Dec. 6, 2016<\/em><\/p>\nAfter a childhood spent\u00a0in Northern Ireland and a university student experience in Scotland \u2013 with two more\u00a0international stops along the way \u2013 John Robertson eventually landed in the United States and made his way to Oregon State University in 2014. His journey to working as an\u00a0instructional designer for Oregon State Ecampus was similarly\u00a0circuitous: He initially majored in physics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland before switching to theology, and his graduate studies\u00a0focused on library studies (in Scotland) and\u00a0church history (in British Columbia, Canada). The majority of John’s professional work\u00a0has focused on online and digital education, and with more than 10 years of experience in higher education, he now assists the Oregon State\u00a0teaching community in developing online courses and learning opportunities.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHometown<\/h3>\n
Newtownards, Northern Ireland<\/p>\n
When did you\u00a0start working at Oregon State?<\/h3>\n
August 2014<\/p>\n
How does higher education in the United Kingdom differ from that in the United States?<\/h3>\n
“Education is slightly different in different parts of the U.K. but the big picture is that as a learner you specialize much earlier. In the last two years of high school you typically only take three subjects for those two years. So when you go to university you are often already specialized and you take a degree in more or less in one subject. The idea of a liberal arts degree or a bacc core as well as your major doesn\u2019t occur often.<\/p>\n
“Degree progression is fairly fixed (in terms of course choices and credits per term), and most programs have a fixed length, typically three or four years. There\u2019s part-time study but it\u2019s more common at the graduate level (or at least when I studied). At this point in time there are only a few online or distance course providers.”<\/p>\n
What excited you about working for OSU Ecampus?<\/h3>\n
“The opportunity to work with people more, to work across a range of disciplines, the chance to work out how to do interesting education at scale and online, working somewhere that does OER (open educational resources), the chance to live in Corvallis, and, on some level, the chance to work somewhere with Ecampus\u2019 reputation.”<\/p>\n
What do you like most about your position as an instructional designer?<\/h3>\n
“The challenges and opportunity of helping to make interesting courses happen. The chance to work with faculty and appreciate how different disciplines interact with the world. The opportunity to help instructors realize their plans for their online course and advocate for students in that process (which also means that the instructor gets fewer emails).”<\/p>\n
What do you wish others knew about your job?<\/h3>\n
“There\u2019s not one right way to design for online or help instructors teach. There are good principles and practices to help create courses that work, but the best part is when you get to help an instructor figure out how to build on those and flourish online \u2013 collaborating to create a course design that suits their personality, how they teach and what they want their students to experience.”<\/p>\n
“<\/span>The best part is when you get to help an instructor figure out how to build on those and flourish online \u2013 collaborating to create a course design that suits their personality, how they teach and what they want their students to experience.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMost of your career work has been in online, open and digital education, which all share some similarities. Why are you most interested in the virtual education realm?<\/h3>\n
“There\u2019s two main reasons. The easy one is that I like higher education and technology, and as a field there are interesting conversations, challenges, opportunities and jobs. The harder reason is that I believe online\/open\/digital holds the potential to change the world.<\/p>\n
“Although it\u2019s not a panacea, open\/online\/digital \u2013 and particularly open \u2013 has the potential to increase access to education, helping people change their world and circumstances. It has the potential to give learners more agency and ownership of their learning, to engage in richer learning experiences (for example in working with primary sources, virtual labs and real data), and to keep costs manageable.”<\/p>\n
What has been your greatest accomplishment working for Ecampus?<\/h3>\n
“I love helping instructors try something new in their courses, even a small thing, to see them reflect on how it worked, and the impact that can have on their teaching. Something like having students try a video discussion board or journal, or using video for their own announcements.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ll also admit, though, that it was really satisfying to develop and teach a module for the Ecampus Redeveloping an Online Course workshop. It helps instructors explore the shape of their discipline, how students learn the discipline in their course and what it looks like to teach that discipline online.”<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your best piece of advice for Ecampus instructors who are designing a course for online delivery?<\/h3>\n
“Always step back and begin with big picture of what you\u2019re trying to do. Work from that point rather than focusing on, ‘How do I recreate my on-campus course activities?’<\/p>\n
“Be imaginative. Sometimes that involves working with us to make something, sometimes that involves asking yourself how you\u2019d do this if you weren\u2019t tied to a classroom, and sometimes that might involve asking yourself what you could learn from of all the different circumstances and contexts that your students are engaged with.<\/p>\n
“Learning to teach online is like learning to teach in a classroom; it takes time and is a new skill. Learn the basic tools, explore how to take you teaching further, design for online, keep it manageable, and learn how to be yourself in your online course so that you can flourish.”<\/p>\n
Tell us something surprising thing about you that people don\u2019t know.<\/h3>\n
“I\u2019ve lived in five countries and nine cities and once lived in an apartment building in which the stairwell was held up by telegraph poles. I went to university to study physics, but after my first year I switched to theology. Along the way I thought about becoming a pastor but eventually (after also doing a master\u2019s in church history) realized that wasn\u2019t my vocation. Then I trained as a librarian and ended up in e-learning instead.”<\/p>\n
What are your favorite activities outside of work?<\/h3>\n
“In no particular order: Cooking, learning to brew beer, reading, wrangling my children, playing board games, getting involved in my local church, and eating with friends.”<\/p>\n
Moment of truth: Which country do you like best, Scotland or the United States?<\/h3>\n
“I\u2019m not a citizen. Can I still take the fifth?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/span> 4<\/span> minute read<\/span><\/span>Instructional designer, Oregon State Ecampus By Tyler Hansen Dec. 6, 2016 After a childhood spent\u00a0in Northern Ireland and a university student experience in Scotland \u2013 with two more\u00a0international stops along the way \u2013 John Robertson eventually landed in the United States and made his way to Oregon State University in 2014. His journey to working … Getting to know John Robertson<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[673],"tags":[25,24,647],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-online-education","tag-online-learning","tag-oregon-state-open-educational-resources-unit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/john-robertson-main.jpg?fit=638%2C410&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BNSE-68","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2498,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/ecampus-2023-online-education-scholarly-publications\/","url_meta":{"origin":380,"position":0},"title":"Want to know what some of the top minds in online education are thinking about?","author":"Elena Moffet","date":"March 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The team at Ecampus offered up eight scholarly articles and trade publications in 2023. 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And what better way to do so than by being the ones to conduct the research?","rel":"","context":"In "Archives"","block_context":{"text":"Archives","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/archives\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Fellows-2.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Fellows-2.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Fellows-2.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Fellows-2.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1707,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/online-instructional-design-certificate\/","url_meta":{"origin":380,"position":3},"title":"His goal: Earn an instructional design certificate online to enhance accessibility","author":"Tyler Hansen","date":"March 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Harry Barrick IV doesn\u2019t simply want more accessible learning solutions. He wants to help create them. With that passion in mind, he is pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design online with Oregon State University. It\u2019s a one-year program that offers applied skills and knowledge to design, implement and assess\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Harry Barrick IV standing on a bridge outdoors. 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![\"John](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/john-robertson-main.jpg?resize=638%2C410&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n