2023 Conference Program

OVERVIEW

Keynote Speech
Higher Education & Transitions to Careers

Joiselle Cunningham Smith, Ph.D.
CEO
Pathways to Creative Industries
New York, New York, USA

In this keynote address, Dr. Joiselle Cunningham Smith will examine the challenges and opportunities facing higher education institutions to help students to transition into meaningful careers. In this talk, Dr. Cunningham Smith will explore various strategies that institutions may consider while maintaining a commitment to the overall student learning experience. Dr. Cunningham Smith will also share real-world examples from existing programs and highlight possible shifts that will better prepare college students for the workplace. This talk will encourage participants to bring their questions, experiences and reflections during brief opportunities to share during the presentation.

TRACK 1 [IN-PERSON] - SESSION 1C
PRESIDENTIAL ROOM 1
Session Chair: Elaine Tan, Newcastle University Business School, Newcaslte, UK
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Improving Moodle Usage by Applying UX Methodologies: A Case Study Involving Teachers’ Experiences

Uriel Cukierman, Ph.D., National Technological University, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Jessica Cukierman, Baufest, Buenos Aires, Argentina

According to several market research reports, Moodle is the most widely used Learning Management System (LMS) in the world, but how intuitive is it for teachers? Does it make teachers’ experience easier or is it a burden for them? Does it help teachers reach the expected learning outcomes? 

Student Satisfaction and Graduation Rates in Finnish Master of Engineering Programs

Matti Koivisto, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, South Savo, Finland

During the recent years many stakeholders like researchers, policymakers and even students have paid more attention to higher education efficiency and performance. Although no single metric is sufficient to describe the organizational quality of the university, graduation rate has become one of the key measures of the college success. There are clearly many factors that influence students’ possibilities and willingness to successfully finish their studies, but previous studies have clearly shown that the high student satisfaction has a positive effect on the graduation rate. Most of the graduation or drop-out research has looked at full-time high school or undergraduate students and far less attention has been paid to other areas of education like postgraduate or part-time programs. In this paper, the focus is on the part-time Master of Engineering programs of a Finnish university of applied sciences (UAS).

Project DOCE (“Drawing, Order, Chaos and Teaching”) as a Pedagogical Experience for Innovative Teaching

Susana Jorge, Paula Tavares, Manuel Albino, and Marta Madureira, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), Barcelos, Portugal

In 2017, School of Design (ESD) of the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA) created a project in the field of drawing with the main objective of developing innovative pedagogical practices. The project is called DOCE - “Drawing, Order, Chaos and Teaching” and, so far, four editions have taken place.

TRACK 2 [IN-PERSON] - SESSION 2C
PRESIDENTIAL ROOM 2
Session Chair: Heather Appell, ServiceNow, Seattle, Washington, USA
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Creating Binge-Worthy e-Learning Experiences

Nafiza Akter and Martin Warters, Pfizer, New York, New York, USA

We hear a lot about how employees and learners have shorter attention spans and live in an incredibly distracting environment with multiple conflicting (and changing) priorities. How can we truly engage them? What if we took a social phenomenon like binge-watching TV and simulated it for learning purposes? If someone can watch and follow an entire season of a show in one night, the attention is there. The challenge is that the approaches to creating training and TV shows are completely different. The question remains: do they have to be? What if training developers partnered to sit in writing rooms for hours and rewriting training into narratives? Instead of having a set of 15 slides talking at learners about what they should know about something, we could show them how it applies and translate to their day-to-day. Instead of a disembodied voice or just text-filled slides, you have a protagonist, and they are a colleague that sets a model for you on best practices.

Entrepreneurial Mindset Initiative - Pathway to Student Monetization via Integrated Community-Based Service-Learning Projects

Grady L. Meeks Jr., Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA

Do you think like an entrepreneur? Do you want to be a valuable employee? Do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? Life today is filled with imperatives. Everything seems urgent and critically important in vying for our attention daily. Between the pandemic, political strife, social strain, and changes in the workplace, the world is making it quite clear that we no longer can take the slow road in preparing ourselves to deal with extreme volatility. We all need an entrepreneurial mindset to help us adapt and overcome any situation in which we find ourselves.

Explainable Prediction of Student Performance in Online Courses (Virtual Talk)

Nicola Capuano, Ph.D., University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

Student Performance Prediction (SPP) models and tools are useful for quickly identifying at-risk students in online courses and enable the provision of personalized learning plans and assistance. Additionally, they give educators and course managers the information they need to recognize the programs that require improvement. High accuracy is essential for such tools but understanding the reasons of their predictions is equally important to ensure fairness and build trust in their adoption. Although many SPP models and tools have been proposed so far by different researchers, very few of them take explainability into account. This research proposes an SPP approach that is both effective and explainable. Based on demographic, administrative, engagement, and intra-course outcome data, it enables the prediction of student performance in terms of success/failure and final grade. It supports multiple machine learning models and includes post-hoc techniques for explainability capable of justifying the behavior of the whole system as well as its individual predictions.

Curated Recommendations of Teaching and Learning Videos on YouTube with the Help of a Chatbot

Theresa Zobel, Hendrik Steinbeck, and Christoph Meinel, Ph.D., Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Potsdam, Germany

In February 2020, 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute, including numerous videos from the education sector. If you are looking for suitable teaching or learning videos, for example, this mass of videos makes it much more difficult to select. In the course of an implementation project with Bachelor students, German teaching videos on the topic of mathematics on YouTube were examined and how they can be found for teachers and learners. From the results of this investigation, a database was created exploratively, which was filled with qualitative videos and the corresponding search terms and difficulty levels. In addition, a chatbot was implemented to support users in their search for learning and teaching videos. The initial analysis showed that there are only a dozen channels that provide the majority of learning content for the subject of mathematics. The technical solution shown is able to extend this result and suggest existing but less known educational videos. The present study thus provides both a theoretical and practical complement to user-centred teaching-learning scenarios.

Augmented Reality in STEM Education: Mapping Out the Future

Sarantos Psycharis, Ph.D., Konstantina Sdravopoulou, Ph.D., and Evi Botsari, Ph.D., School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE), Attiki, Greece

This study aims at figuring out the trends and, on the basis of these trends, the possible future developments in the applications of Augmented Reality (AR) in STEM education and training.  After a thorough analysis of the international scientific output in this scientific domain, the prominent countries and institutions contributing to its development are identified, vis-à-vis with the global scientific production and the citation networks. A total of 80 documents were selected as directly relevant to this research, from the major scientific databases (Scopus, Web of Science, OpenAlex) and dated from the first scientific publications in this field (2006) until 2022.

Predicting Students' Academic Success Based on Various Course Activities: A Case Study

Vanja Cotic Poturic, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Engineering, Rijeka, Croatia, Sanja Candrlic, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Informatics, Rijeka, Croatia and Ivan Drazic, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Engineering, Rijeka, Croatia

In all areas of learning, teachers strive to improve the educational process. In the field of information and software engineering, activities usually combine theory and practical training. By using various assessment activities during the course, students' motivation can be improved and with proper feedback from the teacher, students can manage their learning process to achieve better results.

Overcoming Learning Gaps and Building Transferability Skills in a Higher Education Math Course

Subhadra Ganguli, Penn State Univeristy, State College, Pennsylvania, USA

Most college entrants during post COVID era (since 2021) have not been adequately equipped with pre-requisite knowledge in Math to handle the General Education Business Math course which provides a stepping-stone to intermediate and higher-level courses in several areas in business, Finance, Management and Marketing at Bloomsburg University Campus of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.  Coupled with heightened cases of mental illness among college students caused by COVID, unemployment, poor health, losses of near and dear ones during the pandemic, instructors need inclusive strategies for teaching and learning math, especially in post COVID era. The paper proposes a dual-purpose teaching and learning model for Math for Business in classrooms in higher education using UDL (Universal Design for Learning) powered by technology...

Psychology and STEM Education: From the Classroom to Society

Evi Botsari, Ph.D., Konstanitna Sdravopoulou, Ph.D., and Sarantos Psycharis, Ph.D, School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece

The aim of this presentation is to identify particular cases where the role of psychology is central in STEM education and, by combining literature from seldom connected strands, to eventually offer a conceptual framework encompassing aspects of psychology that relate to STEM education. The participation of psychologists and the incorporation of psychological research in STEM education has been rather weak or overlooked, a fact which has been mentioned by APA already in 2009. Why and how this might change prompts a deeper examination, eventually leading us to address issues relating psychology not only to individual learners…

Sticky Content: How Incorporating Microlearning through Video Can Make Your Learning Experiences More Impactful (Virtual Talk)

Anna Raney, Next Thought, Norman, Oklahoma, USA

Attention spans are shrinking, and there is more information in the world than ever. It is unavoidable that there will be some learning that has to be done through video, no matter the industry or job position, but the tricky part is how to make that video memorable, impactful, and concise while still getting your message across to the learner. In this session, you will learn about the benefits of microlearning and how to be more concise to make your content more sticky. You will also look at how video can level up your learning experiences and help make a stronger impact on your learners. 

Perceptions of Employees at Heritage Museums on the Use of Social Networks (SNS) in the Museum’s Work in the Age of COVID-19

Gila Kurtz, Ph.D., and Keren Koresh, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel

This study evaluates the perceptions of personnel at heritage museums regarding social network use during COVID-19. Heritage museums can significantly bolster social resilience and cohesion, especially amid global uncertainty and crisis. Tension has always existed between heritage museums' desire to maintain their traditional image as important cultural institutions and the recognition that digital technologies are essential to their future survival. COVID-19 has revealed the unsustainability of relying on physical museum visits, obliging museums to rethink their conception of the museum experience. Social networks have become a channel for spreading cultural content and maintaining contact with the audience.

Fostering Inclusion and Well-being through Digital Language Learning in Museum Contexts

Maria Tolaini, Università degli Studi di Genova, Genova, Italy

Foreign language learning is one of the key skills for promoting the inclusion and well-being of the individual and the community. Because museums feature a variety of objects, they promote language learning by providing a visual, sometimes tactile, stimulus that is understandable to all, and therefore inclusive. The interaction with the collection and the flexible, multisensory museum environment often enhanced by digital tools encourage the development of critical, communicative, creative, social, and emotional skills that are beneficial to learning and the well-being of the individual. However, while museums promote social equality and there is growing attention on inclusiveness in language education, in the field of language learning in museum settings the issue of inclusion is scarcely addressed. Most of the field research targets individuals with already advanced language skills, penalizing those who are approaching foreign language learning for the first time; moreover, the tools adopted in the examined literature do not consider the different needs of learners.

ChatGPT: Should it Have a Role in Education?

Birgit Oberer, Ph.D., International Society for Engineering Pedagogy, Carinthia, Austria, Alptekin Erkollar, Ph.D., ETCOP Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria

Artificial intelligence (AI) and school - do they go together?
Chatbots, which can answer questions using artificial intelligence, are increasingly finding their way into everyday school life. Artificial intelligence has long been part of our everyday lives, even if we are not always aware of it. When search engines provide us with certain results depending on our previous online behavior, navigation systems help us avoid traffic jams, or voice assistants fulfill our music wishes, there is ultimately always an AI behind it. The program ChatGPT from OpenAI, released in November 2022, is a chatbot that is able to provide human answers to all kinds of questions using AI. ChatGPT can be used in different languages and it can mimic the user's writing style, allowing a believable and natural interaction. This publication analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT from the users' point of view and from the pedagogical point of view; and focuses on threats and opportunities that an AI tool like ChatGPT can generally exhibit. It explores the questions of whether educational institutions should ban AI applications such as ChatGPT or whether educators should adapt their style of teaching and give ChatGPT a specific place in the classroom.

Using a Podcast to Foster Success among Computer Science Students

Sigrid Schefer-Wenzl, Ph.D. and Igor Miladinovic, Ph.D., University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Over the past fifteen years, the popularity of podcasts has steadily increased. More and more organizations, including educational institutions, are using podcasts as a means to communicate with their customers. Educational podcasts appear in a variety of forms, such as lecture podcasts with short audio/video contributions on important topics or podcasts to present scientific findings.

Thinking and Chatting Deontically: Novel Communication Support for Learning and Training with Time Travel Prevention Games

Oksana Arnold, Ph.D., Erfurt University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt, Germany, Ronny Franke, Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, Magdeburg, Germany, Klaus Jantke, Ph.D., ADICOM Software, Weimar, Germany, Rainer Knauf, Ph.D., Ilmenau University of Technology, Ilmenau, Germany, Tanja Schramm, Ilmenau University of Technology, Ilmenau, Germany, and Hans-Holger Wache, Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention for Raw Materials and Chemical Industry, Prevention Center Berlin, Berlin, Germany

The authors‘ principal area of application is training for the prevention of accidents in the process technology industries.  They run a professional training center with its own 3D virtual environments. At TLIC 2021, four of the present authors delivered a contribution advocating planning of human training experiences as dynamically as managing a disturbed technical system back into a normal operation – such as an out of control chemical reactor – and enabling trainees who failed to complete a task – thereby possibly ruining a (fortunately only virtual) technical installation – to virtually travel back in time to make good the damage.  At TLIC 2022, they introduced cascades of gradually more intricate categories of time travel games.  With every step from one category to the next, the deployed AI gets more powerful and effective in providing adaptive guidance of human trainees.  The most advanced time travel games are those that allow for the dynamic modification of events experienced in the virtual past.  In this way, the game system evolves over time and adapts to the needs of human trainees with emphasis on guidance for trainees who fail repeatedly.

Peer Assessment in the University Context for the Development of Transversal and Digital Skills

Mara Valente, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy

Goal 4 of Agenda 2030 states the need to ensure an education that is based on 'quality' and 'equity', with a view to global economic, social, and environmental development.

In order to improve the quality of teaching/learning in the university context, there is an increasing move towards didactic approaches that privilege the processes implemented instead of the content (Fabbri & Romano, 2019). This occurs to place the students at the center of the teaching/learning process, aiming for strategies and methodologies that promote their engagement and active participation also using technology, thus creating new learning environments.

Using Polyphonic Storytelling Techniques for Skills Development

Christina Merl, TalkShop/2CG®, Vienna, Austria

For a very long time, the hero’s journey has served as the most popular template in learning experience design, even more so with the rise of technology. The current paper suggests that it’s about time learning experience designers looked more at the periphery of stories and invited learners to co-create alternative narratives that can drive change in their real life context. It is built around the hypothesis that effective learning  design needs to engage learners in polyphonic storytelling while at the same time support them in developing the skills they need to come up with impactful alternative narratives. Relevant future skills, also referred to as 21st century skills, include critical and connected thinking, creativity, imagination, empathy, collaborative team skills and communication skills, in addition to 21st century digital literacy…

Ensuring Optimal Performance in Online Learning of STEM Subjects: An Autoethnographic Study

Gopala Krishna Koneru, Ph.D., BITS-Pilani, WILP Division, Rajasthan, India

Learning is a process of assimilation of facts or knowledge, inferences from observations, experiments or experiences of the real-world and reflecting on them to build a coherent mental model of understanding of the subject. Ability to abstract from specific knowledge to form insights and also the expertise to realize practical implementations from abstracted models are the essential traits of a learned engineer or scientist. I have had nearly 30 years of experience of working in technology organizations as well as a Learner-Teacher in a university teaching working professionals for the past 12 years. As part of this auto-ethnographic study, starting afresh as a student to learn new subjects which are different from my earlier academic credentials or past profession, I have accumulated several insights on the way I experienced learning along with the roadblocks to my understanding of the subjects. 

A Pedagogy for Engineering Concepts Focusing on Experiential Learning

Kanmani Buddhi, Ph.D., BMS College of Engineering, Karnataka, India

In this work we attempt to present pedagogy for engineering courses. The proposed pedagogy can be applied to a large number of engineering concepts in various courses. The proposed pedagogy, involves the faculty designing a set of experiments for the proposed engineering concept. Students implement the experiment, designed by the faculty, observe the results and attempt to summarize the observations. The summary statement by the student is the actual statement of the intended engineering concept. In this pedagogy, since the student has gone through the experience of the engineering concept, and also made the formal statement of the concept, the student comprehends and appreciates the concept, and hence, enhances student learning.

Keynote Speech
Power Skills: Unlocking Potential for the Future of Work

Lydia Liu, Ph.D.
Principal Research Director
ETS
Princeton, New Jersey, USA

The life cycle of technical skills has greatly shortened due to rapid technological innovations and new knowledge generation. With all the unknowns it is almost impossible to predict all the technical skills required ten years from now. However, power skills such as lifelong learning, coachability, communication, and collaborative problem solving can help individuals acquire new learning, generate innovative solutions for novel problems, and navigate new work settings. As the global workforce shifts from rigid academic pedigree to skills-based evaluation that recognizes multiple educational pathways, being able to demonstrate skills that are relevant, transferable, and measurable becomes critically important. Many skills taxonomies have been proposed to categorize skills but they vary in quality and research evidence. In addition, insufficient assessment exists that offers valid and reliable measures for many of the newly defined skills. Direct evidence of skills acquisition from assessment is essential for skills documentation and demonstration. In this seminar, I will discuss the significance for focusing on power skills as enablers for individuals' future success, what key power skills are in terms of definitions and key dimensions, how assessment can be designed, developed, analyzed, and validated, and current initiatives and research that leverage power skills to help unlock workforce potential for individuals, particularly the ones from underserved backgrounds.

Learning Games in the Metaverse

Howard McCabe, Dream Syndicate, Philadelphia, PA, USA and Elisabeth Garson, Steel Owl, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

This session will answer the question: “What is The Metaverse and how can it be used in corporate learning?”

Although it’s a term almost everyone has heard of, “The Metaverse” often means different things to different people. The goal of this seminar is to discuss the Metaverse in corporate L&D settings and show how its components can be used in corporate learning and corporate games. 

This session offers the nuts and bolts of The Metaverse through the lens of corporate learning. We’ll explain what the Metaverse is right now, what it’s earmarked to become, how it works, and the technologies behind it. We’ll cover elements of the Metaverse like AR and VR, NFTs and take a deep dive into Metaverse-based learning and content-driven games.

Shall We Play A Game?

Elisabeth Garson, Steel Owl, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and Howard McCabe, Dream Syndicate, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Learning can be boring. 

How do you make it fun? How do you make it work? 

Games, experiences and surprise. 

We'll show you why it works scientifically, and we're going to prove the power of game-based learning. You will play a game during the session -- and you’ll remember what you’ve learned.

In an age of fast-paced, high energy, screen-based engagement, getting content to stick is a challenge. Games and experience are proven to create engagement, hold interest, and boost retention. Science proves it and Fortune 500 companies do it.

This densely packed, 60-minute seminar showcases the power of experience and games in learning. Elisabeth Garson of Steel Owl Productions and Howard McCabe of Dream Syndicate take you behind the scenes of corporate gamification, presenting statistics, facts, and a look at how companies are using games and experiences to train with goal-driven content.  They’ll also show you training-based games including table top games, AR games, VR games, learning-based escape rooms — and more.

Inclusive Mindsets for a Responsible Learning Design Practice

Nusrat Ahmed, IDEO, New York, New York, USA

As you grow in your personal practice of design thinking, it is critical to develop inclusive mindsets to understand your own perspectives, the perspectives of others, and how they influence collaboration in designing online learning experiences.

Inclusivity happens when we design solutions that consider people of all backgrounds. Mindsets are the ways in which you approach people, the posture, expectations, and attitudes that you hold towards them. Without inclusive mindsets, your biases towards others may lead to limited insights and incorrect solutions when building out an online learning experience. They can even cause harm, perpetuate inequalities or reinforce institutional biases.

Intelligent Digital Humans for Bias-Free Recruitment Interviews (Virtual Talk)

Fernando Salvetti, Ph.D., Logosnet LLC, Houston, Texas, USA and Barbara Bertagni, Ph.D., Logosnet LLC, Houston, Texas, USA

We have created a new generation of avatars with social intelligence, who are capable not only of presenting a wide variety of topics in a dynamic and engaging manner, but also of interacting with the audience and communicating emotions and moods. We customize avatars for role plays, building them as real interlocutors who facilitate training in how to handle difficult conversations by including aspects such as non-verbal communication, different communication styles, and diversity. Coaching through avatars accelerates learning from experience without the risks associated with learning in the field. At the end of each interview, timely feedback is provided so that you can work out how to enhance your performance.

Supporting Digital Intelligence Workers Engaged in Professionalizing Self-Directed Learning Practices

Laurence Lachapelle-Bégin, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada

In the province of Québec (Canada), approximately 45,000 people work in digital intelligence (DI), which combines specialties of data science and artificial intelligence. The specificities of DI technologies combined with the acceleration of technological progress make the initial training of DI professionals insufficient to maintain competence throughout their career. Therefore, the ability for self-directed learning, i.e., taking charge of one's own learning practice, is critical in the workplace and is a significant hiring factor in the DI sector (Cayrat et al., 2021). As the demand for DI professionals grows, it becomes a priority to examine the self-directed learning experiences and needs of these critical actors, as well as how organizations facilitate (or hinder) this aspect of their professional development. In response to the accelerated evolution of organizational structures and digital tools in the workplace (World Economic Forum, 2021), which contributes to the transfer of the responsibility for learning to employees (Kersh, 2015), this research aims to analyze the dynamics between DI workers engaged in professionalizing self-directed learning practices and their organization.

How to Achieve Long-Lasting Learning and the Role That E-training Can Play

Frederik von Salzen, PINKTUM, Bavaria, Germany

In the era of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), professional development has become a vital part of the daily life of both companies and their employees. The establishment and implementation of suitable and modern blended learning journeys is the first major challenge, but it's one that many companies are now mastering. However, an honest reflection a few months after this implementation is vital to reflect on what has really been put into practice. This may bring about a rude awakening for some companies, or it may also be a great source of motivation for future improvement. The goals that were set out to be accomplished may have only been achieved in part, if at all. So how can you achieve long-lasting results with professional development methods? And how can modern digital learning tools be used to achieve these results? These are the questions we will answer in our lecture.

Applying the R2D2 (Read, Reflect, Display, Do) Model for Today's Online Learner

Dave Bostwick, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA

One strategy for increasing student engagement is R2D2 (Read, Reflect, Display, Do), an instructional design model developed by Curtis J. Bonk and Ke Zhang. The R2D2 approach guides learners from concrete information in the ‘Read’ category to real-world decision-making and personal performance in the “Do” category. For those who have less experience with designing online learning modules, the R2D2 approach provides a reliable, intuitive framework for delivering content and incorporating meaningful activities. Proponents of the R2D2 model acknowledge that some learning activities cross category boundaries, but this can be a strength of R2D2 rather than a weakness. 

Exploring the Relationships between Physical Education Teachers' Teaching Self-Efficacy and Their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Pin-Chi Huang, Min-Hsien Lee, Chin-Chung Tsai, Jyh-Chong Liang, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, and Yen-Yuan Chen, Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Bioethics, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

With the increase of technology-integrated instruction in motor skills, it is crucial to investigate the teaching self-efficacy (TSE) and technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) of the physical education (PE) teachers who are mainly in charge of motor skill instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between PE teachers' perceptions of TSE and TPACK…

Fuel Your Top Five: Using What You Know to Make Real Change

Erin Donovan, Fuel Training Consultants, Townville, South Carolina, USA

Education and business have done a poor job communicating and sharing what they do best to drive culture and build lasting personal success. This session explores the intersection of these best practices and through a workshop style, interactive session will help you apply them to yourself, your classroom and your school. Through peer interaction and discussion, we will 1) help you identify your top five, 2) align those opportunities with who you are and what you want, 3) learn how to apply business practices and tools to your classroom practices and tools to make your classroom and school more efficient and effective, 4) show you how to articulate what you do in a way that can build community partnerships and sponsorships and 4) provide take-away digital resources that you can access for 30 days—on us!

How's Identity Being Learned in City Museums? An Identity Education Approach to Museum Education

Zhichao Lei (Jacob), Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

The project addresses the need to develop cultural identity of citizens in the urban context, and well as sharing of such identities with others as global citizens. This is seen as a necessity to develop the sense of one’s own identity and culture, as well as the understanding for each other, especially in the major cities of "immigrant nations" where people from different backgrounds live, work and/or study together.
In order to address this need, identity education (IdEd) is used as a framework to understand and present a solution, a way to support the development of cultural identities through city museum across cities .The needs for the inquiry in city museums and identity education through the institutions, and the theoretical framework to support the inquiry are analyzed and articulated in the paper.

Motivational Factors for College Success: A Focus on First-Generation and Immigrant Students

Meitong Lu, New York University, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

Despite the fact that first-generation and immigrant students are a significant proportion of the total college student population in the U.S., they have not been frequently studied for the specific motivational factors that lead to their success. This review thus intends to explore motivators that significantly contribute to the success of these students, and purports to offer insights for future research on this topic. This review also calls for U.S. higher education to create a consistently healthy and friendly academic environment that allows college success to be relatively more “accessible” for non-traditional college attendees, including the first-generation and immigrant students.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Programming Teaching Methodology Using CodeRunner

Siba Haidar, Ph.D., Antoun Yaacoub, Ph.D., and Felicia Ionascu, ESIEA Paris, Paris, France

This presentation presents our experience using a novel and innovative approach to teach and assess programming courses, which combines online coding platforms, automated grading systems, interactive visualizations, and offline materials such as registered lessons on YouTube. Our research focused on using these technologies to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes, and we examined the effectiveness of this approach through a comparison of student performance and engagement levels between the new and traditional methods. Our findings demonstrated that students who used the new approach achieved higher grades, reported higher levels of engagement and satisfaction with the courses, and showed an increased demand for more practice, quizzes, and revisions. We also found that students went through a process of refusal, objection, adaptation, and finally acceptance and adoption of the new approach. Overall, our research provides strong evidence that the combination of online and offline materials, along with the use of modern teaching technologies, can significantly enhance the quality of programming courses and contribute to the ongoing revolution in teaching. Our findings have important implications for the field of informatics education and can guide educators in their efforts to adopt innovative and effective teaching methods.

The Quest for Success: Surviving an Ever-Changing Landscape

Natalie Brooks, IBM, Bolingbrook, Illinois, USA

It starts at the top. Corporate America has to believe that training and education are critical to success, especially as L&D programs are not typically known as revenue producers. The evidence exists — for example, fully certified teams achieve 80% greater improvement in reducing IT budget* — yet L&D programs still find it difficult to gain traction within large enterprises without top-level support. And once you win over the C-suite, how do you convince mid-management and the rank and file to support your efforts and help you fulfill your mission — to educate and inform employees, partners, and clients — and grow the company’s bottom line?

AI: It's Not Here to Steal Your Job; It's Going to Give You a Better One!

Kasara Weinrich, ADP, Lehighton, Pennsylvania, USA

When I say "AI" or Artificial Intelligence to a group of Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers - they imagine red-eyed lethal robots, or experience something akin to a Pavlovian response of panic and anxiety.   When I say AI or Artificial Intelligence to Gen Zers,  they're like "bruh. I love Siri."  Generationally, we're still hesitant to embrace AI as a tool for the better, and I'm here to convince you that you should see it in that light.  First, the robots are not coming for your jobs (yet).  They simply aren't capable at this point.  However, there are two ways in which Artificial Intelligence can give you a better job: first, it can automate aspects of your role that are hard, but don't have to be.  If you can automate it, you should!  Second, AI and ML jobs are on the rise, and most of these solutions still require a layer of human interactivity to be successful - so you could be upskilling your way to a new career…   

Utilizing Reflection Questions on Undergraduate Examinations to Amplify Metacognition and Facilitate Learner Agency

Allan MacKenzie, Ph.D., McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Most engineering and technology-focused program curricula are firmly fixated on the required technical skills to meet the particular profession's needs. Yet, in today's rapidly changing, globalized world, engineers and technologists need more than technical competencies to meet the requirements of their professional work. Reflection, or the contemplative dimension of personal learning, has not historically received much attention in engineering education, despite calls for more significant consideration of reflection…

How to Help Teams Change their Work Habits toward Asynchronous Ways of Working

Niels Anhalt, grohwuman.io, Cologne, Germany

Changing habits is hard - especially when a whole team wants to change their daily work routines toward more asynchronous ways of working. One training or workshop is not enough to change habits permanently. A more elaborated approach is needed. Achieving habit changes requires a unique blend of learning methods. Asynchronous micro-learning units, automated nudging messages, self-organized team workshops, and live online coaching sessions make up a 9-week team habit change program. We will take a closer look at the deeper concept of habit change and how the methods are combined. 

Micro-Credentials: A New Continuing Education Format in Academic Education and Training in Europe

Gabriela Brezowar and Dario Bachinger, Technikum Wien Academy, Vienna, Austria 

The way we work, live, and learn has changed a lot in recent years. Technological advances, pandemics, a new generation of learners, increasing diversity in learning groups - all this means that training and learning opportunities must be adapted to new conditions. In addition to work and family, employees not only lack the time, but often also the financial means to attend longer training or further education. Since the half-life of many professional competences is only about five years, professional qualifications should be updated almost permanently. In fact, it is estimated that the skills of about half of the workforce will need to be fundamentally adapted in the next two to five years. Reskilling and upskilling are urgently needed. New short, more flexible learning formats in continuing education can support this. 

Beyond Limits: Exploring the Possibilities for Use of the Metaverse to Teach Social Work Skills

Angela Bullock, Ph.D., University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., USA, Alex Colvin, Ph.D., University of North Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA, and M. Sebrena Jackson, Ph.D., University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA

As social work continues to be one of the fastest-growing professions, the need to prepare future practitioners with the skills and tools needed to address global challenges is imperative. The CSWE Futures Report reminds us of the need for social work to “leverage emerging technologies to enhance our practice at all levels.” For this reason, the profession must work to explore the use of “cutting-edge technologies to advance social justice.” 

Erasing the In-Person vs. Online Learning Dichotomy: Providing a 360-Degree Digital Experience

Nada Dabbagh, Ph.D., George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

The 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report states that technology trends have enabled the dramatic acceleration of blended or hybrid models for course delivery and in particular learning models that enable flexible movement between remote and in-person experiences. In this presentation, Dabbagh takes this emerging development further and argues that the distinction between online, blended, or in-person learning is no longer relevant. Rather, institutions should focus on the totality of the learning experience and work towards developing a robust 360-degree digital learning ecosystem that adopts a sociomaterial perspective on how people learn. 

Behavior Spotting - A Psychological First-Aid Training for Leaders

Aparna Samuel Balasundaram, Bindiya Lakshmi Raghunath, and Jayshree Sarda, Wipro, Georgetown, Texas, USA

A wholesome approach towards employee wellbeing should be comprised of multileveled and multifaceted wellbeing initiatives ranging from the individual to the leadership/organizational level. Extensive research shows leadership styles have direct impact on employee wellbeing. While numerous wellbeing programs catering to an individual exist, investing in building mindful leadership is equally important. 

Building Trust through Training

Heather Burright, Skill Masters Market LLC, Chicago, Illinois, USA

No more hierarchy. Radical flexibility. Data is showing a shift away from our traditional approaches to work. And, while all this change is happening, we are experiencing change fatigue at higher rates. To be successful, organizations need to create strong, trusting teams where people feel capable, cared for, and trusted. In this session, we will explore how talent management leaders can facilitate cross-functional relationships, create allies, and build trust through training.