Faculty Forward Fellowship Faculty Spotlight: Systems Engineering for Space – Alexa Valdez, M.S.

From an Engineering for Professionals student to grader, to adjunct faculty, Space Systems Engineering (SSE) graduate Alexa Valdez continuously strives to develop her professional skill set. In 2023, she added the Faculty Forward Fellowship to her professional development credentials. A 2021 graduate of the Space Systems Engineering online master’s program, Alexa now works at Raytheon Technologies as a Systems Safety Engineer near Los Angeles, CA. She was invited to be a grader for EN.675.600 Systems Engineering for Space in 2020, while still a student in the program. SSE Program Manager, Will Devereux, and co-instructor, Rich Anderson, both from JHU’s Applied Physics Lab, invited her to join the instructor team in 2022 when they launched a course redevelopment project with WSE instructional designer Sara Shunkwiler.

This gateway course sets the tone for the SSE program with up to 80 students each term. The group took a hard look at what was working well for students and what they could do to make the course more effective, efficient, and welcoming. Accessibility had not been a focus during the original course development, so it was an opportunity to explore how both content accessibility and inclusive teaching pedagogy could better support all students.

Problem of Practice

A core component of the Faculty Forward Fellowship is the Problem of Practice (PoP), which challenges each participant to identify a specific issue within their course and apply research-based strategies to solve it. For Alexa, her PoP aimed to ensure that her online course intentionally fostered all three critical types of learning interactions: Learner-Content, Learner-Instructor, and Learner-Learner. In a fully online, asynchronous environment, balancing these interactions is essential for student engagement and learning outcomes. Without intentional design, students can quickly feel isolated, disengaged, or disconnected from their instructors and peers. Faculty Forward helped Alexa develop a structured approach to ensure these interactions were present throughout her course.

Learner-Content

As part of the course redevelopment efforts, Alexa and her co-instructors first prioritized enhancing learner-content interaction by rebuilding all previous PDF embedded assignments and team project instructions directly into Canvas as text-based pages. This transition not only improved course organization but also enhanced accessibility, ensuring that all students, including those using assistive technologies, could easily engage with the content. Canvas also allows for the integration of videos and interactive web-based platforms such as Genially, to make instructional content more engaging and dynamic. To further support student interaction with course materials, the team revamped the Module Objective & Overview pages, directly embedding links to lectures, readings, quizzes, discussion boards, and assignments within the course. This improved navigation and reduced cognitive load, allowing students to focus more on learning rather than searching for resources. The team also introduced clear rubrics for all assignments, discussions, and projects, ensuring students had transparent grading criteria and well-defined expectations. These refinements created a more structured, inclusive, and interactive learning environment as part of the learner-content relationship.

Learner-Instructor

Through discussions in Faculty Forward, Alexa also discovered new ways to strengthen student-instructor interactions. One of the most eye-opening moments in the Fellowship was when a fellow participant shared how she used Canvas discussion forums to facilitate student questions. She implemented a strategy called “Muddiest Points,” where students posted aspects of the lecture that were muddy, or unclear, allowing the instructor to provide clarification. This concept reshaped Alexa’s perspective on discussion forums. Previously, she had viewed them primarily as student-to-student spaces. She realized they could also serve as a direct communication channel between students and instructors and implemented Q&A forums to provide a space for asynchronous student-instructor engagement.

In addition to fostering discussion through forums, the team re-imagined the way they used announcements to create a more proactive instructor presence. Rather than simply using announcements reactively for course updates, they began posting weekly Homework Tips and guidance, offering homework tips, reminders, and encouragement to help students stay on track. This shift ensured that students received consistent communication and felt supported throughout the course, even in an asynchronous environment. Recognizing the needs of working professionals and students across different time zones, Alexa and her co-instructors also introduced one-on-one office hours using Microsoft Bookings, allowing students to easily schedule personalized support with instructors. These changes significantly improved student-instructor engagement, flexibility, and overall accessibility.

Learner-Learner

To improve learner-learner interaction, the team restructured discussions and group work to create more meaningful peer collaboration. In a class of approximately 80 students per semester, traditional discussion formats often led to student posts getting lost in a sea of responses. To solve this, they implemented group discussions, breaking the class into smaller cohorts where students could engage in more focused, interactive conversations. Throughout the semester, students were regrouped to encourage diverse interactions and broaden perspectives while keeping discussions manageable.

To enhance collaboration further, the team integrated VoiceThread into the final projects, allowing students to create and present multimedia-rich submissions that encouraged peer engagement and discussion. This tool enabled students to provide voice or video feedback on each other’s presentations, fostering a more interactive experience beyond conventional text-based responses. VoiceThread also provides for continued learner-instructor interactions, by allowing instructors to provide feedback via audio, video or annotated comment formats. In this way, the instructors could provide more personalized feedback. Additionally, group evaluations were introduced throughout the semester, giving students a structured way to assess their team members’ contributions. This allowed instructors to identify and address team challenges early on, ensuring more balanced participation and an overall better experience for students working in teams.

Beyond Faculty Forward

As the course redevelopment took shape, Alexa realized that Faculty Forward had not only helped her improve the course but had also empowered her as an educator and advocate for effective and inclusive teaching practices. Alexa and Sara teamed up with instructional designer, Mel Rizzuto, to present CTLD’s first workshop on math accessibility at the HighEd Web Accessibility Summit in 2023. Joined by JHU APL Group Supervisor and SSE Faculty, Brian Bauer, and instructional designer, Katie Springer, the team have become worldwide presenters on equitable access to STEM and math accessibility.

More recently, Alexa and Sara were invited presenters at Magna Faculty Development Professionals Conference and repeated the workshop with Brian Bauer for Faculty Forward sharing a wealth of tips and lessons learned from redeveloping several courses. A recording of this session, and previously released articles as part of the Faculty Forward Magazine Inclusive Teaching Series are available on this website.