This month we featured two faculty speakers, Sunaina Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies, Hooman Rashtian, Assistant Professor of Teaching in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Teaching, and Dr. Margaret Merrill,
Senior Instructional Design Consultant. After the presentations, we had time for questions and answers, and a discussion of the topics
raised by our presenters.
Sunaina Maira is Professor of Asian American Studies, and is
affiliated with the Middle East/South Asia Studies program and with the
Cultural Studies Graduate Group. Her research and teaching focus on
Asian American youth culture and the politics of cultural production as
well as political mobilization and transnational movements challenging
militarization, imperialism, and settler colonialism. Professor Maira presented on “Fostering Engagement in Remote Classes: Dealing with
Social Anxiety on Zoom,” sharing with us ways we can build
micro-communities and discuss how we are dealing with Zoom fatigue in
our remotely-taught classes.
Hooman Rashtian earned a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer
Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 2013 and joined
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Davis as an
Assistant Professor of Teaching in 2016. He is the recipient of the 2020
UC Davis College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award, the 2019
Academic Excellence in Education Award by the ASUCD, and Professor of
the Year Award by the student branch of IEEE at UC Davis in 2017, 2018
and 2019. Professor Rashtian discussed the advantages and
challenges of adopting a project-based learning approach in his
remotely-taught classes.
Margaret Merrill, PhD, is a Senior Instructional Design
Consultant with Academic Technology Services. She works with faculty on
the strategic and pedagogically effective ways of using technology in
their teaching. As her dissertation research focused on communities of
foreign language teachers, Dr. Merrill enjoys helping all teachers
recognize the resource that teachers are for each other. She spoke
on the ATS Roadshow, an opportunity for faculty in individual programs
and departments to benefit from targeted instructional design
presentations and consultations. Please email instructionaldesign@ucdavis.edu to request an ATS Roadshow for your department or team.
