Hi there!
I am an instructional designer & OER researcher.
I am currently the Online Learning Trainer & Curriculum Designer at American University’s Washington College of Law, an OER Research Fellow for the Open Education Group, and an OER Bootcamp Designer & Instructor for the Open Textbook Network.
Prior to joining the Law School, I worked out of the Center for Teaching, Research & Learning (CTRL) where I ran Open American, AU’s OER grant program, managed EdSpace, AU’s WordPress multisite available to faculty and students for open pedagogy projects like student-run course websites and ePortfolios, and taught the Faculty Online Training Course, a requirement for instructors making the shift from teaching face-to-face courses to online or hybrid courses.
Before joining AU, I was freelance writer traveling the world for 2 years. Before that, I designed free online courses built with open educational resources for the Saylor Academy. While there, I helped build ~75 new, free, open, online courses, formed credit-pathway partnerships with international organizations using free Saylor Academy courses, and developed a MOOC with NASA engineers and Nobel Laureate physicists.
David on many occasions took on additional work without being asked in order to make my life easier and improve the overall process for our faculty. He would do this without fanfare or the desire or need for acknowledgment. This thoughtfulness and commitment to his work and to our organization bowled me over. When the opportunity for promotion into a different role within the organization emerged, I sadly but willingly recommended him for the role, knowing he was capable of nearly anything but of course disappointed that I would be losing him in my department. I can frankly say that no one was able to fill his shoes in the position!
Working in collaboration with NASA, David was the lead member of our team in developing a unique massive open online course. Not only does this course offer greater levels of peer to peer interaction than do other Saylor courses, but his efforts also helped to re-tool the delivery of course content; added levels of assessment and activity that had not been seen in previous Saylor courses; and have made it possible to provide live access to industry leading experts for 1000’s of our students.
David is an enthusiastic advocate for educational technology who is driven to excel, a dedicated teacher and creative problem solver, and a terrific team player.
I was consistently impressed with David’s work, yet more impressed with his character, dependability, and approach to life… his experiences through life around the globe have given him an effective and informed framework for life and work. David is an intelligent, creative worker, and an honest, fair, and thoughtful person.