Dr. Eric NelsonCollege of Humanities and Public AffairsHistory |
I. Philosophy of Teaching
I judge my success as a teacher by the impact that my course continues to have on my students after our last meeting. I leverage my student’s natural interest in the past to develop skills that will serve them well in the future. To do this I challenge students through a variety of in-class and on-line activities to engage with and think critically about the past in order to develop transferable skills that will help them become leaders in their communities.
History is an interpretive field where students must seek to understand events through the eyes of historical actors who often have very different outlooks and values than their own. History also challenges students to reason with incomplete evidence and engage with often contradictory accounts of the same event. By creating opportunities for students to examine complex issues in the past, I seek to develop students able to engage with and solve similar problems in the present.
I am mindful that students learn in a variety of ways and that my success is reliant on my ability to create multiple pathways of engagement for my students. Recent technological advances have allowed me to do more than ever before to challenge students of varied talents and abilities. Thus adaptive learning has become a central component of my broader teaching philosophy.
II. Examples of Courses/Topics
General Education
- World History to 1500 AD
- Honors World History to 1500 AD
- World History 1500 to present
Upper Division Undergraduate/Graduate
- The European Reformation
- The French Revolution
- Explaining the European Witch Hunts
- Primary Source Graduate Proseminar: Travel Accounts in World History
- World History Graduate Proseminar
- Spaces, Places and Landscapes
- History and Memory
III. Future Projects
I am currently developing a model blended general education course that more than doubles credit hour production while at the same time improving learning outcomes.
In the future I plan to use new adaptive learning technologies to construct an on-line general education survey course that can match the learning outcomes in my current live class and blended courses.
IV. Topics related to teaching and of interest to the University Community, for which you are available for presentations and/or consultations (e.g., presentation tools, special topics, technology, public affairs).
I am a leader in the Course Transformation movement on campus and recently won a Master On-line Course award. So I am available for consultation on innovative uses of technology.
I like to think in terms of solutions to specific challenges. I would be willing to consult on the following categories:
- improving student preparation for class
- real time student feedback techniques
- hybrid on-line/live class discussions
- autonomy within structure assessment strategies
- adaptive learning techniques