Kathleen L. Pounders

Service to Department and University

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

Muhammed Ali

I began my UCD teaching career in January, 1995. I began my service to Department and

University in January, 1995. The first course I taught was the basic Public Speaking course. The

Coordinator of the Speech Program asked me to help develop a Student Workbook to accompany

the curriculum. Although I collaborated with the coordinator, I created most of the workbook. I

spent hours researching and writing. I travelled to the coordinator’s home in Castle Rock many

times to help her with her computer skills. Although never compensated for the hours of hard

work, there was a deep satisfaction in the accomplishment, and the fact that I had contributed

significantly to the Department, of which I was so proud to belong. Since my first semester in

the Communication Department, every semester I have contributed ideas, hours, and just a hand

whenever it was needed.

I continued to change, edit, and produce the Student Workbook for two years. When Dr. Barbara

Walkosz became the Speech Program coordinator, we discontinued the workbook; however we

collaborated on teaching materials for the faculty who taught the speaking courses. I researched

and produced a set of handouts for the speaking courses that have been distributed to all the

faculty teaching speech courses. After conducting some informal research on student needs, I

approached Dr. Walkosz and requested that the Business and Professional Speaking course,

(which was in the catalog but not being offered as a course) be put on the schedule. I developed

the Department Core Syllabus for the Business and Professional Speaking courses in 1998.

Although I have made some edits, that syllabus still remains the syllabus given to all new

faculty. From that first request for a course addition, the Department has grown from one section

of the Business and Professional Speaking course taught once a year, to several sections offered

every semester. This growth has allowed the Department to develop and strengthen collegial

ties to the School of Business. On a side note, and as an example of service, I was an unofficial

member (unofficial as I was not tenure track) of the search committee the year Dr. Walkosz was

hired.

Through the years I have been asked to cover classes for faculty members, especially tenure

track members. Once semester I covered Dr. Dilley’s classes for weeks without compensation.

I was glad to step in to help out the Department.

The item of service that has produced the highest sense of satisfaction is my mentoring of new

faculty, and particularly Graduate Teaching Assistants. Dr. Walkosz routinely asked me to

spend time with new faculty their first semester. I spent many hours talking to new faculty

members about situations that had occurred in their classes. I was asked in three separate

semesters to mentor graduate students to prepare them to teach the Presentational Speaking class.

The initial premise was that they would just come to every class period and watch me teach and

take notes. I believe in experiential learning, not observational learning. I spent many hours

talking to them about how to construct a lesson plan, create learning objectives and grading

rubrics, classroom management, etc. I asked them to develop lesson plans and to teach the class

while I observed. They were asked to grade the speeches, outlines, and papers (in addition to my

grading) and we would talk about their reasoning for the grades and the wording of their

feedback. When they taught their own sections of Presentational Speaking the next semester

they received the highest FCQ’s of all of the GTA’s. Also to my chagrin, one of them received

higher FCQ’s than I did!

In Fall of 2009 the Department decided to redesign the content of the Business and Professional

Speaking course. After meeting with all of the Instructors, Drs. Hartnett and Walkosz asked me

to investigate and develop some suggestions for content and delivery of the curriculum. I

perused many textbooks, and read many syllabi from other Institutions. At our next meeting in

Spring of 2010 it was suggested that instead of a textbook, that material be available either on

Blackboard or a website. I spent several hours researching material and developing a prototype

website.

Also in the Fall of 2009 I was part of a committee with Drs. Keranen and Erbert to investigate

new textbooks and possibly a new pedagogical direction for the Fundamentals of

Communication course. I read many textbooks and talked with faculty members at other

Institutions about the direction of their basic Intro to Communication course.

In the Fall of 2009 I was given the position of “Online Pedagogy Coordinator.” Although I

received a course release that semester, and some minimal compensation in Spring 2010, most of

the work I have done in that position has been in a service capacity. I have spent hours helping

Suzanne Stromberg and Kristy Frie, who were new to online education, design and develop their

course content in an appropriate online style. In summer of 2011 I spent hours helping Kristy

move her 16 week course content into the 8 week summer format. I have held meetings with the

online dept. faculty to share research and ideas. I regularly email them to offer encouragement,

give reminders, and share research. Every time I attend a seminar about online education, or

read an article, I share the information with the other online faculty. Even before I was given the

position of Online Pedagogy Coordinator I spent many hours with Wanda Lakota to help her

develop her first online course for the Department.

Service to the University:

Thesis Advisor and Principle Thesis Committee Member for Carrie Thomas’ Honor’s Thesis Project (Psychology Department, 2008)

Member of the Online Faculty Advisory Committee since 2009 (minimum of 2 meetings a year)

Met with new CU Online faculty to discuss “best practices” and my ecollege review

(2010)

Worked with the Ethics Committee to help revise policies and wording about Online Academic Honesty and Disability issues for the bylaws and Student Handbook (ongoing

from Spring 2011)

Member of Center for Faculty Development Grant Review Committee (read, rated, and

provided comments for 22 grant applications)

Presenter at the CU Online Spring Symposium (2011)

Member of FYS Review Committee to provide feedback on proposed FYS material (2011)