The Office of Instruction announces four faculty recipients of the 2021 Creative Teaching Award: Leah Carmichael (International Affairs), Tina Carpenter (Accounting), Jennifer George (Human Development and Family Science) and William Hollingsworth (Computer Science).
The Creative Teaching Awards are presented annually on behalf of the Office of Instruction to faculty who have demonstrated exceptional creativity in using either an innovative technology or pedagogy that extends learning beyond the traditional classroom or for their creative course design or implementation of subject matter that improves student learning outcomes in their courses. New this year, creative teaching practices could have taken place during the 2019-20 academic year or in response to the pandemic, during the spring, summer or fall of 2020. The Office of Instruction received 31 nominations from 14 schools and colleges.
Leah Carmichael (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)
Leah Carmichael, a professor in international affairs, creatively reimagined her popular study abroad course “The International Politics of Food” by focusing on issues that drive participation in study abroad programs. Originally scheduled to take place in Verona, Italy, in summer 2020, the new online class was restructured to study how students’ personal food preferences tied in with national, religious, political and economic phenomena.
Tina Carpenter (Photo by Stephanie Moreno/UGA)
Tina Carpenter, associate professor in accounting, transitioned her “Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination” course online, including her award-winning fraud simulation. This transition provided collaborative learning opportunities that encouraged student engagement from afar. Combining data analytics, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, students worked in small groups to apply complex fraud detection techniques to a UGA-centric fictionalized case, allowing for hands-on learning experiences despite the hybrid teaching format.
Jennifer George (Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA)
Jennifer George, a senior lecturer in human and family development, took a new approach to her course “The Science of Studying Human Development and Family Science.” In this class, she brought archived data from the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library into her course. Students used qualitative data analyses to develop a holistic understanding of individuals and families over a period of several decades and incorporated their research into meaningful written
assignments.
William Hollingsworth (Photo by Peter Frey/UGA)
William Hollingsworth, senior lecturer in computer science, anticipating the challenges of teaching in a hybrid format, adapted his custom-designed online tutoring program, Grafstate, over the summer of 2020 for his classes. He expanded the functionality of this tool significantly and made it available to colleagues throughout his department. This enabled the use of this tool for a wide range of classes and supported effective teaching during the pandemic.
