Mingzhen Bao, PhD

Dr. Mingzhen Bao is an Assistant Dean and Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC). She received her PhD in Linguistics with a focus on Phonetics and Second Language Acquisition from University of Florida. Her Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Bachelor of Arts in English are from Zhejiang University, China. Dr. Bao has been a member of the UAGC team since 2013, where she has served as Program Chair, Academic Department Chair, and Associate Dean. Dr. Bao is committed to empowering students to be global community leaders. She leads the Academic Engagement Center (AEC). Positioned at the beginning of the student life cycle, the AEC serves as the student's introduction to the University. Through a meaningful and engaging General Education program comprised of curricular and co-curricular opportunities, the AEC creates a sense of community and belonging for students and supports them throughout their UAGC experience. AEC coursework is designed for the adult learner, based on principles of andragogy, and develops career readiness skills like critical thinking, information literacy, ethical reasoning, oral and written communication, and quantitative reasoning. These skills serve as the foundation for students’ later coursework and help to boost their academic success and degree completion. Along with coursework, students take part in a variety of synchronous co-curricular events where they are connected to faculty in their degree program early in their coursework.

Professional Trainings:

• Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success at the American Association of Colleges and Universities
• Equity in Retention Academy at the Gardner Institute
• Data Analytics: Techniques for Decision Making at the University of Washington
• Measuring and Improving Business Performance at Cornell University
• Women in Education Leadership at Harvard University
• Global Leadership at the University of Hong Kong

Selected Publications:

Bao, M-Z., Pritts, N., Bethune, S., Hyntka, M., & Foster, C. (submitted). Live Learning: Supplementing Asynchronous Courses with Synchronous Web Meetings.

Bao, M-Z. & Ferrell, T. (2022). Engaging first-year online adult students through meaningful curriculum and supportive instruction. The Studying and Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group Times Magazine, 5(1). Retrieved from https://ssrlsite.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/aera-ssrl-sig-times-magazine-january.2022.pdf

Bao, M-Z. (2020, November 3). Merging the classroom and the real world. Thought Leaders Blog [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.ashfordtlc.com/single-post/merging-the-classroom-and-the-real-world

Bao, M-Z., Selhorst, A., Taylor-Moore, T., & Dilworth, A. (2019). Enhanced teaching requirements: A case study of instructional growth on student academic performance and satisfaction in an online classroom. Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, 3(2), 4-20.

Selhorst, A., Bao, M-Z., Williams, L., & Klein, E. (2017). The effect of online discussion board frequency on student success in adult learners. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 20(4).

Selhorst, A., Williams, L., & Bao, M-Z. (2017). The effect of transparent instructor guidelines on student success and satisfaction in online classrooms: Curriculum design and effective online learning. The International Journal of Adult, Community and Professional Learning, 24 (2), 1-13.

Bao, M-Z., Taylor Moore, T., Tinianow, D., & Nideffer, J. (2017). Enhancing teaching and learning through technology: A comparative study of YouSeeU integration in oral communication-oriented courses. The International Journal of Technologies in Learning, 24 (1), 15-23.

Li, B., Shao, J., & Bao, M-Z. (2016). Effects of phonetic similarity in the identification of Mandarin tones. Journal of Psycholinguistics Research, 1-18.

Riaz, S., Bao, M-Z., Zorn-Arnold, B., Weitl, J., & Kirwan, J. (2015). Do students use etextbooks meaningfully? Lessons learned from four online university courses. Journal of Modern Education Review, 5(10), 951–961.

Bao, M-Z., Wayland, R. & Li, B. (2013). Duration modification of contrastive focus preceded by focus adverbs in Standard Chinese. Chinese Journal of Phonetics, 4, 165-178.

Bao, M-Z. (2013). Acoustic evidences for glottalization of word-initial vowels in Shughni. Linguistics Journal, 7(1), 250-272

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