Overview
From 2015 to 2022, I designed and taught three courses in the Arts and Communications department at SUNY Orange — Digital Photography I, Digital Photography II, and Digital Storytelling — across in-person, hybrid, and fully asynchronous virtual formats. During the COVID pivot in Spring 2020, I converted all three courses to remote delivery without sacrificing the critique and mentorship that defined them. While completing my MA in Learning and Emerging Technologies, I built a virtual world for distance photography education in Kitely (Photo World) with NPCs, scavenger-hunt quests, and a working pilot study. After leaving full-time teaching, I extended the same scaffolded, learner-centered approach into independent online courses, including the Define Your Style email challenge for food photographers, hosted on ConvertKit.
What unites all of this work is a consistent design philosophy: scaffold the components, build a community of practice, use critique as the engine of growth, and treat the learner as a creative partner rather than a passive recipient.
Design Philosophy
- Scaffolded curriculum. Every course I designed unfolds one component at a time, then asks students to assemble those components into original work. In Digital Storytelling, the first six weeks introduce structure, methodology, visual storytelling, video, and audio — only then are students expected to produce a complete digital story. In DP1, technical concepts are introduced one per week, each paired with a hands-on shoot.
- Critique as core curriculum. Every course centers structured peer critique — written, verbal, partner-based, and milestone-based. Students learn to articulate creative work in a constructive register, which transfers to every creative field they enter after.
- Multimodal delivery. I have designed and taught the same courses across in-person, hybrid, fully asynchronous online, and immersive virtual world formats. The delivery changes; the rigor does not.
- Community of practice. From the Blackboard discussion boards I ran for online cohorts to the Facebook group attached to the Define Your Style course, every course is paired with a peer space where students can learn from each other, not just from me.
- Constructivist by default. I design assignments that build on what students already know rather than treating them as blank slates. The Define Your Style course explicitly leverages the existing portfolios of working food bloggers; SUNY Orange courses build off what students already see and shoot with their phones.
Outcomes & Impact
- Taught approximately 7 years across 3 courses with consistent enrollment and continuously iterated curriculum.
- Successfully migrated all SUNY Orange courses to fully asynchronous virtual delivery in Spring 2020 with no loss of project rigor or critique structure.
- Wrote letters of recommendation for students who went on to BFA programs (SUNY Purchase Film), competitive scholarships, the Journalism and Media Studies program at San Diego State, and creative internships.
- Mentored a Digital Storytelling student through the SUNY Orange SOARS research conference, where she presented original video research to faculty and administrators.
- Built and pilot-tested an entire virtual world (Photo World) as a working learning environment, demonstrating how immersive media can be used for distance photography education.
- Translated the same pedagogical framework into independent online courses (Define Your Style) reaching working photographers outside academia.
Courses & Projects
- Digital Photography I (ART 121) — SUNY Orange, 2015–2022. Foundational photography course covering camera fundamentals, composition, light, ethics, and Photoshop/Lightroom. 15-week scaffolded curriculum, taught across 3 modalities.
- Digital Photography II (ART 122) — SUNY Orange, 2018–2022. Advanced sequel covering long exposure, HDR, cinemagraphs, restoration, and professional practice. Featured guest speakers from the digital imaging industry.
- Digital Storytelling (COM 113) — SUNY Orange, 2016–2022. Multimedia narrative course covering story structure, video, audio, silent storytelling, and emerging media including VR.
- Photo World — A virtual learning environment built in Kitely as my MA capstone for Virtual Worlds II. NPC-led quests, notecard scripts, scavenger hunts, and a real pilot study with iteration.
- Define Your Style — A 6-day email course for food photographers, hosted on ConvertKit, with pre-recorded video lessons, a downloadable workbook, and a Facebook community of practice