Kena (pronounced Kenna) oversees online instructional design and learning technologies for The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. She collaborates with a wide variety of partners, including ASU administration, faculty, EdPlus, University Technology Office, and beyond to innovate and initiate our shared goal of increasing access to quality education to our global student population.
Kena has worked in online higher education since 2005. She is an advocate for diversity, inclusion, and belonging, and leads by example by cultivating a community of practice among staff and faculty across all of ASU in which diverse ideas and experiences are sought and valued. She works to promote advocacy of underrepresented voices, improve processes, initiate change, and host large-scale faculty training events that focus on inclusive pedagogy, accessibility, and instructional design best practices. She lives in Tempe with her husband, stepdaughter, and two dogs. She spends her time off renovating her home and practicing vinyasa yoga. |
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History
Proud 5th generation Arizonan. Raised in Tucson, moved to Tempe to attend ASU.
Graduated in 2004 with a BA in English Literature.
Worked at thrift stores, a book store, and at a newspaper before starting her career in higher education in 2005.
Earned MAEd in Curriculum and Instruction in 2009, and has been designing courses and workshops ever since.
Career timeline
- 2005-2014, thrived in University of Phoenix's (seemingly exponential) growth, then survived several massive reductions in force, and was the last-standing Instructional Developer under the centralized Instructional Development and Design (IDD) department. In addition to designing courses, she was a workshops QA specialist and publisher.
- In 2014, transferred to Western International University as an Instructional Designer. The school closed shortly after.
- In 2015, joined EdPlus at Arizona State University Online as an Instructional Designer, where she developed online courses for programs related to health, nutrition, exercise science, English, and Communication. Here, she became certified in the Quality Matters rubric and led faculty to receive QM certification for a health coaching course. Co-facilitated Master Class for Teaching Online and other faculty trainings, and developed between 5 and 40 new courses every 6 or 7.5 week term. Supported 300+ faculty in online technology implementation and curricular consultation. Co-led migration from Blackboard to Canvas including co-development of the ASU Online Canvas course template, which set the Canvas course design standard for ASU. Presented at conferences on the community of inquiry model and writing better discussion prompts.
- In 2019, joined The Online Curriculum and Digital Innovation team in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean as an ID Manager, and was promoted to Assistant Director of Online Learning and Digital Innovation in 2021.
Current responsibilities (2022)
- Oversees Instructional Design for The College.
- Hires, onboards, mentors, and advocates for IDs and related staff who are embedded within academic units in The College
- Ensures successful development and launch of new courses and programs in partnership with EdPlus
- Manages course development snags and escalations
- Recommends solutions for course quality issues
- Designs courses, workshops, and special projects for deans and other VIPs
- Leads ASU-wide faculty training: ASU Sync Workshop for faculty, Teaching Assistant (TA) Workshop, Inclusive Teaching Strategies lightning talks series, Tech Works, and Canvas Works
- Created a community of practice of Instructional Designers within The College and beyond to welcome new IDs, connect them with one another, share best practices and resources, and fortify staff alliances across the enterprise
- Launched Instruction Junction, a website to equip faculty, at scale, to develop courses and find resources
- Oversees Learning Technologies for The College.
- Supervises Learning Technology Specialist (LTS)
- Vets and tracks learning technologies used in The College
- Ushers learning tools through departmental and enterprise security review processes
- Recommends technology solutions to grow courses and programs at scale
- Participates in enterprise RFP processes
- Attends tool demos; advises UTO on tool decisions, implementations, and communication plans.
- Assists her team with new program onboarding
- Our team has launched over 40 new online programs, minors, and certificates since 2019 (and dozens more before I joined the team)
- Assists her Sr. Director and Associate Dean of Online with digital initiatives oversight, working to align staff, faculty, vendors, and partners with the goals of deans and higher administration.
- Collaborates with the University Technology Office (UTO) and EdPlus ASU Online to continuously improve our faculty support models.
- Co-leads The Dean's Office Faculty Digital Initiatives Committee to increase communication between faculty, EdPlus, and UTO
- Leads The Dean's Office faculty subcommittee to develop a proposal for UTO to integrate faculty feedback into the tool adoption process
- Serves on Executive Committee for the Instructional Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC), which is a 100+ member staff group that advises UTO on ed-tech decisions.
- Leads ID Onboarding ITAC subcommittee to establish baseline best practices when hiring new IDs and related staff.