Kentucky Convergence

"Compliance on a Budget: Leveraging Power BI & SharePoint for Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) Compliance" - Jennifer Hurwitz and Lauren Bae

On July 1, 2021, the final rules on Distance Education and Innovation went into effect. At that time, the U.S. Department of Education updated the definition of distance education, which is used in determining financial aid eligibility for higher education institutions. "Regular and substantive interaction" was added to the definition, clarifying the difference between "distance education" and "correspondence education". Regular and substantive interaction (RSI) is critical for effective teaching; research shows that teacher-student interactions are essential to learning. Moreover, non-compliance with RSI could have significant financial consequences. Institutions failing to comply with RSI requirements could potentially lose eligibility for Title IV funds and could be required to return financial aid disbursed for courses found in violation. Therefore, an increased focus on the instructor's role in online course delivery and the importance of RSI between the instructor and students is critical for institutions to adopt. However, many universities are decentralized, which makes tracking RSI compliance difficult. Consequently, team members at the University of Louisville's Office of Online Learning designed a process using existing office tools and applications to boost online faculty compliance with the required annual RSI attestation. By implementing SharePoint, Power Automate, and Power BI, this business process solution saves cost but more importantly reduces administrative burden through automated communication while consistently tracking and reporting faculty attestations to each college and department. The purpose of this lightning talk is to provide an overview of the process, to impart lessons learned, and to share helpful resources.

"Avoid or Assimilate: Detecting AI Content in the Classroom" - Matthew Kirby

This lightning talk will offer an overview of how to detect AI-generated content in student work and the problems with relying on AI-detectors. The talk concludes with some tips and strategies on how to avoid AI-generated responses in the classroom.