Annual Summer Institute

Keynote Presentation: Inclusive Design with an Impact: Efficient and Effective Strategies to Motivate Student Learning

Presenter: Dr. Christina Katopodis, Mellon Senior Research Associate at the City University of New York

Description: How do we make the transition from the hierarchical, inequitable, output-driven academy we inherited from the nineteenth century to a higher education that empowers all students to be their own best selves, modeling a more democratic, flourishing, and just society? How do we make this transition in our own classrooms? In this interactive talk, Dr. Christina Katopodis, coauthor with Cathy N. Davidson of the award-winning book, The New College Classroom (Harvard University Press, 2022), presents what the latest science of learning tells us about inclusive learning. She shares teaching strategies that anyone can adapt easily and effectively in every field and grab-and-go activities that educators around the world are using successfully every day to ensure their students’ lifelong success–and to revitalize their own commitment to a better world.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. No Code, All Care: Creating a Custom GPT to Empower Exploratory Students

Presenters: Adam Mayer, Director for University College Career and Academic Programming, & Albert Antomattei, Academic Program Coordinator

Description: In this 45-minute presentation, we will explore how University College utilized no-code Custom GPT technology to create Major Mentor—a virtual, chat-based career advising resource designed to support pre-major students in their journey toward academic and career paths. With a focus on intentional design and ethical AI use, Major Mentor fosters a warm, supportive environment while helping students explore majors, clarify goals, and connect with campus resources. This session will offer practical insights into the development process, including the curation of Montclair-specific knowledge bases, as well as conversation guidelines to ensure ethical responses. Attendees will be given access to the Guide to Creating a Custom GPT with ChatGPT.

2. Educating the Post-Covid Scholar: Strategies for Fostering Inclusive and Engaging Learning Environments with Cultural Competency

Presenters: Dr. Daniel Jean, Associate Provost for Educational Opportunity and Success Programs

Description: This interactive workshop addresses the unique challenges faced by educators and scholars in the post-pandemic academic landscape. Drawing from evidence-based practices and participant experiences, we will explore strategies to rebuild scholar engagement, address learning gaps, and create culturally responsive learning environments that support the holistic development of the “Post-Covid Scholar.”

3. Curriculum That Works: Designing an Asynchronous Workplace Writing Course

Presenters: Dr. Jacqueline Regan, Associate Teaching Professor, Sarah Ghoshal, Associate Teaching Professor, Nate Huseman, Assistant Teaching Professor, & Joseph Yankus, Instructional Designer

Description: As part of the Montclair Unbound initiative to expand online offerings, three Writing faculty partnered with an instructional designer from Instructional Technology and Design Services (ITDS) to reimagine a workplace writing curriculum for asynchronous learners. This session traces their collaborative journey, from deconstructing the original course to redesigning it for flexible, online delivery. Attendees will gain insight into key design decisions, strategies for aligning content with workplace competencies, and takeaways from the first pilot’s student feedback and outcomes. Future goals to adapt the course for hybrid use and continuing education offerings will also be explored.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. And the Award Goes To…

Presenter: Dr. Michele Rigolizzo, Associate Professor in the Management Department

Description: This classroom activity leverages AI to help students frame certain types of workplace conflict in terms of cultural differences, rather than individual flaws. This framing enables students to develop skills to identify and manage workplace conflict in a way that recognizes and respects employees’ cultural backgrounds and values. The exercise combines Erin Meyer’s Culture Map, which delineates eight dimensions upon which cultures vary in their interpersonal interactions and approaches to work, with AI’s generative ability. Students are tasked with using AI to write a 3-minute script of a conversation that illustrates a workplace conflict based on one of the Culture Map dimensions. Students must edit the script for accuracy to deepen their understanding of cultural differences. They then act out the scripts, vote, and receive awards for Best Actor and Best Script. In doing so, the exercise teaches students some of the uses and limits of AI capability and illustrates how workplace conflict can be rooted in cultural, rather than interpersonal, differences.

2. Engaging Graduate Students in Online Research Courses

Presenter: Dr. Brenda Marshall, Professor in the School of Nursing

Description: Identify the need for engaged learning pedagogy for graduate students, especially nurses and other healthcare providers to increase research literacy. Strategies- Powerpoint presentation, 5 minute writing assignment -5 minute peer review activity – discussion and presentation of research related to utilization of AI in evaluating engaged learning pedagogy in online asynchronous research classes. Evaluate the impact of peer review as a constructive learning tool. Describe the role of AI in qualitative and quantitative research. Engage in research projects across nursing academic preparation. Collaborate with professors to support increased engagement in pedagogical research and publications.

3. Teaching Neuroscience through a Multi-user Virtual Reality Experience

Presenters: Dr. Elliot Hu-Au, Assistant Professor, Anthony Reyes, CAHSI Research Assistant, & Siva Chandra Kakarlapudi, School of Computing Lab Assistant

Description: In collaboration with BIO 319: Genes, Brains, and Behaviors, we’ve developed a virtual reality (VR) app that allows users to have an immersive experience of studying the brain. Initially, this was an individual experience but recently we’ve completed a multi-user version where multiple learners can be in the same virtual room together. This enables the potential for more social learning experiences and expert/novice sessions. During the session, we plan on having some of the participants try on a VR headset and join us in the virtual learning space. We will share some preliminary results of our recent study and are open to pedagogical insights with this tool that others may have.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. Building a Community of Trust in the Classroom: AI and Its Ethical Considerations

Presenters: Jacob Bilek, Research & Instruction Librarian (STEM), & Justin Savage, Interim Head for Access Services & Resource Sharing

Description: The emergence and proliferation of generative artificial intelligence tools has had major impacts in and beyond the classroom. This presentation will outline a variety of ethical considerations with regards to the use of AI tools in teaching and learning. By developing a firm understanding of the risks and benefits posed by AI use and misuse, instructors may enter into a frank and transparent conversation with their students about their own use and experience with AI, giving students context to the policies prescribed to their class and developing trust amongst student and instructor. Through an ethical examination of AI’s potential benefits and harms, instructors can thoughtfully and critically design meaningful and impactful learning experiences at the course and assignment level that will empower students, rather than disengage them. This presentation will tackle AI and ethics from a variety of perspectives–user privacy, attribution, environmental impact, financial equity, and student representation. Leveraging their experiences from working with students across a variety of disciplines, the presenters will address each of these topics in a slide show presentation, dedicating time for large or small group discussions.

2. Group Work Without the Groans: Cultivate a Collaborative Mindset and Digital Literacy

Presenter: Dr. Christina Katopodis, Mellon Senior Research Associate at the City University of New York

Description: Teamwork is essential to our careers and lives. Some project management strategies and positive incentives help us to structure accountability and infuse joy into student collaborations, whether those collaborations last for just one class period or extend throughout the semester. This interactive session will cover ways to engage students in peer-to-peer learning and resource-sharing; self- and peer-evaluations; and ideas for digital projects. Participants will take away practical tools and ideas to integrate short- and long-term group work into their courses.

3. Creating an Engaging Asynchronous Online Course Environment

Presenter: Dr. AJ Kelton, Program Manager for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Description:In Fall 2024, a face-to-face course was cancelled due to low enrollment and the opportunity was presented to teach an online version of the same course. Having never taught an online for-credit course, there were some pretty standard concerns about overall student engagement. The department chair, in response, offered a challenge: create an asynchronous online course that addressed the concerns about student engagement with the course material and instructor. In response to the challenge a model was developed that has engaged the students while creating assignments designed to demonstrate original content.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. Using Spreadsheets for Invention and Revision in the Classroom

Presenter: Sarah Ghoshal, Associate Teaching Professor in the Writing Studies Department

Description: This presentation will showcase how to use spreadsheets for effective invention and revision in the classroom, as well as how grading for these entries is equitable and focused on keeping all students at the same starting point, regardless of past work or grades.

2. Establishing Student Rapport in the Online Classroom

Presenter: Tara Campos, Program Administrator for Educational Leadership

Description: From initial contact to the farewell, let’s personalize the online experience. Clear and frequent communication is key – and today’s students come to expect it! Tara Campos is the Program Administrator/Advisor and an adjunct instructor for the Educational Leadership Online Program, ranked among the Top 15 graduate education online programs five years in a row by US News & World Report (scoring 100% in Student Engagement!) Tara will share her successful program’s best practices for instructors.

3. Canvas and Career Readiness: Strengthening Student Employee Outcomes Using Learning Management Systems

Presenters: Dr. Chantelle Wright, Executive Director for Experiential Education and Career Connections, Armine Khudinyan, Employment Success Specialist, Jesica Hauser, Career Engagement Coordinator, Crystal Tejada-Breton, Employer Relations Specialist, & Abigail Hunte, Senior Technology Trainer

Description: Every year, Montclair State University employs over 2000 students as student employees. With such high engagement, student employment can prove to be a high-impact practice for student career success when aligned with existing experiential learning outcomes and integrated with campus learning communities. To strengthen our student employment practices and create a connected community of both supervisors and students, Instructional Technology and Design Services and the Office of Experiential Education and Career Connections partnered to launch the Montclair WORK (Work Opportunities and Real World Knowledge) initiative. Using a triangulated approach to data collection, the teams used community feedback, recommendations from the dedicated task force and student data to create a Canvas-based learning experience for prospective and current student employees.

This session will provide an overview of the scaffolded approach used to create the WORK course, highlight assessment practices used to measure effectiveness and the tools used to build the “sandbox” course. Participants will learn effective strategies for creating communities of practice, leveraging technology to support student learning outcomes and understand techniques for integrating career development into course design or student development programming. Attendees are encouraged to bring their preliminary ideas for new initiatives, as the session will involve an active demonstration of community building, technology use and experiential learning integration.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. Making the Montclair Syllabus Your Own: Essentials, Expectations, and Personalization

Presenters: Pam Fallivene, Lead Technology Trainer, Dr. Catherine Keohane, Associate Director of Faculty Excellence, Dr. Dana Levitt, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, & Dr. Tammy Castro, Professor of Biology

Description: The Montclair Syllabus easily conveys essential information to students, AND it is adaptable by individual instructors! This session will offer an in-depth look at Montclair’s official syllabus template—its origins, purpose, and how it supports student success. Come learn how you can use the Montclair Syllabus to support student success and to put your own touch on it. Dana Levitt, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, CCHL, and Tammy Castro, Professor of Biology, BC Natural Sciences, will share their experiences working to successfully implement the template to enhance consistency and communication across courses in their department and college respectively. We’ll also showcase examples of individually customized syllabi.

2. Design Justice in the Classroom: Empowering Students to Write (Their Own) Community Stories

Presenter: Dr. Nora McCook, Associate Professor of Writing

Description: This presentation explores how applying design justice principles (Costanza-Chock; Design Justice Network) to educational practices creates more equitable, inclusive learning environments. Drawing from my experience collaboratively launching Stories of Newark at Bloomfield College, I will demonstrate how the principles that informed the creation of this oral history project carried into a service learning course on Oral History Writing. Through storytelling examples from community interviews, public writing, and student reflections, I’ll showcase how community-engaged courses can empower students to take ownership over their learning.

3. Enhancing Online Teaching: Faculty Reflections on EOTL101

Presenters: Dr. Jinxia He, Lead Instructional Designer, Dr. Emily Douglas, Professor, & Dr. Fanny Lauby, Associate Professor

Description: Empowering Online Teaching and Learning: Foundations for Success (EOTL101) is a foundational course that introduces faculty to the core principles of effective online and hybrid instruction. In this panel session, Dr. Emily Douglas from Social Work and Child Advocacy, and Dr. Fanny Lauby from Political Science and Law will share their experiences participating in EOTL101 and reflect on how the course has influenced their teaching practices. They will discuss the challenges they encountered in the online teaching environment, how they approach course design and delivery, how to build an inclusive online environment and strategies they use to foster student engagement, and effective methods for assessing student learning.

Keynote Presentation: Collaborate, Communicate, Champion: The Three Cs of Interdisciplinary Undergrad Research and Teaching

Presenter: Dr. Kim Knight, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at San José State University

Description: Given the pressures of life post-graduation and the increasingly complex global situation in which we find ourselves, it has never been more important to foster dialogue across disciplinary boundaries. In this talk, Dr. Knight will explore the Three Cs of interdisciplinary collaboration — Collaborate, Communicate, Champion– as she has practiced them over her career. Concrete examples from teaching and research, as well as lessons we can learn from Black abolitionist and feminist thought, will be shared. These approaches will provide attendees with tools to integrate these principles into their own work to ultimately enrich the student experience and empower students them as scholars and changemakers.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. Using ChatGPT Plus to Develop Custom Learning Assistants: Enhancing Project-Based Classrooms with Purposeful AI Tools

Presenter: Dr. Steve Goss, Clinical Faculty and Chair at NYU School of Professional Studies 

Description: In this 90-minute, hands-on session, participants will learn to design Generative AI assistants using ChatGPT Plus, creating Custom GPTs to enhance student understanding, reinforce feedback, and augment project resources. Drawing from his research on integrating real-world partners into classroom projects, the facilitator will introduce a framework for building knowledge bases and designing effective AI-powered classroom assistants. Participants will explore ChatGPT’s potential to scaffold learning, refine project definitions, and streamline implementation. The session will also provide key insights from the facilitator’s pilot studies on AI-supported learning frameworks, offering practical strategies for applying these tools in educational settings.

2. EdTech Elevator Pitches: 9 Tools in 90 Minutes

Presenters: ITDS Staff

Description: Looking to level up your teaching with powerful, practical EdTech tools—but short on time? In this fast-paced session, you’ll get concise, high-impact elevator pitches for nine innovative tools that can transform how you teach, collaborate, and connect with students in higher education. Each tool will be introduced in a brief, focused presentation highlighting what it does, its pedagogical benefits, and how you can start using it effectively. Walk away with a solid sense of which tools align with your goals and are worth exploring further!

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. From Theory to Practice: Leveraging Custom GPTs for Teaching Soft Skills

Presenters: Dr. Wencang Zhou, Chairperson in the Management Department, & Qian Yao, Instructional Designer

Description: In this session, we will explore how Custom GPTs can transform soft skills learning experience by addressing common challenges such as inconsistent role-play quality, delayed feedback, and a lack of personalized learning experiences. Traditional in-class approaches often struggle to provide realistic, scalable, and adaptive soft skills training. By integrating AI-powered activities—including interactive role-plays, business simulations, and real-time feedback systems—we have created a dynamic, student-centered learning environment where learners actively practice and refine essential workplace skills.

2. Moving from “Do Now” to “Think Now!” Leveraging Tools and Strategies to Achieve Specific Engagement

Presenter: Dr. Denis Sheeran, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Mathematics Department

Description: How do you start class? Homework review? A “Do Now” question? Does this truly actively engage the thinking minds of your students, or does it instead just fit into a section of the lesson plan template. This session will explain why the traditional start to class may not be the best way to get the best out of your students, and provide new techniques and technology for moving your students from Do Now to Think Now! Participants will engage with digital and analog tools, many of which they will be familiar with, but in new ways that focus on the intent of our engagement and the needs of our students. Laptops and paper notebooks will be needed.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. Designing for Digital Fluency: A Collaborative Redesign of an Undergraduate History Course

Presenters: Dr. Jeff Strickland, Professor of History and Director of Honors EDGE, & Jean Moreno-Lassalle, Instructional Designer

Description: As course modalities diversify and student needs evolve, how can departments create consistent, high-quality learning experiences without sacrificing instructor autonomy? In this session, Jeff Strickland and Jean Moreno-Lassalle share their collaborative process of redesigning HIST118: Emergence of the Modern United States to create a flexible, adaptable course template for use across modalities. The redesigned course places digital fluency at the forefront, helping students engage with historical content through research, questioning, and the intentional use of instructional technologies. Attendees will walk away with practical insights into collaborative course design, examples of how digital literacy can be meaningfully integrated into content-heavy courses, and ideas for balancing structure and flexibility in master course templates.

2. Work In Progress: Adapting Learning Stations for the College Classroom

Presenter: Dr. Jerise Fogel, Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Classics & General Humanities Department

Description: To help with building helpful community and a groundfloor knowledge base for students, I have been experimenting with presenting information and encouraging connection among student learners with “learning stations” in my classroom, encouraging engagement with the material, active listening, and fun in the classroom. I will present some sample station plans as a Powerpoint and handouts, then show how it works by having the audience participate in a two-station learning session themselves.

During this time slot, you will be free to choose one of the following breakout sessions to attend!

1. What do students know about robust teaching and learning research?

Presenter: Dr. William Colucci, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Information Management and Business Analytics Department

Description: Students are asked to respond to a survey regarding their knowledge of the most robust findings in the teaching and learning literature. What are students aware of and what are they not aware of? Is there any relationship between student knowledge of pedagogy, and outcomes? What might be the best “low hanging fruit” for faculty to that might want to include teaching about pedagogy in their courses?

2. Public Relations Campaigns: Successful Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation, Confidence, and Engagement

Presenter: Dr. Martina Santia, Assistant Professor in the Political Science and Law Department

Description: Research has overwhelmingly demonstrated how experiential learning opportunities allow students to build and refine skills for job-readiness or graduate school. Despite the many advantages of experiential learning, many students often miss these opportunities — generally provided by student media, campus organizations, and internships — due to high demand, limited offerings, and financial constraints. Thus, creating opportunities that foster students’ growth in curricular competencies and career readiness becomes necessary for any undergraduate course.