RUSS391: Russian Culture and Civilization Through Film - A Peer Review of Teaching Portfolio

The Benchmark Portfolio traces the process of revamping my survey course RUSS391 “Russian Culture and Civilization Through Film” taught for the second time in Spring 2020. In addition to The primary goal of the course was to acquaint students with major developments in the cultural and political life of twentieth and twenty-first-century Russia examined through the prism of cinema. In addition to main course objectives, my teaching goal was to engage students in the subject, incite their intellectual curiosity, and create a productive learning experience conducive to the development of critical thinking. In this course portfolio, I discuss my teaching methods and practices, modifications I made in the format of the course, assignments and assessment tools, the connection between course goals and various in-class and online activities, and project-based assignments. I further reflect on students’ achievement of course objectives through a close analysis of their learning and performance. Data analysis illustrates the effectiveness of some teaching practices as well as points to the areas that could use some improvements in the next iteration of the course