Hello! My name is Melany McNew and I’m an instructional designer at National Education Partners. I work in a remote position assisting various schools in the National University system. I work 1:1 with SMEs to develop engaging online content in several disciplines at the masters and doctoral degree levels.

Previously I have worked as an instructional designer at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC). There I worked with a team of three other IDs at the college’s Center for Design and Instruction. A large part of my role was to provide faculty training programs for our Virtual Learning campus. HACC was unique, in that all faculty built their course from the ground up within the LMS. That meant, not only did our faculty need the technical skills to use the LMS, but they also needed to understand the proper pedagogy of online learning. My team not only designed the training, but we delivered and mentored two cohorts of faculty each year. This intensive 15 week course was intended to generate online ready faculty who had a superior knowledge of online pedagogy and course design. On average I assisted in the design and build of 15 new courses per year.

In addition to teaching the online program, I also taught our Blended (flipped) program. This program was intended to prepare faculty for a flipped classroom environment. This 6 week course prepared faculty in the fundamentals of the blended classroom environment, with focus on the LMS and proper classroom activities that underscore success in this modality.

Outside of faculty training, I also worked one-on-one with existing faculty at the Virtual (online, distance learning), Gettysburg, York, Harrisburg and Lebanon campuses, to help them update and refresh their courses with new technology regardless of modality. I also hosted monthly workshops online and F2F to cover our LMS as well as new Web 2.0 technology and any new trends in pedagogy.

Additional Roles at HACC & PSU

HACC

Adjunct, CIS Courses: CIS 105, CIS 135, CIS 140. Delivery in both F2F and online

2011-present

PSU

Adjunct, MIS Courses: MIS 204, MIS 250. Delivery in both F2F and hybrid.

Quick Facts

Master of Education in Training and Development, M. Ed.

Penn State, May 2012

Chosen areas of focus:

Training – Instructional design, development, delivery, and evaluation of learning interventions that address learning needs of individuals in the context of the performance needs of the organization.

Training and Development Technology – Critical to the success in each of the three areas is a range of technologies that support and drive interventions and strategies focused on learning and change. Our focus is on helping students develop critical thinking skills with respect to the role that contemporary technologies play as they rapidly evolve.

For more information on this degree and its curriculum, please visit:https://bulletins.psu.edu/university-course-descriptions/graduate/trdev/

Curriculum focus areas were taken directly from the program website.