The Department of Agronomy and Horticulture welcomed McKinzie Sutter back on January 3 as a lecturer for AgroHort Online Program. She works with Leah Sandall, distance education coordinator.
Sutter has been with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as a student employee and a staff member since 2010. Originally from Omaha, she earned a Bachelor of Science in fisheries and wildlife in 2014 with an ecology emphasis and a master’s degree in natural resources in 2017, both from Nebraska.
From 2018 to 2020 Sutter worked as a distance education specialist in agronomy and horticulture. She then worked for the Center for Transformative Teaching as an instructional designer for STEM departments in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Sutter said she has returned to the department because of her love of teaching introductory science topics and for the community in the department and IANR/CASNR.
“For many years, the department has been taking small steps to offer larger portions of their degrees online and I’m excited to rejoin the efforts to make learning at Nebraska available to more people,” Sutter said.
Sutter will spend half her time teaching and the other half devoted to maintenance and/or development of online resources that support the online program.
This spring, she will teach with the online genetics teaching team that offers synchronous online labs and is getting acquainted with the online HORT 100 Plants, Landscapes and the Environment course in preparation for teaching it in the future.
Sutter said she is also compiling the Plant and Landscape Systems requirements to determine which courses are online to suggest options for a fully online or a hybrid option for our Plant and Landscape Systems degree.
Another project Sutter will be working on is collaborating with the CTT, Services for Students with Disabilities, Institutional Equity and Compliance and university libraries to offer accessibility training to university content creators through the NU Bridge learning portal. This training will include how design impacts learners, the foundations of accessible design of digital materials, how to check for accessible design and provide tips for adding basic accessibility to online courses.
Sutter enjoys cycling short distances (1-3 miles) to and from work. She said she likes that the commute comes with a community of friendly people who wave or say hi when she sees them on the trails.
