Evidence of Teaching Excellence & Innovation
This section curates a small number of “evidence artifacts” aligned spotlight my teaching philosophy. These include assignment prompts, rubrics, student work samples, extensive feedback excerpts, and short commentaries connecting the artifact to a guiding principle.
Principle Spotlight 1: Design Thinking
Active Learning | Personalized Learning Paths | Microlearning | Collaborative Learning
Since I began teaching in 2013, I have designed my courses around a Design Thinking continuum. Students learn to define a problem uncover why it is a problem, who is impacted, and what is at stake, then discover and interpret relevant evidence and build empathy by engaging perspectives of people affected by the issue through interviews. In my courses, empathy work is always interview-based: students conduct a minimum of six interviews, including at least one expert interview, and use what they learn to surface patterns, themes, and actionable insights or leverage points. They then ideate solutions that respond to a specific insight, prototype those ideas, and develop a plan to test and refine them through a structured Design Thinking sprint.
Over the past four semesters, I have applied this approach most explicitly in two core courses—INTS 410 Contemporary Health and INTS 210 Sustainable World. In each, students are first introduced to broad contemporary health or sustainability challenges using the engagement principles described in my teaching philosophy, and then, through parallel,
scaffolded assignments, learn how to apply the same design process to a student-selected local, household, community, or campus problem.
1A: Evidence of Teaching Innovation (INTS 210)
Biodiversity, Human Health and Zoonotic Risk Social Media Marketing Strategy
In an integrative module on biodiversity, human health, and zoonotic disease risk (illnesses that spread from animals to humans such as Lyme disease, Zika, and West Nile), students build a scholarly foundation on the links between biodiversity and human health, then apply empirical findings from my own research on the human behaviors that disrupt biodiversity and can catalyze conditions for disease emergence. They operationalize these findings by designing behaviorally informed messaging and a targeted social media prototype that specifies the audience, the desired behavior, and the motivating insight or trade-off that makes change plausible. The assignment explicitly asks students to “start where my research ended,” requiring them to translate evidence into an actionable communication intervention grounded in mechanisms identified in the research.
Design sequence (online module arc):
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Design Challenge: Students investigate the link between biodiversity and human health, focusing on how human behaviors contribute to zoonotic disease emergence.
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Explore the Evidence: Students begin with a peer-reviewed reading establishing the evidence base connecting biodiversity disruption and human health risks.
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Discover Through Research: Students read my publication on The Loop Trail Quest, linking park behaviors to biodiversity disruption and zoonotic risk mechanisms and framing why messaging must be salient and built around credible trade-offs.
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Synthesize Insights: Students treat research findings as design inputs—the transition is explicit: students begin where the research ends.
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Design Response: Students create a social media strategy and campaign mock-ups targeting one focal behavior; they define audience, desired behavior, insights, and a plausible motivational frame.
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Evidence of Learning: After feedback, students transfer the same logic to a midterm campaign on a self-selected topic (practice → feedback → transfer).
Artifact Set
At a Glance Weekly Module
Canvas module screenshot (“Explore and discover evidence”).
Here is the prompt used for the assignment:
Assignment Prompt
Here is the grading rubric:
Rubric
Student's Sample
(Use scrollbar to see entire sample)
This module operationalizes Design Thinking by moving students from evidence to insight to an applied design response. Students translate behavioral research findings into a targeted communication strategy with explicit attention to audience, motivation, and credible trade-offs, then iterate based on feedback before transferring the same logic to their own semester topic with is their midterm project.
1B: Evidence of Teaching Innovation (INTS 410)
Maternal Mortality Among Black Women in the U.S. – Journey Map
Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving's Story Explains Why (NPR Article and Podcast)
Students combine a scholarly evidence base on maternal mortality inequities with a narrative case (Shalon Irving) to make the care pathway visible through journey mapping. The mapping activity highlights barriers, missed signals, and leverage points, preparing students to articulate interventions that are feasible and ethically grounded.
Design sequence
Online module arc
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Design Challenge: Students examine maternal mortality among Black women in the U.S., focusing on structural inequities, clinical dismissal of symptoms, and barriers across the postpartum care pathway.
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Explore the Evidence: Students begin with a scholarly reading documenting the magnitude of disparities and situating the problem in clinical, structural, and policy contexts.
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Discover Through Narrative: Students engage a podcast episode about Shalon Irving; the narrative makes the care pathway concrete and reveals missed signals and institutional blind spots.
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Synthesize Insights: Students create a journey map of the postpartum pathway to identify touchpoints, barriers, decision points, signals, and leverage points.
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Design Response: I introduce a comparative global case from my maternal mortality work in Pakistan and show how insights (agency and mobility constraints) informed a feasible IV intervention.
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Design Application: Students apply the Journey Map tool to their own semester topic.
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Evidence of Learning: The module yields visible, assessable artifacts and supports iterative refinement through feedback.
Artifact Set
Module Overview: Screenshot from Canvas
Screenshot from Canvas: The Exploration Prompt
Assignment Prompt
Student's Work Sample
Student's Sample (With Permission)
Sample Lecture Slides on How the Journey Map Is Used in Public Health To Solve Healthcare Access Disparities
This module demonstrates active learning through Design Thinking by moving from scholarly evidence to narrative-based insight and structured synthesis through journey mapping. Students learn to identify barriers and leverage points along a real postpartum care pathway and see how comparable constraints operate in global contexts, reinforcing human-centered analysis as a pathway to feasible intervention design.
1C: Culmination of the Design Thinking Sprint
Signature Oral Pitch (INTS 210 and INTS 410)
To represent teaching excellence efficiently and authentically, I feature one signature student oral pitch from each Design Thinking course. Each pitch functions as an integrated evidence packet demonstrating the full sprint (Define, Empathy / Discovery, Ideate, Prototype, Test) and makes student reasoning, synthesis, and implementation logic visible.
Artifact set
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Final pitch prompt
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Sample Oral Pitch (static) from INTS 210 Sustainable World and INTS 410 Contemporary Health
Assignment Prompt
Student's Assignment Sample 1
(Scroll to see the whole sample)
Student's Assignment Sample 2
(Scroll to see the whole sample)
Together, the pitch, prompt, rubric, and feedback provide visible evidence of active and applied learning, student agency, and design rigor: students integrate scholarly evidence, interview insights, and implementation considerations into an actionable prototype communicated through a clear narrative and tested assumptions. There are two static samples that are showcased: one is a board game addressing the anxiety students face from parental expectations and it’s goal is to encourage communication and dialogue. The other is a community-based series of activities and social media engagements on how to ‘do biodiversity’ in your own backyard (or balcony).
Principle Spotlight 2: Game-Based Learning
Gamification | Microlearning | Active Learning | Reflective Learning
In INTS 204-DL1, Leadership Theory and Practice, students learn leadership by designing decisions: they translate theory into choices, anticipate consequences, and make their reasoning visible through structured games that culminate in a comprehensive Escape Room Finale anchored in student sensemaking.
2A. Cards Against Leadership with AI-Forecast Outcomes (First Half of Semester)
Students convert chapter case studies from the assigned eText, Leadership: Theory and Practice (Northouse, Year), during the first six weeks of the semester into weekly “cards”: a leadership dilemma (Black Card) and three theory-grounded choice options (White Cards). Students are required to use AI to generate plausible consequences for each White Card option, and they are assessed on the quality of their theory-based critique of those AI outputs and their justification of the decision that best meets the goals of the case study.
Artifacts
Cards Against Leadership assignment prompt.
Sample of student submission excerpt (de-identified) from Fall 2025.
Note, this assignment did not include the mandatory use of AI.
That addition was add for Spring 2026.
De-Identified Student Sample
Revised Rubric to Require Use of AI (Spring 2026)
These artifact demonstrates practice in applying leadership theory to real decisions. Students produce a Cards Against Humanity-Style ‘Game’ for the first half of the semester for chosen case study each week. Beginning in Spring 2026 I added the additional prompt for students to create structured “consequence generators” using AI. I assess students’ theory-based critique of AI outputs and justification of choices supporting academic integrity through evaluation and revision rather than prohibition. The rubric reflects the Spring 2026 use of AI as a tool in predicting choice outcomes.
2B: Escape Room Finale (Culminating Assessment: Sensemaking Journey → Leadership Simulation)
Across the second half of the semester, students build escape room mechanics through scaffolded components, including a clearly defined “locked” leadership dilemma that must be “unlocked,” theory-labeled branching decision points (“doors”), evidence checks that specify what signals or feedback would indicate the approach is working, and explicit guardrails (typically 3–4) that function as non-negotiable boundaries such as equity, morale, trust, transparency, and well-being. For the final, students synthesize these elements into an Escape Room Finale based on a real leadership challenge from their own lives, anchored in sensemaking reflections completed early in the semester and revisited at the end. The project concludes with a debrief reflection in which students articulate what they learned about their leadership instincts, the trade-offs they surfaced, and their growth edges.
Artifacts
Escape Room Finale prompt (this is an excerpt as the prompt gives examples for each slide)
Rubric
Rubric
"Escaping the Clinic Meltdown" - Student's Escape Room Final
(with permission and without audio or video recording)
My Comments (Permission from student to use sample)
“Aima, Your Escape Room assignment is an exceptionally strong integration of lived leadership experience with applied theory. Your scenario was vivid, realistic, and ethically grounded, immediately situating the viewer in a genuine adaptive challenge with clearly defined stakeholders and stakes. Across the theory slides, you moved beyond surface description and demonstrated real application—especially in your use of Adaptive, Servant, Authentic, Path–Goal, and LMX approaches to outline concrete leadership behaviors and consequences rather than simply listing definitions. Your branching narrative followed logical decision pathways that reflected realistic leadership trade-offs, though strengthening the visibility of cause-and-effect between some choices and outcomes would enhance clarity. Your Evidence Check was executed at an outstanding level, correctly linking leadership actions to measurable indicators tied explicitly to theory—an advanced demonstration of leadership evaluation. Your Equity & Ethics Guardrails showed thoughtful professional judgment and an authentic understanding of unintended consequences, and your reflection displayed genuine self-awareness regarding your natural leadership tendencies as well as growth areas around balancing emotional support with structure. Visually, your presentation was consistent and engaging, with effective image use aligned to the escape-room storytelling style, however I was unable to hear the narration! Overall, this project reflects deep engagement, sophisticated theory-to-practice integration, and leadership thinking well beyond baseline undergraduate expectations."
Susan Howard, Dec 8, 2025 at 9:32 PM
This culminating artifact demonstrates the arc of learning across the semester: students move from theory-based scenario design to a personal leadership simulation grounded in reflection and revision. The escape room format makes reasoning visible with students externalizing assumptions, defining guardrails that protect equity and well-being, and showing how theoretical lenses change decisions, consequences, and the definition of a successful outcome. My feedback is illustrative of the detailed feedback I give to all student submissions.
Principle Spotlight 3: Multi-Modal Design
Instruction | Creation | Multimodal Prototyping
In my courses, multimodality is not simply “varied media.” It is an end-to-end design strategy that supports how students engage with complex material, make sense of it, work with others, and build solutions that fit real audiences and constraints. I use multimodal tools to deliver learning through short videos, podcasts, films, and interactive self-assessments, and I also teach students to communicate visually by producing analytic artifacts such as fishbones, journey maps, stakeholder maps, causal diagrams, infographics and storyboards using Canva-style templates and collaborative whiteboard tools (e.g., Miro-type boards). Finally, students use multimodality not only to learn, but to design: their prototypes often take multimodal forms—podcasts, AR/VR experiences, games, campaigns, or app concepts—because the medium is part of the solution, not decoration.
Artifacts - Student Sample Submissions
Journey Map where students apply the tool to their own semester topic (permission given by student)
A Photo Diary to Relate an Experience in Nature with Reference to the Assigned Reading: “Mental Health on a Changing Planet” by Susan Clayton in the edited volume Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves
(eds. Samuel Myers & Howard Frumkin).
Post-it Note Map to Synthesize Interview Insights into Themes
Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa Model) to Show Causal Relationship
QR Code Prototype and Professor’s Detailed Comments Prior to Finalizing
Professor’s Feedback and Comments on Student's QR Code Prototype
[Student’s name removed], you’ve identified two promising, concrete levers for change:
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The Gold Receipt, which exposes food-waste statistics and the vendor’s penalty-free contract; and
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The Waste-to-Tuition Calculator, which converts abstract food waste into something students care deeply about (lost scholarship dollars).
Both concepts respond to a real pain point: students feel the system around dining, waste, and contracts is unfair and opaque. You are aiming to make hidden information visible and emotionally meaningful--which is exactly the right instinct.
For this course, and especially for your final oral pitch, the key is now to move from strong ideas to a small, tangible prototype and implementation plan that you can realistically carry out with specific partners.
Think about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. William Kamkwamba did not begin with a village-wide energy system. At 14, he first built a tiny prototype using a bicycle dynamo to power a radio. Once he proved that small experiment worked, he scaled the same principle to a windmill that could pump water and help irrigate fields. That first, modest prototype—the “bike dynamo”—is what convinced people to take him seriously and join him.
You need an equivalent “bike dynamo” for your project:
1. Clarify your first prototype artifact
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For the Gold Receipt, design an actual receipt:
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Choose a sample day and plug in realistic, approximate waste numbers.
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Add one or two key contract facts (e.g., “Vendor pays $0 in penalties for food waste; university covers all costs”).
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Include a QR code that links to a simple explainer page (this could be a Google Doc) summarizing how the contract currently works.
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For the Waste-to-Tuition Calculator, create a simple Google Sheet or basic web mock-up that:
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Takes “pounds of wasted food per day” as input.
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Outputs “equivalent number of scholarships” (e.g., “Today’s waste could fund 3 scholarships at $X each”).
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2. Identify specific university/dining stakeholders you will work with
In your pitch, you should name roles and, if possible, real offices/people you would approach to make this happen:
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A Dining Services manager (e.g., the general manager for Southside or the campus dining vendor) – to:
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Provide approximate daily/weekly waste estimates or confirm reasonable sample numbers.
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Approve a small trial where you hand out Gold Receipts near an exit (even if just for one meal period).
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The Office of Sustainability – to:
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Help check the waste numbers and calculator assumptions.
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Potentially co-sponsor the trial as a “food waste awareness” pilot.
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A Student Government representative or campus advocacy group – to:
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Help frame the message so it is accurate and constructive (not just blaming).
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Share the QR link or calculator with a broader student audience.
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If relevant, an administrator involved in auxiliary services or dining contracts – to:
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Confirm which contract details can be shared publicly.
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See whether your prototype could inform future contract negotiations or accountability mechanisms.
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For the oral pitch, be ready to say something like:“I plan to meet with [Dining Services Manager] to get a rough daily waste estimate and permission to hand out 20 sample Gold Receipts at Southside. I will also consult with the Office of Sustainability to validate the numbers I use in the Waste-to-Tuition Calculator. Finally, I will partner with a Student Government representative to help share the QR link and gather student reactions.”
3. Specify what you will test and what you hope to learn
Keep your testing plan in future tense, since you are proposing a prototype you intend to pilot:
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For the Gold Receipt:
“I plan to print 20 Gold Receipts and hand them to students leaving Southside at dinner. My goal is that at least half of them will scan the QR code. I will then ask a few quick questions—Did this make you feel more angry, more motivated, confused, or indifferent about food waste and the dining contract?”
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For the Waste-to-Tuition Calculator:
“I plan to demo the calculator with a small group of classmates by plugging in real or estimated waste data, then ask three short questions about whether this changes how they think about food waste and university spending.”
Your learning goals are as important as the tools:
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Do students notice and keep the receipt?
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Do they scan the QR code?
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Does seeing “waste = scholarships lost” make the issue feel more personal or urgent?
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Do any of them say they would support a petition, campaign, or conversation with administrators?
4. Make the link to interviews explicit in your pitch
Tie each prototype back to specific voices you heard:
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“Max said he felt the vendor was ‘getting away with it’ because no one ever sees the contract—that insight led me to put the contract facts and QR code on the Gold Receipt.”
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“Chloe said she only reacts when she sees how something affects her tuition—that’s what inspired the Waste-to-Tuition Calculator.”
If, in your final pitch, you can articulate:
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What you have designed (sample Gold Receipt, calculator mock-up),
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Who you will collaborate with on campus (Dining, Sustainability, Student Government, possibly contract admin), and
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How you plan to run a first, small test and what you hope to learn,
You will have a compelling, William-Kamkwamba–style “first prototype” plan—your own version of the bike dynamo—that shows you are genuinely designing toward real change, not just imagining it. And I would encourage you to submit this as a Patriot Green Fund application for funding.
Susan Howard, Nov 23, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Student's Sample VR App to Pitch to an App Developer
Professor’s Feedback and Comments on VR App
[Student’s name redacted], you’ve created a thoughtful and empathetic prototype concept. I consulted tech developer colleagues on your prototype as I am not a developer. Their comments are integrated below:
Your interviews with spouses and others around veterans with PTSD clearly shaped your design:
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You heard that many veterans don’t feel safe leaving home, cancel plans because of anxiety, and miss nature.
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You heard skepticism about medication alone and the need for other forms of support.
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You recognized how depression, anxiety, and low self-care keep people inside.
The EMDR-VR concept responds directly to those insights: it offers a way to “go outside” safely through VR, combines calming nature scenes and music, and uses EMDR-style bilateral stimulation to process trauma. Your storyboard and visual inspiration make the experience easy to imagine.
For this course, and especially for your oral final pitch, the next step is to move from a powerful concept to a small, realistic prototype and implementation plan—and to be very clear about how, who, and what.
1. Scope and ethics: EMDR is a clinical treatment
First, it’s important to note that EMDR is a specialized trauma therapy that should only be delivered under the guidance of a licensed, trained clinician. For the purposes of this class, that means:
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You cannot (and should not) present yourself as “doing EMDR therapy.”
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A realistic first prototype for you is a VR nature + grounding app inspired by EMDR concepts and you would plan to partner with licensed EMDR clinicians and VA providers before any real clinical use.
Make this explicit in your pitch: you are prototyping the user experience and concept, not practicing therapy on your own.
2. Define your “bike-dynamo” prototype
Think about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. William Kamkwamba didn’t start with a full-scale windmill that irrigated fields. At 14, he first built a tiny prototype using a bicycle dynamo to power a radio. That small, tangible experiment proved the idea and convinced others to help him scale up.
For you, the “bike dynamo” is not the full EMDR-VR platform. It is something like:
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A single 5–10 minute VR experience using existing VR software (for example, an off-the-shelf nature VR app or 360° video) combined with:
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a simple, non-clinical grounding script (deep breathing, noticing five things you see, hear, and feel)
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In your pitch, you should be able to say, in future tense:
“I will use an existing VR nature app or 360° video. I plan to test this with two or three adult participants who experience stress or anxiety (not necessarily full PTSD), after consulting with a counselor about safety.”
3. Be explicit about who you will work with
Name the stakeholders and roles:
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A licensed counselor or EMDR-trained therapist (for example a local VA clinic, or a community provider) to review your concept for safety and to advise what is appropriate for a student prototype.
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A veteran support organization to help you recruit one or two veterans or veteran-adjacent participants if appropriate, and to ensure your language is respectful and trauma-informed.
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A tech partner with VR hardware, a game design student, or a free VR app you adapt for testing.
In your pitch, use language like:
“I plan to consult with an EMDR-trained clinician to make sure my grounding script and cues are safe and non-clinical. I will also approach the {?} to see if they would be open to helping me recruit one or two veteran volunteers for a very gentle test, or whether it is more appropriate to test first with non-veteran students who experience anxiety.”
4. Specify how you will test and what you will measure
Design a small, careful test:
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Participants: two or three adults (starting with non-veteran peers who report stress or anxiety).
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Procedure:
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Pre-check: a very short stress or anxiety rating (for example, “On a scale from 1–10, how stressed do you feel right now?”).
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Five to ten minutes of the VR nature + grounding experience.
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Post-check: the same rating plus a few questions:
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“Did you feel calmer, no change, or more distressed?”
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“Did anything feel uncomfortable or triggering?”
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“Would you use something like this again?”
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Safety: clearly state that participants can stop at any time and that you have information for counseling services available.
In your pitch, you might say:
“I plan to test this mini-prototype with three peers. I will measure changes in a simple 1–10 stress rating before and after, and I will ask them how safe, calming, or strange it felt. My goal is to see whether the basic VR + grounding idea feels helpful and to identify anything that feels confusing or potentially triggering before I even think about testing with veterans.”
5. Bring the storyboard and the next step together
Your current storyboard and visual inspiration are strong. For the oral presentation:
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Show the storyboard as the long-term vision.
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Then show a single concrete screen (for example, the VR menu with one “forest walk” option and a short script excerpt).
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Explain clearly: “This storyboard is where I want the app to go eventually; this one prototype scene is my William-style bike dynamo that I can actually build and test now, with real people and real feedback.”
If you can articulate this small, ethical, and realistic first step—what you will build, who you will partner with, and how you will test it safely—your already powerful concept will become a credible, grounded prototype, worthy of serious consideration by an app developer or veteran-serving organization.
C1. Team Operating Agreement for Synchronous Group Projects (INTS 210 + INTS 410)
In INTS 210 Sustainable World and INTS 410 Contemporary Health synchronous group projects, I require a Team Operating Agreement because students are routinely asked to collaborate in higher education but are rarely taught how to set expectations, distribute work equitably, or manage conflict constructively. The agreement begins with a strengths-based inventory and translates those strengths into defined roles, task ownership, timelines, and communication norms. It also establishes a stepwise conflict-resolution pathway and structured self- and peer-assessment completed as an addendum to the Team Agreement at the end of the semester so accountability is transparent and grounded in evidence of contribution. This tool is adapted directly from my professional practice leading multi-partner collaborations in my social-impact game and design work, aligning classroom teaming with real-world standards.
This evidence artifact demonstrates collaborative learning and community-building as an explicit instructional design choice rather than an assumed student skill. The Teaming Agreement makes teamwork “teachable” by specifying roles, standards, timelines, and communication norms, while normalizing early expectation-setting and psychologically safe conflict navigation. The embedded self- and peer-assessment checkpoints convert collaboration into structured reflection: students document evidence of participation, calibrate responsibilities, and address inequities before they escalate. Collectively, this structure reduces common group-project failure modes (e.g., free-riding, unclear ownership, unaddressed conflict) and strengthens students’ professional readiness for accountable teamwork.
These artifacts show examples of multimodal learning. Students don’t just read about complex health and social problems they have to translate what they’re learning into forms that make their thinking visible. A mind map, infographic, journey map, and fishbone diagram force students to move beyond summary and show relationships, causes, barriers, and leverage points. The prototypes take it one step further. The QR-code concept and the VR/PTSD prototype ask students to turn insight into a solution that someone could realistically use, and my feedback pushes them to narrow scope, clarify the user, and strengthen feasibility and ethics. In an online course, this kind of work keeps learning active and tangible: students build a trail of artifacts they can revise, learn from, and carry forward.
Recent Syllabus
INTS 210_DL2 : Sustainable World