There are good people all around you. Recognize them!

The long-awaited MAC trophy!

A year ago, I was named the 2022 Ball State University (BSU) institutional winner of the Mid America Conference (MAC) Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success. The trophy company the MAC used apparently still had a significant backlog due to COVID supply-chain issues, so the trophy just recently arrived on the BSU campus so it could be presented to me. This post is partially about me, but it's really about all the good people around us, so I encourage you to keep reading.

The MAC Outstanding Faculty Award recognizes one full-time faculty member nominee from each of the twelve MAC institutions that has demonstrated a dedication to student  success. From these nominees one faculty member that has gone above and beyond in their dedication to student success is honored as the winner of the MAC Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success. That was not me last year, but I was recognized as the BSU institutional winner.

This student-focused award is distinguishable from academic or research-based awards as it celebrates the commitment of the MAC to a holistic student experience and the creation of an environment that supports success in school and in life.

My remarks

A few days ago, BSU held a celebration in my honor at which they presented the trophy to me. What follows are the remarks I made at that event.

This award focuses on student success. So, what actions do I take that I believe contribute to student success? I don’t believe there is any one big thing, but rather lots of little things that all add up to student success. Things like…

• Using active learning to keep class engaging
• Using flipped learning by recording videos for learners to watch outside of class, and doing activities in class when they can ask me questions
• Being learner centered
• Having learners do reflective writing
• Being aware of disabilities, and doing what I can to support those learners
• Doing what I can to keep diversity, equity, and inclusiveness as part of the conversation
• Using alternative grading, primarily specifications grading, so learners can grow from their mistakes
• Emphasizing the workforce competencies they are indirectly learning
• Mentoring immersive learning projects to provide participants a rich learning experience

I make myself very available to learners during class, via email, and in my office (both physically and online) at a variety of hours during the day, since leaners often have questions after 5:00 PM. My goal always is to find a way to help learners understand, learn, and retain the material.

I often tell learners who are regular visitors to my office: “I’ll work at least as hard as you will, to help you learn this material.” What I’m telling them is that if they are trying, I’ll be right there with them—but they must put in some effort.

But this recognition is not fully about me. It’s about all of us in this room, and across campus. I happen to be the one who has a very supportive department chair, Jennifer Coy, who submitted the award nomination that was selected to be the BSU institutional winner last year. But I would not be the faculty member I am today without the interaction, training, guidance, and support of scores of other faculty, staff, administrators, students, and family, all of whom I’ve learned something from over many years. I’ve borrowed tips and techniques from uncounted others, many of whom are in this room today. I firmly believe there are many faculty who are just as deserving—perhaps more so, but are yet to be nominated. I just happen to be the one nominated last year.

I sincerely thank the faculty and students to wrote support letters for me, and everyone who has interacted and shared with me over the years, thus allowing me to learn something from you. I appreciate all of you for taking time out of your day to come to this event.

President Mearns presenting the BSU
Outstanding Faculty Award to me

Good fortune strikes twice!

I also had the good fortune of being nominated by Kara Duquette for the 2022 BSU Outstanding Faculty Award last year. This award is given in recognition of demonstrated composite excellence in teaching, scholarly or creative productivity, and service by a faculty member who has an academic record at Ball State University of more than five years. Eight individual faculty, staff, and administrators from across the breadth of the university took the time to write and submit letters of support for my nomination. Submitted along with the 25-page nomination dossier, Kara and Robbie Mehling produced a four-minute video highlighting why I was being nominated for the award. Ultimately, I was selected from the nomination pool, and was presented the award at Ball State University's fall 2022 faculty convocation. Again, I believe there are many other faculty who are just as deserving—perhaps more so, but are yet to be nominated.

So what!?

So, last year was a good year for me. I received two significant awards within a year's time. I am extremely appreciative of this recognition! While I believe I do a good job, I also suffer a bit from imposter syndrome. I don't see myself as being that good. However, others around me do, and submitted award nominations on my behalf. They saw the worth and merit of being supportive of those around them and chose to expend significant time and effort to recognize someone in whom they believed. To be the recipient of that level of support not once, but twice, is a bit humbling for me.

I ask that you take a look around you. Yes, do it now. Who do you interact with that is doing a good job? Maybe it's as simple as they're doing what they're supposed to do, day in and day out—they're dependable. Let them know that you appreciate them. If their effort, ability, or attitude is rising above others, let them know that you noticed. If there is an award for which you can nominate them, do it. Regardless of being selected as the winner or not, simply being nominated is recognition in itself. 

Letting people know that you appreciate them, support them, and believe they are doing good, will likely be returned to you. I know I'm more inclined to go above and beyond what is needed or expected when I'm feeling appreciated by those around me. How about you?

So, who are you going to recognize this week?

Image credits:

MAC trophy photo by David Largent

BSU award presentation photo by Kara Duquette 

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