The Center for Teaching and Learning Presents:

Celebrating Distance Teaching and Learning Symposium

Looking Back; Thinking Forward

Monday, November 7th, 2022 | 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (EST)
Held Virtually via Zoom

In recent years, an increasing number of faculty and students at Georgia Tech have experienced the possibilities that distance teaching and learning have to offer. Whether holding classes in completely virtual environments, utilizing online to flip or supplement their in-class experience, or something in between, faculty have been extending their pedagogy across time and space to reach students where they are in new and exciting ways.

During the Georgia Tech Celebrating Distance Teaching and Learning Symposium: Looking Back; Thinking Forward, we will be celebrating those educators who have forged innovative and high-quality practices in the field of distance education and learn from their experiences.

During the symposium we will converse with;

  • Expert instructors who work with massive online learning courses
  • Inventive instructors who developed new techniques during Covid that continue to prove useful
  • Award-winning Online TAs and faculty from diverse backgrounds and disciplines
  • Talented technology staff who work with the latest tools that make online learning flourish
  • And, most importantly, we’ll have opportunities for symposium participants to connect with each other and exchange their thoughts and ideas throughout

Please join us for a day full of inspiring presentations, important conversations, and stimulating experiences as we look back at the work of our distance educators and think forward to what the future of distance teaching and learning will look like.

Click here to Register for the Symposium  

Symposium Schedule 
 

9:00-9:30am- Opening Address

Speaker: Dr. Vincent Spezzo, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning Online, Center for Teaching and Learning Vincent Spezzo, Ed.D

9:30-10:30am- Keynote Speaker: Dr. David Joyner -  The Distributed Classroom: Teaching Across Time and Space

David Joyner is Executive Director of Online Education & OMSCS in Georgia Tech's College of Computing. His research focuses on online education and learning at scale, especially as they intersect with for-credit offerings at the graduate and undergraduate levels. His emphasis is on designing learning experiences that leverage the opportunities of online learning to compensate for the loss of synchronous collocated class time. This includes leveraging artificial intelligence for student support and assignment evaluation, facilitating student communities in large online classes, and investigating strategies for maintainable and interactive presentation of online instructional material. 


Joyner has received several awards for his work in teaching online, including the 2019 USG Regents' Teaching Excellence Award for Online Teaching, 2018 Georgia Tech Center for Teaching & Learning Curriculum Innovation Award, and the 2016 Georgia Tech College of Computing Lockheed Excellence in Teaching Award.

Speaker- Dr. David Joyner, Executive Director of Online Education & OMSCS and Senior Research Associate, College of Computing

David Joyner

10:30-10:45am- Break

15-minute Break

10:45-11:45am- Serving as a TA in an Online Course: Words from the Wise(r)
In this session, we will hear from Georgia Tech’s online TAs and Head TAs who recently won our Institute-wide TA of the Year Award.  Panelists will share their experiences interacting with students at a distance while serving as a Teaching Assistant and give their perspective on some of the latest developments in distance education pedagogy. Panelists will address a mix of moderated questions as well as questions from attending participants.  So if you’ve ever wondered about what it’s like being a TA for an online course or what unique challenges they face, join us for this session and get your questions answered.

Speakers-                              Jaewoo Jung, Mathematics;              Addison Malone, History & Sociology

                                                                                                       

                                            Kai Ouyang, Computer Science;              and Raghav Tandon, Biomedical Engineering 

                                                                              

 

11:45am-1pm- Lunch & Distance Learning Trivia

Take time to enjoy your lunch break from 11:45-12:30 and then come back early during the last half hour of the break to join us for fun Distance Learning Trivia and a chance to win some cool swag. 

1-2pm- Featured Speaker: Dr. Michael Evans - Education at a Short Distance: Cultivating “Short-distance Relationships” with Students

Dr. Michael Evans has always believed that instructional technology enhances undergraduate students’ academic experience. Since 2018, Evans has used online instruction to increase student accountability and engagement through initiatives such as “Late Nite Labs,” a virtual platform with instructional videos and pre-lab interactive content. When transitioning into remote emergency teaching in 2020, he drew from his past practices with online education while adding more practices and strategies to help his students. He incorporated platforms that allow students to review and practice chemistry problems, such as OpenOChem and Mechanisms. Additionally, he utilizes video chat and messaging platforms, such as Discord and Microsoft Teams, to encourage communication between students as well as student-instructor interaction.
 

Speaker- Dr. Michael Evans, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry
2022 Winner of the Georgia Tech Teaching Excellence Award for Online Teaching

2-2:45pm- Birds of a Feather

Various topics will be offered for discussion in breakout rooms by various Georgia Tech online and technology experts from across the institution. Participants are welcome to choose their own breakout rooms and engage in conversation with their peers.
 

Topics included in this year's Birds of a Feather
 

Strategies for Instructional Design: Creating Coherent and Aligned Courses
- Peter ​Ariev, Center for Teaching and Learning

Simultaneous Synchronous Instruction of Students at a Distance and In the classroom (Hybrid/Hyflex models)  
-
Ed Bailey, Georgia Tech Professional Education

Encouraging Social Presence Online 
- Dr. Lauren Barbeau, Center for Teaching and Learning


Online Student Engagement Technologies and Techniques 
- Dr. Warren Goetzel, Digital Learning Team

Ideas & Tools for Formative Assessment and Feedback Collection
-
Dr. Jeonghyun (Jonna) LeeCenter for 21st Century Universities (C21U) 


Accessibility Challenges and Solutions for Online Course Components
- Yahong Xu, Digital Learning Team

2:45-3:00pm- Break

15 minute Break

3-4:15pm- Panel Discussion: Creating and Innovating Videos for Online

Video can be an essential part of any distance learning experience, but the act of creating high-quality videos can be quite intimidating and time-consuming. What if you do all that work and students don’t respond well to what you have created? In this panel, you will hear from a mix of professors who have created their own unique take on using videos in their courses as well as professionals who work with video production and distribution technologies.

Panelists will talk about their experiences:

  • Using editing technologies to create videos parodying classic blockbuster movies
  • Using cloud-based programs to create animation-based videos
  • Using videos to create and deploy a series of video-based quizzes
  • Using innovative video production technologies including desk-sized lightboards
  • Using the latest technologies to deliver videos that are both engaging and produce analytical data that instructors can act upon

Panelists will share a glimpse into what it’s like to work with creating videos and what their experiences have been. Panelists will address a mix of moderated questions as well as questions from attending participants.  If you’re interested in creating and using videos with your own courses, this will be a panel you want to attend to get your questions answered.

 

Speakers- Dr. Tatiana Rudchenko, Scheller College of Business;   Dr. Pascal Van Hentenryck, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering;
       

                                             Directory Detail Image                                            

                                         
                                                    Alison Valk, Library;                                 and Christopher Williams, GT Professional Education

                                       Alison                                  Christopher Williams

4:15-4:30- Closing

Speaker: Dr. Vincent Spezzo, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning Online, Center for Teaching and Learning Vincent Spezzo, Ed.D