The SPOT (Fall, 2024) Part II

There were too many comments to fit into one blog post, so here are the remained from Fall, 2024 term. ⚠️Caution! Someone could have hacked this post an inserted snarky, sarcastic responses.

First up, PSYCH 367: Perception:

While Dr. Loepelmann was open to some questions there was more than one occasion where he was condesending to a question asked by a student. Also, have you seen his blog and his responses to student criticisms? https://whyarentyoustudying.blogspot.com/

(I wish you had given specific examples of me being condescending. Without knowing exactly how I offended you, I don’t know how to respond to this. I never set out to try and belittle a student, or be patronizing or arrogant. Miscommunication can occur in the sender, the medium, and the receiver. In other words, it’s not just me. If I came across as condescending in response to your question(s), I apologize fully and completely.

BTW, I have seen that website! It’s neat because it shows that he actually reads student feedback. It’s also clear that it’s impossible to make everyone happy, no matter how hard you try, and how good your intentions are. But OMG, his responses are so condescending. But he never, ever uses ad hominem arguments.

I’m wondering, are you drawing attention to my blog to try and get me in trouble with my boss, who reads all of your SPOT comments? LOL. He actually posts student comments on his website, too, and did that years before I even started this blog.)

It was a safe space to ask questions and Dr. Loepelmann was very responsive and on-the-ball for answering questions or fixing mistakes! One of my favourite profs of all time!

(See what I mean? I can’t possibly be both condescending on more than one occasion but simultaneously also be a safe space.)

Despite the mistakes in the textbook, I loved this textbook! It broke things down in an incredibly straightforward way, especially for a course that can get complicated. It used many examples, and the ISLE examples on top of everything to play around with and get hands-on experience with what certain illusions (for instance) looked like, were immensely inclusive.

make the textbook cheaper plz :,(

I didn't find the textbook to be overly helpful. Professor Loepelmann was honestly better at explaining the course material than the textbook was. For the first midterm I read the textbook and for the second midterm I did not. I scored about the same on both exams.

The textbook is very important in this course and has a lot of information that the lecture doesn't cover. Do I wish the lectures covered more stuff? Yes, ofc! But then again, I realize that there is simply not enough time to cover everything in the lectures alone. The books adds on to and compliments what's already talked about in the lectures.

The textbook was very helpful for my learning and reinforcing what we learned in class.

kindly provide a downloadable version of the textbook

(This was a new textbook that I was trying out this term. Thanks for the feedback. Sorry, but I don’t have a downloadable version of the textbook, and if I did I won’t break copyright law by giving it to you.)

I like the course theory but I honestly don’t care about the 29374783 studies that prove each theory and each studies problem

(I know, right? Well, that’s science for ya!)

Maybe just let the students that are being distracting know that they are and respectfully make them stop. For example there is this group who would always talk while he is explaining the epoll questions and it was incredibly hard to make sense of what he is saying. Or they'll just be making loud sounds while he is explaining the material. It is very annoying

Some people are very loud which distracts from my learning and affects my ability to focus on the instructor

(I don’t insist on absolute silence. And during ePoll questions, there is frequently chatter about the question. I’m fine with that, if it’s on-topic. If it was bothering you so much, you should have let me know before the end-of-term evaluations so that I could have addressed it.)

LOVED the fill in the blank notes! Anyone else who argues is silly. As someone who usually is frantically taking notes and unable to really pay attention to the content because I am trying to write down as much as possible, this helped me develop a baseline so I could actually listen and absorb what you had to say. Then, if there is anything that I wanted to write more about to clarify, I could.

(Shockingly, in this class not a SINGLE person complained about the fill-in-the-blank notes. This may be a first.)

Thanks for giving us an actual break during reading week!

(I have a bit of a beef with this. Not with the comment, but with instructors who make assignments due on weekends or during reading week. What’s up with that? My promise to you is that I will never do that. Never have, never will.)

Highlight the words on the slides that are fill in the blanks in the student slides

(Yes, yes, I know. Here’s my story on that. I did this once years ago, but the class became so noisy and chatty that I had to threaten to walk out of the class. That’s the one and only time I’ve ever had to do that. Things are way better now (take that, students-were-better-in-the-olden-days trope!) so I am starting to do this. When I do it, though, I carefully review whether it’s even necessary or logical to have a particular blank. So it’s taking me a while, as I have to review every single lecture in detail. Thanks for the suggestion.)

Professor Loepelmann seemed to enjoy tricking students with his ePoll questions. I understand that the motive is to get students to apply the course content instead of just recalling it, but it lead me to constantly second guess my answers. I 100% agree with the ePoll questions at the end of each chapter, but making them tricky and complicated can effect a student's confidence in knowing the course material.

(You’re right, I do and I admit it! I want the questions to be tricky and challenging; I want them to show you what you think you know but maybe actually don’t. The ePoll questions are not there to stroke your ego and show you how smart you are, but to facilitate learning. You don’t learn much from things that you get right--you learn from things that you get wrong. I create these questions intentionally and use them in ePolls, which are very low-stake assessments: they’re only worth participation marks. Better you find out what you don’t understand before an exam than during one!)

I liked the labs, they were fun and engaging!

I really enjoyed having the lab components! They all were simple to follow, and you provided us with several resources and links to learn how to do things like make a graph if we still needed to learn how.

I honestly really enjoyed the lab assignments, some of the questions were more critical thinking based. I enjoyed the fact that I got to think outside of the box!

The online labs were instructional and reinforced my learning without being overly difficult and adding stress to the semester.

I ejoyed that the labs forced you to look at concepts in ways that we might not have considered.

The labs were easy to follow and feedback was useful if I am being honest the labs could be longer for better review of material.

The online labs were instructional and reinforced my learning without being overly difficult and adding stress to the semester.

I prefer to have more assessments that are worth less. For example, have 8 labs but only take the top 6 marks. This also gives students a opportunity to replace a bad lab grade.

i don't understand some of the lab questions or maybe they don't understand me

(It’s a lot of work to find free websites that actually tie into course content and create labs that are resistant to answering by AI chatbots. Thanks. I’m not a big fan of making students do work that may not count toward their final grade. Then there’ also the increased marking burden. The mean on the labs was 83% (A-), so that’s pretty great overall.)

The first midterm was incredibly difficult, the second one was more reflective of what we had learned and the course material.

once again the exams were poorly written.

could see how carefully crafted each question was and I appreciated any changes to the exam that may have been super confusing (ex. taking out that one question since so many people got it wrong).

(The complexity of the material being tested does vary within the course.)

The instructor was wonderful and funny!

I'm so glad that you took a course that gives you the ability to include lots of photos and video examples and included them into your lecture content!

Dr. Loepelmann always used extra resources to help us understand concept and theories better, which I was a very big fan of. Even though theories might be hard to remember outright, the extra resources used in class like the different videos/gifs/jokes helped us understand and remember them better.

The biggest thing that helped my learning in class was the videos/examples in each topic because it made the topic much more memorable when I looked back on my notes.

As a more visual learner, I really appreciated the amount of videos shown throughout our lectures. I would like more links to suggested YouTube videos that will help supplement my learning.

(I have a unique opportunity in a perception class to present unique stimuli. I hope you also enjoyed the mini candy canes that I gave out as an example of a “cool” taste illusion. And thank you again for the kind and generous gifts of chocolate that you gave to me!)

I loved how it felt like the prof was telling a story in each class that really helped with the flow of logic

I enjoyed the lectures. Getting used to balancing textbook content took a bit of time as my previous classes did not make use of the textbook much if at all. The division between tested readings and lecture content was fair.

Excellent lecturer Funny, very engaging and enthusiastic which makes class fun and the content more easy to digest Fair late policy Helpful in answering questions Makes fair exam adjustments

This Professor knows how to teach and is good at it. The course content is complicated, and I think I would struggle no matter who was instructing, and I think he did a good job.

I found your lectures to be the most engaging of all of my classes.

(Thank you. Here’s feedback from PSYCH 494: Human Factors & Ergonomics:)

Dr. Lopelmann's mini circular curriculum provided excellent scaffolding.

(Not many people notice that.)

The textbook for the course just felt a little lost in the overall class. Norman's book was relevant for the first part and then after a while it just kind of disappeared and we never talked about it after the midterm. I read it for the midterm and then after I never touched it again because all of a sudden we started talking about disaster analysis which somehow fit into this class for some reason. Not at all what I thought I would be learning about in an ergonomics class. The book did not help for this part which is why I say it kind of got lost in the overall content after a while.

(I only assigned readings from the book in the first half of the course. There are a few chapters that are just not relevant, so it didn’t make sense to have you read them. Yup, understanding large-scale technological failures is an important part of human factors, if not physical ergonomics.)

He also then complains about how much marking he has to dobut there is a TA in this class and maybe if he didn't make us write this huge term paper where the minimum is 12 pages he would save some marking time by using smaller and easier to complete assignments

(Correction: there was no TA assigned to this course, and there hasn’t been one since 2017. I beg and plead just to get a marker for the applied project paper, but everything else is all me. Having a minimum 12-page term paper is absolutely appropriate for a 400-level course. My requirement used to be a minimum of 15 pages, which is what it commonly used to be pre-Internet. Now, you have access to all of the materials you need online, slick word processors, and all the Google; it's easier now than ever before. Some other instructors have their TA mark the term paper, which I do not think is right. Also, many profs cap the size of their class way below the 30 that I have. Yes, the marking is enormous, but I strive to give you detailed, accurate, elaborate feedback on your term paper to help you improve as a writer.)

Dr. Loepelmann provided excellent feedback, and so did his TA! I appreciated the high standards set for the assignment, and how the grades were set up to enable this feedback without tanking our grades. I saw this as an opportunity to challenge myself in an environment with a safety net when I looked at the syllabus, but I don't think all students caught onto this, and I think it maybe caused them some anxiety when they got their midterm grades back. I think highlighting this opportunity may be helpful.

Dr. Loepelmann's delivery of the course is and has been an absolute delight. His engagement with the class was always inclusive and highly interactive, and always left a smile on my face, while still maintaining a focus on the major points that we had to cover in class.

Notes, videos, readings and lectures all provided good info, enabling nuanced understanding and strengthened learning through requiring synthesis. The Syllabus and course website made following the schedule easy.

I really appreciated how easy the access to the notes were, and the format of the notes themselves. Having them provided before the class allows me to look at the concepts before and tie them to the readings. The fill in the blank was nice as well as I don't have to worry about taking a bunch of notes down while trying to listen, but rather worked as checks to keep me focused, and writing in the important terms helped me remember them.

Thank you for making coming to class consistently enjoyable. Your passion shows through, and has greatly inspired my passion for academia. classmates seemed

(Thanks to everyone for taking the time to give me their feedback: good, bad, or ugly!)

Why aren’t you studying

The SPOT (Fall, 2024) Part I

I asked for a lot of feedback in PSYCH 258: Cognitive Psychology in Fall term because I was using a new textbook so this one’s gonna be extra long--I got 13 pages of feedback comments. Here are some carefully selected ones. And ya know what? There may be some degree of sarcasm contained in my responses. Ya never know.

Kinda hated the whole second website thing for the extra steps that the students have to do.

(The extra step of clicking a link? That's nothing! You should see all the extra time and effort it takes me to maintain that whole second website! I hate that! Boo! Boo I say!.)

The discrepancy between the layout of the professor's fill-in-the-blank notes and the textbook was quite confusing, making it harder to know what information was important to learn for the exams.

(I literally rewrote all of my lecture notes over the summer during my holiday time so that they would match the chapters in the textbook. No, I didn’t lecture on every single thing in the textbook. Does anyone? Plus, sometimes learning is hard; it is effortful. That doesn’t mean it’s not working; in fact, the opposite is true.)

The textbook is expensive and it is impossible to get a good grade (above 60%) without it.

If the professor wanted to take at least 50% of the exam questions and lab readings from textbook-only materials, he should have had the tuition cover the textbook fee as well, rather than forcing students to purchase an expensive subscription to an online textbook. I should be using a textbook as a supplementary tool to help me understand lecture materials, not to learn new materials that the professor did not cover or mention during classes.

Not a fan of all the required readings, majority of which were in an online resource that cost 60+$, however if I didn't pay the money for it, I would be at a disadvantage on exams were part of the questions came directly from readings which weren't covered in class.

I just hate how the textbook was a big part of this class. It was so inconvenient.

Awesome textbook -- really appreciate the integrated practice questions

(As usual, I get a lot of complaints about having a required textbook. Firstly, not to put too fine a point on it: you signed up for this course. I can only assume that means you want to learn about cognitive psychology. So I want to do the best possible job teaching that. I can only present a very limited amount of the breadth and depth of the field in lectures. Textbooks provide a valuable second perspective on things. Please don’t ask me to teach everything that’s in the textbook. That is literally impossible--and would not be enjoyable for anyone.

But I get it: a textbook means that more work, time, effort, and “inconvenience” is required. If I didn’t have a textbook, boom, less work! But I think some students don’t consider why I have a textbook at all. To make your life harder? To make the course harder? Why on earth would I do that?

Could it be that there is some value in, say, reading a textbook? Maybe…developing your skill in reading long-form text? This is, after all, how psychologists communicate with each other. Research studies are written up into papers that are published as articles. Improving your ability to read complex material like a textbook is a scaffolding to reading actual scientific journal articles. This is something you will certainly do in higher-level courses. Do you just want your first experience reading about psychology to be an incredibly complicated, dense, technical article? You’ll probably look back and be pissed off that no one helped you get to this point.

Most university-level courses require a textbook, especially science courses (French et al., 2015); OnCampusResearch has found that the majority of faculty require some kind of learning materials. This means that I am not an outlier.

The online textbook costs $83.50. This is one of the costs of attending university. It’s nothing new or different. I told you in the first class that if you are not able to afford that, you should talk to me and I’ll work something out. Exactly one person took me up on this offer. I was able to give them a free access code to the textbook. I know that textbook are expensive; I have been sensitive to this for a long, long time. (Check out this post from 2013). The print textbooks that I used to use in this course costs over $200 for the print edition; the ebook is $75. I wanted to try something different and hopefully better when I switched to my current choice, TopHat. It includes an AI tutor, and dozens and dozens of interactive questions based on textbook content. (Retrieval practice FTW!) It’s also written at a lower level (read: easier) than the previous textbook, and it’s also shorter. I figured it was worth a try. I do not take these decisions lightly.

Maybe we should consider the counterfactual. That is, what if I did not have a required textbook? My exams would still be the same number of questions. Now I would have to drawn on more and more obscure and less and less relevant material as a basis for my exam questions. In other words, the exam would get harder. I don’t think anyone is asking for that--but that’s what the result would be.

I could (and probably should) also bring up the fact that I have oodles of data on the multiple-choice questions I use on my exams (point-biserial correlation, anyone?). If I have to write a bunch of new exam questions, I don’t have any data on them. They may be especially difficult (newly written exam question tend to start out being too difficult, as opposed to too easy). Again, I know that no one wants to take a course in which the exams may be unreasonably hard (i.e., low averages).)

The tests were hard. I would not say they were unfair, but I get why the cutoff for an A in this class is so low.

The tests are difficult relative to Farley or any other instructor’s class, but it’s scaled accordingly such that an 83 is an A. That’s pretty fair. Loepelmann’s classes are for learning, not GPA padding, and despite the rigor I’m always pleased to retain more applicable knowledge.

The exams seemed far to hard for the students. The average was constantly in the 60’s. To compansate for this the grading scale was pushed down so far. Anything above a 87 was an A+.

Tests were difficult but fair. I think if you put in the study time, it is possible to do really well on them.

The exams helped me realize that I needed to change my studying strategies for this course.

I felt like Obi-Wan taking on a Sith Lord while writing the midterm exams. That may be a slight over exaggeration but what I am implying by saying that was that they felt challenging but in a satisfying way that really encouraged me to carefully think through the different possible answers instead of purely relying on rote memorization and regurgitating information.

(In the emergency remote teaching and learning during Covid, I restructured all of my exams according to best practices. I pared down the basic memorization questions and replaced them with more challenging application and conceptual questions. Yes, the exams are hard. They’re supposed to be. I’m teaching at one of the top-five universities in Canada. Should the exams be easy? (Have you had a lot of easy exams in your courses so far?) The exams are designed and structured to increase your learning. They do take effort to prepare for, and to write. But, fittingly, in this course I am giving you the tools you need to success: retrieval practice, spaced learning, interleaving, elaboration, generation, context effects. In this very class over 20% of students got a mark in the A-range. Less than 3% got an F (and that includes four students who just did not write the final exam).

Yes, I have adjusted the grade boundaries to ensure that my challenging exams are not punitive in terms of grades. You can get a D with a total of 40%. You can get an A-range grade with a weighted mean of 79%. You’re welcome.

You have much to learn, my young apprentice.)

I don't enjoy being tested on both the textbook and the lectures equally. Essentially this means that there isn't enough time to cover all the material in class, so the student has to learn the other portion by themselves, which takes up more time than is fair for this course.

Requiring a $80 textbook to be tested 50% on top of paying $800 for the course is extremely financially unfair.

(You’ve literally made me look up a definition for the word “fair”. Here it is: “based on or behaving according to the principles of equality and justice; kind, considerate, or reasonable.” You don’t enjoy being tested. My friend, here’s a secret: No One Does. Would the exam have been a joyful delight if it had tested on the lectures alone? And I’m sorry that tuition costs as much as it does. If tuition is high, there are a number of reasons for that. The UofA spends has a disproportionately high amount on salaries for administration, at the expense of paying front-line staff. (Faculty salaries at the UofA are at the rock bottom of the U15 comparators.) But I do what I can: I vote in every provincial election. The UCP government has choked off funding since 2019 to the tune of $222 million and counting. So: I’m sorry about the tuition thing. One of my kids is in a post-secondary institution and another will be soon; I feel your pain.

But am I being “unfair”? Unreasonable? Inconsiderate? Unkind? What if I make you buy an $80 textbook and it was tested only 10%--is that unfair? What if it were 90%? Then you’d say that the lectures are not worth it for the money you’re paying. You may not like the way things are, but they are not “unfair.”)

I also found it astounding that a textbook I paid $80 could be filled with so many typos and errors. As someone who is not in Psychology it begs the question of how many content errors there were that I didn't notice if they couldn't catch these typos.

(I really hate to be a pedantic ass, but a leopard cannot change its spots. It’s actually “raises” the question, not “begs” the question; here's an explanation by an actual book editor. Anywho, I agree with you completely. I mean, I give out a toonie for each error that a student finds. That book has nearly four dozen errors. That’s expensive for me, and embarrassing for the publisher. At least with this online textbook I can go in and make changes to almost everything, but still. My evaluation of the textbook is ongoing, and this factors into it prominently.)

Wish expectations were set more clearly for first midterm

(Like, what exactly? I told you how much time you would get; how many questions there were; that there was a 50/50 split between textbook and lecture; that I don’t favour memorization/name/date questions; and that the number of questions was proportional to the length of the corresponding lectures/chapters. The textbook contains embedded questions, and I did dozens of ePoll questions in class to direct your attention to important concepts. What, exactly, are you looking for? What was unclear or vague?)

It's preferable to not have a final exam on the whole course, which is hard and overwhelming with the lectures in class and the chapters of the book, and if that's the case, we should at least have access to a cheat sheet on the final exam.

(It’s preferable to get an automatic A+ without attending class, reading a textbook, or writing exams at all. But here we are.)

I think the labs could have been slightly more challenging.

The labs though? a bit insane. They are described to take "10 minutes of your time, they are not that hard" and then half the class struggles with them.

The online labs were marked hard. The TA's seemed to take off marks for things not included in the rubric and not stated clearly enough. There should really be a way to discuss with the professor or make it known if we are allowed to ask the TA's about the marks dropped. They were also not helpful during midterm reviews.

The labs were fun and really helped my understanding of some of the concepts.

(What’s wrong with struggling? That’s learning: “Embrace the struggle.”

Here’s some objective data on the difficulty of the labs: the class mean was 78.5%. Over 13% of students in the class skipped doing one or more of the labs. So, if they had actually attempted them--even if they ended up doing poorly--the mean would be even higher, as it currently assigns a zero to missing labs. In my grading breakdown, 78.5% corresponds to A-. I don’t think that’s too low; the labs are increasing the grade of the vast majority of the class.

Um, yes, you can discuss things with me. There’s email, my weekly office hours, or talking with me after class. I am working on a comprehensive Teaching Assistant Manual than will help TAs be better prepared for exam viewings, and give better feedback on assignments. It’s just taking a really long time to write.)

I especially found ePolls to be beneficial and engaging, with explanations as to why each option was either correct, not fully applicable, or wrong, being given, further aiding in my deep understanding of course content.

(It’s good to hear that you see value in them.)

I felt that the assessments in the course served no purpose.

(I’m sorry--what? Exams, assignments, ePolls all…pointless? Really? FYI, they are how I assign final grades. Hope this clears that up.)

need midterms worth less

(No problem, I’ll just make the final worth more. Thanks for your feedback!)

[...] felt that the 133 pages of Google docs notes + the entire textbook is a bit excessive and think there could be some cutting down of the unnecessary material

(First, not the entire textbook. I did not assign the chapter on language. But what is unnecessary? It really hurt to cut out that chapter. I do feel it’s valuable. Those who go on to take higher-level courses on psycholinguistics or the psychology of language may be at a disadvantage. I actually have less content in my course now than I did six years ago: I had to cut a bunch of things out to make time for ePolls. As for what's left, again, what is "unnecessary"? Maybe material that doesn't overlap with the textbook. But I guarantee you, you don't want me to just lecture directly out of the textbook. What's the point of that?)

The lab due dates were spread out a few weeks apart from each other which gave plenty of time to complete them. The instructor was always well-prepared and started class promptly at the top of the hour. There was never a single occasion of there ever being a time where there was an extended period of silence or the Professor being flustered or incapable of explaining something. The ePolls presented at the end of every major topic kept motivation high and helped people stay present and attentive during lectures.

Karsten is an entertaining and excellent lecturer.

It was great! So fun I love all the in class examples/mini experiments!

Great lectures, I genuinely enjoyed them, some of the material was boring but he does try to keep the class engaged with jokes!

Love his classes and teaching style, sometimes moves in too quickly in slides

His genuine interest for the material was contagious. He’s also very witty and it’s just really mentally stimulating/lighthearted fun to attend class.

I appreciate the professor asking the student with the highest mark to give advice on studying, however I feel like there wasn't enough review and the style of note taking is very specific and may not work for everyone.

The single best prof I have had at U of A. Brilliant engagement with students, excellent comedic timing and so good at answering questions and maintaining student attention. I don't know how much Dr. Loepelmann makes, but he needs a raise. Also answered emails so fast and so thoroughly. Seriously, outstanding instructor!!!

Dr. Loepelmann is the greatest prof I have every had. He is so confident in the things he's teaching. His lectures are incredibly engaging and feels well planned and thought out. Very often profs feel like they just are reading from the slides. It never feels like he is just reading from the slides. I hope he gets to read this because he should be very proud of the effort that he has put into teaching. You can feel how much he cares in how organized and excited he is to teach this material. Thank you for being you Dr. Loepelmann!!

I really enjoyed being part of Professor Loepelmann's course this semester! He is a really amazing teacher and I find that he is very easy to listen to (which is surprisingly difficult to find). He explains things really well, allows us to do interactive activities in lecture, and has a great sense of humour. I always look forward to his lectures.

No surprises here. This is my second course with this instructor and will not be my last. His use of labs, tests, epolls, as well as the examples he puts together for lectures are so well done, it's rare that I don't understand a concept once he's explained it.

Professor Loepelmann is very diligent at answers questions and giving additional feedback when necessary. With the class sizes he instructs, this is impressive feat.

Approachable during office hours, and by email (even on weekends). Thank you!

He always answers my emails/questions with depth, even if the questions are a bit abstract and not directly in the course material. I enjoyed learning from him a lot. I’ve also noticed that whenever my peers ask questions, if he doesn’t know something, he acknowledges that and then will answer the question later in a discussion post on EClass. Just overall very respectful and level-headed—many professors get a complex when they don’t know something/make students feel out of place for asking a question that may go beyond course material. He’s very good at fostering intellectual curiosity.

Your method of teaching is absolutely amazing. I took a course with you last year, and am taking one with you next semester as well! Your way of teaching is incredibly insightful and you are clearly very knowledgeable in this field. My only suggestion, and I do not know if this is even applicable, is I think you would benefit from understanding the neuroanatomy and chemistry behind the field. Essentially, explaining the science behind why the brain works the way it does would be greatly beneficial to you as a professor and your students. Note that I am not saying you don't know theyinformation - I am just saying to include it in class more.

(Thanks for all the kind words and suggestions. I made the deliberate choice to teach this course based on a traditional approach to cognitive psychology. I have to be careful not to overlap too much with our PSYCH 375: Cognitive Neuroscience course.)

Why aren't you studying?

The Overload

Information Overload! (Copilot AI)

In university-speak, "teaching overload" means going over the normal course load. For me, normal is three courses per term. This Winter, though, I'm teaching a staggering four courses. Why would I do such a thing?

On the first day of classes in January, a TIME CRITICAL email went out to psychology instructors. Okay, this is not normal. Things generally move at the pace of maple syrup in winter. So this got my attention immediately.

A bunch of things came together in the worst possible way. One instructor had to drop their teaching due to medical reasons. (Best wishes for a speedy recovery!) And then there was some...miscommunication about a few other courses. Wired were crossed. Emails were misplaced. And suddenly, the Department of Psychology had cancelled a bunch of courses. This is not taken lightly, as it has an enormous impact on students--and to do this on the first day of classes is a special kind of nightmare.

The email from the Associate Chair of the Undergraduate Program contained a plea to instructors--especially of 400-level courses--to open them up to more students, if possible. Sometimes, there's nothing that can be done about this. The room can't hold any more bodies. Or the instructor is at the limit of how many exams/papers/assignments they can mark. The email also asked if anyone could spin up a 400-level course and teach it at the last minute.

I wasn't able to add any students to my classes, unfortunately. I wasn't teaching my PSYCH 494: Human Factors and Ergonomics course in Winter term. I've been teaching it every Fall and Winter term (and even some Spring/Summer terms) since 1997. I wanted a break from the immense load of marking the exams and term papers. It takes me two full weeks of more than full-time work to mark term papers. That means, every year, I spend 2+2=4 weeks of doing almost nothing but eating, sleeping, and marking term papers. That's a whole month's worth of time. And I've been doing that since 1997. A break would be nice. But...

But I felt...responsible. As a longtime member of the Department of Psychology, I thought this situation reflected really poorly on us. And I felt really bad for the students who were planning on graduating after this term, only to have courses cancelled out from under them. So I offered to teach my PSYCH 494 course on literally one day's notice--under one condition. I asked for teaching overload.

If I teach four courses in one term, the usual way that I get "paid back" is that I will teach one fewer course in a future term. But this time, I wanted to be paid by...getting paid. That is, getting paid the equivalent rate of one course. This request had to go way, way above my pay grade, but was finally approved. Look, I don't want time off. I wouldn't know what to do with it. And considering that I haven't had any substantial increase in pay in over 10 years (yes, read that again: it has been that long despite whopping increases in inflation), I honestly need the money.

So I spun up my new course, spending 8 hours straight writing an updated syllabus, assignment documents, and setting up eClass--and waited for students to flood in. It turns out, many other instructors had somehow raised the caps on their courses, which accommodated a lot of the need. But still: I got a small but very enthusiastic band of students.

This course is designed for ~30 students. I haven't taught a course of less than 10 students in over 24 years. Usually, courses with less than 10 undergrads are cancelled. (Yikes!) But this was a special case, so it was granted an exception.

It's been a different experience. Pretty fun, actually. With so few people in the room, I don't have to use my Professor voice, but can talk more naturally. I end up not being completely exhausted at the end of class, which is nice. And the marking load won't eat up two weeks of my life.

However, I still need some time away from this course. So I won't be teaching it in Winter term of 2026. No! Don't ask! Unless...how much extra will I be paid...?

Why aren't you studying?

The SPOT (Spring, 2024)

Working my way through my backlog of SPOTs, I now come to Spring, 2024. Months ago, I read these comments and highlighted which ones I want to address here. But it's a slog to copy and paste them here and then reformat everything. (People, Blogger sucks. Out of all of Google's products, it's gotten the least amount of love. It has not changed anything since I started to use it in 2008.) I have to switch to HTML view and hand-edit the mangled garbage that the Blogger editor barfs up. I need to find something better.

I got a really high response rate in this class (96.4%). That's abnormal. If you're lucky, you get over 70%. So how did I convince almost the entire class to do the SPOTs? Everyone got a bonus mark if a certain percentage of the class did the SPOT surveys. I don't know who does or doesn't do the SPOTs; I just have access to a running total of the class. Occasionally, students claim that I don't care about feedback and am not open to change. That is false. I go to great lengths to get feedback from as many students as possible--good, bad, or ugly (comments, not students).

On to the comments from PSYCH 258: Cognitive Psychology! (Trigger warning: there may be sarcasm ahead. You have been warned!)

"Lots of information packed into a small time frame but that’s unavoidable."
"The general course quality is challenging but because of Professor Loepelmann’s efforts and interest in the course he teaches, it is challenging and stressful but in an intellectually interesting way. It is quite heavy in textbook readings and content memorization, but not impossible to excel in the course.The heaviness of the workload when preparing for exams makes the course quality stressful."

(Please, spread the word on this. Students sign up for a Spring term course, and they don't realize how much has to be packed into six weeks. Its. A. Lot. You are going to have to work hard.)

"We pay for the whole course so I do think its an instructor's job to cover all course content that are testable in the exam. Its a spring course and there is already too much to cover. Even he barely covered the topics right before the exam days. So to expect us to study everything he teaches in class and the textbook feels not right because if we can just teach ourselves why are we paying for the course? P.S lecture and textbook has a good chunk of non-overlapping content."

"Base exam questions more on lecture content than textbook material"

"put more content from the textbooks to the lecture, slower"

"It's OK. There's a lot of material at a fairly surface level making it difficult to fully grasp, especially in the 6 weeks. It feels very fast and like the value for my money isn't there because of it."

"No textbook-specific questions. If I wanted to learn by myself, I would have gone to Athabasca"

"I understand why he wants us to read the textbook but I don’t really like it. But that’s ok I guess, not everything in this world you’re going to like."

(I don't particularly like the 'paying customer' trope. It's my course; I am the subject-matter expert; I have extensive knowledge of pedagogy. So I have decided to have a required textbook. The textbook is a part of the course. Period. I know it's more work: I went to university for 10 years. Every course I took had either a textbook or an extensive coursepack. Every. Single Course. You took this course because you wanted to learn about cognitive psychology--at least, that's my presumption. Being able to read long-form text is a skill. I am helping you to develop that skill. This is how science works: we (mostly) communicate with the written word.)

(This one student made the same comment about "Athabasca" (Athabasca University) over and over. What do you expect from me? To be spoon-fed content? Part of university is putting in the work required, and part of that is reading a textbook. I know that many instructors are removing required textbooks from their courses. I (and many others) feel that they are not best serving their students. This is what's driving my decision: I'm not being a dick. I'm not trying to punish anyone. I'm not getting kickbacks from publishers. I 👏🏼 am 👏🏼 trying 👏🏼 to 👏🏼 help 👏🏼 you. Check out this story in the Atlantic: The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. Would you take a course on Shakespeare expecting to...not read Shakespeare?)

"maybe on the first day give guidance on how to read textbooks properly, i think a lot of us struggled with that. Due to experience from other courses, we all know how to approach lectures. But reading the textbook is something not all of us are really familiar with."

(I hate being right so much. See? This is what I'm talking about. At least this person had some insight. I actually don't think it's my job to teach anyone how to read a textbook. But what I have done is put together some resources that will help guide you, including--sigh--a YouTube video.)

"I do not think that the course needs improvement."

(That's nice, but check out the comment below.)

"We have midterms on Fridays. I think it would be better to have them on the following Monday and learn new information that won’t be on the midterm on the original midterm day of Friday. Having the weekend to study would definitely benefit everyone."

(This was great feedback that a lot of people gave. This upcoming Spring term, I've asked student if they would prefer the exams to be moved to Mondays. I'll see how the marks go. Thanks for the suggestion.)

"Instead of epolls, may I suggest Kahoot? Also,I suggest make the difficulty level of the chapter quizzes match the difficulty level of the midterm exams."

(No, you may not. Because it would cost me over $500 per year to run Kahoot. I have no control over the chapter quizzes; they're written by the same people who write the textbook questions. It's usually not the questions that are different, it is because you are not writing chapter quizzes under the same conditions as an exam.)

"The one thing I would say is that in lecture, the hierarchical organization of concepts does not always read as such, which can be confusing when trying to determine the relationships of the information we're learning. For example, occasionally in the slides it is unclear that a subsequent concept (ie. functional fixedness) is a subtype of a previous one (ie. mental set) and not a separate one. Or, the following concepts are the levels/components of a broader concept (ie. tri-level hypothesis). That one may have just been me being an idiot BUT I can assure you I am paying attention and not missing any classes/information."

(You are not an idiot. This is wonderfully specific, concrete information that I have used to restructure how I presented the information described, but I also spent hours last summer going over every single PowerPoint slide to enhance their clarity. Thank you for such great feedback. This is the kind of specific information that I need!)

"give us a way to get the blanks if we missed a lecture"

(Like the class Discord server? The eClass discussion forum? Shooting me an email?)

"I think it would be better if there was an easier way to look at the midterms rather than having to go to a review every time. I'd prefer having access to the answers so that I can review whenever I want."

("Every time"? My dude, it was twice. I need to maintain exam security so this is the only way to do it.)

"Review sesh before midterm would be nice. I miss some things when taking notes so my understanding of certain areas may be spotty. Review sessions are the best"

(I barely have enough time as it is. I don't have time to re-teach things that I've already taught. Review is an individualized thing that you do, not me.)

"I would love to see an even higher diversity in the psychologists mentioned in class (ex. more from outside of North America or Europe)!"

(Yeah, me too. It's really hard to do this in practice. Someone who is teaching at, say, the University of Lagos may be from a WEIRD country: white, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic. All I have to go on is where they work and what their name is. I don't want to make any (incorrect) assumptions about anything. Sometimes I don't even know the gender of the person. Still, I strive to be more inclusive of BIPOC and, well, people who aren't cis-gendered WASP males.)

"I was unsure about having lectures go until 11:10 as if there were kids who had 11 am classes they may have been late for them"

(Um, I did not go over time every day. The class is officially scheduled by the official Office of the official Registrar to go until 11:10. I don't get to decide when my classes are held, or where.)

"Love it, it’s engaging and fun. I work before class from 5:00-9:00am and since it’s so fun I hardly fall asleep."

"I felt as though even if some of the content may be perceived as ‘boring,’ the way it was taught in class made it interesting and did not ‘put you to sleep.’"

"Professor Loepelmann puts lots of care and effort into his lectures. He comes prepared for class, shows up early, is consistent with his energy, and answers questions with interest and honesty (if he doesn’t know enough about the topic of the question, he will say so). It’s interesting how he has his powerpoint up filled with words that he could simply read off of but he doesn’t. He has a separate booklet copy of his powerpoint placed on his podium ready to be looked over as he presents. He thinks of what will help the students remember more, engage more, and excel more in his class He creates epolls and fill-in-the-blanks notes so students would be encouraged to show up in class. He even asked one of the students that did well on the second midterm for tips on how to improve then shared with it with the class."

"You can tell that he really cares for his students success in his class and has a passion for the topics. I appreciate the epolls as an interactive way to test our knowledge at the end of each topic, and the dad-jokes to keep our attention during the sometimes lengthy days of spring classes."

"Brilliant, really into the course and understands the material inside out"

"So fun!"

"Wonderful. Professor Lopelman is very organized and responsive and goes above and beyond to ensure we have everything we need to succeed."

"The interludes of mini class 'experiments' were also fun and definitely helped create connections and deepen understanding of the material. They, along with the ePoll questions, also helped reinforce the studying techniques we were being taught. It was cool to have that built-in and have them being utilized within the course delivery itself to help us learn. I also liked the pace at which we were being taught."

"I really liked how he would have us participate in some of the studies, and the epoll questions also changed up the lectures from just a professor speaking at you for an hour. The cheesy jokes are great too!"

"Professor Loepelmann seems very passionate about psychology and making sure we do well in the course. I like how engaging his classes are with the references, videos, examples, etc, it all makes me feel much more invested in the content. It also feels like he has a very deep, nuanced understanding of the subject, which makes hearing his answers to questions interesting. It's also really nice that he consistently checks in with the class for feedback on the course."

"I do not think that the instructor needs any improvement."

"More jokes I suppose"

(Thanks for the kind words.)

Why aren't you studying?

The SPOT (Winter, 2024)

I've got some SPOT catching up to do. Let's hit the sweet spot. (Ugh. Sorry.) These SPOT things are very different from the previous forms, which only had one open-ended question. So there's a lot more information to go through. It takes an enormous amount of willpower to go through 12 pages of comments. Who wants to hear how bad a job they're doing? (Yes, the negative comments loom large over all of the positive ones.)

These are from Winter, 2024 term. Let's go to PSYCH 282 Behaviour Modification first! (Trigger warning: there may be sarcasm ahead. You have been warned!)

"Did not appreciate the fill in the blank slides."
vs.
"I like the fill-in the blank notes that he provides for us."

"The way that the notes are structured SUCKS"
vs.
"Enjoyed the blank spaces in the lecture notes, kept me engaged."

 (Seriously, am I being punk'd?)

"I like the self-management project that we had to do because it did help me understand what I was learning on a deeper more personal level."

"The self-management project is designed in an excellent way. I tend to procrastinate with large assignments, so if that was done in just one part I would not have done nearly as well. Each part was due at a time where learning that concept was relevant to material being covered in class. The entire course had a structure that was very easy to follow."

(Thanks for noting that. This is how I try to design it!)

"Textbook often had a lot of concepts not mentioned in lectures that also weren't covered in exams, even though it was reiterated that everything in textbook was fair game. I feel like it was slightly misleading as I would focus a lot of the 'textbook only' content which ended up never showing up on exams."

(I disagree with "a lot". There's an enormous amount of lecture/textbook overlap in this course. As for textbook content, I can't test on everything; I have to take a (non-random) sample. And I've gotten consistent complaints about too much exam material being based on the textbook.)

"I greatly appreciated that this prof took the time to provide additional resources and handouts in order to help students reach success as i have yet to have another prof freely do that on their own accord."

(Thanks for the feedback. It's good to know the time and effort I put into those are worth it!)

"I wish the note templates had an easier option to be downloaded onto my ipad. I had to use my laptop to take notes due to the formatting of the templates. I understand the reasoning behind them, I just wonder if there's a solution that would allow students to use their ipad to take notes as well."

(Yes; I'm working on an alternative to that. It's just taking a huge amount of time. I need to test it on multiple platforms to make sure it works, and to verify that there are no accessibility issues.)

"I would have liked if other than the original class notes were received, access to fill in the blank PowerPoint slides were received. The original class notes given were colourless, dull and lacked pictures. As a visual learner this was a bit frustrating especially since the presentation of the notes was different from the actual slides used to learn during class. Having the option to also download the fill in the blank PowerPoints used in class would have been greatly appreciated."

(There is no evidence to support "learning styles"--see Pashler et al., 2009. The notes are intentionally kept free of distractions. My PowerPoints have images and colour, though. I don't supply my PowerPoints for reasons I've explained repeatedly over the years. Mostly, they have poor accessibility.)

"The assignment project was unclear and there was no elaboration of what needed to be done"

(It was...unclear? But I gave you specific questions to answer. It's up to you to come up with the answers. Maybe you're trying to say that it was...challenging? But I've never gotten feedback that the assignment itself is "unclear".)

"the exam questions were so overly complicated, and were designed to trick you which is so horrible."

"I found a good portion of the exam questions to be unfair, and oftentimes up for interpretation. Sneaky technicalities, more trick questions than expected, and multiple answers for one multiple-choice question that could be argued either way. In other words, there was very little gap between the 'best' possible answer compared to the second best."

"Many questions on the exam were designed to stump students and confuse them. This can be terrible if student is second guessing due to repeating questions/questions with similar wording. This form of  examination is not fair as it does not actually question what a student knows but instead if they are and overthinker or not."

(I know it's hard to believe, but I don't have evil intent and I'm not actually trying to trick anyone. Yup, some of the material is inherently complex and potentially confusing. You're giving me far too much credit in my nefarious ability to conceive of tricky questions. A question is unfair if, say, I test on something that was not in the course. That is unfair. Otherwise, test questions may be difficult. That is not the same thing as "unfair". Yes, you are supposed to choose the "best" answer. Or, you know, the "correct" answer.)

"Midterms informed me I don't do well on application questions so providing resources to practice that would help"

(So, something beyond the ePoll questions, the worksheets, the online practice questions on eClass, and the practice tests in the textbook itself?)

"It was hard to read the notes and the textbook. The emphasis on reading the textbook was to much when doing a full course load and I feel the exams should be solely focused on the notes"

(No offense, but...welcome to university. It's not high school anymore. Yes: it's hard. I know that very few first-year classes have a required textbook, but this is a second-year course. I chose the textbook very carefully as a resource to support your learning. There is almost complete overlap between the textbook and lectures. Reading a textbook is nothing new: I took a full course load of five courses per term and every single course had a required textbook.)

"I would appreciate if you included research focus examples that are more recent (most seem to be outdated and from the 80s), because modern science keep developing for the better so it is important to include example that are more relevant (especially to see if anything has changed in the recent years in the b-mod field)"

(It would change the course not at all if I included research examples from the past, say, five years. Yes, things have changed: no one is doing foundational research on whether extinction works. Because that research has already been done, like, in the 80s. No need to repeat it.)

"In the first classes he made fun of past students' work. He also made fun of current students for answering with what he thought were stupid responses. He was rude but improved. It felt unnecessary and disrespectful"

(One time, I showed a butt-ugly (and incorrect) graph made by a former student, to show you what not to do. You're welcome. I did NOT ridicule anyone's "stupid responses". I did not do that; I do not do that; I would never do that. You are mistaken.)

"When people would raise hands to ask questions, often they would either not be seen or ignored"

(I don't ignore anyone; it's just hard to see hands in a dark room full of people at the best of times. Sorry. I hope they came up at the end and asked me their question. I would stay and answer questions after every class until everyone's questions were answered.)

"Appreciated the YouTube videos and case studies included during the presentation"

"Dr Loepelman is one of the greatest professors I have ever had. Truly a great teacher, has a really nice way of explaining and reexplaining when necessary, respectful and honest critiques, and maintains a fun and engaging environment for learning as a collective."

"He's amazing! I can't believe I almost didn't take 282 with him, but every class I'm so grateful I did! he has every trait you'd want in a prof- hilarious, knowledgeable, fun to listen to, i could go on. it's clear he put's a whole lot of effort into each class, and cares very much about making this class the best experience ever! Well, he was definitely successful! At times he totally blew my expectations away. He's genuinely such a great guy and i will definitely be taking more classes with him"

(Thank you. Now, we'll turn to feedback from PSYCH 403: Advanced Perception.)

"First part of the semester was a little hard to follow along because I suck at Gaussian functions but honestly, it was not that bad. People give this class too hard of a wrap."

(Yeah, stop dissing this course, people!)

"The style of notes that is given is completely unproductive and honestly somewhat insulting. I understand that attending classes is important, but forcing us to fill blanks makes it hard to focus on the class while I am there. The class now feels pointless. I cannot focus beyond filling the blanks"

"The blanks make it easy to follow along and understand the lectures"

"I enjoyed the skeleton notes as it gave me the class time to thoughtfully listen and take in the information."

(Comment #1 is somewhat insulting. You didn't like the style of notes. It didn't work for you. You don't have to use them. You are free to take down all notes from the PowerPoint slides yourself. Maybe that works better for you.)

"I found the readings to just repeat the main concepts from the course and did not add a ton of information"

(Yup, that's my goal. I get sooooo many complaints about lectures not being an exact duplicate of the textbook/readings.)

"writing essays and short answers for the exams makes you know your stuff, but having so little time to complete them makes it unbelievably stressful. The final should be slightly better, but the amount of content we must put forth, in my opinion, should be reduced."

(I have already. Now, you have to write three short-answer questions, from a set of eight. I used to require 10 out of 12.)

"Questionable choice teaching 'The Psychology of Food and Eating' during Ramadan - really testing the Muslim members of the class."

(Hmm, maybe it's just another test of your faith, brother. Inshallah!)

"Including two midterms as well as the final allows us as students to adapt to what the exams will be like (especially since we did not have a practice exam to go off of to prepare us for what the exam would be like (this can even be online))."

(Making it online does not reduce the marking load. You did not have practice exams, but there were 10 low-stakes quizzes that were the same exact format as the short-answer exam questions.)

"The examples in class are why i continue to take this instructors courses. He goes above and beyond to provide great content"

"A phenomenal usage of examples and illustrations to help explain points. Thank you very much for those!"

"Loved the documentaries and the ted talks that he provided, it was fun and helped illustrate it better."

"Overall, greatly enjoyed the course!! Had you for 282 & 367, and this course more than met my expectations. It's clear that you care a lot about not just doing your job as a professor, but teaching well, and that's unfortunately rare! Keep up the awesome work, and thank you for taking the time to go out of your way to be as amazing a prof as you are!!"

(Thank you. Now it's time for feedback from PSYCH 494: Human Factors & Ergonomics.)

"Boldface terms were indicated to be part of the exams but it was unclear which boldface terms took more importance over others. For instance, titles and subheadings were also bolded, and some terms were italicized, so there was confusion to this."

(It would be ironic if my design were causing problems. I've checked and I cannot find any short-answer questions on the exams that are based on italicized--not bolded--terms.)

"It would be helpful to provide practice tests and an answer key to be able to get used to the exams on the day of, as well as study tips for these specific exams."

(I gave sample questions--and answers, for the short-answer questions. I also gave tips for the exams in the class before the midterm, and posted that on eClass for you as well. Sorry if you missed that.)

"Older documentary videos were quite boring, so it would be nice to have updated videos to bring in more engagement in class."

(I'm always looking for updated materials. Always. I guess it's good that there haven't been a lot more nuclear disasters more recently tho.)

"professor was critical of receiving feedback in person. He also sadly tends to taunt feedback on his personal blog without taking into account the sincerity of the feedback and being open to change."

(Nope. I take feedback gladly--especially in person. I have never shut anyone down for doing that. I'm sorry if that's the impression you got. Also, I don't "taunt" feedback. Maybe..."mock" is the word you're looking for? LOL. Okay, seriously now: I value the feedback I get. I post it on my personal blog so that you can see the frequently contradictory nature of this feedback. Are my fill-in-the-blank notes good or bad? It depends on the person. I have learned that I cannot please everyone--it's literally impossible. So what I do is apply evidence-based best practices of pedagogy. That includes things like active learning. Students h-a-t-e that, because it means more work. But I do it because it enhances learning. And, respectfully, you have no idea how open to change I am (or not). You have not seen how many changes I have made to my courses over the past 30 years in response to student comments. You don't know how many profs NEVER LOOK at the feedback they get. Posting your comments is proof, at least, that I do read these comments.)

"Although the term paper was quite challenging, it really helped me gain important knowledge and skill on how to write academic papers. The APA preparation lecture was also very helpful."

"This is truly one of the classes I have enjoyed the most during my time at the UofA. Loppelman is a genuinely kind and personable teacher who offers interesting and captivating lectures that he is passionate and knowledgeable about. His lecture style kept my attention and his lecture notes and course website are the most well thought out course materials I've had from a prof. He really did not need to put that much effort in, which shows how he goes above and beyond. He obviously works very hard and puts a ton of effort into his courses and it was very appreciated."

"He is phenomenal, definitely one of my favourite professors."

"Dr. Loepelmann has a very inviting, fun, and kind personality that is very apparent from the way he acts in class. He actively encourages participation and answers all questions sincerely. I have never felt more comfortable speaking up in a classroom environment than in his class."

"He was super lovely and kind. Also very funny which made learning easier"

(Thank you for the kind words.)

Why aren't you studying?

The 30 Years

I've been working at the University of Alberta for over 30 years. (If you count working as a research assistant and teaching assistant, it's actually over 37 years!) Every year, the University celebrates those employees who have put in at least 25 years of service in 5-year increments. At this year's ceremony, there was one person who has been working here for 50 years. Unbelievable!

If you look back at my blog, though, you won't see me describing my 25-year work anniversary 5 years ago. Because, um, they forgot. I've moved through so many roles over time, there's no way for the computer system to track me. So at least I was celebrated for 30 years--and I got two gifts to recognize and reward my many years of service! One of the gifts is a...water bottle. (I guess they figure we get thirsty after so many years of work.)

 

 

(Who's the old guy standing beside the president?)

 

Different Roles

I worked as a professional computer programmer starting in 1987, helping a then-graduate student who needed computers to run experiments for her research. She paid me out of pocket, so I guess that does not count as working for the University. A short time later, though, I was hired as an actual RA to continue in that role. This led me into doing research of my own as an undergraduate, and then starting in 1990, as a grad student myself. I worked as a TA and as occasional RA here and there.

When I graduated with my PhD in 1995, I was immediately thrust into the role of non-academic staff, taking over for the Department of Psychology undergraduate program advisor who went on holidays and never came back. I juggled that role, in addition to teaching at the U of A, Grant MacEwan Community College (now MacEwan University), and Augustana University College (now U of A Augustana Campus). I became a Faculty Lecturer at the U of A in 2000, and am now a Full Teaching Professor. I also worked as a consultant for over 20 years for Nelson Education Ltd. and Cengage Canada.

I've taught courses in the majority of buildings on campus--even some that no longer exist. (RIP, Dentistry-Pharmacy, V-Wing, and Physics Buildings.) I've taught 3-hour courses that ran only on Saturday, or only on Sunday. I've taught evening classes, and one (only one) course that started at 7:00am. (It was supposed to be for people who had jobs that started at 8:30, but it was actually just made up of students who couldn't get into other sections offered at more reasonable hours.) Teaching at Augustana in winter term was particularly brutal. My class was at 8:00am, so I had to be on the road by 6:30 to make it in time--6:00 if the weather was bad, which it often was. One memorable day there was freezing rain; I remember passing by a semi that was literally upside-down in a field.

Tallies

• 3: number of different institutions taught at
• 11: number of different courses taught or co-taught
  
• 240: number of course sections taught
• 1,350 (approximate): number of term papers marked
  
• 25,000-30,000 (approximate): number of students taught (this may double- or even sextuple-count those poor souls who have taken several of my courses)

Awards

• William Hardy Alexander Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2020
• Instructor of the month, Faculty of Science, March, 2017
• Kathleen W. Klawe Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Large Classes, 2014
• Instructors of Distinction Honour Roll, Faculty of Science, 2013, 2014
• Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society Instructor Appreciation award 2013, 2015, 2016
• “Celebrated” for teaching by AASUA, 2007
• Teacher Excellence Award from Delta Chi fraternity, 2003
• Department of Psychology Teaching Award, 2002
• Department of Psychology Teaching Honour Roll (20 times)
  
• Teaching Honour Roll with Distinction (144 times; sadly, the Honour Roll has been on pause since 2018)

I've sat on more committees than I can count, and worked alongside some really great colleagues. I don't have any memories of people who were jerks or selfish or anything. (Maybe those kinds of people are not the types to volunteer to sit on committees. Apparently, these people do exist.)

Okay, I've got to get back to marking term papers now...

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2024 edition)

I've been doing these "summer vacation" posts for a long time. (Since 2009, it looks like.) I realize that a lot of them are very similar. That is, I do the same things. Go to Lacombe and get amazing cannoli from Sweet Capone's. Visit Gull/Sylvan lake. Check out what's new at the Calgary Zoo. Do teaching prep work. This time, though, the theme is: doing something different.

True confession time: I had never been to Quebec before. (Ok, technically, I have been to Quebec. But just to the Canadian Museum of History in Hull in 1990.) Canada is a huge, amazing, diverse country. It's about time that I explored it more. Another confession: going to Quebec was my wife's idea. (I'm legally obligated to say that all of her ideas are good ideas.) Montreal & Quebec City, here we come!

(Such a warm welcome. Thanks, random wall at the YUL airport!)

Now, I was a bit worried. How much English do people speak in Quebec? How good is my French? (It's passable: 5 years of studying Francais in school four decades ago, and a lifetime of reading French on cereal boxes. Flocons de maïs!) How confusing will the metro system be? But we didn't have any major problems. Many people are bilingual and will greet you with "BonjourHi." (Yes, just like the SNL sketch.) That's actually code for "Which language do you speak?" Only a couple of times did I have no choice but to fumble with my awful French-language ability, including ordering at Subway. It was stressful but it all worked out fine. And the metro was super-easy, convenient, and fun, too!

Now, touristy photos of the Notre-Dame Basilica and La Grande Roue in Montreal:

(Tourists everywhere.)

(I'm not scared of heights, you're scared of heights.)

Did you know there's a Museum of Illusions in Montreal? It's a global chain of museums, like a franchise. I didn't realize there were any in Canada. It was pretty cool, but I had to explain all of the illusions to my family, so it felt like giving a lecture. *sigh*

("This one is called the Rubin vase, from 1915. Are you paying attention? There will be a test!")

Not content with checking out Montreal, we then took a train to Quebec City. I've never been on a Via Rail train--and my kids have never taken a train ever. (See, the theme is really coming together! Doing different things!)

(Kinda blurry because I only had one hand free. Wait for me!)

Not only did we see the Château Frontenac from the outside, I discovered a guided tour through the inside that takes you to otherwise off-limits areas--well worth the price.

(Nice to look at, but out of my price range to stay at.)

(rue du Cul-de-Sac in the Quartier Petit Champlain)

The food everywhere was amazing: Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, poutine (of course), and crêpes. Yum!

(Cafe et Crêpe in Montreal--so good, we went back for more.)

 Montreal has an actual Krispy Kreme location. So of course I had to stuff my face.

(Sorry, can't talk with my mouth full.)

 

And then also: I did a lot of work. A lot. I changed literally every slide of every course that I teach, improving legibility and readability. Not only that, but realized that I had been using the same textbooks for a long time--decades, in one case. In reflecting on my teaching, I realized that this needed a change. So, for the first time in years, I've switched textbooks--not just for one course, but for two of them (Cognitive Psychology and Perception). It was a huge amount of work, and it took me two solid months. Most of this time is spent tailoring my lecture notes to complement the content in the new books. I think the ones I've chosen are a good fit; I look forward to getting feedback on them this term.

Now, let me continue the theme of "something different" by wrapping this up:

Why aren't you studying?