Carleigh Okwali and the Center for Innovative Teaching
Carleigh Okwali became the director of SFSC’s new Center for Innovative Teaching (CIT) in May. Originally from Fort Myers, she and her family moved to Polk County in 2005 during her sophomore year in high school. In her junior and senior years in high school, she participated in dual enrollment classes through Polk State College, which began her love for higher education.
Okwali came to the College from Polk State College, where she was an instructional designer since 2021. She began her career at Polk State College in 2013 when she was invited to become the student lab assistant in the College’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Center. She became the Center’s manager in 2015. A brief stint working in the Public Defender’s Office, 10th Judicial Circuit Intake Division, followed the completion of her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and allowed her to realize her true love and passion for education. She returned to Polk State in 2019 as an innovation specialist.
Okwali has a Graduate Certificate in e-Learning, Design, Development, and Delivery from the University of Central Florida (UCF) and she’s continuing those studies toward her master’s degree at UCF. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, she also holds an Associate in Arts and an Associate in Science in Digital Media/Multimedia from Polk State College.
How did you decide to get a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice?
I knew that I needed to continue in my education and get a bachelor’s degree, so I started out in Business Administration. While working in Polk State’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Center, a member of the Criminal Justice faculty came in to film an introduction video for each of the program’s modules. The excitement and enthusiasm of the instructor grabbed my attention. Through personalized video, she would tell her students what they were doing each week. I thought, “That sounds really fun and interesting. I want to do that, too.” I immediately transferred my major to Criminal Justice.
When will SFSC’s Center for Innovative Teaching be available to faculty?
We’re looking at November for a ribbon cutting and grand opening. In the meantime, all the equipment must be set up and in working order. I feel like a kid on Christmas opening up these boxes as they arrive at the Center, because I know what amazingly innovative things we are going to be able to do. As the furniture arrives, I’m beaming with excitement, envisioning how amazing this space will be, not only for faculty support, but ultimately for our students’ success.
What is the purpose of the Center for Innovative Teaching?
During Convocation, I presented the Center for Innovative Teaching (CIT) as a space to “Collaborate, Innovate, and Transform.” It’s for faculty support and teaching innovation – a place for faculty to ask their questions, receive help with course design, and dream big. It’ll have a training focus, so we have a big training room. The training room employs a complete HyFlex classroom set up, so we can train faculty on using their HyFlex classrooms. We want to make sure they are comfortable entering their classrooms and using new technology. At SFSC, we have 20 HyFlex classrooms. With training and support, we hope to ensure faculty are empowered to use the equipment to its full advantage. We want to bring faculty into the Center, so they can use the High Flex classroom, become excited about using it, and really want to embrace it. I don’t want them to experience any barriers or feel uncomfortable with any of the equipment or technology. Then we can begin to innovate.
What are the HyFlex classrooms?
HyFlex is a modality of learning. You have traditional face-to-face, distance learning, and hybrid, where students come to the physical classroom some days but have content online as well. Higher learning has now started to move into HyFlex format. Meaning, you may have a face-to-face class in front of you but also have other students online watching via Zoom. The flexibility of it is that if a student has something come up in their life, they don’t have to come to the physical classroom, they can join in an online space without missing important course content. We want to be able to meet students where they’re at.
What special equipment will be available to faculty?
For the HyFlex space, we have a large podium and cameras in the ceiling that can move 360 degrees so they can zoom in on particular people in the room. A dynamic speaker box with multiple mics will allow students throughout the classroom to be easily heard, even by students watching via Zoom. In the past, being able to hear each other has been a barrier. If you have students in the classroom and students on Zoom, they may not have been able to interact with each other. The High Flex classrooms are equipped with touch-enabled podium screens and interactive whiteboard, a document camera, and trackpads that can follow the instructor when they move around the classroom – at the podium or the board.
How will the studio be used?
Green Screen
The studio will be set up for video and audio recording. A green screen with green, white, and black backgrounds and interview chairs will set the scene for professional-quality videos. Faculty can use the green screen behind them to place themselves anywhere in the world. The way a green screen works is in the editing process, it allows the background to be easily removed and replaced with other images or video. One way this could be used is to create virtual field trips. As an instructional designer here, I’d like to bring the faculty back into their online courses. In distance education, the course content is there but the students may feel far removed from their instructors. Any instructor who’s comfortable with getting in front of the camera, I’d love to see them in their courses. When you have that connection with the student, students are more persistent in their courses.
Podcasting
When I took my graduate courses, one of my books was only available as an eBook and I was concerned. But then I found that I could listen to the information on my daily commute as a textbook on-the-go. It opened up a whole new world. Podcasting is another great way to get faculty into their courses. They aren’t just facilitators of the course. They were hired for their expertise and experience in their particular field. The textbook doesn’t get that to the student. Podcasts can provide more in-depth information directly from the instructor.
Faculty don’t have a lot of time in their day. When you throw a bunch of technology at them with no practical application, all they perceive is more time for them to take away from the day. With podcasting, they just have to come into the Center, have a conversation with me, I record and edit it, and the instructor has a useful piece of content to put into their course. We also have the ability to record in the field. So, this can be used for guest speakers or in-class lectures.
We also want to collaborate with other areas of the College. In talking with Rob Hampton, his office brings in people from the community for career events. We can record those speakers and make that content available to students who can’t make it to the event.
Podcasting is a great way to relay information. People learn in different ways. Some people like to read, some like to view a video, and some like to listen. Podcasting can reinforce what they’ve read and provide a diverse learning opportunity.
Meeting Room
The Center for Innovative Teaching will also house members of the Educational Technology team: Joann Kramer, e-Learning and Learning Management System specialist; Kathleen Benn, Learning Management System coordinator; and Abigail Nelson, e-Learning Management System support assistant. The smaller HyFlex space will be a great place for us to meet as a team and brainstorm new ways to meet faculty needs. Faculty will be able to use the space as well, and we have a MaxHub mobile screen available for smaller trainings. I’d like to work with various departments to learn more about their specific needs and provide training in response to those needs.
Equipment Available for Checkout
A lot of people are excited about the studio space, but we’ll have a lot of equipment that can be checked out and go outside of those walls as well. I’d like to start compiling some B-Roll of our programs, such as Fire Science’s live fire practice. I plan to do some filming there in November. We’ll be able to use it for content within the courses and in a repository for any program promotions. I’d like to build a repository of each program that we can pull from and build on.
What work in your past has brought you to this point in your career?
I worked at Polk State College since 2013, first as a student worker in their Teaching and Learning Innovation Center. When I was completing my Associate in Science, Polk State was opening the Center, the director was looking for a student in the position to work 15 hours a week. So, I started at the beginning of a Center like this gaining powerful knowledge and experience to share at SFSC. I’m now the director of this new Center for Innovative Teaching at SFSC. So, I’ve been doing this for years. And with my graduate certificate, I’m trained in instructional design principles, how learners learn, and online teaching best practices.
Is there anything you would want people to know about you?
I’m always thinking about what’s best for the students in every decision I make. When we stray from that, that’s where we get lost in the noise. I want to be a support system for faculty and make them feel comfortable, that they can come to me. I’ll even have a box of tissues ready if needed. I always tell them, “Don’t tear your hair out doing something that’s going to take you an hour that could take me 10 minutes. Don’t be afraid to ask. That’s what I’m here for.” That’s one of my big sentiments. Please come by to see us in the Center for Innovative Teaching in Building H. I promise you won’t regret it.
