Conference Information

Conference Program

8:00-8:45 AM - Morning Refreshments

Coffee, tea, and morning refreshments will be offered.

8:45-8:55 AM - Welcome

Gerard Flynn (Information Technology, Senior Director, Administration and Client Services)

Join us for the kick-off of the conference, an overview of the schedule, and an introduction of our keynote speaker.

8:55-9:40 AM - Keynote Address

New Ideas for New Learning Experiences

Kyle Bowen (Director of Education Technology Services, Penn State University)

Today’s students have an ever-expanding set of options for how they choose to pursue learning. In a "choose your own adventure" style, students self-select the technologies and experiences that will help them get the most from their education. As our students naturally apply new ideas to collaborate and learn, it’s important to explore emerging technologies that enhance learning in all of its forms and drive us to ask: what’s next? This season will explore a number of new ideas in a non-traditional hands-on way.

9:40-9:50 AM - Break

9:50-10:25 AM - Concurrent Sessions

Session A: 3 Teaching Hacks to Boost Evals and Reduce Stress

Alan Regan (Information Technology, Director, Client Services), Gerard Flynn (Information Technology, Senior Director, Administration and Client Services)

Join Seaver College adjunct professors, Gerard Flynn and Alan Regan, as they explore common pain points for professors and offer three teaching hacks using Courses and Google Apps to increase student engagement, reduce student confusion, and boost your class evaluation scores.  

Session B: Is Anyone Reading My Work?: Metrics for Evaluating the Impact of Your Research

Marc Vinyard (Libraries, Research and Instruction Librarian), Jaimie Beth Colvin (Libraries, Research, Reference, and Instruction Librarian)

Are you curious about whether other scholars are citing or reading your work? This session will cover resources and strategies for evaluating the impact of scholarly works. This knowledge will benefit faculty building a case for the significance of their scholarship for promotion portfolios, or those interested in evaluating the impact of their work. Presenters will quickly explain how the journal selection influences impact before focusing on methods for measuring scholarly impact. First, we identify powerful, proprietary citation tracking tools available through the Pepperdine Libraries. Then we will discuss newer alternative evaluation tools; do not be misled, altmetrics resources do much more than track Facebook likes. Please join us as we explain how you can use alternative metrics to measure your scholarly impact.

Session C: Using Mobile Devices for Student Engagement

Andrew Currah (Apple, Education Development Executive)

This session will highlight Apple’s work across the higher education landscape with a focus on the emerging role of iOS devices as an academic toolkit for faculty and students. The discussion will explore the possibilities for productivity, creativity, and student engagement in the classroom and beyond.

10:25-10:35 AM - Break

10:35-11:10 AM - Concurrent Sessions

Session D: Piloting an Online Master's Level Capstone Course in Psychology: Lessons Learned and Next Steps

Natasha Thapar-Olmos (GSEP Psychology Division, Assistant Professor), Judy Ho (GSEP Psychology Division, Assistant Professor), Varun Khanna (GSEP, Director of Technology), Carol Che (Pepperdine Alumnus, MFT)

In this presentation, four panelists will discuss their experiences developing and implementing the first online hybrid courses in the Psychology Division at GSEP. The panelists came to the project with varying levels of comfort with online teaching and technology, which resulted in a diverse and rich experience of the process of development and implementation. The panel consists of two psychology faculty (Dr. Natasha Thapar-Olmos and Dr. Judy Ho), GSEP's Director of Technology (Varun Khanna), and an alumnus who was involved in the pilot as both a Teaching and Graduate Assistant (Carol Che, MFT). The pilot took place during the 2016-2017 academic year and included the two capstone courses for the Master's in Psychology program, with a total enrollment of 48 students. The primary technologies used included Sakai, Adobe Connect, and Google apps, and data were gathered on student perceptions of the technology, student experiences of the course format overall, and student learning outcomes. In addition to sharing these data, the panelists will discuss lessons learned from the process and next steps in online education in the Psychology Division.

Session E: The Flipped Classroom: A Not-for-Cost-Reduction Platform

Ardavan Asef-Vaziri (Graziadio Decision Sciences, Adjunct Faculty)

By delivering lectures online using screen capture technology, students can learn course material at the time and location of their choice, when they are in control to pause, rewind, and fast forward the professor. Class time is no longer spent teaching basic concepts, but rather focused on more value-added activities such as problem solving, systems thinking, and active learning, as well as potential collaborative exercises such as case studies, web-based simulation games, and real-world applications. A flipped classroom is an online course because its online components must compete with the best of the online courses. It is also a traditional course since not even a single class session is cancelled while all the lectures are delivered online. This core concept is reinforced by a network of resources and learning processes to ensure a smooth, lean, and synchronized course delivery system. Our pilot statistical analysis indicates that a flipped classroom, when implemented in a quantitative and analytical course, can outperform its alternatives.

Session F: Experiential Learning through Business Simulation in an Online Course

Kyle Murphy (Graziadio, Lecturer of Strategy & Entrepreneurship)

Business simulations give students the chance to put theory into practice and have been shown to be an effective experiential learning tool. Leveraging an interactive platform from Capsim, the simulation challenges students to draw on their acquired knowledge to create and execute a strategy in a competitive and dynamic environment. The simulation has recently been successfully integrated into a flex BSM business strategy course where it was used during online sessions. This session will look at the pros and cons of simulation in an online learning environment and some of the best practices and pitfalls for leveraging a simulation in online learning.

11:10-11:20 AM - Break

11:20 AM-12:40 PM - Lunch and Leadership Panel

All speakers and participants are invited to a free lunch. This is a great opportunity to enjoy fellowship with your colleagues and enjoy a meal together. Leaders representing all five Pepperdine schools--Dana Dudley, Jim Gash, Bob McQuaid, Pete Peterson, and Helen Easterling Williams--will come together for a panel discussion to share ideas on how our community can impact student learning.

12:40-1:15 PM - Concurrent Sessions

Session G: iPads, Teachers, and Teaching

Reyna Garcia-Ramos (GSEP Education Division, Professor)

In Spring 2016, an IT grant provided for the purchase of iPads for presevice teachers in the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at GSEP. This research study was motivated by two areas of interest in the field of education: 1) at which point do pre-service teachers go from being the 'candidate in training' to self-identify as a professional 'teacher' in the field, 2) whether the use of pre-service training infused with iPad technology will allow participating candidates to develop as a technologically-prepared teacher for the field of education. This presentation will allow the researcher to present preliminary data from the first year of data collection on the two questions above. Additionally, it will present insights into the ongoing research study.

Session H: Technology Driven Management Education

Owen Hall, Jr. (Graziadio Decision Sciences, Professor)

In response to the dramatic changes occurring throughout the global marketplace, business educators are in the process of radically altering the content and delivery of management education. Today, the business community is looking for web-savvy, problem-solving graduates who can immediately contribute upon joining the firm. To this end, many schools of business are increasingly turning to technology as a vehicle for enhancing student learning opportunities and outcomes. The purpose of this presentation is to highlight some slants and trends in the growing use of robotic technology throughout the management education universe.

Session I: Sowing the Seeds of Creativity: Engaging Learners with the Genesis Lab

Landon Phillips (Technology and Learning, Lead Instructional Designer), Paul Stenis (Technology and Learning, Lead Instructional Designer)

Join the co-founders of the Genesis Lab for an overview of the exciting new pedagogy-based technologies now available to Pepperdine faculty and students. Attendees will explore a range of new learning opportunities from creating virtual reality movies to designing models for 3D printing. The discussion will include early successes, challenges, and future plans associated with the Genesis Lab opening.

1:25-2:00 PM - Closing Speaker

Why I Unplugged My Classroom

Chris Heard (Seaver Religion and Philosophy Division, Professor)

Should students be using mobile computing devices, especially internet-connected ones, in the classroom? Should professors? These questions never seem to go away--and Dr. Heard never seems to quit rethinking his approach. At the moment, his students’ use of mobile computing devices in the classroom is at a record low fo​r his classes​, yet his expectations for students’ digital device use outside the classroom is higher than ever before. In this presentation, Dr. Heard will share some of the personal experiences and research findings that have led him to largely unplug his classroom while increasing out-of-class computing.

2:00-2:30 PM - Dessert and Tech Gallery

Join us for dessert, a chance to meet and chat with your peers, and an opportunity to explore different technologies including The Genesis Lab, Apple, Dell, and others.

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