JR

JR Dingwall

JR DingwallJR enrolled in the ETAD program early in his education career. After completing a B.Ed, industrial arts, he began his career as many young graduates do, as a substitute teacher and eventually obtaining full time contracts. Through his time in public schools, he regularly found himself in the position of learning technologies consultant for both students and colleagues. This led him to pursue a graduate degree (M.Ed) in Educational Technology and Design.

While completing the ETAD program, JR assumed he would return to K12 education as either a classroom teacher or consultant. However, when opportunity knocks, JR is one to answer the door. Nearing the end of his program of study, he had an opportunity to apply his newly developed instructional design knowledge and skills to Post-Graduate Medical Education (PGME) at the University of Saskatchewan. This was the beginning of an exciting career in instructional design in higher education.

Following his time in PGME he worked in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, designing Occupational Health and Safety courses offered in multiple modes: face-to-face, fully online, and two different configurations of blended learning. He changed gears, co-authoring an open textbook as part of the Alberta OER development grant, coordinated by Olds College. Always interested in different experiences and contexts, JR moved to an educational development position in the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Alberta. Although the work shifted focus from developing courses to designing professional development programming for university instructors, he found his instructional design skills highly transferable.

Opportunity knocked once again, and JR journeyed back to his home institution, the University of Saskatchewan to work as an instructional designer with the Distance Education Unit. Through his experiences, he learned that while teaching and learning in general is an area of interest for him, his real passion is distance and online learning.

JR is a lifelong learner and pursues his own professional development through formal and informal settings. From studying teacher education in Finland at the University of Helsinki, to completing a User Experience Design certificate through OCAD University, to community-based workshops, to LinkedIn Learning, he continues to learn and refine skills that compliment his work as an instructional designer. He participates in a number of online communities, and serves on the board of the Canadian Association of Instructional Designers, contributing to the development of instructional design and designers in Canada and beyond.

A few of his career highlights include:

  • Critical Appraisal Course for medical residents – formerly a 2-day in-person workshop, redesigned to include a self-paced online component and a multi-access 3-hour workshop.

  • Professional Communications open textbook plus ancillaries – a co-authored work including the textbook, learning activities, activity lesson plans, assessments, and rubrics. This project has served thousands of students and has been adopted and adapted by instructors beyond the original client.

  • Instructional Design Service Course: Gain Experience for Good – with over 4500 enrollments, this MOOC designed by a team of volunteers coordinated by Designers for Learning offered the opportunity for new and experienced instructional designers to create OER for adult basic education.

  • Promoting instructional design – JR loves talking about ID work, and has had the opportunity to present projects, ideas, and talk shop with audiences at conferences, within institutions, and beyond.

You can learn more, and connect with JR at https://jrdingwall.ca