Our Sloan-C Certificate Featured Graduate of the Month for December 2012 is Jennifer Van Dommelen of Dalhousie University.

Jennifer is a Senior Instructor in the Biology Department at Dalhousie University and has been teaching online introductory biology classes since 2003. She began the certificate program while on sabbatical with an interest in redesigning her courses. As a participant of the program, Jennifer was able to specialize in other areas of interest specific to her context through elective workshops in Adult Learner Persistence, Teaching & Learning with Online Labs, and Personal Learning Environments.

In her final portfolio presentation for the program, Jennifer described the program's impact on her course design practice. "I feel that before I started the certificate program, my classes were much closer to the ‘content’ end of the continuum, and that what I have learned during the course of the program has helped me to move them closer to the ‘learning experience’ end."

Jennifer also expressed gratitude for the Sloan-C community members who had a role in her experience. "I would like to thank my workshop facilitators (Julia Parra, Bruno Cinel, Sharon Brewer, Diana Satin, and Ellen Marie Murphy), my mentor Ruth Bennett, my foundation course and workshop peers and my colleagues at Dalhousie University, particularly Gillian Gass, for their collegiality and support along the way."

Jennifer lives in Halifax, Canada with her family.

Congratulations, Jennifer - Sloan-C is proud to have you as our Featured Graduate!

To learn more about the Sloan-C Certificate for teaching and improving online courses, visit http://sloanconsortium.org/sloanc_institute#cert