Senior Instructional Designer at CU Anschutz Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: Currently Michael works with faculty course directors and section leaders to help enhance educational experiences both inside a physical and digital classroom. The instructional design services provided at this school is different because it is a full service instructional design unit where the entire course is built, monitored, and evaluated. Instructional designers are also included in making decisions on how instructors receive payment for their instructional services and providing recommendations regarding promotion and tenure.
Instructional Design Specialist at the University of South Carolina Upstate: For the last four years, Michael has been instrumental in placing USC Upstate as a leader in active learning classroom implementation presenting in numerous conferences both nationally (EDUCAUSE) and in South Carolina. After the success of taking the active learning initiative to the next level, he was promoted to help revamp training and evaluation of course development in distance education. As part of the revamping, he was a part of implementing OLC OSCQR standards, building a virtual student services webpage for online students, implementing of lecture capture applications, and contributing to the accreditation of a new Engineering Technology Management Program at BMW. In this position, he represented the university system internationally training the University of Aruba faculty members in blended learning practices.
Coordinator of Online Learning/Cross College Advisor at the University of South Carolina: Michael initially came into the Student Success Center as a Cross College Advisor helping students who wanted to change majors in between colleges at the university. When the need for a new Coordinator of Online Learning was discovered, he assumed the role given his knowledge of technology within higher education. He was successful in revamping the online tutoring program by switching technology tools that lowered the barrier entering online tutoring. This caused a dramatic increase in use from 6 total sessions to over 200 under a semester. Continuing the push for online learning, a Virtual Student Success Center was made that included show-me-how-to videos and online advising options.
AmeriCorps VISTA/Service Learning Coordinator: Before entering into Marquette University for his Master's of Education, Michael felt strongly about doing a year of public service. His initial interest before being in instructional design currently was to understand how universities can better their relationship within the community and business partners in the area they impact. His main role was to meet with community service organizations to determine the needs of the community and how those needs can be met by the university's service learning program. One of the most successful projects while he was in this role was with the newly developed Volunteer Center of Sheboygan County. During the time the center was trying to promote their services, the graphic design course instructor was looking for a new project partner. Connecting the two, the center received a free marketing campaign while the students received feedback from the center as if they were the client of the student.