Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Minnesota

Billie Wahlstrom - Billie is the Vice Provost for Distributed Education and Instructional Technology. She coordinates efforts to use instructional technology strategically and effectively to enhance teaching, learning, and outreach activities. Her strategic initiatives include myU Portal, Learning Platform, Digital Campus, and iTunes U. Her office holds U of M Membership for the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) and Medbiquitous. Billie has published on the impact of technology, pedagogy, and technical communication. She authored two books: Human Communication and with several of her colleagues, Technical Communication. She co-edited with Mary Lay The Technical Writing Teacher for many years. Her primary interests are in new and emerging technologies and their impact on learning and higher education organizations.

Susan Engelmann - Susan is an Associate to the Vice Provost in the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost (SVPP). Susan’s major responsibilities include working with Vice Provost Billie Wahlstrom to implement her strategic initiatives in distributed education and technology enhanced learning to use instructional technology strategically and effectively to enhance teaching, learning, and outreach activities. Before joining central administration in 1997, Susan worked as an Extension Professor in south central Minnesota in community economic development, leadership and organizational development.

Sandra Ecklein - Sandra is Director of Academic Systems Integration. Her main areas of responsibility are the myU portal and the learning platform for students, faculty, and staff across the University system. She is responsible for new campus and collegiate views and is project manager for educational tools & administrative feeds. She gives leadership to the planning processes and operations for the learning platform which serves 65,000 super users each month. In addition, Sandra’s skill set as an analyst and editor provides necessary consulting for the Vice Provost. She has a B.A. in English and a master's degree in liberal studies and has worked at the U of M since 1996.

Bob Rubinyi - Bob is the Director of Distributed Education in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. He currently serves as the project lead for the Digital Campus initiative which brings together the credit and non-credit online learning opportunities at the U of M. From 2005-2008, Bob was portal manager of the myU/learning platform, an initiative designed to better integrate core U of M academic technologies into a web site personalized for each user. Before joining the TEL team, Bob served as Extension Professor with the University of Minnesota where his projects included creation of the original web site for the U of M Extension, co-authoring a federal grant demonstrating how the Internet could be used to promote economic development in rural Minnesota, and helping to found the national Extension Children, Youth and Families Education and Research Network (CYFERnet). Bob received his B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and M.A. and PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Amanda Rondeau - As Director of Emerging Academic Technologies, Amanda provides leadership in evaluating and implementing innovative instructional technologies for the University. Amanda provides leadership to the Digital Campus student support efforts and administers other areas of the broader initiative. She also serves at the managing editor of iTunes U. Prior to joining the University in 2006, Amanda was an instructional designer and project manager for projects that enhanced and expanded youth development programs at organizations across the country. Amanda has a B.A. in English literature from the College of St. Catherine. She completed a master's certificate in technology enhanced learning and is currently completing a master’s degree in higher education at the University of Minnesota.

Chris Scruton - Chris Scruton is Director of Academic Technology for Faculty Education. Chris's responsibilities include managing the development, refinement, integration, and deployment of new academic technologies (e.g., Pachyderm, a content-development system, and Equella, a learning-object repository and federated search tool); researching and communicating best practices in the use of technology for teaching and learning (e.g., the Health Science Educational Game and Simulation Certificate Program curriculum proposal developed in collaboration with Nora Paul of the Institute of New Media Studies); and coordinating academic technology development and policy efforts with internal and external institutional partners (e.g., the Minnesota Learning Commons partnership with MnSCU and MN Department of Education). Chris is completing a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication with a research focus on rhetorical uses of imagery, film, and other visual media.

Megan Anderson -Megan serves as the administrative assistant to Vice Provost Billie Wahlstrom, as well as supports the TEL Team. Her responsibilities include scheduling/calendaring, preparing for meetings, submitting RSS news feeds to the TEL Team website, monitoring the TEL Team email account, keeping the TEL Council Collaboration Site up-to-date and contributing to projects as assigned. Megan earned her Bachelors of Arts degree in theater at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2000.