Moody Faculty Member Recognized

Kevin Mahaffy, director of instructional design for Moody Bible Institute Distance Learning, was recently given the 2018 Faculty Award for MBI Distance Learning.

The annual award honors a Moody faculty member for outstanding performance and excellence in the online classroom.

Dr. Bryan O’Neal (left) presenting the faculty award to Kevin Mahaffy (right).

Dr. Bryan O’Neal, vice president and dean of MBI Distance Learning, presented Mahaffy with the faculty award at a recent all staff meeting at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. “Kevin leads our Instructional Design team, but as this award demonstrates, he is also a fine instructor,” Dr. O’Neal said. “We are grateful for Kevin and all of our other instructors who combine theory and practice with such dedication and excellence.”

“I was humbled and honored to receive the faculty award,” said Mahaffy who has been teaching at Moody for eight years, but with more than 30 years teaching experience overall. “I love interacting with students. Over the years I’ve tried to innovate new ways to make that connection.” He added, “I once saw presenter at a conference show a video of a recording of himself responding to a student. His cat walked across the couch top behind him, and I thought, ‘Here is a great way to connect with online students.’” The realness of that instructor’s personal video inspired Mahaffy to try similar methods with his own classes as he strives to make an individual connection with each of them.

Mahaffy started recording on his iPad to send weekly announcements to his students. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so he also started sending personalized audio feedback for individual assignments. “These methods help me manage my time better, get things back to students faster, and connect with them in a real, bonding way,” he added.

MBI Distance Learning’s Academic Affairs Committee determined the winner of this year’s faculty award by requesting distance learning students to nominate professors. “Having Kevin as a professor was great because he was so involved! He is funny and sweet, and I love the personalized videos and weekly update videos,” one student said. Mahaffy was selected for his innovative methods of connecting with students through email, discussion boards, weekly video announcements, and personal video feedback on assignments.

Along with making personal connections, Mahaffy is working toward distance learning programs becoming completely accessible to students with disabilities. “We just graduated a student who is visually impaired,” Mahaffy said. “We worked with him to make sure everything was accessible, such as editing and scanning documents for readability by a program he uses. This is more than just complying with government requirements, it’s the right thing to do so that all students can be quipped in God’s Word to make an impact for Christ.”

For more information about MBI Distance Learning and the programs they offer, please visit www.moody.edu/online.