As director of online learning, Bethany Winslow works to continually improve teaching and learning in the online environment for faculty members and students. She is the course coordinator for INFO 203, a required course for all new incoming students. She trains and supervises the INFO 203 peer mentors and the student assistants who provide Zoom web conferencing support. She is also the Teaching Online course coordinator for all new incoming faculty members, and is the volunteer coordinator for the Library 2.0 conference series.

Before joining the School of Information, Bethany worked as an instructional designer at eCampus, where she worked with faculty members across San José State University. Prior to that, she worked in the private sector for a company that helped schools all across the country launch their online programs. Bethany has helped develop and redesign many online courses, created self-paced training courses, led a variety of workshops related to teaching with technology, and has created many handouts, tutorials, and training videos.

Bethany has worked with faculty members, alumni, and friends of the MARA program’s Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration since 2018. She and her colleagues work to leverage the power of virtual worlds, develop virtual communities, and to share expertise on the variety of environments that can expand opportunities for distributed teaching and learning. She is a regular participant and presenter at conferences and events relating to virtual reality, virtual worlds, and online/remote teaching and collaboration. 

Professional Interests

• Virtual Worlds, VR and Online Communities
• Digital Literacy, Citizenship and Culture 
• OER, Creative Commons and Open Design Movement

Education 

• Master of Science, Education, Option in Online Teaching and Learning. California State University, East Bay (2016)
• Bachelor of Arts, Sociology. University of California at Santa Cruz (1996) 

Professional Experience

• eLearning Specialist, School of Information, San José State University (San Jose CA) February – May 2021
• Instructional Designer, eCampus, San José State University (San Jose CA) November 2016 – February 2021
• Senior Instructional Designer, Instructional Designer, Online Course Developer, Comcourse Inc. (Santa Cruz, CA) August 2013 – 2016

Selected Presentations

• SJSU iSchool Virtual Explorations: Educator-Driven Exploration, Development, and Evaluation of Multiple Virtual Environments. (May, 2021). Interactive Immersive learning project showcase. Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) conference. Presented with Dr. Marie Vans in the virtual environment of FramesVR about the 3D exhibits we’ve built in Mozilla Hubs and other virtual environments.
• Is the Amani Ready to Sail Safely? (May, 2021). Interactive immersive virtual tour. Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) conference. I led an immersive and interactive tour of the extra credit activity I developed on a large scale 3D cruise ship located on Limiland, my region of OpenSim. I developed this activity for SJSU faculty Rick Adams, who teaches Cruise Operations and Management in the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management. 
• VR Headset and VR Desktop: Make Room for Both. (May, 2021). Immersive panel presentation. Educators in VR: UniVirtual Experience conference. I presented in the virtual environment of AltspaceVR with Dr. Pat Franks, Dr. Marie Vans, and other colleagues about the affordances and limitations of both kinds of virtual reality.