The 2019-2020 school year was my ninth year employed as full-time faculty at Nichols College. As usual, it was a very busy year for me. I taught course overages each semester, one of which was a high school hybrid course. I was also very happy to teach two summer courses, the new MATH117 for the first time and ITM 209 online.
I am grateful for the opportunity to teach a variety of classes and appreciate the opportunity to teach courses that are new, or new to me, that are in my areas of expertise. Due to my passion for technology, I also enjoy teaching online classes. I am also grateful for the opportunity to teach two summer classes as it really helped my personal financial situation.
Having a doctorate in curriculum, I have a natural interest in developing curriculum and would take advantage of any future opportunities to propose new courses and/or programs. I often offer when I have ideas, but my ideas aren’t always received the way I would
Preparing for Classes
I spend a great deal of time preparing for classes, both at home and in the office. I am generally on campus before and after the classes that I teach. I also spend time in my office preparing for classes during the breaks.
As my syllabi, tests/exams, and projects show, I utilize a variety of methods to measure student outcomes. All of my classes include traditional quiz/test and projects.
Futhermore, I am always modifying my courses to try to make them more interesting and relevant. While I do repeat the most successful activities, I am constantly working to find the most relevant, engaging lessons for all of my courses.
Due to the ever changing nature of information technology, it is essential that I spend a great deal of time preparing for the new, up-to-date changes in the technology industry so that I can select and create relevant and useful activities and lessons for this course. For this reason, I am constantly reading publications, listening to podcasts, and viewing videos relating to the most up-to-date technologies because the topics in ITM.
Course Syllabi
I spend a good deal of time on my syllabi each semester, ensuring that they not only contain all of the required information but also serve as a semester long guide for the students. All of the courses that I teach are aligned to the curriculum, as detailed in some of my syllabi below.
Projects
I use a variety of assessments in all of my classes, and constantly revise assignments that I feel are not effective in order to stimulate student interest and learning. If I submitted all of the projects that I do in this portfolio, it would likely be overwhelming to look at, so I decided to submit an example or two from each class.
- MTH 215-Semester Project
- ITM 209-Google Analytics Reflection
- ITM 209-Case Study Rubric
- ITM 202-Case Study Rubric
- EPS 227-Franchise Project Interview
- EPS 480-Internship template
My favorite, “new to my class” project was a Public Service Announcement video assignment that I did in ITM209. It took a lot of preplanning as I had judges and gave away prizes. The project was very well received by the students. Here are a few examples:
Canvas
Preparing Canvas pages are a time consuming, but necessary component of course planning.
All of my assignments, slides, and videos for each course are posted to the Canvas page for that class so that student’s can always access important course information.
Images of one of my course’s pages are shown below:
Internships
The entrepreneurship capstone, EPS 480, combines theory with experiential learning; that is, the course requires students to meet in the classroom one day, while utilizing the time normally allotted to a second class meeting to complete a 45 hour internship related to both entrepreneurship and their major.
The internship requirement requires that I spend extra time preparing for the course as I will meet with students before the course begins to discuss appropriate internships and sometimes help them to acquire one.
COVID obviously presented some challenges to completing these internships. However, all EPS480 students were able to complete the internships that benefitted them and the greater community.
Guest Speakers
Additionally, it should be noted that I have worked with Brent from advancement to bring Nichols’ alums who are successful entrepreneurs into my entrepreneurship classes to speak to the students during some of the in-class meetings.
Having the guest speakers visit is an invaluable experience for the students as most of these entrepreneurs are willing to share their unique path and perspective with the students. However, the planning and preparation to have these speakers visit can be time consuming, ESPECIALLY with COVID.
As noted below, many regular guest speakers were not as available to speak to classes due to COVID. Luckily, I was able to connect with other people like Doug Abbey (Wayne-Daniel Berard’s cousin), whose email is below.
“Non Traditional”/Innovative Courses
I am often willing to conduct non traditional/innovative courses. During the 2019-2020 school year, I volunteered to teach a new innovative IDEA lab. I was selected to teach a second session if demand arose, which unfortunately, it didn’t at that time. However, I am hopeful that the opportunity will arise again in the future.
