Jim Wentworth

Assistant Director Immersive Educational Technologies

Teaching & Learning Strategies
The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning

With the promotion to Assistant Director came the new opportunity of overseeing the faculty development team at CITL. This team is responsible for several annual teaching and learning events including the Faculty Retreat, The Graduate Academy for College Teaching, and the Reimagining the Classroom Symposium. In addition we offer several workshop series each year, a popular monthly webinar series, and have recently launched fully online faculty development opportunities including a Master in Online Teaching Certificate.

• Ledership, management and evaluation of Faculty Develoment team members
• Support CITL Teaching Certificate program
• Design and deployment of online asychronous faculty development options
• Faculty development workshops: Improving Learning Effectiveness

eLearning Professional

Instructional Spaces and Technologies
The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning

With the creation of The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) I was offered the opportunity to change lanes and focus on emerging educational innovations including new flexible classroom design, Makerlabs, and immersive instruction. These trends all influenced the design of the Illinois Innovation Studio which opened in the Armory in 2017. Projects and responsibilities of this position include:

• Design, development and management of the Illinois Innovation Studio
• iFLEX classroom design, support and training, communication of iFLEX brand (Wordpress)
• Active, online & blended learning consultations
• Faculty development workshops: Teaching with Digital Tools, Preparing to Teach Online (Prezi)
• Teaching metacognition presentation (Slideshare)
• Teaching with Technology Seminar Series

Visting eLearning Specialist

Campus Information Technology and Education Services (CITES)

Near the end of 2011 I returned to my hometown to be close to family and my aging parents. Not sure what the future held I accepted a visiting position at the University of Illinois in a faculty support position within CITES (now Technology Services). I was hired to assist faculty with the migration of existing online courses from WebCT to the new Blackboard Learn platform. Responsbilities in this posiiton included:

• Support faculty in the transition of courses
• Create documentation and online resources to support faculty in their use of Blackboard Learn
• Develop and deliver hands-on LMS workshops

Assistant Director Academic Technology

Independent Learning Program
Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies

I started at CU Boulder as an academic coordinator mainly focusing on the online courses offered through the Independent Learning Program. My role quickly grew to include the development of a new professional certificate in Sustainable Practices.
During my 5 years at CU, I juggled the following responsibilities:

• Coordinate and support online program of 160+ courses with 100+ faculty
• Build and manage the Sustainable Practices professional development program
• Develop online resources, community portals and social media campaigns
• Assist faculty in the development of new Summer Session online courses
• Oversee instructional design team in the revision of existing online courses
• Support the campus transition from Blackboard to Desire2Learn
• Develop and implement course capture and streaming delivery protocols

Instructional Design and Lingo Programming

Colorado State University Global Campus
Greenwood Village, Colorado

As I was preparing to move from Colorado back to Illinois I was lucky to connect with the Colorado State Global Campus. I worked remotely as an instructional design project manager working on about a dozen courses between 2011 and 2013. New opportunities and a permanent position with the University of Illinois led me to discontinue this work.

The National Renewable Energy Labs
Golden, Colorado

During my time as a adjunct faculty member I continued to explore new skills and opportunites for real-world experience. I was fortunate to work with the National Renewable Energy Lab on an instructional DVD they were producing to teach energy conservation topics. I had developed some expertise working with Macromedia Director in grad school and my Lingo programming skills proved useful during this project.

The Video Professor
Lakewood, Colorado

Back when the internet was still fairly new the best way to distrubute multimedia training was on a disc. The Video Professor was a Colorado company that developed and marketed CD-based tutorials covering a variety of computer programs. While their marketing strategies left a lot to be desired, their training was high-quality and comprehensive. I was contracted in 2000 to be the subject matter expert and instructional designer responsible for developing their Photoshop 3.0 tutorials.

Digital Creators
Boulder, Colorado

When I returned to Colorado after completing my Masters degree at Southern Illinois University I had already arranged to take an adjunct position at my alma mater that fall. I spent the summer working for an instructional design firm in Boulder. Digital Creators appears to be defunct now, but back in 2000 they had several major clients. This short-lived opportunity allowed me to hone my corporate instructional design skills by working on insurance-related training for a national insurance provider.

Immersive Media Instructor

Media & Cinema Studies | College of Media

I was excited to offer a course introducing immersive media to a diverse group of U of I students. Collectively we explored:

• The history of virual reality technologies
• Timeline creation with JS Timeline
• Creating 360 photos with Google Streetview app
• Shooting 360 video with the GoPro Fusion
• Using Google Titlbrush as a tool for creative exploration
• Editing 360 video with Adobe Pemiere

Visual Arts Instructor

Multimedia Studies Program | College of Arts & Media

It was exciting to return to my alma mater in Denver to teach within an emerging Multimedia Studies program in the College of Arts & Media. In this position I developed more than a dozen new courses and taught over 50 sections in my five-year stint as adjunct faculty. Among the courses I developed and taught at CU Denver were:

• MUME 3400 Digital Image Manipulation
• MUME 3415 Advanced Multimedia Authoring
• FA 3430 Digital Design
• FA 3448 Investigations of Interaction & New Media
• FA 4350 Interactive Arts & the Digital Aesthetic
• FA 4350 Internet Culture (Online)
• FA 4350 History of Digital Media (Online)

Mutlimedia Instructor

Multimedia and Graphics Design program

In my early career as an instructor I was fortunate to have the chance to extend my teaching experience to include Red Rocks Community College. The eagerness of adult learners, as well as the diversity of backgrounds and talents made it a challenging experience to deliver courses that met the needs and expectations of all students. This position also allowed me to expand my teaching to include topics that I might not have otherwise explored. The courses I developed and taught at Red Rocks include:

• MTC 120 Adobe Photoshop
• MTC 150 Introduction to Multimedia Authoring
• MTC 155 Introduction to Web Page Design
• MTC 115 Color Theory

Neuroscience of Optimal Learning July 2022 

This five-day online institute covered a variety of neuroscience topics. One of the key takeaways was a better understanding of the limited resources of human attention and cognition. I also appreciate the focus on prior knowledge and helping students in the development of metacognitive strategies.

Uncommon Sense Teaching 2022

Developed by the same team who brought us the popular Learning How to Learn MOOC, this course weaves together insights from neuroscience with personal insights from the classroom to provide unexpected, yet practical, new approaches. It appears this course is now the first of three in a new Coursera specialization on Uncommon Sense Teaching.

UPCEA: The Nature of Higher Education 2021

This 5-week hybrid course offered by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association "offers an overview of higher education in the U.S. for those pursuing careers in academic administration." It provided an opportunity to explore the variety and breadth of institutions outside of my personal and professional experience.

Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects

"This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We’ll learn about the how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates (“chunks”) information. We’ll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects."
University of California, San Diego on Coursera

An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching

"This online course is designed to provide future STEM faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows with an introduction to effective teaching strategies and the research that supports them. The goal of the eight-week course is to equip the next generation of STEM faculty to be effective teachers, thus improving the learning experience for the thousands of students they will teach."
STEM Teaching Course at Vanderbilt University

Blackboard Coursesites: Designing an Exemplary Course

"Using the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Rubric as a guide, this open course will provide both theoretical concepts and practical tools for instructors to recognize, organize, and build online courses for both blended learners and online learners."

Illinois Supervisory Skills Program Spring 2023

"This four-month program offers University of Illinois employees the opportunity to develop self-awareness of management styles and personal biases, to practice strategies for resolving conflict, and to build confidence in leading others through performance feedback and coaching techniques."

IT Leadership Workshop Summer 2022

The IT Leadership Workshop (ITLW) at the University of Illinois delivers three days of curriculum to a cohort of 25 IT Professionals over a three-month period. The program’s goal is to develop leadership skills as well as facilitate and enhance communication, collaboration, and partnership among participating IT professionals.

Adobe Education

"Adobe Education Leaders are dedicated to enhancing creativity and collaboration and improving the teaching and learning experience." I was nominated to be part of the 2021 cohort of education leaders and attended the annual event in San Francisco that year.

Our campus also partnered with Adobe on two separate occassions to offer Creative Campus Events for our students. These collaborative, competitive sessions provide a great opportunity for cross-dispinary cohorts to develop their design and teamwork skills.

I've been a fan of Adobe for decades and began my teaching career introducing Adobe tools to young undergrads at the University of Colorado Denver. I continue to use these tools and online resources regularly and occassionally find the time to upload my own projects to the Adobe Education Exchange.

UIUC Annual Events

Annual Faculty Retreat
Faculty Summer Institute
IT Pro Forum
Reimagining the Classroom Symposium
Student Success Symosium

Trade Shows

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) "is the most influential tech event in the world — the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators."

"InfoComm is the largest and most comprehensive show for professional audiovisual communications in the United States."

"NeoCon has served as the world’s leading platform and most important event of the year for the commercial interior design industry since 1969"

Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting 2016

Crafting our Future: Toward New Digital Learning Environments. Great conference and wonderful three days in San Antonio. Memorable moments include Robbie Kendall-Melton's Internet of Things presentation and Randy Bass keynote as well as the release of the 2016 NMC Horizon Report.