Faculty Spotlights

The L.E.D. (Learning Excellence Design) Faculty Spotlight is a place to showcase exceptional collaborative projects between faculty and members of the Instructional Design and Learning Excellence Team. Our spotlight features will be expanded throughout the year, so check back often! 

Stacey S. Souther, Professor & Coordinator, Psychology, Eastern Campus

Stacey collaborated with Senior Instructional Designer Heather Young Mandujano to reinvent her class projects to increase student engagement. Working together with Instructional Technologist Jacqueline Zkiab, they created two assignments, one would have students create a narrated PowerPoint video and one would have them record a podcast. The ID team made the implementation of the projects into Blackboard and the technology work seamlessly for Stacey and her students. These projects were fun for everybody and ultimately created more student engagement in the classroom.

Spotlight on Brian Hall, Associate Professor, English, Metropolitan Campus

Brian collaborated with Senior Instructional Designer Aimee Pearce on redesigning his blackboard course using gamification to help improve student engagement. Working together they turned his weekly folders into levels. This allowed students to complete lessons quickly if they understood the content or get more practice until they mastered the material. Brian took away the typical grading system and created a points system: The more assignments they did, the more points they would get. This created competition within the course, which ultimately led to students completing more assignments to improve their scores.

Spotlight on Dr. Jim Funai, Assistant Professor, Plant Science and Landscape Technology, Eastern Campus 

Jim collaborated with Senior Instructional Designer Heather Young Mandujano on a series of videos for two plant ID courses. Rather than a traditional lecture video, Jim traveled around the state of Ohio filming and interacting with various plants that students needed to learn. Heather turned the raw footage into a TV series (Plant Walks with Jim), using music, sound effects, and graphics to keep students engaged while playing up the comedic elements of Jim’s videos. The result? The student experience improved, the Plant ID courses are permanently online, and these changes have allowed the department to reach a broader student base while providing a much-needed resource to the green industry.