“Around the world” podcast
Episode 7: Jenae Cohn, California State University, Sacramento, USA
Welcome to a new edition of the “Educationalist: Around the world” podcast! This week I am delighted to be joined by Dr. Jenae Cohn, Director of Academic Technology at California State University, Sacramento.
Jenae writes and speaks about online teaching and learning for international audiences. She has held prior roles at Stanford University and University of California, Davis. She designs resources for teachers, facilitators, and coaches on ways to improve learner engagement online and is a frequent contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Faculty Focus, and other trade publications dedicated to teaching and learning. She is the author of the book “Skim, Dive, Surface: Teaching Digital Reading”(2021). You can read more about her work here and I warmly recommend you follow her on Twitter @Jenae_Cohn, for meaningful commentary at the intersection of teaching and technology.
In this podcast, we talk about how Jenae sees her institutional role as a translator and bridge builder between different actors (Faculty, staff, students, IT, etc). She considers one of her most important tasks is to create space for a dialogue on “how to use technology in a hopeful and not in a harmful way”. She also talks us through her thoughtful and very organised faculty development approach, that has active listening at its core. To mark the two year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, we reflected on some of the lessons learned. Jenae’s thoughts revolve around the importance of giving each other grace and having patience, as it takes a long time to create inclusive learning environments. She also advises us to try to build sustainable practice, that will make us flexible and responsive to any unforeseen changes in the future.
To hear about all this and more, I kindly invite you to listen to our conversation.
You can catch up with our previous stories here:
- A group-based approach to online course design, by Kate Mitchell, University of Melbourne, Australia;
- From solo artists to jazz ensembles: Peer support as a tool for teacher development, by Sanna Eronen, University of Vaasa, Finland;
- Sharing stories and practices of assessment in emergency remote teaching, by Sukaina Walji, University of Cape Town, South Africa;
- Inter-institutional partnerships in faculty development: A crowdsourced list with examples form around the world;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 1: Jessamyn Neuhaus;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 2: Online Learning Toolkit (OLT);
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 3: Jo Stroud;
- For real change, we need educational leaders who are CHIC, by Colin Simpson, Monash University, Australia;
- Crossing boundaries: Reflections by a former academic developer, by Tracy Zou, Chinese University of Hong Kong;
- One for all, and all for one: A nationwide vision of inter-institutional faculty development, by Manuel João Costa (University of Minho) and Sandra Soares (University of Aveiro), Portugal;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 4: Multimedia support for teaching and learning, with Marco Toffanin;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 5: Faculty peer learning, with Adina Dudau;
- How faculty development can contribute to the well-being of academics: Reflections from practice, by Inken Gast, Maastricht University, The Netherlands;
- “Around the world” podcast, episode 6: Digital competencies and internationalisation, with Chahira Nouira.
This post is part of the “Around the world” series on faculty development. Watch this space in the coming months for more inspiration on professional development approaches in Higher Education from around the globe.
