Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Mrs. Marcia Nathai-Balkissoon became a part-time Engineering lecturer in 2009 and a full-time Management Studies lecturer in 2012. She served in industry for fifteen years as an intern, engineer, supervisor, manager, auditor and consultant.

Through her teaching and assessment she targets multiple learning styles, challenges students, develops employability skills and encourages students to become lifelong learners. In her courses, students have developed web quests, created blog posts, made group and individual videos, participated in online and traditional discussions, engaged in role plays, analysed written and video cases, performed peer assessments and played cricket.

Marcia's publications span Safety & Health Management, Industrial Engineering and Management, Teaching & Learning and Knowledge Management.

 Dr. Chandra Shekhar Bhatnagar is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at the UWI and has been at the institution since 2007. In an academic career of nearly twenty-five years, he has used a multi-pronged approach to mentor students, including a YouTube channel aimed at facilitating understanding of financial concepts and computations.

He holds a doctorate from Punjabi University in India and has published in various journals including the Global Finance Journal, the International Finance Journal, Journal of Business and Economic studies and the International Journal of Business.

Chandra is also an advisory mentor in the Queen's Young Leaders Programme between the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Comic Relief, the Royal Commonwealth Society and the University of Cambridge's Institute for Continuing Education.

 Dr. Chris Maharaj joined the UWI in August 2012 as a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor in the Design and Manufacturing section at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and also worked in the petrochemical and oil refining industry.

He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and teaches at the post-graduate and undergraduate levels. His areas of research include; alternative use of waste materials, mechanical design optimization, failure analysis, component life assessment, asset management, innovation management, flipped classroom methods and student motivation.

Chris considers his application of the flipped classroom approach, as one of his main contributions to teaching and learning.

Feature Speaker: Prof. Dan Butin

Prof. Dan Butin is a Full Professor and Founding Dean of the School of Education & Social Policy at Merrimack College, Massachusetts and the Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Democracy. Professor Butin is the author and editor of more than eighty academic publications, including eight books, several of which have been translated into three languages.

He has been named by Education Week as one of the top 200 Public Presence Education Scholars four years in a row and blogs at the Huffington Post. Professor Butin has consulted for, among others, the US Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U).

He is an internationally recognized author in the fields of teacher preparation and policy, community engagement, and the rise of digital learning technologies, and has spoken on these topics as a keynote speaker at institutions such as Duke University, the University of Toronto, and the Ohio State University, as well as in the Caribbean and Australia.

Prior to working in higher education, Professor Butin was a middle school math and science teacher and the chief financial officer of Teach for America.