Failure is part of the learning journey. That’s just one of the lessons Rachel Gramann teachers her students.
“I find a lot of my students are discouraged when they don’t immediately know how to do something,” the professor says. “My students tend to be older, they often have kids who are in college, and it’s discouraging for them when they don’t get it right immediately. One of the things I emphasize is that failures are necessary because analyzing what went wrong, thinking of new ways of looking at the problem and testing new solutions is how we learn.”
Emphasizing the learning opportunities of failure is just one of the ways Rachel encourages her non-traditional students.
“I find it very rewarding to work with the tough students and, at the end of term, they are all so happy after facing down their own doubts and fears,” she said in a recent online interview. “I hear, ‘I didn’t think I would make it’ a lot. Seeing students prove themselves to themselves is why I do this.”
One secret to her success is the constant search for learning-rich interactive experiences for her students.
“There is a web site I use that is like a video game where students fend off a cyber-attack,” she explained. “The students love it and they learn so much beyond what they would just writing another paper.”
The search for resources is not a pursuit of novelty. It’s a mindset that defines her work ethic and desire to connect students with learning.
“If I see that something isn’t working, I am always motivated to put it right” Rachel said. “Trying new methods, looking at another tool is part of my continuous improvement goal.”
Rachel turned to teaching to achieve a better work-life balance after spending 16 years in industry as a programmer, industrial engineer and project manager. After teaching for several years as an adjunct instructor, she is now a full-time faculty member at Eastern Gateway Community College. However, she remains active in the field and continues to teach online courses at other institutions.
“In online education instructors really have to be involved with different schools in order to encounter different skills for building course and curriculum models,” she explained. “I’m always gleaning new methods and tools that I can apply to all of my courses to benefit all of my students. Every bit of engagement we can encourage through new tools is so important.”
The need to work for multiple institutions is one reason why Rachel and Professor Services at The Babb Group have had a long on-going relationship.
“Just this spring I had my CV re-done and updated,” she said. “They have also helped me with job leads and their applications service. Applying for jobs, even it is one course, is a time-consuming process and it’s frustrating when application sites want exactly the same information all time. So, it’s better for me to let them take care of it while I focus on my teaching and being available to my students.”
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