Sara Schoen
About My Work
What I Do
My experience as a high school math teacher along with my Master’s of Arts degree in Multicultural College Teaching and Learning (with a focus on distance learning) informs most of my work with faculty and staff. I focus on supporting the creative pedagogical development of instructors so they can support their online students engage in active learning.
My other passions have led University wide work such as co-leading the redesign of the Accessible U website and being actively involved on the planning team for the Internationalizing Teaching and Learning (ITL) Faculty Professional Development program. In both spaces and in my one on one work with instructors, I strongly believe that starting small will lead to bigger and better changes.
Background
I am a former high school math teacher (and dean). Working with high school students has framed my passion for building and supporting learning opportunities for a wide variety of learners. I also worked in a corporate setting while playing on a woman’s semi-pro full-contact football team, but am glad to be back in an atmosphere focused on education.
In my spare time I like to play basketball, broomball and complete short triathlons. I also coach soccer at my local community center. I live in north Minneapolis (near Patrick Henry High School where I taught) and am actively involved in fighting gentrification on the north side through my work as a board of director for Redeemer Center for Life.
Presentations and Publications
- Supporting online learning with multicultural equity pedagogy and Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles. Presented at the European Access Network (EAN) 23rd Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. This poster was based on my MA capstone project which was a professional development course for instructors teaching online. (June, 2014).
- Best of eLearning Series: Shepherding pedagogical change, Presented with Annette McNamara (May 4, 2017). Synthesized research findings into presentation, reference materials and guides. Original presentation at the eLearning Summit was July 28, 2016. Presentation and paper proceeding for the 2016 Distance Teaching and Learning Conference in Madison, WI (August 11, 2016).
- Accessible Usable U: 6 Core Skills of Accessibility: Synthesized research findings into presentation, reference materials and guides. Co-presented with Ann Fandrey at the Web and Tech Accessibility CoP (February 16, 2016); elearning Network (February 24, 2016); Center for Educational Innovation (April 12, 2016); Teaching Enrichment Series (August 31, 2016); CLA (E) Administration (November 17, 2016); and Elevate Communicators Forum Conference (June 8, 2017).
- Maximizing student learning while minimizing cognitive load presentation. Synthesized research findings into presentation, reference materials and guides. Presented with Christina Peterson to University of Minnesota (October 4, 2016); presented with Kris Gorman to TeachingSupport@UMN Faculty Learning Community (February 2, 2017); presented with Kris Gorman to School of Nursing (March 27, 2017) and virtual presentation to UMN (October 31, 2017)
- Prior Knowledge: Using what students know to help them learn. Synthesized research findings into presentation, reference materials and guides. Co-Presented with Paul Ching to the University of Minnesota (March 30, 2017); and TeachingSupport@UMN Faculty Learning Community (March 19, 2017); and virtual presentation to UMN (February 8, 2018).
- Evidence for use of technology in teaching presentation with Jennifer Englund at College of Vet Med Education Day. (May 19, 2017). Synthesized research findings into presentation, reference materials and guides.
- Professional Development Course/Training for online teachers ePoster presentation. Presented with Irene Duranczyk at the Distance Teaching and Learning, Madison, WI (August, 2014).