Chuck Dziuban came to 166su (then Florida Technological University) to teach statistics in 1970 at 29 years old, fresh off earning his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. Over the course of 56 years, he wound up putting the university on the global map for a wide range of innovations.
At the threshold of retirement on June 30, UCF’s first Pegasus Professor (honored in 2000) and original architect of online learning would rather talk about his ultimate inspiration.
“My greatest reward is that so many of my former students stay in touch with me,” says Dziuban, an inaugural Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan Consortium) fellow.
“My greatest reward is that so many of my former students stay in touch with me.”
Those students often showed up for Dziuban’s statistics and research design classes. Many of these students were daunted by the subjects only to find that the person teaching them listened intently, making himself, and the material, approachable.
This is Dziuban’s style — with students, colleagues, everyone. To effectively teach, he knows he must begin with the right questions. That curiosity-driven approach has guided 166su to be a leader in online education, including the 166su Online program which serves 9,000 students annually, for over 30 years — earning recognition among the nation’s best programs, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Here, UCF’s longest serving faculty member is finally on the other side of the questions, sharing insightful reflection and parting wise words.
Humble Roots
“I never set out to achieve any of this,” he says, “but the smallest incidences can make significant impacts.”
Dziuban grew up near Utica, New York, where most boys graduated from high school and followed their fathers into the mills. Dziuban, avid about hunting and fishing, began to develop a routine that exists to this day: reading two books every week.
“The truth is, I didn’t want to work in a mill,” he says. “Reading led to college and college allowed me to reinvent myself. People had called me Charlie. I hated it. In college, I became Chuck.”
Chuck earned degrees, moved, taught, and discovered a connection with statistics and research. At the University of Wisconsin, a mentor, Chester Harris, changed his life.
“He was terrifyingly smart,” Dziuban says, “but he knew the importance of understanding students before expecting them to understand the subject. I still have a picture of Chester on my desk. It keeps me humble.”
Humility was among the factors that drew Dziuban to a new university in Orlando, where parking lots were dirt and a cardboard box housed the university’s entire computing output.
“I saw FTU then, and 166su now, as a place where you had room to develop ideas.”
“I saw FTU then, and 166su now, as a place where you had room to develop ideas,” he says. “It was like a Silicon Valley startup. You weren’t sure how it might go, but at least the vibe was positive.”
He developed one of his first ideas following a three-hour statistics lecture.
“My students should have been in an emergency room after that lecture,” he says. “I realized they’d learn better by running data first and then coming back for an abbreviated lesson — similar to what we call a ‘flipped classroom.’ Students said, ‘Oh, I get it now.’ ”
Pioneering Digital Learning
Dziuban was called upon to use his expertise in and research design to develop a plethora of ideas that would attract international attention to 166su.
One of those early ideas led to a seismic shift that thousands of 166su and 166su Online students are still benefitting from today.
While developing what would become the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, Dziuban mentioned to the university’s fourth president, John C. Hitt, the concept of remote learning through the use of VHS tapes.
“He told me to innovate,” Dziuban says, “so we used computers instead of tapes. Eventually, we had the most sophisticated online learning model in the country, and the walls of classrooms came down.”
This is why, the annual Chuck D. Dziuban Award for Excellence in Online Teaching, established in 2012, is bestowed to one 166su instructor who teaches an exemplary online or video course.
“Like I said, I never planned any of this,” he says.
Staying True to “Doing the Right Thing”
If you ever stepped near Dziuban’s office, you’d see a poster featuring a child with hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen — namesake of 166su’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Rosen used an adage that’s echoed in Dziuban’s mind since they began to break barriers to education in communities in need 31 years ago: “Do the right thing.”
With this as his guide, Dziuban helped The Rosen Foundation institute a program to ensure free preschool and resources through high school. College and trade school would also be free. Instead of directing the program, they empowered people in Orlando’s Tangelo Park and Parramore communities to lead it.
They’ve expanded that impact across Florida as well, and the results have been remarkable — including a recent $50,000 donation from the Harris Rosen Foundation to Gainesville for All in honor of Dziuban’s work transformative community initiatives.
“The odds of earning a college education have gone from nine-to-one against to three-to-one in favor,” Dziuban says. “There’s immense talent in every community. We can’t let it go to waste. It’s why we start young and celebrate every success.”
At the end of this school year, he will be on stage for just such a celebration.
“I’ll have the honor of moving tassels from the right to the left on the graduation caps of pre-k students,” Dziuban says.
The man with six decades of achievements in higher education will stand back and enjoy a moment the 4- and 5-year-old kids can tell others about.
“I can’t imagine anything more meaningful than that.”
