SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2021: Farmingdale – Gozde Ustuner

Gozde Ustuner is a professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Farmingdale State College. She has completed her bachelor studies in Mechanical Engineering at New York University, received her Master’s Degree in 2017 in Mechanical Engineering and continues her education with PhD program in Material Science and Chemical Engineering at Stony Brook University. She has worked as Lead Design Engineer in industry and she has done various research projects and published papers where her works were funded by United States Department of Energy, General Motors Company and National Science Foundation. Her areas of expertise include Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computer-Aided Design (CAD), new product development and fuel cell technology. She is also an active member of WID committee, CSTEP and UHS programs at Farmingdale State College.

She has been teaching online/hybrid courses since 2018. She has completed her online and hybrid course training and has constructed online courses to create a smooth, interactive and motivational environment for learning. Moreover, She has completed SUNY Teaching and Learning for New Faculty Certificate Program with distinction and has been selected and worked as an Online Faculty Mentoring Incentive since Summer 2020. 

As an instructor, I always focus on educating and improving myself to explore how to teach effectively and to create an in-class interaction on online platform between students and the instructor. When students take online courses, they tend to believe that they are on their own with no help. What I realize is, verbal immediacy in an online classroom is as important as face-to-face interaction engagement in a traditional course. Key point is to be available to students when they need us. Realistically, it doesn’t happen at all times, but taking a couple minutes from our work to help a student may mean a lot to them. Overall, I think that a good online course provides information such as readings or lecture videos, but should also involve interactions between professor and students. Our priority is our students and the main goal is to provide them the best tools and learning environment to improve their learning experience.