Erikk Ross Curriculum Vitae

Having a successful professional career starts in the classroom. Every student should leave these courses with the ability to apply the skills learned to their professional career. Topics covered in class are directly related to real-world situations in the field. For my classes, it’s important to use innovative teaching methods, such as creating video tutorials.

Because students can learn and help each other, I emphasize heavy discussion and collaboration when appropriate.

Students should have feedback and evaluations of their work returned in a timely manner, also, responding to questions should be done promptly. When I evaluate student’s work, I use real-world critique measurement tools. An honest evaluation will benefit the students more for their success in a career. 

As educators, we need to continue to improve our own knowledge of the industry. Technology is changing rapidly, and it is important for us to keep updated in order to bring these new technologies to the classroom and the students.

My course teaching duties include: IMD312: Introduction to Programming, IMD411: Senior Research and IMD323: Database Systems, IMD331: Web Site Development II and IMD401: Advanced Web Scripting.

Students consider IMD312 to be one of the more difficult classes. The course builds upon several of their previous classroom work. The students rely heavily on their OLS site. When I first started teaching this class, it was difficult to explain the setup to their FTP program in order to connect to OLS. As a solution, I developed two video tutorials to show how OLS worked and how they could setup Dreamweaver to connect to OLS. The videos quickly became a popular form of communication. The students had a far better understanding of how certain programs, projects and operations worked. These videos proved to be an effective form of learning in my online classroom, and I have continued to expand them.

Because of the success of the OLS videos, I created several video tutorials for other assignments in the class. This method has proved to be a success with students.

During the last year, I have been part of the curriculum team. Most recently, I finished writing the new 11-week IMD312: Introduction to Programming class. The new class will focus on JavaScript and jQuery, so it was an extensive re-write. I also wrote a scope document for IMD401, which is under review.

Over the course of my teaching career, I have participated in student portfolio evaluations. This is a great way for students to get feedback on their portfolios. It is also rewarding to see students you have worked with in the past and how they have matured as a designer.

Reviewing your own teaching methods can be a difficult task to do alone. I rely on the comments made in the IDEA survey to review how I am performing as an instructor and how the classroom is set up.

Throughout my teaching career with AIO, I have a more comprehensive understanding on what to expect from each course. I have learned to identify common mistakes and misunderstandings, and I have added additional instructions in those places to help students have a better grasp on the assignment.

With my experience in these courses, I have also become more strict on assignment deadlines. As I continue my career as the director of the Division of Programming and Application Support Services for Lake County, Florida, it has helped my teaching career immensely. I am able to use my real-world experience to help students.

For this year, I want to concentrate on getting certain classes with the AIO updated in terms of skills taught.

The majority of student evaluations have been positive. In the IDEA reports, I have always received a score of 4.5 or higher in regards to being an Excellent Teacher. In several classes I have had a 5.0 average. Below are some comments from students, which can also be found in the IDEA reports.

"Erikk Ross is an excellent instructor. He goes beyond the point of just teaching by the book. Erikk provides excellent guidance to student’s difficulties and provides solutions to problems. He is always available and responds to student post almost as if he is in the class 24 hours a day. To some it up with my opinion, if all of my classes had instructors like Erikk Ross, I feel that I would have learned more in depth skills and comprehended the course materials at a higher level."

"This has been one of the best teachers I have had at AI. He can teach anyone and has most outstanding teacher skills. Mr. Ross has a way at helping a student get understanding even in the tough times and the extra steps he takes to make sure we have learned what we need to succeed is outstanding. Money well spent with him."

"I have to say that Erikk is one of the best teachers I have had in this school! He is great with explaining him self and problem solving! His personal web site and video tutorials are an excellent resource for students. That helped a lot and really teaches you to do things the right way independently. I normally have trouble doing my own research on solving my problems but this class was not a pain in the butt like others. I think every teacher should take a moment and sit with Erikk and observe his teaching skills! This was a pretty complicated class and a lot of work but I enjoyed it and learned a lot from it! Normally I get frustrated and want to give up but not in this class! That says a lot I think!"

"Erikk was very quick to respond, and his input was extremely thoughtful. I don’t know how he kept up with all of us, but he was more attentive than some of my on ground instructors."

"Hang on to Erikk Ross as long as you can. He has been the finest instructor I have had the pleasure to study under. He shows an honest desire to see us develop and definitely went above what was required of him to make our lives a little less stressful."

E-mails Received
I also receive emails from students telling me how much they enjoyed my classes. Below are a few emails that I received from the Winter 2009 Session I.

"Thank you, Erikk for being one of the most outstanding teachers I have had thus far at AIO.  I felt like I was in very good hands if I needed help. Good luck to you and thanks again for all your video tutorials! I'm not sure how I would have made it without those!!"

"If it were not for your profound patience and the information you provided in class I would never had gotten through it.  It would be so great if I could have you for the remainder of my career here at AIO.  Thank you for everything.  I finally got the gist of Dreamweaver and how to do slices, and just pretty much everything else because of the information you helped me with.  I have not had that in any of my other classes.  Thanks again Erikk and good luck to you in whatever you pursue in your life."

"Erikk, I have to personally thank you for your help today.  I know I was a pain in the ass but I was lost in a sea of code.  I just needed the boost that you provided.  I reviewed the video once again and then the response you gave and voila, a finished assignment.  I have been at this now for 3 days and thought it would be easy but I got in way of myself instead of just sitting back and trying to figure out exactly what was required.  So I thank you at the bottom of my heart once again.  I feel elated."

"Erikk, I wanted to thank you for all your help through out the course. The video tutorials for the assignments were very helpful in understanding what the code meant. Scripting was not among my favorite courses at AIOnline but the way you have taught this course has changed my mind. I feel as if I can code in PHP with a little bit of practice. Thanks once more."

"Thank you so much for being the best instructor i have had so far at AI online. I am about 4 classes away from my Web Design Diploma and i have learned the most in your class. Your guidance and support allowed me to achieve the maximum knowledge i needed to further more studies. I am blessed to have had you as an instructor and wish all of the instructors were as good as you. I wish you were teaching the IMD323 class, too bad you are not. :(."

"I want to say "Thank you" to you as well. You have been, by far, the best teacher I've had at AIO. I really appreciate the timeliness with which you answered questions and the videos that you created. They were truly invaluable. I was disappointed that you aren't teaching a database class but did download your videos for IMD323. I hope that's OK. Best of luck in the future. It was a pleasure having you as an instructor."