Benjamin Michel Email & Phone Number

Greater Chicago Area

Manage partner institution relationships, fulfilling their online academic needs in a higher education learning space. Collaborate with faculty members and subject matter experts in the development of online courses, ensuring that quality and scheduling criteria are adhered to. Primary point-of-contact for institutions, in all areas of course development and implementation. Responsible for managing timelines to meet rigid deadlines, based upon institution offer schedule. Assist with platform orientation and support for faculty and students. Research eLearning solutions for varying academic subjects. Work to develop junior instructional designers, and shepherd their Instructional Design competency.

Evanston, Il

Provide instructional design, development, and production services to Agate ProBooks (AP) clients and their projects, using development and LMS tools/software (e.g., Lectora) as needed. In-house ID lead (in conjunction with VP or director) on instructional design/development projects; coordinate and oversee the work of freelance IDs and other contributors; report on progress, issues, questions, concerns to Agate leadership; ensure that final products meets Agate’s and the clients’ standards of quality. Produce, review and edit items, curricula, and courses for AP clients. Communicate with freelance IDs to find suitable contributors to AP projects and secure their availability for freelance work. Create, manage, and monitor project schedules, budgets, and checklists. Works with VPs and directors to terminate freelancer contracts if necessary (with approval of Agate senior management) and replaces them without affecting scheduled delivery dates. Aid in pursuing new ProBooks business. Works with president and other Agate staff to develop new course design and production services and products for existing and potential clients.

Work side-by-side with the Director of Course Development to guide the department’s efforts, and ensure that quality and scheduling criteria are adhered to. Manage team of instructional designers, matching people with projects, and their timelines to meet rigid deadlines, based upon university offer schedule. Contract and manage subject matter experts in their efforts to design Graduate and Undergraduate level courses. Work to develop junior instructional designers, and shepherd their Instructional Design competency. Serve as liaison between course development and other groups and institutions, dealing with the development and offer of online courses.

Work side-by-side with the Director of Course Development to guide the department’s efforts, and ensure that quality and scheduling criteria are adhered to. Manage team of instructional designers, matching people with projects, and their timelines to meet rigid deadlines, based upon university offer schedule. Contract and manage subject matter experts in their efforts to design Graduate and Undergraduate level courses. Work to develop junior instructional designers, and shepherd their Instructional Design competency. Serve as liaison between course development and other groups and institutions, dealing with the development and offer of online courses.

Employing a social constructivist pedagogy and complimentary instructional design theory in the design and development of online courses. Establish and maintain productive, collaborative relationships with program directors, deans, subject matter experts, media developers, editorial and Q/A. Effectively coordinate developers to produce media elements for new and existing courses. Monitor courses for continuous improvement and write detailed reports that identify course issues and actionable ideas for improvement based on observation of the course.

Development of media elements to support online course materials. Graphic and interface design, photography and photo production, design and development of flash animations and interactive materials, HTML development for in-house and promotional materials and pseudo websites.

Project Management for on-going projects. Flash development on projects from animated multimedia pieces to CD-ROM based e-Learning products. Technical Lead on multi-grade/multi-course flash applications for major educational publisher. ODBC development with ColdFusion, ASP and JSP in conjunction with Access, MySQL and Postgres. Administration of website analytics tool WebTrends for the collection and analysis of site statistics. Web Development for a number of high profile clients such as Oprah, Network Chicago, Ravinia, U of C and AAP.

Graphic design for print, interactive and web. Flash and web development for corporate client sites, such as the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation, Race for the Cure as well as Jackson Gray. Multimedia and 3D development for interactive and web materials.

Ms, Human Computer Interaction

Activities and Societies: Upsilon Pi Epsilon and Golden Key Honor Societies

Bfa, Art And Technology

Focus on 3D animation, and digital imaging. Coursework in traditional animation, photography, video and sound.