Speaker Bios

Ellen Bartley
Bio: Dr. Ellen Bartley is an assistant professor at FSC, teaching accounting in the Business Management department. She has been teaching for more than 16 years. Ellen’s doctorate in business education reflects her commitment to teaching and learning. Committed to the importance of financial literacy, she welcomes the challenge of teaching the accounting principles courses to non-majors, who generally see the course as irrelevant. She also teaches Intermediate Accounting and mentors students who plan to pursue careers in accounting.

Title: Great Expectations: Setting Up Students to Succeed
Abstract: As instructors, we all likely want the same thing that our students want: for our students to be successful in our courses. However, we often make the incorrect assumption that our students know how to do that. After all, our syllabi tell them how their grades are determined. However, for novice learners in our disciplines and first-generation college students, we may need to provide some scaffolding. By setting realistic expectations and helping students manage those expectations, we have the ability to help students succeed.

Katelynn DeLuca
Bio: Katelynn DeLuca is Assistant Professor of English, Composition. Balancing teaching, research and community involvement, Katelynn’s work can be defined as emphasizing collaboration and helping students gain voice and agency through their work in and out of the classroom. Her research focuses on the intersections of social class, identity, and the writing classroom.

Chiara De Santi
Bio: Chiara De Santi is Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and she teaches courses in Italian language, culture, and cinema, and international cinema, in face-to-face, hybrid, and online modalities. Her courses are all interdisciplinary and integrate applied learning components. At Farmingdale, she fosters the introduction of COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) in the curriculum, having COILed courses with Italy, Japan, and Mexico. She received a Ph.D. in Italian from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Ph.D. and a Masters of Research in History from the European University Institute, and a Laurea (M.A. equivalent) in Languages from the University of Florence. Her research interests and publications include second language acquisition, cinema, Italian culture, literature, and history.

Title: COILing, or Online International Collaboration, from a Faculty and Student Perspective
Abstract: Description of the Presentation: The presentation illustrates the introduction of online international collaboration in college courses from a faculty (Chiara De Santi) and student perspective (Samantha Somma), based on experience with COIL modules in their classes. The presenters also give an overview of the opportunities that faculty have at Farmingdale for COILing their courses with faculty and students from countries all around the world.

Jaime Hartless
Bio: Jaime Hartless is a new Assistant Professor in the Sociology & Anthropology Department. Prior to being hired by Farmingdale State College, Dr. Hartless served as a Lecturer at the University of Dayton and a Graduate Instructor/Teaching Assistant at the University of Virginia, where she was awarded her PhD in Sociology in 2019. She has taught a variety of courses, including Introduction to Sociology, Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies, Social Inequality, Social Science Research Methods, and Gender & Sexuality. Dr. Hartless currently lives in Queens with her two feline teaching assistants who like to guest lecture in her classes.

Title: What to Do When Students Won’t Turn on the Mic: Using OneDrive & Blackboard Chat to Engage Students.
Abstract:The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced instructors to become experts in online pedagogy. The transition from in-class to online learning has been alienating for faculty (who miss the energy of in-person discussions), as well as students (who feel like they are being robbed of the ‘college experience’). As faculty have tried to recreate the energy of their pre-Covid classrooms online, many have instead been faced with silent black boxes with student names. How can faculty facilitate engagement under such circumstances? In this session, I will show how pairing Blackboard Collaborate Ultra’s Break-Out group function with structured OneDrive activities can bring distracted students back into the classroom and prevent synchronous sessions turning into lectures.

Christoper Iverson
Bio: Bio: Chris Iverson is an assistant professor of English, composition. His research examines the effects of service-learning/community engagement on college writers. More recently, this research has turned to how community engagement can continue to empower writers in new and safer ways amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Title: Low-impact ways to use the principles of community engagement to encourage classroom engagement.

Michael Mastermaker
Bio: Michael Mastermaker is an assistant professor in the visual communication department at Farmingdale State College. He specializes in design and technology, with a background in web and software development. He is also an illustrator that works with a variety of clients, including Marvel, DC Comics, and Lucasfilm. His current work often relates to design fiction and narrative.

Title: The role of Mixed Reality within the socio-academic COVID-19 undergraduate experience--results of a study.
Abstract: An industry-centered research and design studio using a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) environment was conducted in the Summer of 2020. Its objective was to Investigate the role of Mixed Reality within the socio-academic COVID-19 undergraduate experience. The research that was conducted resulted in over 2000 responses from an international group about their experiences with online learning during the initial stages of the COVID 19 pandemic. Much of this information relates directly to student engagement, and this presentation will present some of the findings.

Samantha Somma
Bio: Samantha Somma is the International Student and Scholar Support Specialist as well as the campus COIL Coordinator. She has been working in international education for the past ten years and currently serves as the Primary Designated School Official for F visa students as well as the Exchange Visitor Advisor for J visa students and/or scholars. She completed the NAFSA: Association of International Educators Academy and is an advocate for international education. Samantha has participated in COIL courses while an undergrad where she worked with students from Poland and Lebanon. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree with concentrations in Cultural and Global Studies from Empire State College. She is currently completing her MA in International Education Management and Leadership from the University at Albany

Title: See abstract under "De Santi."

Carly Tribull
Bio: Dr. Carly Tribull is an assistant professor in the Biology department at Farmingdale State College. Their primary teaching focus is General Biology, a survey course aimed at non-major students.

Title: Weekly Discussion Posts - Do they make a difference?
Abstract: Online professors are often told that they should have required, weekly discussion posts to engage their students in an asynchronous format. However, if we are requiring students to complete an assignment, especially a weekly one, there should be a meaningful payoff in learning objective gains. In Fall 2020, I taught two sections of General Biology, a Natural Science General Education course that is a broad survey of introductory biology. One section had weekly required discussion posts, the other section did not. Both sections had the same learning materials, homework assignments, and weekly quizzes. Although I am continuing data collection with my Spring 2021 sections, I'll discuss the results so far and examine whether required weekly discussion posts result in a significant difference in course performance.

Ebru Ulusoy
Bio:Dr. Ebru Ulusoy is an Assistant Professor in the Business Management Department. Dr. Ulusoy joined Farmingdale State College in Fall 2016. She earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing from University of Texas – Pan American. Dr. Ulusoy received a master's degree in Production Management and Marketing from Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, and received her bachelor's degree in Public Relations and Advertising from Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. Before joining the School of Business at Farmingdale State College, Dr. Ulusoy served as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Maine Business School at the University of Maine. She has taught courses in in-person, online, hybrid, and flipped classroom formats in various institutions in the U.S. and Turkey.

Title: Tools to Create Interactions in Synchronous and Asynchronous Sessions
Abstract: In this presentation, I will demonstrate three platforms that I am utilizing in my courses to create an interactive learning environment in synchronous and asynchronous sessions. I will first show how to create polls and quizzes on ‘PollEverywhere’ to create interactions during synchronous classes and sessions. I will also show how to create reports and gradebooks on ‘PollEverywhere’ for evaluating student performances. Later, I will demonstrate how to create interactive ‘FlipGrid’ discussions and ‘EdPuzzle’ videos to make the students engage with the material in the asynchronous classes and sessions.

Gozde Ustuner-Kal
Bio: Gozde Ustuner-Kal is a professor of the Department of Automotive Technology at Farmingdale State College. She has completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s studies in Mechanical Engineering and continues her education with PhD program in Material Science and Chemical Engineering. She has worked as lead design engineer in industry and she has done various research projects and published papers where her works were funded by United States Department of Energy, General Motors Company and National Science Foundation. Her areas of expertise include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), computer-aided design (CAD) and new product development in fuel cell technology. She has been teaching online/hybrid courses since 2018. She has completed her online and hybrid course training and has constructed online courses to create an interactive and motivational environment for learning. Additionally, she has completed SUNY Teaching and Learning for Faculty Certificate Program with distinction and has been selected to work as an Online Faculty Mentoring Incentive since Summer 2020. She is also an active member of WID committee and UHS programs at Farmingdale State College.

Title: Optimizing student engagement in virtual learning environment
Abstract: Teaching in a virtual environment can be challenging at times. The most important aspects of keeping students engaged on an online course is communication, presence, and engagement. Communication between students and the instructor builds the foundation of effectiveness of an online course. It is essential to connect presence and engagement. Presence is more than visibility and responsiveness; providing feedback, mid-course surveys, office hours, posting content material on the course help students stay present. Learning process with active student engagement can be demonstrated as a team activity. Although the instructor is the guide, practices that involve active engagement, small group setting which helps students to work together to contribute cooperative learning process improve the quality and the efficiency of learning.