Teaching
Dr. Driver teaches in the areas of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. She has over 11 years of teaching experience and has been given some of the highest awards for teaching excellence and outstanding evaluations by her students. Students recognize Dr. Driver to be an enthusiastic instructor with a great deal of expertise in the subject matter as well as practical and real life experience. Students enjoy Dr. Driver's energy in class, how she engages students and how she cares about and facilitates student learning in- and beyond the classroom. Many students have described Dr. Driver's courses as one of the highlights of their college experience.
Matters pertaining to instruction.
Self-evaluation of significant achievements in the area of teaching:
I have dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to improving my teaching abilities and continue to do so in an effort to maintain and improve my teaching evaluations from students and as well as to continuously enhance the learning experience of my students. From the ETSU College of Business Excellence Award for Outstanding Teaching received in 2003, my teaching evaluations, which rate my instruction consistently as very good as well as from other student feedback, such as comments on Student Assessment of Instruction forms, thank-you letters or commendations to the Dean of the College of Business, and the fact that students have rated me consistently in the top 30% of instructors in the department, it appears that my efforts are adding significant value to my students’ learning environments.
Students report that my teaching style enables them to better learn the materials, feel motivated to be involved in the course, consider themselves part of a student-teacher learning community and enjoy an interesting as well as stimulating class. They further report that my teaching style helps them to think out of the box and pushes them to experiment with new ideas over and beyond any rote learning of materials. In addition, they state that my teaching methods are not only innovative but effective in helping them get better insight into difficult theoretical materials, learn from each other and apply the materials to real life situations. They also comment on the fact that through my teaching style they feel more excited about what they learn and believe that I care deeply about their learning as well as their personal welfare in the classroom and beyond.
Below please find a list of things that I consider critical to my teaching style and effectiveness, which I would consider significant teaching-related achievements, since it took a while to develop all of this and attain the kind of learning environment that students in my classes report on thus far.
Overall Philosophy on Teaching
My teaching philosophy centers on student involvement and the creation of a learning environment, which is accessible for as many learning styles as possible. My courses are usually structured around highly interactive class sessions. For my graduate classes I have developed an interactive web site that extends the classroom, provides learning opportunities 24 hours, seven days a week and integrates Internet-based resources into the instructional delivery for a richer learning environment.
The Use of Teams
In nearly all my courses I assign the students to teams at the beginning of the semester. These teams consist on average of five members and last the duration of the semester. Students will be asked to sit in teams in class. They will also be asked to present materials in class as a team. In my graduate courses, I may hold a chat session in which teams present answers to pre-assigned discussion questions. There is also a semester project that the teams have to work on together. In their teams they can share ideas, discuss concepts developed in class, exchange experiences in how these concepts may be applied or have been applied in their lives, particularly in their work lives and get firsthand experience on how to work in groups, a process they will have to put in practice in their careers as more and more employers are utilizing team structures in organizing the way work is performed. In addition to being an effective learning tool, I have also found that team structures enhance the perception of a psychologically safe environment. This feeling of increased safety due to the group’s support enables students to increase their involvement in and out of class with the ideas presented, and thus enhances their learning experience.
Engaging Multiple Learning Styles
Much research from the field of education has established that all students do not learn in the same manner and that an effective learning environment seeks to cater to a variety of learning styles and modes of perception. In my classes I try to cater to a variety of learning styles by offering a variety of modes of presentation and exercises. I try to have the following elements in every class session: visual presentations and mini lectures, team presentations, individual thought/writing exercises, group exercises, discussions and application cases.
Exams
Exams provide a natural opportunity to enhance the students’ involvement with the material. Whenever possible I try to structure exams so that they become more than a reflection of what the student has absorbed up to that point. I try to put together exams that invite students to make new connections among the ideas they have learned so far. I might ask them to put them in a new context or apply them in such a way that they have to play with the ideas rather than just fit them in a certain slot.
Supplementary Activities & Web-Based Learning
Aside from my involvement with students who ask for tutorial sessions or mentoring outside of class, I am also trying to supplement their learning environment with Web-based resources. For example, I have put together a web site on the Internet for one of my graduate classes, which I am frequently teaching in a two-way interactive distance education setting across four sites with a total of over 40 students. I feel that supplemental activities are necessary to provide sufficient opportunities for all students to be involved, given that not all students are physically in my classroom and the number of students do not allow for extensive participation during scheduled class time.
Projects
Class projects are typically done in groups. Their primary purpose is to give students the opportunity to apply the ideas and concepts from class to a real life scenario. Therefore, projects typically ask students to choose an existing organization and to collect both second and first hand data about this organization. They will then have to transform this data into meaningful ideas and interpretations about this organization relative to the concepts presented in class.
Involvement and Learning Outcomes
My primary goal in teaching students is to increase their involvement with the content and the context of the course. I devote energy and creativity to developing, changing and renewing the presentations as well as the projects and exercises used in class. I continue to experiment with ideas and, most importantly, I continue to learn from my students and to adjust and improve my teaching methods based on their feedback.
Other Teaching Related Innovations:
Delivery of BADM 5120, Managing Organizational Change, as an online Internet-based course for the first time ever in the Fall of 2002. I developed all the materials and created the course content online on Blackboard for two sections of this graduate course. I taught the course with minimal technical support and helped my students through the experience in terms of how to learn online as well as how to navigate the technology, since it was the first online course for most of the students. I worked through all the initial difficulties and made a positive experience for the students who not only loved the flexibility of the format but also appreciated the learning experience it offered them. So the course was successful both in terms of a new medium for teaching and learning and also to convey the content of the course and achieve its learning objectives.
Development of a one-day seminar for adult learners and professionals on creative thinking, entitled the Wonders of the Mind. This one day seminar allows groups of participants to gain insight into the process of creative thinking and apply these ideas in several experiments and exercises. The seminar is designed to provide a starting point for participants to practice creative thinking in their workplaces, at home and in their educational careers. Delivered to ETSU students and other members of the community in the spring of 1999.
Development of an experimental Organizational Learning Course. The course is designed particularly for practitioners, i.e. professional especially with managerial responsibility. The purpose of the course it to introduce participants to a variety of concepts from the field, especially those on the cutting edge of research. The participant then get a chance through a variety of tools including experiential exercises to apply these concepts in their organizations and to experiment with ways that their business can become a learning organization. Offered on an experimental basis for the first time in the summer of 1999.
Development of syllabi of three new International Management courses (Export/Import, Intro to International Business and International Strategic Management). Delivered for approval to the curriculum committee in the spring of 2000.
Development of new course content for MGMT 4030, a current issues in Management course, which I am tailoring around International Management to be offered for the first time in the Spring of 2002.
Creation of a graduate (MBA) course for online delivery: Developed a web-based course packet for BADM 5120 to be offered by me for the first time completely online in the Fall of 2002.
Development of MGMT 4030 as an Oral Intensive Course. Developed the entire structure with all activities and learning outcomes for approval by the University’s Oral Intensive Committee. It was approved and is now an Oral Intensive Course, something that the College needed more of in its catalog.
Development of MGMT 3000 as Oral Intensive Course. Developed the entire structure with all activities and learning outcomes for approval by the University’s Oral Intensive Committee.
Teaching Load by Semester at Western State College of Colorado*:
*BUAD 333/450 = Organizational Behavior, BUAD 350 = Human Resource Management, BUAD 397 = Special Topics Leadership, BUAD 497 Managing Organizational Change
Fall 2008: BUAD 350 M/W/F 9-9:50AM (23 students), and M/W/F 10-
10:50AM (13 students), BUAD 450 M/W/F 1-1:50PM (16 students)
Spring 2009: BUAD 350 M/W/F 9-9:50AM (29 students), and M/W/F 10-
10:50AM (23 students), BUAD 450 M/W/F 12-12:50PM (27 students), BUAD 397 M/W 2-3:15 (16 students)
Summer 2009: BUAD 497 M-S 9AM-5PM (13)
Fall 2009 BUAD 333 M/W/F 9-9:50AM (31 students), and M/W/F 10-
10:50AM (23 students), BUAD 350 M/W/F 1-1:50PM (23 students), BUAD 397 M/W 2-3:15 (10 students)
