OIT Instructional Design and Technology Blog: Instructional Design and Technology Team

Often mistakenly characterized as "the Blackboard people," the members of UCT's Instructional Design and Technology team offer a much broader array of support than this description suggests.

Our staff includes two primary categories of team members:

Instructional Designers (IDs) - All members of the ID team, as well as the team's supervisor, hold, or are working toward, advanced degrees in Instructional Design. The IDs' academic backgrounds include substantial preparation in human learning, active learning, assessment design/development, curriculum/content design, and other non-technology educational/instructional domains. We consider ourselves to be instructional designers first, and instructional technologists, second. In addition, two of the five have taught one or more online courses for UHCL or other institutions. Given our academic and experiential background, the ID's role is diverse and includes BOTH providing training and consulting on active learning, effective teaching practices, and course design/development (whether web-assisted or fully online), AND on how to strategically employ technology tools to effectively support and enhance teaching and learning.
Learning Technology Administrators (LTAs) - Until recently, the LTAs managed our on-site installation of Blackboard Learn and provided student support for Blackboard. However, as we transitioned into the 2020-2021 academic year, the LTAs converted to a new role, in which they assumed primary responsibility for assisting faculty and students with technology-based issues (e.g., Blackboard, video, Echo360, clickers). Both bring to these task years of experience with Blackboard and other technologies and in customer support.

Our IDs continue to serve as a point of contact for faculty needing help with technology; however, you may notice that we will increasingly refer those inquiries and help tickets to our extremely capable LTAs.

Jenni Willis-Opalenik, Ph.D. – Director, Technology Learning Services

281-283-2981

willisopalenik@uhcl.edu

Samantha (Sam) Houston – Learning Technology Administrator (LTA)

281-283-2971

houstonsam@uhcl.edu

Jennifer (Jenn) Ray – Learning Technology Administrator (LTA)

281-283-2996

ray@uhcl.edu

Aubrie Grass – Instructional Designer I, College of Business

281-283-2934

grass@uhcl.edu