Not once, but twice now CU Boulder students have nominated Chemistry Professor Susan Hendrickson for an ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award for her teaching of General Chemistry 2, Chemistry 1133.聽 "[Hendrickson]'s ... a really good, fun, effective teacher!" wrote one student.
In particular, students appreciate聽Hendrickson's use of lecture capture and document capture systems. 聽She sympathizes with students who are not naturally early risers聽and is happy to post聽videos of her聽lectures online after each class. 聽Students appreciate her efforts:聽"[Hendrickson's use of the lecture capture system]聽shows that she is genuinely interested in her students learning the material."聽聽聽Another聽student wrote, "...聽[Hendrickson] uses lecture capture聽... so we can go back and watch her explanations of problems and concepts if we miss a class or are reviewing."聽 Hendrickson explains her strategy: "When I lecture capture, I have one聽feed on the PowerPoint ... and the other feed is聽the document camera ... The document camera聽is really valuable because students can see how I write out a problem,"聽rather than if they could only follow along instructions in a textbook or even just read through her PowerPoint slides without hearing her voice.聽 Another聽student wrote,聽"... the document camera聽... is extremely helpful in our large lecture ... because it lets us watch her as she does the problems step by step."
Students聽report that Hendrickson's lecture capture, along with the聽actual聽former聽tests that she聽posts on D2L, have really helped them prepare for exams.聽聽"I think it's good to share information,"聽says Hendrickson.聽 Additionally, "We use all online homework," says Hendrickson, citing McGraw-Hill's LearnSmart and BookSmart Adaptive Learning聽software, which, "Provides detailed answers to homework questions," and聽allows for聽highlighting聽when reading electronic text.
When asked about her favorite part of teaching, Hendrickson responds: "One of the best things is to see students go on and do something after and be successful,"聽and she gives examples of students who have followed their dreams into both scientific and also not so scientific fields.聽聽Hendrickson adds, "And the jokes," and聽pulls up a nerdy Foxtrot聽strip that she聽recently put on the first page of students' exams.
Hendrickson says that聽her goals for teaching are adapting to a new textbook this fall and possibly incorporating Camtasia videos of working through problems.聽 "I like learning new technology," she says.
