Engaging students in the classroom and supporting student athletes on and off the field is my focus and passion. My story as the faculty mentor to the football team, and how that has affected my teaching and approach with students, has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and in the NCAA's Champion magazine. Interested in learning about ways to support student athletes at your institution? Please contact me at gkreahlingmckay@yahoo.com. I also offer faculty development on active learning in face to face, blended, and online environments.
Sample comments: “Dr. McKay provided us with critical insights into how we can better engage our faculty in order to arrive at successful outcomes for our student [athletes]. As a result of our dialogue, my staff feels empowered to truly open their programs to our faculty in order to take a team approach. While we were already outstanding performers in the classroom, we have pushed that performance to the next level.” - Steve Peed, Director of Athletics, Maine Maritime Academy
"Dr. McKay was my faculty mentor when I joined a national organization of colleges that trained professors to teach online [through Mellon-funded CIC grant]. Her expert guidance helped me to avoid common pitfalls for first-time online teachers, and she always delivered fast and friendly advice that made me a better teacher." Dr. Jack Musselman, Director, Center for Ethics and Leadership and Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. Edward's University
"In 2016, I seized the opportunity to develop an online course in Art History through the Council of Independent Colleges. A true beginner, I was fortunate to be mentored by Dr. Gretchen McKay at the conference of the Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction. Dr. McKay was especially generous in showing me how her course looked online. She offered sage advice on course structure, the use of technology and internet resources, and pedagogy. I followed her advice by structuring my course course based on modules, keeping it clear and simple, and "front-loading" the entire course before the semester started. I especially benefited from her instruction on discussion boards, with precisely scheduled contributions, responses and follow-ups among the students and me. The interaction allowed individual personalities to surface. Indeed, the word got around after the first year, and I had to add a second section the following year. In short, I am very happy that I followed the insightful, helpful, lessons learned from Dr. McKay." - Dr. Libby Bailey
Professor of Art History, Wesleyan College, Macon, GA
"Not only does Gretchen have a compelling presence, she has a LOT of experience with different approaches to teaching, and she is terrific at articulating them." -- Steve Kerby, Director of Instructional Technology, McDaniel College
Topics Might include:
Supporting Student Athletes: Navigating College Systems
Engaging Student Athletes in the Classroom
Reacting to the Past - immersive role-playing in higher education and Gamification in Higher Education
What do you do in the F2F part of a flipped class?
How to design a hybrid or blended class and best practices in online course design
Curating digital content
Past Workshops :
Convocation Speaker, Schreiner University, August 2018
Keynote Speaker, Engaged Pedagogy Conference, Texas Lutheran University, May 16, 2018
Workshop on Supporting Student Athletes, Maine Maritime Academy, March 2017
Workshop on Active Learning at New College of Florida, October 2017
Session on Online Course Design for Active Engagement for Texas Learning Consortium Retreat, Lubbock Christian University, June 2017
Faculty mentor for the Council of Independent Colleges Online Humanities Teaching Consortium II (August 2016-August 2018).
Plenary speaker and Reacting to the Past role-playing game workshop facilitator on gamification at the American College of Greece, September 12, 2016.
Sweet Briar College, day-long workshop on active learning in F2F and online classes (May 2016).
American College of Greece, week-long Reacting to the Past game workshop (January 2014)
Contact me for more information:
gkreahlingmckay@yahoo.com
@GretchenMcKay1 on Twitter
