Design and Development
President Elect:
Peter Rich
Brigham Young University
I am an associate professor of Instructional Psychology & Technology at Brigham Young University. Over the past 20 years, I have been involved with the design and development of instructional materials in one form another. My experience ranges from teaching adults to read in rural Mexico to teaching upper-level graduate courses in python development. Much of this work has been in designing, developing and evaluating the effectiveness of curriculum for use in K-12 and higher education. In the service of learning to develop more effective instruction, I discovered a love of and ability for technical development. Consequently, I will often take a practical approach to better understanding how to design and develop instructional tools. At the same time, I have a deep interest in better understanding how learners develop and the processes and tools we might design in order to facilitate that development.
Since 2003, AECT has been a home for my own instructional design development and has provided me with the theoretical and practical foundations for thinking about how to become a better designer. Within the D&D division, I have benefitted from the annual D&D competition by acting as a mentor. This experience has enabled me to learn how students at different institutions approach design and enriches my own understanding of how I might improve my design thinking. I have had the great opportunity to mentor 6 different teams over the past several years, all of which have been selected as finalists. In addition to the D&D division, I have previously been a part of the AECT Teacher Education division leadership. I have also served twice on the committee to select potential AECT presidential candidates. In addition, I have formerly volunteered to help with the international student media festival, a co-conference that occurred with AECT wherein middle and high school students created instructional materials. I was impressed that AECT would have to vision to connect with today's youth. These experiences have provided me with a breadth of understanding of some of the ways in which AECT's D&D division might help to promote design thinking amongst not only our members, but also the communities we serve and come from. I hope to be able to draw upon the strength of our members to reach beyond AECT and connect with youth as well as D&D professionals. In so doing, we may be able to bring together the varied viewpoints on design that inform instruction in a modern, post-COVID world. And, as I have learned in being an D&D mentor, it is by drawing upon the strength of our diverse design experiences that we can strengthen our own.
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