SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2021: Monroe – Jacob Bodway

Jacob Bodway, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of English at Monroe Community College, where he has taught for eight years.  He received his doctorate from SUNY Buffalo, with a specialization in 18th century British aesthetics and moral philosophy.  His article, “The Matter of the Moral Sense: Shaftesbury and the Rhetoric of Tact” was published in Modern Philology (University of Chicago Press).

I became interested in online teaching as a graduate student and was one of the first to pilot online teaching software for SUNY Buffalo’s English Department.  Since then, I have gone on to teach many synchronous and asynchronous online and hybrid courses, with an emphasis on bringing the face-to-face experience into the digital classroom.  At Monroe Community College, I have been awarded numerous grants and instructional development stipends to build a catalogue of video lectures on English Composition, which are available to be uploaded to any online course at the college. I have been helpful in developing the online courses for the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) at MCC and have presented my experience with ALP at numerous SUNY-wide conferences and Zoom meetings.  Currently, I am building an online master course for ALP, which can then be adopted by my colleagues in the English and Transitional Studies Departments.

In addition to my professional work, I am the President of the Western New York Mountain Bicycling Association (WNYMBA) and a member of the Chautauqua County Parks and Trails Commission.  I am currently seeking $300,000 in grant money to revitalize the Overland Trails in Chautauqua County.