Georgia Highlands College’s Josie Baudier recently took her knowledge in instructional design to the next level. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning director recently saw her researched published in a national journal.

The scholarly publication was called “The Learner-Centered Instructional Designer.”

“This book is written for instructional designers as one way to support their needs in the field,” Baudier said. “Every chapter was derived from the needs and wants that most new instructional designers crave.”

Baudier wrote Chapter 7 for the publication, titled “Learning Online: The Internet Should be Used for More Than Just Do-It-Yourself Videos.”

While developing her chapter, Baudier said her editor presented her with the social learning aspect of online learning, which is something all colleges are having to consider amid the learning and instructional changes that are a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Faculty are often scared to approach and teach online because they have not experienced it themselves as students or because they have heard horror stories about it from their colleagues,” Baudier said. “In truth, online learning is an effective model of education – if done well.”

For her chapter, Baudier wanted to approach online learning in a way that better reflects upon that process as a whole due to the misconceptions that exist surrounding online learning.

“The best way to increase social learning is through collaborative projects with students,” Baudier said. “Conducting collaborative projects in the online environment can be very difficult – they are hard to facilitate in in-person classes, so online could add another layer of confusion and disengagement for students. The chapter provides some ideas and theoretical support about collaborative projects.”

Baudier came to the publication opportunity after working with the book’s editor, Jerod Quinn, a few years ago at the Professional Organizational Developers (POD) annual conference. Quinn is an Instructional Designer for the Course Design and Technology department at the University of Missouri.

“Quinn’s teaching center was new to having instructional designers and his boss wanted her team to meet other instructional designers,” Baudier said. “Through POD, I have connected and networked with several other faculty developers, and, in particular, instructional designers. We would meet for virtual check-ins and phone calls to share stories, techniques, documentation and workshop materials during the school year.”

Baudier said the group became a network within a network and “The Learner-Centered Instructional Designer” is the result of the individuals of that network combining their expertise in the area.

“Instructional designers need to have an arsenal of research-based ideas, techniques and strategies to support the faculty and guide them to make the best decision for student success in learning,” Baudier went on. “In addition, this book includes chapters about instructional design models, building faculty trust, online learning, universal design, motivation, metacognition, technology and even a chapter about designing courses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”