The future ain't what it used to be. - Yogi Berra

Director

Dr. Cindy Ives leads an integrated multifunctional team of design and development specialists with a clear vision and strategy for course development procedures, processes, and tracking within the scope of AU’s Strategic and IT plans. This includes contributing to the selection, implementation, and evaluation of new pedagogical approaches and methodologies designed to improve the distance and online learning opportunities for AU students.

Cindy brings professional and teaching experience in university administration and distance education, with expertise in designing and developing effective course materials and faculty development. Her doctoral studies in Educational Technology at Concordia and subsequent responsibilities at McGill focused on ensuring the appropriate integration of technologies for teaching and learning through collaborative, multi-perspective and systemic planning, implementation and evaluation processes.

As director, Cindy also collaborates with AU's Academic Centres and Student Service areas; liaises with partner institutions; manages staff and resources; and recommends resources that will enhance the quality and availability of AU's courses and programs.

Manager, Course Development

Linda Bonneville manages course development by receiving and directing course contracts and course meetings that comprise course authors, instructional media analysts, editors, and designers.

“Why so many forms?” is a commonly asked question by academics.  With more than 560 undergraduate courses available by various methods of delivery, the continual revision and new course development process is tracked by the CLDD administrative assistant. The forms are an essential element in tracking team workloads in the 36-member (Jan. 9, 2007) centre. As well, archived course forms are often reviewed years later, and relied upon as an accurate source of information by other university departments.

Among other duties, the centre's manager of course development:

• oversees the operations of the DMT unit and copyright
• acts as the liaison between CLDD staff and course authors in reviewing course progress and locating any missing information
• receives and audits final course packages before they are issued to students
• monitors and helps maintain the Course Coordinator’s Guide and Course Author’s Guide
• assigns and monitors workload of the CLDD development and design staff

Manager, Course Design

Rodger Graham is part of the management team responsible for the design of course materials within the Centre for Learning Design and Development. He leads a team of instructional designers, editors, and visual designers who work collaboratively with academics to design and develop distance courses in a variety of disciplines. Rodger is an online learning specialist, familiar with educational technologies and their appropriate implementation at a university level.

As the manager of a team of highly competent professionals, Rodger liaises with other functional areas of the university to coordinate CLDD's vision for distance education. He also facilitates research of innovative development tools within the unit.

Managing Editor

John Ollerenshaw works in collaboration with the Managers of Course Design and Course Development, and is responsible for the leadership and management of editorial staff and processes.This involves projecting, fostering and supporting a service-oriented culture among team members and within the centre. Committed to exploring alternative solutions to meet client needs, John contributes strategically toward the planning, design, implementation, exploration, and evaluation of course editing and editorial development systems, production software, and related policies and procedures.

Administrative Assistant

Integral to the centre and the course development process is CLDD’s administrative assistant. This individual receives, directs, and posts the Phase 3s, Phase 7s, and minor revisions of course development to the intranet for various stakeholders’ review.  A database called Heat tracks the courses through the various stages of development. 
 
Among other details, the administrative assistant:

• ensures that course teams receive course evaluation reports at specific points in the course development process.
• tracks all course components that are signed off in CLDD and sent to Materials Management.
• bi-annually sends an email to faculty notifying them of the availability of the course evaluation reports, which are provided to interested members.
• maintains the course announcement database which alerts stakeholders to changes in course information.
• distributes the Course Coordinator’s Guide and Course Author's Guide as requested.

Download

• The Course Coordinator’s Guide (PDF)
• The Course Author’s Guide (PDF)

Important Links

• Guidelines for Contracting SMEs