SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2026: Farmingdale – Emre Tokgoz

Dr. Emre Tokgoz is a professor in the Computer Security Department at Farmingdale State College. He completed two independent Ph.D. degrees (one in mathematics and one in Industrial Engineering) in the U.S. and four master’s degrees (M.S. in mathematics, M.A. in mathematics, M.S. in computer science, and M.S. in Engineering Management with Biomedical Engineering concentration) with more than 15 years of professorship experience teaching and conducting research as a professor at Schools of Business, Mathematics, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, and cybersecurity related programs. He has lectured a variety of STEM concepts throughout his 15 years of professorship and university teaching with the incorporation of online teaching included in traditional teaching experience during the last five years.

Dr. Tokgov’s active research areas with peer-reviewed publications include quantum AI, AI theory and practice, optimization, aerospace/engine design advancement and development, network security, cryptography, systems’ design and improvements, STEM education, biomedical engineering, supply chain, transportation, and systems’ design and improvement. He currently has six published books and one more soon to be published, along with more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

“Online teaching is a part of our daily life that almost all faculty members are expected to participate in. At some point, the increasing volume of online teaching with the improvements in technology required all of us to adapt to changing conditions and develop new skills for developing new teaching materials. I believe a comprehensive course development in an online teaching platform and the corresponding preparation requires a much more comprehensive understanding of the audience, content development, and the details should be worked out and thought through beforehand in detail. These details go beyond assigning the readings from textbooks and predeveloped online videos sharing with monotonic teaching. Online teaching requires a well-developed and comprehensive platform development with a need for minimal-to-no error for the audience to follow the content and participate in the learning environment seamlessly. In my own experiences, students always appreciated and valued

• engaging discussion platforms,
• short instructor lecture videos (that I recorded for all lectures),
• real-life predeveloped professionals’ videos,
• my own concept-related professional experiences in real-life,
• readings from well-known and reliable blogs and websites,
• real-life use cases,
• well-organized and structured quizzes,
• proper assignment selections,
• a summary of weekly assignments,
• carefully selected concept-related images displayed in LMS for each week,
• exams and tests that truly reflect the learning materials, and
• industry certificates’ integration into courses that are AI’s help resistant.

I always go back to my years of learning while preparing the teaching materials and pay attention to the learning level of the students and what I need to incorporate in the video recordings so that students have a well-structured understanding of the concepts. Using professional recording software such as Camtasia and Panopto and editing the videos for error-proofing increases the quality of the teaching and learning. Overall, comprehensive preparation of an online course requires comprehensive and well-thought preparation of the course materials with a detailed approach.”