The Innovative Teaching Award celebrates an exceptional faculty member who displays a dedication to student engagement and learning by integrating one or more innovative teaching practices into one of their academic courses. This award aims to encourage the ongoing enhancement of teaching by recognizing faculty members who explore creative teaching methods and pedagogies that can contribute to the culture of innovative teaching and learning at Suffolk University. The award is presented during the annual Symposium on Innovation in Teaching & Learning. Previous award recipients are listed below. 

We welcome nominations and applications that reflect a broad understanding of innovative teaching. Examples of innovative practices might include the following: 

• Developing a novel approach to teaching a concept or skill, 
• Revising a course to intentionally integrate a more diverse set of perspectives, 
• Collaborating within or across departments, or with partners outside of Suffolk, to develop a unique learning opportunity for students, 
• Adopting new strategies to cultivate a classroom climate in which all students experience a sense of belonging or inclusion, 
• Forming partnerships with students to engage them as co-creators of their learning experiences, 
• Implementing new practices to better understand and make progress toward closing equity gaps in students’ learning experiences or outcomes, 
• Integrating technology to support new opportunities for learning, to provide new forums for students to connect with each other or with broader networks, or to expand access to learning. 

All full-time and part-time faculty who are teaching for-credit courses are eligible for this award.  

Selection Criteria

The award winner will be selected by a committee comprised of faculty representatives from all three schools. The selection criteria for the award are described below: 

• Innovative nature of the teaching practice – The extent to which the teaching practice is innovative within the candidate’s discipline or higher education 
• Alignment with teaching philosophy and course objectives – The extent to which the innovative teaching practice aligns with the candidate’s teaching philosophy, as well as the course learning goals or objectives 
• Impact on learning – The extent to which the innovative teaching practice demonstrates a significant and positive impact on student learning outcomes 
• Transferability – The extent to which the innovative teaching practice demonstrates potential for adoption and adaptation by other faculty members within and across disciplines and schools 

Timeline

Nomination Process

Students, faculty, and staff are welcome to nominate faculty members by completing the nomination form that asks for the faculty member’s name, the course involved, and a brief explanation of how their teaching is innovative. Faculty are also welcome to self-nominate during this process. 

This form is available to the Suffolk community from March 25, 2024, to April 5, 2024. The CTSE will contact faculty members who have been nominated and invite them to apply for the award. 

Application Process and Materials

Nominated faculty members will be asked to apply for the award by putting together an application packet consisting of the following documents: 

1. A cover page with a title (10-15 words) of your innovative teaching practice and a summary (max 150 words) of the practice and its impact on learning at Suffolk
2. A teaching philosophy statement (2 pages max) – Your teaching philosophy statement should articulate your most important goals and values as an educator and describe how you enact these goals and values in your teaching. The following reflective questions from Schonell et al. (2016) can be a useful starting point for drafting your statement: 
   • Why is being an educator important to you? 
   • What do you believe about teaching? 
   • What do you believe about learning? 
   • How do these beliefs play out in practice? 
3. A description of course context (1 page max) including the course number and title, the course description, and the course learning goals or objectives from the syllabus 4. 
4. A description of the teaching practice (2 pages max) that responds to the following questions:  
   • What did you hope to achieve by implementing this practice? How did this align with your teaching philosophy and the course learning goals? 
   • How was the practice implemented? Consider including an assignment description or a portion of the course syllabus that illustrates this.   
5. Evidence of student learning – Artifacts and reflection 
   • Provide 3-5 artifacts that show how your teaching practice positively impacted student learning. This evidence can include examples of student work, student reflections on their learning, feedback from students collected systematically, pre/post assessments or surveys. 
   • A reflective narrative (1 page max) should accompany your artifacts and address the following question: Based on the artifacts and your own reflections, observations, and insights, how do you know that this practice contributed to improved student learning? 
6. A description of the innovative nature of the practice (1 page max) – An explanation of how and why this is an innovative practice in your discipline, in the field, or in higher education
7. A concluding statement (1 page max) – A narrative of lessons learned that can be shared with other faculty within and across disciplines  

These materials should be compiled into a single PDF and submitted to the CTSE through this form by April 28, 2024.

If you are part of a team that has been nominated for the Innovative Teaching Award, the application process remains the same with the following modifications: 

• Each member of the nominated team should include their individual teaching philosophy statement in the application packet.  
• The complete application packet should be prepared and submitted as a team. 
• Letters of support should be submitted for the team, not individual members. 

In addition to the packet, applicants should provide two letters of support from their Suffolk peers who speak directly of how this practice is innovative and positively impacts student learning. These letters should be no longer than one page in length. Letters should be submitted directly to the CTSE by the authors through the Peer Support Letter submission form by April 28, 2024. 

Applicants are encouraged to contact the CTSE with any questions. The deadline for the submission of all application materials is Sunday, April 28, 2024.  

Post-Award Community Commitments

The award winner is expected to contribute to the culture of innovation across the campus community in the following ways: 

• Serving on the next year’s award selection committee 
• Contributing to CTSE programming for the next academic year (some examples include leading a teaching and learning exchange, designing and facilitating a university-wide workshop, or developing an online resource.) 

Innovative Teaching Award Recipients 

Mary Beth Medvide, Psychology (2024 recipient)

Mary Beth Medvide incorporated an action research project for second-year mental health counseling (MHC) students into her Counseling Diverse Populations course, giving students the opportunity to research DEI initiatives in higher education and provide recommendations for inclusive teaching practices that could be implemented at Suffolk. The students combined their own expertise and lived experiences with best practice recommendations to create a presentation focused on helping students prepare for the first day of class, developing a more inclusive syllabus, and improving the course evaluation experience to more directly address aspects of DEI.  This approach helped her students position their learning as something with real-world applications and pragmatic value.

Jessica Gillooly, Sociology & Criminal Justice (2023 recipient)

Jessica Gillooly designed experiential learning activities to help students in her Introduction to Criminal Justice course understand how historical forces of institutionalized racism influence the criminal justice system. Her students engage in an in-class plea bargaining simulation, followed by a trip to observe courtroom proceedings at Boston Municipal Court with Suffolk Law Professor Christina Miller. These activities, and after-the-fact reflections, help her students understand firsthand how the criminal justice system takes a toll on those caught up in it.

Elena Llaudet, Political Science & Legal Studies (2022 recipient)

Elena Llaudet redesigned Data Analysis and Politics, a statistics-based course, with a focus on experiential learning and building a learning community. She organized class meetings around compelling political questions, which students answered by analyzing real-world datasets. Students completed weekly problem sets with partners who were intentionally assigned based on Llaudet’s original research on how to pair students to maximize learning. Llaudet also hosted an online “course alumni network” and created short videos of past students offering advice about how to succeed in the course, as well as insights about the real-world marketability of data analysis skills.

Robert Smith, Marketing (2021 recipient)

Robert Smith found students in his technical, quantitative courses experienced a variety of obstacles that undermined their learning, including low self-efficacy, poor retention of prerequisite knowledge, and low engagement. Smith developed a set of strategies to help students overcome those challenges, such as inviting alumni speakers whose stories challenged students’ low self-efficacy and designing online bootcamps to “bridge the gaps” in their knowledge. He also customized lecture examples and practice problems to match his students’ interests and engaged them in real-world, client-sponsored projects. 

Sharmila Murthy, Law (2020 recipient) 

Sharmila Murthy developed new strategies for teaching property law, a required course packed with complicated concepts and archaic terminology. To bring this material to life, she offered memorable analogies to everyday situations, associations with popular culture references, and mnemonic devices. She also designed experiential learning activities to deepen her students’ understanding and offer them a taste of what property lawyers do in practice, such as researching the history of a piece of real estate using the online Suffolk County Registry of Deeds.   

William Johnson, Finance (2019 recipient) 

William Johnson moved away from the traditional method of teaching quantitative skills in finance courses, involving problem sets, quizzes, and exams. Instead, Johnson’s approach centered on experiential learning and authentic assessment, with the goal of deepening student learning and igniting their interest in the material. Using real money from the Wilcox Student Investment Fund, Johnson’s students worked collaboratively to run a portfolio of stocks, with students assigned to specific roles that reflected the operations of an active mutual fund.

Walter Johnson, Physics (2018 recipient) 

Walter Johnson incorporated two collaborative projects into his teaching practice. The Augmented and Virtual Reality Project, which involved collaboration with students and faculty in numerous departments, created new opportunities to illustrate difficult concepts such as 3-D molecules, building design, and x-ray scattering. Johnson also engaged in a research collaboration with the Radiation Physics Department at Mass General Hospital. Through the Physics and MGH Collaboration in Neutron Scattering Project, students engaged in laboratory experiments using linear accelerator equipment.  

Celeste Peterson, Biology (2017 recipient)  

Celeste Peterson created a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that allowed students to carry out their own genetic screening in a laboratory environment. In addition to learning course concepts and gaining experience with molecular biology techniques, her students also discovered novel genes. This approach created an opportunity for students to contribute to original findings in the field and led to independent research studies for students, including publication in scientific journals.