Prof. Adam Steinberg

Prof. Brian Gunter

Two professors from the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering have been selected to join the third cohort of the Provost Teaching and Learning Fellows (PTLF) program, a two-year development program dedicated to strengthening evidence-based teaching and learning at Georgia Tech.

Professor Brian Gunter and Professor Adam Steinberg joined the 2020-2022 cohort which had its first meeting September 15.

The PTLF program works with the Center for Teaching and Learning to provide an embedded system of ongoing instructional support and special initiatives. Seventeen faculty from multiple disciplines were selected by their deans to partner with professionals in CTL for the current cohort.

PTL Fellows meet regularly throughout the academic year to engage in collegial discussion of topics related to teaching and learning at Georgia Tech.Together with their College cohorts, they develop and pursue initiatives related to teaching and learning in their specific College. These initiatives are informed by discussions with key leaders in their college, and are intended to both raise the profile of teaching, and positively impact the overall learning environment.

Within this broad framework, Gunter and Steinberg have been assigned to pursue different areas of inquiry. Gunter will collaborate with other GT faculty the promotion of faculty pedagogical success in fully online courses.

“There was already a trend towards more fully online course prior to the COVID-19 pandemic," Gunter said. "So we want to explore ways that the faculty here at Tech can maintain the quality and assessment of these online courses, while at the same time reaching a larger number of students.”

Steinberg will work with another group exploring best practices for blended face-to-face and online teaching.

“The past year has clearly demonstrated the need for different course delivery modalities," Steinberg observed. "While there have been challenges, I think we also have seen some potential enhancements that can arise from combining online and in-person learning elements in a course. Our group of PTL fellows aims to make blended learning something that both instructors and student want to do – not have to do – in order to create the best possible learning experience.”

Joining Steinberg and Gunter in this two-year journey will be several of their colleagues from different schools and disciplines, including: Pardis Pishdad-Bozorgi (Building Construction), Charles Rudolph (Architecture),
Satish Kumar (Mechanical Engineering),  Linda Wills (Electrical and Computer Engineering), and.
Ying Zhang (Electrical and Computer Engineering). Prof. Julian Rimoli is a previous PTLF.