About Instructional Design
Learn about the Instructional Design team and our work with UAA colleagues below. If you aren鈥檛 sure whether we鈥檙e the right people to help you with something, just ask!
Team Values
Mission
The Instructional Design team helps faculty implement effective course design, strategic instructional technologies, and student-centered practices to transform lives through their teaching.
Values
Our work is grounded in the UAA 2027 aspiration, 鈥淲e put students first.鈥� Everything we do to support UAA faculty ultimately helps support student success. These principles guide our work with faculty:
- Respect: We understand that UAA faculty are experts in their fields and it is a privilege to be invited into their online teaching environments.
- Collaboration: We believe that learning requires trust. Productive, supportive relationships with faculty and colleagues are essential to do our work effectively.
- Integrity: We follow professional ethical guidelines for faculty support. We are committed to promoting UAA鈥檚 mission, upholding principles of academic freedom, protecting student rights, and responsibly using university resources.
- Lifelong learning: While many of our instructional design practices focus on measurable outcomes, we also recognize that education鈥檚 transformative potential often lies in intangibles. We are all learners.
History
The Instructional Design team has a long legacy at UAA. It originally started as a faculty support position in IT Services, which grew into the Educational Media Services team, then the independent Faculty Technology Services office.
In 2014, Faculty Technology Services was renamed Academic Innovations & eLearning (AI&e), with Dave Dannenberg as the director through December 2019. The instructional design team was one part of AI&e, along with student support, media services, the ePortfolio team, and faculty development.
In 2020, AI&e stepped up to support UAA鈥檚 shift to remote teaching and student services. By the time everyone was allowed to return to campus, online services and eLearning were more widely integrated throughout the university. In 2021, AI&e, CAFE, and CCEL were reorganized under the new umbrella of Faculty Development & Instructional Support, which was soon renamed Faculty Success. Some aspects of AI&e鈥檚 support were incorporated into the Instructional Design team, while others were absorbed by student support units across UAA.
We are grateful to UAA faculty and staff for their incredible efforts supporting learning at UAA, which makes our team鈥檚 work possible.
Why Do Faculty Work with an ID?
The number one reason faculty reach out to the Instructional Design team is to save time! We spend every day on platforms and tasks you may only see once or twice a semester. Even if you are fully capable of resolving an issue on your own, you usually have better things to do with that time.
Faculty also contact us when they aren鈥檛 satisfied with an aspect of their course and are looking for better ways to do something. Instructional designers see a wide range of courses across the university and keep up with national trends and emerging practices, so we have a lot of teaching strategies to share. Many UAA instructors have given us permission to share one of their ideas and we love to give you credit when we do!
Here are some of the common reasons faculty contact us:
- Designing a new course or reviewing an existing one to improve student outcomes
- Selecting online tools for a learning activity
- Improving accessibility and usability of their courses
- Troubleshooting a gradebook issue on Blackboard (UAA鈥檚 official learning management system)
- Redesigning assessments to account for student AI use
- Integrating additional tools in Blackboard
- Setting up online proctoring
- Training to meet UAA鈥檚 Online Teaching policy
- Practice running a Zoom class
- Planning and recording instructional videos
UAA Instructional Designers Alliance
The Instructional Design team collaborates with colleagues across UAA, along with UAS instructional designers and liaisons from UAF鈥檚 faculty support team, through the Instructional Designers Alliance. An informal group, the ID Alliance works to improve eLearning guidance and practice at UAA, coordinate resources and professional development offerings, advocate for recognition of faculty development and excellence in online and technology-enhanced teaching, and expand and promote our services to UAA faculty.
To join the Instructional Designers Alliance, please email uaa_design@alaska.edu. We welcome new members working in instructional technology and faculty support.
Contact
Contact Instructional Design through emailing uaa_design@alaska.edu, , or calling 907-786-6219.
Contact IT if you have Blackboard issues not related to course setup, such as login issues or not seeing your course list.
Faculty Success
Library 213 鈥� 907-786-4496 鈥� uaa_facultysuccess@alaska.edu 鈥� Monday 鈥� Friday, 8 a.m. 鈥� 5 p.m.