As an instructional designer specializing in online learning, Jennifer focuses on ways to facilitate learning through effective and efficient uses of educational technology. A sample of Jennifer’s instructional design initiatives (some old, some new) are highlighted here:
Designers for Learning
Jennifer founded the Designers for Learning platform to connect instructional designers with nonprofit organizations and social enterprises in need of instructional products and services to support their operations. The purpose of Designers for Learning is (a) to provide nonprofits with instructional design products that improve performance, and (b) to provide instructional design students real-world experience to develop their skills.
Educational Technology Webcasts
For nearly 10 years, EdTechWeekly (at EdTechWeekly.com) was a weekly live interactive webcast broadcast on the EdTechTalk.com channel of the Worldbridges webcasting network. As a co-host with Jeff Lebow, Dave Cormier, and John Schinker, Jennifer researched current news stories related to education and technology, tested new resources to support learning, and presented reviews during the weekly live webcast. Participants in the live webcast were invited to join the live conversation and to share their bookmarked web links. Nearly 10,000 education and technology related items have been indexed within the EdTechTalk diigo.com social-bookmarking repository. Listeners either participate live or download the recorded webcasts.
Educational Technology Website and Blog
Jennifer has maintained a web site since 2005 dedicated to her ongoing review of educational technology and online learning topics. Thousands of viewers have visited her DesignedToInspire.com web site and blog and many have become virtual colleagues within an informal online community of professional educators. The web site catalogs hundreds of resources to support online learning and the integration of technology in educational settings.
Teaching and Learning with Technology (Oldie, but a goodie)
This Media Guide was developed for a seminar entitled Teaching with Technology. The seminar is geared toward instructors and provides an introduction to the various technologies available for training. The Media Guide is used during a section of the seminar that focuses on the latest generation of web-based resources available for training. The seminar highlights the features and instructional uses of a range of web-based tools and provides a high-level overview of how to begin trying the tools. During the seminar, an exploration of the training application ideas is covered and a demonstration of the use of each type of web-based resource is given by the facilitator.
Early Online Learning Environment (Oldie, but a goodie)
Drupal CMS Academy Design Prototype
The Drupal CMS Academy was an online collaborative learning environment for those interested in learning how to use the Drupal content management system. The Academy supports learners as they maximize their performance in the installation, administration and customization of a Drupal web installation. In this individual project, Jennifer worked with the client to identify and prioritize the instructional topics to be offered, recommend a design framework for the online learning environment, and create an online prototype to demonstrate the design recommendations.
Early Wiki Based Learning Module (Oldie, but a goodie)
Wikiversity is a wiki based project created to support the development of free learning materials and lessons. It is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation which also hosts Wikipedia, the popular wiki based encyclopedia. As part of a team of instructional design students, Jennifer adapted an existing web based module developed by Dr. Charles Reigeluth into a Wikiversity lesson. The lesson incorporates presentation, practice, and feedback elements within the wiki environment. It includes embedded video demonstrations which Jennifer produced.
Early Online Learning Course (Oldie, but a goodie)
This online module was designed and developed to be part of a mandatory life skills course for high school freshman. Within this lesson, a detailed overview of the concepts and processes involved in completing laundry is covered. The online module concludes with a short scored multiple choice assessment designed to assess the student’s comprehension of the required concepts and skills.
Early Online Training (Oldie, but a goodie)
This self-paced online training module was designed and developed to provide instruction in core webcasting skills. The online training is augmented with live webcast training sessions in small groups with an experience webcaster acting as trainer. At the conclusion of this module, exercises assess each learner’s ability to utilize all of the core skills and technologies covered in the module, including how to:
- Conference: Set up and facilitate a telephony conference call with two or more people.
- Record: Record the audio from the telephony conference of two or more people.
- Post: Post an MP3 audio recording of a telephony conference of two or more people on the Webcast Academy web site as a recorded webcast or podcast.