Shannon Donnally Quinn
(she/her; она/её)
sdquinn@msu.edu
(517) 884-6335
B480 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyLinguistics, Languages, and Cultures
Associate Professor
Russian
Biography
Ph.D., M.A., Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison; M.Ed., Instructional Design, University of Massachusetts-Boston; B.A., Russian, Oberlin College
Shannon Donnally Quinn (Spasova) is an Associate Professor of Russian and Technology Specialist. She received her Ph.D at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where her dissertation research was on Russian and Soviet science fiction. Her ongoing teaching and research interests include instructional technology in language teaching, blended learning, and curricular design, and she completed a second Master’s degree in instructional design in 2015. Shannon has also taught at Middlebury College’s School of Russian, Dalhousie University, for the University of Minnesota’s CARLA/STARTALK courses, Michigan State’s Online Language Teaching program, and has worked as part of the RAILS project (an award-winning project that targeted advanced listening skills in students of Russian) and for Learning Support Services (a group that assists instructors in the use of technology in teaching). She serves on the board of the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Folklore Association, as well as in the capacity of webinar coordinator of the International Association for Language Learning Technology and as the Editor-in-Chief of The FLTMAG.
Projects
Diverse Russian
With Anna Tumarkin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this OER project funded by the Less Commonly Taught Languages Initiative aims to diversify the curriculum in Russian by featuring regions with Russian-speaking populations outside of Russia
LLC Commons: Open Resources for Online Teaching in Slavic
With Liudmila Klimanova from the University of Arizona, this site provides open online lessons available for teachers and learners of Russian. This site is supported by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy at the University of Arizona.
RAILS: Russian Advanced Interactive Listening Series
This is a project hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and originally funded by the Department of Education which provides lessons focusing on helping intermediate-level students of Russian develop their listening proficiency. The lessons are based on documentary films and interviews with experts on various topics. In 2022, the lessons were updated and new lessons began to be created based on interviews with experts from Kazakhstan.
Middlebury School of Russian – Pre-immersion and Heritage Learners sites
This project created materials to help students prepare for the immersion context at Middlebury’s School of Russian and materials for heritage learners of Russian.
Transformative Pedagogy project "Transformative Success in Study Abroad"
This project is developing curriculum to help students prepare for success in study abroad.
Media Mentions
Language Students View Planetarium Shows in German and Russian
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
September 22, 2023
Faculty Receive Catalyst Innovation Award for H5P Pilot Program
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
May 10, 2023
Faculty Project Creates Opportunities for Language Learners through Board Games
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
March 27, 2023
Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures Faculty Will Represent MSU at the 2023 Language Open Educational Resources Conference
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
March 4, 2023
Language Faculty Participate in the Inclusive Pedagogy Fellows Program through the College of Arts & Letters
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
February 27, 2023
Baba Yaga Visits MSU on Halloween
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
November 5, 2022
Assistant Professor of Russian’s Ukrainian Easter Egg Event Supports Ukraine Relief
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
March 22, 2022
Advanced Lessons for Students of Russian Revived by MSU Professor
MSU Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures
February 11, 2022
Russian Professor Receives ATT Instructional Technology Award of Excellence
MSU College of Arts and Letters
April 1, 2016
Awards and Honors
The Harold H. Hendricks Award for Sustained Leadership in IALLT
International Association for Language Learning Technology
2023
Catalyst Innovation Grant, Interactive and Adaptive Online Activities with H5P
Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation
2023-2024
Inclusive Pedagogy Fellow
College of Arts and Letters
2022-2023
OER Leadership Award
MSU Libraries
2021
President’s Award
International Association for Language Learning Technology
2021
Award for Excellence in Teaching with Technology, Best Course in Technology-Enhanced Learning Innovation
Michigan State University
2016
Book Prize, Best Contribution to Language Pedagogy for the RAILS Project
American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
2008
Member and Advisor, Dobro Slovo, Slavic Honors Society
Dobro Slovo
2016-present
Courses
Russian 101: Elementary Russian I
Russian 102: Elementary Russian II
Russian 201: Second Year Russian I
Russian 202: Second Year Russian II
Russian 241: Russian and Slavic Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Folk Traditions
Russian 491: Conversation
IAH 206: Russian and Eastern European Science Fiction
Fundamentals of Online Language Teaching
Creating Engaging Materials
Publications
Guest editor, with Liudmila Klimanova and Jason Merrill, Russian Language Journal special issue “COVID-19 and Online Teaching Pedagogy in the Times of a Global Crisis: Research, Practices, and Solutions, Volume 71, No. 2 (18 articles) – https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rlj/vol71/iss2/, 2021
Schmoll, S., Cornell, C., Wolff, L., Kronenberg, F., & Quinn, S. D. (2023). Take your students to the stars in the target language. The FLTMAG, November 2023. https://fltmag.com/planetarium-target-language/
Quinn, S. D. & Poole, F. (2023). DALL·E: An “intelligent” illustrator for your language classroom. The FLTMAG, March 2023. https://fltmag.com/dall%c2%b7e/
Quinn, S. D. (2021) How I am revising my curriculum based on e-learning instructional design principles. The FLTMAG, November 2021. https://fltmag.com/revising-curriculum-elearning-principles/
Spasova, S., & Welsh, K. (2020). Mixing it up with blended learning. The Art of Teaching Russian, 405-430.
Gacs, A., Goertler, S., & Spasova, S. (2020). Planned online language education versus crisis-prompted online language teaching: Lessons for the future. Foreign Language Annals, 53(2), 380-392. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12460.
Portfolio
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