Fullenkamp Wins 2015 Teaching and Technology Award
30 April 2015 10:39AM
The Trinity College annual faculty awards last week recognized Professor Connel Fullenkamp for his excellence in teaching with a significant technology component. He received the 2015 Teaching and Technology Award and $5,000 for his efforts.
“It’s great to be nominated for the award, especially since so many other Duke faculty are also developing innovative teaching methods that intensively use technology,” Fullenkamp said. “I think the award makes it clear the university’s vision for the future of teaching includes technology as an important component. To me, the recognition means that the university understands the significant amount of work that it takes to adopt these new teaching technologies and values this effort.”
The Teaching and Technology Award is co-sponsored by Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the Center for Instructional Technology. Candidates nominated for the award needed to meet the following criteria: use technology with a focus on undergraduate student learning and engagement, collaborate and share innovative aspects of the teaching experience to the broader community, and assess the impact of student learning.
Fullenkamp has a reputation in the Department of Economics for being an “innovator in the classroom,” according to Professor Lori Leachman, who wrote a letter in support of Fullenkamp’s nomination for the award. “He is constantly exploring new modes of delivery for traditional content and incorporating those that facilitate his methods of teaching … Connel is a teacher’s teacher who is not afraid to use technology.”
As the director of undergraduate studies in the department, Fullenkamp is well aware of the challenges associated with conducting a successful course. He believes classes not only should be fun and intellectually intense but also keep students engaged.
“I turned to technology as a way to overcome the fact that in a large class — ECON 101 typically draws more than 250 students in the fall semesters — I can’t get to know students like I do in a 30- or 40-person course,” he said.
Last fall, Fullenkamp split the introductory economics class (ECON 101) in two. The first section was taught in a lecture format with some discussion and application. The second section implemented the flipped classroom approach, in which students were required to watch video lectures outside of class and apply economic theories and models to real-world events in class. To support the latter, he used a variety of technology, including a screen-capture program to create the videos, an automated note-taking program, and educational web-based platforms such as Sakai and Piazza.
“I think Professor Fullenkamp’s use of technology forced more students to engage in the class — if they did not watch videos, they’d struggle in class participation, which is all part of the overall grade,” said freshman William Walker, who took the Economic Principles course in fall 2014. “He also used his classic humor to engage the class — his charisma and jokes never ceased to make class entertaining.”
Freshman Michelle Chen admitted she was initially hesitant about the unconventional approach. “When I signed up for the class, I envisioned a professor lecturing from a podium or going through PowerPoint slides, not watching videos on my own,” she said.
According to Chen, students in the flipped classroom had a heavier workload than those in the other section, but she believes it came with a significant payoff.
“I liked that we actually had the time in class to discuss current events and relate them to what we were learning. Being able to practice applying concepts to actual real-word examples gave me a much deeper understanding of the content from the course that I hope to carry out far into the future,” Chen said.
In fall 2015, Fullenkamp plans to repeat the experiment in order to collect data and analyze the merits of both approaches.
“I think we're still in the early days of figuring out how best to use technology to enhance teaching and learning,” he said. “The more I experiment with it, the more I'm convinced that there is plenty of room to incorporate technology into teaching in different ways and to different degrees.”
In the meantime, the finance-savvy professor is planning to be responsible with his cash prize: “Like any good economist, I will save most of any windfall after I carefully calculate its impact on my permanent income.”
Listen to Professor Fullenkamp discuss personal investment on The Great Courses.
Read about the other winners on Duke Today.