My Instructional Design Collaboration with Instructors: Analysis PhASE

Instructional design (ID) encompasses a wide array of activities besides classroom learning such as the improvement of human performance, products, processes, and overall return on investments of an organization. It includes the use of research, theory, practical experience, and common sense. Instructional designers work closely with organizations and subject matter experts to solve problems, determine needs, improve outcomes, and find opportunities through systematic analysis and

Snapshot: Remote Teaching and Learning Support

Remote Work On March 17, 2020, I packed up my workspace and went home to work remotely for the University of California-Los Angeles since the campus closed during winter quarter and everything went online on March 10th. The week between March 10th and the 17th was full of technology training on-campus activities meeting face-to-face with instructors in collaborative triage with

Join me at TCC 2020 Online Conference

I’m happy to announce that I’ll make one presentation and give one interactive workshop at the 25th anniversary of Technology, Colleges & Community (TCC) Worldwide Online Conference held April 14-16, 2020. TCC Hawaii, LearningTimes, and the Learning Design and Technology Department at the University of Hawaii-Manoa collaboratively produce this event. The conference is fully online and affordable. It will be my

Keynote: Online Course Design for Active Learning within the UDL Framework

This past fall, I gave my first keynote presentation at the University of Houston (UH) to faculty and staff. Their 1-day conference, Innovative Teaching and Learning at a Distance (ITLD), focused on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Several of the co-authors for the Routledge book, Universal Access Through Inclusive Instructional Design: International Perspectives on UDL (Gronseth & Dalton, 2019),

Blog #200: My New Instructional Design Job at UCLA

How I Got to Here After completing my doctoral program in 2017, I looked for employment that would utilize and reward my Ph.D. and research efforts. I was working for a small college near my alma mater for which I am grateful to have had my start as an instructional designer (ID). My reference to how I got here refers

VR with Google Cardboard for Irish Literature Hybrid Course

I’m co-designing a new Irish literature hybrid course with an English professor and her teaching assistants (TA) where college students will use Google Cardboard with their mobile phone applications (app) for virtual reality (VR) experiences with 360 media. This is my first time preparing VR learning experiences, and I wanted to share what I’ve figured out so far. This is

Universal Access Through Inclusive Instructional Design: International Perspectives on UDL

I’d like to let you know about the first edition of Universal Access Through Inclusive Instructional Design: International Perspectives on UDL from Routledge.  It’s co-edited by the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Educations’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) special interest group Co-chairs, Drs. Susie Gronseth (University of Houston) and Elizabeth Dalton (University of Rhode Island). This book “explores the

Join me at AECT 2019 in Las Vegas!

Association for Educational Communications and Technology The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is a fantastic professional organization for instructional designers, instructional technologists, educational technology support staff, instructors, and education researchers. Why? Because they do fun stuff like ‘Breakfast with Champions’ and ‘Game Night.’   I learned about it from my professors in my doctoral program who promoted AECT and

What do instructional designers do in higher education?

The work and the placement of instructional designers vary from institution to institution. For instance, my former position was with the Library and Instructional Resources Services. My new position is with a Chancellor’s initiative for online teaching and learning. As for job tasks, if you’re the only designer on campus, you wear many hats. Conversely, you could be a part

Online Course Design for Active Learning within the UDL Framework

This is a WordCloud based on my blog post on active learning. Active Learning Defined Active learning engages students directly in the learning process through instructional activities with differing degrees of interaction that’s student-centered, whereas passive learning occurs indirectly and without interaction. The latter is often, but not always, teacher-centered. Student-centered learning emphasizes learner control and manipulation of information, so