Kathleen McNerney, assistant professor of speech-language pathology, described how she would use badges to promote learning in her graduate courses. I was impressed with the careful way she and her RITE team had thought through these issues and had developed an array of methods to document knowledge learned at varied levels.

Kathleen McNerney, assistant professor of speech-language pathology

Andrea Nikischer, assistant professor of adult education, presented on the increased engagement and retention see wished to foster by adding gamification to an online graduate course. It was interesting to hear her describe the different levels of confidence that adult learners bring to her classes and how she hoped to build and expand on their initial knowledge.

Andrea Nikischer, assistant professor of adult education

Nirmala Nutakki, lecturer in the Mathematics Department, presented on how she developed digital e-learning modules to support the learning of elementary math content by preservice teachers. The thoughtful way she described how to parse learning into smaller chunks to improve comprehension was very interesting. And I loved her comment that “math is not a spectator sport.”

Nirmala Nutakki, lecturer, Mathematics Department

Robin O’Dell, associate professor of mathematics, gave an informative presentation on how she had used Adobe Captivate as an interactive remediation tool to help students in MTH 122. Her detailed and humorous descriptions of how she mastered the Adobe program gained not only some good chuckles from the audience but also a clear appreciation of the hours of work she had put into learning this tool.

Robin O’Dell, associate professor of mathematics

The last presentation was given by Lisa Rafferty, chair and associate professor of exceptional education, on increasing student engagement and individualized feedback in an e-learning environment. She will use Qualtrics in the fall with her EXE 501 class to enrich student learning. I was particularly impressed to learn that she would be able to give students real-time feedback, so they would be practicing with useful information.

Lisa Rafferty, chair and associate professor of exceptional education

In each presentation, faculty members shared the value of their RITE team and others in implementing their technology to better serve student learning. It was an exciting set of presentations, but most importantly, each will have a positive impact on teaching and learning.

Kate Conway-Turner with all the presenters