In recognition of his ongoing dedication to reaching students through innovative teaching practices, Steve Stuglin, Associate Professor of Communication at Georgia Highlands College (GHC), has been selected for a 2023 Felton Jenkins, Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award – one of only three in the state.
These University System of Georgia (USG) awards recognize individual faculty and staff for a strong commitment to teaching and student success. One faculty or staff award is given for the research and comprehensive universities sector, one for the state university sector and one for the state college sector.
Associate Vice Chancellor for Student and Faculty Success Jonathan Watts Hull said the selection process for the awards was highly competitive, and the awards committee was impressed by Stuglin’s extensive list of innovative teaching practices, including “flipped” classrooms, Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) assignments and use of gaming and interviews. In particular, the committee was impressed by the data presented by Stuglin showing the positive impact of these methods on student success.
Stuglin explained, for example, his introverted or “flipped” classroom model used for his core Human Communication course:
“In-class instruction time is often lost by reviewing content that most college students can comprehend on their first read of it at home,” Stuglin said. “I require that at-home reading with workbook entries due at the start of each class. After checking for understanding, I am left with the majority of every class period to spend on applying content from the readings and problem-solving in small groups, instead of lecturing material that was already covered in the chapters.”
In addition, because GHC offers High Impact Practices and First-Year Experience courses, Stuglin was able to create and teach four new courses for the GHC School of Humanities: Political Argument & Debate, Engaging in Elections, Persuasion in Advertising, and Rhetorics of Video Games. In the Gaming course, for example, he teaches rhetorical criticism techniques typically applied to poetry, prose and music and instead applies those techniques to the video games students play.
“By choosing artifacts for analysis that already spark passion with students, Rhetorics of Video Games provides an avenue to get students truly excited about rhetorical criticism,” Stuglin said. “In the class, I teach students how to use Narrative, Ideological, Metaphoric, Feminist and Genre Criticism on modern video games. By the end of the semester, students write full length rhetorical critiques of video game artifacts they chose for analysis.”
Stuglin previously taught at Eastern Michigan University in 2007 as a master’s degree-level graduate teaching assistant, then went on to teach at Georgia State University from 2008 to 2012 as a doctoral-level graduate teaching assistant. He has been with GHC since 2012 and is currently a tenured Associate Professor.
“Being selected for the award honors the years and years of hard work that I have put into a career that I love,” Stuglin said. “Helping college students find their voice is my life’s work, and it is very validating to see that work recognized by the highest levels of the University System of Georgia.”
Stuglin will be officially recognized at the annual Board of Regents’ Scholarship Gala on Friday, September 8, at the Atlanta History Center.
