Each year, CELTIC awards Iona faculty members with grants to further enhance the educational experience for both professors and students.  On Feb. 8, CELTIC’s Iona Faculty Teaching Scholar Reception honored the distinguished recipients of the Faculty Instructional Technology Award (FITA)— Department of History Chair James Carroll and Associate Professor of Management and Business Administration Jeffrey Alstete—as well as the CELTIC Excellence in Teaching Award (CETA)— Department of English Assistant Chair Amy Stackhouse and Department of Political Science and International Studies Chair Tricia Mulligan.

Recipients of the FITA grant propose projects with the primary objective of integrating computer technology into teaching.  The projects include revisions to a curriculum so that it includes technological components and/or projects that embed multimedia technologies in both classroom assignments and projects.

In his project, “Providing a Unique Classroom/Learning Experience of History for Freshmen that is Radically Different from their Experience in Secondary School,” Carroll provides a completely electronic and technological course for History 101/201—the history core courses.  All readings and assignments for the course were posted on the course Blackboard site; thus, students had access to E-Book reading assignments, online primary sources, journal articles and YouTube videos posted by the instructor for a specific topic.  All examinations were taken online and the students also utilized the discussion board to post analyses of the in depth readings. 

Completely paperless online courses will become increasingly popular in the imminent future as “students are well assimilated with technology in the contemporary age,” Carroll said. 

“More and more students come to expect courses to have a Blackboard site,” and in his experience with a course rooted heavily in Blackboard access, the students responded very well to the organization of the material and preferred the paperless course, Carroll said—”it provided confirmation that online coursework is the way to go.”

Alstete also promoted the use of online course material in the form of online virtual simulations in his project, “Selecting and Implementing an Online Virtual Simulation/Gaming Package for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Courses at Iona.” 

The objective of the project was to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in entrepreneurship and small business management through the use of an online simulation/gaming package.  Students were required to participate in the small business simulation as part of a course requirement.

“Business simulation games are more effective teaching tools than traditional methods, such as lectures, as calculated performance on final exams and subsequent business career success,” Alstete said. 

Alstete found and implemented the GoVenture Simulation for Small Business and Entrepreneurship which allowed the instructor to choose from a variety of small businesses, exposing students to real life business situations.   After great success with the GoVenture Simulation at the graduate level, Alstete seeks to integrate the simulation into the undergraduate curriculum.

The CETA grant is awarded to faculty members whose projects seek to enhance learning and teaching.  The projects should develop ways to improve teaching efficacy that will have a positive influence on student learning.

Stackhouse’s project, “Reading Poetry and the Implications for Reading across the Curriculum,” addressed students’ struggle with reading comprehension by teaching students to closely read. 

“Students’ problems with writing are frequently tied in with their poor reading abilities,” Stackhouse said.  Learning to read closely teaches students to pay attention to what is being said and how it is being said, to the development of thoughts and to the meanings of the words.  

After researching and developing the most effective ways to teach the close reading of poetry, Stackhouse implemented the methods into her various courses.  “The benefits of learning to read closely are obvious for students: they will be more successful in their classes and ultimately in their lives,” Stackhouse said.

The need to read closely and comprehend what they have read is an instrumental skill for students at the academic level and beyond.  “For the faculty, having students who are more sophisticated readers allows more sophisticated assignments and research, which in turn leads to Iona having a student body that is more involved in their own education and better prepared for their future,” Stackhouse said.

Finally, in her project “Developing Special Topics courses in Political Science Focusing on Environmental Politics,” Mulligan sought to develop a Political Science course focusing on environmental politics using a hybrid course structure.  Iona’s lack of an environmental politics course coupled with strong student interest in the development of such a course drove Mulligan to begin to research and develop the special topics course.

“The course exposed students to environmental issues in the news, drawing upon the integration of alternative pedagogical techniques in the classroom aside from traditional lectures,” Mulligan said. 

The hybrid structure of the course “provided students with an opportunity to participate in active learning simulated role play and to experience first-hand the issues, challenges and processes involved in national and international environmental politics,” she said.  The course received positive feedback from the students who loved both the content and structure of the course, praising the integration of technology into the classroom.

CELTIC’s teaching grants allow the Iona faculty to explore new modes of teaching to both enhance and impact student learning at Iona.  The Iona faculty never ceases to work at constructing a better foundation of learning to benefit not only the students, but the entire Iona faculty and the institution as a whole.