Jane Rice Hired as Instructional Designer

Rice replaces Ricardo Flores who transferred to Skyline.

 

 

Jane Rice has been hired as the new instructional designer at Cañada College and she’s eager to work with faculty to help them develop online courses. Rice replaces Ricardo Flores, who transferred to Skyline College.

Rice began her career as a faculty member, teaching German Studies and Women’s Studies at both Penn State and the University of Arizona. She left her faculty position at the University of Arizona to move back to the Bay Area. She has worked as an instructional designer at the UC Berkeley Extension and San Jose City College as well as for a San Jose tech company producing tutorials.

“It’s important that faculty know I’m on campus and I’m here to help them,” she said. “I can help them design online courses from beginning to end or just offer technical assistance in a variety of areas. It really depends on what they need.”

Rice will be visiting division meetings to meet faculty members and offer assistance. “Having taught in the classroom, I understand the types of questions faculty members have when it comes to developing online courses.”

Rice said she will sit down with interested faculty, look at their student learning outcomes, and help them a design a course that meets their needs. “Developing a good online course is more than just offering the standard classroom lectures online. It’s important to think about what you want students to learn and then design interactive learning opportunities around those learning outcomes.”

Student-to-student interaction and student-to-faculty interaction are essential to a good online learning environment, Rice said. This can be accomplished through a variety of ways, such as creating a group project for students to develop a Wiki on a given topic.

“Online learning has changed tremendously over the past 10 years,” she said. “Students expect feedback on questions within 24 hours, which is our policy at Cañada. Courses are designed to provide access to both students and faculty.”

Rice said she is developing a calendar of workshops including introductory workshops for faculty interested in designing their first online courses. The complete list of workshops will be listed on the campus calendar.