Job Description:
Maintain awareness of best practices, emerging academic trends, and new opportunities in educational applications for universities and provide recommendations for strategic direction that may be adopted as new and emerging instructional pedagogies and practices. Serve as the liaison with other departments and colleges to facilitate faculty professional development resources focusing on effective student-centered teaching principles and practices. Develop, coordinate, and deliver a series of faculty professional development programs to empower faculty to develop their own instructional technology learning elements using a variety of software.
Student-Centered & Faculty Development Intertwined:
Teaching and course design should always be focused on the end-user = the student. That’s why we’re all here right?! I am a big advocate for learner-centered designs and always make this the foundation for any faculty or staff training session I host.
I frequently start faculty training sessions with my opening statement/motto:
“You were hired because you are an expert teacher in your subject. I was hired because I’m a specialist in higher educational technology. It’s my mission to help you convey your knowledge through the learning platform, as stress-free as possible, in a manner that clearly defines student requirements, expectations, and fits your personal teaching style.”
My ability to explain complex ideas in “simple-stupid-easy” instructions is vital when bridging the gap between fast-changing technology and faculty academic content experts. I help calm people who are intimidated by technology through effective training: (1) teach, (2) show, (3) do. First I explain how to do it with provided written materials. Then I show the faculty/staff/student how to do it. Then I make them do it themselves. The ‘it’ described can be anything from setting up a Zoom meeting to applying weighted grading in their online courses.
While I work with the faculty member, I continually loop back to the point of how the student views the message. If you put all your files in one big pile on your desk, how do you expect your assistant to find the one file you need right this second? The same logic goes for the online classroom.
Transparent communication between faculty members and students should translate to the online classroom. Ensure all content is organized, clear, and descriptive about expectations, deadlines, and importance. If students waste too much time trying to decipher what professors want them to do, or what is due when, then the work quality and effort will also be reflected in the submitted work. Think of it this way, if a professor can’t take 30 minutes to update their slide deck, then why would I spend hours and hours on any assignment they send my way? Remember that respect goes both ways.
LMS Online Classroom Course Design Sample: https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/BKLFW6
Duties:
Design and create ADA compliant icons and LMS pages; faculty development; HTML coding; instructional documentation; graphic design; technical writing; organizational development; educator competency framework initiatives; and the creation of unique academic program template designs for Undergraduate Law, Master of Law, and Juris Doctor programs.
I also conceptualize and deliver large departmental technical trainings (75+ staff); small focus group "Lunch-and-Learn" sessions; inter-departmental celebration event planning; stakeholder engagement; and satisfaction polling.
LMS Platforms:
- Canvas
- Blackboard
- D2L
- Moodle
- Google Classroom
- Bloomz
- TWEN
Tools:
Graphic Design:
- Cascade CMS
- Wacom Tablets and Design Tools
- Adobe:
- Creative Cloud
- Photoshop
- Dreamweaver
- Acrobat
- Illustrator
- InDesign
- Dimension
- Bridge
- Premiere Pro
Other Software & Tools:
- ALL Microsoft suite programs
- Quality Matters
- TurnItIn
- MS Office365 admin
- SharePoint
- Zoom
- ExamSoft/Examplify
- Honorlock
- LockDown Respondus Monitor
- Kaltura
- Citrix GoToMeeting
Faculty, Staff, and Student Development:
Train faculty, staff, and students about software tools to design and develop multimedia components for engaging online courses.
Hosted training sessions:
- Canvas 101
- Canvas 'Deep Dive'
- Considering A.I. in higher education today
- Student Orientation Tech Talk – Laptop Compliance
- Zoom 101
- Zoom 'Deep Dive'
- MS Office
- SharePoint 101: for Team Leads and Managers
- SharePoint 101: for Team Members
- SharePoint 'Deep Dive': More than a shared drive – Transparent Leadership
- Poll Everywhere
- TurnItIn
- Canva Branding Kit – Ultimate Time Saver for the "No Budget, One-Person Team"
- ChatGPT
- Student Work-Study – Computer Lab Training
- TWEN
- ExamSoft's Examplify
- GoTo Meeting
- Kaltura
- Prezi
Inter-Departmental Cross-Collaboration:
I happily participate in cross-college collaboration group called the LEC Advisory Council. We work together in an advisory capacity to support the central Faculty Development team with strategic planning to be enforced campus-wide.
Faculty Development - Educator Competency Framework
One of the projects we recently published is the Educator Competency Framework. A competency framework is a model that identifies and defines a set of competencies that are relevant to a particular profession or role. Competency frameworks provide clear expectations and can serve as a foundation for performance assessment and management. This framework is used as a guide for faculty development programming and professional development initiatives.
Accreditation:
ADA Compliant LMS Home Page:
I designed all of the banners, icons, and media shown. I also completed all ADA and screen reader checks for compliance.
