Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Baumgardner

December 13, 2010

Dr. Jeffrey Baumgardner shares his experiences teaching at the Institute of Business & Medical Careers (IMBC). Dr. Baumgardner cherishes the school’s diverse population; he works with students of all ages and backgrounds.

He seems himself as a “traditional instructor,” engaging with students, while at the same time conveying information through lectures – thereby forming what he calls an “interactive lecture.” He doesn’t give students work for work’s sake; but rather assigns projects for them to learn. His goal is to help students understand how they learn best. He’s a hands-on instructor, literally: teaching students how to remove sutures and casts, and how to draw blood.

Dr. Baumgardner practiced obstetrics and gynecology for three years until he came to a fork in his career, and decided to teach. From the looks of that satisfied smile on his face, it looks like he made the right decision.

Transcript | Dr. Jeffrey Baumgardner Talks about Teaching at IBMC

My name is Dr. Jeffrey Baumgardner. I'm a medical doctor. I trained in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. I came to Colorado to be a teacher at IBMC.

A typical class for me is in one word is "diverse." We have a very diverse student population. We have traditional students and non-traditional students. We have students that are young, students that are old. We have students who have families that are juggling family and work and education.

I see myself as a traditional instructor. I like to lecture. I like to lecture out of the book. I like to assign a lot of homework. I like to have a lot of interactions with the students, so it's an interactive lecture. I try not to tell the students exactly what to do. I try to get the students to come to a better understanding of what their own learning style is. I'm very fond of saying, "I don't give work for busy work. I give work for you to learn." And my goal is for you as a student to understand better how you learn and what helps you learn.

We have many hands-on activities -- removing casts, removing sutures, removing skin staples, all kinds of opportunities to learn how to draw blood and do laboratory techniques. So there are many, many hands-on activities.

I did private practice for three years, and then I came to a fork, as many of us do, I had changes that were occurring in my life, and I had options. I decided to go back to teaching.