J. D. Walker
Coordinator of Evaluation and Research Services
As coordinator of evaluation and research services at the Digital Media Center (DMC), my role centers on our initiatives designed to investigate the ways in which digital educational technologies are affecting the teaching and learning environment at the University of Minnesota.
Current projects include:
- University-wide student and faculty technology surveys;
- a collaborative evaluation of an online master's degree curriculum in the School of Nursing;
- an investigation (with the University Libraries) of the effectiveness of online interactive tools for learning about copyright and fair use; and
- various evaluation and research efforts connected with the Bush Grant for Innovative Teaching and Technology Strategies.
Recent Presentations and Publications
"Faculty Development in the Age of the Net Generation", at the 2006 Minnesota e-Learning Summit, Augsburg College, May 2006 (with Brad Cohen, Linda Jorn, and Kimerly Wilcox).
"Collaborative Evaluation of an Online Graduate Nursing Curriculum," at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vancouver, B.C., October 2005 (with Brad Cohen and Melissa Avery).
"Listening to our Students: What to Do with What We Hear," New Media Centers (NMC) Summer Conference, Honolulu, June 2005 (with Alicia Russell and David Hirsch).
"The TA Web Certification Program: Five Years of Supporting the Use of Instructional Technology at the University of Minnesota," with Brad Cohen and Bill Rozaitis, Educause Quarterly 4: 2003.
"Learning Technologists - Virtual Community Practitioners," National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) meeting, New Orleans, January 2003 (with Linda Jorn).
"Multi-college evaluation of student experiences with technology-enhanced learning," Technology-Enhanced Learning Council, University of Minnesota, November 28, 2001.
Background
My background is in philosophy, in which I earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 1996. I taught philosophy and political science for a number of years at UNC, the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of Pennsylvania, and Franklin & Marshall College.
I'm currently working on a master's degree in quantitative methods in education in the Department of Educational Psychology here at the University of Minnesota.
When not staring at a computer screen, I can be found playing chess, biking, brewing beer, or complaining about the current UNC basketball season.
