Into the Elearning world — Interview with an Instructional designer, Keith W. O’Neal
Instructional designers play a key role in creating e-learning experiences. We at zipBoard are on a journey to understand the ever evolving role of instructional designers.
We recently chatted up with Keith W. O’Neal about how instructional design works, what kind of tools designers use,and the design process. Keith is an Instructional designer(ID) at Lipscomb University. He has a great journey from a teacher to ID having received a lot of certifications in training and teaching. Keith worked with Reynoldsburg city schools for almost 11 years collaborating with teachers bringing the 21st century skills into the classroom. Keith now works with the Lipscomb university faculty to assist them in creating both hybrid and online courses.
Read on to know more about his design world.
You were the speaker & consultant for multiple school districts for almost 9 years. How did you get your interest for instructional design?
Keith: “I have always had a passion for innovation in the classroom and how we can structure learning in order to have maximum impact. Teaching in the classroom was great, I loved my students, but as I traveled around I noticed the increased need for quality, especially online. I quickly realized I could have a greater impact on more students by moving to a full time position where I was working with faculty to increase the quality of learning in the classroom & online.”
How did you get your first instructional design assignment?
Keith: “Really my first instructional design ‘assignment’ came in my own classroom. I would not have called it that at the time, but I was designing learning online to extend beyond the walls of my classroom to impact my students. At the time (2003) this was still relatively new in the K-12 realm and what I was doing was appreciated by parents...and thereby noticed by administration. Soon I was designing online modules for other teachers, other subjects, and eventually moved to a position as a District Technology Specialist to do it full time across the district.”
Would you love to share your Instructional design experience at Lipscomb University?
Keith: “At Lipscomb I am the sole full time instructional designer for the University. In order to accomplish that task I work under a ‘train the faculty’ model. While I do some design work, my largest task is training faculty to design and create their own quality courses online. I fully enjoy the experience of working with faculty in this way and feel more ownership is taken when they are designing their own course. I am more the consultant and quality assurance to assist them as needed though the development of a new course. Here at Lipscomb I am also given the freedom (and encouragement) to speak at other colleges & conferences to promote teaching and learning in the classroom & online. Our Center for Teaching & Learning mission is to ‘Support Excellence & Inspire Innovation’ and my administration supports me to do that everywhere, not just at Lipscomb. To have that kind of support and interest in student learning is amazing.”
How do you collaborate with your team and clients?
Keith: “Well as mentioned above I do not really have a team like some universities may have 3-10+ designers. When I’m working one on one with faculty we use the Quality Matters rubric and I start by having them self evaluate their course according to the standards. If it is a new course we begin by discussion, learning objectives and what they want to accomplish. Most of my faculty (clients) are here on campus so they come by our CTL, but for faculty off-campus and/or other universities I may work with, Google Hangout/Docs is my collaboration tool of choice.”
What according to you are the key parameters for an interactive course?
Keith: “Faculty/Student & Student/Student interaction. We learn from each other’s perspectives more than we sometimes realize. Learning as a community expands one’s perspective ten fold and concepts & ideas that may have been overlooked are brought to view through interaction with others. We don’t know what we don’t know and interaction with others through creative discussions, synchronous online sessions, and social media can bring out a deeper well of understanding & application.”
You took a workshop at Future of education technology conference, what was it all about?
Keith: “Two years in a row now I have presented my workshop ‘Teaching Online: 12 Things to Think About’ at FETC. It is a beginner’s guide to thinking about key aspects of teaching online. The presentation can be found here on Prezi. I also have a video series on YouTube and am currently writing a blog series on LinkedIn.”
There are a lot of conferences you were a part of and you write blogs on the information you extract from these talks. Can you share some of your best experiences or maybe the best blog you wrote on it.
Keith: “My all time favorite blog post was when I wrote ‘Be a Netflix in your school, NOT a Blockbuster’. I wrote that back in 2013 when I was still working for a School District in Ohio, but it rings true still today for any level. In fact I probably should post a reprint of it in LinkedIn. As far as conferences go I love any opportunity to speak, but especially to learn & share. My best learning experiences at conferences have taken place via conversations & connections made on Twitter by sharing resources and asking questions.”
How do you design courses for different devices?
Keith: “Currently we use BlackBoard as our LMS so Bb automatically formats course material for mobile or for their app. I encourage faculty to always view their course to see how it looks from student perspectives, both from a traditional web browser, but also mobile and app form. Bb does a good job usually of making the transition functional.”
Which are the tools you use while creating a course and gathering feedback on it?
Keith: “We use the Quality Matters Rubric as our standards. We have Google Forms we use to collect and organize feedback and evaluation.”
Which blogs or books do you read for inspiration and daily trends?
Keith: “Currently I am involved in two book studies. One on “Teaching Naked” by Jose Bowen, and the second on “A New Way” by Eaker & Sells. Faculty Focus is one of my favorite blogs as they have very good and relevant articles. For the most part though I get my daily inspiration & resources from my PLC on Twitter.”
Keith is active on twitter and shares his thoughts on EdTech. To know him more, you can visit his website or add him on LinkedIn.
zipBoard wishes to learn more about the e-learning world from the experiences of IDs. We look forward to your thoughts and contributions.
zipBoard is a review and collaboration tool for e-Learning developers and instructional designers. Just upload your SCORM file and get started. Add team members as collaborators, share feedback, iterate over multiple versions — zipBoard is the tool to make e-Learning courses better and faster.
Thanks to Erica Louise & Ruchi Goel
