WINSTON-SALEM – Dr. Manjunatha Bhat teaches anatomy and physiology by what he calls “high tech and high touch.” With classes of as many as 100 students, technology must play a role.
And Bhat, who came to Winston-Salem State University in 2008, is regarded as an expert in teaching and learning technologies. He helps train fellow faculty at WSSU and other institutions on the best tools to help students succeed.1
For example, he uses what’s known as “personalized learning technology” to electronically adjust instruction to the pace at which each student learns.
“Students read the (digital) book,” he says. “As they read the book, it adapts to individual students’ learning and how much progress they are making.”2
In addition to the technology, Bhat gauges another key element – his own enthusiasm.
“Over the years I have learned that students’ interest in any subject or topic directly correlates with the level of enthusiasm I show while discussing it in either a classroom or at the research laboratory bench,” Bhat says.3
“The key is to get them excited,” he says. In his Anatomy and Physiology classes, for example, “I tell my students, ‘It’s your body. It’s my body. I should be curious.’
“I should be enthusiastic about the topic that I’m teaching. It becomes contagious. Students get energized; they become enthusiastic about learning.”4
Bhat is also actively involved in the vitally important role of advising freshmen.
“Keep them engaged both inside the classroom and outside the classroom,” he says.5
It’s that engagement that earned Bhat a 2016 UNC Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award.
Yet he somehow finds time for the lab as well. In work that started at the Cleveland Clinic after he earned his PhD from Case Western Reserve University, Bhat is researching the role calcium plays in in acute and chronic pain.6
1 https://www.northcarolina.edu/board-governors-awards/teaching-awards-2016
2 http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/local-professors-receive-awards-in-teaching-excellence/article_bbc7fc76-c599-5329-95a9-1f01a05cab82.html (video).
3 http://www.wssu.edu/about/featured-stories/academic-excellence.aspx
4 http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/local-professors-receive-awards-in-teaching-excellence/article_bbc7fc76-c599-5329-95a9-1f01a05cab82.html (video).
5Ibid.
6 https://www.northcarolina.edu/board-governors-awards/teaching-awards-2016
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