Gen Ed
Psychology

Intro Psychology

In this class, students learned the foundational pillars of psychology and the scientific method.

Overview

I iteratively taught this course over eight years in online, face-to-face, and hybrid formats. Course sizes ranged from 10 to 400 students. I formed teams of undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) for larger sections to ensure students got the best learning experience. Since I always went to smaller schools, I knew the value of feeling like more than just a face in the crowd. Having teams of TAs was one of the best ways to make those huge classes seem a little bit smaller!

“Your class changed my life and path in general.”

Terra, 2021

Media

  • Parrots in Class

    I demonstrated operant versus classical conditioning with two of my best ambassadors.

  • Stadium Classes

    At ASU, I taught Intro on stage with a microphone twice daily in stadiums with up to 400 students.

  • ZoomBat

    I mixed things up during the pandemic, choosing random masks every few weeks.

Student Testimonials

  • “Hi Dr. Jennings !!

    I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. I read your email and became overwhelmed with emotion because I am still getting used to having a support circle. I will be sure to come to class. Your class is my favorite. I also wanted to say thank you for inspiring me. I want to go into neuropsychology and after talking to you about various conditions I became motivated seeing how successful you are and how you don't let your conditions define you really opened my eyes. We share some of the same conditions and I realized that through hard work and dedication I can be successful and that my conditions shouldn't have the power to stop my journey. Thank you for encouraging me to reach out to student advocacy. It was scary but after reaching out I felt more understood. Thank you for being such a great person and professor, I have learned so much amazing knowledge from your class!”

    Name reserved for privacy

  • “Hello Dr. Jennings! I hope your summer has been amazing! This is Daniel. I've been one of your Respondus TAs for the past year, and I took your PSY 101 course. I am sending this email to thank you for all you've done for me, and for all that you've taught me. I've been studying for the MCAT this summer, as I am taking the test in August, and although I took your class almost three years ago, almost everything I've reviewed in the psychology portion of my prep books have been so simple to go over. I remember everything so well, thanks to your course and the way you taught it. I'm grateful for the incredible professor you were, and I'm grateful you gave me an opportunity to be a teaching assistant as well. As I think about my future I feel more prepared and confident, in large part thanks to you! I hope you continue to have a wonderful summer!”

    Daniel

  • “Dear Ma'am,

    This is to thank you for letting me be a part of your wonderful class. I absolutely enjoyed your classes, learned a lot, and made some really good friendships. Just so you know, even I wish to be a professor someday and I wish that I could do half as good of a job as you, thank you again for being a wonderful teacher and I am sure that every student you teach will be as lucky as I was this semester to be your student.”

    Krish

  • “Dear Professor Jennings,

    Hi! I am a freshman in your PSY 101 class #23072. I just wanted to say thank you so much for this past semester !!! Your class has been one that I really look forward to each week, and each class has me dying laughing (and questioning my whole life). Your passion about the subject is contagious, and the way you are easily able to break down complicated concepts is so amazing to me. I am so bummed we never had an in-person class, but I hope I can take another one of your classes in the future. I am currently a business marketing major, but I am realizing I don't think I like business or see myself doing it in the future ... I am not really sure what I want to do or major in, but your class made me really interested in psychology so I'm thinking maybe I will get into more of that. Do you have any recommendations for good courses to take after PSY 101 to see if you want to pursue psychology? Thank you so much for teaching the way you do, and I will miss the zoom chat discussions next semester!!!”

    Grace (who graduated as a psych major)

  • "Professor Jennings,

    Hopefully this is a nice break from all the chaotic emails filled with questions and confusion but I won't take too much of your time.
    I just wanted to reach out and let you know that it's very disappointing for me and probably most other students to have to switch to online classes for the rest of the semester because we will not be able to attend your class. I had never had any interest in psychology, nor did I know anything about it, but your lectures and class as a whole have been by far the most interesting and fun class I have taken at ASU. I looked forward to attending your lectures every week because I never left once without learning something new. Lectures seemed to fly by and before I knew it, we had to leave. I just want to thank you for making your class so interesting and enjoyable in the short time that I was able to attend it on campus. Hopefully we will all be able to succeed in this online format together and hopefully I will have time to take another class of yours while I am here. Thanks for everything!"

    Mason

  • "Hi Professor Jennings,
    My name is Terra and I took your PSY 101 class my freshman year. I just wanted to say that this class changed my life and general path. This is an email I have been meaning to send, but your class sparked my interest in Psychology and I have since pursued and finished a minor in Psychology. You are still the most engaging teacher/professor I have ever had in my life, and I just wanted to say thank you."

    Terra

Next

How to Learn in College