Miami University

Glenn Platt receives teaching award

12/18/1998

OXFORD, Ohio -- Glenn J. Platt, assistant professor of economics, was

awarded the E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award at Miami University's fall

commencement this afternoon.

The $3,000 award was established by E. Phillips Knox `68 to recognize

creative, innovative and engaging teaching methods at the undergraduate level.

Platt was selected for the award by Miami's Committee on the Enhancement of

Learning and Teaching.

This fall, Platt received the Richard T. Farmer School of Business

Administration's Effective Teaching award.

He has been a member of Miami's faculty since 1993.

Much of Platt's teaching philosophy is embodied in the structure of the

inverted classroom. "Students have fundamentally different styles of learning

and the traditional classroom appeals to a small subset of those styles. The

inverted classroom is one possible way to reach those students whose learning

styles have been traditionally overlooked," he says.

Innovations used in the inverted classroom include hands-on economics

experiments, group writing, collaborative/cooperative exercises and

Internet-based learning with chat rooms, electronic bulletin boards, on-line

lectures and resources on the World Wide Web.

Some of Platt's student evaluations call him "one of the best professors" and

"one of the most interesting teachers" in addition to calling his classes

"extremely challenging." Said one student, "I came into this class hating

economics, but because of a great professor I am inspired to take more econ

classes."

In a letter notifying Platt of the award, Provost Anne Hopkins noted the

selection committee was impressed by his "use of technology in effectively

accomplishing the goals of liberal education: engaging students with other

learners, enhancing critical thinking and promoting understanding of

contexts."

Over the past four years, Platt has frequently presented workshops to

introduce other educators to the Web and explain how and why to use it

effectively in the classroom.

Platt received a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and master's

and doctorate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Previous recipients of the E. Phillips Knox Award are Osama M. Ettouney,

manufacturing engineering, 1995; Donald Kaufman, zoology, 1996; and Steven

Bauer, English, 1997.