NSCM’s Shari Hodgson, Ph.D., and Christine Hanlon, Ph.D., led a presentation during the Florida Communication Association (FCA) 89th Annual Convention, where affiliates gather for a weekend of all things Communication.
Members of FCA receive both the Florida Communication Journal and the FCA Newsletter, which provides cutting-edge research. They also gain an invitation to the annual convention that is full of informative panels, papers and posters, allowing members to stay current about issues relevant to communication scholars.
Many events occured during the latest gathering of FCA members. There were awards giveaways, such as the Student Scholarship Award that Nicholson M.A. student Aaron Scott won, highlighted in an article here.
There were also plenty of posters and papers and panels, including the panel from UCF’s Direct Connect which partnered with Hodgson and Hanlon.
“We gave a presentation on the importance and strategies for engaging students in an online environment,” Hodgson said.
“As a part of UCF’s Curriculum Alignment Initiative,” Hanlon added, “I organized a panel of colleagues from our Direct Connect partners to discuss curriculum alignment in our institutions. For the panel, we had five different institutions represented by six faculty members. It was a very diverse panel and the presentation was well attended.”
University faculty from different disciplines have been meeting with colleagues to review curriculum and discuss ways to align content across lessons, courses, subject areas and grade levels so transfer students are better prepared for upper division courses.
Hanlon and Hodgson are part of that conversation, attempting to show the benefits of curriculum alignment, as the curriculum alignment effort has been found to successfully result in improved student success rates.
Hanlon has been an employee at UCF since 1998 and has been teaching communication courses for the past two decades. She served as president of FCA twice and was a recipient of UCF Teaching Incentive Program (TIP) awards in 2006, 2011 and 2016.
Hodgson, associate instructor, has been associated with UCF since 1978. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from UCF and completed post-graduate studies from Barry University. She has been a faculty member in NSCM specifically since 1991, teaching various communication classes and winning numerous teaching awards.
More information on curriculum alignment can be found here.
Pictured in the photo (from left to right) are: Susan Wheeler, Daytona State College; Jeff Melton, Lake Sumter State College; Connie Hudspeth, Seminole State College; Christine Hanlon, University of Central Florida; Shari Hodgson, University of Central Florida; and Natalie Yrizzary, Valencia State College (Osceola campus).
Published February 1, 2020. Written by Iulia Popescu.