Breadth of Courses

I teach:

• Teach ten different courses in the FHS spanning 1st to 4th year with some graduate student enrollment. 

• Courses are required for the Bachelor of Arts program, while others are required by the Bachelor of Science, life-sciences program.

• Higher enrollment service courses that are taken by students across SFU. 

• Specialized seminar courses and laboratories.

Descriptions of individual courses can be found in the course portfolios section.

Teaching History

Since 2010, I have taught 50 courses with a diversity of course styles. I had a study leave in 2018, and then a one-year teaching break from Summer 2021 –Summer 2022 due to administrative leave and a course release to work on the teaching assessment first aid project. I have made notes of course innovations in the far right column; more details can be found on these in the course portfolios section.

Teaching Methods

My teaching methods have changed and evolved. I started with a knowledge transmission lecture approach that I realized quickly was not for me. I developed additional teaching skills in the Instructional Skills Workshop and at the Pacific Northwest Summer Institute on Teaching and Learning.  From this training, I aim to incorporate active learning in all of my courses to meet specific learning outcomes. I am now developing more course designs that rely exclusively on facilitation skills rather than content delivery. This has been an exciting change of approach, and I plan to explore it more deeply in all of my courses as my practice develops. I won't leave lecturing behind completely; it has its place but needs supplementation with other approaches. 

Lecture Courses

I am good at explaining things, and students remark that I can clarify complex topics. I teach several courses that incorporate a lot of lectures. These include HSCI 100 - Human Biology, HSCI 212 - Perspectives on Immunological and Infectious Diseases, HSCI 326 - Introduction to the Immune System and HSCI/MBB 427/727 - The Immune System in Health and Disease. 

I use slide decks in these courses to deliver content, and assessments are exam-focused. However, I always use additional assessments that allow for more creativity and exploration of a topic (E.g., classroom clinical trial, knowledge mobilization paper, disease busters project, classroom presentations). In all of these classes, I will add active learning components. This has included classroom response systems such as Iclicker or TopHat, case studies, discussion questions, in-class Canvas quizzes, and online live question tools such as Socrative. 

These courses have small tutorial sections (except HSCI/MBB 427). I guide the teaching assistants with weekly plans incorporating active approaches to reviewing classroom content. 

I record all of my lectures because it creates better access for student learning. Students report that they can go back and review content, make better notes, don't suffer anxiety with catching up from a missed class, and students who need lectures to be recorded as accommodation don't need to ask special permission. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I have observed that classroom attendance is low. I have surveyed students for reasons they do not attend class, the answers include learning preferences, avoiding long commutes, and work responsibilities. I would like more students to attend class, but students report wanting experiences that can't be duplicated online. My plan for enhancing the student experience is to regularly incorporate flipped classroom case studies that will require student in-person facilitated discussion. Students will read the case and relevant chapters in an associated textbook and then come to class to discuss the answers.  

Seminar Courses

I acquired facilitation skills during my training as an Instructional Skills Workshop Facilitator; I have come to understand the deep value of asking good questions. Although I employ facilitation skills in all courses, some courses require more intensive use of these skills. These courses include: HSCI 220 - Indigenous Experiences of Health in Canada, HSCI 477 - Seminar in Vaccine Immunology, HSCI 482 - Senior Seminar in Infectious Diseases, and to some extent HSCI 338 - Animal Virology. In these courses, students lead the discussion, ask questions, and develop ideas based on pre-class work. I use workshop techniques to structure discussions, such as small group discussions with a classroom debrief, small groups of students presenting different components of a paper or topic, brainstorming ideas or drawing a process, and then sharing those. 

Assessments in these courses focus on writing and presentations, often including a creative component. In Spring 2024, while teaching HSCI 482 - Senior Seminar in Infectious Diseases, I applied these skills to create an exemplary learning experience for my students.

Laboratory Courses

The laboratory courses in our faculty have a pre-defined curriculum and time constraints. There is limited space in these courses for experimental pedagogy. I infrequently teach two laboratory courses, HSCI 440 - Cell Pathophysiology Laboratory  and HSCI 441 - Virology Laboratory. 

Labs start with a short lecture for the context of the experiment and most of the instruction in these courses is during class while the hands-on work is happening. 

To ensure that students are prepared for the work of the day, I assign pre-class work in which students draw flow charts of the experimental process. In HSCI 440, I filmed and produced a series of ten demonstration videos (with colleague Mark Lechner) that students watch before class.   

These courses are assessed via lab reports and small quizzes. 

Honours/MPH Student Supervision

• Supervision of Honours Student – One student  2023

• Supervision of master’s in public health students – Seven students - 2014 – 2020

• External Examiner for master’s Thesis – One student - 2012

• Examiner for Honours degree research project – Three students - 2012- 2014

• Chair for Capstone Defenses, MPH Program – Four defenses

• Research assistants supervised on teaching inquiry projects - Eleven