UCO's distance education team continues to grow to better serve our distance education faculty and students. Meet our team members and learn more about quality eLearning at UCO!
Tracy Fairless - Instructional Designer
Hello, my name is Tracy Fairless.
I have been an Instructional Designer with CPDE since the fall of
2007. Working with faculty is the
absolute best part of my job. It is
particularly gratifying to begin a project with a professor who is somewhat
apprehensive about technology and the whole concept of teaching online. To
watch the initial level of apprehension dissolve and be replaced with
excitement and a sense of accomplishment, gives me great joy.
There have been so many memorable courses
and instructors but one that stands out for me is a Trigonometry course
designed by Lee Ann Brown. Using a Wacom
tablet and Camtasia, Lee Ann spent countless hours creating video tutorials and
detailed, interactive lessons for her online course. The tutorials allowed students to see and
hear their instructor explain examples as many times as needed. Her hard work proved to be worthwhile when
her face-to-face students started requesting access to the online lessons. It should not be a surprise that Lee Ann
Brown is recognized as one of UCO’s Online Quality Award Winners!
Milissa Copeland - Instructional Designer
The best part of my job is the creative freedom we have in designing dynamic online courses.
The second best part of my job is sharing those ideas and creative tools
with my faculty members and having them get excited about the endless possibilities available to create their online courses.
One of my favorite courses that I have worked on was MUS
1113 with Dr. Magrill. We used several
cool tools to assist the students, including a piano widget we loaded
right into WebCT. We also found a free piano app for the iPad and iPhone.
One of my favorite tools to use to assist faculty and
students is
Screenr. It
allows me to create quick instructional videos on how to perform a certain task
and share it or link it. It certainly
makes it easier than telling someone how to navigate, and best of all it is
FREE!
Lacretia Mitchell - Instructional Designer
I love using new and innovative tools such as:
mixbook, screenr,
glogster, and
blogger in the online environment. I think the
reason I like “cool tools” is because it makes the class more interesting and
fun for the students. As a recent graduate, I remember what it was like
being in a class where all you do is read boring text and how much it made me
hate the learning process.
Maybe it is the mother in me, but I want
to make sure our current and future students enjoy, not dread, online courses.
As an instructor who uses these tools in my Success Central class I know from
experience how much they can enrich the learning process.
Bucky Dodd - Assistant Director
One of the exciting aspects of my job is that I have the
privilege of working with some of the most creative, innovative, and
student-focused individuals at UCO.
Flex-Ed is currently undergoing major
innovation and change as we transition to offering self-paced online courses
and expand interactive video education learning options to create the most
flexible courses available to UCO students.
We completed our first Advanced
Course Design which involved much collaboration and introduced several new
instructional design techniques that will be expanded to other online course
design projects. Our second Advanced Course Design group is in the process of
designing courses that focus on 3D virtual environments and mobile learning.
The
eLearning Developers’ Community of Practice is meeting monthly and
discussing what’s new in eLearning development.
Finally, through a
collaboration between CPDE and the Office of Enrollment Management, UCO has its
first Distance Learning advisor. Not only can students learn anywhere, they can
access advisement services no matter where they are at in the world.
Andrea Stone - Instructional Designer
The best part of my job is
collaborating with faculty to take their ideas to the next level. They have
great ideas, but often they don’t know about all the options available for
online classes, especially since great new tools come out daily it seems! I
love to listen to what a faculty member wants to do or is currently doing in
face to face classes and brainstorm with them on ways to create great online
learning activities.
New things like iPad apps for providing feedback,
VoiceThread, and
Google+ video chat offer great benefits for teaching and
learning. Seeing faculty excited about implementing new ways of teaching makes
my day!
Michael Willis - Instructional Designer
What I love best about online
learning, as well as developing online courses, is the ability to be
creative. As a student, I feared being stuck in a classroom with “THE”
professor….you know, the professor that epitomized dry and monotone teaching.
It is for that reason I try to create fun and interactive online courses using
tools like comic strips, digital stories, and
Prezis. I guess you could
say I am committed to fighting boring and monotonous learning one eCourse at a
time.
Rhonda Barnett - Flex-Ed Coordinator (IVE)
The future of Interactive Video Education (IVE) is endless, and,
that excites me! Here’s why:
- the student base can range from urban,
suburban, metropolitan, rural, international, and incarcerated populations,
- teachers and lecturers from all over the world can be brought to the local
classroom in a 2-way communication platform,
- the technology can be used to
pool resources and teach courses which otherwise may not be offered, and
- students can realize their goals and dreams from anywhere in the world!
John Gillmore - Assistant Director
Hello there! My name is John Gillmore. I am the Assistant
Director of Instructional Technologies in the Distance Education Department. I
recently attended the Institute for Emerging Leaders in Online Education which
is a collaboration between the Sloan-C consortium and Penn State University.
This program really lit a fire under me, prompting me to reach out, promote
collaboration and seek opportunities to lead our campus into new areas of
technology and innovation.
Shortly after our on-campus Penn State session, I
had the opportunity to attend the Retaining Students in Online Education
workshop. This seminar put forth some excellent ideas about student retention including
improving online student services, student orientation and identifying problem
areas using advanced analytics displayed via an online dashboard. These are the
things I am very excited about! If you are interested in any of these things,
don’t hesitate to contact me!
Laura Rash - Flex-Ed Coordinator (SPOC)
The best part of my day is when students tell me they
would have had to quit school if Flex-Ed were not available. Making education
more accessible is what Flex-Ed is all about. That’s why I am so excited about
all of the changes coming to UCO’s Flex-Ed program!
All of our current
paper delivery correspondence courses are being converted to Self Paced Online
Courses (SPOC). The new online format will allow quicker turnaround on student
work and more direct student/faculty interaction. For the first time
Flex-Ed students will also have access to online enrollment, online advisement
and online tutoring. Initially we are converting current Flex-Ed courses to
SPOC, but we hope to expand the course offering significantly over the next
year.
Liz Crowell - Instructional Designer
“Hi, my name is Liz and I’m addicted to
Facebook.” OK, I’m
not addicted, but I do love social media! I “like” (get it?) finding ways to
communicate with students where they are at and encouraging informal learning
through tools students already use.
However, my favorite part of my job is
meeting with faculty members to discuss teaching and building online classes. I
enjoy the enthusiasm and creative nature of UCO’s faculty, whether it is
completing a task or brainstorming creative ways to engage students. Their
dedication to students inspires me to design the best online experiences for
our students.
