Renee Ford joined Smeal in 2012 and has worked as an instructional designer and instructor at Penn State since 2007. Prior to joining Smeal, she worked for Penn State’s College of Nursing and the College of Education’s Professional Personnel Development Center. She has a background in education, human resource development, and organization development and is passionate about design, innovation, and educational equity. Renee believes that teaching and learning experiences, when designed well, provide opportunities for students and instructors to participate in excellent, engaging learning experiences that meet the needs of diverse learners.

Renee is the lead designer for Smeal’s Business Analytics Certificate and the Accounting Graduate Certificate and serves as the designer for several online and hybrid courses at Smeal, including a number of our large-enrollment courses. She also takes a leading role in organizing Smeal’s TEACHTalks to help respond to Smeal’s unique teaching and learning needs.

Renee has presented at a number of national and international conferences on topics such as flow experience and learning, social network analysis, flipped course design, accessibility, curation strategies for learning designers, video analytics, and best practices and strategies for using a variety of educational technologies for teaching and learning. Her research interests are always evolving and she enjoys opportunities to collaborate on projects with our faculty.

Expertise

accessibility
large-enrollment teaching and learning strategies and best practices
learning analytics
learning outcomes
organization development
peer assessment and team dynamics
student engagement
training

Education

PhD, Workforce Education and Development (Training, Organization Development and Human Resource Development Emphasis), Penn State University, 2015