Designing for Learning — Consulting, Advising and Facilitating

This website provides a selection of publications and articles by Judith Boettcher, Ph.D. Judith has been writing and consulting and working in the area of online and distance learning for over 25 years, including time at Penn State, Florida State and the non-profit organization CREN. She variably calls herself a consultant, an author, instructional futurist, and learning theorist. She still envies the title of evangelist, used by some of her colleagues!

Judith will be one of the keynoters at the 25^th anniversary 25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning. August 4-7, 2009, Madison, Wisconsin (https://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/) So be sure to come if you can!

The Sloan-C conference every fall in Orlando, FL is one of Judith's many favorite conferences. She recently interviewed one of the keynoters, Terry Anderson, Director, Canadian Institute for Distance Education Research, from the conference about Open Education Resources. Her two-parter blog posting - An Interview with Terry Anderson: Open Education Resources - Part I and Part II is available at the Innovate I-Blog, an extension of Innovate, a journal on online education.

While you are on the site, don't miss the Library of E-Coaching Tips for Online Learning -- now numbering over 60 -- developed by Judith and her colleague, Rita-Marie Conrad, Ph.D. This set of ecoaching tips is for faculty who are designing and teaching online courses and blended campus courses. Staff and administrators find these tips handy as well just for learning and planning. A set of Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online is also available here.

In addition to the tips, the site provides many publications and writings from over the years, including an early article titled, Let's Boldly Go... to the Education Holodeck that appeared on the Syllabus/now Campus Technology magazine back in 1998. That one is still fun to read as we are not there yet!

Many more articles and webinars by Judith are available at the Campus Technology site. One of the most recent articles from July of 2008 is Socializing' the CMS.

Older but much commented on articles include:

• The Rise of Student Performance Content (2/2006)
• Designing for Learning: The Pursuit of Well-Structured Content (12/2002)

Many of these publications and writings examine questions about online learning, such as cost questions about "how much" and "how many" and "how long"; basic principles about online learning; and what might the future bring? I am glad to hear from many in our community that they still find these writings helpful in clarifying issues and trends.

Judith has over 25 + years of experience in supporting faculty and administrators in the effective use of technologies to enhance teaching and learning in all environments and assisting in strategic planning for new programs. What is the common theme in all of this work? It is the power of instructional design, learning research and theory to support the goals of effective and efficient learning — on campus and online — for faculty, staff and students.

Judith is pleased that her work as a member of the editorial team for the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Distance and Online Learning is now complete and thanks her many friends, colleagues and new acquaintances for their many contributions. She and Rita are now working on a survival guide for faculty teaching online for the first time.

A Brief Background

Judith has consulted with a wide range of major universities, colleges, and business organizations over the years and is widely published in higher education organization publications. As a Syllabus scholar delivered day long and multi-day seminars on online learning and instructional design. I have been a long-time member of the Syllabus/Campus Technology conference board, a co-editor of the faculty and staff development section of Innovate, and member of the advisory committee for Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Judith was the Executive Director of CREN from 1997-2003. During that time CREN produced the CREN TechTalk series, bi-monthly audio webcasts. Judith served as the program director of this series and cohost of these audio webcast series with Howard Strauss of Princeton. Campus Technology is now hosting the archives from these CREN TechTalks.

Her experiences in designing and managing the development of learning experiences integrating technology developments spans corporate, non-profit and higher education campus environments, including years in faculty development and distance learning centers at Penn State and Florida State. Judith earned her Ph.D in curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota and undergrad and master's degrees from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.

Judith can be contacted at: