My role as a Digital Services Librarian at Oklahoma State University exists at the intersection of education, technology, and instructional design. I manage The Library’s digital research, learning, and collaboration tools including the Springshare suite of applications, Open Journal Systems, EZproxy, MachForms, and more. I serve on several campus- and state-level committees including the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education’s Council for Online Learning Excellence, the OSU Transfer Success Advisory Board, and the OSU Faculty Council Student Affairs and Learning Resources subcommitte while also handling the duties of treasurer for the OSU Edmon Low Library Staff Association. Additionally, I work with a team of colleagues throughout the Library to create a growing collection of short, targeted tutorial videos to help patrons use our EBSCO Discovery Service search tool more effectively.
I have been involved in education for my entire professional career. After earning my undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2004 I spent a year as a substitute teacher in the Minneapolis Saint-Paul metropolitan area, taking on roles as varied as Kindergarten instructor, High School Speech and Debate temporary coach, and middle school art teacher. After that I took a teaching position at a K-12 School in Andover, Minnesota. During my first three years of teaching I instructed a variety of courses including classes in computer-based multimedia and web design. I also served on the school’s Technology Advisory Committee during my third year at which point we recommended to the school board that the school purchase a portable computer lab consisting of 30 MacBook computers and a special cart to transport them around the school. I was also asked to serve as the K-12 computer instructor, so my fourth year of teaching I was in charge of creating and administering curriculum to students at all grade levels. It was then that I learned firsthand just how quickly young people can absorb and understand technology, and I realized many times that my instruction was like lighting a firecracker—I would show students basic concepts, and they would explode with creativity, taking my instruction and building on it in ways I would have never imagined.
In the summer of 2009 my wife and I moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma where I took a job at the Center for Executive and Professional Development at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business. My primary responsibilities were recording and managing online video content for over 100 graduate and undergraduate courses. I was instrumental in upgrading our in-house recording studio from a desk with a webcam to a full HD broadcast quality studio. I also used software such as Camtasia, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, and various other multimedia editing programs in order to produce high-quality online content for the distance learning instructors. My duties also involved responding to support requests from faculty and students as well as training faculty in how to use audio and video equipment in their classrooms. In addition to my daily responsibilities with the distance learning program I also managed audio and video for the conferences we hosted throughout the year such as the Tulsa Business Forums and Executive Management Briefings.
In 2013 I joined the staff at OSU’s Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence where I worked to support faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and staff members in a variety of ways including instructional design, educational technology, one-on-one consultations, six-week courses, webinars, and workshops. This positioned allowed me to combine elements of teaching, instructional design, educational technology, and even computer technical support into a role that impacted virtually all aspects of our campus.I also helped administer the Canvas Learning Management System used by the entire OSU A&M system, and worked with a team of individuals to create training materials, respond to support requests, and do one-on-one sessions with faculty and graduate teaching assistants who need a little more instruction. My unique skillset allowed me to combine video production, public speaking, graphic design, and team building to serve professors, department heads, graduate students, and even undergrads in order to advance our school’s core mission of Education, Research, and Service.
While working at ITLE I had the idea to create a one-day event to bring together instructors from across OSU who were using technology in new and innovative ways to engage students and enhance learning. This led to the creation of OSU’s annual Teaching with Technology Conference, which has since expanded to include faculty, staff, graduate students, and administrators from all across the state and region. It offers a unique opportunity for participants to hear from, and interact with, scholar-practitioners who are using technology in new and innovative ways to transform the landscape of higher education, and it all started with a conversation between me and my department head in my office on a chilly afternoon in early 2017.
During my years at ITLE I also took on the role of adjunct instructor, which gave me the opportunity to put instructional design research into practice with my students on a daily basis. I taught a Project Management from the fall of 2014 through the fall of 2021, including two years of multiple sections involving both face-to-face and online instruction.
While I thoroughly enjoyed working with faculty from all across the OSU A&M system in my role at ITLE and remain immensely proud of what my team and I were able to accomplish, I was excited to take on a new series of challenges when I joined the Library in Fall 2021. I had worn many hats and held many titles in my career, and was thrilled to add that of Librarian to the collection. For two years I served as a Teaching and Learning Librarian in the Research and Learning Services department, designing and teaching information literacy sessions for Comp I and II students while also working on OSU’s Open Educational Resources initiative, OpenOKState.