Education Commons^™

Should College Instructors Reveal Their High Functioning Autism In The Classroom?, Gundars Kaupins, Tim Chenoweth, Felice Klein

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

College instructors with highly functional autism, also known as Asperger’s, can have difficulty interacting with students. To mitigate the potentially reduced teaching ratings, college instructors must decide whether to reveal their condition to the students. Using a survey of 393 university business students, we address if college instructors who reveal that they have Asperger’s at the beginning of instruction influence students’ ratings. We find that students’ ratings were higher when college instructors reveal that they have Asperger’s. However, this effect only pertains to male students. Our findings suggest that instructors with Asperger’s should reveal their condition to students.

Revolutionizing The Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum, Shelby Ann Mcneilly, Krishna Pakala, Donald Plumlee

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the age of technological advancement and occupational opportunity continues to progress, companies must be constantly adjusting and transforming in order to accommodate industry demands. With these quickly developing requirements comes an expectation of employee experience and skill sets. For individuals seeking a career in mechanical engineering, moving forward with the tools necessary for success in this continuously evolving world begins with higher education. This paper is the first of a three-part series to report on the progress of Boise State University’s Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department’s mission to implement a revolutionized curriculum in their academic program. This paper will …

Faculty Perspectives On The Impact Of Virtual Office Hours In Engineering Courses, Brooke-Lynn Caprice Andrade, Krishna Pakala, Diana Bairaktarova, Douglas Hagemeier, Harish Subbaraman

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Instructor-student interaction is an important element of a course design, but office hours can be challenging to attend based on students’ commitments. They have time and space limitations that prevent students from getting the help they need and often garner poor attendance. Virtual office hours can address issues related to low attendance and provide a low stakes environment where unhindered learning can happen. Virtual office hours are flexible, yield productive interactions, and all enrolled students can participate. This study reports on three engineering instructors’ perspectives on the efficacy of virtual office hours compared to the traditional face-to-face interactions with the …

Flexible Teaching At Boise State: A Guide For Faculty, Leslie Madsen

Rebuilding the Launchpad: Serving Students During Covid Resource Library

Dynamic teaching requires creative and flexible thinking about how instructors can support students in achieving essential core course learning objectives. This guide offers suggestions for instructors at Boise State looking to continue offering a student-centered learning experience through a variety of teaching formats including, online, hybrid, and remote environments.

While the process may feel unfamiliar and at times frustrating, try as much as possible to be patient. In times of disruption or change, everyone expects some pedagogical and technological hiccups. Be willing to switch tactics if something isn’t working.

Focus on maintaining a growth mindset for both yourself and your …

Flexible Teaching For Student Success: A Three-Tiered Initiative To Prepare Faculty For Flexible Teaching, Devshikha Bose, Lisa Berry, Rob Nyland, Anthony Saba, Teresa Focarile

CTL Teaching Gallery

The COVID-19 pandemic brought some unique challenges for the academic community. To counter the disruption caused by campus closure, faculty who taught in-person, blended, and hybrid courses needed to be prepared to pivot to remote instruction. This article describes the design and evaluation results of a three-tiered professional development initiative that focused on preparing faculty to teach with flexibility, whatever may be the necessary teaching environment. This design may serve as a model for professional developers building similar programs for faculty. The authors also share a resource—a Flexible Learning and Instruction Plan (FLIP).