Registration / Exhibits Open

Concurrent Sessions I

Bridging Digital Gaps: Access on City Tech’s OpenLab

(Community)

For the 2019-2020 academic year, the OpenLab Community Team is spotlighting access in both our informal Open Pedagogy series and our broader programming, discussing different ways of thinking through access on the OpenLab and in open digital pedagogy more widely. This presentation will highlight some of our takeaways from our fall programming and will include interactive components to engage participants as we bring the conversation to the larger CUNY community.

Claire Cahen, OpenLab Digital Pedagogy Fellow

Charlie Edwards, OpenLab Co-Director

Jason Ellis, OpenLab Co-Director

Genevieve Hitchings, OpenLab Co-Director

Jesse Rice-Evans, OpenLab Digital Pedagogy Fellow

Jody R. Rosen, OpenLab Co-Director

Olivia Wood, OpenLab, Digital Pedagogy Fellow

All of New York City College of Technology

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LaGuardia Connect-2-Completion (C2C) Student Success System

(Tools and Assets)

Tailor-made to specifically serve CUNY and CUNY’s students, C2C surpasses StarFish, EAB, Civitas Learning or ConnectedCampus. C2C organizes student information and communications to provide holistic advising and referrals, degree mapping, early alerts, classroom communications, tracking of individual student progress and actionable outcomes data.

Henry Saltiel, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, LaGuardia Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Helping Faculty Navigate OER and Copyright Law: Two Approaches

(Instructional and Curricular Design)

This session focuses on two approaches to faculty development around OER and ZTC courses: first, a curriculum Baruch’s CTL uses for in-person workshops covering copyright, IT accessibility, backwards course design, open digital tools and OER repositories and, second, a role-playing game using Twine, a free, open source digital tool in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” style to navigate OER terminology, best practices for copyright compliance and related concepts, e.g., “fair use.”

Alison Lehr Samuels, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning

Pamela Thielman, Open Educational Resources Coordinator, Center for Teaching and Learning

Katherine Tsan, Open Educational Resources Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning

All of Baruch College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Technology Enablement, Distracted Students and Disabilities

(Inclusive Accessibility)

The purpose of this abstract and associated paper will be to provide educators and instructors ways to complement technologies into a curriculum to accommodate students with particular needs. For example, students with gross motor core challenges need not struggle and be frustrated with handwriting. E-machines (e.g., Chromebooks) can be deployed to these students to enhance their adaptive learning experiences. Teachers need to be educated and trained on these adaptive learning choices.

Benjamin Pearl, Instructor, Baruch College

AI Chatbots for Student Success at Hostos

(Inclusive Accessibility)

As CUNY continues to tackle the challenges of growing resource demands from our students, faculty and staff – and meeting customer service expectations – the world of data-driven artificial intelligence conversational chatbots has opened a tremendous opportunity for bridging the gap to meet the needs of our constituents, especially as we go more “digital.” The panel will share insight on the platform, approach, benefits and a brief demo of the solution.

Wishart Alleyne, Bursar

Mark McNasby, Chief Executive Officer, Ivy.ai

Binitha Pai, IT Developer

Carlos Rivera, Director of Admissions

Varun Sehgal, Chief Information Officer

All of Hostos Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Preparing for the Worst: Ransomware Planning and Response Best Practices

(Tools and Assets)

Recent ransomware attacks have left many schools and city agencies scrambling to protect themselves. Non-technical in nature, this presentation focuses on all the communication and logistical elements you should have in place pre-incident to make the recovery process as bearable as possible. Find out about concrete actions Bronx Community College has taken to reduce the harm that a ransomware attack could cause and leverage these strategies to increase your incident response plan success rate.

Loic Audusseau, Chief Information Officer, Bronx Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reaching Faculty Where They Are: Teaching and Learning Webinars

(Pedagogy)

Throughout the academic year, the Office of Online Education at Lehman College offers monthly, hour-long, lunchtime webinars for faculty on essential topics of innovative teaching, each featuring a presentation by a faculty co-host. The session presenters will review the processes for planning, developing, launching and facilitating the webinar series. The 2019-2020 webinar series is now open to all CUNY faculty and staff.

Susan Ko, Clinical Professor, History / Faculty Development Consultant, Office of Online Education

Naliza Sadik, Educational Technologist and Instructional Designer

Olena Zhadko, Director, Office of Online Education

All of Lehman College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Creating an Immersive Learning Experience Using Virtual Reality at CSI

(New Technologies and Approaches)

Immersive learning using VR allows students to interact within 3D worlds, offering an opportunity to engage, improve material retention and be exposed to “real life” situations. CSI will discuss the planning involved in creating a VR lab and choosing the technology to support users, while being cost efficient. Faculty will demonstrate how VR worlds, created using 3D cameras, were integrated into classes. Furthermore, attendees can experience this technology for themselves.

Heidi Bertels, Assistant Professor of Management

Linda John, Director of Academic Computing

Patricia Kahn, Chief Information Officer and Assistant Vice President for Information Technology Services

Nerve Macaspac, Assistant Professor of Geography

All of College of Staten Island

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bridging the Gap with Microsoft Office 365 and Dropbox Cloud Collaboration

(Tools and Assets)

CUNY’s community now has the opportunity to utilize Microsoft Office 365 and Dropbox cloud-based enterprise solutions to bridge the gap between technology and users. These technologies provide unified collaborative workspaces, which allow users to securely store and organize content, amplify teamwork capabilities and improve educational spaces. This panel will explore how these collaborative tools may be leveraged to enhance teaching and learning experiences at the university.

Chandra Cherry, Director of Technology Training, CUNY CIS

Kathy Freytor, Lead Cloud Messaging Engineer, CUNY CIS

James Hartley, Assistant Director of Collaborative Technologies, CUNY CIS

Ediltrudys Ruiz, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology, Lehman College

Krafins Valcin, Assistant Director of Enterprise Service Delivery, CUNY CIS

Greet Van Belle, Director of Center for Teaching, Learning and Educational Technologies (CTLET), York College

Stephen Walsh, University Executive Director, Enterprise IT Service Delivery, CUNY CIS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Enabling the Learning of Tomorrow – Digital Learning Platform

(Tools and Assets)

Do you have a need for a simplified learning experience? Do you have a need to provide digital learning experience from anywhere to any device? Do you agree that a hands-on experience enables a higher student retention rate of material? The digital learning platform enables a number of use cases to support the higher education market. From providing on-demand lab environments in the cloud to meet the needs of professors, administration and students to supporting a cybersecurity learning experience, we look forward to sharing how we can partner with you to meet your learning objectives and remain competitive in this new world of learning.

Cheryl Filipek, Business Development Manager, SLED, VMware

Cameron Grove, Senior Director, Industry Solutions and Innovations, VMware

Break

Concurrent Sessions II

The Hybrid Seminar Turns Five: Faculty Development at Baruch

(Pedagogy)

Since 2014, Baruch’s Center for Teaching and Learning has offered a Hybrid Seminar to interdisciplinary faculty cohorts at Baruch that broadly explores teaching and learning models. Faculty develop hybrid-specific pedagogies, learn educational technology tools, design courses for variant learning needs and foster classroom cultures across off- and online spaces. From our evolving experience, we’ve developed a public-facing OER resource, Teach Hybrid, offering tools for curriculum design and faculty development.

Lindsey Albracht, Doctoral Candidate in English, The Graduate Center

Seth Graves, Digital Pedagogy Specialist, Center for Teaching and Learning, Baruch College

Tamara Gubernat, Digital Pedagogy Specialist, Center for Teaching and Learning, Baruch College

Allison Lehr Samuels, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Baruch College

Hamad Sindhi, Digital Pedagogy Specialist, Center for Teaching and Learning, Baruch College

Cheryl Smith, Associate Professor of English and Faculty Liaison, Center for Teaching and Learning, Baruch College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Get with the Go-Pro(gram): How ESOL Students Explore a Library

(Data and Its Uses)

In this interactive session, participants will learn about a wayfinding study conducted at City Tech to explore how ESOL students navigate physical and digital library spaces. After outlining our methodology and findings, we will discuss best practices to minimize communication and spatial obstacles. At the end of the session, participants will consider how our study methodology could be adapted to improve student wayfinding experiences at their own campus.

Kimberly Abrams, Assistant Professor, Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian

Nora Almeida, Assistant Professor and Instruction and Outreach Librarian

Junior Tidal, Associate Professor, Web Services and Multimedia Librarian

All of New York City College of Technology

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Open Pedagogy and Academic Mindset through Blackboard

(Pedagogy)

This presentation will cover strategies to incorporate the academic mindset and open pedagogy into our courses through the use of technology: from generating and posting course banners that represent student work to collaborative syllabus design where students utilize Doodle polls and Blackboard’s Discussion Board feature to decide how they will be graded and what course materials will be used.

Ewa Barnes, Lecturer, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Lessons Learned While Building an Open Source Journal Recommender Tool

(Tools and Assets)

For academics trying to decide where to publish their work, the fit of their topic with a prospective journal’s focus is very important. Moreover, this fit is not always easy to evaluate. To help with this, the speaker built software that matches an abstract with the most relevant open access journal. This talk will highlight what he has learned -- and some of the choices he made -- while building a journal-recommender tool.

Mark Eaton, Associate Professor and Reader Services Librarian, Kingsborough Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Adaptation and Effective Use of an OER Homework in Algebra and QR Courses

(Tools and Assets)

This presentation describes an effective adaptation of the MyOpenMath (MOM) OER homework platform for intermediate algebra and quantitative reasoning courses. An overview of the processes of creating the instructor’s own questions, integrating them with the extensive database of available questions and aligning the platform with the available curriculum will be presented. In addition, strategies of promoting online student engagement will be discussed.

Yevgeniy Milman, Assistant Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College

WeBWorK: Improving Access and Engagement with Open Source Software

(Tools and Assets)

WeBWorK is an open source online homework platform. At City Tech, WeBWorK usage has grown to serve 4,000+ students per semester. As a free service, WeBWorK helps promote equal access. Also, at City Tech, a supplementary Q&A website provides students with WeBWorK assistance remotely and asynchronously – easing the stress of traveling to campus. This talk will cover the growth of WeBWorK at City Tech, lessons learned from developing and implementing features and future directions for WeBWorK at CUNY.

Marianna Bonanome, Associate Professor

K. Andrew Parker, Assistant Professor

Both of New York City College of Technology

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

John Jay College’s CUSP Program: Addressing the Completion Crisis

(Data and Its Uses)

Roughly 40 percent of undergraduate students across all sectors do not complete their degrees (Nadworny, 2019). At John Jay College of Criminal Justice, only 42 percent complete in 6 years. Using an algorithm and 10 years of data, the college discovered something: 90+ credit-earning seniors, who stopped out and never returned to complete, share a number of risk factors. Using new technology initiatives to mitigate these risks, we are moving the needle toward higher graduation rates.

Ricardo Anzaldua, Director of Institutional Research

Elton Beckett, Faculty Fellow

Cassandra Evans, Program Manager

Keisha Lewars, Senior Academic Advisor

Dana Prieto, Senior Academic Advisor

Bryan Wills, Financial Aid Advisor

All of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

ASAP’s Use of the LaGuardia Student Engagement System

(Tools and Assets)

This presentation demonstrates how LaGuardia’s Student Engagement Management System (SEMS) helps to coordinate student support services and programmatic needs of the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). The Information Technology team, in collaboration with ASAP LaGuardia, developed a custom SEMS instance that allows ASAP advisors and staff to monitor students’ academic progress, enrollment, engagement, benchmarks completion and compliance with ASAP requirements, as well as custom reports to support the program’s operations.

Betania Acosta-Perez, Computer Systems Manager

Ramon De Los Santos, Interim Assistant Dean of Student Affairs

Alexa Duque, ASAP Associate Director

All of LaGuardia Community College

LaGuardia Smart Student Educational Planner – Interactive Degree Planner

(Tools and Assets)

An Interactive e-Degree Planner pre-loaded with sequenced course offerings, degree-specific course electives, pre-requisites, etc., enables students to navigate efficiently through course selection. Students complete plans, remotely or in-person, and have them reviewed by an advisor for edits. Students can then modify and send back for final approval. A pilot using LaGuardia’s Nutrition and Culinary Management program deemed it an effective way for students to be advised through course selection.

Betania Acosta-Perez, Computer Systems Manager

Nicolle Fernandes, Associate Professor and Program Director, Nutrition and Culinary Management Program

Josh Goldblatt, Associate Director of Advising Initiatives

All of LaGuardia Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reengineering the Lehman College Transfer Evaluation Experience

(New Technologies and Approaches)

Like many CUNY schools, Lehman has a large number of incoming transfer students. Join the conversation to learn how departments collaborated to automate the transfer credit evaluation process, reduce backlogs and increase satisfaction. The new electronic Transfer Credit Evaluation (eTCE) system no longer requires students to go from office-to-office to obtain approvals. Built in-house, the new system joins multiple systems to create a fast, effective process. We look forward to seeing you!

Christopher Buonocore, Director of Student Success Initiatives

Christie Lucchese, Transfer Evaluation Coordinator

Deira Pereyra, Director of IT Application Services

Elkin Urrea, Senior Web Developer

All of Lehman College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Building Open Infrastructure at CUNY

(Community)

Over the past two years, a team from the CUNY Graduate Center has extended and refined a homegrown infrastructure to support CUNY OER initiatives. Two open software platforms – the CUNY Academic Commons and Manifold Scholarship – are at the center of this work. This presentation will introduce these platforms, highlight examples of OER use and creation and detail how collaborations and open source software development processes have enhanced CUNY’s infrastructure for open pedagogy.

Matthew K. Gold, Director, Digital Initiatives, Associate Professor of English/Digital Humanities, The Graduate Center

Laurie Hurson, Open Educational Technologist, The Teaching and Learning Center, The Graduate Center

Jojo Karlin, Manifold Graduate Fellow

Krysia Michael, Assistant Professor of English, Hostos Community College

Luke Waltzer, Director, The Teaching and Learning Center, The Graduate Center

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Simplifying Digital Access from ANY Student Device

(Tools and Assets)

Higher education’s technology landscape is bursting with students who have their own personal devices, many of which encompass numerous manufacturers, models and operating systems. On-campus IT professionals are faced with the task of ensuring students can access resources and perform tasks regardless of the user’s device. By utilizing EUC (end-user computing) practices, IT personnel can foster user-friendly environments for students that cut down helpdesk requests and time spent on technological barriers. Not only are students able to focus on their work without interruption, but IT professionals can spend more time focusing on their infrastructure and resources.

Jay Elis, President, GANTECH Inc., GCOM Software, LLC

Cory Turk, IT Technical Operations Manager, Outreach & E-Learning, University of Wisconsin-Extension Continuing Education

Break

Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation: Bridging the Gaps – Celebrating and Reigniting Internet-Based Innovation

Fifty years ago, the first “internet message” was sent from a lab at UCLA. Twenty-five years ago, the commercial internet emerged, igniting one of the most intense and disruptive periods of technological innovation in human history. That innovation continues to disrupt academia, industry and society today.

Larry Irving is an internet pioneer and a member of the Internet Hall of Fame. He initiated the first studies identifying the “digital divide” (those who had access to technology and those who do not) and sparked a global focus on digital equity. He also was a key member of the Clinton-Gore Administration’s team that developed the first domestic and international policies governing the internet and related industries.

Larry will discuss the evolution of the internet from an academic exercise to the globally dominant communications and commerce platform it is today. He will describe what the original internet architects expected and desired and why some of those goals were realized while others have been grossly distorted.

Most importantly, with a clear-eyed view of some of the failures of internet policies and practices, Larry will discuss the opportunities the internet still provides to improve lives and to bridge societal gaps, particularly as innovators perfect and harness new, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G wireless, the Internet of Things and voice recognition. He will also outline how institutions such as CUNY, by embracing the talents and interests of faculty and students, can lead the next round of internet innovation and help inform local, national and international internet policies and practices.

Larry Irving, President and Chief Executive Officer, Irving Group

2019 CUNY Excellence in Technology Awards

Adjourn Day 1

Registration / Continental Breakfast / Exhibits Open

Concurrent Sessions I

A Roadmap to Success: Establishing an Online Course Development Framework

(Instructional and Curricular Design)

Hostos leads the way among CUNY community colleges in regard to the percentage of online courses offered. Establishing online learning involves ongoing, contiguous projects to develop and support a consistent framework that both faculty and students can trust. This framework consists of elements designed to ensure the development and assessment of quality online courses, as well as student and faculty preparedness for online learning/teaching.

Jacqueline DiSanto, Associate Professor, Education

Carlos Guevara, Director, Educational Technology & CTL

Catherine Man, Instructional Designer, Educational Technology

Eric Ritholz, Online Learning Coordinator, Educational Technology

All of Hostos Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Career Readiness Dashboard (CaRD)

(Tools and Assets)

Students cite career preparation as a key goal, but resources are limited, and assistance is only sought as graduation nears. This three-part system maximizes in-person advisement and personalizes career development.

Funded by the CUNY Career Success Initiative.

Anatoliy Gamaylo, Senior Software Developer

Natalia Guarin-Klein, Director, Magner Career Center

Richard Klein, Project Coordinator, ITS

Mandisa Washington, Mobile Software Developer

All of Brooklyn College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Crossing Over: The Interchange Between Online and In-Person Instruction

(Pedagogy)

This presentation will report on lessons learned for bridging the online and classroom gap. It is a reflection on the experiences of crossing from in-person classrooms to online teaching and from online teaching to the in-person classroom. We will identify some faculty challenges in the transition and execution of teaching from one modality to the other and explain how we use technology to solve those challenges and enhance student learning.

Heidi Baez, Instructor of Sociology

Elizabeth Miller, Assistant Professor of Sociology

Both of Westchester Community College and Alumni of The Graduate Center

CUNY Student Editions: Textual Studies, Digital Publishing and Pedagogy

(Pedagogy)

We showcase the results of a pilot project to create free-to-use, digital editions of historical texts, designed to be used in CUNY classrooms. These CUNY Student Editions bridge a gap between texts from sites such as Project Gutenberg and proprietary textbooks. We will consider what students need to make a text accessible and how it helped us define “student edition.” Additionally, we discuss how the project can be expanded and how it can be used to decenter and diversify the curriculum.

Paul Hebert, Teaching Fellow, English, Queens College

Christina Katopodis, Futures Initiative Fellow, The Graduate Center

Jason Nielsen, Adjunct Instructor, English, Queen College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

IT Accessibility at CUNY

(Inclusive Accessibility)

This panel will discuss IT accessibility barriers and steps CUNY has taken and is taking to overcome them. CATS will review the CATS lab package, an enterprise-wide license for accessibility software applications. CATS will also discuss the need to make material accessible and give tips for creators. Steven Medina and Joseph Sherman will discuss efforts underway in their respective offices to advance the cause of IT accessibility within the CUNY system.

Tania Kalaitzidis, Assistive Technology Specialist, CUNY Assistive Technology Services

Shivan Mahabir, Project Manager, CUNY Assistive Technology Services

Steven Medina, Accessibility Specialist, Central Office

Joseph Sherman, Accessibility Specialist, CUNY CIS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Teaching with ALEKS: A Path to Success

(Pedagogy)

We have enriched our science courses with ALEKS adaptive learning technology to improve student success in entry-level chemistry and physics. We found that the quality and quantity of questions for each topic ensured that the students acquire material in a rigorous manner. Furthermore, ALEKS also helped to improve their organizational skills, as the students are expected to meet deadlines and to work persistently towards achieving mastery in the course.

Anna Ivanova, Assistant Professor

Anna Manukyan, Assistant Professor

Yoel Rodriguez, Professor

All of the Natural Sciences Department, Hostos Community College

Informal Learning Activities for Bridging Gaps

(Pedagogy)

Given the current fast-paced changes in technology, informal learning activities became important to bridge gaps with the newly emerging technologies of the industry for our undergraduate students. Informal learning activities can be designed about new technologies that are not easily accessible from the traditional curriculum of structured (e.g., formal) learning activities. In this session, the presenter will share the successful design and development of several informal learning activities.

Mohammad Azhar, Assistant Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Transforming CUNY IT Help

(Tools and Assets)

CUNY CIS is building a new IT Help Portal to transform support. Students, faculty and staff users university-wide will find knowledge and self-service options. The same system will support campus core enterprise technologies like internet connectivity, security and email. This session will discuss the progress so far and implementation plans with a brief demo of the knowledge portal and roadmap of key features and upcoming dates.

Brad Orcutt, Associate Dean for Information Technology, LaGuardia Community College

Wayne Levy, Director of Application Lifecycle Management, Central Office CIS

Lee Szolusha, Associate Director of Customer Service Operations, Central Office CIS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Creating a Fully Online, Multisensory Teacher Education Program at CUNY

(Pedagogy)

In this session, the fully online adolescent special education MSED teacher certification program at Hunter College will be described and discussed. In its second year, the program has been a great success! This presentation will focus on the creation of the program, the experience of students in our program and the emerging technologies we use to sustain the program. The benefits and challenges of creating and coordinating a fully online teacher education program will also be presented.

Gina Riley, Program Coordinator and Clinical Professor, Adolescent Special Education Traditional, Fully Online and Advanced Certification Programs, Hunter College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ed 4.0: Machine Learning and the Future of Teacher Prep

(Instructional and Curricular Design)

Through a thematic analysis of interviews with teacher education faculty across the country, this presentation reports on trends, innovations and obstacles emerging as a result of technology integration in colleges of education. Teacher educators provide a literal bridge between K-12 and institutions of higher education; yet, it remains unclear how they – the educators who educate educators – are trained to prepare future teachers in an increasingly automated digital context.

Kiersten Greene, Associate Professor, State University of New York at New Paltz

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Future of Education and Digital Transformation

(New Technologies and Approaches)

The world of technology in higher education is constantly evolving to meet the demanding needs of students, faculty and administration. Come learn about the latest trends in technology for higher education and how institutions of all sizes are addressing topics like active learning spaces, immersive learning, data analytics, security, e-sports and more in new and innovative ways, including sharing a successful digital transformation story that will surprise you.

Jeanne Weber, Higher Education Strategist, Education / State, Local Government, Dell

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Case Studies of Identity and Access Management Modernization

(Tools and Assets)

Over 39 percent of higher education apps run in the cloud, and that number is expected to increase to 62 percent by 2021. While many colleges have a cloud-first mindset for the future, most are operating today in a hybrid IT environment with a mixture of cloud and on-prem applications. This also includes various on-prem identity and access management systems resulting in a complex environment for IT professionals to maintain. Join Okta to discuss specific use cases from notable colleges and universities and how they are making the transition to Identity-as-a-Service to simplify their lifecycle management and holistically increase their security efforts.

Kevin Bresser, Director of Higher Education, Okta, Inc.

Break

Welcome and Keynote Presentation

Welcome

Hector Batista, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer, The City University of New York

Keynote Presentation: “Technology is great, but it’s really time-consuming:” Understanding Students’ Digital Academic Lives

Digital technology has become integral to higher education, incorporated by colleges and universities into teaching, student support and operations. We know that undergraduates lead busy lives, especially those attending commuter universities, and that they bring their prior experiences with technology with them into their college careers. However, while technology access and use in our everyday lives and workplaces has increased in the past few decades, it is not as ubiquitous as we might wish, and our students do encounter barriers to learning and connecting with digital technologies.

We will draw on our decade of research on the experiences of CUNY undergraduate students, studying how, where, when and with what tools they do their academic work, to explore the ways in which college students use digital technology. We have found that CUNY students’ technology access varies, and we have discussed with students the challenges they face when they need or want to use technology in their coursework. Our undergraduates are successful in many of their uses of technology and have developed innovative strategies to overcome the barriers they may face. The results of our research can inform strategies for bridging gaps to ensure our undergraduates’ success in and beyond college.

Mariana Regalado, Professor and Head of Reference, Brooklyn College

Maura Smale, Professor and Chief Librarian, New York City College of Technology / Faculty, Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, CUNY Graduate Center

Lunch (until 2 p.m.)

Concurrent Sessions II

Archives, Public Writing and Digital Pedagogy

(Pedagogy)

We will present our work on integrating digital archives and writing platforms into student research. We asked our students to forge connections between literary texts and objects in online archives, including those of the NYPL and the LoC. Utilizing digital writing platforms such as the CUNY Academic Commons and Instagram, students composed multi-modal essays, thereby producing interdisciplinary scholarship and strengthening their ability to work in multiple modes of writing.

Aaron Botwick, Adjunct Lecturer

Gabrielle Kappes, Substitute Lecturer

Both of Lehman College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Building Open Pedagogical Communities with Commons in a Box OpenLab

(Community)

Commons in a Box OpenLab (https://commonsinabox.org/) is CUNY-developed free and open source software that enables anyone to build a community for open learning. Learn about and discuss it with the teams behind the original OpenLab at City Tech and BMCC’s brand new installation. We will explain the software’s key features, share example uses (courses, OERs, portfolios, community-building and more), preview exciting future functionality and explore the implementation process.

Jean Amaral, Librarian, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Gina Cherry, Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Charlie Edwards, CBOX OpenLab Co-Project Director and OpenLab Co-Director, New York City College of Technology

Tom Harbison, Instructional Designer, E-Learning Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Jody Rosen, OpenLab Co-Director and Associate Professor of English, New York City College of Technology

Ryan Seslow, Adjunct Associate Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Jenna Spevack, OpenLab Co-Director and Professor of Communication Design, New York City College of Technology

Chris Stein, Chair, Media Arts and Technology, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Bree Zuckerman, OpenLab Senior Instructional Technologist, New York City College of Technology

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reducing the Gender Gap in Technology by Using and Teaching Cloud Technologies

(New Technologies and Approaches)

In Queensborough Community College, we created a one-week learning experience to evoke and boost the women’s interest in technology discipline by exposing them to cutting-edge 3D printing and cloud computing related technologies, including mobile application development, web application development and AWS. We have recast the one-week learning experience into an on-ramp to perpetual digital engagement allowing the students to engage with the course materials and mastery at their own pace.

Michael Lawrence, Lecturer

Dugwon Seo, Assistant Professor

Both of Queensborough Community College

Incorporating GIS Technologies into Introductory Business Courses

(New Technologies and Approaches)

While data analytics has become indispensable in business education, geographic information systems (GIS) is still an unfamiliar newcomer. Barriers to using GIS include software costs and lack of awareness and clarity on how to incorporate geographic information in class. Not unlike the big data revolution, GIS holds promise for unlocking insights that would not easily be attained through traditional means. The presenters will share how they have incorporated GIS into their business curriculum.

Emakoji Ayikoye, Lecturer

Neil Hwang, Assistant Professor

Harini Mittal, Assistant Professor

All of Bronx Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Next Steps in Preparing Tomorrow’s Health Professionals

(Pedagogy)

Essential skills for healthcare professionals (interpersonal, teamwork/collaboration and communication) come with practice and are identified by National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) as career ready competencies. Increasing use of mixed-reality virtual simulations (avatar use) give students access to real-life clinical scenarios. Avatar customization and flexibility (age, gender, race and ethnicity) add a needed dimension during training/education of healthcare professionals.

Maureen Becker, Dean, School of Health Sciences & Professional Programs, York College

Amanda Rotondo, Director of Clinical Education, College of Staten Island

Education to Empowerment (E2E), a Workforce Development App

(Pedagogy)

Education to Empowerment is a web application that 1) helps students to make informed career and education decisions and 2) helps higher education administrators better understand their institutional market space and allow updates to be made to their offerings in response to the changing market space. E2E is a system intended to mitigate the information asymmetry in the education/career selection process, especially to the underrepresented populations.

Nicole DeBonet, Project Coordinator

Hung De Chan, Director of Strategic Analysis for Institutional Effectiveness

Both of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Course Design for Open Educational Resources: A Workshop for Faculty

(Instructional and Curricular Design)

Instructional design is an essential, yet often-overlooked component of OER use. The Office of Online Education, Lehman College, offers a two-week, online, asynchronous workshop intended to help faculty design courses with OER. You will hear from the workshop developers, facilitators and a faculty participant who will introduce the workshop experience (itself an OER) and its website (https://oerworkshop.commons.gc.cuny.edu/), including workshop materials and administrative resources.

Susan Ko, Faculty Development Consultant, Office of Online Education / Clinical Professor, History

Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol-Banoum, Chair, Department of Africana Studies

Olena Zhadko, Director, Office of Online Education

All of Lehman College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Scaling Capacity through Community-Centered Teaching and Learning

(Community)

Graduate Center Digital Initiatives (GCDI) cultivates communities of learners, teachers and researchers by integrating emerging technologies into scholarly practice. In keeping with the conference theme, this presentation draws on examples from specific GCDI projects that increase access and promote equity at The Graduate Center through critical digital pedagogy and project support. Featured projects will include the Data for Public Good project and the Digital Archives Research Collaborative.

Param Ajmera, Digital Fellow

Filipa Calado, Digital Fellow

Kristen Hackett, Digital Fellow

Javier Otero Peña, Digital Fellow

Lisa Rhody, Deputy Director, Digital Initiatives

All of The Graduate Center

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LaGuardia Proactive Advisement and Registration (PAR)

(Tools and Assets)

LaGuardia's Proactive Advisement and Registration (PAR) Student Success initiative coordinates college offices and CUNY systems to focus on student momentum, degree completion, operational effectiveness and increasing FTE enrollment. After consultations, advisors pre-register students based on individual Degree Maps. Procedures insure student acceptance of prescribed registrations. This presentation will discuss system implementation, processes and increased student success outcomes data.

Ramon De Los Santos, Interim Assistant Dean of Student Affairs

Bartholomew Grachan, Interim Vice President of Student Affairs

Amable Mieses, IT CUNYfirst Application Manager

Georgina Taraskewich, Interim Director of Marketing & Communications

All of LaGuardia Community College

NEW Automated Course Schedule Builder (SB) and Academic Advisement System

(Tools and Assets)

CUNYfirst and SCHEDULE BUILDER will simplify course selection and registration through graphical interface like airline reservation websites. CUNYfirst transcripts and university-wide course schedules combine with DegreeWorks guidance to ensure students find their best route to degree completion. Advisors can recommend/require specific courses/sections. They support DegreeWorks Degree Plans, E-Permit, Wait-listing, Block Programming and Mobile Devices and replace current CUNYfirst registration screens.

Vivek Upadhyay, Special Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor, Enrollment Management / University Executive Registrar, CUNY Enrollment Management

Bartholomew Grachan, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, LaGuardia Community College

Zev Jeremias, Deputy Chief Information Officer, CUNY CIS

William Lindner, Computer Systems Manager, LaGuardia Community College

Henry Saltiel, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, LaGuardia Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Leverage Data to Improve Student Retention and Increase CUNY Success

(Data and Its Uses)

Increased student success and experience equates to increased graduation rates and CUNY success. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key part of this journey. But where do you start and how do you build a data platform that allows you to access and analyze your data where, when and how you need it? Hear about proven architectures to accelerate and integrate your data pipeline and enable AI:

Bob Burwell, Chief Technology Officer, NetApp

Break

Concurrent Sessions III

The CUNY Academic Commons: Connecting and Learning, Ten Years On

(Community)

In 2009, the CUNY Academic Commons was founded as a platform to foster the intellectual life of the university. We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary with a membership of over 19,000 that nearly doubled in the prior academic year. Now, we’re expanding this online community – enabling connections across disciplines and campuses, publishing research and building collaborative resources. We will discuss our founding story, development process, profound growth, challenges and future plans.

Matthew K. Gold, Director, CUNY Academic Commons, The Graduate Center

Laurie Hurson, Open Educational Technologist, The Graduate Center

Colin McDonald, Project Manager, CUNY Academic Commons, The Graduate Center

Krystyna Michael, Assistant Professor, Hostos Community College

George Otte, Senior Associate Dean, CUNY School of Professional Studies

Scott Voth, Community Facilitator, CUNY Academic Commons, The Graduate Center

Luke Waltzer, Director of Community Projects, CUNY Academic Commons, The Graduate Center

Marilyn Weber, Community Facilitator, CUNY Academic Commons, The Graduate Center

Anthony Wheeler, Community Facilitator, CUNY Academic Commons, The Graduate Center

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Engaging and Empowering Students through Technology

(Inclusive Accessibility)

Consistent with national data, students in the School for Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) are non-traditional, a population at risk of not completing their degrees. SLU’s certificate programs offer a vital gateway into degree bearing programs. This presentation with current and former students reflects on the obstacles and challenges experienced within a hybrid course and offers concrete solutions to reduce the “digital divide” and improve digital equity.

Kristen Pappas, Graduate, School for Labor and Urban Studies

Paul Sanabria, Student, School for Labor and Urban Studies

Thomas Saw Aung, Student, Macaulay Honors College

Denise Torres, Adjunct Lecturer, School for Labor and Urban Studies

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Building and Sustaining Quality Online Programs with Master Course Sites

(Instructional and Curricular Design)

As demand for online learning increases, institutions must grapple with developing and maintaining high-quality, scalable online courses that meet student needs. Master courses effectively establish a consistent, frictionless student experience while allowing faculty to focus on pedagogical concerns. CUNY SPS will share how it designs and builds master courses, obtains faculty input and support, balances shared ownership of content, conducts quality assurance and incorporates course revisions.

Angela Francis, Associate Director for Academic Affairs

Ruru Rusmin, Director of Faculty Development and Instructional Technology

Both of the School of Professional Studies

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UVII: How Video Commenting Amplifies Student Engagement Using Smartphones

(Tools and Assets)

Students and instructors need more engagement than traditional desktop LMS (learning management systems). UVII (universal video instructional interface) is a video commenting app and LMS plugin that enables students to access curriculum and reply to assignments with timed video responses from their smartphones. Video commenting for learning assessment solves many challenges for students, instructors and administration by making assignments easier to access and increasing retention and engagement.

Byron Price, Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Medgar Evers College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Digital Literacy and Student Discovery in the Composition Classroom

(Pedagogy)

The presenters on this panel seek to demonstrate how the introduction of digital assignments in the composition classroom can help students overcome the limitations of more traditional assignments and learn more about their own personal and academic interests. Panelists will discuss the ways in which they have successfully integrated digital platforms into their classrooms, as well as the benefits they experienced as a result.

Damele Collier, Graduate Student, The Graduate Center

Mark McBeth, Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center

Christopher Morabito, Graduate Student, The Graduate Center

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Accountability by Selfie: Using Facebook to Help Hold Students Accountable

(Data and Its Uses)

This presentation will focus on an informal classroom experiment where remedial reading students were required to complete 10 hours of work in the lab and post selfies to the class Facebook page to prove they had completed the requirement. Unexpected outcomes included spontaneous interaction between students on the social media platform, as well as more students completing the work than in past semesters. Additionally, the pass rate for this class was slightly higher than for past semesters.

Megan Dunphy Gregoire, Assistant Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Exploring Affordable Options for Online Proctoring

(Data and Its Uses)

Online courses and degrees that are in high demand also bring a unique challenge to maintain academic integrity and prevent cheating. This presentation will explore various technological tools available that can help the instructors with this challenge. Further, government policies related to online learning and maintaining academic integrity will also be discussed. Finally, the presentation will also analyze the effectiveness of these tools and the experiences of the users.

Neetu Kaushik, Assistant Professor, LaGuardia Community College

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Addressing Faculty Challenges with OERs

(Instructional and Curricular Design)

This panel addresses the barriers preventing OER adoption by faculty. Our project, which culminated in a website, PDF, eBook and workshop, provides discipline-specific guidance when creating an OER for CCNY’s English Department, including resources for creative writing and literature instructors – areas of opportunity for increase in OER courses. Our panel will discuss what we learned throughout this process and how other departments or institutions might benefit from similar work.

Yolande Brener, Adjunct Assistant Professor

Tom Peele, Director, First-Year Writing Program

Janelle Poe, Adjunct Assistant Professor

All of City College of New York

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Re-Inventing the Wireless Network with Wi-Fi 6

(New Technologies and Approaches)

Wireless is evolving, driven by more devices, more connections and more bandwidth-hungry applications. Future networks will need more wireless capacity and reliability. That’s where the sixth generation of Wi-Fi comes in. The emerging 802.11ax standard is the latest step in a journey of nonstop innovation. Learn how WiFi6 builds on the strengths of 802.11ac, while adding flexibility and scalability that lets new and existing networks power next-generation applications. 02.11ax couples the freedom and high speed of gigabit wireless with the predictability we find in licensed radio (LTE), while also addressing the next generation of Wi-Fi security with WPA3.

Nathan Boyd, Technical Solutions Architect, Cisco U.S. Public Sector

Andrew Miazga, Enterprise Networks Specialist, Cisco U.S. Public Sector

Matt Schaner, Cisco Networking Specialist, Cisco U.S. Public Sector

Break

End-of-Day Drawing

Conference times, agenda and speakers are subject to change.