Rick Moore, PhD

Bio

Rick Moore, PhD, joined the Center for Teaching and Learning in 2020 as the Assistant Director for Assessment and Evaluation. He earned his PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago and an MA in Religion from Columbia University.

Rick has extensive experience in the areas of assessment, faculty development, instructional design and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). He has collected and analyzed a variety of data to assess teaching and learning outcomes, including custom assessments, student evaluations, structured classroom observations (COPUS), and ethnographic fieldnotes. Some of these data have been used in SoTL research projects on effective teaching methods. In addition, Rick has collaborated with faculty members to design active learning interventions for their courses and mentored graduate teaching assistants in creating active learning materials for their discussion sections.

For Rick, assessment is not about simply measuring program or student outcomes. Instead, he views the purpose of assessment as engaging and improving the teaching and learning processes of both faculty and students. Rick thinks creatively about how to best incorporate assessments into courses in ways that increase student learning, as well as how to use assessment in centers for teaching and learning to increase engagement with faculty and increase the effectiveness of programming.

In his own teaching, Rick has taught a wide range of courses at a variety of institutions including Cornell University, the University of Chicago, Oklahoma City University and Oklahoma City Community College. Courses he has taught include Research Methods (grad/undergrad), Film and the City, Religion and Society, Deviance and Social Control, a theory-based introduction to the social sciences, and Introduction to Sociology. Rick’s teaching style is participatory and evidence based; he embraces active learning pedagogies in the classroom. Beginning in Fall 2021, he will occasionally teach courses in WashU’s Department of Sociology.

Rick’s educational research examines active learning methodologies and the training of teaching assistants. His sociological research investigates culture, cognition, religion, secularism, politics, theory, and research methods. Rick has published articles in several peer-reviewed journals, including Sociological Science and Qualitative Sociology.

Prior to joining WashU, Rick was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University where he worked on projects involving educational assessment and active learning pedagogy.