Teaching

In this section, you will find a statement of my teaching philosophy, a list of courses I've taught, access to online evaluations of my courses over the years, and reflections regarding my teaching.

I have been teaching at the university level since 1999.  I began at Lehigh University, where I taught for three years.  I returned to Appalachian State - my alma mater - in 2001 and have been teaching there ever since.  In my second year at Lehigh, I was cross-appointed to both the Technology-based Teacher Education and the Educational Technology programs.  At Lehigh, I taught undergraduate and graduate courses in curriculum, introduction to teaching, K-12 methods, and a seminar in the doctoral program.  At ASU, I teach graduate courses in web design, hypermedia, technology integration, computers in educational settings and a doctoral seminar in the educational leadership program.

Teaching Excellence
I take great pride in my teaching and endeavor to be the best teacher I can  be.  I have received both solicited and unsolicited student feedback over the years and it has been overwhelmingly positive.  As important, my peer reviews from my colleagues have been equally positive and encouraging:

• Peer review, John Tashner, Ph.D., Professor / Coordinator - IT
• Peer review, Melanie Greene, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor / Coordinator - MS

Scholarship and Teaching
In the time I've been at Appalachian State, we have undertaken a serious revision in nearly every aspect of the conduct of our program.  From the 'wheres' to the 'whats' and even the 'hows,' we've re-examined ways to make our students' experiences in the ASU IT program as relevant, as useful, and as meaningful as possible. 

Changes in the delivery of our program reflect the research my colleagues and I have conducted at the confluence of three-dimensional synthetic worlds for learning and social constructivism.  I have authored or co-authored dozens of publications -- including book chapters, articles, and conference papers -- related to our investigation of the environments we create for our students, and the tasks in which we ask each to engage.  These studies -- along with feedback from students and other participants -- have informed the course revisions and enhancements I have engaged in during my time at Appalachian State.  Most notably, my studies in case-based learning, web-based instruction, and social constructivism in distance education have directly impacted the way my colleagues and I deliver our program.

Revisions and Enhancements
When I arrived at Appalachian State in 2001, we were primarily an off-campus, face-to-face program.  That is, we would drive each week to a designated off-campus location and deliver our courses in a traditional format.  My first charge upon arrival was to integrate web-based communication tools into our existing courses.  Starting immediately, I added a discussion forum, online notepad, text-based chat, streaming video, and integrated feedback forms throughout my courses.  Eventually, we integrated each of these technologies into all of our courses.

I also collaborated with Dr. Riedl on a new course: Issues in Learning with Computers.  The Issues course was an important addition to our program, as it provided a venue for our students to bridge the learning in which they were engaging in our courses with the real-life challenges each faces in their daily job as educators.  To do so, we instituted a case-based approach for the course.  I led the course re-design initiative, including writing the core case, "Showcase Showdown."

Soon thereafter, we embarked on a second major revision of our program courses and ancillary experiences.  Noting the feedback we received from our students regarding the importance of communication, peer-groups, and using technology to establish a community of practitioners, we developed AET Zone, a 3-D synthetic world for learning.  AET Zone significantly enhances students' experiences within our program, by providing a venue for cohorts to collaborate, to communicate, to connect, and to learn with and from one another.  AET Zone has been recognized as an award-winning innovation and a model for the future of distance education.

Online teaching experience
I have been teaching some form of online courses since 1996. The majority of my courses at Lehigh followed a traditional face-to-face model; however, in the summer of 1999, I taught the first online course at Lehigh University using Blackboard’s CourseInfo program.  Today, each of my courses has a significant online component – and a handful are conducted completely online.  Each course I teach online integrates web-based tools and a 3-dimensional immersive learning environment that provides the visual, immersive environment for the course meetings, assignments and other activities contained within.  Olie, a web-based communication and course management tool I continue to develop, provides access to content and traditional online interaction environments (e.g., forums, groups, notepads, and teaching notes).

Using an Olie-based tool we call LESOnline, students in the ASU IT program can form a “group,” take notes using a web-based notepad, and then save those notes to a group notebook that only members of the group may access. They can also view course-specific announcements, chat with classmates, or view streaming video demonstrations of software. You may view screen shots, descriptions, and a link to Olie by taking the tour here.

Other teaching experience

I’ve been fortunate to have multiple, varied opportunities to work with learners.  For example, I taught in Spain for two summers for the College of New Jersey’s International Masters of Teaching program.  My first paid teaching job was as a 9^th and 10^th grade English teacher at South Caldwell High School in Hudson, NC. While a doctoral student, I was an instructor for the FBI Continuing Education Center in Quantico, Virginia.

Here are links to student evaluations from some of my previous courses.  The first table shows the aggregate mean and mode for each item across all of the course evaluations.  The second table links to individual course evaluations and anonymous student feedback.

Aggregate results (Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree / 4 = Strongly Agree)

Individual course evaluations (w/comments)

Each course in the table below is labeled by course title, course location (extension-based or on-campus), and course enrollment.  Click on  "evaluations" to view the results of the online course evaluation form.  The items in this form mirror those used in the paper evaluation currently in use by the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies.