Fall Faculty Institute

Because it Matters: Engaging Students in Today's Colleges and Universities

Ernest Morrell, Keynote Speaker

Ernest Morrell is the Coyle Professor in Literacy Education an inaugural director of the Center for Literacy Education in the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives. Morrell is serving a three-year term on the American Educational Research Association's Executive Committee (AERA). Prior to this position, Morrell was the Macy Professor of English Education at Columbia University's Teachers College and was the director of Columbia's Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME). In addition to this work, he has been president of the National Council of Teachers of English and a member of the International Literacy Association and the ILA's Literacy Research Panel.

Teaching, Leading, and Learning through Compassion

Christopher Kukk, Keynote Speaker

This talk combines research findings in the fields of neuroscience and social sciences to demonstrate how and why compassion is a key source of success in achieving several interconnected goals in education (i.e., more effective teaching and learning as well as more productive teams/departments).

Christopher Kukk is the author of the text The Compassionate Achiever and Professor of Political Science/Social Science at Western Connecticut State University and the founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity and Innovation.

Academic Publishing: The Implications of Transitioning from Scarcity to Abundance

Jason Schmitt, Keynote Speaker

Jason Schmitt is a filmmaker, journalist, and Chair of the Department of Communication, Media & Design at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. Schmitt concentrates his research toward online education impacting a global audience, open access relating to academic publications, and the reproducibility crisis in science.

Schmitt’s documentary, “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship,” specifically investigates the economic and societal impact of academic publishing, the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier, and how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable technology companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google.

Working Together to Foster Mental Wellness in the SUNY Oneonta Community

Matthew Shapiro, Keynote Speaker

Matthew Shapiro is the Associate Director, Public Affairs for the National Alliance on Mental Illness-New York State (NAMI-NYS), the state chapter of NAMI, the nation’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and family members impacted by mental illness. A passionate advocate with a dual perspective of someone with lived experience as well as a family member, Matthew directs NAMI-NYS's public policy platform and communication efforts along with organizing NAMI-NYS's annual education conference and managing other special projects.

Matthew is the host of the NAMI-NYS produced television program Mental Health Now and is a frequent guest on Capital Region television and radio programs (such as Capital Tonight, Capital Pressroom and the AMC Roundtable) to discuss mental health issues. He has also presented at numerous national conferences and conventions including the CIT International Convention, the annual NIMH Outreach Partner Program meeting, the CNS Summit, the We Work for Health Summit and the NAMI National Convention. He also provides the family/consumer perspective at the Crisis Intervention Trainings held by the Albany Police Department and Albany County. He also presents to each class of cadets in the Albany Police Academy.

At a Glance Schedule

Innovative Pedagogy & Student Success

Dr. Kevin M.Gannon, Keynote Speaker

Kevin Gannon serves as Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and Professor of History at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he's taught since 2004. His teaching, research, and public work (including writing) centers on critical and inclusive pedagogy; race, history, and justice; and technology and teaching. He writes for Vitae (a section of The Chronicle of Higher Education), and his essays on higher education have also been published in Vox and other media outlets. His book Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto, was published by West Virginia University press in Spring, 2020, as part of their Teaching and Learning in Higher Education series, edited by James M. Lang. He also gives frequent talks and workshops, and appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay.

You can find him on Twitter: @TheTattooedProf.

This session will explore not only the research basis for Inclusive Pedagogy, but practical strategies for its application. It’s one thing to say “these are great evidence-based practices,” but unless we’re able to put them into operation in, say, four sections of our 101 course, the evidence doesn’t help us so much. We’ll examine areas of Inclusive Pedagogy such as sense of belonging, representation, and accessibility, and participants will have the opportunity to think about how they might implement these strategies in their own practice.

At a Glance Schedule & Session Recordings

Fall 2022 Teaching Institute, Inclusive Pedagogy

2023 Fall Faculty Institute: Supporting and Sustaining Campus Collaboration

October 26-27, 2023
Otsego Grille, Morris Conference Center

In the spirit of reviving our campus community, this year’s institute will showcase local projects, initiatives, and campus opportunities for growth and professional development. This will be an opportunity to see what our colleagues are doing, discuss what has worked and what we’d do differently, and discover the resources to move us forward on the projects we care about.

The aims of the Fall Faculty Institute are:

• Connect faculty across departments and disciplines
• Foster communities through discussion and collaboration
• Share experiences and expertise with pedagogical approaches and research
• Highlight existing resources and opportunities and identify areas for improvement

Registration Information

Here is the form to register for the Fall Faculty Institute

Institute Schedule

October 26, Thursday

• 12:00 p.m. - Lunch
• 12:45 p.m. - Opening Remarks from President Cardelle
• 1:00-1:45 p.m. - Lightning Sessions
  • Community Table- Sustaining Students and Local Farmers
  • The Galleries at SUNY Oneonta and Campus Art Events
  • Pedagogy of Real Talk: Teaching with Vulnerability, Empathy, and Compassion
  • Internal funding opportunities for research and creative projects; finding external funding opportunities and more
  • COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) at Oneonta
• 2:00-2:45 p.m. - Developing Innovative Student Assessment Strategies in a Community of Practice at SUNY Oneonta
  • Communities of Practice are effective ways to create interdisciplinary support systems across campus to share resources, ideas, lessons learned, and provide guidance for faculty members with similar interests. The Innovative Student Assessment Community of Practice has been working together for over two years to share experiences, strategies, and resources regarding the use of alternative grading approaches in the classroom, including contract grading, mastery grading, and ungrading. This panel of faculty members will share their experiences working together in the CoP, and discuss how they have used their knowledge to increase engagement and inclusion in the classroom.
• 3:00-4:00 p.m. - Supporting Red Dragons: Campus Collaboration for Seminar Success
  • Panelists from various units and roles on campus will discuss how the campus community as a whole can support the Red Dragon seminar. Panelists are asked to prepare notes on what their office does to support the RDS, what they think first-year students need that can be addressed by/through/in consideration with RDS, and suggestions they have for future collaboration. Faculty are also asked to consider interdisciplinary possibilities. Through discussion, we hope that some key needs, resource gaps, and opportunities for collaboration are identified. Every campus office has a role they can play—we encourage all to attend.
• 4:00-4:45 p.m. - Open Meeting Times (participants are able to interact with different campus groups throughout the room)
  • Pedagogy of Real Talk
  • Getting to Know COIL
  • Academic Women's Affinity Group
  • SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Awareness Committee
  • Reacting to the Past Pedagogy
• 4:30-5:30 p.m. - Happy Hour

October 27, Friday

• 8:00 a.m. - Breakfast
• 8:45 a.m. - Opening Remarks from Vice Provost Morgan-Zayachek
• 9:00-9:45 a.m. - Lightning Sessions
  • The GSRC (Gender and Sexuality Resource Center): How to Collaborate & Make Our Campus LGBTQIA+ Inclusive
  • Service-learning
  • How to Get Involved with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals
  • Connecting Careers to Curricula
  • PLACES Institute - Getting Involved
• 10:00-10:45 a.m. - Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom Roundtable
  • This year, the Faculty Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship is facilitating AI Tools for Instruction, a community of practice. Our working group brings together faculty and staff who want to create assignments and materials engaging with AI tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and others. We support a range of approaches, including integrating such tools into curricula and inviting students to approach AI critically. As our agenda takes shape, we hope to share some of the resources we develop with the campus community. At this roundtable, faculty from disciplines as diverse as Education, Business, and Geology will talk about their different interests, aims, and approaches to AI. Come hear what others are up to and learn more about joining us.
• 11:00-11:45 a.m. - Connecting Teaching Practices to Career Readiness
  • Last year, a cohort of offices, including the Faculty Center and the Career Development Center, convened a group of faculty for the grant-funded cohort, Connecting Career Readiness to Teaching Practice. Participating faculty created new or revised syllabi and assignments inspired by the National Association of Colleges and Employers' Career Readiness Competencies. This year, the Faculty Center is recruiting a new cohort of instructors to continue this work. At this panel presentation, we'll share information about this opportunity. Faculty from our first cohort will also present samples of their grant-funded teaching materials.
• 12:00 p.m. - Strategic Visioning Discussion (IRC 3)

2024 Fall Faculty Institute

Experiential Learning into the Classroom: Connecting Students to Opportunities

October 24-25, 2024

Morris Conference Center

Experiential Learning is a high-impact practice identified on campus as a main priority for our students. Learning through action, reflection, and collaboration can foster important skills and connect students with potential employers after college. Because the classroom is an equitable space on campus—all students enroll in courses—incorporating experiential learning skills and opportunities can ensure access for all students.

The Fall Faculty Institute will provide a space to examine how different aspects of experiential learning can be integrated into the classroom and connect with opportunities beyond the classroom. This can include any of the following questions:

• How do you prepare students and scaffold needed skills in the classroom for co-curricular opportunities?
• How do you embed experiential learning into a course or departmental curriculum?
• How can students connect with campus offices that offer experiential learning opportunities or support for locating them?
• How do we get student voices involved? How did they get interested in specific opportunities?
• How do you convince students that experiential learning opportunities are worthwhile and effective?

Keynote Speaker

Jacquelyne Thoni (Tony) Howard a Professor of Practice of Data and the Associate Director of Student Engagement at the Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science at Tulane University. She earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Fordham University. As a historian, her teaching, research, and mentorship focuses on data literacy, critical data studies, the history of data and technology, and the digital humanities. She is a founding co-editor of the nationally recognized and award-winning digital guide, Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online and has a co-edited volume, with the same title, forthcoming from Athabasca University Press (2025).

Registration Information

Register for the Fall Faculty Institute 2024

Institute Schedule

Thursday, October 24

• 11:00am – 12:00pm – Experiential Learning in the Classroom: Learning science by doing science through Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), Miranda Kearney
• 12:00pm – Lunch
• 12:30pm – Opening Session, Faculty Center staff & administrators
• 1:00pm – Keynote Presentation, Jacquelyne Howard
• 2:15pm – Concurrent Sessions #1
  • Session A: Engaging With Experiential Learning at SUNY Oneonta, Purposeful Endeavors Working Team. Come learn about the initiative to increase and support both curricular and co-curricular experiential learning opportunities (EL) for students at SUNY Oneonta and the current work on Purposeful Endeavors. Participants will learn about different types of experiential learning, best practices for student success in EL, and the NACE competencies. We will share several examples of experiential learning on campus across departments and will then ask that you explore opportunities for your own department in a guided workshop session.
  • Session B: Finding Funding: Support for Student Research, Internships, & Travel, Daphne Monie, Barb Hein, Audrey Porsche. We will present about the University Grants Team and the support we provide faculty & staff in finding funding for special programs, research, internships, travel, and other activities that provide students with opportunities for experiential learning.
• 2:45pm – Concurrent Sessions #2
  • Session A: Experiential Learning through the Model United Nations, Matt Murphy. I have taught POLS 3800, the Model UN class, for the past 4 years. This class prepares students to participate in the week-long Model UN conference in Manhattan, every April. The conference is a role-playing simulation involving several thousand students, where each college acts as diplomats from a chosen country, collaborating on different topic areas of global importance. The "Model UN" class is a longstanding model of experiential learning that SUNY Oneonta has been doing for nearly 20 years. I will explain how the class works in comparison with many other variations used by other schools. I will also discuss some of the class successes (as far as engaging students in experiential learning and high-impact practices) as well as its challenges, particularly after Covid.
  • Session B: Scaffolding Experiential Learning Opportunities Across Courses, Katie Griffes & Jessica Smith. Experiential learning opportunities in the classroom can allow students to develop hands on skills, connecting theories and conceptual ideas to real world application. We are approaching this concept through a scaffolded lens, bridging these hands-on learning projects across multiple classes, and showing students how content from each class can be used and expanded on from lower division to upper division courses. In this presentation, speakers will share the process of developing scaffolded courses with complementary assignments in order to create this multi-layered approach to experiential learning.
• 3:30pm – Lightning Round Presentations
  • Matching Alum with Student Experiences Big and Small, Sarah Portway and Laura Lincoln
  • Connecting Theory to Practice with Experiential Learning in Early Childhood and Childhood Education, Jacque Myers
  • Future Ready Fellows - Helping Students Make Life-Long Connections to Coursework, Chilton Reynolds
  • Bringing Mindfulness to Oneonta, Brian Lowe
  • Oneonta OpenLab - Eportfolios for Students, Ed Beck
• 4:30pm – Happy Hour

Friday, October 25

• 12:00pm – Lunch
• 12:30pm – Concurrent Sessions #3
  • 12:30pm – 60 min Session: Doing Oral History and Historic Preservation with Communities, Will Walker and Cindy Falk. Co-presenters Walker and Falk will share processes and lessons learned from more than fifteen years of doing community-based oral history and historic preservation projects with students at the Cooperstown Graduate Program. They will share resources and highlight specific fieldwork projects that have been done collaboratively with students, faculty, and local community members. The presentation will include audio and video recordings, as well as images of historic structures and other visuals. The focus will be on sustaining long-term, community-based experiential learning opportunities for students.
  • 12:30pm – Session A: Introducing the Experiential Learning Center Project Portal, Audrey Porsche. The ELC is a dynamic educational facility designed to provide hands-on, immersive learning experiences across various fields and disciplines. Rather than relying solely on traditional classroom instruction, we emphasize active engagement, real-world application, and practical skill development. Attendees will have access to the new ELC Project Portal and learn how to submit an opportunity for students to engage in experiential learning through any of the five offices in the ELC.
  • 1:00pm – Session B: COIL as Experiential Learning in the Classroom, Racheal Fest. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) offers a model for embedding experiential learning into the classroom. COIL projects connect students at SUNY Oneonta with international students enrolled at another global institution. Many COIL collaborations are project-based, supporting students to work together to identify and target a specific problem or set of questions together. As students collaborate across the disciplines and across the globe, they gain experience in communication, digital literacy, intercultural competency, and more. This session will share COIL pedagogy approaches and invite audience members to connect their own experiential learning goals to COIL.
• 1:30pm – Concurrent Sessions #4
  • Session A: Workshop with Jacquelyne Howard
  • Session B: Student Experiences with Experiential Learning Projects in and out of the Classroom, Kim Fierke & Katie Griffes. This panel of students who have participated in experiential learning opportunities, either as formal internships required for their major, research projects, or classroom requirements, will speak about their experiences in these educational settings. Questions from the moderator will guide the conversation, giving students a chance to voice their thoughts on their learning experiences, successes, challenges, and how these opportunities impacted their engagement and enthusiasm for the field. By providing an opportunity for students to voice their experiences, faculty will be presented with ideas to create more student-centered experiential learning projects.
• 2:30pm – Lightning Round Presentations
  • Experiential Learning in the Planetarium, Valerie Rapson
  • Learning Contracts with Student Teachers, Shawna Taylor
  • Walk this Way: Embodied Learning in the Arts and Humanities, Alissa Walls
  • Researchers Incubators for Field Experience Abroad, Maria Cristina Montoya
• 3:00pm – President’s Mingle
• 4:00pm – Happy Hour