University Of Missouri-St. Louis Honors Faculty Completing ACUE's Effective Online Teaching Practices Program

Kirkwood MO

09 September, 2021

7:07 AM

Description

Press release from the University of Missouri-St. Louis: August 30, 2021 The University of Missouri–St. Louis closed the first week of the Fall 2021 semester with a celebration of 42 faculty members who had demonstrated their commitment to teaching excellence by completing a year-long program in Effective Online Teaching Practices organized by the Association of College and University Educators. Each was recognized during a pinning ceremony Friday afternoon in the Century Rooms of the Millennium Student Center. "The work of you 42 faculty members touched the lives of over 1,200 UMSL students enrolled in your courses last year," said Keeta Holmes, UMSL's assistant vice provost for academic innovation and the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. "The care and attention you paid to structure your courses, motivate your students, reinforce learning with evidence-based teaching strategies, will positive impact not just those 1,200 students in last year's classes but also the students who have the privilege to learn from you this year and in the future. "The connections the faculty built in their cohorts will continue to flourish to promote even more sharing of ideas." Effective Online Teaching Practices is a rigorous, 25-module program that teaches proven online teaching approaches and supports all design and delivery models, including synchronous, asynchronous and hybrid formats. The faculty learned strategies to help students learn and stay engaged, and they implemented them immediately into their classes during the past academic year. Andy Goodman, the former director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and now a faculty member in the Department of Music, brought together teaching center directors from across the University of Missouri System to submit a grant proposal to the National Association of System Heads through a strategic in initiative called Scaling Instructional Excellence for Student Success. The grant supported UMSL faculty participation in the ACUE program. "The early expectations of this project were to provide campuses the opportunity to create the types of learning experiences through the ACUE courses that would best meet their needs," said Goodman, the grant's principal investigator, who noted that the COVID-19 pandemic made a particular focus on online teaching more important. "The goals for this grant were to help close student achievement gaps – and that's especially for underrepresented students – to improve learning experiences for all students, and to increase the use of best practices by all faculty." The UM System Office of Academic Affairs, the UMSL Office of Academic Affairs, UMSL's Center for Teaching and Learning and the UM System Office of eLearning supported the faculty members as they went through the program with Jen McKanry and Erin Whitteck from the Center for Teaching and Learning and Alina Slapac from the College of Education leading faculty cohorts. Cindy Blackwell, ACUE's academic director, attended Friday's pinning ceremony. Deans Andrew Kersten, Joan Phillips, Ann Taylor, Roxanne Vandermause and Sharon Johnson took turns recognizing faculty members from their respective colleges or schools. Attendees also heard from faculty members Jill Alexander from the Department of Communication and Media and Andresa De Souza from the Department of Educator Preparation and Leadership about what they gained from the program and how they implemented some of the practices into their classes and courses materials. "Standing here today, I'm so proud that I did it," De Souza said. "I feel that the skills I learned and the knowledge I gained made me a better educator, which is actually what I want from my students at the College of Education. I'm sure my dean is very proud of me right now. "Every module that we went through, I gained different insights into online teaching, and I learned very valuable tools. It was also great to interact with my fellow colleagues and learn from their experience, and it was a great opportunity to gain the perspective of student when participating in online learning." Here is a list of faculty members who completed the ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices program: College of Arts and Sciences Shannon Ahrndt, Communication and Media Jill Alexander, Communication and Media Anne Austin, Anthropology Stephen Bagwell, Political Science Sanjiv Bhatia, Computer Science Suahn Cho, Communication and Media Deborah Cohen, History Rachel Craft, Sociology Kelsey Cundiff, Criminology and Criminal Justice Aimee Dunlap, Biology Valerian D'Souza, Chemistry and Biochemistry Leighanne Heisel, Communication and Media Meghann Humphries, Biology Lynda McDowell, Chemistry and Biochemistry Maureen Quigley, Art and Design Jennifer Shrensker, Mathematics and Statistics Marc Spingola, Biology Doug Swanson, Labor Studies Keiko Ueda, Japanese, Language and Cultural Studies Rachel Wamser, Psychological Sciences Erin Whitteck, CTL and Chemistry and Biochemistry College of Business Administration Bindu Arya, Global Leadership and Management Jill Bernard Bracy, Supply Chain and Analytics Jamillah Boyd, Information Systems and Technology Marcia Countryman, Accounting Ho Kim, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Michele Meckfessel, Accounting Johnna Murray, Accounting John Palmer, Global Leadership and Management Seemantini Pathak, Global Leadership and Management Jennifer Reynolds-Moehrle, Accounting Jeri Schultz, Global Leadership and Management This press release was produced by the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The views expressed here are the author's own.