SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2024: Sullivan – Dani Weber

Dani Weber, PhD is an Associate Professor of English at SUNY Sullivan Community College, where she has been an instructor for the last nine years. She enjoys teaching writing and literature in seated classrooms, virtual environments, and in the local correctional facility. Dani received her PhD in English with a Concentration in Rhetoric and Writing from Ball State University. She is also co-author, with Jesse Borgman and Heidi Skurat Harris, of the chapter “When the Distance is Not Distant: Using Minimalist Design to Maximize Interaction in Online Writing Courses and Improve Faculty Professional Development,” published in Applied Pedagogies: Strategies for Online Writing Instruction in 2016.

Dani began teaching online in 2011 and has regularly taught online classes ever since. In 2014, she received her certification as an online instructor through the OLC, formerly the Sloan Consortium. She also completed training for HyFlex Delivery and Design through the SUNY Center for Professional Development in 2022.

The following spring, in 2023, Dani designed and taught her first HyFlex class at SUNY Sullivan. While she found the HyFlex modality challenging for many reasons, and she is still mulling when and how she might best teach it again, it was nonetheless one of her most valuable teaching and learning experiences to date.

Teaching HyFlex, in Dani’s estimation, spoke to her strengths but also left her with questions she continues to explore. A core part of Dani’s teaching philosophy is meeting students at their point of need, one reason she was particularly interested in the HyFlex design. HyFlex allowed her to support students in ways that best suited each learner individually. Making the class manageable, however, particularly when it came to balancing the course work between in person, synchronous, and asynchronous participants, and simplifying procedures and tracking, proved more challenging. In the end, the HyFlex class was the only class she has taught at SUNY Sullivan, seated or online, in which every student who was enrolled in the class received a passing grade.

Like many of her students, Dani appreciates the flexibility and freedom that online classes offer instructors as well as students. She also loves the creative work of designing classes that allow participants to build community and strengthen relationships, even in virtual and asynchronous environments. As our technological capabilities continue to expand, online teaching allows us to continue exploring exciting new possibilities for fostering communication and human connection.