Due to the transparent nature of my teaching activities, I am able to receive feedback from professionals around the world on my teaching performance. Below, I have included two letters and references written by those who have observed my teaching.
The first letter is written by Dr. Richard Schwier from the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Schwier is a long time Professor at the U of S, and is currently the Acting Head of the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness. Dr. Schwier is also a recent 3M Fellowship Award winner, a prestigious award for recognizing exemplary teaching in higher education. (Note: The ‘fullscreen’ and ‘+’ buttons will increase the size of the following document to a more readable format.)
The second letter of teaching evaluation is from Dr. Val Mulholland. Dr. Mulholland is an esteemed colleague whom I deeply admire for her consistently brilliant and articulate leadership in our Faculty’s programs. I have had the opportunity to guest teach in several of her courses, and she has offered the following evaluation to support my application.
I have included three other types of evaluation/critique regarding my open teaching methodologies. These include a refereed article referencing my teaching, a lesson analysis from a doctoral student, and a blog post from a prominent educational theorist.
Alec Couros’s graduate-level course in educational technology offered at the University of Regina provides an ideal example of the role social learning and negotiation can play in learning (Exhibit 3). Students in Couros’s class worked from a curriculum created through their own negotiations of knowledge and formed their own personally mapped networks, thereby contributing to the rhizomatic structure in their field of study. This kind of collaborative, rhizomatic learning experience clearly represents an ideal that is difficult to replicate in all environments, but it does highlight the productive possibilities of the rhizome mode. (2008)
Jennifer Maddrell, doctoral student at Old Dominion University in Virginia, used both my undergraduate and graduate courses as content for lesson analysis in one of her graduate-level courses. In the closing summary of her paper, Maddrell writes,
While offered in a different format, ECI 831 is also effectively designed to support the stated objectives and graduate level audience. Students are offered relevant instructional content and the instructional strategies to foster a high degree of active learner engagement and participation. They are provided with abundant opportunities for learner to content, learner to learner, learner to instructor, and learner to world interaction. Based on the final blog reflections, the learners found this learning experience to be both challenging and greatly rewarding which are worthy ambitions for any course. (2008)
George Siemens, a prominent and influential academic theorist, wrote a blog post discussing the open nature of EC&I 831 titled “Alec Couros and modeling what educators ought to do“. From the post, Siemens writes,
Alec Couros has been modeling a method of instructing online that others should consider. Visit his site for the course – Computers in Classrooms. He has a list of sessions by invited speakers (a useful archive for future courses and profs from other institutions), tech/learning/education videos, tutorials, etc. He has been streaming the elluminate presentations in ustream, so non-class members can attend the lectures. My only suggestion: record the elluminate sessions with camtasia (for higher quality archives) and export to audio files for people who prefer to listen to podcasts instead of watching a screen. A great example of how to use technology to increase the effectiveness of student learning and to knock a few holes in the rigid concept of “a classroom”. (2008)
Peer Evaluation
Letters of Peer Evaluation
Due to the transparent nature of my teaching activities, I am able to receive feedback from professionals around the world on my teaching performance. Below, I have included two letters and references written by those who have observed my teaching.
The first letter is written by Dr. Richard Schwier from the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Schwier is a long time Professor at the U of S, and is currently the Acting Head of the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness. Dr. Schwier is also a recent 3M Fellowship Award winner, a prestigious award for recognizing exemplary teaching in higher education. (Note: The ‘fullscreen’ and ‘+’ buttons will increase the size of the following document to a more readable format.)
TeachingEvaluation-Schwier
The second letter of teaching evaluation is from Dr. Val Mulholland. Dr. Mulholland is an esteemed colleague whom I deeply admire for her consistently brilliant and articulate leadership in our Faculty’s programs. I have had the opportunity to guest teach in several of her courses, and she has offered the following evaluation to support my application.
Teaching Evaluation-Mulholland
Other Types of Evaluation
I have included three other types of evaluation/critique regarding my open teaching methodologies. These include a refereed article referencing my teaching, a lesson analysis from a doctoral student, and a blog post from a prominent educational theorist.
Dave Cormier discussed my graduate course, EC&I 831 as a key example in his refereed article, Rhizomatic Education: Community as Curriculum. In the article, Cormier writes,
Jennifer Maddrell, doctoral student at Old Dominion University in Virginia, used both my undergraduate and graduate courses as content for lesson analysis in one of her graduate-level courses. In the closing summary of her paper, Maddrell writes,
George Siemens, a prominent and influential academic theorist, wrote a blog post discussing the open nature of EC&I 831 titled “Alec Couros and modeling what educators ought to do“. From the post, Siemens writes,