Weird is Good!

Last August, I participated in our Freshmen Convocation, the university’s official first academic event for new first-year students at Ball State University. During the event, our President and Provost formally welcome the first-year students to campus and speak about the exciting year ahead. This being an academic event, faculty participate in this event--dressed in our academic regalia--by processing in and sitting on the stage during the event. There is also usually a guest speaker--an alumnus or faculty member--who is asked to deliver some inspiring words of wisdom. Last fall, that speaker was Maura Jasper, Associate Professor of Art, from the BSU School of Art.

Maura claimed that weird is good! Initially, that seemed like strange advice to give to a room full of first-year students who are likely trying to figure out how to fit in with everyone else. Yet, she was emphatic that weird is good.

Let's explore this a bit. Merriam-Webster offers this definition of "weird".

"of strange or extraordinary character"

It also offers this definition of "good".

"of a favorable character or tendency"

Thus, perhaps she was stating that strange or extraordinary is favorable. I can live with this! Anyone who knows me would likely not be surprised that I'd agree that weird is good.

One of the many statements Maura made that day has stuck with me. She said,

"If we're not exploring weird stuff, we're not learning. We already know the normal stuff."

And one of my favorite musicians, Frank Zappa, seems to agree:

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."

So, in an effort to establish how good I am, I've compiled a list of the ways others likely think I'm weird.

• my sense of humor
• my use of puns
• my "interesting" socks
• wearing socks with sandals
• wearing sandals with a suit
• wearing a suit and tie when it's not required
• my "interesting" ties
• wearing bow ties
• shoulder-length hair
• staying up late, and then getting up early
• enjoying music ranging from Bach to Zappa
• playing the tambourine in my high school marching band
• being a Boy Scout most all of my life
• power walking for exercise
• being a non-tenure line faculty member who researches and publishes
• utilizing flipped learning and specifications grading

I'm sure there are other items that I should add to my list. What do you think I've left off?

But more importantly, I want to hear about the good in you. How are you weird?

My century in the last decade

As I was compiling data to update my curriculum vitae last week, I realized I’d hit a milestone of sorts—a century. As of the 2019 fall semester, I have been responsible for one hundred sections of courses while serving as a full-time faculty member in the Computer Science department of Ball State University. Since I started teaching full-time in the fall of 2010—the start of the just-ended decade, I decided now was as good a time as any to review what I’ve done in my academic world for the last half-score years. As I reflected, I was a bit surprised at all I've done. Here’s some of what I discovered.

Courses taught

During these 9.5 years, I’ve taught sixteen different courses. A dozen of them have been computer science courses, and I’ve also taught four different courses for the Honors College. Some semesters I taught multiple sections of some of these courses. The numbers provided here are counting sections. Details are provided below in a table, along with a chart showing the same data, for those people who just want to look at the pictures.

Course	Sections taught
CS 104: Intro to Computers	8
CS 110: Intro to CS & Web	14
CS 120: CS 1: Prog Fund	22
CS 200: Comp & Society	11
CS 204: Personal Comp	1
CS 205: Multimedia Prog	1
CS 206: Digital Image for Web	1
CS 222: Advanced Prog	15
CS 239: Soc & Prof Issues	16
CS 339: CS Ed & Hist	1
CS 499: Independent Study	3
CS 499: CS4MS+	3
HONR 296:CS & Algo	1
HONR 390: SED	1
HONR 390: Orwell 1984	1
HONR 499: Honors Thesis	1
Total sections	100

I was the first to develop and teach over half of these courses. This includes six of the CS courses (CS 204, CS 205, CS 206, CS 239, CS 339, and CS 499: CS4MS+), and three Honors College courses (HONR 296, and both HONR 390s). Four of the CS courses were developed from a master syllabus, and two from scratch (with one of them being an international field study, and one being an immersive learning course). All three Honors College courses were developed from scratch. (HONR 390: SED was an immersive learning course I co-developed and co-taught with Lynne Stallings and Carolyn Dowling). I also developed an online version of the established CS 110 course.

Students and grades

During this time, I’ve taught/mentored 2,693 students (ignoring the fact that some students took multiple courses with me). Having taught one hundred sections of courses, that results in an average of 27 students per section. Student enrollment, average enrollment, and number of courses (by semester) is shown below.These students earned 924 As, 981 Bs, 468 Cs, 147 Ds, and 173 Fs. The relative percentages are shown in the chart to the right. I did award plus and minus grades, but have consolidated them into the base grade.

But wait, there's more...

Besides teaching, I've been able to present at a variety of conferences, publish my research, try out different pedagogy, and even lead an international field study course during the last decade.

Conferences and publishing

My very first academic conference actually occurred a couple weeks before I officially started my first semester of full-time teaching (fall 2010). I submitted a proposal to International Workshop on Computing Education Research (ICER) earlier in the year, and much to my surprise, it was accepted. Due to the conference being held at Aarhus University in Denmark, I had to obtain a passport for the first time. And thus starting my international travels.

Since then, I've presented 42 times at a variety of conferences, seminars, and workshops (some of them multiple times), including the conferences in the following list. I've also served on the CCSC:MW conference committee since 2010, serving as chair twice.

• Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE)
• Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges: Midwest (CCSC:MW)
• Lilly International Conference on College Teaching
• Edward C. Moore Symposium on Excellence in Teaching
• Diversity Research Symposium

During the last decade, I've had 17 peer-reviewed publications in book chapters, journals, and conference proceedings. I've also had 4 magazine articles and white papers published.

Pedagogy

I've experimented with a variety of pedagogical approaches during the last decade, including the following. 

• Specifications grading (see my posts here and here)
• Learner-centered teaching
• Flipped learning
• iClicker response system
• Immersive learning (CS4MS+)
• CS 120 All-section Art Show
• International field study (Computer Science, Education, and History)

To support flipped learning in CS 104, CS 110, and CS 120, I've created over one hundred instructional videos totaling approximately 21 hours in length.

Faculty Advisor

During the decade I've served as the faculty advisor for two student organizations.

• Golden Key International Honour Society
• Colleges Against Cancer

Recognition

Some people thought I did good work, and chose to recognize my efforts.

• Recognized as a Senior Member by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
• My Journal article Measuring and understanding team development by capturing self-assessed enthusiasm and skill levels, ACM Transactions on Computing Education 16, 2 (Mar. 2016), Article No. 6 was included on the ACM Computing Reviews 21st Annual Best of Computing: Notable Books and Articles list.
• National Residence Hall Honorary, Ruth Peters (Ball State) Chapter: I was independently nominated by two students for my “dedication to academic excellence and student success.”

OK, that's enough...

I could have listed a few more things, but this is already too long, so I'll just stop here. Leave me a comment about what your last decade has been like.

Image credits:
Dave talking: Lilly International Conference on College Teaching