Several university professors are rated highly on RateMyProfessors.com. 

Of them, Instructor of Supply Chain Management Yvette Baldwin, Academic Advisor Linda Ban and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Sidney Guedry have been ranked as the top three instructors at the university.

Different paths in life led the instructors to their positions at the university, and each teaches in a different style.

As an instructor in business statistics and information systems, Baldwin has worked in the business industry and has worked as both an adjunct professor and full-time professor at the university. That journey has helped her to integrate real-world experience into her classroom activities.

“I’m very hands-on,” said Baldwin. “I do lecture, but I normally lecture one day a week. And the other day a week, especially with stats, we work problems in groups, and we apply the materials. It’s not just lecture and memorizing the information systems. It’s about how to use technology in business to be more successful.”

Baldwin expressed her feelings about being rated one of the top three instructors at the university.

“It makes me feel good,” said Baldwin. “I work hard at what I do, and sometimes, I think after almost 25 years of teaching, you start to question whether or not you still relate well to your students and whether or not they still like the way you teach and your teaching style because it’s changed a lot over the past 25 years.”

Ban discussed the reason she chose to teach college and career success classes at two separate colleges.

“When I was a freshman, I was a first-generation college student and the oldest in the family,” said Ban. “My parents were not educated, and I didn’t know anything, but I wanted to get a degree. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I connected with my advisor, and we started to do career exploration and really got into some real study skills. I benefitted from that, and I thought that this would really be great if I could catch young people in the beginning.”

With a conversational type of teaching, Ban enjoys getting students involved and is grateful that students are reacting to her teaching in a positive way.

“Lots of adjectives,” said Ban. “First of all, stunned. Second, very honored because I feel that I’m making a difference that some students have made some positive comments, and they’ve gained something from my class and from our conversations.”

Guedry pursued his doctorate and became director of horticulture services at the university after discovering agriculture as his niche in college.

“My grandfather did a lot of farming and gardening,”said Guedry. “I also worked in a lot of gardening with things, picking crops. I went to Nicholls, and of course, that’s in a heavily agricultural area, Thibodaux, sugar cane, and that sort of thing. So, it’s kind of a natural thing for me. I enjoy science, and I enjoy plants.”

With a more old-school approach to teaching, Guedry described how he implements his approach for his students.

“Typically, everything I do is by PowerPoint,” said Guedry. “I put it on Moodle, so they can go back and look at it, or they can have it beforehand when we go over it in class. Before every test, we have a once-over of all the questions. I put a study guide on Moodle of the questions that are going to be on the test, so no big surprise.”