Acrobatiq

Becky DiCaprio is the senior business development manager for Strategic Channel Partnerships at SAGE Publishing. She joined SAGE in 2018 after nearly 13 years at Cengage Learning. Becky’s drive and passion comes from people: the people with whom she works; the educators making a lasting impact on their students; the students themselves; the product teams making products that will help teachers teach and learners learn.  These relationships and interactions compel her to improve the experiences they have by removing barriers to access, finding efficiencies, and establishing ways of working that positively impact the entirety of the ecosystem. 

Martha Hubertz is a lecturer in the Psychology Department at the University of Central Florida’s College of Science. Dr. Hubertz received her PhD in social psychology from Florida Atlantic University and her BA in philosophy from Marlboro College. She teaches multiple courses across multiple modalities and works closely with the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL), Pegasus Innovation Lab (iLab), Center for Distributed Learning (CDL), and the Office of Experiential Learning. Dr. Hubertz is the 2021 recipient of a Teaching Incentive Award, the 2020 recipient of the Chuck Dziuban Award for Excellence in Online Teaching (2020), and the Rick Schell Award for Writing Across the Curriculum (2019). She also serves as a faculty senator and is a member of several other committees. She has published and presented widely in the science of teaching and learning.   

Chelsea Lee is a content development manager on the APA Style team. She has worked at APA since 2007, beginning as a manuscript editor for APA Journals before moving to the then newly formed style team in 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education and human development. She has written for the APA Style blog since it began in 2009 and is occasionally recognized for her contributions by strangers in elevators. She helped shape the seventh edition of the Publication Manual, in particular, the new referencing system and the bias-free language guidelines. She promotes an inclusive and conscientious approach to writing. She believes that people become better writers by becoming better thinkers and that by becoming better thinkers, people become better people. She has two young sons who bring both joy and perspective to life. She is also an avid swing dancer and swing dance teacher in a style called Balboa, a classical pianist, and a crossword puzzle enthusiast. 

Joseph Lloyd is an instructional designer at the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He earned a BS in information technology from the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 2003. His love of teaching led him to Florida in 2006 to begin his career in education. Joseph taught in both Volusia and Seminole County Public Schools for twelve years. He spent most of those years as an educational technology facilitator, and he also taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade math and science. While teaching, he pursued an MEd in curriculum and instruction with a focus in middle childhood mathematics, which he earned from UC in 2009. His love of blending education and technology, especially in the STEM disciplines, led him to UCF where he joined the team specializing in personalized adaptive learning software and strategies. He is currently working on his PhD in instructional design at UCF with an expected completion date of Fall 2023.  

Shannon O’Brien is originally from New Orleans, LA, and graduated from the University of New Orleans with an MBA. In 2004, after working and traveling extensively throughout Australasia and Southeast Asia, she started working for Kaplan as the center manager for the Leicester Square office in central London, which prepared thousands of students for standardized tests and offered English language courses.  Then, she became the EMEA operations director and oversaw Kaplan’s Paris center and international franchises in 20+ countries.  In 2019, she relocated to sunny South Florida.  She currently works for Kaplan managing the Allied Health Partner accounts and franchise relationships.  She works closely with a number of national dental universities supporting their use of Kaplan INBDE preparation hosted by Acrobatiq. 

Maggie Ratrie is the academics service manager at Straighterline. Before joining Straighterline in June 2018, she worked with and trained staff in learning management systems like Moodle and Canvas. She has a BA in Spanish and taught English in Spain after graduation.

Straighterline has worked with Acrobatiq for many years on a variety of introductory-level courses, such as College Algebra, Introduction to Biology, Introduction to Statistics, and Survey of World History. Straighterline courses are self-paced, and its Acrobatiq courses provide students with everything they need to complete the course on day one. 

Dr. Kersten T. Schroeder is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Schroeder teaches several courses at UCF, including Microbial Metabolism, Medical Biochemistry, Molecular Biology I, Quantitative Biological Methods, and Methods in Biotechnology. He received his BS in microbiology and cell sciences from the University of Florida and his PhD in biochemistry from Florida State University. He continued his training as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Dundee in the Cancer Research UK Nucleic Acid Research Group under the leadership of Professor David Lilley, FRS. Before becoming a faculty member at UCF, he was a faculty member for almost five years at the branch campus of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Bradenton, Florida. His research has been published in over ten scientific journals, including RNA, Biochemistry, Biophysical Journal, Structure, Nucleic Acid Research, and Journal of Organic Chemistry. He has recently published science education articles in The Journal of Faculty Development and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education.

Dr. Sandra Sjoberg has 16 years of higher education experience in teaching and administration. She has taught marketing and business strategy courses and is currently the marketing program chair at Western Governors University. Her research areas include cross-cultural communication and international marketing. She authored a Fulbright Scholar grant and developed a university partnership with South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, Russia, to team teach international marketing. She has conducted numerous study abroad programs for students from Mount St. Mary’s University and South Ural State University.  

Prior to academia, Dr. Sjoberg spent 16 years in the industry where she held various marketing, finance, and strategic management positions in the consumer products industry. Most of her corporate career was spent in the food and beverage industry at the Coca-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, and Nabisco, with the last two years in durable goods with Newell Rubbermaid.    

Dr. Sjoberg received a BS in finance from the University of Baltimore, an MBA from Vanderbilt University concentrating in marketing and accounting, and a PhD in applied management and decisions sciences from Walden University. She holds certification as a Certified Digital Marketing Professional (CDMP) from the American Marketing Association and Digital Marketing Institute. 

Melinda Hunsaker Smith is an instructional designer for the College of Information Technology at Western Governors University (WGU). She has been with WGU for six years and has held several positions, including project manager and instructional technologist. She has five degrees, including a BS in business management, an MEd in instructional design, and an MS in management and leadership from WGU. After experiencing all the different aspects of the online student, she aims to advance the outcomes of WGU students through technology and the design of instruction.  

A self-described lifetime learner, Jock Sommese’s entire life has centered on taking the knowledge and lessons that he has acquired and sharing them through teaching, coaching, and mentoring. For the last 30 years, he has been an adjunct business professor for higher education institutions in the Philadelphia region and northern Illinois. He currently teaches in the College of Business at Western Governors University, where he relishes the opportunity to teach and challenge students to expand their skills, consider alternatives, and help build a better community. 

Professionally, Jock has more than 40 years of extensive start-up, merger and acquisition, financial, sales and marketing, and operations experience. He has utilized those experiences to mentor employees and coworkers in companies of various sizes, industries, and stages.  In 1999, he was recognized as the Pennsylvania Small Business Journalist of the Year by the Small Business Administration. As president and publisher of “Smart Business Now” magazine, he supports local entrepreneurs, provides information they can use in their business, and helps provide a forum for like-minded business professionals.  

Sharon L. Teabo is an education and learning experience consultant with a PhD in instructional design and educational technology. She has experience in higher education administration, people and project management, university teaching, and workforce training. Dr. Teabo is a past board member and officer for the Virginia Council for Exceptional Children and the International Visual Literacy Association. She contributed a chapter to The Classroom Facilitator: Special Issue Questions, and she has presented widely at professional conferences on such topics as “Using Imagery for Assessment,” “Pedagogical Agents,” and “Jammin’ & Jazzin’ with Technology.” Dr. Teabo has given professional development workshops for higher education and public school teachers and has developed numerous instructional and informational websites. Her professional experience includes extensive work as a trainer and consultant in the areas of multimedia, distance education, and workforce development. 

Jessica Tojo-Raible is an assistant instructional designer at the University of Central Florida. She holds an MA in instructional design and technology and a BS in early childhood education, both from the University of Central Florida. Her prior professional experience includes teaching K-12 and serving as an educational technology facilitator for Seminole County Public Schools. Her areas of focus include adaptive learning, active learning, and the quality of online courses. 

Gayatri Yatherajam is an educator who is passionate about online learning, learner experience, and design. She received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Colorado State University. During her postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, she contributed to the molecular understanding of cell signaling proteins and gene expression. As a postdoctoral fellow, she taught undergraduate science courses that triggered her interest in pedagogy and teaching philosophy. She pursued her interest in education by teaching various life sciences courses at the college level in traditional, blended, and online settings. In the early days of e-learning, she integrated online segments into conventional classrooms and enabled blended learning. She is currently a senior instructor at Western Governors University and enjoys teaching science to adult learners entirely online.

She is excited about the future of e-learning, knowing the far-reaching potential of well-designed platforms and the influence they can have on learners. She is also enthusiastic about the upcoming learning management systems' capabilities to capture student engagement metrics. She is optimistic that the knowledge of how learners engage with the subject material in an online format can aid future educators in building tailored materials to enhance learning.