The unDistance Learning Conference 2024

The Office of Online Initiatives is excited to announce the 2nd Annual unDistance Learning Conference the week of October 7 – 11, 2024.

Online students often feel isolated and disconnected when taking courses at a distance. With this in mind, the UnDistance Learning Conference is committed to exploring innovative strategies and best practices that decrease the distance in Distance Learning by enhancing student belonging and engagement in the online learning environment, ultimately leading to greater student success. This conference is a hybrid event with virtual presentations from nationally known experts from Monday to Thursday and an in-person, interactive workshop experience on Friday. Scroll down for links to register for each event.


Schedule and Registration Links

Monday, October 7, 3:00 p.m. (Virtual), Register to Attend

The Human Advantage: Online Teaching & Learning in the AI Era
Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Foothill-De Anza Community College District

Dr. Michelle Pacanksy-Brock

As human beings, our brains are wired for connection with others. This human principle applies to everyone, all the time – including online classes. Yet our dominant culture works to squash the importance of emotion. In this presentation, we will consider how and why cultivating care and connection at a distance, while maintaining high standards, is central to faculty and student well-being and academic success, particularly in the AI era.

Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock is a noted leader in higher education with expertise in online teaching, course design, and faculty development. Michelle’s work has helped online instructors, instructional designers, and institutional leaders across the nation and beyond understand how to craft relevant, humanized online learning experiences that support the diverse needs of college students. Her work has explored the impact of human presence and relationships on diverse learners for more than two decades. She is the author of Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies (2nd edition, Routledge) and has received national recognition for her excellence in teaching and faculty development from the Online Learning Consortium (OLC).

Currently, Michelle coordinates professional development for online education for a state-level initiative supporting California's 116 community colleges. For the past five years, she has served as Lead PI for a $2 million grant project that has scaled humanized online teaching across seventeen California public higher education institutions and, with the project team, has researched its impact on STEM students from minoritized communities. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two adult sons, traveling, doing pilates, and snuggling with her two miniature wiener dogs, Zeus and Dwight. Learn more about Michelle at brocansky.com and connect with her on LinkedIn.



Tuesday, October 8, 3:00 p.m. (Virtual), Register to Attend

Creating Inclusive and Engaging Learning Experiences in Your Online Courses
Dr. Stephanie Malmberg, SUNY Broome Community College

Dr. Stephanie Malmberg standing outside in front of an academic building

Drawing on the literature in inclusive and critical pedagogies and online teaching and learning, as well as the participation and feedback from faculty within and beyond the State University of New York system who completed a professional development course focusing on equitable and inclusive teaching practices, participants will learn about the art and practical act of creating inclusive and engaging learning experiences in online asynchronous courses. This presentation will focus on the creation of an inclusive classroom climate and the meaningful incorporation of diverse perspectives into the course content and online classroom learning activities, with suggestions on how to leverage the learning management system and integrated technologies to support the achievement of student learning outcomes. Participants will glean ways they may include and center various intersecting identities and experiences that students bring into our online classrooms. Participants will leave the session with immediately actionable and implementable strategies to incorporate into their practice.

Speaker institutional affiliation: Associate Dean of Distance Learning, Professional Development, and Student Success
SUNY Broome Community College

Dr. Malmberg’s primary role is as the Associate Dean of Distance Learning, Professional Development, and Student Success at SUNY Broome Community College in Upstate New York. A significant focus of her role, she both sources and creates professional development opportunities for faculty and staff that are anchored in anti-racist, culturally relevant, and sustaining pedagogies and practices in the college classroom, leveraging educational technologies to support the achievement of student learning outcomes, and pedagogical practices for student retention and success in an era of sector instability and rapid change. She was awarded the SUNY FACT2 Award for Excellence in Administrative Leadership, Community Colleges in 2024.

Dr. Stephanie Malmberg also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Binghamton University, where she develops and teaches courses in social justice, motivated Human Rights and Human Development programs. Her courses explore human development across the lifespan, challenging historical, normative, and essentialized theories in favor of a more contextualized understanding informed by race, culture, and difference. Dr. Malmberg’s human rights courses uncover global and domestic human rights issues, as well as with a focus on the American education system and the inequities produced. She received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching in 2023.

Additionally, Dr. Malmberg developed and teaches a course for the SUNY Center for Professional Development’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate Program. The course, Teaching for Racial Equity, combines the theoretical and practical acts of anti-racist teaching, working with faculty within and beyond the SUNY system to create new and refine existing curriculum and learning assessments to support the achievement of SUNY’s new DEI/SJ learning outcome. 

Dr. Malmberg's interdisciplinary Ph.D. is from Binghamton University’s College of Community and Public Affairs and her research agenda is informed by issues of access and equity in higher education. She has over 10 years of post-secondary teaching experience across multiple sectors. 

 



Wednesday, October 9, 3:00 p.m. (Virtual), Register to Attend

Small Teaching Online: Practical Strategies to Increase Student Engagement and Learning
Flower Darby, University of Missouri 

Flower Darby sitting at a table outdoors and writing
Whether you’re new or experienced online faculty you can make small but impactful adjustments that significantly boost student engagement and learning. In this talk, we’ll discuss brief learning activities, minor course modifications, and simple changes to your interactions with students that benefit online class formats and enhance in-person classes too. You’ll leave with impactful, strategic, doable ideas that make the most of your limited time without overwhelming you or your students. Together, we’ll discover how rewarding teaching and learning in online environments can be.

You’ll hear about topics such as

  • Why it can be so hard to engage with students online
  • Theoretical frameworks to ground recommended strategies in the literature
  • The most powerful, equitable, and inclusive tools to help students persist and actively participate in all class formats
  • Proven approaches to boost learning, both online and off

Flower Darby celebrates and promotes effective teaching in all modalities to advance equitable learning outcomes for all students. She’s an Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center at the University of Missouri. Prior to that, she held roles such as Assistant Dean of Online and Innovative Pedagogies, Director of Teaching for Student Success, and Senior Instructional Designer. These roles have allowed her to build on her experience teaching in person and online for over 27 years in a range of subjects including English, Technology, Education, Leadership, Dance, and Pilates. In her current work and publications, Darby empowers faculty to teach inclusive and equity-focused classes in all modalities. Her recent books include The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (2023) and Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes (2019), and she’s an internationally sought-after keynote speaker.



Thursday, November 7, 3:00 p.m. (Virtual), Register to Attend

How Generative AI Can Facilitate Student Engagement, Belonging, and Success
Dr. Sean Nufer, TCS Education System

Sean Nufer outdoors reflectingJoin us as we explore practical and actionable strategies for incorporating generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) into our class activities and assessments. In this session, we will examine an effective prompt engineering formula to help improve our interactions with AI, as well as advanced techniques and strategies for leveraging the technology as we seek ways to facilitate meaningful interactions and support among our students. By the end of the session, you will be equipped with the knowledge and ideas to more seamlessly integrate generative AI into your teaching practice and promote academic success. Session components include

  • Prompt Engineering Essentials:
    We will start with a foundational understanding of prompt engineering. Learn the essential components (with examples) such as task definition, context setting, exemplar creation, persona development, format specification, and tone adjustment. We will explore how these essential components are weighted and how they lead to optimal outputs and interactions.
  • Intermediate and Advanced Uses of Generative AI:
    Building on the basics, we will explore more sophisticated applications of generative AI. Discover how to leverage AI for personalized learning experiences, dynamic content generation, and real-time feedback. This segment will highlight techniques that can be seamlessly integrated into your workflow and teaching practices.
  • Active Application of AI in Classroom Activities and Assessments:
    The final segment will focus on practical applications of AI in classroom activities and assessments. We will provide concrete examples of how AI can be used to enhance student engagement, create interactive assignments, and support effective assessments. We will review strategies that allow students to actively participate in and optimize their learning processes.

This session will cover many topics, aimed to create more interactive, inclusive, and effective online learning environments. Whether you are new to AI or looking to expand your existing knowledge, this presentation will equip you with many insights that will enhance your online teaching practices.

Dr Sean Nufer completed his undergraduate study at Brigham Young University–Hawaii and holds a master’s and a doctoral degree from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Nufer started his instructional design journey at the Academic Support Center at The Chicago School, creating online training modules and videos for students. After collaborating with the TCS Education System (a consortium of small and mid-sized universities across the country) on several projects, he joined their team as a full-time instructional designer. Moving from instructional design, he became an e-learning specialist before establishing and directing the Department of Educational Technology. He is now the director of the Office for Teaching and Learning for TCS, which designs and develops interactive resources to train and refine the skills of partner college faculty. Inspired by many great professors throughout his higher education journey, Dr. Nufer always felt the call to teach. He is a Canvas Educator of the Year and a recipient of the Online Learning Consortium 2020 Excellence and Innovation in Online Teaching Award. Sean is married with two children and lives in Orlando.



Friday, October 11, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.,
Decatur Campus, Room SF-2100 Register to Attend (Restricted to GSU faculty and staff, limited seating)

Several people gathered around using laptops and mobile devices

The theme of the in-person event will focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on education. We will explore strategies for teaching students to use AI responsibly; examine how AI is impacting the way we teach; and ways AI can support the personal connections essential for student success in online courses. Attendees will leave with concrete examples of how AI can be used in the classroom, ideas on how AI can improve productivity, a list of AI tools, and access to other resources.

A tentative schedule for the day:
9:00 a.m.  Registration/light breakfast
9:30 a.m.  Introductions and ice-breaker
10:00 a.m. Workshop
12:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m.   Interactive session
3:00 p.m.   Reflection and closing activity

 


Don’t miss this unique opportunity to come together as a community of online faculty members, to share knowledge, ideas, and inspiration, and to make a positive impact on our students’ educational journey.

We look forward to your active participation in the “unDistance Learning Conference” as we work together to create exceptional online learning experiences that foster student belonging and engagement, and ultimately drive student success.