Curriculum and Course Design

Curriculum and course design entails the selection of a textbook, development of meaningful assignments, a clear declaration of the criteria for student success, and accurate assessment of the students' accomplishments. Courses must also be aligned with the students' overall goals for attending college in mind. Because other teachers have certain expectations from students who pass fundamental courses such as English composition, communicating with other teachers is critical to the successful development of a course.

With the aforesaid philosophy in mind, I designed and taught during my teaching career the following courses:

  • English composition: I taught this course to mostly freshmen for whom English composition was a prerequisite to taking other classes.
  • Technical writing: I taught this course to mostly upperclassmen who had a desire to communicate clearly and effectively in a technical environment.
  • Rhetoric: I taught this course to students who wanted to know and understand the history and methods of rhetoric, from the teachings of Aristotle to the effect of popular culture on the use of language.
  • Journalism: This course focused on journalism in the computer age. Students were required to devise, plan, and compose a newspaper without the aids of traditional newspaper-layout instruments. All layout was achieved online using Adobe PageMaker and Quark Xpress.
  • Fiction writing: Students were asked to develop a short story over the course of a semester. Lecture time was spent dealing with the difficulties of creative writing.

Technical Training

As the publications manager for an engineering firm, I trained engineers so that they could clearly communicate to their clients. In one company-wide training course, I used the Communication Training PowerPoint presentation as a guiding tool and reference. Weekly, I would issue writing tips via email to the engineers. I also conducted training on new software, as well as established software such as Microsoft Word.

Online Teaching

For Pellissippi State Technical Community College, I developed an online course using the WebCT e-learning system (http://www.webct.com/). I built the course on a development server and published it on a deployment server for the spring semester. For a description of the course, please see "ENGL 2950 Business & Technical Writing" at the Pellissippi State Web site.

Online Assessment

I have conducted numerous online assessments, including surveys and editing tests. As the manager of the publications department for an engineering firm, I developed an online assessment of applicants for a writer/editor position. By using HTML and server-side scripting (Perl), I was able to record the input of the test takers and record the amount of time that each test taker required to complete the test. To view this online assessment tool, please visit the Writer/Editor Test.

Instructor Experience and Awards

From 1990 to 1993, I taught college-level courses to freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. During my time at Temple University (1990 to 1992), I taught English composition and technical writing. Because of my innovative teaching methods, I won the College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Assistant Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991. As a visiting instructor of English at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, I not only taught in the classroom but also managed a computer laboratory, the school newspaper, and the school yearbook.