Meet the ATL faculty spotlight for April 2025, Amanda Izenstark, Professor, Reference & Instructional Design Librarian, and Interim Chair, Public Services Department at the University of Rhode Island Libraries. Read her interview below.

What course(s) do you teach, or have you taught, at URI?

I currently teach LIB 250: Information Research Across Disciplines. I previously taught a predecessor course, LIB 120: Introduction to Information Literacy (2001-2015). In the past, I also taught for URI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, teaching a course on online searching which has since been merged with another course, and LSC 504: Searching for Answers: Meeting Users’ Information Needs.

What is one piece of teaching advice that you have received that you would like to pass on to others?

“It’s not possible to reach everyone,” was liberating. I want all my students to learn, incrementally build skills, and come out at the end of the semester with enhanced curiosity, adaptability, and tools they can use in other classes, their personal lives, and their careers. This piece of advice freed me to build the course with those goals in mind, and not take it personally when that one student who may have so much promise doesn’t take advantage of the opportunities I’ve offered.

What are the 3 qualities that you think make for a great teacher?

(Reasonable) flexibility, willingness to continue learning, and having enthusiasm for the subject. We all have lives, and they can be complicated. Developing flexibility that can accommodate life events on both sides can help students manage their lives better without overburdening ourselves with unpredictable grading. In my field, things change rapidly, and a willingness to continue learning new tools, new interfaces, and new workflows is essential. This is something that our students also need to be able to do as they leave the University, and modeling how one can manage this is helpful. Finally, enthusiasm. If I am not interested in what I’m teaching and can’t convey how powerful what I’m teaching can be, I’m not sure anyone would want to come to class!

What is a difficult moment that you learned from in the classroom? What did you learn?

I had a student about 20 years ago who would submit assignments that didn’t reflect the directions provided. It was clear that the student was engaging with the course content and thinking critically, but despite multiple opportunities to revise and resubmit assignments, they weren’t completing assignments in a way that matched the outcomes. This frustrated me because this student was incredibly bright. This specific instance spurred me to develop clearer rubrics so that my grading rationale was more transparent. At the end of the semester, the student didn’t challenge their grade (which was about one grade lower as a result of not meeting requirements), but I reached out to the student to let them know that while their work didn’t earn them an A, it gave me insight into their thought process and I would be happy to serve as a reference for them in the future. The outcome made me a better teacher, and the student and I kept in touch for many years after the class ended.

How have you seen teaching evolve over your career? And/or where do you see teaching going?

I have been teaching since 2001, and teaching has changed significantly. When I was a student in the 90s, active learning wasn’t common. All of the classes I took as an undergraduate were lectures plus two exams and a final, or a paper, a midterm, and a final. From the student point of view, it looked like all professors did was lecture, give tests, and grade. Honestly, it didn’t appear that most of them cared much about their students. In grad school, however, I got an inkling of more engaged learning, and when I joined the Library faculty in 2001 and saw how my new colleagues were using active learning techniques to improve learning and engagement, my mind was blown. This kind of teaching allowed me to build on my interest in technology, and in addition to implementing active learning techniques in the face-to-face classroom, I had the opportunity to teach online starting with WebCT, then Sakai, and then Brightspace. Teaching online led me to flipped learning, as I had transformed my synchronous sessions into workshops where students applied the skills and knowledge they learned about in readings and tutorials.

This is probably less where I see teaching going, and more where I feel teaching should go, but continuing to integrate technology into learning, and helping students develop agility in thinking, learning, and creating is going to be increasingly important. AI tools may have applications in this area, but it’s also important to support the development of interpersonal communication and collaboration skills so that our students are the ones people want to hire – or are better prepared to pursue their own endeavors – because they are adaptable, experienced, and can think on their feet.

How do you relax after a long day of teaching?

This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I find my commute home via RIPTA relaxing. It’s a time when I can just relax and let someone else deal with traffic while I catch up on personal or professional reading! (It’s the end of the day, so usually it’s more personal than professional.)

What do you like to do for fun?

I love walking: in cities, in the woods, along the coast – it’s all good! If it’s a weekend, I’ll likely be hiking. Indoors, I like to read and find ways to get technology to do my bidding.