Designing for Learning — Consulting, Advising and Facilitating

Welcome to this Designing for Learning site. I hope you find many useful gems and tools for practical, yet deep thinking about online learning, instructional design and program planning.

This site features a collection of publications and articles from over 25 years while I have been working, writing, and consulting in the area of online and distance learning and faculty development. These years including time at Penn State, Florida State, the University of Florida, Duquesne and the non-profit organization CREN as a consultant, instructional futurist, online program advisor and ecoach.

I was honored by keynoting a number of events in 2009 including the League for Innovation's annual Conference on Information Technology (CIT) in Detroit in October; the 25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning. August 4-7, 2009, Madison, Wisconsin and the Curricular Change Summit for the American Association of the Colleges of Pharmacy in Scottsdale, Arizona in September. All these presentations provided a combination of a look at the past, the future, and designing effective online programs. An archive of the presentation at the Wisconsin Distance Teaching & Learning is available at http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/keynote_resources.cfm

The most exciting news is that the book The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips by Judith V. Boettcher and Rita-Marie Conrad (authors) will be available in June from Jossey-Bass. This book organizes and updates many of the ecoaching tips that are on this site, providing a valuable resource for any faculty grappling with developing and delivering any blended or online program.

So, for now, don't miss the Library of E-Coaching Tips for Online Learning -- now numbering over 70 -- developed by Judith and her colleague, Rita-Marie Conrad, Ph.D. This set of ecoaching tips is for faculty who are designing and teaching online courses and blended campus courses. Staff and administrators find these tips handy as well just for learning and planning. An updated - from 2009 - set of Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online is also available.

In addition to the tips, the site provides many publications and writings from over the years, including an early article titled, Let's Boldly Go... to the Education Holodeck that appeared on the Syllabus /now /Campus Technology/ magazine back in 1998. That one is still fun to read as we don't have holodecks quite yet!

Many more articles and webinars by Judith are available at the Campus Technology site. One of the most recent articles from July of 2008 is Socializing' the CMS.

Older but much commented on articles include:

• The Rise of Student Performance Content (2/2006)
• Designing for Learning: The Pursuit of Well-Structured Content (12/2002)

Many of these publications and writings examine questions about online learning, such as cost questions about "how much" and "how many" and "how long"; basic principles about online learning; and what might the future bring? I am glad to hear from many in our community that they still find these writings helpful in clarifying issues and trends.

After 25 + years of experience in supporting faculty and administrators in the effective use of technologies to enhance teaching and learning in all environments and assisting in strategic planning for new programs, I sum up the common theme in all of this work as follows: It is the power of instructional design, learning research and theory to support the goals of effective and efficient learning -- on campus and online --for faculty, staff and students.

Also, don't miss the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Distance and Online Learning. This edition has contributions from many of you, old and new friends, colleagues and new acquaintances.

A Brief Background

Over the years, Judith has consulted with a wide range of universities, colleges, and business organizations and is widely published in higher education publications. From 2003-2010, Judith has been consulting and coaching faculty, administrators, and deans on program planning for online and blended courses and programs, giving workshops, presentations, and keynotes as well as continuing her writing.

As a Syllabus scholar in the decade of the 1990s, she designed and delivered many seminars on online learning and instructional design and was a long-time member of the Syllabus/Campus Technology conference board, a co-editor of the faculty and staff development section of Innovate, and member of the advisory committee for Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Judith was the Executive Director of CREN from 1997-2003. During that time CREN produced the CREN TechTalk series, bi-monthly audio webcasts. Judith served as the program director of this series and cohost of these audio webcast series with Howard Strauss of Princeton. Campus Technology is now hosting the archives from these CREN TechTalks.

Her experiences in designing and managing the development of learning experiences integrating technology developments spans corporate, non-profit and higher education campus environments, including years in faculty development and distance learning centers at Penn State and Florida State. Judith earned her Ph.D in curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota and undergrad and master's degrees from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.