Registration/check-in and breakfast in the SF lobby.

Welcome
Jason Ball, Office of Information Technology

Welcome remarks by Jason Ball, Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer.

FAU Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer Jason Ball has more than 25 years of technology management experience in higher education. He provides vision and leadership to a 150-plus-member team that implements and coordinates cutting-edge information technology, media, networking, and telecommunications throughout the University's multi-campus environment.

Mr. Ball joined FAU after serving as the Assistant Vice President and Director of Information Technology at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, where he also earned his bachelor's degree and MBA. 

Update from FAU's AI Task Force
Anthony Ambrosio, Undergraduate Studies

Update By Anthony Ambrosio, Executive Director, Assessment for Undergraduate Programs.

Dr. Anthony Ambrosio will provide an update on the work of the FAU Artificial Intelligence Task Force. The goals of the task force are to ensure equitable access to AI, limit misuse of AI, and prepare students for the ever-evolving workforce environment. Dr. Ambrosio will introduce the new FAU AI portal and feedback tool.

Anthony Ambrosio is the Executive Director of Assessment for Undergraduate Studies at FAU. He has his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and specializes in assessment and measurement, program evaluation, and statistics. Dr. Ambrosio’s research focuses on program development, psychometrics, and teaching/learning environments.

Keynote: Embracing the Brave New World of AI
Kevin Yee | University of Central Florida | Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

Since late 2022, articles and blogs have been chronicling the meteoric rise of the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), such as ChatGPT, and speculating that such advanced technologies may replace jobs. Change is certainly coming to higher education as well. This talk will explore how GenAI could result in disruptions to the assessment cycle, some of them in positive ways and others in more challenging ways. The ways we measure student outcomes may well need to shift, but these tools also offer exciting new directions for the future of learning.

Kevin Yee is the Director of the University of Central Florida Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Teaching Center at the University of South Florida. He has held 9-month faculty positions at Duke University, Pomona College, the University of Iowa, and the University of California–Irvine.

Dr. Yee earned his Ph.D. in German Literature from the University of California–Irvine in 1997. He has taught German language and culture courses and courses in general humanities, film, and cultural studies, with an emphasis on popular culture.

Dr. Yee believes the science of learning provides a crucial foundation for instructors, influencing everything from course design and assessment structure to classroom management and lesson planning. He is currently focused on developing faculty resources related to AI fluency and using generative AI in the college classroom.

LLMs and the Academic Code of Integrity
Mark Tunick, Wilkes Honors College

Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to enhance education; they are tools students should know how to use to be competitive in the job market. But there are also concerns. Students may use LLMs as a substitute for self-mastery of critical thinking and writing skills. They may use LLMs to cheat. This presentation begins with some background on the abilities and limits of LLMs that draws on recent research on their impressive linguistic competence but lack of functional competence. This is followed by a brief review of the academic debate about their use and what constitutes cheating. The discussion continues with how the Honors College has developed a policy on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in courses—it is not permitted unless explicitly approved by the instructor—and a rationale and language to explain the policy to students so that expectations are clear, and the policy will be seen as reasonable. As the policy gives leeway to instructors to determine what uses may be permitted in their classes, discussion of instructors’ views on what is and is not acceptable will be welcome.

Mark Tunick is a Professor of Political Science at the FAU Wilkes Honors College in Jupiter, where he teaches courses on political theory, constitutional law, and ethics. He received his BS in Political Science and his BS in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He has published extensively on the works of Mill, Locke, and Hegel, and on a range of topics including privacy, punishment, and toleration. Dr. Tunick is the faculty advisor for the Honors College honor code judicial council and teaches a course on AI ethics.

Integrating VR and AI in Distance Learning Labs Using the Immersive Online Content Approach
FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning: Jennifer Krill, Evonne Rezler, Ozlem Yavuz-Petrowski, Julie Golden-Botti, Abigail Perkins

The multidisciplinary FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning has developed the Immersive Online Content (IOC) Approach digital learning strategy for online course content delivery that utilizes virtual reality (VR) interactive instructional material to improve technical science laboratory learning. This presentation includes an overview of the IOC Approach; the iterative R&D process on the efficacy of IOC with evaluation tools; VR demos; plans for incorporating existing AI tools; and guidance on practical implementation. The program includes educator perspectives on developing and instructing IOC labs; administrator pioneering; and researcher-curated DIY resources. Members will share trail-blazing toolkits, tips, and techniques applicable to wide-ranging academic domains from small- to large-scope IOC integrations. Attendees will be invited to join the IOC Community of Practice, providing DIY resources and the means to continue the conversation beyond the presentation, sharing successes and strategies.

Since 2020, the FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning has empowered effective STEM laboratory and technical learning for students by building and disseminating evidence-based best practices in digital and virtual laboratory learning. As the following biographies (listed in order from left to right) show, each of the five members contributes a unique skill set and experience in educational research analysis, assessment, pedagogical innovations, online program development, and content expertise in STEM.

Jennifer Krill is the Biology Lead of the FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning. She is a University School Assistant Professor and an Experiential Research Lab Coordinator for Neurophysiology at the FAU Lab Schools. Dr. Krill develops and implements research-intensive Course-based, Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), training students in technical skills, independent research, and scientific communication. In 2019, in collaboration with the Center for eLearning, she developed and piloted FAU’s first fully online introductory biology course and authored a zero-cost Open Educational Resource eText, adopting themes of evolution and climate change in a non-majors’ biology text. As a teacher researcher, Dr. Krill constantly adapts courses, using current technological innovations and investigating best-practices in both online and face-to-face STEM education.

Evonne Rezler is the Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Science. Dr. Rezler leads the College of Science and Pre-Health advising teams to help students achieve their academic, career, and timely graduation goals. She is committed to enhancing academic success for all science majors by creating better pathways and implementing innovative learning approaches for all science majors. Dr. Rezler is currently co-PI of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Program GP-IMPACT grant, “A Geopathway Utilizing High-Tech Geoscience Experiences for Recruitment and Retention—A Collaboration between PBSC and FAU,” and the NSF Hispanic Serving Institutions IUSE Program grant, “STEM Articulation and Transfer Collaborative Project,” with Palm Beach State College.

Ozlem Yavuz-Petrowski has worked with the FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning since 2020. She serves as the Chemistry Research Lead on the Research Team. Her research focuses on Identifying, investigating, and developing novel digital and virtual approaches to improve science laboratory and technical learning for STEM majors. Dr. Yavuz-Petrowski has developed and teaches several online courses and has created zero-cost Open Educational Resources.

Julie Golden-Botti leads an award-winning team as Assistant Provost for Online and Continuing Education. Dr. Golden-Botti advances functions and operations of the FAU Center for eLearning, Continuing Education, and Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. She is the Digital Learning Lead on the FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning and the recipient of the Gomory-Mayadas Leadership Award in Online Education.

Abigail Perkins, the group’s Educational Research Lead, spearheads research design, data management, analysis, IRB, and team logistics. The Manager for Education Research and Digital Learning Strategies in the Center for Online and Continuing Education, she has a Texas A&M Curriculum & Instruction Ph.D. in STEM Education with Game-Based Learning, a Texas A&M Statistics Certificate, her Physics MS in Quantum Computing from Ball State University, a Creative Commons OER Certificate, and a Quality Matters Peer-Review Certificate. Dr. Perkins has nation-wide Physics Instructor experience. She was the lead for the OER project that won the 2020 International Distance Learning Association’s Innovation Award.

Exploring AI Teaching Tools: Adobe Premiere Pro AI, Gradescope, and Zoom
Brittanney Adelmann, Carlos Dominguez, Daniel R. Suarez

This session showcases three artificial intelligence (AI) teaching tools. Daniel R. Suarez focuses on implementing Adobe Premiere Pro AI into film design classes at Boca Raton High School and higher education. Brittanney Adelmann explores the capabilities of the AI grading system Gradescope and how to use it efficiently and equitably to grade student work. Carlos Dominguez presents use-cases and live examples of the Zoom AI Companion’s features and shows how to enable and customize the host/attendee experience.

Brittanney Adelmann is the Director of the Math Learning Center and the Learning Assistant (LA) Program, FAU’s new Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). She has been teaching in the FAU Department of Mathematics since 2009. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from FAU. Dr. Adelmann believes passionately in providing students with environments that promote equitable, engaging, active, and collaborative learning.

Carlos Dominguez is an eLearning Support & Development Specialist for the Office of Information Technology Instructional Technologies team, supporting FAU faculty, staff, and students with anything regarding Canvas and its hardware/software integrations. He has been involved with technology since childhood. A fascination with computers and music led him to pursue degrees in music technology and audiovisual art from Florida International University and Dartmouth College.

Daniel R. Suarez is the TV Production & Film Director at Boca Raton High School. He is a doctoral student and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Instruction and Curriculum Department of the FAU College of Education. Mr. Suarez is implementing 3D Blender design and Adobe Premiere Pro AI with his students. He is also pioneering innovative ways to use Khanmigo in film scripting.

Utilizing AI in Instructional Design: Navigating the Changing Job Market and Educating for the Future
Robin McDaniel, College of Education

This proposal explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), education, the influencer landscape, and the changing job market. Topics addressed include potential disruptions caused by the AI revolution, the need to restructure work and education paradigms, and ethical considerations associated with AI integration into instructional design. The session also considers practical strategies and activities for integrating AI into teaching and learning processes in both K–12 and higher education settings. By embracing AI as a transformative tool, educators can enhance student engagement, foster critical thinking skills, and develop awareness of ethical considerations and guidelines for using AI for research, instruction, and workforce preparation.

Robin McDaniel, an FAU graduate with a master's degree in Educational Leadership, is currently pursuing her doctoral studies, focusing on virtual reality within the realm of adult and community education and leadership. As a digital immigrant and self-directed learner, she has devoted the past decade to scholarly exploration of virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI). Ms. McDaniel provides practical knowledge and experience for the integration of VR and AI into your personal and professional lives.

Both Sides Now: Every Good Argument Deserves a Rollicking Counterargument
Priscilla Card-Fuller, Comparative Studies

Does the use of ChatGPT offer a more non-biased sounding board for college writing brainstorming and essay structuring? Some critics argue that ChatGPT may help students cope with dialogical, structural, and linguistic challenges in argumentative writing. It may also help students by proposing non-biased counterarguments for “hot button” topics. This presentation uses a college writing class case study to illustrate how ChatGPT can be used as a tool in preparing counterarguments. Students were asked to write an argumentative essay with a sound argument, counterargument, and rebuttal. Some students used artificial intelligence (AI) to help format their counterarguments. The outcomes suggest that AI, when programmed in an ethical and impartial manner, may serve as an objective tool to assist students in constructing counterarguments for college writing assignments. It may also help instructors avoid unintentionally “steering” their students toward “myside-biased” sources.

Priscilla Card-Fuller is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Studies at FAU. She obtained her master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from FAU. Her study and research focuses are on the role AI plays in human creativity, particularly in language and literature.

Academic Integrity & Potential Pedagogy Solutions to Incorporate AI Ethically
Anthony Ambrosio, Undergraduate Studies

The widespread public adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI tools has significantly reshaped the educational landscape. In 2023, FAU established the Artificial Intelligence Task Force to address the emerging challenges and opportunities presented by AI. The task force initiated a comprehensive revision of its Academic Integrity Regulation 4.001 to assist faculty in effectively identifying and addressing academic integrity violations. They also developed a policy related to the appropriate use of AI tools in the academic setting and curated a list of pedagogical strategies designed to facilitate the ethical and responsible integration of AI tools into teaching practices. Knowing how to properly use these tools will provide FAU graduates with a competitive advantage in the rapidly changing and ever-evolving workforce. In this session we will discuss ethical AI integration in teaching, explore reasons for academic dishonesty, guide faculty in responding to integrity violations, and introduce FAU's AI portal.

Anthony Ambrosio is the Executive Director of Assessment for Undergraduate Studies at FAU. He has his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and specializes in assessment and measurement, program evaluation, and statistics. Dr. Ambrosio’s research focuses on program development, psychometrics, and teaching/learning environments.

Authenticity Before Artificial Intelligence: Bridging Individual Expression and AI Through the "Mystory"
Craig Rinne, College of Business

This session begins with the hypothesis that text-generating artificial intelligence (AI) marks the end of literacy in the strict sense. We no longer need to teach written forms such as the five-paragraph essay except as an elementary school skill. Nonetheless, vocal, face-to-face communication reflects our need and preference for authentic individual communication; the individual’s mystery/history/my story, or “mystory,” may still carry more weight. A classroom-based project shows how each student cultivates the possibilities of multiple social media digital technologies to create a multimedia and multimodal “mystory” project on career, family, entertainment, and communication. This, in turn, becomes the basis for their communications, both for the public brand and personal creativity, enabling a critical, self-reflective, personal approach to writing and speaking that circumvents, exceeds, and connects with AI-generated texts.

Craig Rinne is a Senior Instructor in the FAU College of Business, where he teaches business communications. His Ph.D. is in English and Film Studies, and he has worked at a mobile application development company. He has always engaged with the intersections of writing, speaking, media, and technology.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 Overview
Amy Bandy-Taylor, Erdina Francillon, Microsoft

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is changing the way faculty and staff work with familiar and established tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams. Join this demo to learn more about new features in Microsoft 365 that can help save time in your day, accelerate your productivity, and even provide you with an artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant. The two presenters have more than 20 years of consultancy experience in this area. Their goals are to develop, enable, and empower.

Amy Bandy-Taylor is a Teams Technical Specialist who has worked for Microsoft for the past 2 years. She has 20 years of experience in IT, working in various roles within the healthcare, manufacturing, and education sectors. She has a passion for technology and helping customers achieve their goals. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and dogs, as well as attempting to homebrew. She is always eager to learn new things and explore new hobbies in her new hometown of Asheville, NC.

Erdina Francillon has 10 years of experience in corporate events and sales at Intel and Microsoft. For the past 7 years she has been with Microsoft, most recently as a Microsoft 365 Solution Specialist for Education for Pennsylvania Higher Ed and K–12. She was previously a LATAM Microsoft 365 for Education Product Marketing Manager and LATAM Market Intelligence Manager. She worked for Intel as a Diversity, Education, and External Relations Project Manager.

Panel Session: AI Trends in Higher Education - Opportunities and Challenges
Donna Marion, Robert Reardon, Mehran Basiratmand

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming various sectors of society, including higher education. AI can enhance teaching and learning, improve access and equity, and support institutional efficiency and effectiveness. However, AI also poses some ethical, social, and technical challenges that must be addressed by educators, researchers, and policymakers. How can higher education leverage the potential of AI while mitigating the risks? What are the best practices and frameworks for integrating AI into higher education? What are the implications of AI for the future of work and learning? These are some of the questions that will be explored by a distinguished panel of three experts with diverse backgrounds and perspectives on AI and higher education.

Donna Marion received her Ph.D. in Developmental Social Psychology from FAU in 2011. She is a Senior Instructor in the FAU Department of Psychology and has been a Master Teacher in the College of Science since 2018. Since becoming eLearning certified in 2013, she has taught more than 100 sections across multiple courses in both online and face-to-face formats, including undergraduate Social Psychology, Psychology of Women, Social Behavior Lab, and both graduate and undergraduate Statistics. Dr. Marion is an avid consumer of anything related to artificial intelligence (AI) large language models, has been teaching students responsible and critical use of AI in a novel writing assessment since the summer of 2023, and is a member of the FAU Artificial Intelligence Task Force.

Robert Reardon is a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in the FAU College of Business. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance at FAU with experience conducting original research on how technology is transforming the financial world. His research has garnered recognition in top-tier academic journals and conferences around the world.

Mehran Basiratmand is Director of Innovation and Programs in the Department of Information Technology and Operations Management (ITOM) of the FAU College of Business. He also teaches FAU Executive Education courses. His area of interest is the application of AI in business. Prior to re-joining FAU, Dr. Basiratmand was a member of the CIO Strategic Advisory team at e-Group | Enabling Technologies, a Microsoft premier partner. He provided strategic advisory services including adoption of AI technologies, Copilot, Microsoft cyber security stack solutions, and organizational readiness to implement new technology initiatives. Dr. Basiratmand was the FAU Chief Technology Officer for over 15 years, managing IT infrastructure, BI, User Services, ERP, HPC, and cloud services. He was chairperson of NWRDC, the largest public data center in the State of Florida. He has served on several technology advisory boards. He is a regular contributor to technology trade publications.

Incorporating Open AI in Assignments for Enhanced Student Efficiency and Productivity
Bharti Sharma, Zdenka Cumano, College of Business

This presentation discusses Open AI technology that students can use to help them complete assignment tasks efficiently while maintaining their originality and increasing their productivity. Embedding Open AI into a dynamic curriculum helps build a critical bridge for students to improve their skill sets as they prepare to enter the workforce. The presenters will demonstrate AI tools such as Microsoft Bing/Copilot and ChatGPT and then use them in an example business analytics project for applicable project assignment tasks, including researching for valid datasets; searching for creation of applicable key performance indicators (KPIs) applicable to the assignments; offering ways to look up related suggested readings; and creating presentation slides. The session concludes with a discussion of using AI responsibly.

Bharti Sharma is a Senior Instructor and a Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow in the Department of Information Technology and Operations Management (ITOM) of the FAU College of Business. Her expertise is business analytics. Dr. Sharma teaches primarily graduate students in ITOM and the College of Business.

Zdenka Cumano is a doctoral candidate in the FAU College of Business and an Adjunct Instructor who teaches business analytics in the Department of Information Technology and Operations Management (ITOM) of the FAU College of Business. She owns Data BI Analytics, a company that handles business analytics projects and consulting for tools such as Power BI and Open AI.

Are Pre-Trained Generative AI Models Helpful or Limiting to Design Creativity?
Emmanouil Vermisso, College of Architecture

This session explores the potentially assistive role of integrating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) within an Architectural Design course offered twice at FAU (’22, ’23). Inspired by the ship-breaking community in Bangladesh, thesis-level students used pre-trained Al models, dependent on text input, to translate ideas from "ship demolition" to the creation of "inhabitable architectural structures.” As these two topics are different semantically, using GenAI enables the representation of design concepts that appear alien to one another and are otherwise difficult to visualize. The implementation of this novel conceptual-pedagogical structure likely represents one of the earliest attempts to introduce pre-trained neural networks with language in Architectural education. Students’ adoption of this methodology raised questions about the control designers have over their ideas. The session discusses a curated integration of Al tools in different stages of design decisions and critiques aspects that need consideration as they are further absorbed in pedagogy.

Emmanouil Vermisso is an Associate Professor of Architecture at FAU, a registered architect in Greece, and a doctoral candidate at the University of Patras, Greece, studying human and computational creativity. He holds degrees from the University of Westminster (UK) and Syracuse University. He has practiced in several London firms, including Foster + Partners and AHMM. His research spans several areas of design computation, including generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in architecture, design creativity, bottom-up design thinking, and bio-inspired design. His work has been published by the International Journal of Architectural Computing, the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, and Springer, and received recognition from ACSA, NCARB, and AIA, including an ACSA Creative Achievement Award.

Open Lab Time with Copilot, Gradescope, and Zoom
Amy Bandy-Taylor, Erdina Francillon, Brittanney Adelmann, Carlos Dominguez

Users are invited to explore Copilot for Microsoft 365, Gradescope, and Zoom in a hands-on environment. Attendees can use the in-lab computers to explore these products themselves. Experts will be available to provide guidance and answer questions.

Amy Bandy-Taylor is a Teams Technical Specialist who has worked for Microsoft for the past 2 years. She has 20 years of experience in IT, working in various roles within the healthcare, manufacturing, and education sectors. She has a passion for technology and helping customers achieve their goals. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and dogs, as well as attempting to homebrew. She is always eager to learn new things and explore new hobbies in her new hometown of Asheville, NC.

Erdina Francillon has 10 years of experience in corporate events and sales at Intel and Microsoft. For the past 7 years she has been with Microsoft, most recently as a Microsoft 365 Solution Specialist for Education for Pennsylvania Higher Ed and K–12. She was previously a LATAM Microsoft 365 for Education Product Marketing Manager and LATAM Market Intelligence Manager. She worked for Intel as a Diversity, Education, and External Relations Project Manager.

Brittanney Adelmann is the Director of the Math Learning Center and the Learning Assistant (LA) Program, FAU’s new Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). She has been teaching in the FAU Department of Mathematics since 2009. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from FAU. Dr. Adelmann believes passionately in providing students with environments that promote equitable, engaging, active, and collaborative learning.

Carlos Dominguez is an eLearning Support & Development Specialist for the Office of Information Technology Instructional Technologies team, supporting FAU faculty, staff, and students with anything regarding Canvas and its hardware/software integrations. He has been involved with technology since childhood. A fascination with computers and music led him to pursue degrees in music technology and audiovisual art from Florida International University and Dartmouth College.

Lunch
Extra seating in outdoor tent area.

Raffle