Home / Universities of Louisiana Content Experts / 2023 Online Teaching and Learning Content Expert

Online Teaching and Learning Expert - Dr. Elizabeth Hornsby

 

Dr. Elizabeth Robertson Hornsby is an Assistant Professor and the Fay Warren Reimers Endowed Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. She serves as the Graduate Coordinator for the university’s online Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and teaches courses in data analytics, digital and social media, and strategic media management.

 

Online Teaching and Learning Summer Schedule

 

Grow with Google/Coursera

Looking to upskill and improve your digital literacy? Louisiana Tech University through their Coursera partnership is now offering Grow with Google Certificates that are designed to help you learn new digital skills and advance your career. 

As a faculty or staff member, you can take advantage of this opportunity to earn a certificate that is recognized by employers across a variety of industries. The courses cover a range of topics including data analysis, project management, and digital marketing, and are all designed by experts in their fields. 

    • Initial Meeting for those interested or currently pursuing a certificate in the Grow with Google program offered through LA Tech’s Coursera Instance
      Friday, June 2, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      Register
    • Office Hour: First Impressions
      Friday, June 16, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      Register
    • Office Hour: The Asynchronous Course Experience
      Friday, June 23, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      Register
    • Office Hour: Online Student Experience
      Friday, June 30, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      Register
    • Office Hour: Certifications & Curriculum
      Friday, July 14, 2023 – 10 p.m.
      Register
    • Office Hour: Industry Certifications and Creating Community Partnerships
      Friday, July 21, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      Register
    • Office Hour: Tips to Persist to Certificate Completion
      Friday, July 28, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      Register

Innovation Mixer

Innovation Mixers will provide valuable resources, short recorded videos, and a virtual Office Hour webinar wrap-up for each topic to provide opportunities for further discussion and exploration. ULS faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to explore the topics and save the dates for the ones that interest them the most. This is a unique opportunity to learn from the experts, stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in the field, and enhance your online teaching and learning skills. Join your colleagues from around the system in this exciting journey of professional development! 

AI Intensive

Join our series of webinars and virtual workshops led by our Content Expert for Online Teaching & Learning, Dr. Elizabeth Robertson Hornsby (SLU), and Content Expert for Open Educational Resources, Dr. Megan Lowe (NSU), alongside lead innovators Meredith King (UNO), Dr. Whitney Sivils-Sawyer, and Dr. Frank Crocco (ULL). These sessions will focus on recognizing AI-generated student work product using specific software and addressing ethical implications of AI interventions with college students.

    • Artificial Intelligence (AI): What is it? How is/can it be used?
      Monday, July 31, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      ZOOM Webinar
    • Office Hour: AI Tool Talent Show
      Monday, July 31, 2023 – 2 p.m.
      Register
    • Designing Authentic Assessments in the Age of AI
      Tuesday, August 1, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      ZOOM Webinar
    • Office Hour: Designing Authentic Assessments
      Tuesday, August 1, 2023 – 2 p.m.
      Register
    • AI for Task Automation: Working Smarter
      Wednesday, August 2, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      ZOOM Webinar
    • Define, Refine, and Re-Generate: Building Prompt Engineering Skills
      Wednesday, August 2, 2023 – 2 p.m.
      ZOOM Webinar
    • AI & Ethical Implications
      Thursday, August 3, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      ZOOM Webinar
    • AI & Plagiarism
      Thursday, August 3, 2023
      ZOOM Webinar
    • AI & Ethical Implications Discussion (Topics: Transparency and AI Use; Creating an Honest Academic Culture; etc.)
      Thursday, August 3, 2023 – 2 p.m.
      Register
    • Reflections on AI
      Friday, August 4, 2023 – 10 a.m.
      ZOOM Webinar

 

University Professional Development Opportunities

  • Proactive Design Summer Camp With Southeastern Online & the Center for Faculty Excellence
    Open to UL System Faculty Staff
    View Flyer

Innovation Leadership

Dr. Francesco Crocco

Dr. Francesco Crocco is Assistant Director for Instructional Support in the Office of Distance Learning at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. Previously, he directed the award-winning Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) and was an Assistant Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Crocco received his Ph.D. in English from the CUNY Graduate Center and has more than twenty years of experience in higher education. He has published two books and several peer-reviewed articles, delivered dozens of conference presentations, and received several major grants to research, design, and evaluate innovative pedagogy and instructional technology. 

Dr. Lindsey Vinvent

Dr. Lindsey Keith-Vincent serves as the Associate Dean of Research, Outreach and Innovation in the College of Education and the Director of the Science and Technology Education Center (SciTEC) at Louisiana Tech University.  

Lindsey’s experiences and love for students have shaped her aspirations and guided her desire to help provide authentic educational experiences for every learner.  She is a first-generation college completer  earning a B.A. in Secondary English Education, an M.S. in Adult Education, certification in Biology Education, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Louisiana Tech University. She holds a certificate in Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania as well as a certificate from Johns Hopkins University in contact tracing, both acquired through Coursera. She also holds a certificate in Digital Wellness from the Digital Wellness Institute .

Dr. Megan Lowe

Dr. Megan Lowe is the Director of University Libraries and Associate Professor at Northwestern State University! She is a recent doctoral graduate from the Higher Education Administration program at Ole Miss and serves as an adjunct in the School of Education at NSU. Her research interests range from emotional intelligence to workplace issues in libraries and AOER. As a former instructional librarian, she is still very interested in information and digital literacy. Because of her experiences in higher education and the impact of her doctoral student experience, she’s grown more aware of the chronic issues plaguing higher education and wants to help identify solutions. On a more personal level, she is happily married to her college sweetheart, with whom she enjoys having adventures! {{she/her/hers}} 

Dr. Whitney Sivils-Sawyer

Dr. Whitney Sivils-Sawyer is a passionate educator is the Director of the Center for Instructional Technology at Louisiana Tech University. Whitney has a B.A. in Psychology, an M.Ed. in Educational Technology Leadership, and an Ed.D. in Educational Administration – Higher Education Admin. Whitney has been in teaching education for over 15 years and is passionate about getting effective teachers into the classroom while giving them the technology tools necessary to be successful. She teaches instructional technology at Louisiana Tech to teacher candidates and provides technology professional development to faculty across the University of Louisiana System. 

Elizabeth Blankenship

Beth Blankenship received her Master’s in English at UNO in 1995. Before joining UNO, she taught part-time for Delgado and Nunez community colleges, where she first engaged with online and classroom technology when her reading students partnered with students in an Arkansas community college to build a website to share their experience reading Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello. She is currently the Director of UNO’s Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI), after serving as a full-time instructor in the Department of English from 2001 through 2015. 

Meredith King

Meredith King is the Assistant Director for the Center for Teaching Innovation at the University of New Orleans, where she helps improve the teaching and learning experiences of instructors to achieve student success. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence (2005) and a Master’s degree from Bowling Green State (2015), where she specialized her research in asynchronous community formation and memetic spreadability. Additionally, Meredith is an adjunct instructor at Nicholls State University, teaching Cultural Studies and English Composition entirely asynchronously. Beyond the countless workshops and trainings she runs regularly, Meredith is particularly proud of initiating UNO’s first faculty reading group. Meredith has also taken the lead in building UNO’s website for inclusive student online learning orientation, providing a valuable resource for students to learn about online learning platforms and tools. She has collaborated with instructors from around the country to develop engaging, effective, and inclusive online courses. Meredith helped develop and run the Bridging the Divide Online Bootcamp, which focused on using pedagogical methods such as universal design for learning, authentic assessment, and backward design to guide instructors in building online courses. Her recent research interests include using artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) as pedagogical tools to rethink teaching and curriculum. 

Rebecca Kelley

Rebecca Kelley is the Digital Inclusion and eLearning Program Manager at LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network and the Louisiana Board of Regents. Rebecca manages the Louisiana Statewide Digital Inclusion Pilot, which is a one-year effort to address digital inclusion needs in Louisiana through five public libraries (as pilot sites) with an emphasis on digital literacy. The assessment of this pilot will help inform a sustainable statewide digital literacy program. Additionally, Rebecca promotes the importance of digital equity within the state’s higher education institutions with an emphasis on closing the digital skills divide on campus. She is the digital equity subject matter expert within the LOUIS consortium and has developed a robust network of state and national digital inclusion leaders. Rebecca organizes professional development opportunities for the LOUIS consortium, gives presentations on digital equity topics throughout the state, and communicates regularly with stakeholders to share digital equity news, research, and opportunities. Before joining LOUIS in 2022, she served for ten years as a research and instruction librarian at LSU Libraries.  Rebecca holds a master’s degree in library and information science from Louisiana State University. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council (CACRC), a statewide nonprofit that refurbishes and redirects technology to individuals impacted by the digital divide and in need of a low-cost device. 

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