judith.falaro@quinnipiac.edu
Judith's role is to provide technology support to online faculty and assist them in both redesigning their courses and designing new courses. Judith joined the School of Education as an adjunct professor in the MAT program in 2004. She teaches both a graduate and undergraduate special education course, philosophy of education, conducts an undergraduate field study seminar and works as a field instructor for graduate student teachers each spring. She retired from the New Haven Public Schools after over thirty-three years as a teacher, principal of Celentano School and then Wilbur Cross High School, and supervisor of the magnet schools and central registration. Judith holds a CT Professional Educator Certificate in Special Education, Elementary Education and Administration and Supervision. She earned her BS in Special Education with a dual certificate in Elementary Education from Southern Connecticut State University, her MA in Computer Assisted Instruction and Media from Fairfield University, a 6th year degree in Administration and Supervision from Southern Connecticut State University and her JD from Western New England University School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in Connecticut and the United States District Court. Judith joined QU Online in 2012.
Christopher Neidig, Senior Instructional Designer and Project Manager
christopher.neidig@quinnipiac.edu
Christopher has over 6 years of experience with instructional technology and instructional design for online courses. He specializes in integrating audio and video into Web-based teaching. An area of concentration for Christopher is the examination of emerging trends in online course facilitation and models for online and hybrid course design. He specializes in rich media projects, iTunesU, Web 2.0 integration, podcasts, vodcasts, and interactive Flash-Based videos. While at Quinnipiac, Christopher has led workshops on podcasting and screen capturing tools, and how to effectively use these tools in higher education. As an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University, Christopher has developed and taught courses in advanced media production, media production, interactive animation, and U.S media history. While a Multimedia Specialist at Sacred Heart University, he was one of the recipients to receive the "Creative Use of Technology Award" from the New England Association of Continuing Higher Education at the ACHE's regional conference in April 2008. Christopher has also presented his work on Flash based media delivery at several NERCOMP (North East Regional Computing Program) conferences. Christopher has a BA in Communications with a minor in Music as well as a MS in Electronic Media from Quinnipiac University. Christopher has been at QU Online since 2008.
Jennifer Rafferty, Associate Director of Instructional Design
jennifer.rafferty@quinnipiac.edu
Prior to entering the field of online education, Jennifer was a Spanish and ESL instructor in the Five College Consortium of Western Massachusetts. Her passion for equity in education led her to UMASS-Boston in 2004 where she assumed the position of director for the Massachusetts Adult Basic Education (ABE) Distance Learning Project. In this leadership role, she worked with the Massachusetts Department of Education to research best practices in ABE distance education and she collaborated in developing policy for distance education programs. At QU Online, Jennifer provides faculty development and guidance to both new and seasoned online instructors. Jennifer is the editor of Digital Pedagog, QU Online's instructional design blog, and she also works with faculty who are pursuing the Quality Matters seal of approval for their online courses. An area of concentration for Jennifer is the use of emerging technologies in foreign language instruction. Jennifer developed the first online Spanish course for Quinnipiac's School of Nursing and she presents both regionally and nationally on language instruction in the virtual classroom. Jennifer holds an AB in Romance Languages from Mount Holyoke College, an MA in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a M.Ed. in Instructional Design from UMASS Boston. Jennifer has been at QU Online since 2008.
Frances Rowe, Director of Instructional Design and Technology Support
frances.rowe@quinnipiac.edu
Before joining Quinnipiac, Frances worked for 15 years in various positions in higher education in Boston, Massachusetts. She was assistant director for the Instructional Media Center in the School of Education at Boston University and Media Specialist at Showa Boston, the satellite campus of Showa Women's University in Tokyo. Frances has taught courses in writing, video production and computer information systems at the undergraduate level and educational technology at the graduate level. Frances holds a BS in Industrial Technology from the University of Southern Maine and a MEd in Instructional Technology from Utah State University. Frances is currently a doctoral student at Nova South Eastern University where she is examining methods to increase learning outcomes in the virtual classroom; specifically, she is measuring the effect size of instructional interventions that prompt students to use cognitive, meta-cognitive and motivational processes, also known as self-regulated learning (SRL). Her research aims to provide a synthesis and interpretation of how SRL intervention could be applied within the design of E-learning environments. Frances is a recipient of the Learning Effectiveness Award from the Sloan Consortium. Frances has been at QU Online since 2003.
Dan Shpak, Junior Instructional Designer
daniel.shpak@quinnipiac.edu
In his role as Junior Instructional Designer, Dan manages and supports online and hybrid courses. He trains faculty with course development, and provides them with the skills needed to teach online. With an expertise in Web and video production, Dan creates instructor biography videos, as well as custom-based Web applications. Dan earned his BS in Business Administration/Marketing at Sacred Heart University and his MS in Interactive Communications at Quinnipiac University. Dan has been at QU Online since 2010.