I serve as a university professor in instructional design and online learning. I work with talented faculty and graduate students to generate new knowledge and to create effective, appealing online learning environments. I have served in a number of administrative roles including chief online learning officer, department head, center director, associate department chair, and program coordinator.
Research
My research publications and scholarly presentations are here. My research and expertise is in the design and analysis of online learning environments. My work has been toward addressing faculty and student issues in online learning, including the following four components:
- instructional content and nature of existing online resources
- learner issues (satisfaction, etc.) as influenced by the learning environment
- how emerging social and networked tools can augment instructional strategies
- open educational resources, formal learning, and informal learning in personal learning environments
Funded Projects
My research efforts have been funded by entities such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Education, the Institute of Education Sciences, IBM, Microsoft Corporation, the State of Tennessee, and the State of Florida.
Consulting
I serve as an occasional consultant in e-learning and instructional design to companies and organizations seeking to improve their employee training and performance. I specialize in creating web-based (e-learning) environments for training and development. Recent clients include FedEx, the Southern College of Optometry, Cummins Engine Inc., the Wolf River Conservancy, U.S. Learning, the University of Mississippi, the U.S. Veterans Administration, and the University of Tennessee.
Teaching and Curriculum Development
I have contributed to the creation of three fully online masters degree programs at three universities, and two fully online doctoral programs. I have developed and taught dozens of online courses and have pioneered the effective pedagogical use of social software tools for enabling collaborative learning environments.
Service
I have served on the review board for scholarly journals including Educational Technology Research and Development, the Quarterly Review of Distance Education, the Journal of Applied Instructional Design, and the British Journal of Educational Technology. I served three elected terms on the Board of Directors of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), was Program Chair and planner of the AECT international convention. In 2019 I was elected and served as President of AECT.