Skills

Formal Education

BA in English and Music Performance (double major), College of William & Mary: While enrolled at William & Mary, I also participated extensively in the campus music community as a member of the college choir and the women’s a cappella group Reveille.

MA and most of a PhD in English literature, University of Rochester: I ended my enrollment at the “all but dissertation” stage, but my PhD work focused on Middle English literature, narrative (with a special interest in video game narrative), and composition pedagogy.

Post-graduate school professional development, Coursera, edX, FreeCodeCamp, American Public University System Center for Teaching and Learning: Non-credit courses I have completed include courses in instructional design, management, game design, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python. My current work is in web accessibility testing and consulting.

General Skills

I am the quintessential humanities major: my dominant characteristics are my critical engagement with the world around me and my inveterate curiosity about almost everything I encounter. If I didn’t have to work for a living, I would probably just continue my education forever; I deeply enjoy learning new skills and information, and fit new learning into my life whenever I can.

Critical thinking and analysis

  • Finding the right questions to ask
  • Verbal and image analysis
  • Identifying and solving problems
  • Open- and deep-web research
  • Adaptability

Communication

  • Perceptive and careful listener
  • Effective and clear writing
  • Strong attention to detail and editorial skills
  • Strong public speaking skills
  • Able to remain diplomatic under challenging conditions
  • 16 years in a client-facing roles
  • Collaboration with departmental colleagues and across department lines

Organization

  • Independent, self-directed worker with nearly a decade of experience as a remote employee
  • Able to manage multiple long- and short-term deadlines effectively
  • Experience juggling multiple projects and roles simultaneously

Specialized Skills

I’ve developed a wide range of specialized skills throughout my career in academia, where I have performed in a number of different roles from instructor to instructional designer to web designer/developer to editor.

Teaching & Training

My teaching experience has been concentrated in English Literature and composition, but I have also taught music courses. During my teaching career, I have acted as a peer trainer, mentor and evaluator.

  • Formal training in composition pedagogy
  • Professional development courses in instructional design
  • 17 years’ experience teaching different levels of undergraduate composition and literature courses
  • Strong record of effective instruction of diverse student groups, including minority students, students with disabilities, and military students
  • Flexible and adaptable teaching strategies to meet a range of situations and student needs
  • Effective management of heavy teaching loads
  • Adept at introducing new information and skill to peers
  • Experience in peer evaluation and mentoring

Click here for my formal teaching philosophy.

Instructional Design

My instructional design work has so far been tightly linked to my teaching, and my course design has been for courses that I do personally teach. In my current position, however, I have not been designing courses only for myself, but also for the other 20+ instructors in my department who are assigned these courses. Over the past 2 years, I have taken massive open online courses (MOOCs) in order to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of instructional design theory and practice.

  • Designed for a range of LMS: Web CT, Blackboard, Angel, Educator, and Sakai; basic familiarity with Canvas and Moodle
  • Basic knowledge of Articulate Storyline360 and Adobe Captivate
  • Experience creating instructional videos using screencasts and other tools
  • Strong commitment to and experience with Universal Design principles and to accessible web design
  • Familiar with the Quality Matters framework
  • Adept with the Community of Inquiry framework (using a streamlined ADDIE model)
  • Quick to adapt to new technology
  • Conversant with the integration of a varied multimedia elements
  • Proficient in the use of Open Educational Resources

Software and Programming Experience

I have not had much formal training with software and programming; most of these are skills that I have picked up as needed over the course of my career. My software and programming skill acquisition is a good example of what George Siemens termed “know where”; if I do not already have the necessary knowledge or skill, I usually know where to go to acquire those knowledge or skills.

  • The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
  • Gravit Designer
  • Slack
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript (basic)
  • ARIA
  • WCAG 2.1
  • Screen reader use, including NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver

Languages

I do not use languages other than English much in my work at this point, but I enjoy learning languages, and would love to have an excuse to improve my mastery of those I have or to learn new ones!

  • French (working proficiency)
  • German (beginner)
  • Finnish (beginner)
  • Latin (working proficiency)
  • Old English (working proficiency)
  • Middle French (working proficiency)

Interested in learning more? Take a look through current work, career aspirations, and instructional design portfolio.