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  The Power of Connection: Fostering a Safe and Supportive Classroom

  Michelle A. Arroyo

  One of the most effective teaching practices is building strong relationships with students and creating a safe, supportive classroom environment. When students feel valued, respected, and comfortable, they are more likely to engage in learning, take risks, and persist through challenges. In my classroom, I prioritize getting to know my students personally, establishing consistent expectations, and fostering a culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth. By emphasizing trust, encouragement, and open communication, I create a space where students feel safe to ask questions without fear, advocate for themselves, and develop confidence in their abilities. This approach is particularly crucial for students who struggle with self-doubt or fear of failure. When students believe their voices matter and that they are supported, they are more likely to try harder, challenge themselves, and reach their full potential.

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  Teaching With Roleplaying Games

  Bryan Blankfield

  Roleplaying Games (RPG) offer a uniquely dynamic teaching practice. Educational RPGs invite students to roleplay as historical figures or character types navigating complex scenarios. My students have roleplayed as golden age hip hop artists, presidential campaign teams, and citizens debating for/against Maya Lin’s proposed Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1980. Any scenario is possible! The length of these games can span from one class period to an entire semester. It just depends on your objectives.

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  Enhancing Engagement and Accessibility With AI, Dynamic Camera, & Multi-Device Integration

  Jorge Fonseca Cacho and Benjamin Cisneros

  One of the biggest challenges in both in-person and remote learning is maintaining student engagement. Traditional lecture recording setups rely on static cameras, keeping the instructor locked in one position. However, research shows that students are more engaged when instructors move naturally throughout the room, using gestures, proximity, and dynamic body language to reinforce key concepts. Our solution integrates the Insta360 Link AI-powered facial tracking camera, which autonomously follows the instructor's movement across the classroom. This allows for a more natural, interactive teaching experience where students remain visually and cognitively engaged. Paired with a Laptop for presentations, an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro as an interactive whiteboard, along with the YoloBox Ultra streaming system, this setup creates a dynamic, high-quality learning environment where students—whether in class or remote—feel more connected to the instructor. This approach enhances focus, retention, and participation, making it far more effective than static recordings.

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  Enhancing Student Engagement and Support With a Discord Ticketing and AI-driven FAQ System

  Benjamin Cisneros and Jorge Fonseca Cacho

  As the CS 202 Coordinator overseeing seven sections per semester, I introduced a Discord-based ticketing system to streamline student support and engagement. Traditional methods like office hours and email often created delays, whereas the ticket system allows students to receive timely help from any available TA, regardless of section. To further enhance accessibility, we added a public FAQ channel that displays resolved tickets, helping students quickly find answers without combing through chat logs. This approach supports learners with shorter attention spans and builds a shared knowledge base. Additionally, we are compiling these interactions to train an AI chatbot capable of instantly answering common questions, allowing human staff to focus on more complex issues and continuously improving the course’s instructional support.

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  Designing Futures: Embedding Life Design Into Second-Year Seminar

  Janel Doll, Lauren Gatto, Chelsie Hawkinson, and Anne Jacklin

  In COE 202: Second-Year Seminar (SYS), students engage in Life Design to build purpose-driven academic and career pathways. We use design thinking to help students:

  • Identify values, strengths, and goals
  • Explore possible life and career directions
  • Reflect on academic choices in relation to future plans

  Life Design Portfolio — Includes:

  • Worldview & Lifeview reflections
  • Odyssey Plans
  • Decision-Making Matrix
  • Prototyping conversations and experiences

  Learning Outcomes:

  • Apply design thinking to life and career planning
  • Demonstrate reflective decision-making skills
  • Articulate personal and professional values
  • Connect coursework to long-term aspirations

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  How Not to Teach With Technology: a Lighthearted Look at Educational Technology Pitfalls

  Alethea Inns, Safiyya Bintali, Andrew Borts, Ted Weisman, and Lindsay Erdem

  Educational technology can be both a catalyst for engagement and a source of unexpected chaos. The Do's and Don'ts of Teaching with Technology: A Lighthearted Look at Educational Technology Pitfalls distills insights from IT support tickets, faculty consultations, and student feedback into practical (and lighthearted) DOs and DON’Ts. This poster highlights four key areas of tech use in higher education: Choosing the Right Tools, Setting Expectations, Avoiding Tech Overload, and Designing Intentionally, complete with comic-style illustrations and real-world wisdom. A companion guide, available via QR code, expands on these themes with additional examples, citations, and strategies for designing tech-enhanced learning that actually works.

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  Leveling the Playing Field: the Power of Pre-class Structure in Inclusive Education

  Andrew Kauffman

  Many students enter UNLV without prior instruction on effective learning strategies or class preparation, and their limited classroom contact hours further hinder the development of essential study and self-regulation skills. This challenge is particularly pronounced among students from underrepresented and underserved communities. To address this, I created structured pre-class activities designed to equip students with effective study habits and learning strategies that support their success both in and out of the classroom. Before each class session, students complete a “Pre-Class Guided Practice” handout, which includes an overview of the new material, clearly defined learning objectives, a QR code linking to short instructional YouTube videos I have created, targeted practice problems, and a reminder to complete a low-stakes pre-class Canvas quiz. These pre-class activities foster independent learning and skill development, allowing valuable class time to be dedicated to higher-level activities and more meaningful hands-on engagement rather than passive content delivery.

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  When Realism in Testing Backfires: Lessons From an Unstructured Practical Exam Pairing

  Jennifer Nash

  Physical therapists must adapt quickly and independently in diverse neurologic settings. To reinforce diagnostic readiness and self-sufficiency, students were not assigned partners in advance and received their exam schedule only on the day of testing. This format was designed to challenge adaptability under realistic conditions, promote independent preparation across all course skills, and reduce reliance on rehearsed teamwork.

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  From Page to Perspective: Book Clubs & Book Reviews Enhance Learning in the College Classroom

  Kim Nehls

  Incorporating book clubs and book reviews into my International Business Capstone course (UNLV BUS 498) offered a dynamic and fun learning experience that enhanced both academic development and personal growth. Following this assignment, students demonstrated strengthened skills in critical thinking, collaboration, and global awareness.

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  Using a Fourth-Generation Behavioral Theory To Develop Competencies in Doctoral Public Health Students About the Application of Theory-Based Intervention Planning

  Manoj Sharma

  Asynchronous teaching is gaining popularity all over the world and at UNLV. In asynchronous teaching, both pedagogical robustness and the building of content expertise, especially for doctoral scholars, are mandatory. Since 2021, I have taught Advanced Applications of Social and Behavioral Theories (HED 762-1001) to public health students aiming to develop concentration-specific competencies set by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). The specific teaching techniques employed by me entail (a) the use of the fourth-generation multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change to motivate students not only to acquire knowledge and skills but also lead them toward behavioral incorporation; (b) pedagogical features for delivery as an asynchronous course with the organization in Canvas, recording all lectures beforehand in Panopto, incorporating case studies, interspersing optional live synchronous web meetings, and having skill-building activities in each weekly module aiding in flexibility to the scholars to pursue the course at their pace while still being structured; and (c) mastery of the content through participatory dialogue, building behavioral confidence, social support, and other constructs of MTM to develop requisite competencies. The course has been received very well by the students, with the mean course rating over the three years for the course on semester-end evaluation being 4.88/5.00, the instructor being 4.87/5.00, and overall being 4.88/5.00. The students apply the assignments developed in the course to publications, presentations, dissertations, and real-world settings. Instructors can reify multi-theory model (MTM) constructs and adopt some of the pedagogical features utilized in this course to their courses.

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  Helping Students Frame Their Educational Experiences

  Nathan Slife and Joseph Ervin

  What separates a good instructor from a great instructor? One crucial aspect of a great instructor is their ability to help students frame their educational experiences. This framing assistance occurs for both good and challenging student experiences. Instructors play an important role in helping students understand their educational experiences. An instructor may not recognize that they have such a role. We encourage instructors to be intentional about their role in students’ framing.

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  Using Game-based Learning as an Active Learning Technique in Nursing Education Classes

  Margaret Trnka

  In nursing education it is essential to prepare the students for complex clinical settings. The use of active learning activities such as game-based learning combines nursing content with gaming to increase engagement, knowledge retention, and critical thinking. This poster presentation shares information on game-based learning, how to use it, where to gather more information on the topic, and resources to implement game-based learning in the classroom. Game-based learning offers students an engaging and active way to learn in not just nursing education but all areas of education. Game-based learning is a strong activity that promotes deeper learning in both didactic and clinical settings.

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  Equitable and Efficient Exams in Large Courses

  Van Whaley and Dustin W. Davis

  How do we asses over 1,200 students six times a semester equitably and efficiently? Our program's need:

  • Assess learning equitably and efficiently in KIN 223 and 224 Human A&P I and II.
  • Set clear expectations, minimize anxiety.
  • Process > 7,200 exams per semester.
  • Give timely feedback quickly and progress through curriculum.

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  Uncovering Teaching Faculty Personas to Understand Comfort Levels in Using Technology in Their Online Classes

  Suzanne Becker and Ted Weisman

  Faculty’s knowledge about, and comfort with, the use of technology tools are key components in online teaching. Faculty are not only expected to be adept with basic computer functionality, like creating and editing documents and managing files, but also in navigating their institutions Learning Management System (LMS) and utilizing course teaching technologies and tools. Together these areas comprise a significant portion of design and facilitation of an online course and are related to learning outcomes. When engaging with the online learning environment, it is thus critical for each instructor to consider their personal level of comfort utilizing various online technology tools and resources. For faculty to be successful in the online classroom space, identification of individual needs and skills associated with teaching online must be determined, and resources curated. Over the spring and summer of 2022, 40 UNLV faculty across 10 colleges were interviewed about their experiences in online teaching with the aim to uncover prevailing themes that will serve to inform future interactions and professional development offerings. Growth through professional development, combined with use of online tools and targeted teaching resources by instructors can result in more robust course creation and preparation, elevated student support and learning outcomes, and enhanced student engagement and success.

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  AI and the Future of Academic Integrity

  Jesse Fitts and Rachel Bovard

  In this poster, we provide recommendations for assignment types in light of the AI chatbot ChatGPT.

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  Video Homework: Visualizing Homework Assignments to Help Comprehension

  Jorge Ramon Fonseca Cacho

  Multimodal delivery of information has been shown to be preferred to one mode of delivery. Instead of only providing homework assignments to students as a PDF, printed paper, or a Canvas LMS text prompt, we propose augmenting the assignments with a video explaining it verbally, or conversationally, and visualizing the assignment. Not all students process information the same way and some may be more responsive and engaged to audio visual content than just text such as visual learners or individuals who struggle reading long text prompts.

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  Counseling Skills for Educators

  Craig Hall

  The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is touted as a diverse campus. Indeed, students represent a wide range of demographics concerning race, gender, identity, socioeconomics, physical and mental ability issues, as well as non traditional students and those the intersectional representation of multiple demographic groups. It is incumbent upon educators to provide safe spaces for all students. This is an equitable practice. How can educators be more equitable? By using counseling skills in their education such as: empathy, active listening, belief in the capabilities of students, and avoiding labeling students. It must be noted that the use of counseling skills is not to have the ability to diagnose anyone. Rather, these skills can help students to not feel invisible while on UNLV’s campus.

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  Incorporating Career and Research Experience for Student Success

  Jenna Heath M.Ed. and Melikabella Shenouda B.A.

  In order to support students’ acquisition of career and professional development opportunities necessary for stable career placement, we connect students with vetted community partners through internships. To ensure proper workforce development and research skills, our internship program requires concurrent enrollment in COLA 402 - an internship development course - that is offered every semester, both in person and online. The curriculum is unique in that it is centered around real-world scenarios that student interns may expect to encounter in their workplace and/or during their hiring process (e.g., mitigating workplace conflict, interviewing, personal branding, networking, professional communication, resume reviews); such topics will enhance skills crucial to post-graduate and long term career success. Further, students are immersed in an engaging class environment where select internship partners serve as guest lecturers and provide insight into the needs of the local hiring pipeline. In addition, students hone their public speaking and goal setting skills. Internships are a high-impact experiential practice that foster students’ communication skills, professionalism, leadership, and other career readiness competencies outlined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

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  Engaging HyFlex: Bridging the Remote/In-person Engagement Gap through Instant Polling Slides

  Yvonne Houy

  To provide learning opportunities for unpredictable student needs during the pandemic, I offered HyFlex courses in Spring and Fall 2022. Students could either attend my class in person or remotely through WebEx. Engagement by remote students increased dramatically after I started using Slido’s instant polling to create opportunities for communicating opinions and could gauge comprehension through open-ended and multiple choice responses live.

  In the first half of my first HyFlex semester engagement among the in-person students was high, with a consistent 100% of students speaking at least once to the whole class during each class session. However, one-third of remote students did not engage with the whole class, although they reported engagement in breakout rooms. In the second half of this semester, I started using instant polling/quiz slides. Typically all but one remote student interacted with the whole class using the slides in each class session. The rate of unmuting and speaking remained the same as before the intervention, with a some remote students interacting with the whole class.

  In my second HyFlex course, I used instant polling/quiz slides at every class session. Consistently, 100% of remote students interacted several times with the whole class in every session. All students participated in Slido quizzes and open-ended responses. One half of remote students unmuted and spoke several times during each class session. While this increase in engagement might not have been caused only by the use of instant polling, it is an interesting pattern which can be investigated further.

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  An Integration of Online Education's Career Readiness and Life Design Badging Program into a Milestone Course

  Sheila Janofsky

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  Auto-Grading for In-Class Flipped Classroom Exercises

  Ed Jorgensen

  For technical courses like computer programming, in-class inverted classroom style, low stakes practice exercises have been shown to help student increase skills and build confidence with the material. One of the key challenges for the use of such in-class exercises is the overhead associated with scoring and returning such materials or worksheets which can be a significant burden particularly for larger classes. When such exercises can be converted to multi-choice, an automated scoring system can be used. Conceptually similar to Scantron, the system uses standard paper and is scanned by standard copy machines.

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  Collaborative Two-Stage Testing: A “Less Sad and Intimidating” Way to Test

  Andrew Kauffman

  Traditional individual testing discourages collaboration, increases student anxiety, and does not provide timely and useful feedback. Two-stage tests are an alternative method of assessment that deepens learning while also promoting higher-order thinking skills, such as collaboration, communication, and peer instruction. In a two-stage test, students first complete and turn in the test individually and then, working in preassigned groups of 3 to 4, answer the same test questions again. The individual part of the test is weighted at 85%, while the group part is weighted at 15%. To encourage total participation and address concerns about fairness, students are told that their individual test score will not go down due to the group part. This teaching practice transforms traditional testing into a valuable collaborative learning experience that fully utilizes UNLV's 75-minute class session and improves student perception of the course.

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  Modeling Collaborative Research Practices With Zotero

  Julian Kilker

  The early stages of research when students explore topics and evaluate resources are critical. Yet researchers can be overwhelmed by evaluating sources, organizing resources and notes, and working with collaborators. During these stages it is particularly important to model meaningful research relationships to support student success. I address these challenges by having students explore Zotero, a free “research assistant” application and web portal, as they work on structured research assignments. While Zotero is known as a powerful citation manager, my practice focuses on its features that are most relevant to storing, organizing, and sharing resources while working on both informal and scholarly projects. In my experience, a successful introduction of such features will encourage students to reflect on and further explore their own research workflows and collaborations.

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  Increasing Student Engagement: Case-based Teaching and Learning

  Necole Leland and Lisa Nicholas

  Case-based learning (CBL) is an active learning approach using hypothetical or real life problems that help learners develop clinical judgment and problem-solving skills (Bastable, 2023). CBL can be used in multiple settings, including the classroom, the clinical environment, and simulation. CBL can be used in most disciplines to bring real life scenarios to life for learners. Learners identify the problem in the case, develop multiple approaches to solving problems, discuss different viewpoints or assumptions, propose alternate decisions, and weigh consequences (Young & Paterson, 2007). CBL helps make connections that transfer theoretical knowledge to practical application (Billings & Halstead, 2020). CBL can be presented in several different ways, including an unfolding case study. Unfolding case studies “unfold” over time supporting the learner's ability to build off of previous knowledge. Cases should be developed based on the desired objective or outcome and the level of the learner.

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  Interweaving Research and Teaching

  Monika Neda

  This work describes a teaching practice that is based on creating an assignment for students to work on a research project. The students will use methods learned in the class to solve a research problem and then present their findings though a class presentation.