This word has appeared in 135 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
Discover how UNT’s Dr. Dennis Nasco is giving students from a range of different backgrounds the chance to learn at a top-tier institution using Coursera
“If there was a leading edge in education, then this was it.”
Dr. Dennis Nasco
We recently spent time talking with Dr. Dennis Nasco, a passionate educator with over twenty years of experience teaching at the university level. When the pandemic changed the face of education, Dr. Nasco was one of the first to consider Coursera as an option for students to continue their studies. Since then, he’s taught thousands of learners on the platform with the University of North Texas (UNT) in both the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences and the Bachelor of Science in General Business. We’re thankful that he’s here to share his insights with our community about his teaching experience and his predictions for the future of education. Let’s meet Dr. Nasco!
Dennis, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. Let’s start at the beginning–how did you get into teaching?
I always wanted to teach. I got my MBA and had gone out into industry, and it was always my goal to go back. I had an opportunity to do that in the early 2000’s, and was able to get a PhD from Southern Illinois University while teaching. Since I already had a Master of Science in Human Resources Management (MSHRM) and worked a lot in HR, that was the subject area that I was hired to teach in.
I started teaching professional courses, career courses, human resources and organizational behavior courses. I did that at Southern Illinois University for about 17 years, but after a while, I wanted to do something a little different. We had an undergraduate degree completion program and an MBA program at SIU, so I taught in both of those, and was an adjunct for the University of Illinois’ iMBA program.
I finally joined UNT during the height of COVID in 2020 and I was eager for more flexibility and to teach online. As an R1 research university, UNT has a great reputation and allows me more professional opportunity and growth.
How do you think the pandemic affected education worldwide?
When COVID happened, it solidified in my mind that the future of education was changing, and the expectations of what students want in their education was shifting. How universities are going to deliver education is probably never going to be the same moving forward. And I thought that working with Coursera was an opportunity to be at the forefront of this change.
Could you tell us a bit about your students? What are some of their reasons for getting degrees?
The demographic of my students are people in their 30s and 40s mostly, with families, working full-time, who have a very specific purpose for why they want to go back and get an education. They’re looking to move up in their current organizations or to make career moves, and they need this degree to facilitate that for them.
In traditional education, people are 18 to 25 years old and in the process of finding their purpose. Most of my students don’t fall into that category. They’re very specifically looking for a degree to advance themselves and their family, and they need a flexible, high-quality, affordable solution for that. And this is exactly what we’re able to do in the Coursera platform. That puts us in a very unique place. It is truly innovative, the things that we’re doing here, and the steps that we’re taking with Coursera.
Do the courses that you teach have real-world applicability?
Yes, absolutely. One of the things that we hear consistently from students is they’re actually taking stuff from the courses and applying it to their careers. They see the value immediately in what they’re learning.
What will it take for someone to succeed in today’s business world?
Businesses today are saying that they need highly adaptable employees. What that means is the business world is in flux – things change much more rapidly than they did in the past. People have to be able to deal with that ambiguity. This is where Coursera fits in perfectly. You can’t just earn a degree and you’re done. You’re probably going to need to go back and earn additional certifications or degrees to remain relevant and to advance in the work world.
How do you envision UNT providing value to online students in the future?
With the Coursera platform, we’re going to see a lot more non-traditional students, a lot of people who are working full-time, have families, and don’t have access to education in the traditional sense. What I see is an opportunity for institutions like ours to move in, create structure, and bring a large-scale, high-reputation institution into the online world. Partnering with a platform like Coursera gives those students access to us, so it’s a great partnership from that perspective. I think that’s key to the future of education.
Where do you envision your program will be in five to six years?
I truly see us having rapid growth. The number of students that we’ll be able to impact in this program is going to be dramatic. We’ve created a program with Coursera where people who didn’t have access to education before now have that access. To me, that’s really exciting.
Spoken like a true educator!
Thank you, Dennis, for sharing your insights. We look forward to partnering with you in the future!
Adding skills to apply your knowledge in the real world
This biologist is learning to lead so he can pave the way for science.
Jadson C. Santos, became a biologist because he wanted to address real-world problems with scientific solutions on a global scale. As an undergraduate, Jadson studied at the University of São Paulo to earn his degree in biology. There, he soon realized it takes more than science to change the world. It takes leadership.
To complement his bachelor’s degree and pursue his ambitious professional goals, Jadson began learning about culture, diversity, and inclusion on Coursera. As of today, he has taken 41 courses to expand his scientific knowledge and grow his leadership skills.
Jadson now serves as co-chair of the Career Development Subcommittee at the Genetic Society of America. With all his newfound knowledge, Jadson has created a free mentoring program to help low-income students build career skills. He also writes a newsletter about scientific leadership that has over 7,400 subscribers.
Jadson continues to be an active learner on Coursera, saying, “None of this would have been possible without Coursera and all the knowledge I’ve gained there.”
Jadson is a great example of how you can always add new skills to your existing knowledge and continue to reach even your most ambitious professional goals. If you are looking to learn career-transforming, life-altering, world-changing skills, you too can do it on Coursera.
“No matter where you want to get to in your life and career, learning will always be part of the journey.” – Jadson C. Santos
What Big Project Do You Hope to Accomplish Someday?
If you had unlimited time and resources, what would you want to learn, create, invent or investigate?
Vocabulary in Context: Bad Bunny
[On May 2], he announced his casting as the lead of a live-action Marvel movie, playing a character from the Spider-Man universe named El Muerto. Two days after that, he was filming music videos in Puerto Rico. Throughout it all, he was preparing for the release of his fourth studio album, “Un Verano Sin Ti” (“A Summer Without You”), which dropped on [May 6].
At the gala on Monday, Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — wore a custom cream boiler suit and skirt with puff sleeves, designed by Riccardo Tisci for Burberry. At Electric Lady, calmly putting the final touches on the album and working on some new material, he a quintessentially Benito look: pastel pink swim trunks, a checkered blue cardigan and a wide-brimmed sage fisherman’s hat. His left thigh was covered in tattoos, including the sad-faced cartoon heart that appears on the artwork for his new album, and an outline of his home, Puerto Rico. His right thigh bore only one design: the logo for Pokémon Go.
Word of the Day: injunction
This word has appeared in 204 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
What’s Going On in This Picture? | Oct. 17, 2022
Look closely at this image, stripped of its caption, and join the moderated conversation about what you and other students see.
Learn How To Predict NFL Games In Our New Case Study
One of the best things about data science is that you can always connect it to your other interests. Take professional sports. Data helps the pros strategize, assess players’ performance, and even predict the outcome of games.
In an interview with Forbes, former Philadelphia Eagles Game Management Coach Ryan Paganetti says that analytics play an increasingly important role in the NFL. So if you’re a sports fan and you’re interested in data science, you can learn a lot about a team by playing with their data — and we’ll show you how in our new case study: Analyze NFL Stats with Python.
Who is the new case study right for?
Have you been looking for a way to brush up on your analytical skills? Or maybe you just want to learn more about NFL stats? In either case, this course is a great pick.
“This case study is for NFL fans who want to start exploring sports data, as well as more seasoned programmers looking for some interesting practice,” says Codecademy Senior Curriculum Developer Andrea Hassler. “Whether it’s for a fantasy league, a future career-switch, or just more data analysis practice, this case study is for you! We provide plenty of hints and a cheatsheet to support beginners.”
And if you’re looking for a job, it can also help you add to your portfolio. “Case studies are a perfect way to build a data science portfolio and demonstrate to potential employers that you have the skills they’re looking for,” Andrea says. “If you’re an NFL fan, this is also an opportunity to add your own personality to your portfolio. If you’re not an NFL fan, this is a great way to demonstrate that you can work with a wide variety of data.”
But before you jump into the case study, you’ll need to be familiar with Python and pandas — which you can learn in our Analyze Data with Python and Data Science Foundations skill paths.
What will you learn from the new case study?
In this case study, we’ll show you how to use Python and Jupyter Notebook to analyze real NFL data about teams and performance. You’ll learn how to pull insights from sports data and build a machine learning model that uses key statistics to predict which team will win.
Ready to get started? Check out Analyze NFL Stats with Python.
And stay tuned for more case studies as we keep adding more opportunities to give you real-world practice. “We made this case study hoping people’s passion for football would be enhanced by having fun analyzing stats and making predictions,” Andrea says. “You don’t have to be a ‘numbers person’ to enjoy data science. There are data available to answer questions and explore all kinds of topics you’re already interested in!”
GUEST POST: Transformational Learning & Reflection: 3 Keys for Medical Educators
How to reflect
When asked to reflect on an experience, what questions do you ask yourself?
In the book, Make it Stick [6], neurosurgeon Mike Ebersold comments:
I’d go home that night thinking about what happened and what could I do, for example, to improve the way a suturing went. How can I take a bigger bite with my needle, or a smaller bite, or should the stitches be closer together? What if I modified it this way or that way?
The above quote demonstrates how reflection can be used in a physician’s career, but how does one accurately self-reflect and have it become a habit? Reflection is not always intuitive; like any skill it takes practice. [7] Rubrics can be an excellent way to facilitate what questions you want students to ask themselves. Defining reflection and providing tools to guide students on how to achieve the desired reflection levels can help your learners attain them. With practice, learners will adapt to perform reflection-in-practice [8] (developed by Donald Schon as part of his reflective model [9]), demonstrating deep reflection characteristics using tacit knowledge to adjust to changing circumstances.
Now, how can educators integrate strategies to minimize confusion in these three areas?
Explain the Why
Actively monitoring your learning experience to include reflection as a deliberate and guided process can provide multiple benefits to learners. Self-awareness leads to self-monitoring, which improves individual performance. In addition, reflection leads to self-assessment, which can lead to individuals incorporating self-directed learning to their work (Merriam & Bierema, 2014). Encouraging the mindfulness that is needed to notice [10] the “disorienting dilemma” (Mezirow, 1978) or experience the “surprise” (Schon, 1984) begins the cycle of being a lifelong learner. Processing new information, reflecting on it, and adjusting future behavior is an increasingly important skill to possess to keep up with the constant changes in medical knowledge.
While Transformative Learning is typically about individual change, it can serve as the basis for cultivating organizational change. Individuals who transform can assist others as mentors and help influence others to experience that “aha” moment that is paramount in Transformational Learning. [11]
Transformational Learning frames an experience leading to changing perceptions about a topic. Critical reflection is paramount to effectively question prior beliefs to restructure our thought processes when engaging with new information.
For physicians, this means adjusting to new data that comes out about treatment options and adjusting a patient’s plan for care. This type of self-reflection needs to be cultivated from the beginning of a physician’s education. It will also help students consolidate their knowledge throughout medical school for long-term processing, serving as a form of retrieval practice. Lastly, it will also give them the skills to continuously receive new information, internalize it, and act on it to improve patient care.
Putting it into action
In designing learning activities to foster a Transformational Learning experience and guide toward deep reflective practice, consider the following:
How Have Your Teachers Shaped Who You Are?
Is there a teacher who has changed your life?
