Learning Experience Design with High Impact!
Professional Experience | Education & Certifications | Presentations & Communities of Practice
Professional Experience
My professional experience has encompassed a life-long career in three fields:
Higher education
K-12 education
Corporate and business consulting.
The common thread across these fields has been to provide meaningful learning experiences serving people across all ages: students, faculty/teachers, and instructional designers and learning design teams in academic and professional development settings, as summarized below.
Higher Education
I have worked professionally in the field of instructional design and technology in higher education for over 12 years in public and private universities and community colleges including Rutgers University, Monmouth University, and Mercer County Community College. This includes extensive experience collaborating with and supporting faculty to design, develop, and teach/facilitate courses in diverse delivery formats such as face-to-face/web-enhanced, hybrid/blended, and fully online courses. The focus has been to create and promote high-quality, student-centered, engaging courses that integrate current and emerging learning and instructional theories and practices, as well as current and emerging instructional technologies to enhance student learning.
In this capacity, I have worked with diverse stakeholders – administrators, department chairs, program directors, course coordinators, and faculty – across diverse academic disciplines for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in the following key areas:
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- Curriculum design for program initiatives (e.g., minors, specializations, cross-discipline course offerings) to design course syllabi that articulate consistent, measurable course learning objectives aligned with course assessments and program goals.
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- Course design and development (including course redesign/transitions) working with faculty on course design; syllabus preparation; development of content, media/instructional technology, and activities in a learning management system; and designing authentic assessments with grading rubrics to evaluate students’ coursework and to assess and report on student learning outcomes. This included project management of course development projects from inception to completion.
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- Managing the “onboarding” of new faculty including syllabus preparation; teaching and learning pedagogy, use of learning management systems and instructional technology; and related instructional support (e.g., 1:1, small-group, and large-group orientations, online video tutorials, workshops/dinner talks, sample course materials, prototypes, and model templates).
In addition, I have designed and conducted faculty professional development in online and hybrid learning certificate programs in higher education institutions where I have worked and have also taught undergraduate courses in information technology, education, and English in blended and online deliveries.
K-12 Education
Prior to higher education, I worked in K-12 schools as an elementary School Library Media Specialist in Colts Neck, NJ, where I managed the Library Media Center and conducted library classes in information literacy and literature appreciation, which included curriculum and technology integration aligned with NJ Core Curriculum Standards.
It was a rewarding and fun experience that combined my love of reading, writing, and technology/information literacy in innovative ways with younger students. In addition, I was a middle school Reading/Language Arts teacher, high school English teacher, and elementary Computer teacher in the Tinton Falls, Marlboro, and Montclair school districts with three NJ Teacher Certifications in School Library Media, English, and Elementary Education.
Corporate Training & Business Consulting
In addition to the field of academia, I worked professionally for 14 years in the corporate training and business consulting sectors as an AVP/online training manager, senior/instructional designer, training specialist, performance support, and technical writer for face-to-face classes, blended, and online-learning.
This included working at leading financial institutions in NYC (Metropolitan Life Insurance and Manufacturers Hanover Trust) and training/management development and K-12 software firms (Maher & Maher and Century Consultants).
Education, Certifications, & Awards
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- Recipient of the first “Staff Service Excellence Award,” School of Communication & Information, Rutgers University, 2016.
- Quality Matters Certified Peer Reviewer, 2011-2017. Co-designed/developed first QM-certified course at Rutgers University, 2015; participated as Peer Reviewer in official QM course reviews, 2017; and co-designed/developed QM-certified courses at Mercer County Community College, 2011-2012.
- Leadership Academy certificate program, Mercer County Community College in affiliation with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACC), 2009-2010.
- Master of Education Degree, concentration in instructional technology, Monmouth University, 2008; Highest Ranking Master’s Degree Recipient, 4.0 GPA.
- Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Education, Montclair University.
- New Jersey Teacher Certifications in School Library Media Specialist, English, and Elementary Education.
Presentations, Communities of Practice, & Scholarship
Throughout my career in higher education, I frequently presented at regional, national, and international conferences in the field of instructional design, instructional technology, and online and hybrid learning:
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- Quality Matters Regional Conferences (2015 & 2017).
- Rutgers Mid-Atlantic Online Learning Conferences (2015-2017); Rutgers Active Learning Boot Camp Conference (2016).
- NJEDge Regional Conferences and Faculty Showcases (2013-2016).
- Online Learning Consortium (OLC) International Conference (OLC) (2014).
- Sakai Virtual Conference (2014).
- New Media Consortium International Conference (2013).
- VALE NJ Conference (2012).
- Desire2Learn Conference (2006).
Presenting with faculty members to showcase the course design process, pedagogy of teaching and learning, and technology integration in courses has been a rewarding experience and a great way to celebrate our efforts and share with other members in the field.
Communities of Practice. Presenting at conferences and working on committees are also an effective way to participate in internal and external “community-of-practice” groups to further the development of other industry professionals in the field. After presenting at conferences, instructional designers and faculty would often contact me about my course design process and/or custom materials I had developed (e.g., grading rubrics), of which I was happy to share.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. In addition, I also participated in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) by pursuing evaluative research of instructional initiatives with faculty and publishing outcomes:
Stoerger, S., & Kreiger, D. (2016). Transforming a large-lecture course into an active, engaging, and collaborative learning environment. Education for Information 32(1), 11-26. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7282/T32809M8