Teaching

My time at the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) included teaching 23 sections of four different courses (plus one directed study) in the Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree program, with a total of 457 students (averaging 76 per year) enrolled in these. The MLIS is a program accredited by the American Library Association, incorporating student learning outcomes per course and broader program-level learning outcomes that students map their ePortfolios to in their capping exercise (LIS 600), assessed by SLIS faculty as their academic advisors. Following my teaching philosophy I have used a variety of assessments in courses where students can learn and apply their skills creatively, sharing their knowledge within and beyond the classroom learning community and in alignment with these learning outcomes.

My teaching at SLIS and elsewhere was in the context of my mutually complementary research interests, service activities, and skills and abilities as an information professional. In relation to teaching, advising, and supervision I also aimed to be a consistent voice, as part of my service to the School, in SLIS’s Academic Council faculty meetings, Curriculum Committee discussions, and our Teaching Symposium events that occured most years. Finally, since my move to Canada in 2015 I learned about and began to engage in truth and reconciliation efforts as part of SLIS, the Faculty of Education, the University of Alberta, and the broader community, including teaching, advising, mentoring, and discussion with Indigenous students and instructors in the MLIS program.

Teaching Experience

At the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies I taught the following courses in our Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program:

At the Florida State University School of Information, I taught or was a teaching assistant for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, both face-to-face and online, in information technology, information science, information behaviour, digital libraries, project management, information visualization, technical communication, and information security.

Teaching Philosophy

I believe a key purpose of a university is to be a successful learning environment for students’ lives and careers. A university degree should prepare students in both theory and practice that can help inform not just their first job after graduation, but the breadth and depth of their professional career. My aim is to have students not just pass an individual course or even earn an individual degree, but to be able to build throughout their careers on the learning experiences I help facilitate. To achieve this in my teaching, advising, supervising, and mentoring, I do my best to facilitate a collaborative and creative learning community, one that can benefit students both during and beyond any individual course. I encourage constructive communication and interaction between students and with myself as instructor, offering detailed and useful feedback to students throughout each course. I also do my best to address the varied strengths and interests of student learners. I am grateful for having experienced and helped facilitate many such learning communities, with strong interactions and addressing students’ multiple strengths and interests, as a student, teaching assistant, and instructor, and continue to draw on these.

Further details of my teaching interests, experiences, and philosophy are included in my teaching statement and CV.