Erica C. Fleming

Faculty Lead for Teaching and Learning
Penn State College of IST

Teaching

My first academic job was teaching writing courses. For seven years, I taught first-year composition and professional writing for the Program in Writing and Rhetoric in the English Department at Penn State. I constantly sought to improve my teaching through professional development and research on best practices. Most notably, I spent the summer of 2017 revising my Business Writing courses to a blended format with overwhelmingly positive results.

Erica teaching IST 389: Leadership and Technology for Instruction. You can see Erica from behind, and she is standing at the front of class holding a presentation tool while students sit in rows listening to her.

In my first position in the College of IST as Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning, I taught three sections of IST 389: Leadership and Technology for Instruction each semester. This course prepares undergraduate Learning Assistants (LA’s) to partner with faculty and students in the classroom. The course focuses on the science of learning, coaching strategies, providing feedback, evaluating work, and facilitating teams. I revised this course to incorporate the Universal Design for Learning framework, both to help my students feel more included in the classroom and also to model positive teaching strategies that I hope my LA’s will take with them into their own classrooms. In my new role as the Faculty Lead for Teaching and Learning, I will teach IST 602: Supervised Experience in College Teaching, which is the graduate version of this course.

Erica teaching IST 130: Emerging Technologies and Popular Culture. Erica is standing at the front of a large lecture hall with many students attending. There are three large screens behind her displaying course content.

In fall 2023, I had the opportunity to develop and teach IST 130: Emerging Technologies in Popular Culture. This course focuses on Generative AI and different art forms (visual art, writing, music, interactive art). The class is a General Education: General Arts credit and it enrolled more than 300 students from across all disciplines at Penn State. I was able to create engagement opportunities that support student learning and sustain interest in a large enrollment course. Additionally, I supervised a group of 8 course assistants who facilitated student engagement, provided technical assistance, managed course communication, and offered feedback on assignments. This allowed me to put into practice many of the things I teach IST faculty about working with course assistants in the classroom.

Teaching Examples

This is a class from IST 130: Emerging Technologies in Popular Culture (better known as Intro to AI and Creativity). This video highlights how I engaged students in a large lecture hall, including interactive polling and discussion, and how I used music as a starting point to discuss issues of AI ethics.

In IST 389: Leadership and Technology for Instruction, I revised the course using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. One aspect of this was offering lecture videos for every lesson so that students who miss class could still access the material. This video is a brief lecture from our first lesson on Metacognition, and highlights how I engage student in an asynchronous environment.

Student Feedback

“This course prepared me for what I am and will continue doing, being an assistant. Primarily coaching students and helping the instructor. However, Ms. Fleming has done an amazing job at making me feel welcomed. She gives the flexibility us students wish getting from other courses, she listens and reads our feedback, asks how we are doing overall at PSU. I appreciate her reasonable attitude towards her students.” 
Undergraduate Student
IST 389: Leadership and Technology for Instruction

“I have loved this course, and have recommended it to anyone and everyone who needs an art gen ed. The content and lectures are engaging and interesting, and Professor Fleming is a delight. The course is well-paced and takes in a broad view of generative AI without getting stuck in any one generator or type of generator. Professor Fleming is very easy to listen to and makes me want to attend class.” 
Undergraduate Student
IST 130: Emerging Technologies and Popular Culture

“This has been one of the best learning experiences I have had in the college of IST. [Ms. Fleming is the] only professor I’ve had to use TopHat in an engaging way and not just for attendance. I have never felt more involved in a class than this one, almost entirely because we could use TopHat to ask questions or answer questions instead of raising our hand..” 
Undergraduate Student
IST 389: Leadership and Technology for Instruction

“Erica Fleming is fantastic – she takes material that is rather dry and finds a way to make it interesting. The skills taught in this class are so important for all students heading into the professional world, no matter what their area of focus. She is extremely straightforward and transparent, making it very simple to succeed in the class. Follow her directions, reach out for help, and you are bound to get an A. In my opinion, more general education requirements should be like her class. [Other general education classes] made me want to jump off of a cliff, but not this one. She responds rapidly to emails and you can tell she takes teaching seriously and truly enjoys it. She is a pleasure to work with.” 
Undergraduate Student
ENGL202D: Business Writing

“Professor Fleming has yet to fall victim to the cynical, jaded view of academia that so many professors succumb to over time. It is in such a capacity that she’s one of the most engaged and passionate teachers I have ever had.”
Undergraduate Student
ENGL202B: Writing in the Humanities

“Professor Fleming is one of the best instructors I’ve had during my time at Penn State. I had previously taken the course with another instructor and had to late drop due to her ineffective methods. Therefore, I believe that Professor Fleming is the main contributing factor to this course’s success. She structured her class very well with reading assignments that pertained to our next project, allowed for peer review workshops, hosted office hours with constructive feedback, presented information thoroughly and interestingly in class, and made me want to learn!”
Undergraduate Student
ENGL202D: Business Writing