Faculty Advisor Spotlight on Victoria Walker, Midway College (KY)

Victoria Walker, Spanish Coordinator / Instructor at Midway College in Kentucky and user of MySpanishLab offers up four distinct pieces of advice for faculty newly joining Pearson’s Faculty Advisor program:

1. Explore the lab!  To Walker, having the MyLab is like offering her a box of toys she can use to design folders and arrange content to her liking. Walker adds educational YouTube videos and songs and uploads FAQ’s and Help Sheets based on student questions.

2. Utilize the features.  Try using one new feature a week with your students in order to try everything a MyLab has to offer.

3. Customize the MyLab to meet your course objectives and expected outcomes. 

4. Submit feedback on features, methods, options, etc. to the Pearson team.  They want to hear from you!

Becoming as proficient as you can within the MyLab will allow you to mentor and assist faculty just starting out with the technology.

Why is Walker such an expert on getting the best results out of using MySpanishLab? Because she teaches with it in three very different ways across three very different course formats. Walker uses MySpanishLab in Introductory Spanish for three different courses – a traditional course, an accelerated course for non-traditional students, and a completely online course. The traditional course is 16 weeks long, taught face-to-face at the Women’s Day College within Midway College with MySpanishLab being used for homework assignments that previously came from a Student Activity Manual. Switching over to MySpanishLab generated a, “tremendous difference in student confidence and success” because students now enter the class with their activities already completed. 

The 8-week accelerated course for non-traditional students is a part of the co-ed School of Career Development at Midway.  MySpanishLab is used for homework in Walker’s traditional course, but she also uses it as the platform to administer chapter exams. Walker says that, “allowing students to take their chapter exams online offers them more time to practice speaking Spanish as well as applying grammatical concepts in a live classroom environment” because class time is no longer being taken up by test taking.

In Walker’s 8-week online course, “MySpanishLab is everything.” It is the platform, the language labs, the interactive workbook, a discussion forum, the learning environment, the course calendar – it’s the virtual classroom for the course. 

For all three of her course formats, Walker believes, “MySpanishLab has served as a life preserver for those [students] on the cusp of failing the class.” Spanish grammar can be a big roadblock for students and big roadblocks lead to discouragement and quitting. However, MySpanishLab allows students to actually “take charge” of their own learning by motivating them through valuable feedback, tutorials, and personalized study plans. Regardless of course format, MySpanishLab has helped Walker’s Spanish students succeed.

Walker cites an annual event as being a big reason why she enjoys being a participant in the Faculty Advisor program. The MyLanguageLab Users’ Conference Walker attends yearly has not only led to a greater degree of appreciation for what goes into creating an “incredible and beneficial end-product” like MySpanishLab, but also provided her with a set opportunity each year to interact with her colleagues. “I learn so much from other advisors and the wonderful Pearson leadership teams,” says Walker, also stating that the conference provides her with fresh insight into the positive results generated through a successful partnership between publisher and professor.

Whether it’s teaching or learning, Walker partners with her students and with Pearson to apply the features and benefits of MySpanishLab to get the best results all around.

What Pearson-sponsored event do you enjoy attending the most?  What course format do you use your MyLab or Mastering product in?  Has using a MyLab or Mastering product led to a change in your course format?