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Shout-out 2025 PC Newsletter 5-8-25
Murat Gungor, Faculty, CSI
As an academic coach, I hear student perspectives on many classes and many professors. Students consistently describe Professor Murat Gungor as a great teacher - but equally important, I have heard from numerous students about how he handles it when they fall behind. If they don't turn in an assignment or two, he reaches out to check on them, asks them to come in and make a plan, and supports them to complete their work, even if it feels overwhelming or they're in struggle. Recently, a student told me, "If I could take ALL my classes from Murat Gungor, I would." Thank you for taking exceptional care of our students, Murat!
Meet Murat Gungor, Computer Science Professor
Meet Murat Gungor, Computer Science Professor
Articles / Posts
The Power of Hope: How Your Grading Policy Can Encourage Learning
The Power of Hope: How Your Grading Policy Can Encourage Learning
The Power of Hope: How Your Grading Policy Can Encourage Learning
The Power of Hope: How Your Grading Policy Can Encourage Learning
March 22, 2023 - by Caroline Toy
As a teacher, I’m always looking for ways to motivate my students to learn and succeed. One grading policy I’ve implemented has had a surprising impact on my students’ attitudes and performance.
Here’s how it works: If a student scores less than 75 on their midterm exam, but then scores more than 75 on the final exam, I offer to replace their midterm grade with their final grade. This means that a student who initially struggled can still end up with a passing grade if they demonstrate improvement over the course of the semester.
At first, some students were skeptical. They had been conditioned to think that a bad grade on a midterm was a death sentence for their overall grade in the course. But once they realized that they had a second chance to prove themselves, they became more hopeful and motivated to keep learning.
The impact on student performance has been remarkable. I’ve seen students who initially struggled and were on the verge of giving up, make a complete turnaround and end up with grades they could be proud of. They became more engaged in class, asked more questions, and worked harder to master the material.
But perhaps the most significant impact has been on their mindset. By offering students a second chance, I’m telling them that failure is not final. I’m communicating to them that I believe in their potential and that I’m willing to invest in their success. This sense of hope has been transformative for many of my students.
Of course, this policy is not a magic bullet. Students still need to put in the work to learn the material and earn a passing grade. But by giving them a reason to hope, I’m encouraging them to persevere through the challenges and stay focused on their goals.
In conclusion, I believe that a grading policy that offers students a second chance can have a profound impact on their attitude, motivation, and performance. By emphasizing hope over despair, we can create an environment that encourages students to keep learning and growing.
On Grading for Professional Growth
On Grading for Professional Growth
Many thanks to Dr. Murat Gungor for inspiring this article!
It’s grading season! At this time of year, grading can seem like a burden you just need to plow through. But it’s also more.
Dr. Murat Gungor (ITS) sent us this great reflection on how he shifted from thinking of grading as a chore to recognizing its value for his growth as a teacher:
Grading–I know, for most of the professors, it’s a burden, takes time, and teaching is more fun than grading. But one thing I realized was that grading made me a better teacher.
How? I noticed that I was spending more time explaining some of the [course] matters than they needed, and some of the subjects I mistakenly thought have the same learning toll, [I was] not giving enough time for. During grading, I can clearly see what topics each of my students did not clearly understand.
This immensely helped me to save time and spend that time on relatively more difficult matters for the students to grasp. I came to know what parts I falsely thought were difficult for them. Without grading, it’s hard to realize these things.
Murat is absolutely right: grading shows us as faculty how effective we are, in addition to assessing students’ progress. And discovering your teaching is less effective in some areas is not a failure. It’s simply something to note so you can adjust your course the next time you teach it.
“Learning Together: A Case Study in Applying Peer Learning to a Computer Science Curriculum”
“Learning Together: A Case Study in Applying Peer Learning to a Computer Science Curriculum”
“Learning Together: A Case Study in Applying Peer Learning to a Computer Science Curriculum”
As our research focused on the efficacy of different teaching methods in the classroom, we needed to balance the needs of our research with the needs of our students when designing our research methodology. To ensure that collecting useful data didn’t come at the expense of our students’ learning experience, we designed our research as a case study where we worked to design a better curriculum using peer learning techniques and reported what we learned from the experience.
Coauthor Wren Powell
The research, data cleaning, statistical analysis, and writing of our paper were all directly impacted by the pandemic, which meant that we had to collaborate closely without having the opportunity to meet in person. This meant scheduling regular meetings and email exchanges to ensure we were on the same page regarding our progress and to plan what to work on next, much like how agile teams in the software engineering field will schedule daily standup meetings.
Click for full text of article.
Our main goals for course learning outcomes were to improve student engagement and add value to our students’ education using peer learning techniques. Specifically, we designed a curriculum where students can read other students’ submissions and leave feedback so they can learn from one another. The goal of our research is to provide guidance for other educators on how to incorporate peer learning into their classroom.
Additional Resources:
Designing student peer assessment in higher education: analysis of written and oral peer feedback
A Classroom Study of Using Crowd Feedback in the Iterative Design Process
The nature, reception, and use of online peer feedback in higher education
What Does Returning to Campus Mean for Faculty?
What Does Returning to Campus Mean for Faculty?
Since the outbreak of Covid, I have taught remotely. Many students chose not to turn their cameras on nor update their profile pictures with their photos. But I kept having conversations with each one during my class time, as if I was seeing them in person, asking how they are and other follow-up questions. I was not expecting this practice was really important for them. Evidently, they really appreciated this care and it enabled them to feel more comfortable in the class. I came to know the impact of this after seeing my evaluation feedback and scores. The takeaway of this, each student should feel their presence is important and should feel the care over them as an individual, a good practice to keep up during in-person teaching.
Leahy Center Faculty Spotlight
Leahy Center Faculty Spotlight
From Dr. Murat Gungor: https://leahycenterblog.champlain.edu/2022/12/02/faculty-spotlight/
One of my passions is the removal of barriers and difficulties, in the world, to make life easier for others. And software is one of the exceptional tools to achieve this. With the right software solutions, you can have a positive impact on many lives. However, building the right software demands qualified people, and you can only get qualified people with quality education. With years of professional experience, I know the expectations of the software industry. For this reason, I joined the teaching force to share my knowledge and experience, to educate and train future software engineers to join me in removing barriers and difficulties and making the lives of others easier.
I have been serving in the role of Leahy Center Faculty since the fall of 2021. I lead a team that develops software to automate data extraction from various IoT devices.
The projects we work on at the Leahy Center offer solutions to real-life problems and have actual end-users. This excites and motivates both me and my team. Our students are lucky to gain industry experience while still studying. I am happy and proud to contribute to and witness their development, growth, and success; and I am excited to find solutions to real-world problems.
Having extensive academic and industry experience, teaching at a professionally focused teaching-centered institution, Champlain College, has been an excellent choice for me. The Leahy Center takes that pleasure a step further, in that I can holistically apply all these experiences to real-life problems. I bring theoretical and practical skills in software engineering, expertise in software development and software quality improvement, management of software projects, object-oriented programming, design, and development.
My job is to monitor a given project and work to keep the project in-line with the parameters needed of it. I help to prioritize the tasks at hand, as well as motivate and guide my team-members to achieve what we need to; I direct my team members to the use of available resources, and connect them to the right people for help. I also aid in the orientation of new team members. In short: I keep the team and the project focused, and moving toward the target end-goal.
I am here to be a good role model, not just technically, but socially as well. Because the essence of a successful software project depends on both aspects. I work to build the team’s spirit, such that we melt ourselves into one, dedicated body: to achieve the common goal of ending a successful project with a satisfied customer.
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We thank Dr. Gungor for his time and consideration in answering our questions, and the Leahy Center thanks all of its staff and faculty for their service. It is faculty like Dr. Gungor who make the Leahy Center great, and allow us to do our work with the quality that we do. We’re always willing to lend a helping hand, and hire on anybody looking to continue their career in cybersecurity, with us, or those who need a place to get their start in the field.
So from us, and Dr. Gungor, thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!
Dr. Murat Gungor is an Associate Professor teaching Information Technology and Sciences. Prior to joining Champlain College, he has taught Software Engineering courses at Bilkent University and TOBB University in Ankara, Turkey. He has also worked in the industry, holding various positions— from researcher and software engineer, to project manager and director-level assignments. His main area of expertise includes object-oriented programming, software architecture, design and development, structural analysis, and quality improvement.
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