Submission Type
Event
Abstract
GSWS 422 “History of Sexuality” has been offered for four years in the online summer program at the University of Pennsylvania. The instructor leads advanced undergraduate and graduate students through a highly interactive seminar class in which they learn how to analyze critically works in the history of sexuality, exploring sexual identities, roles and norms from Ancient Greece and Rome, to the United States in the 21st century. Students are required to demonstrate their critical engagement and understanding of central debates and themes, methodological challenges, and issues of change versus continuity. One of the instructor’s goals in teaching the class to ensure a high level of student engagement across all components of the course, from real-time class discussions in the Adobe Connect classroom to asynchronous components such as threaded discussions, reflective blog posts with peer comments, and comments in the class chatterbox. The class instructor will share lessons learned from the experiences with these various assignments, with a special focus on how combining synchronous and asynchronous assignments created a vibrant learning atmosphere in which students engaged in critical discussion, debate, and analysis, learning from each other as well as from the instructor.
Location
Thomas 110
Start Date
5-20-2013 10:30 AM
End Date
5-20-2013 11:45 AM
Included in
Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, History Commons
Fostering Student Engagement in an Upper-Level, Online Seminar on the History of Sexuality: Lessons Learned about Pedagogy and Course Design to Deepen Students’ Learning
Thomas 110
GSWS 422 “History of Sexuality” has been offered for four years in the online summer program at the University of Pennsylvania. The instructor leads advanced undergraduate and graduate students through a highly interactive seminar class in which they learn how to analyze critically works in the history of sexuality, exploring sexual identities, roles and norms from Ancient Greece and Rome, to the United States in the 21st century. Students are required to demonstrate their critical engagement and understanding of central debates and themes, methodological challenges, and issues of change versus continuity. One of the instructor’s goals in teaching the class to ensure a high level of student engagement across all components of the course, from real-time class discussions in the Adobe Connect classroom to asynchronous components such as threaded discussions, reflective blog posts with peer comments, and comments in the class chatterbox. The class instructor will share lessons learned from the experiences with these various assignments, with a special focus on how combining synchronous and asynchronous assignments created a vibrant learning atmosphere in which students engaged in critical discussion, debate, and analysis, learning from each other as well as from the instructor.
Comments
Biography: Kristine Rabberman has been at Penn for 22 years, first as a doctoral student, and then as an academic advisor and later as a program director for the Master of Liberal Arts Program, finally working as Director of Programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences in LPS until May 2012.Kris has a Ph.D. in Medieval History and teaches graduate courses, including History of Sexuality and Academic Writing & Research Design, both for the MLA Program. She is the recipient of LPS’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Affiliated Faculty, and she has been teaching in the online program for seven years. Kris currently serves as the Director for Academic Affairs in PLE (the Division of Professional & Liberal Education) in SAS. Kris identifies and develops initiatives in liberal and professional studies that best advance the mission and strategic plan of the School of Arts and Sciences. Kris’s responsibilities include ensuring consistency and academic excellence in courses, faculty, programs and students across PLE. She also develops and implements procedures and best practices in academic governance, and in faculty and departmental relations. Kris consults on academic program reviews and implementation of ongoing assessment mechanisms across PLE programs. Her position is dedicated to building opportunities for sharing academic resources among PLE programs and marshaling SAS and Penn resources to meet those needs.