Departmental teaching responsibilities
I have about 18 years of professional experience, 8 years in the software industry and nearly 10 years in academia. I have taught different courses such as user interface design (undergraduate), software process improvement (undergraduate), requirements engineering (undergraduate), systems development in the 21st century (global system development and management - postgraduate), enterprise systems (postgraduate), professional practices (leadership, communication, effective writing, change management and self management - postgraduate), information systems (postgraduate), systems development (undergraduate), software engineering project management (undergraduate), systems analysis and design (undergraduate), database management (undergraduate and postgraduate), and systems modelling and design (undergraduate and postgraduate) subjects at the University of Manchester UK, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, Keele University UK and KFUPM Saudi Arabia.
In addition, I successfully undertook the postgraduate certificate in teaching and learning in higher education (TLHE) from Keele University UK, which helped me to better understand different theoretical and pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. I have been experimenting with a variety of modes of delivery and always received excellent feedback from students.
Furthermore, I am able to teach single-taught courses as well as team-taught programmes. For example, at KFUPM I single-taught user interface design and software process improvement courses. At Keele University I taught enterprise systems (postgraduate level), software engineering project management (undergraduate) and information systems development (undergraduate level) with other colleagues; while at University of Technology Sydney I taught a database subject with two tutors. From 2001 to 2003, I taught systems analysis and design and database management subjects with other two lecturers at the University of Sydney. We have successfully run these subjects, divided responsibilities and worked well as a team. Additionally, I have experience in managing larger teams of tutors.
My teaching is consistently supported by high-quality teaching material which is designed, based on industry and research experience to improve the effectiveness of the learning process. I have constantly produced course notes and web-based course material for all of the subjects I taught. My teaching aspires to be research-led basing itself on extensive reading, relevant research and active involvement with industry partners.
I believe courses should be designed in order to provide students with superlative knowledge and skills that are required in the current software industry so that they become repositories of in-depth software engineering/information systems knowledge rather than simply graduate programmers. Thus, I am keenly interested in delivering quality teaching and designing new industry-based courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, particularly within areas such as global project management, global system development, systems development improvement in large organisations, and quality assurance in large organisations.
Experience in curriculum development
My experience in curriculum development is demonstrated by the following examples:
- Team member of curriculum committee (Software Engineering) at KFUPM Saudi Arabia.
- Designed and delivered a new course Software Process Improvement at KFUPM Saudi Arabia.
- Designed a new course Global System Development at KFUPM Saudi Arabia.
- Team member at Keele University to revise MSc courses.
- Designed systems development in the 21st century (postgraduate) and ÔRequirements, Evaluation and ProfessionalismÕ (undergraduate) courses at Keele University.
- Redesigned Professional Practices (postgraduate), IT for music art and photography (undergraduate), Software engineering project management (undergraduate), Information systems (postgraduate) and Enterprise systems (postgraduate) courses at Keele University.
- Redesigned a systems analysis and design course (at undergraduate and postgraduate levels) at University of Sydney.
- Team member for new undergraduate programmes for Software Engineering topic thread at Keele University.
Demonstrated commitment to teaching and learning quality
An example of my commitment to teaching and learning quality is that I partook in the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at Keele University UK which helped me to better understand different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning quality.
Other examples of my commitment to teaching and learning quality are given below:
- I have always followed the quality assurance processes (available at different universities) in order to plan, design, deliver and assess different subjects.
- Use of pedagogical approaches in order to better design and deliver different subjects. For example I have observed that Bloom's Taxonomy can play a vital role in order to effectively design and deliver modules for a large class. Overall the six levels of Bloom's Cognitive domain were helpful in my teaching, in which I transformed students learning from the 'knowledge' level to the 'evaluation' level.
- Due to offshore software development trends in the 21st century, developing an effective information system is a key requirement for any business success. The advances in the development of information systems have not been matched by equal advances in the development of new modules in academia, resulting in a gap between the industry and academia. An understanding of theoretical issues and development of practical skills in the modern age are the key success criteria for any information system development in 21st century. Thus I am interested in designing new courses based on the state-of-the-art requirements of software industry.
Ability to work with students from a diverse range of backgrounds
During my entire academic career I have worked with students from a diverse range of backgrounds. This is illustrated in the following examples:
- Most of the postgraduate students at Keele University are international students from a number of different countries. I have been successfully working with these students and I am receiving high quality feedback in the teaching evaluation surveys.
- I have also successfully delivered need-based teaching to several disabled students who studied on the information systems development course at Keele University.
- In my previous job at Sydney University I successfully managed a large and diverse class of 600 diverse students.
- In addition, I have international teaching experience as I have taught different courses in the UK, Australia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and my teaching has consistently been appreciated in these countries.