My Work
Instructional Designers are required to wear many "hats." Our work ranges from project kick-off meetings to post-course evaluations. The following artifacts are a small assortment of my work over the last few years.
01
TESOL Standards Graduate Certificate Alignment Map
The University of Arkansas offers a graduate certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Successful students can use these courses to apply to the Arkansas Department of Education for a licensure endorsement in English as a Second Language (ESL).
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The issue arose that faculty had difficulty tracking when a TESOL standard was introduced or mastered in the certificate courses. As a result, I met with faculty members to map out the TESOL standards and align them to the correct courses. The spreadsheet is a completed version of the alignment map.
02
Backward Design Lesson Template
One of the most common challenges an Instructional Designer faces while working with instructors is differentiating the actual learning from the lesson activities. Utilizing backward design can help focus the intentionality of the course and lesson outcomes and the most effective way to measure their mastery. I have used a Backward Design template with descriptions to assist faculty in defining their learning outcomes and what they want students to achieve through the lesson activities. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching offers the Backward Design template used in this example.
03
Organization Core Value Subcomittee Presentation
Our organization identified and defined five of its core values and guiding principles and how they align with the university's updated vision and mission statements. Subcommittees were created for each of the core values. I volunteered to chair the Empowerment subcommittee that was composed of myself and twelve other employees. We identified the emergent themes and then developed SMART goals that ranged from short-term to long-term through collaboration. The results were then presented to the Vice-Provost of Distance Education and other senior administration officials.
04
OER Workshop Presentation
The Open Educational Resources (OER) university initiative conducts an Affordable/OER Course Redesign workshop annually for faculty interested in incorporating either OER or more affordable resources in their classes. I have had the pleasure of helping facilitate the workshop the last two years, along with our Open Ed librarian. This year, I conducted a session on Increasing Student Engagement with OER Renewable Resources.
05
Dissertation Manuscript: LGBTQ+ College Students' Perceptions of Social Presence and Self-Disclosure in Online Learning: A Single-Case Study
The purpose of this single qualitative case study was to explore LGBTQ+ college students' perceptions of social presence and its indicators, affective expression, open communication, and group cohesion in online courses related to their decisions surrounding self-disclosure. Data collection occurred through recorded participant interviews on Zoom. The interviews used semi-structured, open-ended questions created by the researcher. Interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed to uncover LGBTQ+ participants' perceptions of social presence and the factors that influenced their decisions related to self-disclosure.