Moving the Needle: Recent Episodes
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When it comes to education these days, there’s a lot to think about: flipped classrooms, instructional technology, accreditation, authentic assessment, copyright, asynchronous learning, multimedia tools, hybrid learning. Moving the Needle delivers frank conversations with instructors, learners, leaders, and creators about all things teaching and learning. Listen to their stories, learn from hard-won experience, and let these ideas help you move the needle in your own teaching.
In her debut as a cohost for the MTN series, Dr. Rebecca Carter, MD welcomes Dr. Esa Davis, MD, MPH. They discuss how moving beyond the walls of the classroom and partnering with communities can help to shape more responsive, equitable and effective healthcare.
Co-host Dave Bunnell speaks with Cheryl Fisher and Cory Stephens Co-Directors of AIM-High - AI in Maryland Higher Education. Maryland's statewide professional development program that helps academic and clinical nurse educators integrate generative artificial intelligence in their teaching.
Host Scott Riley joins AI, Unscripted hosts, Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell to reflect on episodes from Season 2. They discuss what they consider the most impactful takeaways as well as how to best build on the conversations that were started by the AI, Unscripted series.
Cohosts Jennifer Potter and Sam Collins welcome Virginia L. Byrne, Associate Professor of Higher Education & Student Affairs, Morgan State University studies technology equity and AI's impact on student privacy. Dr. Byrne reframes AI literacy not as learning to use tools, but as developing the critical thinking to push back against vendors and protect what matters most: student agency, equity, and the irreplaceable human judgment that keeps harm out of the loop.
Scott Riley and Dr. Eric Belt discuss the concept of phenomenology and how it can be useful when conducting educational research.
Cohosts Mary Crowley Farrell and Ron Hansen welcome Dr. Kris McGee, Professor, Department of Educational Professions, Frostburg State University. Dr. McGee explains how she uses transparency and modeling to teach pre-service teachers how to use AI as a partner while keeping the teacher's voice and human connection at the center of learning. From creating differentiated texts for diverse reading levels to rethinking lessons that didn't land, she demonstrates how AI can handle the tedious work so teachers can focus on what matters most: the relationships and empathy that no tool can replace.
Hosts Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell welcome Dr. Burch Fisher, Associate Research Scientist, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Burch helps to unpack the data behind the environmental impact of AI and why informed decision-making beats all-or-nothing thinking when it comes to responsible AI use in education.
Scott Riley and Dave Bunnell discuss the current global shift in health professions education known as Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) that emphasizes demonstrated competence rather than time spent in training. Dr. Bunnell explains the reasons for the change and how it is being implemented.
Cohosts Mary Crowley-Farrell and Ron Hansen speak with David Leasure, Director of Faculty and Professor, First Year Experience Department, University of Maryland Global Campus. David shares how his team is using AI to help faculty communicate more effectively while saving time for what matters most.
Cohosts Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell welcome Zach Runge, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Harford Community College and an adjunct professor at Towson University. Zach explains how he built custom AI tools to integrate into writing assignments for students in his speech class that support student voice, confidence, and ethical engagement without replacing authentic learning.
Cohost Erin Hagar welcomes Dr. Krista Tookhan, Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine. Dr. Tookhan explains how she brings fun and creativity into her classroom inventing games that inspire her students and lead to better performance overalll.
What if the solution to AI policy challenges isn't stricter rules but bringing students into the conversation? AI, Unscripted returns for another season on MTN with Yasmine Kotturi, Assistant Professor, UMBC. Dr. Kotturi shares her groundbreaking approach to AI governance in higher education with co-hosts Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell.
Instead of top-down policies that students resist, Dr. Koturri’s research demonstrates how participatory policy design transforms the conversation, turning enforcement into engagement and compliance into critical thinking.
Yasmine Kotturi: https://ykotturi.github.io/
Cohost Dave Bunnell welcomes Dr. Rayne Loder, PhD, PA-C, Tufts University School of Medicine. Rayne discusses her innovative approach of using music to teach foundational concepts in medical education.
Erin Hagar welcomes back Dr. Mary Jo Bondy and Dr. Karen Gordes. Following up on their introduction of Trauma Informed Pedagogy introduced in episode 27, they discuss a faculty development initiative they designed to share their knowledge of trauma informed pedagogy across the UMB campus, its impact, and their hopes going forward.
Scott Riley joins the hosts of AI Unscripted to answer questions from the audience about AI in the classroom and to reflect on what the team learned while working on the series as well as what they'd like to explore in future episodes.
Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell talk with Liyan Song, PhD, Towson University, about how she leverages Blackboard Ultra’s AI companion to prompt deep reflection in her instructional design students.
Erin introduces a new cohost, Dave Bunnell who chats with his first guest, Jenn Aumiller about what she learned about mentorship, equity, and belonging in academic science through her research on mentoring experiences of Indian biomedical postdocs in the U.S.
Co-hosts Mike Mills and Mary Crowley-Farrell speak with Denyce Watts-Daniels, Associate Professor in Nursing at Coppin State about her use of Generative AI to create case studies relevant to her nursing students.
Cohosts Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell interview Eleanor Welsh, Professor of English Chesapeake College. Eleanor recounts her journey from AI skeptic to advocate, showing how she now uses AI to enhance research writing and film studies. Her approach to source verification and critical evaluation offers accessible entry points for humanities faculty.
Cohosts Mike Mills and Mary Crowley-Farrell talk with Derek Willis from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland about how he teaches students to use AI to evaluate data and question truth claims in the journalistic process. He offers a crucial civic and interdisciplinary perspective, grounded in journalistic ethics and process thinking.
Host Erin Hagar speaks with Dr. Hee Hwan Park, DDS, Clinical Assistant Professor and Ryan Kasraii, a 4th year Dental student at UMB School of Dentistry. Dr. Park and Ryan talk about their mentoring relationship and how it fostered connection and became a powerful motivator for learning.
Amanda Draheim, PhD, Goucher College explains how she is using custom bots and AI tools for case conceptualization and student reflection. Her approach blends creativity, ethics, and wellness, making AI feel humane and pedagogically sound.
Cohosts Mary Crowley-Farrell and Mike Mills speak with Bill Carter, Associate Professor, University of Baltimore Merrick School of Business, about how he is incorporating AI into his assignments to boost engagement and critical thinking skills.
In this week's episode, co-hosts Jennifer Potter and Mary Crowley-Farrell kick off the AI, Unscripted mini-series on MTN with a conversation with Ben Shaw from University of Maryland, College Park. Ben shares how he developed an accessible AI literacy module that faculty across disciplines can implement. His approach focuses on helping students evaluate AI-generated content critically—a foundational skill for any AI-enhanced course. Go to: UMCP AI and Information Literacy Module to access the instructional module Ben refers to in this episode.
In this episode, Scott Riley is joined by the team that is behind a new special edition limited series of Moving the Needle, called AI Unscripted. This mini-seriesfeatures Maryland faculty from across the state sharing their experiences of how they are utilizing AI in the classroom. The team talks about their motive for creating the series, guests that will be featured, ideas that will be explored, and what they are hoping listeners take away.
Host Scott Riley and Dr. Eric Belt discuss building community in a virtual environment, establishing instructor presence and building a framework to maintain rigor.
Hosts Erin Hagar and Scott Riley discuss their favorite episodes from the series and then share some reflections from faculty participants in UMB's Edge program, which stands for Educator Development for Growth and Effectiveness. The hosts discuss the takeaways of the 17 faculty members after their year long faculty fellowship spent digging deep into their practice.
Host Scott Riley interviews Dr. Sahar Alameh, winner of the University of Kentucky's Great Teacher award for her work in supporting K–12 teachers and students in constructing and evaluating scientific explanations and helping them develop informed understandings of science and its nature.
Host Scott Riley speaks with Dr. Cheri Hendrix, Assistant Dean for Physician Assistant Education at UMB about how she is using Virtual Reality to train the next generation of Physician Assistants.
Host Scott Riley chats with Sol Roberts-Lieb and Eric Belt about the new Ed Crafters Community Connection (EC3)—a virtual learning community created by the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) to encourage faculty to learn, collaborate, and grow in the SoTL space.
Host Scott Riley speaks with Dr. Allison Duffy, PharmD, BCOP, about her "Mentor of the Year" award - her thoughts on what defines mentoring, what it means to be a good mentor, and her suggestions for how to become a better mentor.
Host Scott Riley chats with Eric Belt, EdD, Sr. Academic Innovation Specialist and researcher at the FCTL. They take a deep dive into Richard Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and talk about what they've learned and how they plan to change their teaching as a result of their new learning.
Host, Erin Hagar, speaks with Kevin Engler and Tony Delane, members of the FCTL team about the new hyflex classroom recently completed at UMB. They explore the possibilities in teaching that the classroom, which is designed to virtually eliminate the difference in experience for remote and in-person students, presents.
In this episode, host Erin Hagar speaks with Dr. Adam Puche, UMB's 2024 Educator of the Year. Their conversation explores the values that guide his teaching, strategies he uses in the classroom and innovations that he has helped to implement in the Anatomy curriculum at the School of Medicine.
Scott Riley chats with his co-host, Erin Hagar, about the Summer Course Design Institute at UMB that she established and ran. Erin discusses the Institute's approach to helping faculty develop or significantly revise a course in a small cross-discipline cohort with one-on-one support.
Host Scott Riley speaks with Dr. Nicholas Morris, Associate Fellowship Director of the Neurocritical Care Fellowship at the University of Maryland School of Medicine about his work in using simulation to help teach and assess competency in emergency neurology.
Have you wondered what a coaching session sounds like? Well, in this episode, you can listen in! Two professional development coaches perform a mock session that includes all the elements of coaching—agenda setting, powerful questions, and accountability-- while exploring the tricky topic of faculty teaching evaluations. For more information on the UMB Coaching program visit: https://www.umaryland.edu/fctl/services/professional-development-coaching/
Host Erin Hagar diverges from her traditional format and walks listeners through a short workshop created to help instructors design parallel skills into their course. Parallel skills being defined as skills, knowledge or attitudes that you hope to foster in your students that are connected and related to your course but not the topic itself.
Co-hosts Erin Hagar and Scott Riley wrap up the academic year by inviting faculty to share their successes from the past year, what worked and why.
Dr. Christina Cestone, Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Development at UMB speaks with Host Scott Riley about the origin of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, why it was created, its long term goals and how it fits into UMB's overall strategy.
Cohost Scott Riley speaks with Dr. Gregory Brightbill about The Learning Institute at UMB. Greg explains the Institute's mission and how it aligns with UMB's core values, what kinds courses are available, who can take them and how they can be used professionally.
Co-host Scott Riley welcomes Dr. Samantha Fuld, DSW, and together they discuss the findings of a recent committee on teaching-focused faculty (TFF) as well as the pathways and prospects for those interested in this trajectory.
Host Erin Hagar chats with Dr. Leah Sera, Program Director of the Medical Cannabis program about the challenges of designing a curriculum that as the first of its kind in the nation has no precedent or template. to guide development.
Host Erin Hagar speaks with Vashti Adams, a PhD student in UMB's School of Social Work, who also served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the new online MSW program here at UMB. Vashti discusses her journey as a learner, the influences that have shaped her and what she hopes to carry forward as she prepares for a future faculty position.
Host Erin Hagar speaks with Sol Roberts-Lieb, EdD about his new role leading UMB's Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. Sol talks about the unique needs, strengths, and opportunities at UMB as well as his vision for a thriving FCTL that is truly responsive to faculty needs.
Host Erin Hagar speaks with the 2023 winner of UMB's Educator of the Year award, Dr. Christy Chang. Dr. Chang discusses her approach to teaching and her commitment to her students and faculty.
Co-host Dr. Scott J Riley speaks with Jenn Aumiller, Director of Career and Professional Development at UMB about the university becoming a member of the CIRTL network and what that means for UMB faculty and students.
Erin Hagar and Scott Riley cohost this special episode to kick off the academic year. Together they sift through advice that UMB faculty members have offered about how they confront the challenges of teaching.
Co-host Scott Riley, chats with Dr. Jack Pottle, co-founder of Oxford Medical Simulations about how virtual reality is changing the way medical training is delivered.
Host Erin Hagar speaks with Dr. MJ Bondy and Dr. Karen Gordes about their work to help educators understand how the neuroscience of trauma impacts our ability to learn, and what we might do to mitigate these impacts.
Co-host Dr. Scott Riley welcomes back Dr. Violet Kulo and Dr. Eric Belt for a follow up conversation about educational research that answers questions such as: What are commonly used quantitative and qualitative tools? How do they work? How can I use this in my field?
Host Erin Hagar speaks with participants in UMB's Costa Rica Faculty Development Institute training about the importance of bringing a globalized perspective into classrooms.
Co-host Scott Riley speaks with Dr. Violet Kulo, Associate Professor and Program Director for the MS in Health Professions Education (HPE) program in UMB's Graduate School and Dr. Eric Belt, Senior Academic Innovation Specialist at UMB's Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, about the ways teaching has evolved over time and about the factors that lead to those changes.
Cohost Scott Riley speaks with Jim Kutcher, Program Director of the M.S. in Social Entrepreneurship in the Graduate School discusses his hybrid approach to teaching, using experiential learning and social innovation.
Dr. Tiffany Buckley, faculty member of UMB's School of Pharmacy talks with host Erin Hagar about how she approached the challenge of having an exceptionally diverse set of learners when launching the Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics program at UMB.
Dr. Stephen Mang, Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Irvine and recipient of the Distinguished Early-Career Faculty Award for Teaching, discusses his approach to inquiry based labs with co-host Scott J Riley II.
Host Erin Hagar speaks with Dr. Glenn Canares, a pediatric dentist at UMB's School of Dentistry, about the culture of academic departments. How do these cultures come to be? How are they formed and fostered and maintained over time? What impact does a culture have on individual faculty members and, how does the culture trickle down and impact the student experience?
The question of how might expert clinicians also become expert educators to prepare the next generation of health care providers is explored. Host, Erin Hagar, is joined by faculty from UMB's HPE program, Dr. Christina Cestone, Dr. Violet Kulo, and Dr. Karen Gordes.
Host Erin Hagar talks with Martha Ertman, the Carole & Hanan Sibel Research Professor at the University of Maryland Carey Law School. They discuss law education, how it’s different from other disciplines, and how it’s evolving. Martha also talks about changes she's made to her teaching, based on new understandings and epiphanies she’s had about today’s generation of learners.
Host, Scott Riley, speaks with Dr. Tracy Irish, Clinical Assistant Professor in the STEM Master of Arts in Education program at UMBC and Jennifer Aumiller, Director of the Career and Professional Development Office of Postdoctoral Scholars in the School of Medicine at UMB about the benefits and effects of developing graduate students’ ability to teach in and outside of the classroom.
Erin speaks with Deborah Levi, Director of Educational Support and Disabilities Services (ESDS) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore about making courses as accessible as possible to the entire student body.
Dr. Donna Parker and Dr. Christina Cestone co-chairs of LEAPS (Leaders in Education: Academy of Presidential Scholars), discuss this new initiative designed to support current faculty members at UMB by recognizing and rewarding educational scholarship and innovation, as well as help advance the career paths for UMB educators.
Dr. Scott J. Riley from UMB's School of Pharmacy discusses the roles of research and teaching in the education and training of graduate students.
In this conversation, Dr. Cynthia Cravens, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, discusses the ways in which the course syllabus can be an invitation into a relationship with a faculty member, a course, or an entire discipline.
The article that they discuss can be found here: https://journals.shareok.org/jcscore/article/view/87
Taylor, S. D., Veri, M. J., Eliason, M., Hermoso, J. C. R., Bolter, N. D., & Van Olphen, J. E. (2019). The Social Justice Syllabus Design Tool: A First Step in Doing Social Justice Pedagogy. JCSCORE, 5(2), 132-166.
UMB's Dr. Michelle Pearce, a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Graduate School, discusses her coaching program for UMB faculty along with a faculty/coach pair who worked together in the program last year. Lara Zauner, is a certified professional development coach and Dr. Melissa Motta is a professor in the Dept of Neurology and course director for the Neurology Clerkship at the School of Medicine.
Kevin Engler, MS, Eric Belt, EdD, and Becky Menendez, MEd join host Erin Hagar, to discuss the role of the instructional designer in higher education.
Dr. Lori Edwards Assistant Professor in UMB's School of Nursing discusses the evolution of community engagement and service learning in higher education.
Dr. Isabell May and James Wright, MFA from University of Maryland, Baltimore's Writing Center explore the current scholarship in writing studies that addresses linguistic diversity and standards of English.
Dr. Christina Cestone and Dr. Violet Kulo of UMB's Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning discuss the power of Team-Based Learning.
Beth Budny-Buckley, just completed her first year, as a faculty member in the Physician Assistant studies program at Frostburg State University. In this episode she speaks with us about the transition from practicing medicine to teaching it, as well as adapting her courses for online during COVID.
Dr. Patel will share the reasons for curriculum redesign at UMB School of Medicine and some lessons he’s learned during its implementation.
In addition to her faculty appointment at UMB School of Medicine, Dr. Sandra Quezada is the Course Director for the Medical Spanish elective. Dr. Quezada talks about how her medical Spanish course integrates and reinforces the rest of the medical school curriculum, how teaching language overlaps with culture, and cultural humility and why mistakes are a crucial part of the learning process.
This episode's topics include a discussion about the universal principles of good teaching, how teaching and leading overlap and how to recognize and reward good teaching at a Research I institution.
We explore the realm of teaching and learning from the student perspective in this episode. Three graduate students share their experiences in the online classroom, explain what teaching techniques have worked best for them and offer their insights on the future of online learning.
Dr. Faerron Guzman talks about designing on the ground experiences for students in Global Health, the importance of having a democratic perspective in teaching, and what he's learned by being a student and a faculty member in different countries.
Dr. Corey Shdaimah, is the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor for Social Justice from UMB's SSW. We talk about how the Covid pandemic provided Corey an opportunity to rethink her qualitative research methods class from the inside out, as well as the importance of knowing your students and and the crucial support a faculty member can receive by participating in a communities of practice.