Educational Consulting
In many roles I assumed over the years, such as an HLC faculty liaison, faculty development communication and innovation coordinator, after-school educational program director, assessment taskforce chair, and chemistry content marketing consultant, and many more, I’ve been tirelessly working with faculty and administrators on creating a plan for the 21st Century Classroom training, real-time support for faculty, meaningful assessment practices, institutional learning outcomes, LMS training, and other projects.
Projects:
An HLC accreditation faculty liaison (2022-2023)
An organizer and facilitator of the workshop for UW-Milwaukee and MATC faculty and advisors - “Promoting Success for Transfer Students Through Inclusive Teaching and Advising.” Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant (2021-2023)
An organizer of a series of virtual events "Misconceptions in chemistry and ways to prevent or change them" for 101edu/Aktiv Learning (2021-2022)
Peer supporter for the 21st Century Classroom faculty training during transitioning to online teaching (2020)
Presenter at the League for Innovation in Community Colleges conference “Spiraling content: teaching to mastery through deliberate re-introduction and re-assessment of concepts" (2020)
Reviewer and subject-matter expect for Wiley, MacMillan, Pearson, and Norton publishing company (2016-2023)
Reviewer and an early user of adaptive learning courseware from KnewtonAlta (2018) and SmartSparrow InSpark (2019)
LMS coach for the faculty who taught in a Second Chance Pell program (2019)
An early adapter of OER and a creator of Chemistry OER materials (2019-present)
Workshop Leader: “Education Technology Tools” at the MATC professional development institute (2016)
Discussion Leader on “Blended Learning in Chemistry” at the MACTLAC conference (2014)
Panelist for the “Teaching for Student Engagement” at the Alverno Assessment Institute (2013)
Presenter at the round table discussion “Science, Technology, Engineering, Math… and Women” (2010)
Testimonials:
"Dina is a creative and innovative educator who is deeply committed to providing students with a high-quality learning experience. She approaches challenges analytically, breaking them into components that allow her and the people around her to see those challenges with fresh eyes. She is a clear thinker and is able to communicate her ideas succinctly in both speech and writing. My work experiences with Dina are always productive and I come away from them with new ideas that energize my own work." - Susan Nusser, M.S., English Instructor, MATC
"Fiercely efficient, passionate, and dedicated are the phrases that come to mind when I think about Dina. You rarely come across professionals such as Dina, who brings both intellect and integrity to the workplace. I had the pleasure of meeting her when I first started teaching chemistry at the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC). As a senior faculty, Dina met with me to explain the chemistry curriculum format to me, and since then, she has been a mentor and a colleague I trust and look forward to guidance. I am impressed with Dina's ability to command a room and get people on board with novel ideas. Because of her drive to improve, Dina welcomes feedback and is not afraid of criticism. Dina is a committed educator who is concerned about the development of her students and faculty. She is always looking for innovative ways to fulfill her responsibilities to her students and MATC." - Nadi Wickramasekera Sliwoski, Ph.D., Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology Instructor, MATC
Inclusive pedagogy has been my interest long before it became a thing. I've advocated for equality in education and intuitively incorporated a lot of practices that recognize that students come from various backgrounds and circumstances. However, formally learning about it allowed me to laser-focus my efforts and share them with my colleagues. In 2021-2022, together with a team from MATC and UWM I organized a workshop and facilitated it in the summer of 2022.
Every semester I am invited to present in the Peer Support Class for new faculty. Over the years I presented on Assessment, Career Essentials, Inclusive Syllabus, and Faculty Quality Assurance System at MATC.
I was invited to present at various round table discussions and conferences. Above is my presentation for the League for Innovation in the Community College Conference.
Several years ago, I facilitated training for faculty teaching incarcerated students in the Second Chance Pell program on using the new to them Learning Management System (LMS). The challenge was to teach these students online but without them having internet access outside of the LMS. One of the components of this training was to show teachers ways of creating interactive videos and manage content.
In Spring 2021 I was asked to create a training module for new Faculty Development Coaches that would explain the developmental approach to acquiring teaching skills, focus on growth mindset, and non-punitive coaching and mentoring techniques (click on the image to play).
MATC has different cycles of faculty professional development. Together with my colleague, we created training videos that explain various timelines and requirements.
When I first became a faculty Development Coordinator, I was tasked with creating a college-wide syllabus template that incorporates elements of inclusive pedagogy.
In addition to creating OER resources for students, I am also eager to help the chemistry OER community. For one of the projects, I compiled a list of Chemistry low-cost/ no-cost (OER) teaching materials.