Zahra Nourani began as the Administrative Coordinator for the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) in August 2012. She supports Dorothea and the goals of the CTE by coordinating the logistics for events and offering general administrative assistance. She received a BS in Cognitive Science and a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Todd Shoepe is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Health and Human Sciences. He received a BS in Health and Human Performance and an MS in Exercise Physiology from Oregon State University. Todd's research interests include cellular adaptations to exercise interventions, training modalities for improved exercise performance, and a number of ongoing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects. These SoTL works involve project-based learning activities presented at the annual meeting for the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, Lilly West Conference, and the International Institute for SoTL Scholars and Mentors. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Learning Technologies at Pepperdine University where he is investigating the role of the instructor in facilitating student engagement in synchronous online classes.

Project: Examining the Pedagogy of Online Education and Technology 
Online and technology mediated education are likely to become ever more important in higher education. What aspects of teaching and learning do online tools and technology lend themselves to? What are their advantages? What are the challenges? How different are online and technology-mediated instruction from traditional pedagogy? What kind of online instruction and technology can support the educational mission of LMU and its Strategic Plan?
We will facilitate the dialogue about the opportunities and state of online instruction through discussions and presentations. Programming will also focus on the role of technological pedagogy in different kinds of classrooms and learning contexts. Through panels, workshops, and mentorship, we plan to address the efficacy and concerns of online instruction and discuss currently available online tools and methods. We will supplement the programming through reviews of available tools and literature on online education and technology.

Vandana Thadani is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA. Vandana’s research is in educational psychology with a focus on classroom teaching and its measurement, education technology, evaluation of educational initiatives, and bridging qualitative and quantitative methods. Prior work includes evaluations of educational interventions and professional development/teacher preparation programs in K12 and university settings. She has also provided professional development for teachers and administrators in the areas of academic motivation, critical thinking, and education technology.

Project: Learning and Teaching Environments that Foster Transfer 
Transfer involves applying knowledge learned in one context to other "near" or "far" contexts. As instructors, we all aim to help students transfer learning from our lessons and readings to something else: course papers, projects, assessments, and ultimately (we hope!) to contexts outside of our classrooms. Indeed, transfer is, as Halpern and Hakel (2003) describe, “the first and only goal” of formal education. Yet, as many of us have experienced firsthand, transfer is very difficult to achieve, with students too frequently not grasping how knowledge acquired in one lesson, topic, etc., applies to other contexts. This year’s program explores what research tells us about conditions that support (and do not support) transfer. We will explore teaching and learning practices that can improve students’ ability to transfer as well as their motivation to do the effortful work that transfer requires. The current year’s program extends topics introduced in my “Student Engagement and Reflective Learning” program from last year.