Highlands College Faculty Earns Doctoral Degree

Montana Tech is proud to announce that Highlands College faculty member, Denise Elakovich, recently completed her doctoral degree in Education at Montana State University earning her the title as “Dr. Denise Elakovich.” The title of her publicly defended dissertation was “Does A Student’s Use Of Self-Regulation Change In The Flipped Classroom?” Dr. Elakovich serves as Chair of the Department of General Studies and has taught Mathematics at Highlands College for 19 years.

“This is wonderful,” said Dr. Dave Gurchiek, Dean of Highlands College. “Not only is this a great achievement for Denise, but it also evidences the continuing development of our great faculty here at Highlands College. Congratulations Denise!”

Dr. Elakovich’s research focused on the “flipped classroom.” The goal of the flipped classroom model is to encourage active learning and student engagement. In this learning environment, students are required to work at their own pace with structured, online course material outside of the classroom. This material could include videos, interactive problems, PowerPoint presentations and pen casts. Then, when the students come to the class, they apply their learning by answering questions, solving problems or completing activities with the help of the instructor.

“The flipped classroom model has real promise of helping our students succeed in their remedial math courses,” said Dr. Elakovich, commenting on her research. “It allows students and myself, as their instructor, to focus on those particular areas where they need individualized help. This permits the students to move forward more quickly and successfully.”