USNA’s Eighth Annual Conference on Teaching & Learning: Faculty Development Workshops on Online Teaching

• CDR Brian Earp (Mechanical Engineering)
• LT Mark Jessup (Leadership, Ethics, and Law)
• Dr. Gavin Taylor (Computer Science)
• Dr. Melone Teichert (Chemistry) )

Insights from Teaching Award Winners (Video)

• Brien Croteau
• Brian Earp
• Matt Hawks 
• Carolyn Judge 

In Fall 2022, CTL hosted a book club covering James Lang's Distracted. This session draws on the resulting discussions. We summarize the findings of the participants, to include USNA-specific techniques to support student attention. Attendees will be challenged to develop ways to cultivate attention in their course(s). [I'm hoping to encourage other Distracted alumni to join in for a panel discussion. But I am submitting this placeholder before I forget or lose heart.

• Help! My Students Cannot Focus (Video)
• Help! My Students Cannot Focus (PowerPoint)

• Carolyn Judge

After learning about the concept in the book Ungrading, I decided to try self-grading in my engineering probs and stats class. It was scary but rewarding and I will share my planning, implementation, and resulting thoughts.

• "My Experience with Self-Grading" (Video)
• "My Experience with Self-Grading" (Powerpoint)

 

• Catherine Johnson. Nimitz Library
• Dr. Joan Romano Shifflett (USNA Writing Center Director and Associate Director of the Center for Academic Excellence)
• Dr. Emily Alianello (Writing Specialist, USNA Writing Center)

Citations: How Can We Help Midshipmen Get Them Right? (Video)

• Dr. Celeste Raver (Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership)
• Ms. Carol Graser 
• LCDR Steve Moffitt

Coaching is a valuable tool for leaders and organizations to employ to develop others. In response to the benefits of coaching and as a way to develop sailors, the United States Navy is currently focused on developing a coaching culture through a program called MyNavy Coaching. In response to this initiative, the United States Naval Academy is currently working on developing a coaching culture within the Institution and generating future naval officers with the skills to build coaching cultures within the Navy and Marine Corps. This session will focus on providing an overview of coaching programs available at USNA, how coaching is taught to midshipmen, and the basic coaching skills taught with USNA coaching programs and to midshipmen.

Coaching Skills for Educators (Powerpoint)

• Dr. Claude Berube (USNA Museum)
• Dr. Marcus Jones (History)
• Dr. Franklin Kenter (Mathematics)
• Dr. Ken Maroon (Computer Science)
• COL Mike Styskal (Dean, School of Humanities and Social Science)

Wargaming is “the practice of testing complex decisions in an adversarial environment.” At USNA, among our mental and moral mission is to instill decision-making skills among our MIDN in scenarios of different types. Our goal is to not only inform about the current efforts at USNA, but also to equip those interested to become involved in this effort.

How to Instill Decision-Making Skills in Our Midshipmen: Wargaming at USNA (Video)

"How to Instill Decision-Making Skills in Our Midshipmen: Wargaming at USNA" (Powerpoint)

 

Michele Maasberg (Cyber Science)

• Soft skill tools to enhance critical thinking among US Naval Academy Midshipmen (Video)
• Soft skill tools to enhance critical thinking among US Naval Academy Midshipmen (Powerpoint)

• Dr. Claire M. Metelits (Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University)
• Dr. Lauren Mackenzie (Command and Staff College, Marines Corps University)

In 2017, U.S. President Trump signed into law the WPS Act (Public Law 11568), mandating the promotion of meaningful participation of women in the formal security sector and recognizing their role in preventing, mitigating, or resolving violent conflict. As part of the implementation of the Act, the Department of Defense is tasked with identifying and integrating WPS principles into Professional Military Education (PME). This presentation discusses how several faculty members at Marine Corps University contribute to WPS research, teaching, and institutionalization efforts. Dr. Metelits and Dr. Lauren Mackenziewill speak to the outward-facing publications and inward-focused institutionalization and course offerings to provide a set of best practices for how university-level faculty can collaborate in the creation of WPS educational interventions for military students.

• "Integrating Women, Peace, and Security Considerations into Professional Military Education" (Video)
• "Integrating Women, Peace, and Security Considerations into Professional Military Education" (Powerpoint)

• Dr. Joan Romano Shifflett (USNA Writing Center Director and Associate Director of the Center for Academic Excellence)
• Dr. Emily Alianello ( Writing Specialist, USNA Writing Center)
  
  
  
• Why Write? Writing, Thinking, and BS in the Age of Generative AI (Video)
• Why Write? Writing, Thinking, and BS in the Age of Generative AI (Powerpoint)

• Ryan Crayne (Leadership, Ethic, and Law, West Point)

The session explains Army command and control doctrine on Mission Command which is about empowering subordinate decision making and decentralized execution. The session will then illustrate that the best teams - regardless of being in the military - follow the principles of mission command. The session allows participants to break off in to 1 of 7 teams that represent the 7 principles of mission command. Highlighted are videos / vignettes of teams leveraging mission command. Finally, groups relate principles to one another and discuss how diverse teams are built through trust and shared understanding.

• "Mission Command "(Video)
• "Mission Command" (Powerpoint)

• Jenelle Piepmeier 
• LT Nick Hermberg (Brigade Officer)
• Dr. Ann Judge (Midshipmen Development Center)

This event will feature small group discussions with prompts for those infrequent but high-stakes conversations with students. For example: A student makes a biased comment in class, they confess they tried to commit suicide, or they didn't show up to an exam because of a breakup, etc. In Call Sign Chaos, Jim Mattis talks about the importance of practice and training. We haven't been trained for some of these moments; let's work together to be better prepared.

 

• LC Santangelo, PhD (West Point Writing Program)
• Jason Hoppe, PhD (West Point Writing Program)
• Vittoria Rubino, PhD (West Point Writing Program)

Powerpoint and video of this session are unavailable

 

• Mr. Roger Isom (USNA Advising Office)
• Allison Webster-Giddings ,Ed.D., Capt (USN) Ret. ,PEO-IWS Research Engineer Weapons, Robotics and Control Engineering
• Melonie A. Teichert, Ph.D. Associate Professor Chemistry Department
• CDR Chad Redmer, PhD ,Chair, Economics Department , Permanent Military Professor

We experimented with a new plebe advising seminar structure this past year. This session which will be a panel discussion with plebe advisers from the AY23 cohort, will provide an opportunity for current and future plebe advisers to reflect on the year, share best practices, and discuss how we can best advise our plebes in the future.

• "Plebe Advising Seminars--Successes, Pitfalls, &Opportunities" (Video)
• "Plebe Advising Seminars- Successes, Pitfalls, & Opportunities" (Powerpoint)

• Dr. Ann Judge, Midshipmen Development Center
• Dr. Alexa Wilkins, Midshipmen Development Center

I propose an interactive session on how to weave/integrate mental health topics into the curriculum of the courses USNA professors teach. Some examples will be provided to attendees, but the majority of the session will be focused on helping conference attendees brainstorm with and for each other on how they can use their course to also teach about mental health topics.

• "How Can We Address Midshipmen's Mental Health in Our Classrooms? "(Video)
• How Can We Address Midshipmen's Mental Health in Our Classrooms? (Powerpoint)

• Dr. Joan Romano Shifflett (Director, USNA Writing Center)
• Ms. Lauren Segler (Learning Specialist and MGSP Coordinator, USNA Center for Academic Excellence)
• Dr. Emily Alianello (Writing Specialist, USNA Writing Center)
• Dr. Robin Taub (Communication Skills Specialist, USNA Writing Center)
  
  
  
• Connecting with Resources from the Center for Academic Excellence & Hands-On Activities for your Classroom (Video)
• Connecting with Resources from the Center for Academic Excellence & Hands-On Activities for your Classroom (Powerpoint)

•   Brianna Smith (Political Science)

Jigsaw reading strategies involve students becoming experts on different topics, and then sharing their expertise with the class. Adapting this for college-level courses allows the instructor to cover more material while encouraging more in-depth reading and class participation. In this session, I will show participants how to incorporate jigsaw reading into their own courses. At the end of the session, participants should understand the pros and cons of the strategy, how to enforce reading accountability, and how to build a class around students sharing knowledge instead of having knowledge delivered to them by the instructor.

• MAJ Brett Rocha (Mechanical Engineering, West Point)

Over the last two decades, escape rooms have emerged as an activity used for social and team building events. Participants must work in a team to solve complex puzzles by finding clues within the event space. These puzzles can range from word finds, math problems, riddles, or identifying clues. Escape rooms vary in difficulty but are designed to be difficult enough where they cannot be solved by a single participant, but easy enough that they can be solved in less than an hour. Recently, educators have explored implementing escape rooms as an active learning activity in the classroom for secondary and higher education. Multiple studies have been conducted in introductory classes, computer science classes, and environmental engineering classes. This presentation will discuss the use of an escape room as an active learning activity in a mechanics of materials course to improve students’ ability to solve an ill-defined problem and connect clues to the course content. The presentation will discuss the design, creating, execution, and both qualitative and quantitative results of implementing an escape room activity as an end of course review activity.

• Jigsaw(Video)
• Say Yes to the Stress: Mechanics of Material :Escape Room (Video)

• CDR Donald "Bucket" Costello and participants of Professors at Sea

USNA Professors serve a vital role in the mission of the Academy acting as the key pillar of developing midshipmen’s mental capabilities. The faculty are essential in developing midshipmen in their subject matter expertise and as leaders. The Professors at Sea program enables junior faculty to see and experience life on an aircraft carrier, providing civilian faculty with an aspect of the lived experience that many midshipmen will be part of upon commissioning. The program further serves to highlight the importance of building lessons in every classroom that relate to the experiences that midshipmen will face in the fleet. Through this experience, participants see real-time examples of what leadership looks like and how it is discussed in the fleet. This session will highlight the experience of faculty members that took part in the most recent Professors at Sea program in February 2023.

• Leadership Lessons from the Fleet: The Professors at Sea Experience" & "Ethics Across the Yard (Video)
• Leadership Lessons from the Fleet: The Professors at Sea Experience (Powerpoint)

"Ethics Across the Yard"

• LCDR Loren Crone (Chaplin Corp and Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership)
• Ethics Across the Yard (Video)

• Sean Morrow, West Point Combating Terrorism Center 

Elite athletes often engage in extremely rigorous mental preparation just prior to competition. The goal of this session is to provide attendees with analogous skills to use in the classroom.

• Teaching as Athletic Performance (Video)
• Teaching as Athletic Performance (Powerpoint)

• Dr. Celeste Raver (Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership)
• CAPT Andrew Ledford (Leadership, Ethics, and Law)

"Developing Leadership Developers: Discussing the Roles of Influencers" (Powerpoint)

"Developing Leadership Developers: Discussing the Roles of Influencers" (Video)