MSU IT is excited to formally announce the five faculty members selected as recipients of the 2023 AT&T Excellence in Teaching with Technology awards. These awards recognize outstanding contributions to the use and development of information technology for teaching and learning in credit-bearing courses at Michigan State University.
The 2023 AT&T Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award recipients are:
Ayman Mohamed, College of Arts & Letters: Elementary Arabic (ARB 101) — Used technology to redesign the class structure to advocate for inclusive pedagogy.
Rabindra Ratan, College of Communication Arts & Sciences: Understanding Virtual Reality Experiences (MI 291) and Avatar Psychology (MI 401) — Used virtual reality to engage students and create a memorable user experience that helps students retain what they learn.
Kirtimaan Mohan, Kathleen Hinko, Vashti Sawtelle, Lyman Briggs College: Studio Physics (LB 273 & LB 274) — Used a flipped classroom structure and ensured the course was interactive and collaborative in an online synchronous classroom.
From virtual reality and collaborative online labs to a free accessible digital textbook, these faculty members’ innovative approach to classroom learning made a significant impact on student success.
Ayman Mohamed, Assistant Professor of Arabic in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures within the College of Arts and Letters, said the pandemic inspired him to redesign his course to include a minimalist approach to implement technology. Mohamed used Pressbook, Microsoft OneNote, and MediaSpace to redesign the class structure to advocate for inclusive pedagogy for less commonly taught languages, such as Arabic.
Mohamed saw an opportunity to engage students remotely, implementing technology that made it easy for students to focus on learning. By publishing a free online textbook using Open Educational Resources (OER) Pressbook provided by MSU Libraries, Mohamed was able to make elementary Arabic more accessible to students, and function in a hybrid- and online-format class. Other technologies used included OneNote for assignments and feedback and MediaSpace for tutorials and recording classes.
The College of Arts and Letters published an in-depth feature article about Mohamed’s teaching philosophy. In the article Mohamed explains his teaching philosophy and what inspired him to redesign his class.
In the article Mohamed stated, “The redesign of these courses was not meant to be temporary or limited in scope. It was meant to be adaptable, sustainable, and inclusive, and to advance the teaching and learning of less commonly taught languages, and to advocate for inclusive pedagogy under the slogan of reach all and teach all.”
Rabindra Ratan, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Information within the College of Communication Arts and Sciences as well as Director of the Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab, was awarded for his creative use of virtual reality headsets in his Understanding Virtual Reality Experiences (MI 291) and Avatar Psychology (MI 401) courses. Ratan used virtual reality to engage students in creative ways, creating a memorable user experience that improved student retention. Ratan is a two-time AT&T award recipient. He received an AT&T Award for Best Blended Course in 2015.
Learning remotely means students don’t have to be stuck in one place. Changing scenery has never been easier with virtual reality, which one student in Ratan’s class said allows him to retain more from the class as it’s set in a different virtual environment each time.
“My students feel less distracted and more engaged in virtual reality,” Ratan said. “They learn more, and they have more fun. Virtual reality is a technology students should know about for the future of their workplaces because they will likely use it for training, medical treatment, social interaction, and business context in general. They learn about it, but they also learn with it. They’re gaining a media literacy simply by participating.”
Teaching in virtual reality has always been a personal goal for Ratan. When he started exploring the benefits of virtual reality 10 years ago, he never imagined he’d be teaching classes with VR headsets. One of the milestones of which Ratan is most proud is starting a program at the MSU Library for faculty to reserve VR headsets for students. Ratan compared VR to the early days of computers in education.
“You don’t need to use it, but it will be used in the future,” he said.
Kirtimaan Mohan, Kathleen Hinko, and Vashti Sawtelle, Assistant Professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Lyman Briggs College, saw an opportunity within Briggs Life Science Studio Physics to build a collaborative community online that blends lab and lecture and implements cross-disciplinary ideas.
Mohan, Hinko and Sawtelle won the award as a team for their collaborative work in Studio Physics (LB 273 and LB 274). Using a flipped classroom structure, they ensured the course was interactive and collaborative in a synchronous online classroom.
A “flipped” course means that the lecture materials were consumed outside of class hours, and class time was devoted to more hands-on projects. This format, along with the use of Microsoft tools to facilitate virtual collaboration on projects, allowed studio physics students to thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This was a year for change and reinvigoration for the AT&T awards. We expanded the committee to include a greater number of departments on campus,” Educational Technology Assistant Director Nick Noel said. “It will continue to evolve and improve so that we can best highlight the work of MSU’s amazing educators.”
Future AT&T awards will allow more conversation between committee members and candidates, a longer submission period, and making submissions anonymous to reviewers.
The 2023 AT&T Excellence in Teaching with Technology award recipients will be recognized during a virtual ceremony on April 27.
Additional information about the award, the 2023 recipients, and past recipients can be found at https://attawards.msu.edu.
