Faculty Profile
Educated and worked as college instructor in Beijing, China, I came to the States and obtained my doctoral degree in instructional design & technology from Iowa State University. I currently serve as full-time design faculty at the College of Health & Public Administration and a faculty member of the Masters of Instructional Design & Performance Technology program at Franklin University. In addition, I also lead faculty development committee serving 700 plus adjunct faculty, and coordinate China program reaching international audience through distance education.
I am enthusiastic to explore innovative approaches to enhance instructional design focusing on online e-learning. Several instructional design and development models have been adopted to meet the needs of online curriculum development and online students. Among them, the Layers of Negotiation Design Model has been proven successful to engage multiple stake holders in different design stages. I developed 50 plus courses from scratch in healthcare administration, healthcare information systems, business management, engineering, and vet medicine collaborating with content experts in these areas. In addition, currently as the majority students at Franklin are adult online learners, various teaching strategies such as virtual stimulation, interactive lecture games, controversial case studies, and field studies have been in courses to stimulate learning.
I have been taking initiatives in College of Health and Public Administration, focusing on the assessment of online learning. How do we know if students graduate from our program have achieved the desired learning outcomes? To answer this question, I have designed and implemented an evidence-based program assessment matrix at undergraduate level. Analysis on the data gathered over 500 plus student surveys and faculty focus groups has provided guideline for curriculum revision. At the graduate level, I proposed using student ePortfolio to facilitate transparency in learning and assessment. Collaborated with IT group on campus, a technique analysis was carried out on a dozen of revenues to nail down the ePortfolio platform to meet students’, faculty’s and programs’ needs. The process and results have been published in Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice and several healthcare education program chairs contacted with me consulting using similar methodology in their program assessment.
Addressing the challenges of online adult learners and accreditation organization’s requirement, I proposed and designed a 3.0 eLearning online environment. This unique environment is more than a simple integration of online technology. It integrated four types of blended learning at program level to bridge digital divides in healthcare education. It incorporates a variety of instructional strategies within such a learning environment.
I am devoted to faculty development of the online teaching community for the past ten years. Bringing with me working experiences from faculty development center at University of Wisconsin-Superior and from Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University, I chair faculty development committee at Franklin University campus serving 700 plus teaching faculty, majority of who are online instructors. For the past two years, I led the committee to recognize and award 160 plus teaching faculty, conducted pilot research on online faculty development, taught faculty development courses, redesign new faculty orientation, and reviewed and approved grants on teaching and learning endeavor. Several series of professional development workshops were proposed, developed and delivered. These workshop series include instructional technology and pedagogy, best teaching practice show and tell, creating inviting learning environment, and grading, evaluation and assessment. In addition, I proposed Faculty Leadership program aiming at positioning my college at forefront in faculty development.
When it comes to teaching, I bring more than 15 years of teaching experience to my students. These courses include ESL, general education courses, courses on learning, teaching, instructional design and assessment. One of my favorite courses involves international online collaboration among students from a U.S. campus and a China campus.
I consider myself a reflective educator as a researcher. Many of my research and professional presentations involve instructional design, educational technology and pedagogical issues. These research and presentations represent my scholarly inquiry into instructional design, teaching and learning, and assessment in online education.