There’s no question that Georgia Tech-Europe students love both the faculty and small class sizes on Tech’s European campus in Metz, France, and the results of the Spring 2023 Course Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS) prove it! Two faculty members from Georgia Tech-Europe, Sonia Serafin, an adjunct lecturer affiliated with Georgia Tech’s School of Modern Languages in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and Cedric Pradalier, a professor affiliated with Tech’s College of Computing, were named to the Spring 2023 CIOS Honor Roll.

Georgia Tech’s Center for Teaching and Learning compiles a list of faculty recognized by students each semester for their excellence in teaching. The results are based on data gathered from the Course-Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS), which measures students’ perceptions of their learning experiences within the classroom.

All full-time and part-time Georgia Tech faculty, visiting faculty, graduate student instructors, and administrators who teach, are eligible for the CIOS Honor Roll. In ranking eligible instructors, courses are categorized as small (up to 39 students) or large (40+ students). To be eligible for recognition, faculty must have a minimum response rate of 70% on the CIOS survey at the end of the semester.

According to the CIOS webpage, “the composite scores for 3 CIOS items is then used to rank instructors:

• Instructor’s respect and concern for students
• Instructor’s level of enthusiasm about the course
• Instructor’s ability to stimulate my interest in the subject matter.”

Instructors who meet the base criteria for 70% response rate and place in the top 25% of the composite CIOS scores for each size group are eligible for recognition on the Honor Roll.”

Cedric Pradalier, a computer science professor based at Georgia Tech-Europe, was named to the Spring 2023 CIOS Honor Roll by graduate students in his CS 7630: Autonomous Robotics class. Pradalier has been teaching this class since 2013 and this is the first time he has been recognized with a place on the Honor Roll. Said Pradalier, “This class is always fun to teach – it takes a lot of time and effort for our master’s students to get to the point where their robots are running around the hallways of the GTE campus. It’s a lot of fun for them, and for me too.”

Sonia Serafin, a GTE French instructor, loves teaching beginning French language learners -- “I can see in their eyes when things start to click and it’s so much fun! I love what I do – it’s not work.” Madame Serafin is always a fan favorite for her ability to connect with students and make learning French fun. Her positive CIOS surveys in FREN 1001: Elementary French 1, landed her a spot on the Spring 2023 CIOS Honor Roll.

Georgia Tech-Europe is a small campus and it is remarkable that two faculty members were named to the Spring 2023 CIOS Honor Roll. Congratulations to Sonia Serafin and Cedric Pradalier for always making students their top priority!