ABOUT ME
I am currently serving as a Senior Lecturer and the Accelerator Program Chair for the Tutorium at the University of Illinois Chicago. I hold Master of Arts degrees in English and in Applied Linguistics/TESOL and have 30 years of teaching experience in various contexts, including junior high and high school English, college composition, intensive English, and pathway programs.
More recently, I have designed and developed the Tutorium’s Accelerator Program in conjunction with the recently established UIC Global undergraduate pathway program. I am an active member of TESOL, ITBE, NCTE, and NASPA. I have recently served on TESOL International’s Professional Development Professional Council and am currently serving a three-year term as a Commissioner for the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA).
I’ve held a variety of professional teaching and administrative positions in Chicago and in my native Louisiana. My education spans from English literature and secondary education to applied linguistics, curriculum and instruction, and instructional design. I am currently enrolled in the Learning Design and Leadership EdD program at UIUC, with an anticipated completion date of August 2025.
I specialize in curriculum and faculty development in intensive English and university pathway programs. My research focuses on post-secondary English language learner and teacher development and retention, program evaluation and accreditation, and additional-language writing and writing instruction. I am currently teaching English for Academic Purposes, international freshman orientation, and writing support courses.
PORTFOLIO
My portfolio includes several projects from my EPOL 472 Instructional and Training System Design and EPOL 483 Learning Technologies courses at UIUC. These projects highlight my design thinking, collaborative process, and recent growth in instructional design and learning technology knowledge and skills.
Projects featured in this portfolio include:
- Instructional Design Project: Working Smarter, Not Harder: Optimizing Work/Life Balance in Post-Pandemic Times
- Instructional Design Case Study: Design Proposal Outline and Expectations
- Design Case Studies: Absorb-, Do-, and Connect-type Activities
- Exploring Learning Technologies: Social Media
PROJECT 1: INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN PROJECT
The Instructional Design Project represents a semester's worth of collaborative work in designing and developing an instructional product for a specific learning context of the team's choosing. We designed an e-learning course, Work Smarter, Not Harder: Optimizing Work/Life Balance in Post-Pandemic Times, for a local community-based organization that, in the wake of the pandemic, has reported higher levels of employee stress, burnout, absenteeism, and other health issues and lower job satisfaction and morale.
The Instructional Design Project represents all major phases of project design, including needs analysis, learner analysis, instructional analysis, assessment development, instructional strategies, and design review and evaluation. Sample instructional activities and assessments can be accessed at the project link.
I designed Learning Unit 1 (How's Your Work/Life Balance?) for this project. The unit consists of two modules, the first of which introduces the topic of work//life balance, its benefits, and potential signs of imbalance. The second module centers around a work/life balance survey to help learners identify areas to focus on to improve their work/life balance. The subsequent learning units provide strategies for effectively managing time, identifying and using preferred work styles, and setting boundaries between work and home, and activities to apply them.
Special thanks to Kelly Cook and Arikpo Dada for collaborating on this project. Is was a pleasure to learn with and from you!
PROJECT 2: INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN CASE STUDY
The Instructional Design Case Study called for developing a proposal for a training course for project managers and associate project managers at a rapidly expanding Chicago-based international company that provides information technology integration services. Our team developed a plan for an 80-hour asynchronous e-learning course that consists of a 60-hour general training segment for both project manager and assistant project manager groups followed by a 20-hour training segment based on learners' specific roles.
In our proposal, we address the following specific challenges inherent to this project (1) having to conduct an intensive training while personnel remain on the job, (2) providing the training in various languages to accommodate the company's expanding global presence, and (3) cost-effectively meeting the needs of two distinct groups of learners with some overlap.
PROJECT 3: DESIGN CASE STUDIES (ABSORB-, DO-, AND CONNECT-TYPE ACTIVITIES)
Our team of learning technologists was tasked with develop a preliminary design proposal for developing or adopting an interactive learning system aimed at helping new hires internalize company policies and regulations during the onboarding process. This consisted of designing three tasks utilizing Horton's (2012) Absorb-Do-Connect framework. For each task, we identified relevant learning objectives and learning tasks and technologies to help new hires obtain the learning objectives we set.
Our first assignment was to explore the possibilities of converting existing company policies and regulations into online format absorb-type activities that can be accessed by new hires just-in-time and that can be used by the HRD department to test new hires on the policies and regulations at the end of their onboarding experience. Our team chose to focus on the company's respectful workplace policies. Our objectives for the absorb-type activities included identifying key points in the company's policies, recognizing behaviors that threaten a respectful workplace, and identifying appropriate actions for managers to take to manage issues and coach employees.
Assignment 2 called for developing a preliminary design proposal for developing an E-Learning system to expand the reach and deepen the impact of L&D activities on fostering a safe and inclusive workplace culture. Optimally, the proposed do-type activities should provide opportunities for employees to construct their own meanings on workplace safety and inclusivity through first-hand experiences. Our team chose to focus on teaching company employees to utilize call in or call out strategies to manage incidents and behaviors that threaten the company's respectful workplace culture.
The final case study assignment required the development of a preliminary design proposal for developing an E-Learning system for supporting learning and performance transfer post-L&D activities utilizing connect-type activities. The system must be accessible to all employees just-in-time and provide support for employees to connect their L&D experience with the actual work tasks. For this assignment, our team focused on helping managers to leverage the career development resources available through the company's learning portal in order to more effectively complete their annual self-evaluation.
Special thanks to Jessica Holden, Emily Burgard, and Michael Washington, my Group 9 classmates.
PROJECT 4: EXPLORING LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES: SOCIAL MEDIA
In this presentation, my team selected and analyzed three how-to videos in order to determine the effectiveness and instructional value of social media such as Youtube for teaching and learning. As part of the project, we presented the general applications of social media for teaching and learning purposes. In order to evaluate the instructional value of each video, we identified the target audience of each clip, outlined the strengths and weaknesses of each clip, and considered how each clip's instructional quality might be improved based on multimedia instruction design principles. Our topic was how to make mac and cheese.