Center for Teaching and Learning

Faculty Interview
Noni Bohonak
Mathematics

Hear the audio clip on using story telling for effective instruction. (1:36)

I decided to apply to teach at UMUC for a couple of reasons. About 30 years ago, I taught math for UMUC in Germany. I loved traveling around to the different sites every day, and found it rewarding to teach students who were really interested in learning. These fond memories were lingering in the back of my mind. About 16 years ago, I decided to go back and complete my Ph.D. in computer science, while working full-time as an associate professor at the University of South Carolina in Lancaster. In order to do so, I had to teach extra classes to pay for the tuition and spend all of my non-work time on finishing my degree. In October of 2000, I completed everything!  No more classes!  No more dissertation! But what would I do with all of the free time? I don’t know how I came up with the idea, but I applied to teach online through UMUC. Frankly, I was a bit skeptical that a programming class could be taught online. After one semester, I was hooked!  I found that teaching computing classes online worked, and I loved the students who signed up for the classes.

My first M.S. was in curriculum and instruction of math. Having been a smart but unmotivated student in high school and my first year in college due to boredom, I was interested in what could be done to make learning fun. My first teaching job was at a community college where most of the students were older with many just returning from Vietnam. I taught remedial math classes as part of my job. To make things interesting, I came up with all kinds of activities as well as word problems to make the class fun. For example, while teaching about percents and fractions, I would create word problems based on some of the things published in the local paper.

All of the teachers that I have had in K-12, undergraduate, and graduate school have shaped my teaching. The good teachers showed me how to teach and the bad teachers made me learn how to teach myself.

I try to get the class involved and to build an academic community among these students. Today, I continue to figure out ways to involve my students and make learning fun.  For the last year, I have used music in my online classes to engage the students. This has been so popular that I am going to try it in my face-to-face classes!

I think that students like my dedication and creativity.

Although I only teach online for UMUC, I do teach face-to-face classes at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster. Being able to teach both ways is great!  The fun part is figuring out how to adapt face-to-face methods to work with online students and to adapt online methods for face-to-face classes.

I have been reading some of the literature that describes our new cyber-age students. They can only retain about 10 minutes of lecture at a time. An increasing number are diagnosed with some type of attention problem. Many have a hard time reading a text. How do you get the theory found in the computing sciences across to students? Do you develop more hands-on assignments?

I have taken a few workshops on alternative teaching methods for face-to-face classes such as embedded story telling. Student tend to remember a topic if you stop a lecture and tell an interesting story, or if you can involve the topic in a story. Online students have similar problems. How can we meet the needs of our students who may have difficulty following the text in a programming course? One way is to bring out some of the important concepts and demonstrate them in a small program.

UMUC offers students all-around quality with the added bonus of flexibility. The people working for the University are committed to student learning at all levels.  In my experience, they really listen to student feedback and make an effort to improve where possible. In the time that I have taught for UMUC, I have never once had a student complain to me about the overall quality of the education they were receiving from UMUC. I think that speaks volumes!

The faculty and staff are top-notch. Without exception, the people I have met and worked with have had a real sense of being on a “team” – they have been helpful, resourceful, and supportive. In all honesty, I couldn’t ask for more.

 The one thing that I really like about my UMUC students is their desire to learn. Students are eager to learn and a pleasure to work with, in a student-teacher relationship. Sometimes I will get an email from a former student who just wants to let me know what he or she is doing. Last year, I sent some toys to a student in Iraq to distribute to a needy family and received a message of thanks from the family through my student. I have done similar things in my face-to-face classes. I am currently on an email list with a few students who sometimes just need a little encouragement, much like my face-to-face students who will come into my office and talk. Teaching online is very rewarding. Although some of the teaching issues are the same as in face-to-face classes, there are some differences. In order to work online, you must be very comfortable communicating this way.