Excellence in Online Teaching
This award recognizes course instructors who exemplify a high standard of teaching in one or more of Waterloo's fully-online undergraduate- or graduate-level course(s). Course instructors may be teaching an online course that they authored or one that was authored by another faculty member.
2021 - Josh Neufeld
Josh Neufeld has been awarded this year’s online teaching award for Biology 240: Fundamentals of Microbiology.
He regularly responds to emails and discussion forum posts within the hour, even in a course with more than 800 students, reinforcing that students are his top priority during the term. In addition, many of his responses are audio recordings, which is an unexpected yet welcome way to personalize student-prof interactions in an online course.
Student quote:
“...Professor Josh Neufeld truly deserves this award for his excellent formatting of the online course, his care and compassion for his students, and his outstanding enthusiasm and passion for microbiology that makes his course greatly enjoyed”
He also uses a social media account specific to the course for student interactions, including direct messaging to communicate with individual students. An active social media presence allows students to remain engaged with him and course material long after the course has ended; he still occasionally shares content for courses he taught as far back as 2012.
To address this need in his online course, he abandoned video lecture recordings and worked with CEL staff members Micheline Lang, Nicholas Szyngiel, and Stephanie Boragina to reimagine the design of the Biol 240 course to look and feel like a "Harry Potter newspaper", with a complimentary blend of text, videos, and quiz questions. The videos were often those he had recorded in his office, lab, back yard, or forest, offering students an up-close interpretation and demonstration of course material ("bringing microbiology to life"), and generating a virtual in-class experience that in some ways exceeded what was even possible in a traditional classroom.
Student Feedback
"This course was the best run course I took this semester. The module system of delivering information was exceptional. It was engaging, informative, and clearly outlined what was important to know. Weekly quizzes instead of a few large assessments lend themselves very well to the online format and they helped me focus on each unit individually, ensuring I was getting the necessary information out of them without leaving me feeling overwhelmed. Dr. Neufeld's weekly videos also demonstrated his enthusiasm for the coursework, as well as enthusiasm to connect”
Endorsement from the Dean
Josh is consistently among the top when evaluated by undergraduate students that he teaches and is known to be an engaging and thoughtful instructor. He is quick to suggest that his strengths in the classroom are engagement, clarity, and enthusiasm.
Josh continues to invest impressive time and energy into every course that he teaches. I strongly support the nomination of Josh for the Online Teaching Award and feel this recognition would be an outstanding endorsement of his unwavering commitment to student engagement and success, both in and out of the classroom.
Kirsten M. Müller
Professor & Chair
Department of Microbiology
2020 - Fiona Dunbar
Fiona Dunbar is the recipient of Waterloo’s 2020 Online Instructor Award for Math 128 - Calculus 2 for the Sciences. She was nominated by her students for “putting in an incredible amount of effort in making sure her students are able to learn, participate and even enjoy her course. She has demonstrated unique characteristics and phenomenal positive attributes - which can sometimes be difficult to find in a Prof.”
Early on, Fiona recognized students’ need for flexibility during COVID, so she adopted alternative grading schemes, group assignments, multiple project options, participation marks and two stage exams. She incorporated multiple modes of delivery including text, video and fill-in-the-blank lecture notes to allow students to access the course content in a variety of ways, and help them learn in a way that best suited them.
Fiona listened to questions and concerns raised by students throughout the term and made improvements based on their feedback to better suit the unusual situations students were facing during the pandemic. She found that “the past year turned out to be an opportunity to make improvements to my online teaching methods, policies and assessments.”
Her students were appreciative of how available and supportive she was. “This professor is the best I've ever had, despite the course being online. She offers tons of help to all students and gives us every opportunity to succeed. She also continuously makes sure that the class understands the topics. It's very rare to see someone as driven to make students learn as she is.”
In recommending Fiona, Ian VanderBurgh, Director, Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing says “Fiona is passionate about education and passionate about the support that technology can bring to education. Both before and during the pandemic, she has been able to combine these to give outstanding learning experiences to her students through her online teaching.”
Fiona was “touched to learn that [her] students had nominated [her] for an online teaching award and that [her] approach to teaching had an impact on their lives during a time of great uncertainty.”
2019 - Colleen McMillan
Colleen McMillan is this year’s winner of Waterloo’s Online Instructor Award. She is the instructor for Social Work Practice In Mental Health – SWK 609R S2019, in the School of Social Work at Renison University College, where she has been teaching since 2012.
“I have been in the field for 23 years and learned far more than I ever expected.”
“I can say with assurance that it provided me with a sense of fulfilment and meaning in my online work which was unprecedented. The engagement of the professor alongside peers made the learning process much more rewarding!”
Colleen aims to teach every student as if they are the only student in the class. When how she accomplishes this she says “I do this by fostering a respectful relationship with each student; what they hope to achieve during the term, their unique interests and relationship to the content, and how they envision using the content in their career. I encourage students to go deeper into the content by questioning it, challenging their assumptions and forming a critical eye toward the material as a future professional”.
Dr McMillan models professional behaviour in her online course and establishes her presence with intention. She consistently addresses each student by name and checks in with them to show she cares. This could be as simple as asking “how are you?” or thanking a student for the time and effort in creating a discussion post. She consistently responds to students within a reasonable timeframe that she establishes in the course syllabus at the start of the term, and she makes daily use of announcements, letting students know that she is there with them on their learning journey.
According to Andrea Daly, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, School of Social Work, “Dr. McMillan’s online teaching approach exemplifies not only solid and effective pedagogy but the “concern, care, and compassion” characteristic of good social work practice. In this way, not only does Colleen teach the theoretical components of social work vis-à-vis rigorous and effective pedagogy, she models social work ‘best’ practices during her engagement with students.”
One nominator summed it up perfectly:
“It was truly an honour and privilege to be part of Dr. McMillan's class, and I believe she sets the bar high in terms of teaching!”
2018 - Natalie Hunter
Natalie says that teaching FINE 130 “challenged me to build and maintain strong teaching methods for inspiring students to produce their best work in an online course.“
More specifically, she strives to achieve three important practices in her online teaching:
- providing an online learning experience that meets or exceeds the on-campus learning experience
- promoting an inclusive online learning environment for students
- and attending to student needs through discussion, email, and generous feedback
She says that "watching (her) students progress and grow in their skills and ideas every term is truly fulfilling.”
2017 - Ian VanderBurgh
When asked Ian admits that “teaching in a professional program can be challenging, but rewarding.” He highlights three essential aspects of his online teaching that has made a difference for his students:
- applying a storytelling framework to each online course module or chapter
- providing multiple active learning opportunities for his students
- and communicating regularly, thoughtfully and respectfully
Students who nominated Ian for this award commented on his disciplinary knowledge and responsiveness but also on his ability to provide them with the right balance of intellectual challenge and instructional support.
2016 - Edwin Ng
Edwin Ng (Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Renison University College) was nominated for the Online Teaching Award based on his teaching of SWK 605R: Knowledge Mobilization and Evidence-Based Practice, SWK 601R: Health Policy, and SWK 609R: Social Work Practice in Mental Health, part of the online Master of Social Work program at Waterloo, which is unique in Canada.
When discussing what Ng finds the most rewarding about teaching online, he said, “I appreciate the students so much. I really do believe that if I know them better, as people, as professionals, and as students, I’m in a much better position to help them meet their learning needs.” Ng is always trying to empathize with his students and create a learning environment in which they can thrive and succeed. Students consistently praised his responsiveness and feedback.
Ng’s online teaching philosophy is simple but effective: be present online to show students that you care, set high and clear expectations to motivate students to succeed, and be authentic. This approach resonates with his students, who commented overwhelmingly that Ng shows a genuine interest in them and continuously puts in effort to make connections with his students and offer them support. One student commented that Edwin’s engagement was such that“We didn't even feel that we are not physically in a class.”