By Ryan Girves 

Allison Soult, senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, will address the University of Kentucky community at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, in the Gatton Student Center as the next speaker in the iPad Initiative Speaker Series. 

Soult will discuss how she and her students use the iPad before, during and after class to enhance learning. She will also share some examples of digital in-class activities and her favorite apps to use in teaching.

Soult’s main interests are in the areas of chemistry specifically relating to issues with student engagement in large lectures and using technology to enhance student learning. Soult, who came to UK in 2002, was the recipient of the Arts and Sciences Outstanding Staff Award in 2008, was co-instructor for UK's first large online open courses — Advanced Chemistry as well as Chemistry — and received the 2016 College of Nursing Teaching Excellence in Support of Professional Nursing Award.  

Throughout the year, the Smart Campus Initiative and the Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching are hosting a series of talks by UK faculty who have integrated iPads into their teaching. The speakers will discuss what they have done to re-envision their courses and assignments; talk through ideas that did and didn’t work; and provide insight as to how they navigated challenges along the way.

All UK faculty members, including lecturers and instructors, are invited to attend the series. Lunch will be provided but seats are limited, please RSVP here.

The speaker series supports the nationally recognized Smart Campus digital strategy at the university that focuses on the institution’s goals of increasing persistence and graduation rates, while preparing students for lives of meaning and purpose.

Underscoring UK's promise to put students at the center of everything the university does, the speaker series will aide faculty members in better preparing students for the technologically advanced and interconnected world they will enter after leaving the campus.

Upcoming dates in the series are: 

• Monday, March 9. 
• Wednesday, March 25. 
• Thursday, April 9.

To learn more about the Smart Campus digital strategy, click here. 

The University of Kentucky is increasingly the first choice for students, faculty and staff to pursue their passions and their professional goals. In the last two years, Forbes has named UK among the best employers for diversity, and INSIGHT into Diversity recognized us as a Diversity Champion three years running. UK is ranked among the top 30 campuses in the nation for LGBTQ* inclusion and safety. UK has been judged a “Great College to Work for" two years in a row, and UK is among only 22 universities in the country on Forbes' list of "America's Best Employers."  We are ranked among the top 10 percent of public institutions for research expenditures — a tangible symbol of our breadth and depth as a university focused on discovery that changes lives and communities. And our patients know and appreciate the fact that UK HealthCare has been named the state’s top hospital for four straight years. Accolades and honors are great. But they are more important for what they represent: the idea that creating a community of belonging and commitment to excellence is how we honor our mission to be not simply the University of Kentucky, but the University for Kentucky.