At Brandeis GPS, we are always working to improve our online courses to be more interactive and collaborative. Meet two of the reasons we are able to constantly improve. Carol Damm & Jennifer Livengood, our instructional design team!
Instructional Designer, Jennifer Livengood
Instructional Designer, Carol Damm
How long have you each been in the instructional design field?
Carol Damm: Before GPS, I was with a company that developed e-learning for about three years.
Jennifer Livengood: Four years as a full time job, but professionally ten years.
What is your favorite part of your instructional design work?
CD: It’s hard to narrow it down! I like problem solving. Instructional design is like being given a blank slate, and for me what’s fun is trying to figure out which is the best approach. So I guess it’s the process of finding out which design works best for a course.
JL: Being creative. It’s in the job title!
What are ways you can use to innovate an online course that you can’t use in an in person course?
CD: Bringing the students a one -on-one interactive experience with a topic. With an online courses you can actually use tools to help develop students skills and increase collaboration.
JL: You can build things that are individually interactive, so the student gets individual attention. An online classroom is a place for students to explore through a discussion board. Quiet students can communicate more in a discussion board where they may have been been shy in person. It truly brings out personalities.
Can you tell me about a great experience you’ve had designing GPS courses?
CD: What I like about it the most are the instructors and working with them. I feel like I am a perpetual student because, for many of the courses, I have no experience in most of the instructors’ fields of expertise. I love connecting with them and advising them on how to engage students with the topics and materials in their courses.
JL: Working on the professional communications course with Jennifer Drewry. We both brought our own ideas and between the two of us we were able to revise her course and make it more fun and interactive.
Can you tell me an example of a specific improvement you have made to a course and any feedback you’ve received as a result?
CD: Lately, I’ve made recommendations on how an instructor can take their topic and create effective discussion questions that will allow students to bring their own experience and knowledge to the discussion. You want the students to bring their ideas into this more social realm and to be as collaborative as possible not only with instructors but with other students.
JL: At a previous job I made the improvement of having the instructors come in and do a video. They weren’t previously in the course. Having the students come in and see their [professor’s] face, hear their voice. The student feedback said they liked it!
What is the most creative thing you have ever done for a course?
CD: Working on developing a presentation, a micro-lesson, that will teach some rudimentary SQL (Structured Query Language) coding. What I want to do is make it interactive so that students will have to put in the right code to get to the next lesson. It’s creative and students really respond well to the interactive lessons. In the past I’ve done some videography work as well as editing. I love that, it’s lots of fun, very creative. The two contribute to a lesson and make it more interesting.
JL: Working with two instructors in the language department and creating interactive games for their courses. Really pushing the limit on some of the software. It was unique and fun for the students. Unlike taking a normal multiple choice quiz where it’s a little boring.
resented a perfect example of that—nearing the end of his career, he had been unable to advance any further in his field because he lacked a four-year degree. For my generation, I equate that to not
d in life, such as home-ownership, vacations, and the pursuit of personal goals. These opportunities absolutely can occur, even while maintaining a career and a family. Not having to sacrifice other opportunities meant everything to me (and also meant the courses flew by in no time!). 
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