After reading a leadership book, students write a paper about their leadership and management style. Then they begin their leadership project through a service learning project in the community. At the conclusion of their project, they reflect on leadership growth and development. Although post-reflections are amazing, the reflection on teaching and learning has never been studied. The research questions that guided this study included: 1) How did students’ leadership behaviors change from pre-test to post-test (as measured by the SLPI-Self scores) after a service learning leadership project? and 2) How did students’ perceptions of the benefits of leadership through service learning (as measured qualitatively through their reflections) change from pre-reflection to post-reflection?

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Effect of Supplementary Videos on Scientific Reasoning in a General Physics Course

Rebecca Rosenblatt, Department of Physics
Raymond Zich, Department of Physics

This poster will examine data from a study investigating the impact of an instructional reform on student scientific reasoning skills and general attitudes toward science. The intervention was administered via eight 5-7 minute videos during lab. Each video consisted of an explanation of its targeted concept, a hands-on demonstration with observations, and YouTube clips highlighting the topic being discussed. While viewing the videos, students were required to answer specific questions testing their comprehension of the concepts and scientific reasoning being displayed. Video topics included volume of a cylinder, free fall, 2D motion, frictional force, energy conservation, simple pendulum, wave interference, and probability. Students indicated they enjoyed the videos. Lawson’s Scientific Reasoning Test assessed students’ scientific reasoning skills, and the class assessed changes in student attitudes towards science. Pre- and post-test results are compared for a control semester and a semester with this new additional instruction.

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Evaluating Employer Demands for Acquired Skills of College Graduates

Michelle Kibler, Department of Agriculture
Michael Barrowclough, Department of Agriculture

Today’s college graduates turned job candidates continue to face an increasingly competitive employment search process. In an effort to better understand what abilities employers seek of college graduates, a survey was developed for administration to individuals representing the companies seeking job and internship candidates at the 2017 Agricultural Career Fair at Illinois State University. The main objective of this study was to determine the skill(s) most preferred by employers, as well as the skill(s) employers find most lacking in new hires within the agricultural industry. Through survey results, faculty and other instructors may inform classroom content and develop exercises to better enhance the skills most desired by potential employers. By linking the skills that employers find “most important” to how developed employers find those skills in their new hires, educators may provide a classroom experience which better prepares Illinois State University agriculture students for employment in the highly competitive agricultural industry. This survey was administered on September 18, 2017 and the results are currently being analyzed. This poster presentation explains this survey and its initial results.

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Future STEM Teachers’ Understanding of STEM Opportunity and Achievement Gaps

Sydney Olshak, School of Biological Sciences
Rachel Sparks, School of Biological Sciences
Kara Baldwin, School of Biological Sciences
Rebekka Gougis, School of Biological Sciences

STEM opportunity and achievement gaps that begin in K-12 grades result in systematic under-representation by women and some ethnic minorities in STEM disciplines. This study documents future STEM teachers’ developing understanding of the sources of such gaps and their perceived roles in addressing opportunity and achievement gaps in their classrooms. Rising seniors earning their secondary teaching credentials in a STEM field were enrolled in a seminar course that explored the sources of opportunity and achievement gaps, the role of implicit bias in teacher expectations, strategies for managing implicit bias, the role of teachers’ and students’ racial identity development in teacher-student interactions, and teacher agency as a vehicle for closing opportunity gaps. Students’ de-identified written reflections, online discussions, and final papers were analyzed qualitatively to generate emergent hypotheses about how pre-service teachers come to understand opportunity gaps as a cause of achievement gaps in STEM fields. Preliminary results indicate that by focusing on teacher agency, substantial understanding of such issues can be fostered in a relatively short but intense course, despite the implicit nature of bias and identity development.

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Gamification of Code: Learning Scripting Languages through Play

Kristin Carlson, Arts Technology
Rick Valentin, Arts Technology

Learning to code can be as challenging as learning a new language. In addition to this challenge, students also have to learn a new way of thinking and processing information. This new way of working can be difficult and heavily relies on memorization and practice. However, the logic and procedures of coding are similar to those in gameplay. Since this similarity exists, can students see how to bridge the two forms, coding and gameplay, and are they able to map the structure of code from one of play to one of learning? To leverage this in the classroom multiple games were developed over a variety of platforms to support a gameful way of teaching code, in addition to using existing games. These games include playing Simon Says with HTML, going on a CSS scavenger hunt, a computer pathfinding game, and Jeopardy among others. This poster presentation will highlight the games that were designed, the existing games that were found, and how they were used in the classroom. This poster presentation will also discuss assessment of using the games and how students felt the gameplay supported their learning.

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Going Global while Staying Local: FRE 224 Contemporary France

Erin Ponnou-Delaffon, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

The Association of American Colleges & Universities identifies the following key dimensions of global learning: knowledge-building, social responsibility, intercultural competencies, and experiential engagement. This poster presentation explains a redesign to FRE 224: Contemporary France, to promote meaningful curricular internationalization particularly in its assignments and assessments. The goal of the course redesign, in the context of campus internationalization efforts, is both to prepare students for enriching encounters abroad and to offer those who cannot study abroad a “global” experience at home. Specifically, this poster explains the results, benefits, challenges, and drawbacks of using a third-party educational platform to facilitate regular one-on-one conversations with native speakers abroad and to support the course’s content-based learning goals.

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Improving Preservice Teachers’ TPACK: Developing and Teaching Labs with Technology

Rebecca Rosenblatt, Department of Physics

This study investigated the impact of a new lab design project on preservice teacher preparation. Students enrolled in Illinois State University’s junior-level physics technology and teaching course and completed a five-week lab design project. This project had them build a lab which would teach Newton’s Laws using IoLab technology. The project guided the preservice teachers through the major steps of curriculum design and culminated in their teaching the labs they created in a general education physics course. This poster presentation will give a brief summary of TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) and the basic education theory behind this project, the development stages for the project, the difficulties encountered in implementing this class project, summaries of the labs created by the preservice teachers, the learning gains and survey results from the general education students who did the labs, and reflections on the project as a whole for teacher preparation.

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Legislatively Literate: Deeper Learning of History of Bilingual Education through Collaboration

Chad Kahl, University Libraries
Grace Allbaugh, University Libraries
Julie Derden, University Libraries
Rabia Hos, School of Teaching and Learning

Additional Materials

Legislatively Literate Poster
Legislatively Literate Handouts
TCH 248 Assignment
Historical Timeline Events- wikipedia
Instruction Outline
Legal Terminology Ice Breaker Placemat
Legal Terminology Ice Breaker Answer Key
Case Law Organizer
Case Study- Final Paper
Congressional Acts Organizer
Congressional Acts Organizer- Completed
Exit Slips
IDEA Slide

Preservice and in-service teachers often lament that national educational law and policy greatly impact the students in their classrooms, yet they feel unprepared to turn their concerns into action. In this poster session, the presenters will demonstrate their collaborative process for turning a complex assignment for TCH 248 (Foundations for Effective Practice with English Learners) about 20th and 21st century congressional acts and Supreme Court cases into a participatory class activity. Due to the nature of the assignment, it was necessary for the faculty member and subject liaison librarian to pull in the expertise of the Law/Legal Studies librarian and Politics & Government librarian. The “Gang of Four” tackled the best way to dissect the class project that involved both individual research on the part of the preservice teachers and a collaborative presentation of the chronological acts/cases and their implications on English Language Learners. They will present their planning and execution processes, as well as the “modeling” that they displayed during the in-class session, providing support for the preservice teachers as they learned about historic and current legislation and judicial cases that impact their professions and the students that they will be teaching. Finally, they will present their lessons learned based on their observations, the feedback they received from the students, and their debriefing.

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Lessons Learned Incorporating Student Strengths Assessment into an Undergraduate Course

Tracy Mainieri, School of Kinesiology & Recreation

This poster presentation explains a redesign to a Recreation Leadership course to help students meaningfully reflect on their own strengths (and weaknesses). While the course originally used instructor-designed techniques, this redesign was inspired by questioning if these techniques were actually effective in pushing students to accurately and deeply reflect on their own tendencies. The redesigned course utilizes the CliftonStrengths for Students assessment system (formerly known as StrengthsQuest), the educational version of the Clifton StrengthsFinder. Created in 1998, the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment system is based on 40 years of research. Students complete a rigorous online assessment then receive a customized report that discusses their top five areas of potential strength. Students have drawn on the results of the assessment for in-class activities, reflections, and assignments throughout the semester. This presentation will share the tips, tricks, downfalls, and lessons learned along the way. Audience members will be able to judge for themselves the strengths and weaknesses of the strengths-based approach and whether it could be useful to their students.

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Mchart: Improving Nursing Student Informatics Competence Using a Simulated Electronic Medical Record

Seon Yoon Chung, Mennonite College of Nursing
Melissa Jarvill, Mennonite College of Nursing

Nurses spend the most time with patients and are the primary end-users of electronic medical records (EMR). Essential to effective EMR use, nursing informatics competence (NIC) includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to integrate computer and information sciences into nursing practice. NIC development is crucial to the preparation of new nurses so they may provide safe, high quality, and efficient care while communicating health information across disciplines. Mchart, a simulated EMR, was developed by the simulation and technology team to mimic the clinical setting EMR. Integration of Mchart in an introductory nursing course and in the simulation program prepares nursing students for practice in the clinical setting. The initial version of Mchart enabled nursing students to scan patient armbands and medications to document medication administration. Subsequent Mchart versions included the following capabilities: view previous physician orders, lab results, interdisciplinary notes, assessments, and medications administered; real time physician order entry; and document vital signs, assessments, and interdisciplinary notes. Using Mchart, nursing students utilize EMR data to develop plans and implement nursing care during simulation scenarios. Sharing patient information in Mchart simulates communication across healthcare providers. Successful use of Mchart improves nursing student NIC, impacting their nursing practice.

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Modeling Reflective and Critical Thinking Skills: The Journey Begins with Us

Stacey Jones Bock, Department of Special Education
Tara Kaczorowski, Department of Special Education
Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino, Department of Special Education

For students to be reflective and critical thinkers, faculty need to model these behaviors as well. To this end, faculty in the Department of Special Education participated in the GROWTH Mentoring Program (Goal setting and Reflection of Who you are as a Teacher and researcher in Higher education) during the Fall 2017 semester. GROWTH is designed to encourage faculty to engage in professional development and reflection in the areas of teaching and research. During GROWTH, faculty shared insights while discussing concerns and ideas about teaching, research, academic writing, and performance reviews via various workshops, individual meetings, and peer-coaching sessions. Two- to three-member teams engaged in peer-coaching procedures by conducting video observations of their own teaching and that of their peers using the video analysis software Vosaic Connect. Members engaged in self-reflection about their teaching, learned from observing their peers teach, gave and received constructive and formative feedback, and provided direct support to one another. Faculty developed future action plans in teaching and research for ongoing development. In this poster presentation, faculty members will share details about this year-long program, lessons learned, and suggestions for implementation. The following scholars have contributed to this poster presentation: Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino, Ph.D.; Tara Kaczorowski, Ph.D.; Stacey Jones-Bock, Ph.D.; Stephanie Gardiner-Walsh, Ph.D.; Virginia Walker, Ph.D.; Mark Zablocki, Ph.D.; Yun-Ching Chung, Ph.D.; Stacey Hardin, Ph.D.; Shaqwana Freeman-Green, Ph.D.; Allison Kroech, M.Ed.; Jamillah Gilbert, M.Ed.; Samuel Whitley, NCSP; Lauralyn Randles, M. Ed.

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Overview of Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning

Jan Paterson, Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning

The Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning was established to further strengthen Illinois State University’s commitment to its core value of civic engagement. The scope of the work of the Center is broad and includes advancing in-class and out-of-class learning and experiences for students in partnership with the community, as well as providing the leadership in pursuit of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Community Engagement Classification. This poster presentation will provide information about the work of the Center and how it can support scholarship, teaching, and service activities.

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Promoting Reflective Practice through Service-Learning in Teacher Preparation

Sara Jozwik, Department of Special Education
Miranda Lin, School of Teaching and Learning

Service learning in teacher preparation programs is an innovative pedagogical approach with documented effectiveness for promoting awareness of social justice issues. Reflection lies at the crux of a well-designed service-learning project. This study further explores how service-learning experiences influence the reflective practices of preservice teachers in two teacher preparation programs. Preservice teachers in two teacher preparation programs (i.e., early childhood and special education) participated in this study. Twenty seven were first-year students enrolled in a multicultural education course. Thirty-seven were third-year students enrolled in a literacy development course. The 64 preservice teachers were predominately white and female. Participants’ reflective writing conveyed themes of diversity, relationship-building, and adaptability. Preservice teachers affirmed within themselves a disposition for teaching in diverse settings. The findings indicate that integrating service-learning in teacher preparation can certainly impact preservice teachers’ dispositions toward teaching in diverse settings, cultural awareness, social issues, and social responsibility. The study concludes that careful selection of the setting and project focus as well as ongoing dialogue to support critical self-reflection can maximize project effectiveness.

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Sharing Teaching Assessment Reports in Simulation (STARS) Phase II

Olcay Akman, Department of Mathematics
Carla Pohl, Mennonite College of Nursing
Melissa Jarvill, Mennonite College of Nursing

Simulation is an integral component of nursing student education, providing realistic practice opportunities in a safe learning environment. In the simulation program, nursing students are routinely immerses in multiple simulation scenarios to compliment traditional clinical learning experiences. Student performance in simulation is assessed using the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument® (CCEI). The CCEI provides standardized criteria that are tailored for each individual simulation scenario based on the scenario specific objectives. Development of an electronic version of the CCEI allowed faculty access to previous student assessments to identify overall performance patterns or persistent deficiencies. Faculty were oriented to the electronic CCEI prior to implementation and feedback during integration was overwhelmingly positive regarding ease of use and satisfaction with the tool. Evaluation completion rates have dramatically improved when compared to the paper-version CCEI. Examination of the electronic CCEI database is useful to evaluate overall student performance, individual simulation scenarios, and the simulation program as a whole. This session presents a nursing and math collaborative project that resulted in the development and integration of an innovative electronic tool and database to improve a simulation program.