Conference for Advancing Evidence-Based Learning

Abstract:
How is AI really impacting students’ learning? This faculty-moderated panel of current NU learners and recent alumni offers practical insights into the student perspective on AI in education. Panelists will share their experiences with AI tools, both the benefits and the challenges, revealing how these technologies are influencing their learning process, critical thinking skills, and overall educational journey. This session aims to inform faculty strategies for effectively and ethically integrating AI into their classrooms, based on real student experiences.

Moderator:
James Gardner
Lecturer
College of Professional Studies

Panelists: 
Rhea Iyer
Graduate Student
College of Professional Studies

Samantha Simmons
Graduate Student
College of Professional Studies

Emily Dattilo 
Associate Marketing Director
Cambridge Mobile Telematics
College of Professional Studies Alum

Arosh E. Noor
Graduate Student
College of Professional Studies

Abstract:
This panel will discuss how the Honors program worked with colleagues in Academic Technologies and the Registrar’s office to design and implement the Honors Impact badge, its associated badges, and the numerous learning pathways that map, track, and recognize student learning in courses and non-credit bearing learning experiences. This badge and its associated Canvas Credentials Pathway incorporate two of our signature first-year programs, Honors Discovery and First Year (FY) Living Learning Communities along with a third experience that students select from a curated list. The Honors Impact badge is not only recorded in our office and by the Registrar, but can also be shared on LinkedIn and other social platforms. Furthermore, by achieving the outcomes and earning this badge, students unlock continued access to Honors resources, including generous funding for global experiences and research, upper-class leadership experiences, and Honors courses.

Moderator:
Becca Berkey
Senior Director of Integrative Engagement & Global Impact
John Martinson Honors Program and Community, Engaged Teaching & Research
Office of the Chancellor

Panelists:
Brooke Tempesta
Sr. Associate Director, Community Development and Operations
John Martinson Honors Program

Justin Silvestri
Associate Director of Learning and Curricular Engagement
John Martinson Honors Program

Melissa Daigle-Briggs
Associate Registrar – Emerging Credentials
Office of the Registrar

Sharon Hatton
Academic Instructional Technologist – Canvas Catalog
Information Technology Services, Academic Technology Services

Abstract:
In this panel discussion, three faculty will share insights, advice, and questions from their work as Faculty Fellows in the 2024-2025 AI in Teaching and Learning across the Network initiative. In this initiative, one Fellow was selected by each college to both further their own AI-informed teaching practices and advance conversations in their colleges about teaching and learning with AI. These Fellows will share what they have learned from their own experience and from broad engagement with their colleagues, with an eye toward what is at stake in an AI-powered world in terms of what students learn, what faculty do, and the overall value proposition of higher education.

Moderator:
Michael Sweet
Director
Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research
Office of the Chancellor

Panelists: 
Tiffany Kim
Associate Clinical Professor
Office of the Dean
Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Barbara Larson
Teaching Professor<
Management and Organizational Development Group
D’Amore-McKim School of Business

John Rachlin
Associate Teaching Professor
Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Abstract:
This presentation offers preliminary findings from a survey on student perceptions of anti-racist feedback and grading conducted by members of the Writing Program Assessment Committee. Our research is novel in its attention to the disparate purposes and interpretations of feedback and grading on students’ experience. Our findings indicate that students overwhelmingly find grading to be both fair and antiracist, and, further, that they consider grading to be a rich and complex source of meaning including recognition of their labor and their mastery of learning outcomes. Students overwhelmingly value feedback as an instrument of their improvement, and many feel that fairness necessitates evaluating the quality of written work without reference to students’ identities. In reflecting on this data, which contradicts elements of our anti-racist pedagogical intention, we consider how our classes implement, describe, and introduce our grading and assessment practices to support student engagement with these reflective learning goals.

Moderator:
Fi Stewart-Taylor
Postdoctoral Teaching Associate
Writing Program, Department of English
College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Panelists:
Sarah Finn
Teaching Professor
Writing Program, Department of English

Tom Akbari
Part-time Lecturer
Writing Program, Department of English

Abstract:
Educational games are increasingly recognized as powerful tools for enriching learning experiences across a diverse range of subjects and age groups.This project takes an innovative approach by blending educational content with dynamic and engaging gameplay specifically designed to teach fundamental Computer Science algorithms. In this game, students actively learn by selecting, swapping, and manipulating nodes and edges within graph structures. The game is set in a 3D interactive environment and features varying levels of difficulty, providing immediate feedback and hints to promote step-by-step learning and boost interactive experience. The game incorporates a database for collecting anonymous data on the number of errors, time spent, and score changes per level, ensuring privacy since no identifying information is stored. The game also features an interface designed for instructors, enabling them to view student metrics, monitor progress, analyze overall comprehension and performance, and get valuable insights into student engagement and achievement.

Presenters:
Lama Hamandi
Associate Teaching Professor
Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Hla Htoo
Graduate Research Assistant
Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Haider Amin
Graduate Research Assistant
Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Senay Tilahun
Graduate Student
Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Abstract:
EDGE, an innovation unit within the Office of the Chancellor, helps drive Northeastern’s digital strategy by working with the colleges to create online courses and partnering with industry to align learning with career opportunities. This presentation introduces EDGE’s in-progress AI governance framework, structured around three pillars: (1) ethical internal AI use, (2) responsible AI integration for faculty, and (3) principled AI engagement for students. Pillar 1 optimizes internal workflows by aligning AI practices with university policies, integrating team feedback, and ensuring transparency through quality assurance reviews. Pillar 2 equips faculty with resources to make informed AI decisions and integrate AI effectively into their work. Pillar 3 provides students with AI guidelines when college-level policies are absent, along with curated resources. Our findings, based on survey findings from staff and faculty, reveal widespread AI adoption and underscore the need for clear, documented policies to promote accountability and trust in AI-driven education.

Presenters:
Holly Franklin
Principal Product Designer
Experiential Digital Global Education (EDGE)
Office of the Chancellor

Katie Freedman
Success Manager
EDGE

Haley Hostetter
Director of Learner Acquisition
Enrollment Management

Jessica Ward
Program and Relationship Manager
EDGE

Abstract:
This study examines the perceptions and interactions of 4th and 5th-grade students at a Northern California independent school as they engaged with ChatGPT in a Constructive Controversy framework. Through structured debates on environmental topics, students explored AI’s role as a virtual debate partner, developing nuanced understandings of its capabilities, limitations, and ethical implications. Our analysis of students’ ChatGPT interactions, observations, individual and group interviews, student discussions, and student work revealed several key findings. Students were initially curious and excited, but soon developed critical perspectives, recognizing AI limitations in real-time knowledge, conversational flow, and reasoning depth. They demonstrated sophisticated AI literacy, including the ability to verify AI-generated information, adapt communication strategies, and critically assess AI’s role in learning. Furthermore, students expressed concerns about AI’s environmental impact, stereotypes and implicit bias, dependency risks, and potential implications for future job markets, developing a sense of AI justice.

Presenters:
Lyndsay Schaeffer
Head Teacher
Mills Children’s School
Mills College at Northeastern University

Tomas Galguera
Professor
Education Unit Chair
Mills College at Northeastern University

Abstract:
This presentation highlights an innovative AI-based assignment in HLTH2200: EMT Training, designed to complement experiential learning components such as high-fidelity simulations and ambulance ride-along shifts. By engaging students in creating patient profiles, interacting with generative AI for clinical recommendations, and critically evaluating those recommendations, this assignment fosters critical thinking, information literacy, and clinical competency. Grounded in experiential learning theory and constructivist pedagogy, the approach bridges AI-based decision-making with hands-on clinical experiences, helping students contextualize AI-generated outputs within real-world EMS practice. The presentation will explore how AI can be used as a learning tool while reinforcing the limitations of algorithmic recommendations, ensuring students develop a nuanced understanding of its role in healthcare. Attendees will gain insights into the assignment’s design, implementation, and outcomes, with discussions on how similar AI-integrated experiential learning models can be adapted across disciplines.

Presenter:
Domenic Corey
Senior Lecturer, EMT Program Director
Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Abstract:
In a freshman composition course, it is easy to use Generative AI to brainstorm topics, craft arguments, find evidence, and organize it all in ways that don’t force the student to do the hard work of critical thinking and writing. But that work is THE work of a composition course! If students rely on AI support to conduct this work, not only does AI potentially remove student voice, it can remove student thinking. Instead of banning AI, this presentation explores requiring it. Students were required to funnel drafts of their essays into Gen AI sites for the purpose of targeted revision. They then compared their original draft to one created by AI, determined the effectiveness of those changes, and then wrote a reflection paper about the experience. Students learned how to use AI in their revision and determined when they can and should use it in my course and for what purpose. However, most students discovered they disliked what AI did to their writing. This poster challenges viewers to explore how to add reflection to their students’ use of Gen AI so students learn how AI contributes to, enhances, and potentially detracts from their work.

Presenter:
Amy Lantinga
Teaching Professor
College of Professional Studies

Abstract:
Problem: The best methods and strategies for the assessment and evaluation of clinical reasoning skills and critical thinking in nurse practitioner students vary among program curriculums. Core competencies outlined by The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty (NONPF) must be met, however a gap exists on the best approach to assess the expected competencies in the nurse practitioner student. Purpose: To include the use of MIRO board template to facilitate critical thinking and clinical reasoning in didactic and clinical curriculum. Method: Students complete a MIRO board template for diagnostic, assessment, and treatment of disease processes to prepare for application in the clinical practice setting. Conclusion: The Proposed implementation is an important first step to incorporate innovative technology in the didactic and clinical practicum curriculum.

Presenters:
Lisa Diana Rinke
Assistant Clinical Professor
School of Nursing
Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Caitlin Bradley
Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Program Director
School of Nursing
Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Jane Adams 
FNP Program Director
School of Nursing
Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Abstract:
Student engagement with course content is associated with positive academic and career outcomes. Thus, increasing student engagement is a longstanding priority in higher education. Nudges – small changes in the context or environment where people make decisions – may increase student engagement if they are tailored to students’ motivations for learning. In the context of a large course on quantitative analyses as part of a core public health curriculum, a two-arm randomized trial (n=127) asked students to identify learning motivations and then tested the effectiveness of nudges tailored to these motivations on engagement behaviors. Overall engagement was low. In an as-treated analysis comparing nudged students to those not exposed to a nudge, engagement behaviors improved for 3 outcomes (watching videos, reviewing midterm or homework solutions to prepare) but not attendance. Students who identified as being externally motivated showed the most response to nudges, suggesting that students’ response to tailored nudges may differ according to their stated learning motivations.

Presenter:
Samantha Garbers
Teaching Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
Department of Public Health and Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Abstract:
The course partnership between Advanced Writing in Arts, Media and Design (ENGW3314-15) and Joint Family links several fundamentals of Northeastern’s educational values: exploration of emerging technology, creativity, research, and experiential community connection. Joint Family is a social venture that is exploring intergenerational connection and empowerment in the context of a digital world. Our course emphasis is generative AI tools and how they intersect with creativity and human connection. Students create resources for an intergenerational audience that will be published on Joint Family’s website and other platforms. The partnership’s first two semesters have been a source of learning and data about how students learn with and about generative AI, as well as a model for growing an educational and social network across virtual and local landscapes.

Presenters:
Emily Avery-Miller
Associate Teaching Professor
Writing Program, Department of English 
College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Sulagna (Dia) Ghosh
Founder of Joint Family; Interdisciplinary Scientist
Joint Family

Abstract:
Students, faculty, and staff alike sometimes produce less than stellar documents when they ask generative AI for help. When this happens, the problem can often be traced back to providing inadequate or the wrong type of information. This poster introduces Intentional Design, a simple, two-element framework enabling any user from any discipline to clearly and directly ask AI for what they want, based on their unique situation. Rather than following someone else’s prompt template or attending repetitive prompt engineering workshops, viewers will learn a universal approach for improving output quality with any chatbot, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Through this framework, viewers of all levels will gain the fundamental skills to transform any interaction with generative AI into a productive dialogue, preparing them to use these tools effectively across all aspects of their academic, professional, and personal pursuits.

Presenter:
Pat Leomi
Assistant Director, Career Services
Employer Engagement and Career Design

Abstract:
This poster presents statistical findings from a survey on student perceptions of anti-racist feedback and grading conducted by members of the Writing Program Assessment Committee. Writing Program students responded to quantitative and qualitative questions about the type(s) of grading and assessment used in their classes, the fairness of said grading and assessment methods, and if and how these methods are anti-racist. Our research attends to the disparate purposes and interpretations of feedback and grading in students’ experiences. In comparing student responses to questions on feedback and grading with reference to traditional, nontraditional, and alternative grading methods, and accounting for student’s home discipline, we offer novel insights into how students perceive their learning process. Students overwhelmingly find grading to be both fair and anti-racist, and, further, that they consider grading to be a rich and complex source of meaning including recognition of their labor and their mastery of learning outcomes.

Presenters:
Matthew Noonan
Associate Teaching Professor 
Writing Program, Department of English
College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Abbie DeCamp
Postdoctoral Teaching Associate
Writing Program, Department of English

Mina Vidrine
Postdoctoral Teaching Associate
Writing Program, Department of English

Abstract:
This poster presents my approach for teaching legal drafting to non-law students using generative AI tools. Students were assigned with drafting various contracts, such as non-disclosure agreements, licensing agreements and assignment agreements. They were also instructed to draft trademark applications. These students are from the Master of Science in Biotechnology program and have no prior training in law. For most students, English is not their native language. Nevertheless, the students successfully drafted basic contracts using generative AI tools. They were also able to negotiate their draft contracts with the use of these tools. The use of generative AI tools proves to be highly effective for teaching law and legal drafting. The skills that students acquired from the legal drafting exercises will be useful not only in the life sciences industry, but also for any commercial transactions that the students may face in their careers.

Presenter:
Yuen Lai Shek
Part-time Lecturer
College of Science, College of Professional Studies
Toronto Campus

Abstract:
The intentional goal setting and progress monitoring required of a programmatic self-study allows for truth finding and reassurance that the program designed is the program our students are not only receiving, but benefiting from. We capture the importance of clear aims and formative evaluation in experiential education and the promise it holds for student and program advancement. Six years into the new EdD model, we embarked on a self-study project. This research space offered time to explore the extent to which our EdD program truly adhered to these guiding policies and the amount to which we designed a program that authentically prepared scholar practitioners. It reminded us of the values of guiding principles and progress monitoring in experiential learning. Results have proven Action Research is a lever for fully advancing online, doctoral level experiential education. It allows for student research to transform a wide array of organizational contexts in responsive, real-world ways.

Presenters:
Melissa Parenti
Associate Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education
College of Professional Studies

Cherese Childers-McKee
Assistant Dean
Graduate School of Education

Annine Crystal
Assistant Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education

Tyneka Holley
Assistant Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education

Abstract:
This presentation examines how Action Research methodology in EdD dissertations serves as a powerful tool for advancing social justice in educational settings. Through systematic analysis of 186 dissertations, we explored how doctoral students utilize Action Research to address educational equity, curriculum inclusivity, community engagement, and professional development. Our findings reveal that 85% of dissertations incorporated social justice elements, with varying distributions across frameworks: educational access and equity (26.34%), instructional curriculum and practice (36.02%),community engagement (5.91%), and professional development (16.67%). We demonstrate how Action Research methodology captures participant voice, raises critical consciousness, and intentionally works to resolve educational disparities. This analysis provides insights into strengthening the integration of social justice frameworks in doctoral research and practice. This research was conducted by 4 GSE faculty members as a means of improving the EdD Program.

Presenters:
Noor Ali
Assistant Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education
College of Professional Studies

Joe McNabb
Full Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education

Melissa Parenti
Associate Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education

Tyneka Holley
Assistant Teaching Professor
Graduate School of Education