Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Schar School Adjunct Professor Lee Roberts is ‘Teacher of Distinction’

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 19:22:09 +0000

Schar School Adjunct Professor Lee Roberts is ‘Teacher of Distinction’ Andrew J Schappert Thu, 08/15/2024 - 15:22

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Schar School of Policy and Government adjunct professor Lee Roberts was recognized as a 2024 Teacher of Distinction by ��AV’s Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning. Roberts is a U.S. Army strategic intelligence officer in his 17th year of active-duty service.

Schar School adjunct professor Lee Roberts receives his Teacher of Distinction award from E. Shelley Reid, executive director of engaged teaching at George Mason’s Stearns Center. Photo by John Boal Photography.

The Stearns Center, which promotes and develops innovation in teaching among the university’s faculty, recognizes Teachers of Distinction as those who have been finalists for Teaching Excellence Awards and are known for their commitment to teaching and teaching-related activities.

As an active practitioner in the field, it’s important to Roberts that the subject of international security—I-SEC—is taught the right way.

“First and foremost, students in the [Schar School’s] I-SEC program are talented, driven, and conscientious future—and in some cases current—practitioners whom it is my privilege to work with,” he said. “I want to do everything I can to help them clear a path into this professional field whether as a government servant or in an adjacent field such as think-tank analysis or security journalism.”

Roberts, who has been teaching at the Schar School since 2018, is assigned to the Joint Staff from the Defense Intelligence Agency and works in the Pentagon, located not far from the Schar School’s Mason Square Campus. That proximity allowed him to earn a master’s degree in international security in 2017—he was also a fellow at the Center for Security Policy Studies—and a PhD in political science in 2022.

His academic pursuits, as well as his teaching, inform his profession.

“Essentially, I direct the design and delivery of joint studies into future military intelligence capabilities that establish the requirements used by armed services, defense agencies, and the defense industry to develop and build those capabilities,” he said. “I primarily focus five to 15 years in the future, and I really love my job—it makes excellent use of the educational experience I got at the Schar School.

“By keeping a foot in both worlds, I am able to help students realize their goals, and students’ fresh perspectives and the seminar content from the classes helps me to be a better practitioner.”

While receiving the Stearns Center’s Teacher of Distinction recognition is gratifying, it’s the success of his students that Roberts finds truly rewarding.

“I have on multiple occasions run into recent alumni in the halls of U.S. government agencies implementing America's intelligence, national security, and foreign policy priorities, and I cannot adequately describe the pride I feel in having played even a small part in their journey,” he said.

Topics

Center for Security Policy Studies

PhD in Political Science

Master of International Security

International Security

Adjunct Professors

Schar School Featured Stories

Schar School News for August 2024

Schar School Student Spotlight

Schar School of Policy and Government

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Alumni

Military

Rachel Yoho receives Fulbright Specialist Award

Colleen Rich — Wed, 10 May 2023 14:35:46 +0000

Rachel Yoho receives Fulbright Specialist Award Colleen Rich Wed, 05/10/2023 - 10:35

Rachel Yoho, the anti-racist and inclusive teaching specialist in ��AV’s Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, received a Fulbright Specialist Program award to work with individuals at the University of Galway in Ireland. Yoho, the 25th person at Mason to receive a Fulbright Specialist award, will lay the groundwork on a project surrounding institutional change.

Rachel Yoho. Photo provided

“There are relatively few people who receive this award so it’s such an honor to be a recipient,” said Yoho. “Going to Ireland includes a great immersive cultural component to the project with lots of opportunities to experience and see new things. I’m excited to develop the personal connections, which are an important part of the Fulbright program.”

The Fulbright Specialist Program is a part of the larger Fulbright Program, with the goal for these accomplished people to share their knowledge as part of a larger cultural exchange, to increase global relationships, entrepreneurial opportunity, and make the world a better place. Fulbright Specialist Scholars are matched with an institution in one of 150 countries overseas, partnering with hosts to provide education, support, and thought leadership according to their priorities and goals.

“This project is particularly fruitful because it merges her disciplinary scholarship in public health with her pedagogical work with the Stearns Center,” said Shelley Reid, executive director of engaged teaching in the Stearns Center. “Since the Stearns Center is invested in supporting inclusive excellence among Mason's internationalized faculty and students, we're looking forward to learning from Rachel how efforts to support inclusive teaching are happening in another cultural context.”

Yoho was specifically chosen by the University of Galway to visit based on her expertise in environmental health and social justice. The host institution will facilitate her Fulbright talk, set up individual meetings with faculty and staff, and build ongoing collaborations.

Yoho is particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to create connections and potential ongoing collaborations around research, instructional materials, and faculty support. “Both Mason and Galway come from a place of shared values and institutional challenges, and are invested in improving student learning and outcomes,” she said. “We hope to create collaborations around environmental health and approaches to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

After spending two weeks in Ireland, Yoho will return to Mason at the end of May and begin cross-country collaboration on the project. She will have ongoing follow-up reports on the project with the Fulbright committee over the coming months.

Topics

Faculty and Staff News

Fulbright Program

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Strategic Direction

Provost Newsletter

Ioulia Rytikova receives 2021 Online Teaching Excellence Award

Martha Bushong — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 12:29:15 +0000

Ioulia Rytikova receives 2021 Online Teaching Excellence Award Martha Bushong Tue, 07/06/2021 - 08:29

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Ioulia Rytikova

Congratulations to associate professor Ioulia Rytikova from the Department of Information Sciences and Technology for receiving the 2021 Stearns Center Digital Learning Online Teaching Excellence Award (OTEA). The OTEA is open to all instructional faculty at Mason (adjuncts, term, tenure-track, and tenured faculty) who have taught at least one fully online course during the past academic year and have at least four semesters completed of teaching fully online courses at ��AV.

This award acknowledges faculty who have displayed growth and development as online educators, demonstrated online student and learner engagement, and shown effective online teaching and impact.

The award letter says, “Dr. Rytikova designed and developed multiple interdisciplinary programs, concentrations, and courses in the emerging areas of data sciences and big data analytics, computer and information technologies, health information technologies, and statistical analysis.” During her fifteen years of teaching, she has applied all her efforts towards creating the kind of environment that encourages students’ growth both intellectually and emotionally. She successfully demonstrated her effectiveness through student and learner achievement for these efforts and contributions throughout the academic school year.

Rytikova is the first winner from the College of Engineering and Computing to receive this award. As part of OTEA’s recognition of achievement, she was honored at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching Excellence, on Friday, May 7.

The OTEA selection committee is comprised of Mason faculty who review teaching portfolios. The teaching portfolios provide each nominee an opportunity to share evidence for what is unique about their online teaching, concerning their discipline, best teaching practices, and student learning engagement

Rytikova says, “Preparing my Online Teaching Award portfolio has given me the important opportunity to look beyond daily tasks to consider larger educational issues, to assess my own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher, and to better understand the kinds of values I’d like my students to develop in class.”

Topics

Classroom & Online Teaching

Awards

College of Engineering and Computing

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Professor Danny Menascé recognized with David J. King Teaching Award

Martha Bushong — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:15:17 +0000

Professor Danny Menascé recognized with David J. King Teaching Award Martha Bushong Thu, 06/03/2021 - 10:15

Congratulations to Professor Danny Menascé, the 2021 winner of the David J. King Teaching Award. This annual award is presented to a faculty member who has made significant, long-term contributions to the overall educational excellence of the university.

Outstanding teaching is an integral part of Mason’s mission and is deserving of significant recognition. Mason’s Teaching Excellence Awards are both institutional recognition and a monetary acknowledgment of the significant work that faculty members devote to course planning and preparation; curriculum development; and innovative teaching, advising, and undergraduate and graduate mentoring. The David King Award is the highest teaching honor that the university bestows on a faculty member.

Professor Danny Menascé informally meets with students in the Atrium of the Nguyen Engineering Building. For his excellence in teaching, Menascé won the David J. King Award. Photo by Creative Services.

Menascé is an outstanding research scholar and teacher, as is evidenced by the many awards he has received for teaching and research during his lengthy career. Some highlights include receiving the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia, being elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2014, receiving the 2001 lifetime achievement A.A. Michelson Award from the Computer Measurement Group, election as a Fellow of the Association for Computer Machinery in 1997, several best paper awards, more than 278 published papers, and five books.

To a large extent, the current CS department is what it is today because of a 2007 merger between the CS department and the Department of Information & Software Engineering. As Senior Associate Dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering, Menascé envisioned this merger as a way to strengthen the CS department. He was instrumental in convincing both the school administration and the faculty to approve the merger of the two departments. The merger created a stronger department that serves its students and other constituencies more effectively and has climbed in national rankings.

In addition to his leadership in the department and the school, Menascé is highly regarded by students. They describe him as a great motivator who makes himself available in and out of class. Evaluations from undergraduates and graduate students alike give him consistently high marks. Menascé still remembers being a curious teenager who took apart electronics to find out how they work and imparts this sense of wonder, excitement, and self-direction in his students. He requires students to learn by themselves and finds it necessary for students to experience self-learning to become self-learners. This attitude, combined with his extensive subject matter expertise, has propelled countless students through the rigors of the computer science curriculum.

The university honored Menascé and other award recipients at the Celebration of Teaching Excellence on May 7.

See the program and learn about other award winners.

Topics

computer science

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Awards

Mason faculty offer ideas, lessons learned from teaching in a pandemic

Colleen Rich — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:55:17 +0000

Mason faculty offer ideas, lessons learned from teaching in a pandemic Colleen Rich Wed, 02/03/2021 - 14:55

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Jennifer N. Victor

Robert J. McGrath

Jennifer Victor provides an introduction to her GOVT 103 class.

After almost a year of teaching during a global pandemic, ��AV professors said they’ve learned some valuable lessons on what works and what doesn’t with virtual teaching, and what their students need most from them.

“Students are just more stressed than they normally would be,” said Jennifer Victor, an associate professor of political science at the Schar School of Policy and Government. “I found myself needing to be sensitive to that.”

Suzanne E. Smith, a history professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said she started off her fall classes by recognizing how difficult the year has been for her students.

“I started my classes by having them read an essay about studying history during historical times,” said Smith, who taught HNRS 240: Race and Visual Culture and a graduate seminar. Then she used icebreaker activities to help the students relax. Smith would also begin each class by playing music.

“I tried to make my Zoom space welcoming, and I used music to create a sense of fun in the class,” said Smith.

Smith found that lecturing for long periods of time on Zoom didn’t go over well, so she made sure her classes were discussion based, and sometimes even student led. She had lectures for the students that were part of their asynchronous learning and tried to vary the activities she assigned.

Grace Vaughn, an Honors College student who attended Smith’s undergraduate class, said that while she misses the normalcy of attending regular classes in-person, “Dr. Smith did one of the best jobs in creating an online class that felt like a real-life classroom.”

“Everybody usually hates icebreakers, but in this case, they really helped break down the walls between students so we could get to know each other,” said Vaughn, an environmental and sustainability studies major.

In the fall semester, Victor taught GOVT 103: Introduction to American Politics and a seminar on political elections. Victor said she uses the whiteboard feature on Blackboard Collaborate to allow students to comment anonymously.

“It’s a great way to get a whole lot of immediate engagement,” Victor said.

Victor said that while students’ educational needs were being met, students were lacking the casual connections that generally come with a college experience.

This semester, she’s experimenting with a weekly voluntary opportunity for her students to mingle on Wonder, a virtual event space. Students use avatars to navigate the room and socialize informally.

Robert J. McGrath, associate professor and director of undergraduate programs at the Schar School, said he finds it particularly challenging when students are reticent to turn on their cameras.

“It’s hard as a professor to talk to blank squares, and it is a reflection of students’ lack of morale and at the same exacerbates it,” said McGrath.

McGrath found that after he met with students in smaller groups, they were more willing to put on their cameras and engage with each other in class.

“It’s a good idea to meet early in the semester in small groups with students to talk informally,” said McGrath. “It establishes a sense of responsibility toward the professor and their fellow students, and helps them know that we are all in this together, learning together.”

The Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning also provides tips for faculty teaching online and offers webinars, training on specific topics, and an online teaching newsletter.

Faisal Mahmud, director of digital learning and co-director of the Stearns Center, suggested professors be flexible and adjust the syllabus as necessary when online teaching. In addition, Mahmud said faculty should make participation a grade separate from attendance to motivate students.

“Make it a two-way communication,” Mahmud said. “Encourage and allow students to think critically by participating in classroom discussions.”

Topics

Campus News

Faculty and Staff News

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

coronavirus; COVID-19; Editorial

Danielle Catona Receives Grant for Redesigning Online Assessments

dhawkin — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:37:51 +0000

Danielle Catona Receives Grant for Redesigning Online Assessments dhawkin Thu, 01/28/2021 - 16:37

Congratulations to Dr. Danielle Catona, Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, for recently receiving a Stearns Center grant for implementing alternative assessment strategies. The grant will allow Catona to conduct research on alternative assessment strategies for GCH 380: Public Health Research Methods. GCH 380 is an important aspect of the college’s accredited MPH program, and Catona’s research will provide valuable insight on improving it.

In her proposal, Redesigning Online Assessments, Catona identified the need to explore alternative assessments that allow students to engage with the complex topics of GCH 380 beyond simple memorization. During the course’s pilot semester, she intends to implement alternatives to exam-based assessments such as weekly online discussions and an original research proposal and presentation to foster student applications of course concepts and collaboration.

The Stearns Center, in collaboration with 4-VA at Mason, is piloting a program to provide up to ten (10) $4,000 grants and 1:1 instructional design support for faculty interested in implementing alternative assessment strategies into their online course. Catona’s grant is part of this program and is designed to support assessment strategies that help bolster student engagement, encourage academic integrity, and reduce tendencies toward academic outsourcing.