I've worked with the Emory University Writing Program on several projects over the years to help faculty and student development alike. The selection below includes a technology training workshop for faculty, a “train the trainer” skills workshop, and a blended learning module for students. My roles for each project cover a Swiss Army knife array of skills: subject matter expert, instructional designer, writer, video and audio producer, graphic designer, and voiceover talent.
Scroll down for the details of each project.
This brief tutorial is for faculty who were moving their courses fully online due to the pandemic.
It walks through the online public annotation tool, Hypothesis, and how it may be used as a versatile instructional technology.
This workshop addressed moment of great stress and anxiety for faculty members, many of whom had little-to-no experience teaching online and were skeptical of an online instructional environment.
With that in mind, this training workshop is less of a “How-To” guide than a “Why-To” guide, addressing the learners’ higher order concerns and questions about the application.
Writer: I scripted and edited all content for the handouts.
Graphic Designer: I designed the layout and graphic content using official institution branding.
Click on an image in the slideshow to call up the full PDF of materials.
My Roles
Instructional Designer: In order to “train the trainers,” I had to succinctly address what I knew would be the audience’s primary concern: the pedagogical value of the tool. Credibility, concision, and easy delivery were high priorities.
This brief workshop is targeted toward interdisciplinary faculty and graduate student instructors new to intensive writing courses.
The goal is to gain instructor buy-in for teaching a foundational writing skill that meets program learning objectives.
As such, I opted for methods of delivery that emphasize concision and simplicity: a one-page overview with appended exercises and a five-minute, narrated PowerPoint.
Instructional Designer: In another instance of “training the trainers,” I had to consider a mix of needs for this module: the program’s objectives, a wide range of instructor experience, and flexible delivery.
Writer: I scripted and edited all content.
Graphic Designer: I designed the layout and graphic content using a mix of my own illustrations and open access images.
Video & Audio Producer: After scripting, I recorded, edited, and calibrated all video and audio, as well as provided closed captioning.
Voiceover: That’s my dulcet voice discussing the power of effective paraphrase.
Click the Teaching Paraphrase image to view a PDF of the handout and exercises.
My Roles
Subject Matter Expert: I drew from a decade of expertise in writing and critical thinking pedagogies.
This is a recorded excerpt from an interactive module that addresses common difficulties in foundational grammatical concepts. The course, Rhetorical Grammar, is a corequisite with higher-level interdisciplinary courses designed to improve students' academic writing. This module is designed as supplementary instruction for students struggling with points of grammatical identification that are necessary to improve higher-order aspects of composition, such as cohesion, clarity, and style. I chose a more versatile instructional design application for its ability to convey the immediacy, personability, and interactivity of one-on-one instruction.
Instructional Designer: Since grammar is a notoriously dreaded subject, I knew I had to make the delivery engaging and approachable. I find that using humor, a dash of the unexpected, and an empathic delivery are key to engaging learners with such subject matter.
Writer: I storyboarded, scripted, and copyedited the content for this learning module.
Graphic Designer: I designed the layout, graphic assets, and illustrations.
Video & Audio Producer: After scripting, I recorded, edited, and calibrated all video and audio.
Voiceover: That’s me narrating the concepts.
My Roles
Subject Matter Expert: As a professional writer and instructor of writing for over a decade, I can—at worst—be a walking reference material for grammar and rhetoric.
