Kelly Perez, MPH, M.E.d., Lecturer, Kinesiology Health Promotion and Recreation
Tama Herbert, Educational Technology Trainer, Strategic Educational Alliances
Room 43

Drawing on public health insights that highlight social connection as a key contributor to mental and physical health, this session demonstrates how structured peer interaction can reduce isolation, support belonging and create healthier learning environments. Participants will examine practical approaches that cultivate meaningful student-to-student and teacher-to-student relationships while enhancing communication and teamwork, two essential career-readiness competencies. Attendees will leave with adaptable strategies for integrating social connection into course design, helping students thrive both academically and personally and preparing them for the collaborative demands of today’s workforce. 

Christy Crutsinger, Ph.D., Distinguished Teaching Professor, Merchandising and Digital Retailing 
Tania Heap, Ph.D., Sr. Director, Learning Research and Accessibility, Strategic Educational Alliances
Audon Archibald, Ph.D., Data Analyst, SEA Learning Analysis and Digital Research Center
Room 49

As AI and automation reshape the modern workplace, human-centered communication skills remain urgently important. This session presents findings from a two-semester mixed methods study (Spring and Fall 2025) examining how active learning strategies in undergraduate leadership courses influence student engagement and soft skill development. Strategies included meeting simulations, case studies, role plays, active listening activities and peer collaboration. Attendees will gain practical models for teaching communication skills, insights into measuring soft skill growth and a framework for integrating experiential learning into leadership curricula.  

Michelle Singh, Ph.D., Vice President for Strategic Educational Alliances
James Garrison, M.A., Chief Information Officer
Room 42

Artificial intelligence is the latest in a series of transformative innovations reshaping higher education. Rather than treating AI as a singular disruption, UNT is developing a broader institutional framework that draws on lessons from previous technological shifts to navigate innovation with clarity, responsibility and shared purpose. Drawing from institutional data, prior innovation cycles and cross-divisional collaboration, presenters will outline guiding principles for responsible adoption, structured experimentation, governance and workforce alignment. Attendees will gain practical insight into how data-informed decision-making and shared institutional values position UNT to move beyond reactive responses to AI and toward a sustainable, student-centered culture of innovation.

Stephanie Vastine, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, English
Brian Anderson, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Music History Pedagogy
Room 47

This session will showcase how the UNT Teaching Hub’s AI Community of Practice (AI CoP) is cultivating collaborative, student-centered approaches to integrating generative AI in the classroom and encouraging instructor learning and experimentation with AI. Participants will learn how AI CoP members use and share data, design ethical and transparent policies and implement assignments and practices that reflect the new reality of an AI-driven world. They will also gain practical tools for incorporating AI in their own work based on the AI CoP’s anecdotal and empirical data. While much of the session focuses on the AI CoP’s initial steps, the session will close by looking forward to future possibilities for embracing emerging technologies.

Philip Aguinaga, M.A., Assistant Director of Advising, College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism
Anna Motes, M.A., Career Coach for the College of Information, Career Center
DrewAnn Reyes, M.S., Assistant Director, Transition Programs, Orientation and Transition Programs
Room 48

This learning session explores how UNT’s growing use of CliftonStrengths provides a common language for student self-awareness, applied learning and evidence-based career readiness. Presenters will share UNT-specific data, student impact stories and research literature demonstrating how strengths-based development improves communication of skills in both academic and professional contexts. Attendees will learn how the Strengths Ambassador program, campuswide workshops and individual appointments help students articulate talents using language that aligns with employer expectations. The session offers practical, replicable models that staff and faculty across UNT can meaningfully integrate into their courses, advising, student employment and departmental initiatives.

Jae Webb, Ph.D.
Clinical Associate Professor, Management

This session presents findings from a comprehensive needs assessment examining faculty development gaps that impact student success. In Fall 2025, over 500 faculty and staff responded to a survey about their professional development needs as they relate to supporting student learning. Key findings reveal strong demand for training in student engagement strategies, evidence-based teaching methods and strategies for bridging generational gaps, with follow-up focus groups exploring these barriers in depth. The presentation will share how these data are informing the design of new Communities of Practice and faculty development initiatives, with particular emphasis on high-demand areas like AI integration, project-based learning and inclusive pedagogy. Attendees will learn meaningful strategies for translating faculty voice into actionable programming that builds teaching capacity.

Lisa Welch, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Biological Sciences
Ann Price, Ph.D., Lecturer, Biological Sciences

This poster session will provide an overview of UNT’s Foundations of Biology course, which focuses on conceptual clarity, skill-building, active engagement and targeted remediation to dramatically improve student readiness for biology majors. The key is aligning instruction with the specific knowledge gaps of under-prepared students.

Abigail Dyer, M.A., Senior Academic Counselor 
Chloe Witt, M.Ed., Academic Counselor

In Fall 2024, Advising Services launched a classroom visit campaign in targeted high enrollment courses such as history, government, biology, chemistry, math and English to share information on the role academic advising plays in student success at UNT. These visits presented information on the benefits of early academic advising and how students can connect with their advising team, with a goal of increasing early academic advising appointments and registration. This presentation will present the effectiveness of this intervention and how, with greater cross-campus collaboration, it can be implemented at scale.

Christina Ross, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor, Multidisciplinary Innovation

This presentation will share pre- and post-test results from the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension in interdisciplinary, project-based learning communication courses at UNT. The PRCA measures students’ perceived level of anxiety when communicating in group, meeting, interpersonal and public speaking contexts. Results indicated statistically significant differences in communication apprehension, particularly for public speaking and for cohorted sections. The presenter will share how systematic desensitization and a scaffolded project-based approach to course design can contribute to lower levels of communication apprehension and increased confidence in students.

Jakob Burnham, Ph.D., Director of the Lab for Engaged, Applied, and Public Humanities (LEAPH) and Clinical Assistant Professor of History

This session shares the results of the history department’s efforts to evaluate student perceptions of course learning objectives as they relate to career preparedness. The research was conducted by integrating a new informational module, “History and Careers,” into the U.S. History Survey, which allowed data to be collected from students across the university. The module served two purposes: to dispel students’ preconceived ideas about the career outcomes of humanities majors and to inform them about trends in employment criteria. Students were then asked to report their perceptions of which employment criteria their history courses developed most directly. These results were analyzed to identify areas for potential improvement in the development of underrepresented transferable workforce skills.

Tania Heap, Ph.D., Sr. Director, Learning Research and Accessibility, SEA Learning Analysis and Digital Research (LADR)
Audon Archibald, Ph.D., Data Analyst, SEA LADR
Thomas Trebat, Graduate Research Assistant/Data Analyst Intern, SEA LADR
Quentin Smith, Undergraduate Research Assistant/Data Analyst Intern, SEA LADR
Natalie Brown, Undergraduate Research Assistant/Data Analyst Intern, SEA LADR

This session shares a three-year, multivariable analysis linking course design and operational factors to DFWI and retention. Using a university-wide dataset plus classroom technology tiers, presenters will show how enrollment, meeting frequency, duration, start time, day patterns and room fullness relate to As, Cs, Fs and DFWI rates. They then extend the model with new lenses: (1) syllabus-level retention rankings (top 10 and bottom 10 courses) and (2) campus-wide course accessibility scores from Ally in Canvas. Participants will leave with a replicable analytic framework and considerations for possible high-yield interventions for campus reporting that blend institutional research, accessibility and classroom design data.

Detra Craig, M.Ed., Director, TRIO Student Support Services
Anthony Vazquez, M.Ed., Assistant Director, TRIO Student Support Services

This poster session will demonstrate the impact of TRIO Student Support Services on the retention, persistence and graduation outcomes of qualifying undergraduate student participants at UNT. TRIO Student Support Services is designed to increase the number of low-income and first-generation students and students with disabilities who complete a bachelor's degree. In accordance with U.S. Department of Education requirements, TRIO SSS provides academic tutoring, course registration assistance, financial aid support, financial literacy services and graduate and/or professional school preparation. Through a holistic service model and approach, TRIO SSS supports institutional student success and retention and graduation goals by providing services and co-curricular learning and engagement opportunities for academic, personal and professional development.

Francine Hazy, M.S., Senior Academic Counselor

An academic counselor conducted exit interviews with TAMS students during their last semester prior to graduation. These interviews guided students to reflect on their experience and to share feedback staff could use to assess policies and better support future students. Notes from these interviews were organized to identify recurring themes and share feedback with relevant teams within TAMS. Since then, the exit interview feedback has been applied when making decisions about Orientation and Preview Day presentations, TAMS Handbook policies, Early Start and academic advising practices.

Hsin-Hsuan Chung, Graduate Student Assistant
Junhua Ding, Ph.D., Professor of Data Science
Kewei Sha, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Data Science

This presentation will introduce a scalable and equity-minded approach to strengthening students’ sense of purpose, belonging and well-being through data-driven mentoring. By conducting brief pulse surveys and pairing the results with routinely available engagement indicators, the project aims to demonstrate how analyzing change over time and reporting by subgroup can reveal hidden inequities, then show how student voice helps interpret results and shape targeted mentoring responses. Attendees will leave with an adaptable template for implementing the approach and translating findings into concrete improvements in student support. 

Haley Arnold, Assistant Director, International Education Program

This poster presentation highlights the data collection practices of the Study Abroad Office and how intentional program assessment demonstrates the outcomes of study abroad on students' academic journeys and career readiness. Attendees will gain insight into SAO's growth-oriented and value-driven approach to assessments, including how data is collected, analyzed and translated into actionable program improvements. The session will showcase how study abroad functions as a high-impact and engaging learning experience and how data findings are used to strengthen program design, enhance student support and inform new program initiatives.

Apurwa Bhattarai, Master's Student, Information Science; Graduate Services Assistant, UNT Libraries

UNT Libraries hosts various promotional events, but there aren't enough metrics to measure if those events were effective. This project helps library staff assess the effectiveness of the campaign by analyzing the materials checkouts before and after the campaign. Similarly, the dashboard also helps analyze trends of the checked-out materials.

Ranita Cheruvu, Ed.D., Lecturer and Program Coordinator of M.S. in Early Childhood Education
Nazia Khan, Ed.D., Associate Chair of B.S. in Education, Principal Lecturer
Tori Smith, Ph.D., Lecturer and Lead for Institutional Effectiveness Report for Teaching M.Ed. Program

In this session, presenters will share how they utilize UNT’s Institutional Effectiveness reporting process to guide meaningful curricular changes and foster innovation. Through systematic data collection and analysis, stakeholder feedback and outcomes evaluation, they identify strengths, address gaps and align programs with current educational standards and best practices. This evidence-based approach supports continuous improvement and allows faculty to make informed decisions that enhance student learning, improve field experiences and strengthen instructional strategies. By leveraging assessment results and graduate performance data, presenters aim to design curricular and program structures that remain relevant, rigorous and responsive to the evolving needs of diverse UNT students and the children they serve. 

Janelle Foster, M.S., Department Head, Access Services, UNT Libraries
Jen Rowe, MLS, Department Head, Branch Libraries, UNT Libraries
Amanda Zerangue, M.S., Associate Librarian, Public Services, UNT Libraries

Library engagement matters for student success, but how do we show that, and what story does the data tell? This poster presents UNT Libraries Public Services Division's early efforts to examine internal service data as evidence of the division's role in the student journey. Presenters will share what their data suggest so far, where gaps and opportunities are emerging and how they are developing the capacity to use data more intentionally. The goal is not a finished research project but a transparent account of a developing practice, and an argument that every service interaction is an act of teaching worth making visible.

Liyu Yang, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Science

This session details the presenter’s journey in building a data-driven academic career across tourism and information science at UNT. Rather than viewing data solely as a research tool, Yang approaches it as a guiding mindset — one that has shaped disciplinary growth, broadened research boundaries and redefined long-term career goals. The path unfolds in three stages: developing domain expertise in tourism through qualitative research on traveler interactions with generative AI; advancing into the information science field to explore social network analysis and computational approaches to large-scale social media data; and integrating mixed methods with AI-enabled bibliometric techniques to investigate explainable and responsible AI. This progression demonstrates how data-driven thinking, interdisciplinary mentorship and institutional values can open meaningful opportunities for graduate students to pursue impactful research and career growth.

Jiyoung Yoon, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish, Director of Student Career Development, World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

This presentation examines enrollment trends among World Languages B.A. majors using fall (census-style) counts from 2018–2025 to ensure accurate year-to-year comparisons based on UNT Insights 2.0 data. Total fall enrollment declined 45.6%, with sharper drops in Spanish, French and German and a post-peak decline in Japanese between 2021 and 2025. The department is taking proactive steps — introducing six new Spanish Professional Certificates, expanding career partnerships through the inaugural Fall 2025 Career Resource Fair and planning Spring 2026 workshops with the UNT Career Center — to advance a career-connected curriculum inspired by Arizona State University’s successful language program model.

Sephra Byrne, Ph.D., Data Analyst, Collection Assessment Department, UNT Libraries
Lidia Arvisu, M.S., Department Purchasing Coordinator, UNT Libraries
Laine Fender, Student Assistant, Assistant Data Analyst, Collection Assessment Department, UNT Libraries

This presentation examines how UNT Libraries regularly collect student feedback and how that feedback has informed and guided improvements across library services and spaces.

Harum Ahmed, Third-year Ph.D. Candidate, Physics

This project serves as a platform as an application mentoring students in data analysis, modeling, and quantitative reasoning, demonstrating how research environments can function as collaborative learning spaces that support both discovery and student development.

Cassidy Baker, Ph.D., LCSW-S, ACSW, Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work, MSW Program Director
Steven Pullin, Undergraduate Student, Social Work

This poster presents an arts-based pedagogical approach to social work education that integrates creative assignments, such as “unessays” and arts-informed field journals, to deepen student engagement and promote meaningful professional development. These multimodal strategies support students in processing complex internship experiences, navigating value tensions and cultivating self-care, aligning with the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. Implemented across undergraduate ethics courses and undergraduate and graduate field seminars, these assignments foster insight, creativity and reflective practice. Preliminary feedback indicates increased engagement, richer narratives of practice and greater inclusion as students express identity and perspectives through creative formats. The session is co-presented by a faculty member and a social work student who will share lived experiences, benefits and lessons learned from these approaches.

Aubree Evans, Ph.D., Director of Faculty Development, Strategic Educational Alliances
Babafunso Adegbola, Ed.D., Assistant Faculty Development Specialist
Audon Archibald, Ph.D., Data Analyst, DSI Learning Research
Room 47

This session highlights the impact of CETO (Certificate of Excellence in Teaching Online), a semester-long hybrid learning community offered through the Division of Strategic Educational Alliances, on improving student outcomes in online courses. Built on evidence-based online teaching practices, CETO guides faculty in strengthening instructor presence, creating accessible and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) aligned materials and assignments, and using midsemester feedback to make timely instructional adjustments. Faculty from varied disciplines engage in structured peer exchange, collaborative problem solving and supportive feedback that sustains them throughout the semester. This ongoing collaboration enhances individual teaching practices while fostering a wider culture of continuous improvement.

Shelia Bustillos, Ph.D., Director, Student Services Assessment 
Shafayat Islam, M.S., Assistant Director, Student Services Assessment
Sam Williamson, M.A., Assistant Director, Student Services Assessment
Room 42

Large-scale surveys often position students as respondents. This session highlights what happens when students become researchers. Using data from the SERU (Student Experience in the Research University) survey at UNT, student participants in the UNT Student Research Challenge analyzed key findings and identified the most pressing themes shaping the student experience. Attendees will hear directly from student researchers about what they discovered and why it matters. The session will then shift from insight to action, inviting participants to engage with top SERU findings and collaboratively generate institutional responses. This interactive session models a student-centered approach to assessment, demonstrating how survey data can move beyond reporting to inform design, partnership, and meaningful change.   

Allison Boye, Ph.D., Senior Faculty Development Specialist, Strategic Educational Alliances
Room 48

This session presents findings from GAIT (the Generative AI Institute for Teaching), a semester-long, research-based professional development program designed to help faculty integrate generative AI transparently, ethically and in support of student success. As GenAI tools reshape higher education, many instructors experience uncertainty about using them effectively. GAIT addresses this challenge through a structured, community-oriented model that combines asynchronous modules, hands-on experimentation, guided reflection and synchronous cohort discussions. This session will share program data, participant reflections and examples of AI-integrated teaching practices along with interactive activities modeling GAIT strategies, offering attendees practical insights for cultivating informed, confident AI engagement that advances student learning and success.   

Amy Petros, Ph.D., Co-Director of the LEEF Teaching Hub
Kathryn Raign, Ph.D., Co-Director of the LEEF Teaching Hub
Yolanda Mitchell, Ph.D., Senior Faculty Developer for the LEEF Teaching Hub
Room 51

The Teaching Hub Community of Practice (CoP) model brings together educators across UNT — faculty, staff, and graduate students — to collaboratively design and enact interventions that drive meaningful gains in student success. This workshop introduces participants to how the Teaching Hub supports the creation of these cross-role CoPs by grounding collaborative inquiry in data, evidence and shared purpose. The session begins with an interactive data scavenger hunt that inspires curiosity and builds a collective understanding of student needs and institutional opportunities. From there, teams work together to articulate an evidence-based challenge or opportunity statement, draft preliminary inquiry questions, identify additional data required and map potential partners or offices essential to a successful CoP. By the end, participants experience firsthand how the Teaching Hub cultivates an environment where diverse educators unite to explore problems, test ideas and shape solutions that enhance teaching, learning and student achievement across UNT.

Courtney Glazer, Ph.D., Director of the Core at UNT
Room 43

The Texas General Education Committee (GEC) was formed in October 2025 with a charge based on SB 37 to review and recommend updates to the Texas Core Curriculum. In its work, the committee has looked at reasons why the core looks like it does today, issues related to transfer applicability and the workforce landscape including the needs of employers. This session will share data from the GEC's work that is relevant to UNT's undergraduate students and their pathways in and out of the university as well as key tensions relevant to the work of revising the Texas Core Curriculum at the state level and for UNT.

Sean Ryan, Ph.D., Associate Dean, UNT Honors College
Lizette Ozog, M.E.d., Assistant Dean of Advising, UNT Honors College
Michael Forst, M.A., Assistant Director of Student Life, UNT Honors College
Room 49

High-achieving students often leave universities not because of academic struggle, but because they lack meaningful connections and a sense of belonging at the institution. This session explores how the UNT Honors College supports high-achieving students through broader, deeper academic experiences paired with structured co-curricular engagement.

Kathryn Raign, Ph.D., Co-Director of the LEEF Teaching Hub
Room 51

On September 23, 2024, President Keller charged the Student Success Scan project team with quickly assessing the progress of student success efforts to inform long  and short term strategies for improvement at UNT. The scan identified several instructional challenges: limited resources and support for faculty development; an evaluation structure that discourages instructional innovation; insufficient assistance for new faculty; and student reports of unresponsive instructors, outdated materials and ineffective teaching methods. Students expressed a desire for more engaging, adaptable instruction, while many faculty feel under-prepared for the level of support students need. In this workshop, Teaching Hub members will introduce the Educator Outreach Initiative, designed with the understanding that teaching is a complex human activity and that even skilled educators can grow through study, practice and collaborative support.

Benjamin Brand, Ph.D., Interim Executive Director, CLEAR, Strategic Educational Alliances
Tania Heap, Ph.D., Sr. Director, Learning Research and Accessibility, Strategic Educational Alliances
Room 42

As institutions prepare for strengthened Title II ADA requirements, the University of North Texas has launched UDL@UNT, a campuswide initiative designed to build faculty and staff capacity in learner centered, accessible design. Grounded in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, the presentation introduces UDL’s history, structure and evidence-based impact on student engagement and persistence. It then highlights UNT’s new UDL Resource Hub, which provides adaptable materials, discipline-specific guidance and on-demand support to reduce barriers without increasing workload. Finally, the session shares early findings from an analysis of Anthology Ally data across 23,000 Canvas courses, revealing how course size and accessibility interact to influence student success and retention outcomes. Results show accessibility improvements are especially protective in large enrollment courses, validating UNT’s combined strategy of UDL-aligned professional development and campuswide accessibility planning.

Mai W. Zaru, Ph.D., Program Project Coordinator, TRIO Upward Bound
Room 43

This session introduces Ecosystem Mapping, a longitudinal analytic framework that models how mentorship, engagement, belonging and academic performance redistribute across developmental stages. Using multi-year Upward Bound data, presenters integrate academic indicators, engagement intensity, mentorship frequency and perceived impact, connectedness and transition experiences into stage-specific ecosystem visualizations. Rather than reporting static performance metrics, this model identifies support centrality shifts, transition vulnerabilities and leverage points across pre-college and early college phases. Ecosystem Mapping operationalizes whole-system student success theory (Thomas et al., 2021) and ecological higher education frameworks (Renn & Smith, 2023) into a practical analytic tool aligned with UNT 2030's vision that every interaction carries educational impact. Participants will examine a piloted composite ecosystem scoring, transition inflection detection and cross-unit data alignment strategies that move institutions from descriptive dashboards to predictive, design-oriented analytics.

Michael Montecino, Ph.D., Co-Director of the LEEF Curriculum Connector
April Prince, Ph.D., Co-Director of the LEEF Curriculum Connector
Room 49

This session introduces a pilot collaboration between the Curriculum Connector in UNT's Learning Ecosystem for Empowering Futures (LEEF) and the Department of English. Attendees will gain a high-level look at how the project examines student pathways drawing on enrollment patterns, retention trends and emerging career trajectories to better understand how the English curriculum supports student goals. The session will highlight early insights from a mixed methods approach and demonstrate how integrating student data with stakeholder feedback can inform curriculum planning and strengthen career preparation across academic programs.

Sam Bergmann, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Behavior Analysis
Shahla Ala’i-Rosales, Ph.D., Professor, Behavior Analysis
David Morales, Master's Student, Behavior Analysis
Room 48

The Glenn & Ellis Mentoring (GEM) Program, named in honor of founding professors Drs. Sigrid Glenn and Janet Ellis, was created for Master of Science  students in the Department of Behavior Analysis. GEM is designed to equip new master's students with the initial tools, experiences and connections to help them create community and be successful. It is formally structured within a practicum course overseen by the M.S. graduate advisor. Activities were selected to encourage students to connect with their cohort members, foster connection with other graduate students and faculty members, contact resources at UNT, make time to meet with the M.S. graduate advisor and attend research labs in the department. Participation in the activities was documented on a GEM card on which the students record activities and earn points. Presenters will review the program, provide data on student satisfaction and share a student’s perspective.

Jade Marth, M.Ed., Sr. Program Project Coordinator, UNT WISE ENGAGE 
Kellie Nix, M.S., CRC, LPC, Associate Director, UNT WISE ENGAGE
Kaiqi Zhou, Ph.D., CRC, Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation and Health Services; Research Collaborator for UNT WISE 
Lucy Gafford, M.S., CRC, Director, UNT WISE  
Room 47

This presentation provides an assessment of the UNT WISE ENGAGE program, focusing on its core objectives, implementation strategies and measured outcomes. It examines how the program supports student engagement, academic persistence and professional development among the neurodivergent student population at UNT. Using program data, participant feedback and outcome metrics, the presentation evaluates the program’s effectiveness and highlights key successes, areas for improvement and insights to inform future program development and sustainability.