Penn State Digital Commons -- As the lead instructional designer for the Digital Commons at Penn State, I provided support to staff members for various tasks, including helping them improve their seminar presentation skills, instructional materials, and handouts. I also provided instructional design consulting for faculty who are interested in incorporating instructional multimedia in their courses and held focus group sessions as part of a needs assessment for the program.
Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional (Breeze) -- Adobe Connect is a centralized resource that is available to everyone in the Penn State community. As the lead instructional designer for the project, I designed and populated an online community. Materials I created for the community included documentation on how to use the tools within an Adobe Connect meeting room, and documentation and case studies on various ways to use Adobe Connect to hold meetings and classes. I also wrote short articles for the forums in the community as well as answered questions posted there by users. I alos posted about 50 tutorials to the community site that included full-motion screen captures on how to use the various meeting room tools.
Turnitin.com -- Turnitin is a centralized resource that is available to everyone in the Penn State community. It is a tool that can be used to teach students how to correctly cite their sources, or it can be used as a policing tool to detect text within papers that has been copied from a number of different digital sources. When used in combination with the iStudy for Success! module on Academic Integrity, Copyright, and Plagiarism, it provides a comprehensive "package" for faculty to use in their classrooms as an instructional tool. One of my responsibilities at Education Technology Services was to develop and support this resource by posting information at the Web site, giving presentations and training sessions, and providing one-on-one assistance as needed.
iStudy for Success! - The iStudy for Succeess! project involved taking print-based instructional materials focused on skills first-year college students need in order to succeed academically, and converting them to work in the Penn State CMS, ANGEL. Although the content existed, it had to be re-worked and updated. Activities and quizzes were added so students can evaluate and practice what they are learning. The modules can be imported into Penn State courses and assigned as class work, or students can work independently and complete modules that are of interest to them.
Better Kid Care - I work with several different writers to design and produce the distance education instructional units used by child care professionals to earn continuing education credit.
Horticulture 131 - I worked with content experts and graphic artists to design a Web-enhanced course that relies on a Web-based database to deliver the course content and Test Pilot for practice identification exercises. (This course requires an ID and password to access the database and exercises.)
Hort 131 - Leaf Identification module - In 1990 and 1991 I worked with content experts to design a leaf identification module that was delivered using interactive video. In 1999 I revised the module to be Web based rather than relying on a single computer connected to a laser disc player. The module is still waiting for a content expert to provide additional graphics.
Instructional Systems Courses. I have designed, produced, and delivered two graduate level courses in the Instructional Systems Department, Instructional Systems 497D, Instructional design course in Hypermedia and Instructional Systems, and 497C, Applying Instructional Media and Telecomputing in the Classroom
Workshops - I have designed, produced, and delivered a number of technology-related workshops at Penn State.
Web Sites - I have worked with a number of staff and faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences to organize, design, develop, and produce Web sites for their courses, centers, and instructional responsibilities:
Cooperative Extension Plans of Work - I worked with College of Agricultural Science administrators, County Extension Administrators, County Extension Agents, and College staff to design, organize, and produce the Plans of Work Web site and system for editing proposed Plans of Work. By using a Web site to post the Plans of Work, we were able to significantly reduce the amount of time and the cost of finalizing the plans.