Activities

Current Work

 

Faculty Development Resources Working Group

This group is part of the Penn State Strategic Plan Oversight/Transforming Education Committee. The vision for the FDR group is for all Penn State faculty and graduate instructors to be engaged in their own instructional development and willing to implement innovations that enhance students’ learning by knowing where and how to access information, people, and services. The group is charged with creating an inventory currently available resources and support for faculty and instructional development, identifying gaps in resources and support for current and future faculty and graduate students, and providing recommendations for additional resources to enhance support for faculty development. More to come!

Office 365 Training Leader

I currently work with other staff to design, develop, implement, and assess the training and Learning Path development for the implementation of Office 365 at Penn State. The Learning Paths are available to view on the Penn State Office 365 Training page.

World Campus Faculty Development Course in Games and Gamification

Working with the Educational Gaming Commons and World Campus Faculty Development, I created the content and many of the activities for this course. The latest run of the course occurred in Spring 2018 within the World Campus Faculty Development Online Learning (OL 3500) course series. It not only includes game-like elements, but also makes some of the tools that enable the inclusion of game-like elements in a course readily available to the Penn State academic community and beyond.

Faculty/Staff Engagement and Professional Development Committee

The Faculty/Staff Engagement and Professional Development Committee is a sub-committee of the Penn State Online Coordinating Council (PSOCC). It’s mission is to promote excellence in online teaching and learning, to increase faculty interest in online teaching activities, and to pursue collaborative endeavors within and outside the university to continue to build a strong foundation for faculty engagement in online teaching.

Note: Although the PSOCC is currently undergoing an extensive restructuring, this sub-committee continues to meet and work on projects to produce tangible deliverables.

I’ve been involved in the committee for many years and have either produced or worked in teams to produce many of the offerings found on the Penn State Online Resources page.

Ed Tech Advisor

The Ed Tech Advisor (ETA) is a decision-support tool for PSU faculty looking to match PSU centrally-support education technology tools to their needs. You can access the tool at http://sites.psu.edu/ETA.

Teaching with Technology Resource Finder

The Teaching with Technology Resource Finder (TTRF) is a decision-support tool for PSU faculty looking to match PSU training departments/offerings (specifically ITS Training Services, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, and Penn State World Campus Faculty Development) to their needs. You can access the tool at http://sites.psu.edu/TTRF.

Online Learning (OL) Training Series Development

World Campus Faculty Development offers a series of courses for Penn State faculty to become more proficient at online teaching and development of online courses. In the past I’ve co-taught OL 4000 – Course Authoring, and have served as a content reviewer for the newer courses under development. I’ve also obtained my Certificate for Online Teaching from Penn State Online via my participation here.

Accessible Technology and Information (ATI) Committee

The goal of ATI  is to distribute information, developments and resources about the ATI initiative to designated contacts and web professionals throughout Penn State. We coordinate training and related events in support of the initiative. We also provide evidence to the National Federation of the Blind that Penn State has mobilized an effective response to improving accessibility in programs and services throughout Penn State. I am a charter member of this group and am actively involved in all aspects of the outreach it continues to develop and promote.


Course Development

 

IST 250 – New Media and the Web

I chaired the committee that developed this course over a decade ago. The name has not withstood the test of time, but the course content is up to date and the activities are robust. This is a course about web design – working with clients to understand their needs, developing a proposal for the client, working in teams, investigating the social and political issues that surround the web, and developing some basic HTML skills. I’ve taught this online for many years now, and it’s a great motivator that forces me to keep current in this ever-changing arena.


Educational Gaming Commons (EGC)

After founding and developing the EGC for several years, I transformed my role into the EGC Evangelist. Although the EGC is no longer active, I continue to work with faculty and programs throughout PSU to bring educational games, virtual worlds, and simulations to higher education. I also maintain active contact with others in this field.

Mission

The PSU Educational Gaming Commons developed physical infrastructures and community connections in order to promote the broad impact of educational gaming within the Penn State teaching, learning, and research environment.


Digital Badges at Penn State

I am an advocate of digital badges in higher education. I actively support the conceptualization and implementation of the Lifelong Learning Landscapes digital badge platform (L3) at Penn State. Although somewhat dated, a colleague and I wrote a white paper on digital badges in Higher Education that formed the basis for the (L3) platform. I periodically speak and present to people across PSU and the country on this evolving area.


Learning Design at Penn State

The Learning Design Community at Penn State is a focal point for instructional designers and educational technologists to share information and ideas. We strive to leverage the amazing talent and intellects of the community to improve teaching and learning.

I started and maintain a presence in a variety of  initiatives here.

  • All LD Community Meetings
  • The L-PSULDC listserv
  • The PSU Learning Designers group in Yammer
  • Learning Design Community Hub
  • The Learning Design Summer Camp (LDSC)
  • The ID2ID Initiative
  • The Instructional Design Professional Development (IDPD) committee at Penn State

The All LD group meets once a month to discuss a variety of education technology and pedagogical issues. We also usually have one or more grassroots initiatives started to assist the university in improving teaching and learning. For example, we once developed and implemented an education technology and pedagogical needs assessment. The purpose of the needs assessment was to better understand what faculty want, what they struggle with, and how we can improve our services by meeting these needs.

The L-PSULDC@lists.psu.edu list is very active. Learning designers across Penn State share information, ask questions, and support each other. To join this list, please contact me.

The Learning Design Yammer group is open to all at Penn State. It is a great place to ask questions on all things LD related. (Note: You must have a PSU Access ID to access this group.) This group replaced the Learning Design Community Hub (now defunct).

The Learning Design Summer Camp is an offspring of several related past annual offerings from Education Technology Services, ITS Training Services, and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. The goals of the two-day event is to bring Learning Designers from across Penn State together to learn and share in an informal atmosphere.

I am a founding committee member of the ID2ID initiative, a program designed to pair Instructional Designs to share experiences.

I am also active on the Instructional Design Professional Development (IDPD) committee at Penn State. Our charge is to seek, advocate for, and implement professional development opportunities for the ID community at Penn State.


IT Learning and Development (ITLD)

I worked here on a variety of ever-changing projects. Several include:

Office 365 Training

In 2017-18 I led a team of Instructional Designers and trainers from IT Learning and Development coordinate all faculty, staff, and student training and documentation efforts around the ongoing Office 365 implementation at Penn State. Most of the information about this implementation is available on the the Penn State Office 365 web site. The Office 365 training page is a gateway to the relevant documentation and training sessions we developed.

Canvas Training and Documentation

In 2015 I led a team of Instructional Designers and trainers from ITS Training Services, Teaching and Learning with Technology Ops, and World Campus to coordinate all faculty, staff, and student training and documentation efforts around the Canvas implementation pilot. Most of the information about this pilot is available on the the Penn State Canvas Web Site. Today I continue to work on all Canvas-related training delivered by ITLD.

Best Practices for Teaching via Videoconferencing at Penn State

The Best Practices for Teaching via Videoconferencing at Penn State guide is designed to walk an individual through the entire thought processes of running a videoconference for teaching and learning purposes. It incorporates former guides at Penn State and also feedback from various individuals at Penn State with expertise in this area.

Curriculum Review and Consultation System (CRCS)

The Curriculum Review and Consultation System (CRCS, simply referred to as Curriculum) is an electronic version of the traditional paper forms used by a college to create a new program or revise an existing program. I coordinate the university’s training needs for CRCS, meeting with the development team and documentation team on a regular basis. I also run the CRCS training sessions for staff.


New Media Consortium

As former director (10 years) of Penn State’s NMC presence, I  participated in various activities tied to education technology in higher education.

Horizon Project 2014 Wikithon

I was asked by the NMC to participate in this event. It’s purpose is to spark ideas for the following year’s Horizon Report. Two of my main ideas, New Trends – The Growing Emphasis on Accessible Technology, and New Challenges – Accommodating Alternative Credentialing, were voted forward for continued conversation!


iStudy for Success

The iStudy tutorials are designed to advance students’ knowledge and skills in areas that can promote overall academic achievement, such as studying, communicating, and career planning.

Faculty and instructors can use the tutorials in a variety of ways.

  • Help students adjust to college curricula and expectations.
  • Add career planning tutorials into course syllabi.
  • Incorporate tutorials within ANGEL courses.

Students can use iStudy tutorials outside of academic coursework.

  • Prepare for academic achievement.
  • Improve communication skills.
  • Advance skills in career planning.

Writing Samples

I’ve included several examples of my writing for your perusal. All are in PDF format.