Today, Maria talks with Whitney Kilgore, co-founder & Chief Academic Officer at iDesign, an organization that partners with universities and colleges to build, grow, and support online and blended courses and programs. iDesign is passionate about helping faculty harness the potential of emerging technologies to design courses and degrees that make an impact, whether they are fully online, flipped, adaptive, blended or competency-based. From statewide university systems to private colleges, their custom solutions pair instructional design with technologies to enable great teaching and learning. If you are an educator or faculty, this episode will offer you insights and resources to help you develop your virtual presence and create student-centered learning experiences. If you are a student about to start college or university, you will gain a deeper understanding of the learner experience and how instructional design can help unlock the human element in online courses so you can develop cognitively and stay engaged socially during your higher education journey. You will also learn about LX Pathways, an educational resource for those interested in becoming an Instructional Technologist, Learning Architect, or Online Instructor who designs and supports high-quality online teaching and learning experiences. Tune in to learn from an inspiring entrepreneur who is contributing to the future of higher ed and the future of learning and work.
Production team:
Host : Maria Xenidou
Producer: Julie-Roxane Krikorian
Introduction Voice: David Bourne
Contact us:
impactlearningpodcast@gmail.com
Music credits:
Like Lee performed by The Mini Vandals
Transition sounds: Swamp Walks performed by Jingle Punks
Where to find more about Whitney Kilgore and iDesign:
Whitney Kilgore on LinkedIn
Mentioned in this episode:
LMS (Learning Management System)
The George Washington University
CEO of iDesign Paxton Riter
COO of iDesign Ned Stone
Article on Agile Design
The Community of Inquiry model
More on The Community of Inquiry
Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education by Anderson, Garrison and Archer
Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom by Palloff and Pratt
Patrick Lowenthal - A literature review of the use of emoticons to support online learning
Free Online Teaching Course for Educators by LX Pathways
The ethics of care and education by Nel Noddings
Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University
Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh
Listen to this episode and explore:
How Whitney started playing school with her sister early on in her childhood (4:57)
How Whitney studied to become a physical therapist before pursuing a degree in education (7:50)
Whitney’s experience teaching first grade right out of college (9:26)
Whitney's path from being a teacher to becoming an instructional technology specialist (10:16)
How Whitney transitioned from K12 to higher education (13:28)
Whitney’s continued journey as a lifelong learner: going back to school (15:41)
Why Whitney decided to pursue a PhD in learning technologies (17:22)
The origin story of iDesign: an organization that partners with universities and colleges to build, grow, and support online and blended courses and programs (18:12)
The academic services offered by iDesign and their commitment to continuous improvement (21:06)
iDesign's approach and how they measure success and improvement (23:08)
The role of the Learning Architect at iDesign (27:33)
How iDesign recruits the best instructional designers (29:40)
LX Pathways: online courses for the next Instructional Technologists, Learning Architects, or Online Instructors (34:07)
How iDesign creates student-centered courses (40:01)
How to develop a virtual presence as an online instructor (46:16)
The response of iDesign during the COVID-19 pandemic (51:50)
The most challenging aspect for educators during the transition to remote teaching (53:01)
How iDesign helps faculty create high-value fully online or blended programs (56:28)
What Whitney sees as the future of higher education: flexible and blended programs with a strong sense of community (58:03)
About iDesign’s Course Market: a place to enable working learners to develop in-demand skills and competences for the future of work (1:01:13)
Whitney’s words of wisdom in the face of the current uncertainty (1:03:42)
The one thing Whitney wants to leave her mark on during her lifetime (1:05:15)