Gayle V. Davidson-Shivers is a professor in the Instructional Design and Development (IDD) program at the University of South Alabama. She serves as the Foundations Area Program Coordinator in her department, Counseling and Instructional Sciences. She developed two graduate certificate programs: Human Performance Improvement and Instructional Design and Development, and now advises master’s and doctoral students about them. Being the first in her program to teach online course, she continues to design and teach both online and blended courses in the areas of instructional design and organizational performance improvement and change among others. Her publications and presentations focus on online and blended learning, instructional strategies and needs assessment.Karen L. Rasmussen is a professor and Associate Vice President in the Division of Research and Strategic Innovation at the University of West Florida. She leads initiatives related to academic policy, innovative practice and careerand technical education. At the state level, Dr. Rasmussen works in the area of adult degree completion, leading Complete Florida, to support and assist adults with some college to finish their degrees. She works closely with teams on campus to implement innovative distance learning models to maintain high quality programs. She led the launch of a statewide career awareness and technical education tool for K-20 students and citizens in Florida. She is a co-editor of the Handbook of Research on Competency-Based Education in University Settings. Patrick R. Lowenthal is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology at Boise State University. He teaches online in the MA and doctoral in eLearning programs in his department. Before becoming a faculty member, he worked as an instructional designer at Boise as well as at the CU Online at the University of Colorado at Denver. He completed a doctorate in education, focusing on instructional design and technology and has an MA in Instructional Design and Technology. His research interests focus on instructional communication, specifically in the broad concept of presence including social and instructor presence, and the role technology plays in supporting or inhibiting presence. He is currently serving as the Senior Assistant Editor, Online Learning Journal.
