Faculty Spotlight: Elizabeth Santiago
March 21, 2022
Meet Dr. Elizabeth Santiago
Program: Learning Experience Design
Course: RIDT 110: Foundations of Instructional Technology for E-Learning
Bio: Dr. Elizabeth Santiago is the Program Chair of the Master of Science Learning Experience Design program, providing program oversight, industry expertise and program leadership. Prior to her role at Brandeis, she was the Chief Program Officer at the national nonprofit, MENTOR, where she was responsible for and actively involved in the management of programs and services for a wide range of stakeholders in the youth development and mentoring field. Elizabeth gained extensive experience in program management and development, learning design, curriculum development, training and professional development with organizations such as Jobs for the Future, Simmons College, Babson College, Houghton Mifflin, and World Education. She has specific experience in working with vulnerable or marginalized youth and the systems and people that serve them. She has taught high school equivalency courses within school districts, community-based organizations and through unions, and managed the GED/high school equivalency program at the Harriet Tubman House in Boston, MA. She has also built a professional development service for teachers and principals designing education programs for first generation college goers.
Dr. Santiago earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College and a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Technology, Innovation and Education Program. In 2020, she earned a PhD in education studies at Lesley University
About the course
Why is this course important or valuable to a Learning Experience Design student?
In the learning design field, designers are called upon to make recommendations around the appropriate technology to meet the needs of a specific audience. This course introduces students to the technologies, systems, and toolsets commonly used to support the design, delivery, and assessment of synchronous and asynchronous online learning and training. Students will be able to explore appropriate learning technologies that solve real-world problems.
Why do you enjoy teaching this course?
If there is one skill all learning designers have it’s problem-solving. This course will allow us to analyze and discuss solutions to scenarios that play to learning designers’ core strengths. I enjoy teaching in a way that is collaborative and focused on community-building and the discussions in this course are so rich because they do allow students to share their own experiences and solutions to common challenges.
For more information on the Learning Experience Design MS or other online master’s degrees available at GPS, please visit our website.