If you want to see someone try something new, break boundaries in education, yet continue the innovative path forged here at UCF, look no further than faculty member Dr. Caorlyn Massiah, Ph.D. As the Associate Chair for the Department of Marketing and a member of the Center for Distributed Learning’s advisory board, Dr. Massiah is known for always being willing to try new things.
If we at CDL want to ensure new programs will succeed at scale, we talk to her. If it can work in her course with 1,000 students, it can work anywhere. When we first launched our AIM (Affordable Instructional Materials) initiative with First Day™ with Barnes and Noble, their inclusive access model for digital course materials, she was the one to turn to.
Not only is Dr. Massiah a willing participant in trying new things, but since she teaches marketing, she knows marketing. With First Day™, she was able to sell the importance of the program to her students and explain how it would ultimately save them money. The best practices guides featured on our First Day™ website stem from her examples and her communications with students. It started as one document and has evolved over subsequent semesters.
Her participation in the First Day™ pilot program saved $61,917.85 for her MAR3023 & MAR3023H students. Dr. Massiah is a shining example of our efforts to make learning more affordable for students here at UCF. Charge on!