Hernandez Case Study - Introduction

Introduction

Case Analysis

Solutions

Summary

Reflection

Participating Group Members:
Mark Anderson
Lisa Bailey
Richard Butler
Robin Culbertson
Jennifer Farr
Nancy Turner

Updated April 5, 2002
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Sandra Hernandez, a new teacher at the College of Engineering, had been considered a “super teacher” in graduate school. She was assigned a class that no one else in the Engineering Department wanted to teach. After teaching one semester Sandra felt that the students needed hands on lab experience as part of the class but found that the students were slow and inept at setting up the experiments. She also felt students lacked conceptual understanding and were generally unprepared for the academic rigors of her class.

Sandra went to the Instructional Development Center (a service provided by the college) to voice concerns about her course. Her case was assigned to Jake Spaulding, a fairly new instructional designer who had previously worked as a designer for a major consulting company. Jake’s reason for working at the university may have been motivated by the fact that he was working toward his doctorate; he admitted that he found working with faculty members difficult since he felt that generally speaking faculty members were more focused on research, than teaching.

The personality dynamics found in this case study as well as the specific instructional concerns voiced by a time-pressed Hernandez made this an interesting and challenging case. Several facets of the case study were reviewed, discussed and evaluated by members of our group. This website we put together consists of key factors, issues, solutions, consequences, advantages, disadvantages and recommendations that our group made after much study, collaboration, and at times compromise. Individuals in our group reflected on the case study and the learning that occurred as a result of our course work and experience working together.