Pre-Conference

OPTION 1: Engaging Learners through Zoom

Based on the research that Dr. Brennan conducted while writing the book, Engaging Learners through Zoom: Strategies for Virtual Teaching across Disciplines (October, 2020, Wiley Jossey-Bass), this workshop offers educators in all disciplines dozens of strategies to engage their students on Zoom (or other video-conferencing platforms).

Many educators are frustrated and overwhelmed with the rapid shift to synchronous, virtual learning, and need more tools to ensure learner engagement, motivation and persistence.  Both educators and students are suffering from Zoom Fatigue, and the workshop offers concrete methods to minimize this growing problem.

The Engaging Learners Through Zoom Workshop leverages the rapid shift to virtual learning into an opportunity to transform Zoom into a powerful pedagogical tool.  Educators can ensure greater equity with the diverse and inclusive content examples throughout the workshop that support all learners in achieving their educational goals.

Faculty, counselors and student support staff can acquire dozens of new strategies to use in both virtual classrooms and distance services, this is the workshop!

• Multiple synchronous online learning structures backed by cognitive neuroscience
• Dozens of active learning strategy examples with step-by-step directions
• Ideas for including diverse content across numerous disciplines

The Engaging Learners through Zoom Workshop offers teachers, college educators, administrators, and trainers the antidote to Zoom fatigue!

This workshop will be led by Dr. Jonathan Brennan, the former chair of the English Department at Mission College in Santa Clara, CA, and also served as chair of the Student Success, Learning Outcomes and Accreditation Committees, and Vice President of the Academic Senate. His teaching awards include Faculty of the Year (Mission College) a national NISOD Teaching Excellence Award, the Stanback-Stroud Diversity Award (California State Academic Senate) and the state Hayward Award for Excellence in Education. He holds a BA, MA & PhD in English & Ethnic Studies (UC Berkeley), an MA in Psychology (University of Santa Monica) and an EdD in Educational Leadership and Change (Fielding Graduate University). He served on the Academic Senate Distance Learning group, has taught online for over 15 years, and has led multiple workshops focused on best practices in distance education. He has authored five books including Engaging Learners through Zoom, On Course: Strategies for Success in College, Career and Life and a student success textbook for high school students, Choosing a Good Road. 

OPTION 2: Connecting Neuroscience to Equity in Education Effective educators are aware of the critical importance of applying the science of learning to their classroom practices.  Beyond general benefits to students, the impact of these practices on equity in education has become increasingly evident in the cognitive science research. Join us for an opportunity to discuss and experience the integration of neuroscience developments and equitable teaching and learning actions. 

This workshop will be led by Deb Poese, a mathematics professor, former STEM administrator, and current Director of Teacher Education Partnerships at Montgomery College in Maryland. She holds degrees in mathematics and education from Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State University), as well as an MA in mathematics from the University of Maryland-College Park. She has twice been honored with a Montgomery College Outstanding Faculty Service Award, and was twice a recipient of a NISOD Teaching Excellence Award. She became intrigued by research on neuroscience impacts on education through her leadership role with three National Science Foundation grants, and since then has been a workshop leader on current understandings of brain research and its implications for teaching and learning in a variety of fields. She has been a regular presenter at the On Course national conference, and she is an On Course facilitator.

OPTION 3: The 1-Day On Course Workshop If you’re new to On Course, this full-day workshop will provide a foundation to help you get even greater value from your experience at the On Course National Conference. If you’ve already attended the On Course I Workshop (and even the On Course II Workshop), you’ll get a great review of On Course Principles plus a whole new batch of empowering learner-centered strategies to add to your 1-day tool box. If you are interested in experiencing innovative strategies that engage and empower learners across the curriculum, this is the session for you! Led by one of our facilitators, Chris Strouthopoulos.  This is the same virtual workshop presented to college and university campuses across North America!

The 1-Day Workshop
SESSION 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS Identifying eight qualities that distinguish students who are successful in college from those who struggle.
Break
SESSION 2: STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT Defining the characteristics of learner-centered education, exploring the evidence from educational neuroscience and classroom research, and experiencing learner-centered structures and strategies that lead to deep and lasting learning.
Lunch
SESSION 3: STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING STUDENT EMPOWERMENT Exploring learner-centered strategies that empower students to become responsible, motivated and effective learners who thrive in a learner-centered environment, helping them reach more of their potential in higher education…and beyond.
Break
SESSION 4: ADDING TO YOUR LEARNER-CENTERED TOOLBOX Developing specific plans to implement one or more of the nearly 100 learner-centered strategies provided in the workshop as well as learning about extensive On Course resources for supporting ongoing efforts after the workshop to improve student learning, academic success and retention.

Chris believes in empowering people. We invite you to view his talk at TEDxGeorgiaTech on how fear of judgment negatively impacts group performance and the specific strategies leaders can use to build trust and create open, collaborative, and high performing teams.

Chris spent the last 13 years at San Juan College, where as a Professor of Student Success, he co-created and co-led a mandatory first year experience initiative. This On Course textbook based course helped raise the College’s graduation rate 143% over five years. He earned numerous distinctions including the San Juan College Distinguished Teaching Chair and the College’s highest honor, the Annabelle Friddle Faculty Excellence Award.

Chris’s teaching background is incredibly varied, ranging from instructing for Outward Bound to founding an alternative high school on a 400 acre organic farm to a year spent teaching in the Japanese educational system. He also works as a consultant specializing in leadership and group dynamics, training educators, administrators, and corporate executives.

Chris developed his personal leadership skills as a mountaineering guide in the Himalaya, backcountry ski guide in Colorado, and Instructor for San Juan College’s Outdoor Leadership degree program. He’s led mountaineering expeditions on four continents, including first ski descents in Alaska. The people he met in the Himalaya profoundly impacted his life, inspiring him to organize and co-lead four service projects in Tibet and Ladakh, where small teams of volunteers installed solar power in a remote village medical clinic, ecological school, and two Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.