Intro to Portoflio
Below you can see some of the projects I've worked on over the years. These are only a few of the many opportunities I've had to design and innovate in learning. Various projects used either waterfall or agile methods of project management, and various modalities and technologies to drive learning. Thanks for checking it out!
Role Play Exercises and Rigor in Higher Ed Counseling
Context: For a Master's in Counseling course, an SME desired more engaging methods to introduce content and assess students' understanding of counseling principles and methods. They used role play in their traditional in-person course but could not understand how it translates into a 100% online class. A previous online course they worked on with role play was engaging but lacked the rigor and application needed for Master's students. This current course would lead students to their internship and needed to vertically align and prepare students for practice.
In this course, I consulted with the SME to improve their learning objectives, map activities to these objectives, and ensure meaningful scaffolds and assessments for students to understand methods and build their style of practice. As a result, the enhanced role plays provided nuance and opportunities for application without sacrificing relevance and rigor. Course evaluations showed increased student satisfaction and preparation for clinical exams.
Data Driven Use of Videos in Higher Ed
Context: In several public health and counseling courses, module overview videos were used to introduce students to the module's materials and action items. SMEs had been using this method for years, and thought they were essential for student learning. Additionally, SMEs overly depended on pre-recorded asynchronous lecture content, and further lecturing in synchronous sessions.
Course data found that students do not watch these overview videos or lecture content that is redundant to other information in a course. I shared this data with SMEs and guided them to rethink introducing their modules and video content. This called for leveraging various modalities mapped to learning objectives that keep the students in mind.
The example on the right is one of the videos. Instead of a typical lecture with slides, I worked with the SME to integrate interactive graphics, and provide students opportunity to use these tools outside of the lecture. Across the courses where lectures were restructured, we saw a 10-30% reduction in video content (as well as a decrease in budget), and an increase in social learning and prior knowledge application.
Microlearning for K-12 Educators
Context: K-12 teachers and admin have needed quick and efficient introductions to online learning. These educators have limited time to conduct extensive research and study best practices.
I've created microlearning (videos, job aids, case studies) to introduce educators to the large field of online learning and methods to increase sustainability in their online practice. The example to the left is one of my videos explaining traditional, blended, and online learning. This content has reached teachers across the country and has increased my outreach to educators who want to implement online learning sustainably.
Game Design for Media Literacy
Context: In one of my graduate research lab's, we were exploring ways to teach middle school students media literacy. We decided to create a game that would be engaging, align to Common Core standards, and be successful in student learning.
I was on the initial research and design team. I used my lens as the sole K-12 educator to determine relevant curriculum standards, landscape analysis into traditional teaching methods, and initial design of lesson plans and gaming mechanics. This work was learner focused, and I was a core facilitator in the initial research study with students as we prototyped and implemented updates.
My foundational work has led to the game, now called Lamboozled! being finalized and published, and has been used in numerous classrooms.
AR for Dance Learning
Context: I entered a design competition in my graduate program. I joined a small team and we were set out on creating a new method of dance learning that met the needs of learners who did not have access to in-person dance teachers, but wanted more instruction beyond videos.
We created a prototype dance learning app that used Augmented Reality. As an educator and dancer, I drove research analysis and understanding the user journey. We piloted our working prototype at the design competition. It had great audience reviews but didn't win, and thus, I was back to being a grad student brainstorming new and iterative ideas. :)