Opportunity: Each summer, the Center for Academic Technologies has the opportunity to develop courses for faculty development related to educational technology and online teaching. In 2023, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the trending topic, but the webinars were getting repetitive, and faculty concerns were at an all-time high related to academic integrity and the inappropriate use of AI in the classroom.

My role: As an instructional designer, I developed and facilitated a Summer Institute course that emphasized ethical exploration and experiential learning. I knew that the more faculty experimented with AI tools, the better they would understand the limitations and potential uses of AI. Ultimately, there were over 110 successful faculty course completions in the two-week cohort. My course development process took approximately six months, and I started by developing the course map (linked below as a deliverable). The course mapping process involved the creation of scaffolded learning outcomes aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy, and was based on a needs analysis process that involved analyzing faculty concerns (local and those voiced in trade publications, forums, and other organizations), current market research, trend forecasting, and hands-on experience with emerging AI technologies related to my work as a creative writer (cover design). After the outcomes were developed, the assessments were designed, then the learning activities, resources, and more were created through a backward design process to ensure instructional alignment. I participated in many courses, webinars, forums, and conversations with peers and colleagues, which resulted in many collaboratively-sourced resources that ultimately greatly enhanced the quality of the course.

Final Deliverable: View the course map (a recorded course tour may be available by request, and a list of external institutions that have adopted this course is also available by request.)

Opportunity: In 2019, Hartnell College was awarded over $30,000 to spend on Classified Staff Professional Development.

My role: I volunteered to join the committee tasked with managing those funds, and was elected chair. As chair, I led the process of designing a new program that we called the Classified Staff Leadership Academy. The primary purpose of the funding was to provide career laddering and professional development programming for classified staff, and we essentially followed a backward design process for the Academy: we assessed the managerial job descriptions across the district, identified similar requirements across all management classifications, and designed an academy that would help staff gain those specific skills so they would be prepared for leadership positions in our district.

Final Deliverable: Hartnell College Classified Leadership Academy Program (if the link no longer works, request a copy of the archived webpage.)