As the Equitable Assessment Fellow, Springer is responsible for:
- Designing content on equitable and effective assessment for the CTLA website
- Curating examples/models of equitable and effective assessments from OHIO faculty
- Promoting alternate methods of assessing student learning
- Designing faculty development programming on recreating or refining assignments, quizzes, tests, and exams to be equitable and effective
He has taught and performed geology research at Ohio University since 2002. Since joining Ohio University after completing a Ph.D .at Colorado State University, Springer has served as department chair, a faculty fellow for assessment and, most recently, as a senator on the Faculty Senate.
Springer specializes in cave and karst geomorphology, and he has pursued student engagement by taking students underground. As part of the students' experiential learning, Springer has taught students to map caves and, together with a colleague in Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies, he is using an experiential learning grant to engage geology and non-geology students in caving and cave surveying.
Springer believes active learning is key to student success and continues to explore pedagogical methodologies that combine student learning with memorable life experiences. This approach extends to his work with geology graduate students with whom he is pursuing sediment transport and paleoclimate studies tied to West Virginia caves.
The paleoclimate research builds on his published paleoclimate research while sediment transport modeling builds on his expertise in cave stream erosion. Notably, Springer has, to date, graduated 100% of his master's degree advisees, which is testimony to his student-centric approach to both teaching and research.