SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2021: Finger Lakes – Trevor Johnson-Steigelman
Dr. Trevor Johnson-Steigelman is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC), where he teaches College Physics I and II, University Physics I and II, and The Physics of Sound. He taught his first online course in the summer of 2017, and has taught in-person, online, and remotely in the years since. He helped develop low-cost lab kits so that students can perform hands-on laboratory experiments at home. He has produced multiple videos that use equipment too large or expensive for the lab kits. In these videos, he performs the experiments and students interact by taking readings from devices like multimeters, frequency generators, and various transducers. Trevor spearheaded the adoption of OER textbooks for physics courses at FLCC. This was done in an effort to reduce student costs and to ensure student access to materials from the first day of class. His YouTube channel contains numerous videos that help students learn about specific topics in physics. He has also created videos to explain what instructors see when students use Honor Lock, a test proctoring service. This is designed to help ease student concerns about taking online tests.
During remote teaching in the pandemic, I have worked to make my online teaching more interactive. My home office is set up with a green screen and lighting system so that I can interact with my lecture slides, do live demonstrations, and generally be seen by students while teaching. Using services like H5P and Poll Everywhere, I can provide students with a range of interactive formative assessment in the form of games and activities. In addition to teaching physics, I am highly interested in ways that instructors can be proactive in terms of accessibility. I have presented talks on accessibility on the web, producing accessible PowerPoint presentations, and creating accessible Word documents. I am active in service at FLCC. I serve as the chair of the Assessment Committee and have been an Assessment Coach. I served as a co-chair of the Hybrid Learning Committee of the FLCC Presidential Task Force on Reopening during the pandemic. I advocate for increased professional development for professors in both hybrid and remote teaching skills. I also lead weekly discussions on online teaching to help colleagues become better instructors.