Instructional Development Specialist
Information Technology Services
University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL)

Cheryl Bielema, Instructional Designer, manages a Faculty Resource Center, consulting with and training faculty in the integration of technology. She leads technology and teaching faculty workshops and conversations in collaboration with the campus Center for Teaching Excellence. She also coordinates use of Flashlight Online. She uses the tool to assess training efforts, faculty technology use and technology-enhanced learning experiences, including a longitudinal evaluation study of web-assisted courses using Blackboard, since its introduction in 2000.

Bielema worked previously at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in distance learning, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, as well as in UI Extension. Her teaching experience is in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Technology, and she is a frequent guest lecturer for distance learning issues, instructional design, and adult learning. She taught one of UMSL's first online courses, "Technology Development in Learning Organizations." Her Ph.D. is in Human Resource Development from the University of Illinois.

Flashlight Experience

Bielema is a Flashlight user and administrator at UMSL.  She has also engaged Flashlight Directors in campus meetings to introduce Flashlight Online and the inventories of questions. Her recent  work with The TLT Group includes helping advance the Course Management System (CMS) Study Package; she led the literature review of prior studies. She has also helped test revisions to the Flashlight Online tool and presented an analysis of the Flashlight Network experience of UMSL at the American Evaluation Association's annual meeting.