Meet Dr. Kelly Davidson, Winner of VSU’s 2024 Presidential Excellence Award for Online Teaching

Dr. Richard A. Carvajal, president of Valdosta State University, recently honored Dr. Kelly Davidson with the 2024 Presidential Excellence Award for Online Teaching. She joined the faculty of VSU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2013 and currently serves as a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and coordinator for the Master of Arts in Teaching in World Language Education program.

VALDOSTA — Dr. Richard A. Carvajal, president of Valdosta State University, recently honored Dr. Kelly Davidson with the 2024 Presidential Excellence Award for Online Teaching.

The Presidential Excellence Award for Online Teaching recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates a strong commitment to quality online teaching and learning, employs innovative online teaching practices, and develops rapport with individual learners in and beyond the virtual classroom.

Davidson joined the faculty of VSU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2013 and currently serves as a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and coordinator for the Master of Arts in Teaching in World Language Education program.

VSU: What are your favorite classes to teach and your favorite topics to research?

Davidson: That is a difficult question because I love all of my classes, from FREN 1002: Beginning French Language and Introduction to Francophone Cultures all the way through my graduate level education courses. I am thrilled that I have the chance to teach courses like History of Paris and 18th Century French Literature. I also love getting to teach my dream course, World Languages and English to Speakers of Other Languages in the Elementary School. It is amazing to meet with future leaders in language education each Thursday and learn in community about how to most effectively teach languages for early learners in kindergarten through Grade 5. Some of the students are already teaching and some are looking forward to beginning their teaching career, so we have an amazing diversity of perspectives in the course.

VSU: What strategies / tools / techniques have proven most effective in increasing student learning in your online classroom?

Davidson: All of my courses are built on the foundation that learners can engage in questions that are relevant to the real world, making connections with issues surrounding equity, access, and power structures that are familiar in their own lives and cultures. In my French courses, I work from student interests, heritages, and funds of knowledge to create a collaborative learning space that goes beyond a traditional language, literature, or culture course. All materials for my upper-level courses are freely available online, which reduces prohibitive costs for students and allows us to incorporate the latest authentic materials that reflect the changing Francophone world. My education course, World Languages and ESOL in the Elementary School, also adopts these frameworks, both in its structure and content. We call the sessions “collaborative un-lectures” because student participation in our live online class session each week is essential to our learning experience.

VSU: When it comes to developing a meaningful rapport with your online students, how do you ensure that your students feel actively engaged in and satisfied with their online learning experience?

Davidson: My approach to teaching both my French and World Language education courses is that of a communicative, participatory pedagogy, where we work in community to understand how language and culture learning help us to be agents of positive change in the world. I believe this is especially important for online courses. When students and teachers do not have regular meetings in person, it is crucial to create a community that fosters student connection and engagement, one where students feel heard, seen, and valued even though we do not have a physical classroom. We work to create an ongoing conversation weaving through the intersections of their backgrounds, interests, and the course material using tools like discussion boards, YouTube channels, online open discussion drop-ins, guest speakers, and native speaker practice sessions, in addition to Web 2.0 applications that allow us to collaborate and think outside of the box with creative, solution-focused mindsets.

VSU: What advice do you have for other faculty who wish to identify more effective ways to stimulate engagement and comprehension in their own online classroom?

Davidson: Always remember that online teaching does not necessarily mean a lack of connection. Being active in professional communities with a focus on pedagogy, like those at the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching or through state, regional, or national conferences, can help us to stay up to date on technology and approaches that allow us to work creatively to create connections with our students and structure meaningful exchanges and experiences that go beyond the classroom.

As the winner of the Presidential Excellence Award for Online Teaching Davidson received a framed certificate and a $1,000 cash prize.