Harnessing the Expertise of Great Business Teachers

“We knew we couldn’t have faculty simply record a lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes in Zoom and expect any student to stay tuned in,” says Anne Massey, dean of the Isenberg School of Management, recalling the realization in March of 2020 that all classes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were about to go remote. “We needed to solve the immediate problem of upskilling all our faculty to make sure they could effectively and efficiently teach their students in their current classes remotely, using synchronous and asynchronous tools.”

Her solution was the Isenberg Teaching Fellows program, which recruited five exemplary instructors to share best practices with the rest of the school's faculty. The program was up and running within a week of the start of remote learning.

Four years later, the program’s value is clear—the first class of fellows made sure that classes taught remotely during the pandemic were engaging and effective, but once the emergency passed, successive fellows have continued to inform and support other faculty members, experimenting with new technological tools and sharing best practices broadly with all instructors. The fellows have helped integrate a new learning management system, developed and tested a new Technology Sandbox, and helped the school’s faculty make the best use of a new video studio, along with helping onboard new instructors and supporting their peers with day-to-day teaching and learning best practices.

Beyond the Pandemic

“We didn’t know what they were going to do,” Massey says, recalling the fast and furious effort to identify the first class of fellows. “We didn’t have time. We knew we would make mistakes, but that we were going to learn—things that work, we would keep emphasizing, things that don’t work, we would throw out and try something else. While we always need to be agile, the pandemic really highlighted that.”

But the program’s goal from the start was never short-term. Massey—whose academic research topics include computer-mediated teams, IT adoption and implementation, and virtual work—knew immediately that the school’s investment in technology-infused teaching and learning would have important lasting benefits.

“We were going to be better for it in the long run,” she says. “All our faculty were going to be better users of teaching and learning technology. All our classes were going to be of a higher quality. And our students were going to have a much better learning experience.

“We couldn’t solve the problem of the pandemic, but we could be better coming out of it.”

Instruction for Instructors

The first five Isenberg Teaching Fellows were chosen because of their deep understanding of the challenges of online instruction, gained from years of experience teaching in the school’s highly ranked, twenty-year-old Online MBA program. During the first weeks and months of online learning in 2020, the new fellows quickly went to work with assigned cohorts of faculty members, leading lunch-and-learn seminars, holding individual mentoring sessions, and building a web page to host all the videos and written content they produced. They also created an open discussion board, where faculty and PhD students could discuss teaching issues with peers. Of course, all this work was done online.

Melissa Baker, now chair of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Department and Jaime ’76 and Cindy Pereira Faculty Fellow, was part of the original group of fellows—she had been teaching human resources management classes to hybrid and online MBA students since 2017 and had developed strategies that she was anxious to share with less-experienced instructors. One example of a tool she had found very useful with remote synchronous classes was the online poll: “I can instantly see that some percentage of the class thinks that X is the most important thing, and we can dig into why they made that choice,” she says. “It allows for deeper engagement, critical thinking, and learning from diverse perspectives.”

Massey says that techniques like Baker’s that allow students to interact in a virtual environment were vital to creating engaging courses. She adds that teaching instructors to use short, recorded modules for asynchronous courses rather than posting long lecture videos also made a huge difference in the effectiveness of the classes that were offered. Plus, teaching fellows encouraged faculty to take time during virtual classes and meetings to build relationships with students rather than simply logging on and jumping right into a lecture.

“The fellows really took ownership,” Massey says. “They collaborated, they identified and shared best practices.”

Kathy Zilch, a lecturer in Isenberg’s Operations and Information Management Department, attributes the success of her remote courses during the pandemic to the support, mentoring, and guidance she received from that first class of fellows. “I—and consequently my students—benefited from the robust resources that the inaugural Teaching Fellows cohorts provided to enhance Covid-era teaching.”

’21-’22 Isenberg Teaching Fellows (left to right): Kerri Bohonowicz, accounting; Carey Baldwin, operations and information management; Matt Glennon, marketing; and Melissa Baker, hospitality and tourism management, with Isenberg Dean Anne Massey.

Students in a class held in the Technology Sandbox space as seen through an Oculus VR headset.

Experimentation and Agility

By the time the UMass campus fully reopened for the spring semester of 2021, the Isenberg Teaching Fellows program had become part of the fabric of faculty life. The fellows shifted their focus away from strictly remote learning to integrating technological tools into the school’s in-person classes. Each year, Isenberg rotates in new faculty members, with each serving a two-year term as fellows.

“Technology moves so fast,” Massey says. “I think the pandemic helped us become a little more adaptable. We are more agile in our use of technology, more accepting of changes in technology. We’re more willing to test technology and accept failure, and that’s really important for us, especially as a business school.”

Over the past year, one focus has been on introducing faculty members to the newly created Technology Sandbox—a space where instructors can experiment with new and emerging technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. With support from the fellows, faculty have integrated these technologies into coursework for sport management, hospitality and tourism management, and management courses.

Another focus has been implementing Canvas, the new learning management system adopted by the university. Kathy Zilch, who last year became a member of the Isenberg Teaching Fellows, says that the group created a Canvas course shell containing internal and external resources for instructors. “This is a fantastic resource for new and seasoned faculty alike,” she says. “It provides a centralized location with university quick links, syllabus requirements and tips, and available instructional technology.” The fellows also introduce resources and contact information during new faculty orientations, says Zilch. Plus, members of the group are conducting pedagogical studies with a goal of submitting research to journals focused on teaching and learning.

Susan Boyer, who now serves as the school’s director of instructional technologies, helped launch the Isenberg Teaching Fellows in 2020 as a member of the inaugural class. In her current role, Boyer (a winner of the College Outstanding Teaching Award for spring 2024) guides the Teaching Fellows, focusing their efforts on strategic technology initiatives. She also directs Isenberg’s new Office of Learning and Research Technology, which has been critical to the recent launch and ongoing administration of the Berthiaume Behavioral Research Lab, Technology Sandbox, and Video Production Studio.

The original intent of having some faculty members show their peers how to run effective online classes has blossomed into a much more comprehensive program that fosters collaboration, communication, mentoring, and support between and among faculty members.

“The program’s strength does not necessarily come from the Teaching Fellows as individuals, but as a collective, inquisitive, and passionate team in academia who are aspiring for continuous improvement and eager to share it,” Zilch says.

This content was paid for and created by the University of Massachusetts Amherst . The editorial staff at The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.