Making Statistics, for your average student, and Business Practices exciting present distinct challenges to the instructor. Add in a completely online component and suddenly this hurdle gets much higher. Dr. Lihua Dishman, however, is up to the challenge. She makes here own videos to discuss key aspects with students and to encourage engagement with the material. Also, Dr. Dishman does an introductory video helping students to know who she is and what they can expect when taking her course. She is also expoloring ways to host discussion sessions with her students face-to-face. This takes dedication and kudos to Dr. Dishman for leading the way!
How do you reach out to your students? Should this be something for residential instructors to consider as well, particularly if he or she will only be on campus for a short time?
Tabitha Parent-Buck shines brightly among our Library Superstars. She has been chair of the Audiology Department since 1999, where she oversees both the residential and distance Au.D. programs. The Academy of Doctors of Audiology praised her in 2011 “in recognition of the accomplishments of an audiologist who has made significant contributions to the profession by promoting the transformation of audiology to a doctoral profession with the Au.D. as its distinctive designator.” Dr. Parent-Buck has helped thousands of distance students earn a transitional Au.D. degree. That IS significant. She was also recently recognized by Oticon, Inc., in their "Focus on People Awards."
We are thankful that Dr. Parent-Buck introduces her distance students to the library with a library assignment in their first class. We enjoy working with these students. Dr. Parent-Buck works closely with the library, making sure we have all the current audiology books and journals that her students and faculty need. We wish that all faculty were so enthusiastic about helping the library select new resources. Thank you!
The next edition of the Handbook of Clinical Audiology (Jack Katz, editor) will include a chapter completed by Dr. Parent-Buck and her colleagues.
The content for the inaugural class of Missouri Dental students contains lectures from the Arizona Dental School, new lectures, and a new format for introducing concepts to these students. Rather than just having a Power Point with a voice recording, which is easily done using Camtasia, Dr. DeWan worked with the EDTC Director, Bill Coombs, to reformat lectures. These new lectures engage the students more as they see both the content and lecturer at the same time.
Have you considered tweaking your lectures lately? Stop by the ETDC and see what opportunities are available for you to use.
Jeff teaches biochemistry woven into the SOMA curriculum. His area of research is the relationship between aging and cancer. His current focus is on human telomerase, the enzyme that elongates telomeres (the protective ends of chromosomes).
By checking for the most recent scientific and medical developments prior to each lecture, Jeff strengthens and updates his understanding of each topic. Furthermore, many timely reviews contain conceptual figures that graphically clarify current thinking about topics such as cardiovascular disease, the epidemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. Inclusion of such figures in power points helps students to understand current thinking. Furthermore, the references that are included in the powerpoint with each figure, informs the student about where to find further clarification or additional information. It is equally important for Jeff to keep up to date with recent developments in current thinking about cancer and aging in order to support his research efforts.
Therefore, Jeff has drawn heavily upon the library resources since arriving at ATSU five years ago. When possible, he directly acquires pdf files of publications through the library's web site. However, when papers are not available on line, he relies extensively on the interlibrary loan service. He is impressed with how quickly his requests have been filled and forwarded. He has also enjoyed the various suggestions from the staff about finding and obtaining papers. A couple of months ago, the search function and the interlibrary loan capabilities were updated. Jeff jumped into the new software. He reported, "I have been wanting and asking for this type of simplified-integrated search capability for decades. How come ATSU is the first place that I have found that can get such a system to work?" He reports that the new capability is enabling him to find greater amounts of more relevant information more efficiently.