School name: University of North Dakota

Type of school: 4-year public university

School locale: Grand Forks, ND, USA

Is your role mostly in-person, hybrid, online ? In-person and online asynchronous

For how many years have you taught psychology? 16 years (Yikes, I’ve been at this for a while!)

Classes you teach: Introductory Psychology, Cognitive Psychology (undergrad and grad), History and Systems of Psychology, and Interrogations and Confessions (grad)

Specialization: Experimental/Forensic

What size classes do you teach? Anywhere from 35 to 220 students

What is a book, article, research, or author/researcher that you would recommend that new teachers check out?  I highly recommend Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty by Elizabeth Barkley and Claire Major. I spent a lot of time with that book as a newer faculty member, and it informed a lot of my teaching choices. The book does an amazing job of laying the foundation for how closely connected student engagement and motivation are and includes many helpful techniques and strategies to use in the classroom (both online and in-person).

What do you know now about teaching that you wish you knew when you were starting? Things rarely, if ever, go perfectly every time you teach a course. Having self-compassion when things flop and being open to making improvements the next time around is so important! I also used to spend a lot more time trying to make things perfect in my courses and have learned to accept that sometimes “good enough” is good enough.

Briefly tell us about your favorite lecture topic or course to teach. I developed a Social Psychology of Taylor Swift course in Summer 2024 and taught it again this past summer. Students learned about topics like nostalgia, empathy, revenge, allyship, and sexism through the lens of Taylor Swift’s life and music. There were some really great journal articles and Speaking of Psychology podcast episodes that I used for most of the course content. I also assigned some popular media articles and had students listen to specific Taylor Swift songs that overlapped with the topics we covered. It was so much fun to develop the course, and students were so active and engaged with the course material and with each other!

Briefly describe a favorite assignment or in-class activity. In my History and Systems course, I have students do an introspection activity when we cover Wilhelm Wundt and his analytic introspection method. I bring in two different stimuli (e.g., chocolate, a balloon, a fuzzy pom-pom, etc.) and give students detailed instructions that are similar to what Wundt would have used with his trained introspectors. Students usually enjoy this activity, and it really underscores what early forms of data collection looked like, as well as the limitations of self-report methods.

What are three words that best describe your teaching style?  Inclusive, engaged, and innovative

What’s your workspace like? I try to make my office feel warm and cozy so it’s a place where I actually want to spend time. I have artwork from my kids, plants, a candle, and psychology-themed décor. I also have a big window that lets in a lot of natural light, which is much needed during the long, cold winters up here in the frozen tundra!

Tell us about a teaching “win” you’ve had and the context in which it happened. I had my History and Systems students help co-author an Open Educational Resource focused on the contributions of early eminent marginalized psychologists. They worked in groups to write the chapters and made the decision about whether they published their work in the final OER. The project was done in online asynchronous courses, so there was a bit more scaffolding on my end to make the project manageable. I was worried that only a few groups would want to publish their work, but a fair amount ended up deciding to. I’m proud of what students were able to contribute and find open pedagogy to be so rewarding. The OER is still being revised and added to, and my hope is that it will end up being something others can use. A shout out to fellow STP member Brittany Avila and her former students for also contributing to this project!

What are you currently reading for pleasure?  I’m currently reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s a historical fiction novel set in the 80s based on the first women in NASA’s Space Shuttle program. It’s a good mix of science, suspense, and romance. The book also accurately portrays the common barriers for women in STEM fields—especially during the 80s.

What tech tool could you not live without?  I use Perusall (a free social annotation platform) in most of my courses. It’s been a game changer in terms of adding another layer of accountability for students to actively engage with their assigned course materials, and in getting them to interact with me, my teaching assistants, and each other. I also love that I’m able to more easily see which parts of the course material students are either resonating with or struggling to understand. This has been especially helpful in my online asynchronous courses. I’m not usually a tech tool evangelist, but Perusall is worth checking out!