I believe that teaching is both an art and a science that needs to be constantly mastered and practiced not only because Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is a rapidly changing field but also because of the ever-varying expectations of the students. Most contemporary students see an undergraduate degree in engineering as not an end but a means to an end. Therefore, it is important to recognize that not all students are equally motivated and some are in the class to learn while others are focused only on somehow passing the exam so that they can take a follow up class or apply for a specific job. However, I see facilitating student learning as the primary role of a teacher and preparing them for exams as secondary. Graduates in CSE are expected to get their hands dirty, work in a team, effectively communicate, and be able to self-learn from the first day of their job. Therefore, my role as a facilitator goes beyond imparting subject knowledge and also includes helping students to master hands on skills (e.g., design, development, and debugging), soft skills, and inspiring them to take charge of their professional and personal development. If the lectures, assignments, labs, projects, quizzes, and exams are engaging, suitably challenging, and match the interests of each student, I believe we can facilitate the learning in both groups of students. By taking efforts to understand the backgrounds of my students, their interests, and constantly listen to their verbal and nonverbal feedback such customizations are both possible and effective. Also following the universities’ role of credentialing /certifying students, I better prepare my students for exams by sharing tips on basic exam skills on top of the subject material that I have helped them master. Furthermore, I have a moral responsibility to help develop engineers with inquiring minds that are ethical, socially responsible, and politically aware of the consequences of their actions, as an engineer has a direct impact on thousands of lives. My teaching style is a combination of the following three key principles, which I believe are essential for a successful experience to both the students and teacher.
Design syllabus, lesson plans, and assignments to suite the subject matter and course
With ever-increasing pool of fundamental knowledge, I am forced to cover as much as topics within a course. However, while designing the syllabus and daily lesson plans, I trade off quantity vs. quality according to what is relevant in the industry and academia at a given point in time and in the foreseeable future, as well as based on my students’ ability to grasp the concepts and their expectations. I also integrate topics, examples, and projects from other related fields as interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming increasingly necessary in CSE. Though I have conducted both small and large undergraduate and graduate classes, I continue to design each class based on what I want my students to be able to do at the end of the semester. For example, the focus of a large lower-level undergraduate class has been on developing basic skills, relating learning to real life, and inspiring students to take high-level classes. The focus of a small high-level class has been on strong fundamentals, analytical skills, and soft skills. Therefore, large undergraduate courses are designed mostly for lecture-based classes while higher-level undergraduate and graduate courses are designed to be more interactive (e.g., include student presentations and discussions). While I was teaching at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, we were expected to pass out sign up sheets as a menace of improving the student attendance. As a student, I knew it was useless, as it is cannot make a class less boring and students were signing for others. Therefore, as a teacher, I instead rewarded students for their in-class participation (e.g., for asking questions and contributing to discussions in small classes) by allocating few points from their final grade. Moreover, for both small and large classes, I told (on the first day) that one or two questions in the final exam would be based on in-class discussions, particularly based on the questions raised by students that are not in the textbook or my slides. My approach seems to be successful, as my classes consistently had higher attendance and better overall grades. While CSE practitioners develop and heavily use technologies such as Web 2.0 (e.g., blogs, wikis, and discussion groups), they have not gained much attention in the classroom. I address this by integrating new technologies when and where they apply, as students need to be familiar with those tools when they step into the industry. Moreover, as I learned in my teaching related classes and workshops, these technologies also help reduce the interaction and collaboration barriers in lecture-based classes. Most of my classes include a writing component as both low stake and high stake writing across the curriculum is essential for the development of a competent graduate. To the extent allowed by the university policy, multiple modes of delivery and assessments (e.g., demos, MCQs, open-ended questions, and group projects) are used to facilitate the diversity among students.
Tell a story about the class
As I learned during my GRAD 792 – Seminar on College Teaching class, a clear and concise story about the class is essential to motivate and stimulate the students. This story should clearly explain what will be covered in the class, what students will be able to do at the end, why it is important, how it will fit with other classes and their careers, what are my expectations for students, what are acceptable behaviors, motivation and objectives behind assignments, and how the assignments will be graded. While the main story is told on the first day of a class, I continue to revisit different parts of the story throughout the semester to reiterate important points.
Engage the students
Lectures, labs, assignments, and group projects need to match the interests and abilities of the students to keep them engaged in and out of the classroom. For example, in most cases, I allow students to come up with project ideas (under a given set of guidelines) or allow them to pick from multiple options based on their interests. Moreover, these assignments are based on current topics and derive from my research work whenever appropriate. On the fly assessments such as impromptu questions, demonstrations, and quizzes have been useful in increasing the students’ level of concern. Such assessments and verbal and nonverbal feedback from students have also helped me to phase the classes better, as it is not useful to move to a new topic while the current topic is not fully understood. I have been taking into account the specific backgrounds of students (to the extent that does not give them an undue advantage) while assigning assignments and projects, and also while maintaining a friendly but professional relationship as those small things ultimately determine students’ overall reaction towards the class and learning in general.
Throughout this process, I not only see myself as a teacher but also as a researcher, writer, and actor. Deeper understanding of the fundamentals that I gain as a researcher, help me present the concepts better and using alternative ways. I need to be a good writer to develop clear and concise study guides and handouts. I also need to be an effective actor to exemplify/visualize the concepts that I teach and stores that I tell while helping students better understand and remember important concepts. While currently I am not competent in all these, at least knowing that I need to play all these roles is motivating me to continue to improve those skills. The success of a teacher is ultimately determined by the success of his/her students, and during the last eight years as a teacher, I have been lucky to see my students also becoming PhD candidates and here some of them saying “you made a positive difference in our lives”.