Knowledge Base
Resources & Reads
A curated collection of tools I've created, research and articles from the field, and writing of my own — all in one place.
Created by Me
Tools & Guides
Practical resources I've designed to make complex processes clearer — from checklists to guides and tools.
Accessibility Checklist
A practical guide and interactive checklist for making your course materials accessible.
View Tool →Alt Text Architecture Guide
Mastering the balance of context, accuracy, and efficiency to craft inclusive visual learning spaces for all users.
View Tool →Bloom's Taxonomy Verb Selector
Browse action verbs organized by cognitive level, build a shortlist, and draft learning objectives.
View Tool →Course Alignment Visual Guid
A plain-language guide to making sure what you teach, what students practice, and what you grade are all pointing at the same target — with an interactive map to check your own course.
View Tool →Student Cognitive Load Estimator
An empirical diagnostic planning calculator designed to model weekly workload density, preserve working memory resources, and insulate students against academic fatigue cycles.
View Tool →Tool / Job Aide Title Six
A collection of secure, pre-tested, and fully allowlist-compliant layout design snippets engineered to scale seamlessly inside the standard Canvas Rich Text Editor environment.
View Tool →Outside Reading
Research & Helpful Links
A curated library of articles, frameworks, and research from across the field — things I return to, share with colleagues, and find genuinely useful.
Adult Learning Theory
The Adult Learning Theory: Andragogy Of Malcolm Knowlese
Christopher Pappas — eLearning Industry · ~20 min read
The foundational framework behind adult education. Knowles' five assumptions — that adults are self-directed, draw on prior experience, learn best when content is relevant, and are internally motivated — remain the most cited model in instructional design. A clear, well-structured explainer of a theory every educator and ID professional should know.
The Past, Present, and Future of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning
Richard E. Mayer — Educational Psychology Review · ~30 min read
Written by Mayer himself — the most cited educational psychologist alive, with nearly 240,000 citations on Google Scholar. This article traces how his theory of multimedia learning (people learn better from words and pictures together than from words alone) has evolved over 30 years. Essential reading for anyone designing online content or video-based instruction..
Online Learning
Designing a Community of Inquiry in Online Courses
Holly Fiock — International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning · ~15 min read
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework — built on three types of "presence" (teaching, social, and cognitive) — is one of the most widely used models for understanding what makes online courses work. This practical, freely available piece translates the framework directly into course design decisions. IRRODL is the #1 diamond open-access education journal in Canada with a 97 h-index.
A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Online Learning in Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Frontiers in Education · ~20 min read
Brief annotation about this resource.
Accessibility
W3C Web Accessibility Fundamentals
W3C / WAI · Documentation
The foundational resource for understanding web accessibility standards — essential reading for any instructional designer building online content.
UDL Guidelines — CAST
CAST · Framework
The definitive UDL (Universal Design for Learning) guidelines from CAST — a go-to reference for designing inclusive learning experiences.
AI in Education
Research Trends in the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education
Frontiers in Education · ~20 min read
A bibliometric analysis of how AI research in higher education has grown and shifted since 2013 — covering adaptive learning, learning analytics, personalized education, and the spike in interest after ChatGPT's release. Good for understanding where the field is and where it's heading, without overhyping any one tool.
AI and Its Implications for Research in Higher Education: A Critical Dialogue
Higher Education Research & Development · ~16 min read / Article
A refreshingly balanced piece structured as a dialogue between two academics with opposing views — one advocating for AI as an essential research tool, the other raising ethical and epistemological concerns. Goes beyond the surface-level debate to address questions of academic integrity, methodology, and what AI actually changes about scholarly inquiry.
Written by Me with the help of AI
My Articles
Reflections, practical guides, and perspectives on instructional design, learning technology, and education from my own experience.
The "But..." Loop: Designing Real-World Wellness for Bound-to-the-Desk IDs
Breaking the cycle of performance-driven burnout through low-friction, social micro-habits.
Beyond Compliance: Reframing Alt Text from a Legal Chore to Pedagogical Empathy
Moving accessibility out of the retroactive checklist phase and into core instructional design workflows.
Micro-Learning over Manuals: How On-Demand Video Hubs Rescued Faculty Workflows
Reducing institutional drag by replacing text-heavy support documents with quick, visual micro-assets.
The Strategic Blueprint: Why Quality Matters Actually Works in High-Volume Course Design
Demystifying course review standards by showing how objective frameworks reduce student anxiety and protect faculty expertise.
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Let's work together
Whether you're looking for an instructional design partner, a collaborator, or just want to connect — I'd love to hear from you.