Online Degrees

Katherine U. Porter
Associate Faculty

Contact info:

Phone: 480.460.2364
Email: kporter@post.edu

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Biography

Academic Background:

• MBA – Regis University, College for Professional Studies – Denver, CO
• B.S. Computer Science – University of New Mexico, College of Engineering – Albuquerque, NM
• Graduate level studies in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Business – University of New Mexico – Albuquerque, NM

Teaching Background:

Professor Porter is responsible for the creation of the eight-week online undergraduate course, Principles of Marketing (MKT101), which she currently teaches. She is an Affiliate Faculty Member at Regis University where she facilitates and consistently earns outstanding student evaluations for three online MBA courses: Marketing Management (MBAK 602), Essentials of Business Development I (MBAP 520A), and Essentials of Business Development II (MBAP 520B).  In the past, she has taught Principles of Management (MGT300), an eight-week online graduate course at Colorado State University Global Campus. While studying at the University of New Mexico, she was the only undergraduate teaching for the College of Engineering, where she taught BASIC for Business Students.

Professional Background:

Katherine Porter lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and consults on marketing, sales, and public relations across the country.  Her clients include albuquerqueARTS magazine, Mainline Information Systems, and Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico.  She earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico and an MBA from Regis University.  Katherine worked in Defense right out of undergraduate school, as a software engineer on a NATO simulation of air warfare over Europe, then went to Honeywell and designed avionics systems for military aircraft. She started to shift from hands-on technical professional to business professional when she went to Digital Equipment Corporation, where she gained more and more experience in sales and marketing. Subsequently she even spent three years as a Managing Director for JWT Specialized Communications, part of J. Walter Thompson Worldwide. Katherine teaches marketing and general business courses online as an adjunct faculty member at Post University and an affiliate faculty member at Regis University.  She also has taught at Colorado State University Global Campus. 

Teaching Philosophy:

Katherine believes one’s philosophy of teaching ought to reflect not only one’s personal values or general principles, but also the needs of one’s students, educational institution, and department. So, she articulates her online teaching philosophy as an adjunct faculty member at Post somewhat differently than she might as a faculty member elsewhere; and, she articulates her online teaching philosophy as an educator of undergraduates studying communications somewhat differently than she does as an educator of graduates studying business management.  Katherine follows the lead of Iowa State University’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and the University of Texas at El Paso’s Center for Teaching and Learning by drafting a teaching philosophy statement for each situation. In so doing, she tries to address at least four questions:

1) To what end?  Katherine begins by identifying her objectives as a teacher. These always include wanting students to learn the fundamental content of the course, but then differ based on the institution, department, and students. For instance, she might want to include facilitating the identification and choice of personal standards of values, or fostering critical thinking, or fueling a love of learning, or grooming life-long learning skills, or developing problem-solving skills, or honing the ability to communicate effectively, or some combination thereof. In describing where she wants to end, she also always considers what it means to be an educated person in the field of study and her role in orienting students to that discipline.

2) By what means?  After deciding upon her teaching objectives, Katherine tries to identify all the methods that she can use to achieve those objectives. These might include selected reading, case study analyses, group projects, discussion forums, research projects, role playing, etc. Katherine views this as a welcome learning experience, since it requires her to brush-up on current learning theory, cognitive development, curriculum design, and so on. She reviews the effective and not-so-effective methodologies she has applied, as well as those she has considered applying, and any she might have just discovered.

3) To what degree?  Once Katherine has identified the methods she will use to achieve her objectives, she considers how she will measure her effectiveness. Typically this includes measures of student outcomes such as quizzes, written analyses, peer evaluations (how students assess each other and how colleagues assess her), and student evaluations (how students assess her). She typically develops some rubrics at this point, to improve consistency and minimize biases/reduce subjectivity.

4) Why?  According to Katherine, this is the fun part! She wraps it all up with consideration of: the importance of teaching, its rewards, and its agonies; the institution’s mission, goals, and values; the department’s mission and goals; and, her own desire to make a difference in the lives of her students and colleagues. If her own mission, goals, and values seem at odds with those of the institution or department, then she begins exploring everything in more depth and trying to come to satisfactory terms.

Professional Memberships: 

American Marketing Association – Member