The following four projects are representative of some of the complex, diverse, and meaningful projects I have collaborated on with TRU faculty and staff. For each project, I have reflected on the following:

  1. The client, collaborators, the project team and my role
  2. The problem to be solved, the adopted solution and rationale, any challenges faced and how they were addressed
  3. The process and project management, including any relevant project instructions and planning documents, and, if possible and appropriate, the final product (documents, link to an online project, or summary of the project to date, if still in progress).
  4. Alignment with team, operational unit and institutional goals
  5. Scope & reach
  6. Critical reflection, lessons learned and ways the project increases institutional and work unit capacity
  7. Further uses or instance of the project beyond its original need

A. For this project, I worked with Michele Bebault and Jay Goddard from the Faculty of Education and Social Work. I served as the primary project lead from the LT&I team. I was responsible for helping with building and designing the course in Moodle, managing course enrolments, and providing instructor training and ongoing support.

B. This project initially started as a ticket request to assist with converting a backup file of an openly licensed course built in Blackboard and uploading it into TRU’s Moodle. I initially took responsibility for the ticket and worked with our Moodle system administrator to load the content into Moodle. These types of conversions are loaded into Moodle very messy, resulting in poorly formatted content spread across many pages in Moodle.

This turned into a larger project in which I assisted with loading and organizing the content into Moodle. I recommended organizing the course modules using Moodle’s Book activity. This allows for a more condensed and easily navigable experience for learners, and also allows them to easily print each module. I first had the course instructors create stripped down Word documents of the content to send to us so we could re-upload in bulk to Moodle’s Book activity using specialized scripting tools. This required some reorganization to make better use of the book activity, referencing back to original material for links and formatting guidance, and adding additional accessibility and design features such as custom note boxes. Training and resources were provided for the instructors so they could make further edits, such as adding images, as well as integrating activities such as H5P and glossaries. This required a lot of back-and-forth troubleshooting to help fix formatting errors and recommend best practices.

Apart from uploading content, I was also primarily responsible for the design and layout of the Moodle space. This included deciding on the course layout and navigation features and providing opportunities for student engagement, such as a Q & A forum. Unprompted, I also authored support resources within the course, including an “About This Course” Book activity that helped orient students. It included an overview of the course format and layout, a newly recorded video on how to navigate and customize Open Courses (opens in a new tab), instructions for how to navigate the course, a Meet Your Facilitators section, and a list of support resources and contact information for students to access. Finally, I worked with the instructors to confirm the required outcomes of the course and create a certificate that is automatically awarded to students once they complete all module requirements.

The second major problem to overcome was determining how to manage enrolment. This course was developed on the Open Courses platform and was planned to be run multiple times a year, meaning we needed a sustainable plan to manage course enrolments. Open Courses did not initially allow personal email addresses for sign-up. Since many students were community members not enrolled at a post-secondary institution, they were not able to self-register. I was responsible for manually enrolling most students over the first couple offerings of this course and was their primary contact for troubleshooting. We were eventually able to allow personal email addresses, so I then created generic self-enrolment instructions (opens in a new tab) that the instructors could send to students prior to the start date of each offering.  

C. I met with Michele and Jay a few times early in the process to discuss the scope of the project, timelines, how they foresaw enrolments working, the types of activities they envisioned including (e.g. quizzes, H5P, etc.) and how we could best support the project moving forward. We had a relatively short timeframe to get the course set up in Moodle prior to enrolment opening, so we had to simplify our plans in terms of the types of activities to be included for the first offering. Michele and Jay were responsible for revising and organizing the course content before sending it to me for upload, while I focused on the Moodle layout, navigation, and support features. This required a rapid development process, in which content was sent to me one module at a time, and there was a lot of communication surrounding design considerations and troubleshooting.

D. This course is an example of how we can take advantage of the Open Courses platform to promote open pedagogy and accessible learning, reaching learners beyond the boundaries of TRU. Our team is not usually this hands-on with the development of courses in Moodle, so the scope of this project and the ongoing support provided has built goodwill with the clients and was an opportunity to work with faculty to collaboratively develop a positive and accessible learning experience surrounding an important topic. Given the subject matter and the fact that enrolments have come from community members, this project aligns with TRU’s values of inclusion and diversity, community-mindedness, and curiosity.

E. As noted above, this course has primarily drawn interest from community members outside of TRU. Enrolments have been strong, but as with any self-directed course completion rates have varied. I have provided a breakdown below:

  • January ’25 – 64 enrolments; 16 completed
  • March 2025 – 45 enrolments; 20 completed
  • May 2025 – 20 enrolments; 7 completed
  • Fall 2025 – 26 enrolments; in progress

F. I was fortunately able to draw on my experience in Moodle production to not only upload course content on behalf of the instructors but also make recommendations to improve the layout and experience for students. This included using the Moodle Grid format, hosting the modules in Moodle’s Book activity, adding blocks to add additional functionality in the course, adding headings to help organize the course landing page, and adding orientation materials for students. I’m thankful that the course instructors were open to my input and allowed me some creative freedom to organize the course. That said, training the instructors on how to add and update their own content in Moodle was key so they can continue to grow the course without needing me to directly add or edit content for them.

This was one of, if not the largest course offerings on Open Courses at the time it was first developed. Perhaps the biggest lesson was the importance of allowing users to sign up with personal email addresses. Sign up for Open Courses was initially limited to institutional email addresses to help reduce bot traffic. I knew that manually enrolling students each time this course was offered was not sustainable, given that other community-focused courses would likely be developed in the future as well. After some pushing, we were able to open up registration to all emails on the Open Courses platform without issue, allowing for a smoother registration process for all community-minded courses.

G. The course is currently being run for the fourth time and is receiving positive feedback from students. Self-registration is working well, and I am mostly hands-off, only occasionally helping students with issues on the user’s end. The instructors have made improvements to the course in each iteration, such as adding interactive H5P content, and I have recommended adding some additional activities such as quizzes or discussion forums to count towards the course completion. The course is in a good position to be a staple of our Open Courses platform and continue to be offered in the future.

A. For this project, I collaborated with Dr. Ji Young Lee-An from the Faculty of Arts. Dr. Lee-An was referred to me by a colleague with whom I had previously collaborated on a website development project for the Arts Cohort program. Stephanie Gountas, our Learning Technologist and resident WordPress expert, also helped identify solutions to some technical barriers we encountered. I served as project lead, working with Dr. Lee-An to help plan and develop the website according to her vision.

B. I was approached to help develop an interactive mapping site where students enrolled in SOCI 1210 could upload photos illustrating either (a) visible and invisible barriers, or (b) examples of universal accessibility design around Kamloops. The project had a relatively short timeline and a unique request for two separate maps with distinct colour schemes, something not supported by our existing mapping templates. I initially proposed using a single map with the ability to filter between posts categorized as “visible and invisible barriers” or “examples of universal design,” but the preference remained for two distinct maps.

After discussing how to best proceed with Stephanie Gountas, I built the second map. I then adjusted the submission form to ensure entries appeared on the correct map and customized the pin and map colours to visually distinguish them. Adding the second map to the site homepage introduced technical issues that required us to simplify the page and remove some content that been carried over from the original template site. I think this ended up working in our favour as we were able to break up the site from being a single page to a more easily navigable multi-page site. Other design features that I included were designing the page headers with images of Kamloops, updating the colour palette, customizing how submissions posts are displayed, and designing the resource page.

Due to the nature of the subject matter, it was important to the client that the website was accessible to all learners. WordPress’s mapping function does not meet web accessibility standards by default, so I made some suggestions to help improve the accessibility of the site. This included providing guidance on including long descriptions for images, including a text box allowing for the inclusion of image descriptions in the form, and advocating that post submissions were also accessible via the “View Submissions” link for those that can’t engage with the map.

The final challenge was making sure that post submissions were easy to submit and manage. Although post submissions could be made easily accessible to students, the instructor decided that the TA would submit on behalf of students to streamline the process this semester. I created a training document with clear instructions for submitting and editing entries. Some troubleshooting was needed when not all posts were displaying, but the map was successfully deployed by the assignment deadline.

C. We were contacted with this request on short notice, given only a couple of weeks to prepare the website before the assignment deadline. As a result, the process involved a lot of rapid prototyping and back and forth email communication. We met virtually at the beginning of the project to determine the client’s vision, scope of the project, and a timeline. I shared some of our existing mapping templates as examples that we could adapt, and requested a copy of the assignment requirements so I could get a better sense of how to best align the functionality of the site with the learning objectives and process of the assignment. We then met a second time to finalize some design and privacy details, make sure the needs of their TA were met to manage the post submissions, and discuss future uses of the site.

D. This project is an example of how the LT&I team can support TRU faculty with the development of unique and meaningful website development projects. It aligns with our values of promoting open pedagogy and digital literacy skills, and exemplifies good web design and accessibility principles. Due to the nature of the subject matter and its focus on the local community, it also aligns with TRU’s values of inclusion and diversity and community-mindedness.

E. The instructor reported that student feedback on the website was positive – they appreciated the ability to visually distinguish between hostile architecture and universal design locations around Kamloops in an interactive way. SOCI 1210 is a large first-year introductory course, so this project impacted a relatively large number of students, and the instructor would like to continue to use it in future offerings of the course so it can continue to grow as a resource.

F. This was a positive learning experience for me in navigating instances where instructors may push back against my design recommendations. I did my best to strike a balance between recommending best practices based on my experience, while trying to bring their vision to life. I consistently adhere to web accessibility standards when developing digital resources; however, for this project I applied an even more rigorous level of scrutiny due to the subject matter and the client’s emphasis on accessibility. Given the technical limitations and the project’s short timeline, I developed design solutions that balanced sound design principles with user experience, while managing expectations to ensure they remained realistic. Since this project was developed, I have further developed my web design skills and our team has developed newer, high-quality templates, so I believe the design of this website can be improved over time.

G. This project was implemented at the end of the Winter 2025 semester, and will likely be used again when the instructor next teaches the course in the Winter 2026 semester.  The site is well-suited for future use, with potential enhancements like neighbourhood-based filtering and additional informational content to be explored. The dual maps and filters included on this site can serve as a template for similar projects that want to visually compare different categories going forward, and the experience of developing this project helped further build my own and the LT&I team’s expertise in adding functionality to our mapping templates.