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Teaching Like a Champ in Tough Times

by Regan A. R. Gurung and Elizabeth Yost Hammer

Higher education is experiencing multiple challenges--enrollment drops, student disengagement, faculty burnout, and an incendiary political climate. How do instructors find the energy, motivation, and resources to be effective teachers while also maintaining their mental and physical health? As veteran award-winning teachers who have collectively taught for over 50 years and have also both run Centers for Teaching and Learning for over 20 years, we will share a range of evidence-based practices for effective and efficient instruction. We tailor our advice to different institutional contexts and various instructor lines, ranks, and positions. Our goal is to inspire our colleagues to be able to stay in (and indeed love) the game.

Morning Workshop 1 - Feb 19

11:30AM - 1:30PM (ET)

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The Teaching of Psychology Incubator (TOPInc): Developing ideas for impact

by Garth Neufeld, Jane Halonen, and Eric Landrum

The Teaching of Psychology Incubator (TOPInc) benefits educators who have ideas for meaningful passion projects and initiatives but lack the time or expertise to successfully bring them to fruition. TOPInc helps individuals develop and accelerate the ideas they have for non-traditional scholarly impact, like starting a conference, blog, social media presence, podcast, book, article, community program, or teaching resource. Participants will be guided through the incubator, considering topics like mission, target audience, lead generation, funding, dissemination, and partnerships, and will walk away with a more defined plan for their projects as well as next steps. To get the most out of this workshop, we strongly recommend that attendees have one idea in mind for incubation and development. 

Morning Workshop 2 - Feb 19

11:30AM - 1:30PM (ET)

Unlocking AI's Potential in Higher Ed: From Imagination to Implementation

by Jon Oxford

The biggest barrier to AI integration isn't the technology—it's imagination. Without concrete examples spanning diverse teaching contexts, faculty struggle to envision how AI might address their specific challenges and opportunities. This workshop bridges that gap through a public Notion database documenting numerous real-world experiments across Psychology, Statistics, and Neuroscience courses. You'll see live demonstrations of solutions currently deployed in my courses: detecting agentic browser usage through event log analysis, split-screen quiz systems that maintain academic integrity, discipline-specific course chatbots, interactive HTML modules, and meta-prompts for generating learning-science-based assessments. These aren't theoretical possibilities—they're tested approaches that serve as templates for your own adaptation. Through collaborative discussion, you'll identify which experiments translate to your discipline and teaching format. You'll leave with access to the complete database, specific prompts and techniques, and a framework for systematic experimentation. Most importantly, you'll leave with expanded imagination for what AI can accomplish in your courses—the essential first step toward meaningful integration.

Afternoon Workshop 3 - Feb 19

2:00PM - 4:00PM (ET)

Specifications Grading: Starter Pack and Expansion Modules

by KatieAnn Skogsberg

Specifications grading has been described as a way to improve accessibility for all students, maintain high standards, and reduce instructors’ workload (Nilson, 2015). It sounds almost too good to be true, but is it? This workshop will offer tools for those who are either new to specifications grading or looking for ways to refine their process. We’ll start with a brief overview, then identify shared goals for the session. Participants will work in small groups based on their experience, needs, and interests, completing activities that help them get started or fine-tune specific elements of their system. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a concrete plan you can use as you prepare your courses for the next semester.

Afternoon Workshop 4 - Feb 19

2:00PM - 4:00PM (ET)

 

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Enhancing Employable Skills Development with AI

by David B. Strohmetz and Natalie J. Ciarocco

Generative AI requires instructors to rethink how they prepare students for success in the modern workplace. Should "AI Literacy" be considered an employable skill? Can AI be used to help prepare students for post-baccalaureate success? What skills do students need beyond generative AI? In this interactive workshop, we will move beyond viewing AI solely as a threat to academic integrity to how it can be strategically leveraged to promote skill development. Using APA's "The Skillful Psychology Student" as a framework, we will discuss where AI may fit as students develop and strengthen their employable skills. Participants will collaborate with others as they consider how they can revise their current course activities and assessments using AI to strengthen their students' employable skills.

25 Minute Invited Address 1 - Feb 20

2:40PM - 3:10PM (ET)

 Engaging Modern Examples for Introductory Psychology

by Frank Ferraro

How can we best capture student interest, especially among large numbers of non-psychology majors? This presentation will help instructors promote student curiosity with engaging behavioral examples from updated research in neuroscience, psychoactive drugs, memory case studies, cognitive biases, conspiratorial thinking, and interesting lost contributions of early women and minority psychologists.

25 Minute Invited Address 2 - Feb 20

2:40PM - 3:10PM (ET)

Applying Universal Design Principles with Generative AI for a Culturally Responsive Classroom

by Sarah Strand

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines 3.0, released July 2024, addresses barriers rooted in practices that exclude learners with and without disabilities. Coupled with education research that urges culturally responsive teaching, generative AI emerges as a tool for fostering inclusive classrooms for a diverse student body while preventing burnout among professors.

25 Minute Invited Address 3 - Feb 20

3:15PM - 3:45PM (ET)

Leveling Up Lifespan Psychology

by Amie Muldong

This presentation reports on the redesign of Lifespan Psychology after a year-long pilot, focusing on the integration of gamification, interactive activities, and a signature service-learning portfolio. The course aimed to increase engagement, deepen understanding of developmental psychology, and foster real-world application. Gamification elements introduced competitive challenges and reward systems, interactive activities encouraged active participation and critical thinking, and the service-learning portfolio allowed students to apply developmental theories through community-based projects.

25 Minute Invited Address 4 - Feb 20

3:15PM - 3:45PM (ET)

Can Students Raise Their Hands During Asynchronous Lectures? 

Techniques for help seeking and building rapport in large hybrid classes

by Rick Hullinger

Left to their own devices (and distracted by their own devices), will undergraduate students choose to take advantage of extra practice and learning materials provided to them in an online/hybrid course? In this presentation I will introduce two techniques that leverage the format of asynchronous lectures to provide tailored help to individual students that would be impossible in a large lecture classroom. These techniques lower the barriers help-seeking and allow for immediate access to extra instruction and practice materials. I will present data from several semesters of my undergraduate statistics course to show that a large number of the students take advantage of the extra instructional materials both during the lectures and as exam review tools, even when no credit is attached to these learning opportunities. I will also demonstrate a positive relationship between help-seeking and course performance, and the benefit of the muddiest-point surveys for learning and rapport building.

25 Minute Invited Address 5 - Feb 20

3:50PM - 4:20PM (ET)

Connecting the Dots: Science, Society, and Students' Lives

by Jessica Pleuss

The disconnect between academic assignments and implementing knowledge in the “real” world (post-university) is a common frustration for students. I have developed an assignment to help with this frustration, which has been quite successful over several semesters of use. Called “Connect the Dots,” this culminating project is a creative cumulative learning activity in which students must somehow connect a) concepts from developmental science (though this easily could be another area of psychological science), b) a current societal issue, and c) their planned professional life. With a large amount of creative leeway but also guardrails in place, students research their three “dots” and propose, then create/implement a project that connects all three “dots”. At the end of the semester they share their project with the class and/or publicly. This assignment was originally designed to make clear for students that what they learn in class has connections in the “real world.” It was later revised to also meet institutional goals of being part of a designated Civic Responsibility course (a general education requirement), and most recently was updated to incorporate student practice with the responsible and appropriate use of AI. This presentation will explain the purpose of the assignment, assignment components/guidelines, share several examples of successful student assignments, and reflect on the instructor’s role in helping students to create high-quality products.

25 Minute Invited Address 6 - Feb 20

3:50PM - 4:20PM (ET)

Teaching in a Divided World: Instructors’ Approaches to Difficult Conversations in the Classroom

by Teceta Thomas Tormala, Judith Pena-Shaff, and Arlen Garcia

Psychology instructors frequently encounter difficult classroom conversations related to intersections of sociocultural identities, including topics such as race, gender, politics, sexual orientation, religion, and socioeconomic status. Given the current social climate of higher education, these difficult classroom conversations carry additional layers of complexity, leaving many educators feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable, and seeking guidance on how to respond effectively and constructively. This talk builds upon a previous ACT presentation with the addition of collected stories from 16 psychology faculty respondents. These narratives were synthesized into themes of challenging classroom scenarios and will be used to facilitate an interactive discussion and small group reflections. Attendees are invited to engage with these examples, reflect on their own experiences, and explore tangible ideas for how schools, colleges, and universities should resource instructors.