Fast forward on this website and it is April of 2024 already. Sure, the era of COVID-19 kept me busy as an eLearning and college administration professional, but I have also been able to keep up on some side projects, research, and writing activities. So, here I’m sharing a selection of the work I’ve been doing. I always seek collaborators and interested colleagues, so please feel welcome to connect with me on anything here.
Consulting!
I have been working as a consultant in Ontario and beyond since October 2023. A new website for that work is Human Loop Consulting. I have had some great projects so far and I have also been applying for permanent roles in the Ontario college system. I have been working on a teaching framework in partnership with an Ontario college leader that includes the creation of relevant instruments such as a course quality guide, teaching reflection guide, student course evaluation questions, etc. It has been a great opportunity to explore current and relevant literature on post-secondary teaching practice (in all delivery modes), online and blended course quality, and how the practice of teaching is described at post-secondary institutions.
In May 2024, as part of an amazing University of Toronto, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) Continuing and Professional Learning project, I was invited to facilitate and partner with University of Rwanda, College of Education faculty on a competency-based education training project. From January – April I delivered and supported scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) explorations with 20 faculty “champions” from Rwanda. I was invited as a keynote speaker to the 2nd International Conference on Re-Shaping Education for Sustainable Development and traveled to Kigali to meet and facilitate a workshop with 200+ academic staff at the College of Education. I am very grateful to Dr. Wencelas Nzabalirwa, the conference convenor and a fantastic College of Education leader, my OISE colleagues Gelareh Keshavarz and Michael Cassidy, as well as my exceptional Kenyan academic colleague Dr. Judith Pete for this incredible professional development opportunity.
I was invited as a keynote speaker to a conference in Washington State, the Washington Annual Canvas Conference (WACC). In partnership with the organizing committee, I developed a talk on Empowering Education Through Generosity. I enjoyed curating information and sharing my thoughts and insights on how human generosity might support and empower learners, educators, and institutions. It was a great experience and I am grateful I had this opportunity.
I am currently working as an instructional designer on a project for the creation of online nursing courses to benefit interested and eligible Ontario health care workers that want to upgrade their skills and credentials to become Registered Nurses (RNs). In this project I am part of a talented and energetic group of provincial colleagues with a focused and supportive lead institution. I am grateful for the hundreds of experts that have created open educational resources for health care that are making this work more manageable. Specific thanks to eCampusOntario and BCCampus staff and leaders for their open libraries and resource collections.
Teaching!
As an online Associate Professor at Royal Roads University (in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia), I will be teaching two courses this summer as part of their graduate programs related to instructional design. This is the fifth year I will be teaching at Royal Roads and I am so grateful to be part of School of Education and Technology team. The first program where I teach is their Master of Arts in Learning and Technology (MALAT) program and my course is an openly designed learning experience (built predominantly on a WordPress site) called LRNT527 – Creating Digital Resources. The second course is the Instructional Design for Technology-Enhanced Learning course (IDSN520) offered as part of the Royal Roads Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design program. I love these teaching opportunities. They require me to stay at the top of my game in terms of skills, research, and teaching practice. My practice is deeply enriched through the colleagues and learners I interact with at Royal Roads.
I am also a mentor and support this year (as I have been for the past five years) for the Open Education for a Better World project. This project is funded by UNESCO (and others) and centered at the University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia. The purpose of the project is to invite interested open educational resource developers and mentors to create OER related to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The work of everyone involved is engaging and valuable and I highly recommend checking it out!
Research, Writing, and Presenting!
Given all the other activities in my life (including some life in the life/work balance), I do not have as much time as I would want for unfunded research, writing, and presenting. I am doing those things though when and where I can. I have an upcoming presentation with my amazing GO-GN alumni colleague Dr. Judith Pete and our new powerful Ontario education colleague Gelareh Keshavarz at the OTESSA (Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association) conference June 12-15 (in-person) and June 17-21 (online). Our presentation is called Is AI for or Against Human Success? An Exploratory Engagement by Female Scholars. I’m very much looking forward to it.
Pending research ethics approval, I hope to be working on an artificial intelligence (AI) exploration project. AI tools seem to have some potential in the field of content and learning-related activity generation and I am very interested to see how field practitioners might be or are using AI tools as part of their learning experiences development workflow.
I very much enjoyed reading Jon Dron’s new book How Education Works and writing a review for the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL). I also have a chapter pending in the great project undertaken by Athabasca University colleagues called Women and Leadership in Distance Education. As part of the OTESSA conference, my colleagues and I hope to publish a short paper in the proceedings and I hope to publish my findings from my upcoming research about the use of AI for the design of digital learning resources.
If you would like to connect with me about any or all of these elements of work, please find me on LinkedIn or Mastodon. LinkedIn is probably the quickest path.
