Teaching and Learning Symposium
Cultivating Student Engagement, Inclusion, and Success
March 20 and 21, 2025
Library Room 1312
The Office of Teaching and Learning and the UCSB Library invite you to attend the 2025 Teaching and Learning Symposium on Thursday, March 20, and Friday, March 21. This year’s program brings together UCSB instructors, postdocs, staff, and students to share ideas, showcase current research, and explore effective practices that enhance teaching, learning, student success, and inclusion across our campus.
We are thrilled to feature UCSB alum and UC Irvine Teaching Professor Ana Garcia-Vedrenne as the symposium keynote speaker. Her talk, “Specifications, Bundles, and Tokens - Oh My! My Journey into Alternative Grading”, will focus on alternative grading systems designed to offer a learner-centered approach through opportunities for improvement and built-in feedback loops. Dr. Garcia-Vedrenne’s talk will highlight the value of equity-minded grading practices, featuring examples and research drawn from her own large- and small-enrollment courses.
Thursday, March 20
9:30 am-10 am: Coffee and Light Breakfast
10 am-11 am: Leveraging Digital Media and Storytelling to Enrich Student Learning and Engagement
- Engaging Undergraduates in Ocean Science through Podcasts: Enhancing Connection, Belonging, and Career Awareness - Alexandra Phillips & Lucas Duchrow
- Writing for Web Content with UX in Mind: How Designing Webpages Leads to Student Success and Equity - Brian C. Ernst
- Cultivating Student Engagement through "Humans of UCSB" - Kalina Yamboliev
- Employing Digital Storytelling to Increase Student Engagement - Craig Cotich & Christian Thomas
11:15 am-12:15 pm: Roundtable: UCSB Library Teaching and Learning Resources
- Navigating Students’ Point of Need: Partnering on Information Literacy Instruction
Participants: Becca Greer, Kate Parker, Anna Harper, Tina Lin
12:30 pm-1:15pm: Fostering Collaboration, Equity, and Joy in STEM
- Designing a Reproducible and Collaborative Lab - Julien Brun
- Joy-Centered Pedagogy: Uplifting Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - Jackie Shay
- UCSB's STEM Equity Institute - Yassi Eskandari, Veronica Fematt, Nate Emery, Krystal Onyekwuluje
1:30 pm-2:15 pm: Supporting Transfer Student Success: Building Connections, Resources, and Inclusive Classrooms
- Transfer Connections Report: A Personalized Resource Guide for Incoming Transfer Students - Vanessa Woods, Malaphone Phommasa, Anthony Lopez, Nate Emery
- Creating a Transfer Receptive Classroom - Tate Universe, Caitlin Ng, Yasmine Dominguez-Whitehead, Vanessa Woods, Malaphone Phommasa
- Bridges Beyond the Classroom: Engaging with Students in the ONDAS and Transfer Student Centers - Matthew Nuñez, Denise Diaz, Kari Weber, Malaphone Phommasa
2:30 pm-3:30 pm: Roundtable: Near-Peer Learning at UCSB
- Near-Peer Learning with ULAs: Experiences in Social Sciences and STEM
Participants: Anna James, Renee Houston, Samantha Scudder
3:30 pm-4 pm: Meet and Greet
4 pm-5 pm: Keynote Address
- Specifications, Bundles, and Tokens - Oh My! My Journey into Alternative Grading
- Anna Garcia-Vedrenne, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UC Irvine
5 pm-5:30 pm: Reception
Friday, March 21
9:30 am-10 am: Coffee and Light Breakfast
10 am-10:50 am: Fostering Inclusive Learning: Addressing Complex Topics with Equity and Engagement
- Discussion of Science and Religion in an Evolution Course - Anna James & Morgan Gainer
- DEI+A Teaching Modules via UC Online - Chris Collins & Heath Pennington
- Tailored Messaging for Learning: Supporting Students in Navigating Difficult Concepts - Maggie Safronova & Alice Nguyen
11:05 am-11:55 am: Roundtable: Engaging Office Hours
- Engaging Students in Office Hours: Supports, Barriers, and Solutions
Participants: Eduardo Gonzalez & Vanessa Woods
12:10 pm-12:30 pm: Roundtable: Community-Building through Discussions
- Building Community through DEI Discussions
Participants: Olga Faccani & Nate Emery
12:45 pm-1:45 pm: Roundtable: Problem-Based Learning Rooms
- Insights from Teaching in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Classrooms
Participants: Jackie Shay, John Hartman, Phill Conrad, Mike Wilton, Ziad Matni
2 pm-2:50 pm: Advancing Student Success and Community through Engagement, Mentorship, and Near-Peer Support
- Supporting Student Success: The Role of Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULAs) in Enhancing Student Experiences in University and STEM Courses - Mariam Nawaz
- Exploring the Impact of Undergraduate Learning Assistants on the Student Experience in Organic Chemistry - Haley Flaherty & George Mimari
- Smooth Transitions: Emerging Insights from Undergraduate Psychology and Biopsychology Transfer Peer Mentors - Tate Universe
- Understanding Tone and Engagement in Student-Facing Academic Websites - Nancy Mahmoud & Keya Panchal
3 pm-4 pm: Innovative Strategies for Building Student Engagement and Critical Thinking
- Game On: Engaging Students with Jeopardy in the Classroom - Ruixia Bai
- Reading Between the Lines: How to Make Academic Papers More Approachable for Students - Jean Allen
- Scaffolded Formative Assessments to Build Critical Reading Skills - Sigrid Van Den Abbeele
- (Greek) Myth, Truth, and Chat GPT - Cyprus Roalsvig
Keynote Address: Specifications, Bundles, and Tokens - Oh My! My Journey into Alternative Grading, Dr. Ana Garcia-Vedrenne
Thursday, March 20. 2025
4-5pm, Library Room 1312
Alternative grading systems offer a learner-centered approach where opportunities for improvement are built-in via feedback loops, and where final grades are linked to demonstrable evidence that the learning outcomes are met. In this presentation, I share how I have implemented specifications grading in two distinct types of courses: a small upper-division parasitology course with 50 students, and a large-enrollment intro bio lab with 2000 students. In both case studies, the course structure was built around four core elements of specifications grading: (1) learning outcomes that are carefully defined, (2) grade bundles with clearly defined specifications that need to be met, (3) opportunities for assignment revision creating feedback loops, and (4) a token economy for added flexibility. Through analysis of course assessments, token usage, and survey results from these case studies, I will showcase how specifications grading can create a more equitable, learner-focused environment, and provide a framework for educators seeking to implement alternative grading approaches into their own courses.
Dr. Ana Garcia-Vedrenne is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine. Her lab's research explores how to improve STEM education by incorporating authentic research opportunities into undergraduate biology curricula. Her work emphasizes strategies that increase student engagement, metacognition, scientific understanding, and teamwork skills. Dr. Garcia-Vedrenne is actively involved in professional development for graduate student teaching assistants and undergraduate learning assistants. Her interests extend to parasite ecology and using parasites to advance ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral science and education.