Innovative Teaching Award

Rider University’s Business Advisory Board recognizes the importance of bringing new and creative teaching practices to business education in the CBA. This program identifies and honors the business faculty members who successfully develop and implement significant innovative-teaching approaches.  The award, first presented in 1989, is a result of peer or self nomination.  The honor is typically recognized once a year but some years have been missed; however, the BAB has awarded 10 faculty members throughout the years for their creativity and initiative. 

Our past winners:

2002
April 1, 2002

The Rider University College of Business Administration's Business Advisory Board (BAB) has named Dr. Kelly Noonan, assistant professor of economics, as the 2002 recipient of the Innovative Teaching Award. In announcing the recipient, Scotti Smith, BAB member and president of Results Unlimited of Titusville, cited the way Noonan weaves television game shows such as Family Feud, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune into her macroeconomics and microeconomics courses to stimulate student learning.

“As a teacher, it is my job to get students actively involved in the learning process," Noonan wrote about her teaching philosophy. "While the lecture is the first step, it is not the only step."

Initially, she presents a PowerPoint lecture. For the lecture, students are required to bring a copy of the class notes that have been posted on Blackboard with them to class. This allows students to give full attention to the lecture, interact with more ease during the lecture, and frees up valuable time to allow students to apply concepts presented in the lecture.

Once she presents the basic material, she either gives an assignment or plays a game that can be completed during the class period. Class assignments and the games ensure that students comprehend the basic concepts and provide her with immediate feedback on how well things are understood.

For the games, she gives various prizes to the winning team such as earning bonus points for a class assignment or they may get to drop a low quiz grade.

Noonan, who earned her Ph.D. in economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, joined the Rider business faculty in September 2000. Her specialized fields include labor, econometrics, and welfare and poverty. She also has taught at SUNY-Stony Brook, St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, N.Y., and Dowling College in Oakdale, N.Y.

Papers and presentations have focused on dependence on foster care and the impact of children who return to the system, living arrangements of the elderly, and implementing interactive learning. She is co-author with Kathleen Burke of Intermediate Microeconomics: A Workbook published by Pacific Crest Software in 1996.

1998
Sigfredo Hernandez, marketing department

1997
Alan Sumutka, accounting department

1996
Carol Watson, management and human resources department, and Sanford Temkin, management sciences department

1995
Ronald Cook, management and human resources department

1993
William Strahle, marketing department

1992
Susan Denbo, business policy and environment department

1991
Gerald Klein, management and human resources department

1990
Marvin Darter, computer information systems