How can professors more effectively facilitate learning? My research on teaching and learning focuses on how to engage students in order to improve student success.
My research on online student success shows that building rapport–making real human connections–with students in online classes significantly improves retention. A short “Ed Talk” I gave at UA Little Rock provides an overview of the research. I am available for on-campus workshops to train faculty in rapport-building strategies to improve online retention.
My book on this topic, Connecting in the Online Classroom: Teachers, Students, and Building Rapport in Online Learning, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2021.
Publications:
- “Learning through Collaborative Data Projects: Engaging Students and Building Rapport.” With Matthew Pietryka, Education Sciences, Volume 12, Number 12, 2022. See also this post about the research at the Active Learning in Political Science Blog and this interview with Bonni Stachowiak from the Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast.
- “Instructor Presence and Student Satisfaction Across Modalities: Survey Data on Students Preferences in Online and On-campus Courses.” With Heidi Harris, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Volume 22, Number 3, 2021.
- “Revisioning the International Studies Classroom: Online Teaching.” In Oxford Handbook of International Studies Pedagogy, Mark Boyer, David Hornsby and Heather Smith, eds. Oxford University Press, 2021.
- “Teaching Online During a Crisis: What Matters Most for Students.” In Teaching International Relations During Disruptive Times, Andrew Szarejko, ed. Palgrave, 2021.
- “Making Human Connections in Online Teaching.” PS: Political Science and Politics, Volume 54, Issue 1, 2021.
- “Teaching through Community-based Research: Undergraduate and Graduate Collaboration on the Little Rock Congregations Study.” With Warigia Bowman. Journal of Political Science Education, Volume 17, Issue 2, Pages 234-252, 2021.
- “How Teaching with Rapport Can Improve Online Student Success and Retention: Data from Two Empirical Studies.” With Heidi Harris. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, Volume 21, Issue 4, 2021.
- “Online Teaching, Student Success, and Retention in Political Science Courses.” With Kerstin Hamann, Philip H. Pollock, and Bruce M. Wilson. European Political Science. Published online July 31, 2020.
- “What Drives Student Success? Assessing the Combined Effect of Transfer Students and Online Courses.” With Kerstin Hamann, Philip H. Pollock, and Bruce M. Wilson. Teaching in Higher Education, published online November 4, 2019. A post on this article for the Teaching in Higher Education blog is available here.
- “Age, Gender, and Student Success: Mixing Face-to-Face and Online Courses in Political Science” With Kerstin Hamann, Philip H. Pollock, and Bruce M. Wilson. Journal of Political Science Education, Published online March 20, 2019.
- “Building Rapport to Improve Retention and Success in Online Classes.” Journal of Political Science Education, 2016. In 2017, I was interviewed by the American Political Science Association about this research. In this clip, I talk about the main findings. In this clip, I talk about why this research is so important for the future of online education.
- “Satire and Efficacy in the Political Science Classroom.” PS: Political Science and Politics, Volume 47, Number 4, 2014. See also the Satirical Resource Repository associated with this project.
- “Teaching International Relations.” In The Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Political Science and International Relations, John Ishiyama, Eszter Simon, and William Miller, eds. Edward Elgar, 2015.
- “Colleague Crowdsourcing: A Method for Fostering National Student Engagement and Large-N Data Collection.” With Amber Boydstun, Jessica Feezell, Timothy Jurka, and Matt Peitryka. PS: Political Science and Politics, Volume 47, Number 4, 2014.
- “Running Simulations without Ruining Your Life: Simple Ways to Incorporate Active Learning into Your Teaching.” Journal of Political Science Education, Volume 7, Issue 4, 2011.
- “Simple Simulations: How to Incorporate Active Learning into Teaching.” Political Methodology: a Working Paper Series of the Committee on Concepts and Methods, published online, December 2009.
Works in Progress:
- “Taking Community-Based Research Online: Benefits and Drawbacks for Researchers and Students.” Under review for the The Palgrave Handbook of Teaching and Research in Political Science, Charity Butcher, et al, eds.
- “A Multi-method Approach to the Future of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.” Recently invited to revise and resubmit to an academic journal.