2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Teaching is like riding a bike, right? A career in academia may involve a semester or even years away from the classroom as one pursues research or enters administration. Unlike a sabbatical where one may engage students while expanding relationships in industry or another university, returning to the classroom after or while in an administrator role has its own challenges and opportunities. This paper describes the experience of a veteran administrator’s
recent return to the classroom after nearly a decade away and shared lessons learned that new educators might find valuable.

The author’s early academic career was focused almost entirely on teaching and advising. For more than a decade, each year they taught over a thousand students and supervised nearly a dozen graduate students to deliver the core 2nd year statics and mechanics of materials courses at a large public land-grant university. Even though the fundamental principles of mechanics didn’t change, the author would continuously update their course structure and activities based on improved understanding of effective pedagogy and student feedback, conducted learning outcome studies with my students, and regularly presented at ASEE on relevant teaching topics. And then in January 2014, the author moved into a full-time administrative role which focused on undergraduate student support and did not include teaching responsibilities. But the itch was always there, so in Fall 2022 the author volunteered, on top of their administrative responsibilities, to teach a 90-student section of mechanics of materials.

This paper will provide lessons learned, highlighting some teaching techniques that still work and others that fell flat, conveying class management advice, and tips on balancing priorities when teaching is not your only responsibility. The author’s hope in writing this paper is that these observations will provide at least a few nuggets of insight that new engineering faculty can use as they dive into this wonderful world of teaching.