Practitioner Profile Interview with Tim Beachy

My first meeting with Tim Beachy (pictured at the right) was at the Learning Management System (LMS) Advisory Committee Meeting in 2003 via the Iowa Communications Network, which is a fiber-optic network that makes it possible for Iowans that are physically separated by location, to interact in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

We were both new to our positions as LMS Coordinators, I worked for the Iowa Department of Public Health in Des Moines and Tim works for the College of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. This first meeting was about preparing for the launch of the learning management system, Prepare Iowa and how we were going to get local public health agencies to use the system and why these agencies should use it.

Since that first meeting, the two of us worked collaboratively through the years on different aspects of maintaining and marketing Prepare Iowa. Tim always maintained the “techy” parts and whenever I ran into reports not running the correct data, Tim was the “work-around king” and could get the results. Tim’s knowledge of the system and working relationship with the LMS vendor landed him a collaborative speaking gig at the SALT (Society for Applied Learning Technology) conference in 2007.

I recently asked Tim a series of questions, below is interview.
Q1. What is your role?
A. My role is to administer the LMS by:
·Providing technical support to end-users, course developers, managers, and other various administrators
· Turn provided content into online delivered course content (in other words, I’m not an actual content creator)
· Use various programming tools (i.e. html, css, javascript, SCORM, SQL) to provide as usable an experience as possible within the framework of the LMS
· Provide training as well as training materials to end-users and administrators, provide marketing input and create marketing materials
· Provide technical research and vision for the future of the system, provide reports and data analysis
· Develop and collaborate on integrations with a variety of third-party systems and programming interfaces
· Assure data integrity
These are the sorts of tasks that any administrator/coordinator of a small LMS may have to do. It also involves wearing many different hats, although most of my hats have a technical bent to them.

Q2. Your background, how did you get good at what you do?
A. I have formal certification in computer support (hardware, software, OS), but am self-taught in terms of web development.

Q3. How do you keep up with all the latest trends/continuing development in eLearning?
A. I’m more of web-in-general kind of learner, and have not always viewed the LMS world as something other than a web application (i.e. based on web technologies that are used everywhere). While there are specialized considerations for the LMS world (namely SCORM), I find that I'm best served by studying web techniques and standards in general, and then figuring out how they can/should be applied to eLearning. I follow blogs from the masters of HTML/CSS (Eric Meyer, Garrett Dimon, Jeffrey Zeldman, Cameron Moll), I receive updates from W3C, Vitamin Feed, Mashups Via Programmable Web, Mashable!, and some others. I do follow the Moodle and WordPress worlds when I have time, particularly latest module and plug-ins releases. While I love the technology side, I really feel close to the usability side of development, which is why I follow the standards world, as well as subscribe to a couple of newsletters and RSS feeds geared specifically to User Interface and Usability: User Interface Engineering, Digital Web, UXMatters, Information Architecture Institute. I've attended 2 conferences related specifically to this topic as well. I've also attended a SALT conference and a couple of platform-specific user conferences.

Q4. What current trends do you see, what do you think is current or the next big thing?
A. I think that the mobile/vodcast/podcast world is far from hitting full stride. I think that the platform potential is there, but it needs time to mature as a concept as well as a technology. I think the next big thing in eLearning will coincide fairly well with the next big thing on the Web, and that would be semantic markup making a whole lot more information accessible to machines without human intervention. One example I could see of this is: a person's calendar negotiating registration in a face-to-face course without necessarily involving the human side very much. This may just mean that an LMS could become more than a site you go to and log into, but could insert itself more into a person's everyday routine and may show up in bits and pieces in their calendar, RSS reader, email, voicemail, etc. I think that better integration tools may emerge as more and more "Web 2.0" rubs off on the LMS world.

Q5. Is there anything in your role that you are not using, but you should be?
A. I should be more involved in SCORM package development, current tools, and the model standards, but I have to fully submerge there yet.

Q6. Any advice that you would share, what is important, what is not?
A. I think my answer for number 3 pretty much stands here -- focusing just on eLearning limits the scope of vision, while learning and understanding the underlying concepts that the entire web works off of makes the eLearning part a specialized extension. Also, don't be tied to one technology, language or framework. You have to make limiting decisions at some point, but always try and maintain the future and global vision in perspective when making day-to-day decisions.

My involvement with Prepare Iowa and Tim was always a love-hate relationship. I loved being involved and working closely with this relatively new technology, but I hated not knowing some of the aspects of the system and having to turn to Tim for answers, however, what I liked about working with Tim, was I could pose a question to him, which he would answer and then explain the process. This was key because not only did I learn from him, but a contributing factor to what sparked my interest in wanting to know more and learn more in this growing field of eLearning. What I enjoyed was that we were always discussing of ways to improve the system, what will help the end user, so there is a sense of pride to see where the system was and how it is transforming to what it is today and I know that Tim has played a major role in that push.

Additional Information
Article about the changes to Prepare Iowa http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/midwest-public-health-workers-prepare/story.aspx?guid=%7B1AC74934-1AEA-42FC-A779-53386C084686%7D&dist=hppr

Week 7

I'm really glad that a discussion thread was added, I love reading what others think of the readings as it definitely makes me think, ah...yeah I can see that and it typically generates some great discussion.
I liked the Gen Y example from the Learner-Centered Framework article, I found the concept to be interesting, it almost reminded me of a Montessori program. I don't work in education nor do I have a background in education, so I'm not sure if I'm off base, but I would imagine that when you make students responsible for their learning there seems to be a better level of engagement. It also reminded me of discussion that I've had with my spouse regarding education for our children, we want our kids to be life long learners and be passionate for learning and so far they are, they are constantly asking questions, wanting me to read to them, and I try to structure our day with a lesson of some sort, whether it is shapes, colors, ABC's, the presidents, which I can proudly say that both my two and three year old know who the first three are (still working on the rest), but I do worry - are they going to be stimulated in school? From my perspective it seems like schools my community continually go on about not enough money, but when they get the money, it is spent on something different and there is no focus on how to engage the student or how is that going to help prepare the student for the future. Our high school graduation rates are getting lower and lower by the year, yet they say we have an excellent school system.
I know I'm starting to stray, so I apologize and will try to bring it back on topic....

On page 15, "Technology can be used to change the role of teachers to that of colearners and contributors to the social and interpersonal development of students, counterbalancing the
potential of computer technology to cause personal and social isolation and alienation. Online delivery of education can then provide a means to centralize course development and link intergenerational learners to academic tutors on a global scale." That seemed to jump out to me because for one, I am in Iowa pursuing my MA through the University of Colorado Denver and I think I've learned just as much in this distance course than any face to face.