By embracing my courses as a student-centered process, I empower my students to be independent thinkers who boldly explore new ideas. I calibrate the class environment and its outcomes but allow my students to chart the course of their own education. It means being flexible with my approach and willing to embrace my students’ diverse perspectives. I want to create a dynamic learning environment that’s enriching and fun for my students.
Involving students in contributing to course content encourages them to find new meanings to class concepts. While I have a detailed lesson plan and clear objectives for the class, I encourage my students to explore topics relevant to their experiences and goals through student-led discussions and personalized assignments. I often allow students to vote on topics and accompanying readings for some of the classes. For example, in my virtual world course, students picked topics that not only expanded upon the ones I had already chosen for the course but also catered to their interests and the direction they wanted to take their final projects. Some students chose topics about storytelling and immersion because they wanted to successfully create immersive virtual experiences with a strong storytelling focus. Other students choose applications of virtual worlds in industries like healthcare and education. Students told me it’s empowering for them to have a say in how the class proceeded, and that it made the course more flexible, resourceful, and engaging for them.
Because I offer multiple ways to complete some assignments, students can chart the course of their own learning. Students have the flexibility to pursue their interests in a way that works with their skillset. For the final project of my Communication in a Changing World course, students pick between writing an essay or building a critical making project. My students produced amazing projects. One student produced an excellent essay about the intersection of queer identity and electronic music. Another student created their own video game in Unreal Engine to artistically represent the negative consequences of social media use. My students found my approach freeing and that it made assignments and learning feel more personal.
I allow the perspectives of students from all kinds of backgrounds to thrive in my classroom. Every student deserves to be in my class, learn in my class, and speak in my class. I promote diversity in the classroom by letting students pursue projects that reflect their positionality and by choosing readings from Black, Indigenous, Queer, and feminist scholars as foundational texts for my course. The texts not only expand my students’ perspectives beyond the canon of communication studies but allow my students to see themselves in the authors they learn from. My public speaking students visited the library at NC State to experience the Virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. Project (vMLK), where they watched a digital recreation of one of MLK’s speeches in a 360-degree projection room. Afterwards, my students not only reflected on what they learned from MLK’s speaking techniques but about the speech’s relevance to current struggles for civil rights and how they can carry the message of the speech forward. Students have brought up how their positionality changes how they navigate the world during my classes on critical race theory and gender studies. Through my commitment to equity in the classroom, I do my part to create spaces in academia where everyone’s voice is heard and respected.
Providing options helps support students who have disabilities and other challenges that might impede their education. I took every letter about a student’s disability very seriously and often worked with them on an individual level to meet their needs. I take advantage of the multiple affordances of learning management systems and other software to provide accommodations. The hybrid format for my Critical Analysis of Communication Media course helped one of my students attend classes even though they couldn’t drive to the university due to a roadblock in their route. I know students can face challenges with funding, so I use readings and course materials that are free to access wherever I can. Everyone deserves to learn and thrive, and so everyone in my classroom deserves to get what they need to achieve their goals.
My courses emphasize applying theories to enhance practical skills, including hands-on practice with professional tools and emerging technologies. For instance, students in my virtual worlds course apply theories of worldbuilding, immersion, and virtual world culture to the design of their own immersive, digital experiences. Students in my media writing courses learn the same techniques of digital writing and production that advanced my career in journalism and public relations as well as how digital technology and platforms shape our writing practices. Combining theory with practice allows students to not only learn the skills needed for a fruitful career but to do so with a strong foundation in proven theories of success.
My teaching emphasizes digital media literacy. I strive to help my students develop and direct their critical thinking skills toward analysis of the digital media they encounter daily. I constantly evaluate how the skills they learn can be useful outside of the classroom. Drawing on examples from advertising, news, and video games allows students to apply their skills to real-world situations. I challenge students to use what they learned about communication and rhetoric to analyze the world around them and construct compelling arguments to help explain it. The impact of AI on communication and society is a common thread in my classes. During my lesson on AI in my Communication in a Changing World course, I had my students use ChatGPT to write an essay and then they graded the ChatGPT-written assignment using my rubric. My students learned not to rely solely on ChatGPT to write assignments for them (most essays didn’t score higher than a “B” and my students noted that ChatGPT can make up sources and confidently say falsehoods) and also led to a robust class-wide discussion on how AI could potentially shape our communication practices as well as the ethics of using AI to assist with communication. Through this process, I encourage my students to take a critical look at communication and technology.
Teaching online courses is second nature to me, having taught three semesters of Environmental Ethics and one semester of Public Speaking online and asynchronous, as well as teaching two semesters of Critical Analysis of Communication Media in a hybrid format. A successful online course is one where students are as engaged as they are in a face-to-face course. This is done by taking advantage of online platforms and software to adapt the interactivity and engagement of a face-to-face course. One exercise in my Public Speaking course involves dividing students in a Zoom call into two breakout rooms. One group watches a TED Talk while the other group reads a transcript of the same talk. The two groups then rate the speech and then come back together to discuss it. The group who watched the TED Talk always rated the speech higher than the group who only read the transcript, demonstrating to students how important the speaker’s performance is for how memorable a speech is to an audience. I ensure an engaging online course by embracing its unique properties and opportunities.
A successful learning environment is one where students feel empowered to experiment and participate in ways that are meaningful for themselves. I motivate my students to be active, engaged learners by allowing them to contribute to the dynamic flow of the course. I provide my students with multiple options for engaging with my course and encourage them to share their unique skills and perspectives. I prepare students to not only be effective communicators but also critical thinkers who can analyze the digital media they encounter daily, explore new ideas, and confront real-world challenges. Through my student-centered, practice-based teaching, I prepare my students for fruitful careers and encourage them to change the world for the better.