Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2018 – Corning: Nicholas Ippoliti

Nicholas P. Ippoliti is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Communications, Humanities and Social Sciences at Corning Community College. He has taught online courses for Richland College, located in Dallas, TX. Ippoliti received an A.A. in Music from Bucks County Community College. He received a B.A. in Philosophy and a M.S. in Education from Mansfield University. He received his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Humanities from the University of Texas – Dallas in 2009.

Ippoliti has been teaching online since 2006. In 2008, Ippoliti completed the Online Teaching Certification program offered through the Dallas Country Community College District. Ippoliti left Texas in 2009, moving to NY State where he was hired in 2010 by Corning Community College. During his first year at CCC, Ippoliti noticed the need for online course offerings within his department and volunteered to develop online courses for English Composition I, Composition II and American Literature. In addition to developing these courses, Ippoliti delivered several lectures on online course development and pedagogy through CCC’s Center for Professional Development during the 2011-2012 academic year. In 2012, he volunteered to serve on the Committee for Distance Learning at CCC. Ippoliti’s online courses at CCC continue to maintain high enrollment, and have expanded to include online-course offerings to high schools throughout the region which are enrolled in CCC through the college’s ACE program.

Outside of Academia, Ippoliti is an accomplished songwriter, having released 5 albums of original compositions, one of which was submitted in part with his dissertation on the contribution of songwriters and songwriting to the artistic and historical landscape of the United States. Ippoliti has brought his understanding of the artist/scholar experience to universities throughout the country while teaching online, guest lecturing and performing at creative symposiums at Tarrant County Community College, the University of New Mexico, Roswell and at the University of the Virgin Islands.

My appreciation for online education stems from the personal freedom the format extends to me. I enjoy the mobility that teaching online allows, which gives me the space to develop other professional aspects and interests in my life. For example, I can travel professionally while teaching my online courses without missing a beat. The sheer mobility made possible by online education is a quality I cherish. Having a personal understanding of how this mobility empowers me to maintain other professional aspects in my life directly transfers to how I approach the student experience within my courses. I fully understand the crucial role online courses play in the lives of my students, who are often trying to maintain balance between family, education and work. Not only is it my obligation as an online professor to teach to the content, subject matter and standards of an institution, it is also my obligation to identify and utilize current trends in technology and online pedagogy – to make the student experience within my course one in which replicates real-life “user-directed” applications by incorporating a variety of user/student-directed navigation. My focus when developing online courses is to stay current and allow my students to immerse themselves within the course, empowering them to become the “narrators” of their own educational experience and success.