A Promotion at Franklin - Interim Program Chair

I was recently asked by the Dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Technology at Franklin University to serve as the Interim Chair for the Masters of Science program in Instructional Design and Performance Technology (IDPT). This came as quite a surprise, and the exiting program chair will certainly be missed.

This new opportunity has caused me to reflect on my professional experiences over the last 10 years or so. I have been blessed with excellent opportunities to develop myself, to excel, and to move forward in my career. I feel greatly blessed to have this exciting opportunity.

IDPT is an excellent program- my predecessor Dr. Dawn Snyder dedicated herself to quality in the curriculum and in the courses that have been developed so far. I work for a university that is growing and expanding, and I have support from my peers and from my administration.

I feel somewhat overwhelmed- I am replacing a woman who has extensive experience in teaching, designing and consulting in the field, and I am a relatively young academic in the field. This new position will require quite a shift in my mindset because I will be performing administrative duties, along with the curriculum and course development of a new program.

An assumption of instructional design is that learners should learn within their "zone of proximal development" - that certain knowledge and skills must be learned before more complex knowledge and skills can be learned. I am definitely being pushed to my limits here and feel as if I am at the brink of my own zone of proximal development, but I welcome the experience and the knowledge and abilities that will come through this experience and am confident that success will be the outcome.

I will definitely write about my experiences as they unfold....