2024 Cristina Reiser Outstanding Online Teacher of the Year
Departmental News
Posted: May 1, 2024
Dr. Cristina Reiser received the UNM-wide Online Teacher of the Year Award at a ceremony that celebrated exemplary college instructors in May. The Economics Department Chair, Melissa Binder, who had the honor of presenting the award, highlighted three ways in which Dr. Reiser's online courses promote learning and uplift her students.
The first is inclusivity. Dr. Reiser participated in the Student Experience Project, which encouraged instructors to adopt evidence-based interventions to improve student academic success by normalizing struggle as part of the learning process – growth mindset – and by improving students’ sense of belonging. She integrated these interventions into every part of her courses and her students increased growth mindset and belonging by large margins, more than any other instructor who participated in the Project.
The second is design. Two student comments from recent course evaluations speak to the effectiveness of the course experience:
- The discussions are not just some silly requirements that are [ ] busy work, but rather they really encourage you to study and learn the material more than discussion posts in most other classes. That feature has been a massive help to my learning in this class.
- Dr. Reiser’s clear comfort in navigating the online teaching platform shines through in the flow and format of this course. The layout, schedule, and personal touches all helped enhance the distance learning experience.
Finally, Cristina is a highly effective instructor, in any modality. In another student's words:
- I want to point out that the instructor is one of the best professors I have ever [had], even though the course is online.
Thank you, Dr. Reiser, for setting the bar for online education. You are, clearly, the online teacher of the year!
