Faculty Advisor Spotlight – Amelia Lopez, Harold Washington College, (IL)

An assistant professor at Harold Washington College, a division of City College of Chicago, Amelia Lopez has used all of the MyLabs in English at one time or another.  Lopez got “hooked” on incorporating MyLabs into her courses while teaching developmental English.  Adding a MyLab to her course structure led to a “huge jump in students’ reading levels.”

Currently, Lopez uses MyCompLab in the courses she teaches.  For her intro course, MyCompLab gives students access to the resources and grammar exercises they need to review the basic skills required to succeed.  For her English 102 course, Lopez uses MyCompLab for its assignments as well as the MLA guideline resources.

Lopez also has her students compose their essays directly in MyCompLab so she can not only grade them in the MyLab, but link directly to skills exercises where students need additional practice.  “Linking to exercises has proven more successful in getting students to practice than just writing a comment to review a specific grammar rule on a printed essay,” she says.  This not only helps Lopez target her students’ learning, but also assists the students because they, “don’t have to pay for printing since it’s all done on the computer.”

The biggest contributor to an increase in student retention and success in both courses has been the amount of exercises MyCompLab has available.  “Students have an unlimited amount of time to work and master each skill,” says Lopez.

With all her MyLab successes in English, it was an easy decision for Lopez to join Pearson’s Faculty Advisor program.  Being a Faculty Advisor allows Lopez to meet with other faculty and share her experiences while simultaneously learning what her peers are up to.  It’s this aspect of the program that she cites as being the main thing for new Faculty Advisors to remember to do.  “Try to participate as much as possible.  You get a lot out of [sharing your experiences] even as you’re giving.”  According to Lopez, the most important thing is just to engage others even if you’re the one asking questions.

Lopez really likes that being a Faculty Advisor takes her out of the classroom to gain   “multiple perspectives” and the ability to, “see things in a broader educational sense.”  “I’ve learnt that faculty all over struggle with the same things,” says Lopez.