I strive to lead learning in a way that embraces new pedagogical techniques, particularly through the integration of technology in the classroom. In addition to some experience teaching, as seen on my vita, I have also sought the mentorship of Daniel Krier and Stephen B. Gilbert in informing my teaching as well as formal training through classes to acquire new active learning strategies. When possible, I work to integrate my research interests with my teaching, creating both a graduate level HCI course and an honors seminar to explore topics of intellectual interest to me that integrate ideas from HCI and sociology.

Teaching Excellence Award by the graduate college at Iowa State University. In addition, I completed a graduate teaching certificate at Iowa State through the preparing future faculty (PFF) program.

The teaching style I strive to achieve is one that reduces the power distance between myself and the students, recognizing that every student has a unique view that can contribute to the class's overall understanding of topics. In order to accomplish this, I try to get to know my students on an individual level (when possible) and taking an informal tone and mannerism in the classroom. In large lectures where it can be difficult to get to know each individual, I strive for individual accountability by randomly calling on students from the roster as well as having students participate in learning pairs within the classroom.

A clip of me developing rapport with the class during my first time leading a class.

I have had a diverse range of teaching experience from one-on-one tutoring of basic computer programming concepts to leading learning within a large lecture of around three hundred students. Additionally, I have taught courses with off-campus students who attend simultaneously as on-campus students and distance education courses where the off-campus students do not connect live. Further, I seek to simultaneously give students a practical, applied grounding to topics while simultaneously encouraging them to challenge their assumptions and seek deeper understanding. This last point is illustrated by an e-mail I received from an off-campus student while teaching HCI 596: Emerging Practices in HCI (a course I created):
I took this class to understand how to determine user requirements, usability requirements, etc. These lectures are blowing me away. The Phenomenology of Dourish, etc. Is HCI about improving designs (for "human's sake")? My entire way of thinking and everything I have been taught is being challenged in this one class...are you getting this from any of your other students that have an engineering background?
The syllabus and archive of all course materials from the first course I developed, under the supervision of Stephen B. Gilbert, can be found on the HCI 596: Emerging Practices of HCI course website. I have also made all course material available for the Social Roles of Technology course I taught at Drake University in Fall 2010.

Course Evaluations

While the HCI program does not have official course evaluations, I created anonymous assessments through SurveyMonkey and asked students to fill them out. The evaluations below are in PDF format.

Course Evaluation for my role as course creator and instructor of Social Roles of Technology (Fall 2010)
Course Evaluation for my role as course creator and lecturer of HCI 596: Emerging Practices of HCI (Summer 2009)
Evaluation of my role as teaching assistant for HCI 521: Cognitive Psychology of HCI (Fall 2008)