Faculty Excellence at UMUC

Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? Are there any life experiences that have influenced your teaching at UMUC? If so, please share one story.

Paul Henry

My reason for applying to teach at UMUC was my sense of the organizational culture and its commitment to learning and teaching excellence. This was confirmed during my training and subsequent teaching and professional development through the support I have received at all levels: my program, the college, and the university.

I provide e-learning and user experience consulting through my company (Program House-http://www.programhouse.com) for academic and corporate clients. I was consulting on Wall Street through the 90s, but soon after I was faced with responsibilities that  posed problems for my continued on-site consulting. Fortunately, my earlier online teaching and virtual consulting work provided a path for me to continue my business activities. During this period of time I was able to become more expert in my use of online digital technology, and this has added value to my roles as teacher, consultant, and writer. This experience also helped me to understand and try to accommodate the similar challenges that my students face as adult professionals.

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Paul Henry

My teaching style is based on an apprenticeship model in which I am a learning coach, modeling and guiding adult learners in authentic learning tasks that directly relate to their professional needs and goals. Factual and conceptual knowledge that are normally the focus of courses are treated as subordinate (i.e., information on demand) to learning and performing relevant tasks associated with the course subject matter and the acquisition and practice of skills that are needed to perform them.

My doctoral studies in the learning sciences and my dissertation research into the nature of Internet adoption in the context of work helped me to establish an empirical basis for my subsequent work in teaching and consulting.

Interviewer:

Please explain if you do something special or unique in your teaching and what made you develop this.

Paul Henry

In my online teaching, I have learned from my students to address their learning needs by seeking feedback on most aspects of how I teach and the resources that I use to support their learning. For example, although I tend to have a teaching style in which text is predominant, I have realized that my teaching style paired with the text-dominated nature of online course management software (with its usual reliance on text used in content areas, discussion, email, and chat) creates an imbalance in the presentation of information that does not address the varying preferences of learners.

In my action research, I have learned that many online students have a preference for visual presentation of information, so I have been incorporating relevant use of visuals (images, video, animations, etc.) to accompany textual representation. I designate this visual material as optional learning activities and try to balance it with some textual information so that learners are not penalized who do not value it or have any disability that may prevent their use of it. Despite the optional nature of these primarily visual learning materials, many students will use these resources and respond to the invitation to provide feedback on their experience to relay their perceived value of it.

Interviewer:

What do you think it is about your teaching style that appeals to students?

Paul Henry

My teaching style is under continual refinement based on the feedback that I seek and obtain from my students. These refinements occur during a course and from one course section to the next. Students quickly become aware of this and become more engaged in required and optional learning activities as they see that their needs and preferences are being addressed and that they are valued contributors to the learning experience of their peers who subsequently take the course.

Interviewer:

Do you teach face-to-face, online, or both? Do you have a preference between teaching face-to-face and online? If so, please explain.

Paul Henry

For several years I have taught exclusively online, but I am now able to resume onsite as well as online. When I moved from onsite to online teaching, I encountered many challenges which led me to believe that online teaching posed more constraints than onsite teaching. However, as I conducted action research and discovered the dynamics of online learning in terms of online learner needs and preferences, and I began to test and implement corresponding technology and techniques to support them, the online teaching and learning experience gradually progressed in a positive manner.

This experience has evolved to the point where I am inclined to believe that I have more flexibility, a greater array of resources, and can achieve more positive results as an online teacher in terms of learner experience and outcomes.

I am now ready to incorporate these strategies for onsite teaching in the context of the technology-enhanced and extended classroom experience to further validate that it is more a matter of the appropriate use of these strategies than it is the nature of the setting.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline-i.e., what made you interested in the area initially? What do you do to stay current in your discipline? What do you like best about teaching in your discipline?

Paul Henry

My chosen discipline straddles what I believe are three inseparable disciplines: information systems and management, cognitive science, and social science research.

When I was young, I would flip through books and see pictures of notable people in their fields. The ones that made an impression on me were those in which relatively older persons were represented as being in the prime of their career. I believe this intuitive childhood impression taught me that the most lasting and fulfilling work I could do as a person would be as a teacher, a scientist, or a writer. As I was not otherwise constrained, I chose all three.

I am continually learning and improving through research and practice in the context of my work. I derive such value and pleasure from this activity that I am becoming less aware of distinctions between work and play. I am enjoying the experience relayed by learners and reflected in the quality of the artifacts of their work as they acquire initial mastery of relevant professional skills.

Interviewer:

What is the most challenging to you in teaching in this area? What teaching strategy do you use when you encounter the challenge? Are there any special challenges in teaching this subject matter online?  If yes, please explain what could be done to meet the challenges.

Paul Henry

In my experience teaching online, there are no substantive challenges associated with information systems and management as the area of study because it is highly situated in the same computer and networked environment as online courses and online learning.

For learners who are taking an online course (such as the human factors in information systems course that I teach) that is not intrinsically part of their academic discipline, I often need to counter occasional concern over the lack of prior technical experience by using several teaching tactics.

At the outset of the course, I represent the true interdisciplinary nature of this subject/practice area and emphasize the importance of varied perspectives on the topics from the reading that we will discuss. I provide wide latitude in required weekly conference discussion in ways that learners can elect to discuss aspects of topics from the reading that they deemed important balanced by their perspectives through additional relaying of personal and/or professional experiences that highlight their points. I also require additional posting in reply to the discussion posts of their peers that help clarify and elaborate on the relevance of their posts. Learning discussion structured in this manner tends to produce responses indicative of deepening understanding of often initially novel and complex topics.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Paul Henry

Although you should not short-change continuing improvement in your technical skills, you should also acquire broader skills in areas indicative of human interaction (individual, organizational, and social) that characterize real-world experience in information systems and management work.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the college of choice for students?

Paul Henry

The learning experience at UMUC is uniquely valuable because counter to the siloed knowledge and one-way communications that often prevail in formal educational settings, this university is striving to make its teaching relevant by learning from its students who themselves are adult professionals with rich and current relevant knowledge.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the employer of choice for future faculty members?

Paul Henry

Choose UMUC for the opportunity to be a contributor and recipient of this exceptionally valuable community of practice.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Paul Henry

No matter the discipline, listen and learn from your students and use that knowledge to continually improve their learning experience.