TYCAT 2020: Virtually Just as good
TYCAT 2020 Schedule
Thanks so much to all who presented, facilitated, and attended; your contribution to our TYCAT 2020 virtual conference helped make it a success! If you’d like to review a session or catch a session you missed, each of the titles below is linked to a corresponding recording. Thanks again for your involvement in TYCAT!
Tuesday, November 10
1:00-1:25pm: Welcome to TYCAT 2020! (Joel Henderson, Ann Nicodemi, Buck Weiss; Chattanooga State)
1:30-1:55 pm: “Buoy up: Enlightened & Thoughtful Discussion Board Posts that Encourage Course Learning” (Ingrid N. Mitchell, Southwest) (TYCATTalk)
“Buoy up: Enlightened & Thoughtful Discussion Board Posts that Encourage Course Learning” will provide some strategy into how to use discussion boards as a way to inspire course work practice plus class community. Some of the strategies that will be shared in using the discussion board will be found in prompting student/teacher participation with the idea of personal video submission to topics with typed discussion threading, provoking reflective questions or quotes to initiate post discussions, and pre-listed opinions so students can thread to connect with their own discussion points.
2:00-2:50 pm: “Encouraging Student Engagement in Virtual Classrooms” (Halley Andrews, Chattanooga State) (Roundtable Discussion)
With the increase in virtual and hybrid classes, instructors are finding that students are less likely to actively participate in their online class sessions. This lack of participation is problematic for two main reasons: 1) class participation often leads to greater student success, and 2) less participation makes it difficult to evaluate levels of student comprehension. To combat this problem, instructors are now finding creative ways to encourage participation by integrating various technological resources into their virtual classrooms, such as communication apps, video conferencing features, and online collaboration tools, among others. This roundtable discussion will focus on how we have integrated these technologies into our respective classrooms and the observations we’ve made so far. By discussing our successes and failures in relation to this virtual problem, this round table aims to improve student engagement and by extension, student success.
3:00-3:50 pm: “Cutting out the Gizmos, Axing the Gewgaws: How Much ‘Tech’ Do We Want In Our Literature Classes?” (Doug Branch, Southwest) (Rountable Discussion)
It goes without saying that most of us are, happily or not, using ZOOM or TEAMS in our literature classrooms (or AS our literature classrooms) now. But Covid-related exigencies aside, I am proposing a roundtable discussion in a fairly contrarian spirit, perhaps. I and I am guessing others have, in any number of professional development activities, learned how to incorporate new technologies into our literature classrooms. But I wonder if, as a profession, we have evaded larger questions. Have we possibly not often enough asked ourselves whether many of these technologies amount to little other than bright, shiny objects that ultimately distract us and our students rather than leading us more deeply into the literary texts we study? I would like us to explore this topic in a roundtable, while certainly welcoming and encouraging the participation of educational technology enthusiasts who might be inclined to disagree with this general proposition.
4:00-4:50 pm: “Virtual Essay Workshops” (Mindy Griffin and Mollee Shannon, Chattanooga State) (Roundtable Discussion)
This roundtable will ask participants what types of workshopping activities have worked well in the virtual learning environment. Questions to spark discussion include:
What types of content workshops well? (Full papers, single paragraphs, Works Cited, etc.).
What is the ideal time frame for a workshop?
Are students required to submit new or revised content at the end of a workshop?
What kind of and how is feedback provided for students during a workshop?
What are some shortcomings of virtual workshops?
Wednesday, November 11
12:00-12:50 pm: “Learning Support Brown Bag Discussion” (Kelly Ormsby, Volunteer State) (Roundtable Discussion)
Our annual spring meeting for Learning Support, typically hosted by TBR, did not happen due to COVID-19. Grab your lunch and join your colleagues from across the state to catch up and learn how our various colleges are addressing the challenges of teaching co-requisite writing courses remotely.
1:00-1:50 pm: “Escape from Azkaban: Turning Documentation, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing into a Magical Adventure” (Andrea Franckowiak and Janet Adair, Dyersburg State) (Roundtable Discussion)
Does Zoom suck the life out of your students? Join us to explore how we combat the dementors of Zoom. After a harrowing lock-down with virtual teaching this spring, we realized we had to figure out how to escape from Azkaban! Join us to experience how we turned documentation, quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing into a magical adventure. As Hermione says, “Books and cleverness! There are more important things – Friendship and Bravery.” Be prepared to participate in our workshop, and play with and take away what we do in the classroom.
2:00-2:50 pm: “Written in Sand: Finding and Maintaining Work-Life Balance in the Time of COVID-19” (Laura Matravers, Chattanooga State) (Roundtable Discussion)
This roundtable will explore the topics of establishing/maintaining work-life balance, managing the workload, and preserving our mental health during a pandemic that has re-shaped how we as faculty do the job of teaching English. Come and share your experiences, your strategies, your stories, your wisdom, your failures, your lessons learned, your difficulties, your frustrations, and/or your plans for doing better.
3:00-3:50 pm: “Making Online Office Hours Work” (Jenna Caviezel and Andrea Green, Motlow State) (Roundtable Discussion)
The most important addition to my office hours for Fall 2020 has been Calendly. It is a simple, free scheduling tool that eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails to set up an office hours meeting. Because Calendly integrates with Zoom (and some other video conferencing tools), a link automatically appears on my Outlook calendar and in my students’ email inboxes when they book a meeting time. In cases where Zoom does not work well for students, I am also using Google Voice for phone calls and text conversations. I hope discussion will reveal not only additional tools to assist with logistics, but also strategies we are using to make online office hours welcoming and effective.
4:00-4:50 pm: “Improving Engagement in Online Discussion Boards” (Laura Burridge, Kristen Bradley, and Kathy Sorenson; Nashville State) (Roundtable Discussion)
Are you tired of reading "great post"? We're using online discussion boards more than ever for our web and virtual courses, so let's get together and brainstorm ways to improve them. We'll talk about updating our settings in D2L/Brightspace/eLearn, adding options for Universal Design for Learning, incorporating FlipGrid, and more. Please join us for this interactive roundtable discussion and share your own ideas about what's working well for you and what you want to try next.
TYCAT 2020 Registration
All events will be delivered via Zoom and will require registration in EventBrite. Each day of the conference requires its own ticket, so be sure to register for both days. Free registration is available at the following link.