Back to the Faculty Advocate Program
Julie Capozzi, M.Ed.
Northern Essex Community College, MA
Julie Capozzi has twenty years experience working with adolescents, as guidance counselor, special needs consultant and teacher. Currently, Julie is a college professor at Northern Essex Community College where she has served for four years. Her experience includes working with emotionally troubled students as well as Ivy League candidates. Teaching students with such diverse backgrounds has enabled her to modify college courses to all levels of ability. She teaches sociology, and psychology, including psychology courses in the Early Elementary Education curriculum. She has developed a new pedagogical teaching approach to her online Introduction to Psychology. She combines WebCT and MyPsychLab, allowing students to benefit from both offerings. Students remark how well this combination has increased their ability to learn psychology. As a Faculty Advocate, Julie is eager to share her success with any instructor interested in this WebCT/MyPsychLab integration. Read what Julie's students said about MyPsychLab.
Valeri A. Farmer-Dougan
Illinois State University
Valeri has been teaching many of the following courses since 1986: Introductory psychology and Honors Introductory Psychology, Experimental and Applied Behavior Analysis/Behavior Modification, Learning and Learning Theories, particularly with animal laboratory components
Motivation, Comparative Animal Learning, Cognition and Behavior, Physiology of Behavior
Psychopharmacology, and Foundations of Inquiry: Freshman seminars with a focus on critical thinking.
While at ISU in 1999, she developed a lecture and laboratory series which redefined how introductory psychology was taught in the Psychology Department. Included on-line testing, use of net forum for essays, and integrated laboratory experiences through breakout sessions in a large lecture class. Valeri has used MPL and MDL in her teaching and has found the program to be motivating to her students.
Her current research interests include; the Role of Mesolimbic System Dopamine in arousal, learning and reward, the Role of DA in Addiction and Schizophrenia, Disequilibrium Models of reinforcement (human and nonhuman subjects), Parameters describing qualitatively different reinforcement (human and nonhuman subjects) and Management of Captive Wild Animals. She has won numerous teaching awards such as the Brown Derby Professor of the Year; Indiana University , 1988, Student's Choice Outstanding Faculty Award; Indiana University , 1990, Psychology Faculty of the Year; Illinois State University , 1992, and the University Outstanding Teacher Award, Illinois State University , 2001.
Rick Frei, Ph.D.
Community College of Philadelphia
Rick Frei has been an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at Community College of Philadelphia since 2003. He has also taught at Temple University, Florida Institute of Technology, and Kent State University. Rick earned his MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Akron.
His publications and conference presentations cover a wide variety of applied psychology topics including employment testing, cultural differences in perception of time, customer service orientation, use of check cashing institutions in urban areas, and sexual harassment. Rick also works as an experiential team consultant for Strategic Organizational Solutions in Melbourne Beach, FL and plays guitar in the surf punk band the Balboas.
Rick's research using MyPsychLab focuses on increasing minority and remedial student retention and increasing non-traditional students' self-efficacy with computers and the Internet.
William R. Holt, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
"As a senior professor with 35 years in the classroom, I thought I'd seen everything a textbook rep had to offer—then I saw MDL and have never looked back! Can old dogs learn new tricks? Absolutely, but MyDevelopmentLab isn't a trick, sizzle, or the frosting—it's the heart and soul of teaching in the 21st century. Student performance is enhanced, students' self assessment of their learning is enriched, and as a faculty member, I feel that MDL has allowed me to move beyond the confines of the classroom and the lecture hour. As class sizes have increased along with the content of the texts, I have had to cut back on outside reading assignments and limit evaluations to the ubiquitous multiple guess test. Now within MDL, I can assign students videos to watch or supplemental readings and require essay answers to questions I pose. Students submit their work to me within MDL, and I get to read the essays, make comments, and assign grades with the ease of a keystroke. Even better feedback to students is literally instanteous!"
William R. Holt, Ph.D., or “dr-bill” as he's been known to several generations of college students, has been in the college classroom for over 35 years. As a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth , he is the senior developmentalist in the department in more ways than one. He teaches child development as well as adulthood and aging plus a seminar in aging and mental health. Currently he is a member of the Geriatric Education Committee for the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. His CV includes a BA from Williams, a Ph.D. from Brown, and membership in both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Psi.
As a licensed psychologist, Bill has worked both as a child psychologist and as a gerontologist in clinic settings. He has published and presented numerous papers and talks in the field of developmental psychology. In addition he was the founder of WebEd, an online course program for CE credits for psychologists and other licensed professionals. For the last decade Bill has had a professional interest in the Internet and its use in the classroom and in the profession.
For the last three years, Bill has used MyDevelopmentLab as part of his classroom experience and has adapted CourseCompass for use in all of his upper level courses. He has student evaluations to back his claim that MyDevelopmenLab is valued highly by students and used by them to achieve as well as experience what otherwise would not be possible in class sizes between 50-100. Working out of the Blackboard platform, he is eager and willing to share his experiences, his students' successes, and his know-how to other faculty who wishes to make MyDevelopmentLab an integral part of their courses.
Read the results of Bill Holt's Student Survey (MyDevelopmentLab; Spring,2006) (PDF)
Read the results of Bill Holt's Student Survey (MyDevelopmentLab; Spring,2005) (PDF)
Peter W. Lenz, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Peter W. Lenz is a full time researcher in the Warren Perception Laboratory at UW-Milwaukee as well as a Lecturer for both UW-Milwaukee and Mt. Mary College of Milwaukee. He teaches Introductory Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Statistics, and Sensation & Perception. He is also the mentor/instructor for approximately a dozen upper division undergraduates each year that find placement as research assistants in the Warren Perception Lab. He earned his B.S. at Salem State College in Salem, MA, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
Pete's publications have appeared in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and Speech Communication and he often presents research findings at the semi-annual meetings of the Acoustical Society of America. Most of the research he and his colleagues are engaged in, involving speech perception and models of speech processing, is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Pete has been using MPL with the Kosslyn/Rosenberg Intoductory Psychology text since Fall, 2003. He uses the multimedia demonstrations in class to supplement his lecture; demonstrations that help to hold the students' attention, clarify various topics, and promote discussion and critical thinking. The online assessments that are available on My Psych Lab are used extensively by his students, not only as self-tests to check their retention of the material, but also to earn course credit: each completed Chapter Exam providing extra credit towards the students' final grade. As a tool for teaching, especially in large classroom environments, Pete has found My Psych Lab to be invaluable and not difficult to integrate into an established course design.
Arlene Lundquist, Ph.D
Utica College
Arlene Lundquist has been teaching undergraduate and graduate psychology for 14 years. As a generalist in psychology, her specific interest areas are motivation, gender, research methods, and muliticultural issues in psychology. Her current research interests include academic motivation, motivation to trust, and developing pedagogical teaching strategies in the classrooom.
As a faculty advocate for MyPsychLab, Arlene has researched the effectiveness of MyPsychLab in her introduction to psychology courses and presented her research findings at academic conferences. She will continue to do so, and is also willing to speak on the phone with potential and new MyPsychLab adopters about her experiences.
Kathy Manuel, B.A. Sociology
Bossier Parish Community College
Kathy is an Associate Professor at Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) in Bossier City, LA. She began as an instructor in 1992 and is now an Associate professor in the Behavioral and Social Sciences division of the college. She taught Introduction to Psychology on campus, and she now teaches it exclusively on Blackboard. She also taught Child Psychology in the past, and she currently teaches Adolescent Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Introduction to Psychology and Social Psychology on Blackboard. In addition to developing these two courses for Blackboard, she also developed and now teaches Psychology of Loss and Death.
Kathy is a Specialist in School Psychology and worked as a School Psychologist for seven years. During that time she taught adjunct at BPCC before being hired full-time in 1992. While in the field as a School Psychologist, she worked with children with learning disabilities, mentally disabled children, as well as the gifted. She also counseled with students and parents, and worked with teachers in the schools who needed help with students who had behavioral problems. She brought to the classroom a lot of field experience!
Kathy is willing to speak to faculty interested in using MPL, especially those who are unsure how to use it in a Blackboard course. She is also willing to personally visit with faculty who need reassurance that MyPsychLab works! She says, "This is my first semester using MPL, and it has been one of the best tools I’ve ever come across in my teaching experience. My students love MPL! My desire is to tell others about MPL, and to pass on my passion for this academic tool. Faculty are so overwhelmed with other responsibilities on campus, so sometimes we don’t ‘take the time’ to research and explore what’s out there. Once I sat down and spent time accessing all the options on MPL, I was hooked! I knew I had to open up this avenue to my students, because it offers a multisensory approach to learning. I am a proponent of learning styles, and this tool exposes students to auditory, visual, and other learning styles. I want others to enjoy this exceptional learning tool as much as I and my students do!"
Darryl Mayeux, Ph.D.
St. Bonaventure University
Darryl Mayeux has been an Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Bonaventure University in western New York since 2003. Before coming to St. Bonaventure, he taught at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, as a visiting assistant professor and at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, CA, as an adjunct faculty member. Among the courses he has taught are Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Animal Behavior, Learning and Memory, Physiological Psychology, and laboratory courses in learning and in neuroendocrinology of sexual behavior. His research has focused on the development of social behavior in non-human primates and, more recently, on learning and memory, particularly of social partners, and the physiological bases of those processes.
Since 2004, Darryl Mayeux has used MyPsychLab to accompany Kosslyn & Rosenberg's Psychology: The Brain, The Person the World in Introduction to Psychology. Because this course is taken primarily by freshmen, he uses the end-of-chapter exams to help students learn responsible planning of the semester's work. By giving them the choice of which subset of the 16 chapters they want to take, he reminds and encourages them to plan their time accordingly. He emphasizes that the opportunity to control the content and timing of their assessment requires active management rather than passive acceptance. He anticipates in the near future incorporating other features of MyPsychLab into his course.
Mary-Ellen O'Sullivan, M.A. Psychology
Psychology Department
Southern Connecticut State University
"I really enjoy using the technology and continually learn new areas. Last semester I used the grade book for the first time and was amazed at how easy it was. My students were very enthusiastic about their ability to keep up-to-date on what was going on in class through the announcement page, as well as be apprised of their grades whenever they wanted them."
Mary-Ellen O'Sullivan has been teaching undergraduate psychology for 10 years at both the university and community college levels. Specific interests include general psychology, motivation, child development and learning. Mary-Ellen is also a psychology tutor for students who are learning disabled or physically challenged.
An enthusiastic user of MyPsychLab, she is available for campus visits and assistance via telephone or email for new users or to those considering this technology.
Elaine Rehr, M.A. Psychology
Diablo Valley College
Elaine Rehr has been teaching at Diablo Valley College since 1973. Her expertise is in introductory psychology, womens studies, and adolescence. She has been teaching at Diablo Valley College since 1973. In the Fall of 2003, Elaine began using MyPsychLab in her introductory Psychology hybrid courses. The effectiveness of this blended approach and her student satisfaction has led Elaine to increase her MPL offerings to five sections of Introductory Psychology courses in the Spring of 2004.
She welcomes anyone to contact her who is interested in her use of MPL and its impact on her curriculum and her students.
She has co-authored a trade book, "101 Ways to Help Your Daughter Love Her Body" by Quill, August 2001.
Sean P. Reilley, Ph.D.
Morehead State University
"MyPsychLab allows me to target mastery learning outside of class with immediate, detailed feedback on the quality of students' preparation for upcoming exam style questions."
Sean Reilley is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY. He employs a variety of computer assisted technologies in undergraduate (Introduction to University Life, Introductory Psychology, and Abnormal Psychology) and graduate courses (Clinical Research Seminar, Intellectual Assessment, and Adult Personality Assessment). His current teaching interests focus on learning styles, collaborative teaching strategies, appreciation of regional and cultural differences in learning, and evaluation of Web-enhanced and multimedia activities for promoting academic performance. Sean is a Licensed Psychologist in Kentucky and has spent the past five years conducting Learning Disorder and adult AD/HD evaluations for college counseling centers. His clinical research focuses on the impact of mood and affect on the performance of attention and academic tasks.
Sean is interested in the individual and joint impact of learning styles and MyPsychLab on satisfaction and academic performance for students in both large (n = 100+) and traditional sized classrooms as well as distance learning environments.
Karl (Des) Robinson
Tarrant County College
Des Robinson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Tarrant County College in Texas . He has several years experience teaching at various universities and colleges, as well as conducting psychological research. His research has been featured on national television in several countries, and he has multiple presentations and publications on creative and effective teaching strategies.
Des began using MyPsychLab in Fall 2004 for six sections of Introduction to Psychology and saw an immediate improvement in student comprehension and performance. Grades on the first exam were at least 10% higher in his MyPsychLab classes compared to previous classes that did not have this valuable resource. Students responded well to using MyPsychLab, with the majority reporting they recommend the instructor keep using it in future classes. The majority of students also reported using the non-mandatory resources of MyPsychLab while they studied, and that they felt in helped them in their preparation for the in-class exams.
The results from these classes are undeniable that the computer-aged student is apt to learning from on-line resources. Des has found that not only is MyPsychLab an excellent comprehensive tool for elaborating on virtually all topics in psychology, but also allows for easy communication via email or discussion boards. He continues to give presentations around the country about MyPsychLab's effectiveness and welcomes the opportunity to further discuss MyPsychLab or answer any questions that you might have.
Sue C. Spaulding, M.S.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
"I have discovered that students don't mind a little extra work if it enhances their understanding of the course material. I have seen an increase in good thought patterns among students and they get a real kick out of the material presented by MyPsychLab."
Sue Spaulding has served as an instructor of General Psychology and the General Psychology Lab course for 12 years at UNC-Charlotte. Her current research focuses on teaching strategies, using multimedia, activities, and Web services to improve student learning and understanding. Her background is in Rehabilitation Psychology with a neuropsychological emphasis. She is also active with the Learning Community program at UNC-Charlotte helping entering students become the best scholars possible.
Sue has gathered information on the satisfaction and effectiveness of adding the MyPsychLab to her introductory Psychology courses over the last academic year. She presented her initial research at the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology in January 2004. She continues to gather data on the use of MyPsychLab. Read the highlights from Sue's Spring 2004 MPL student evaluations. She currently employs MyPsychLab as an addition to a traditional lecture course, and found students enrolling in her Spring 2005 course simply because their friends have had such a good experience with MPL.
She welcomes anyone interested in her use of MyPsychLab or its impact on student learning to contact her via phone, email or snail mail.
View Sue's presentation from the
Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference, March 15 - 17, Raleigh, NC:
Demonstration of Course Management and Learning Software (MyLab Products)
Teresa Stalvey, M. Ed
Department Chair of History & Social Sciences
North Florida Community College
Teresa Stalvey is the Department Chair for History and Social Sciences and a Psychology Instructor at North Florida Community College where she has worked since 1993. In addition to teaching psychology, she has also served as an academic advisor, vocational/career counselor and recruiter. She was NFCC's 2001 & 2002 "Instructor of the Year."
As a faculty advocate for MyPsychLab and MyDevelopmentLab Teresa has demonstrated how to use MyPsychLab to enhance learning and engage students in a traditional, blended and completely online course. She has presented her work at various conferences, including the 26th Annual National Institute for the Teaching of Psychology in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, and the 57th Annual Texas Community College Teacher Association Convention, in Fort Worth, Texas. Since the release of MyPsychLab, Teresa has provided training at many colleges and universities in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. She is available to assist you in the year ahead.
Larry Thomas, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Blinn College; Brenham Texas
"MyPsychLab is a wonderful technological tool to keep students engaged in the course material content beyond the walls of the classroom. My students not only benefit from the media embeded into my PowerPoint slides during the lecture, but also use the media outside the classroom to gain more in-depth experience with the concepts introduced in class. Outside the classroom students use MyPsychLab to keep track of their grades, monitor the lectures and assignments on the calendar and use the pre- and post-tests to help them prepare for the chapter quizzes."
Larry Thomas has a doctorate in educational psychology from Texas A&M University and has used technology in the classroom since he began teaching six years ago at Blinn College. Initially, Dr. Thomas was interested in the use of the Internet to help him keep in touch with student athletes who were missing class because of their participation in college sponsored activities, but quickly learned that many of his non-traditional students also benefited from the material presented on the Internet. Since he began using the Internet he has used MyPsychLab and other web-based instructional materials in traditional, blended and distant education classroom settings. Recently,students called into military service were able to continue their participation in the class from all around the world. If they have access to the Internet, they have access to the class.
Dr. Thomas is a licensed clinical and school psychologist as well as an author of curriculum and professor of psychology. His clinical interest are in developmental disorders, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and depression. He has an extensive PowerPoint library and has worked with publishers in the development of slide presentations for psychology text books and the examination of "clickers" available for college classroom instruction. He has used MyPsychLab for general psychology; he has also used many Internet applications in the instruction of abnormal; lifespan, growth & development; and statistics. I welcome the opportunity to share my experiences with others interested in using technology in instruction.
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