Fierce Education is recognizing those administrators, faculty, instructors, professors, and other higher education influencers who are boldly embracing innovative ways of teaching, technologies and methods to engage and reach students during these challenging times. They are the “Fierce Educators” who are rethinking higher education in this new blended learning world and we will be highlighting their successes and accomplishments.

Fierce Educator:

Dr. Brian Maynard

Affiliation:

Professor, Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology, University of Rhone Island

Being Fierce:

Dr. Brian Maynard transformed plant science courses to accommodate students during the pandemic at the University of Rhode Island. Caring wholeheartedly about the success of his learners, he worked to develop asynchronous course models with hybrid sessions that achieved flexibility and accessibility for students who found themselves in different locations, with different schedules, learning styles, and varying technologies and technological skill sets.

His college courses in plant science, which are typically very hands-on, became self-directed and still maintained the classic, engaging sense of humor and wisdom he is known for, creating a positive and thoughtful learning mindset particularly during the otherwise challenging switch to online learning at the start of the pandemic. Combining tech-savvy pedagogy with hands-on plant propagation, botany and landscape plants courses, his students gave overwhelmingly positive feedback about the courses that he offered this past year.

For more Fierce Educators, see

Fierce Educator: Dr. Joanna Bauer, Claremont Lincoln University

Fierce Educator: Dr. Scott McNabb, Emory University

Fierce Educator: Dr. Palma Catravas, Montgomery College

Fierce Educator: Dr. Leslie Haas, Buena Vista University

Fierce Educator: Dr. Krishna Pakala, Boise State University

Fierce Educator: Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy, The George Washington University