Dr. Felix Brito Talks Instructional Design and Development

Dr. Felix Brito, Executive Director of Instructional Design and Development (IDD) here at Embry-Riddle Worldwide, joins us to discuss the importance of consistency in the online classroom. Dr. Brito talks about the course design process, the benefit of course templates, and gives advice about how faculty can help promote consistency within their own courses.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello and welcome to the Rothwell Center for
Teaching and Learning Excellence podcast. Our
mission here at RCTLE is to empower faculty
members and their pursuits of professional growth
through diverse offerings for the universal goal
of student success. Each episode will offer
insight into best teaching practices, new
resources and interesting people here at Embry

(00:25):
Riddle worldwide. We hope you will find our show
to be helpful and enlightening. Happy listening.
Today, we are joined by Dr. Felix Brito, the
executive director for instructional design and
development here at Embry Riddle Worldwide. In
this position, he leads multiple teams of
instructional designers, instructional

(00:47):
technologists and media producers who collaborate
with our worldwide faculty members in the design
and development of the university's online courses.
Dr. Brito is also an Embry Riddle alumni and a
faculty member who teaches aviation and aerospace
courses. Please enjoy Dr. Felix Brito. So can you go
ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and

(01:08):
how you ended up with Embry Riddle worldwide for? I
am originally from Brazil. I worked at the at an
airline in Brazil for and ticketing and ground
operations while I was doing college. And then I
moved to Dubai, where I worked for Emirates, which
is a Dubai based airline, UAE based airline flight

(01:28):
services. And while this was all happening, I was
looking for a master's program because I wanted to
continue my education and I found Embry Riddle and
applied for it. And I've got a scholarship. I got
accepted for the master's of Science in
Aeronautics, but also got a scholarship. And
that's when I moved from Dubai to the U.S. And
then I worked as a graduate assistant here at one

(01:51):
initially with the Academic Affairs Department.
And then I moved to the instructions department
because my specialization was in education
technology and I started off as an instructional
designer and made my way through the ranks. And
I'm here working today as a director for the
instructional development team. And it's been a

(02:13):
wonderful experience. And let me say, yeah, that's
really cool. I didn't realize that you were an
alumni. I am proud to be. Yes, of course. That
gives you a lot of different perspectives. The
student perspective, working as a staff. But also
you're a faculty member here as well. Yeah, I have

(02:33):
like I feel fortunate enough to have exactly what
you're saying, like different perspectives. I have
the perspective of the students, of the instructor
of the designer and of the manager of the designer
building those online courses. So moving into our
next question, how does your role as a faculty
member inform your role as the executive director

(02:53):
of? I think it widens my perspective. And I wish
that everything, the structures that are here also
have the possibility of teaching as well, because
you get it's almost like getting the receiving end,
given that the receiving end is the students. But
also when you think from the instructional design
perspective, at least within our context, the

(03:13):
instructor is also a customer for us. So we we
design, of course, as we go through the whole
process of creating those online courses and
maintaining them, but only from a limited mindset,
from a limited perspective. So we only see like
this much. And then when you teach them, we got to
teach them and see how those overarching learning

(03:35):
strategy behind it and the learning activities
also pan out, how the students receive them, how
the entire ecosystem within the course develops
itself. And that's a really enlightening
perspective to have. I like your use of the term
ecosystem, the whole ecosystem, the whole process,

(03:56):
because I feel like the instructional design team
does so much. You guys are there from just like
even the conception of a new course idea and
you're taking it all the way through until that
courses live and then your you have your hands on
it during after. So can you just give us an
overview as best as you can about what goes into

(04:19):
that course design process? For a lot of answers.
A lot. There are a lot of tasks, subtasks
processes and procedures that they were built over
time all over again with all our processes and
procedures are rooted on standards, industry
standards and empiricism on the research that has

(04:40):
been done. Of course, design and rubrics that we
use, that we follow. So everything starts with the
kick off town hall, like the course development
process starts with the kick off town hall where
the director of instructional design and
instruction and then go through the entire process
with the course developer to explain what the
process is like. We follow a specific model that
we're designed where everything starts with the

(05:01):
learning outcomes and goes on to the assessments
and then to the learning activities, instruction
materials. We go through the resources available
to the course developers, a timeline, the role
that we play, and then it moves on like a week,
usually a week later. The course developer,
instructional designer go over the design meeting
and they review the course design worksheet, which

(05:22):
is a seminal document that we use to map out the
entire course and inform them on after it's
reviewed and approved by the college and by us,
they start building. The modules, and it's a
fairly iterative process because it starts with
modules one, two, three. And once we have that
much content ready in the course template, it's
reviewed by us, usually by the senior designer and

(05:45):
by the supervisor of the course developer could be
disciplined. Here, the Parmentier depending varies
from college to college. Then they continue on
building the course until the courses are entirely
built within the production template. And then it
goes to another the final round of reviews by all
these individuals again. And while this is all

(06:05):
happening, depending on the context of the course,
there are ancillary process, ancillary of very
important processes as well, such as media
production. It's been a few years now that we've
tried to leverage the wealth of knowledge that our
course developers have, both professional and
academic, and channeled that into content for our

(06:25):
students and the original content. And that's why
the media production, now called Multimedia
Services Team was assembled, is to work with the
course developers and instructional designers
harnessing that content. Then the expertise from
the course developers and transforming that into
multimedia assets can be a presentation. It could
be a video, it could be an interactive
presentation, infographics and so on and so forth.

(06:48):
So the team has been working very diligently with
the instructional designers and of course,
developers, creating those assets that become the
make us unique that gives the students a unique
learning experience, one ancillary process.
There's also one that we work very closely with
the academic technology team on the campus to
review process in case whenever a course developer

(07:10):
decides to adopt a learning technology or a
technology as a learning tool within our courses,
we make sure Carey research team does a wonderful
job going through the entire tool itself resource,
making sure that's safe or secure as well,
scalable so we can adopt that in our courses. And
then we will work very closely also with the

(07:32):
library, with the adoption of resources are
available through their databases and also open
educational resources. We work with publishers, so
there's a lot of processes that support the name
process, of course, creation, creation. And then
once that's done, we copy that into the master
shell and from there the sections are created.
Sometimes we have courses with one section,

(07:52):
sometimes of courses of 20 sections. And there is
a lot. Yes, it is a very long process and I feel
like your team does such a good job attending to
the details. I just feel like you guys play such a
big role and why every rental worldwide gets a lot
of the accolades that we get, because you guys are
at the forefront of helping us create these

(08:15):
World-Class courses with great content that holds
up in the industry. And it's really interesting to
hear how that just starts from this design
Kick-Off meeting where everyone's kind of throwing
their ideas on the table. And we've had the
privilege of attending some of those kickoff
meetings and listening to the feedback from the
instructors and how you guys really move and adapt

(08:40):
based on the feedback that you've gotten from the
students and just making sure the experience is
smooth and as effortless as possible once the
course has been published. This year is really
focusing on the five CS, which I mentioned this
multiple times this year, but connection,
consistency, content, community and compassion.

(09:02):
And this quarter we're really trying to focus on
consistency and because for many different reasons,
but because we have templated courses and because
we were you guys work really closely with content
experts and very methodical about planning out all
of this content. I feel like ID has and plays a
big role in managing a lot of the consistency

(09:24):
that's going on within these courses. So how do
our existing processes support consistency for
faculty and students? The processes that we have
today were established for the primary reason of
promoting consistency. We are distributed model
with students taking courses from all over the
world and instructors delivering those courses

(09:46):
from all perspectives. But we want to make sure
that regardless of where those stakeholders are
located, the content, the course is delivered to a
certain level of quality. And that translates into
that requires really consistency from the get go,
meaning from the moment that the courses are
created. So we within each one of our courses,

(10:10):
there are what we call boilerplate items are items
are necessary to exist within those courses,
within the ecosystem. And because they are
inherent to the university, they're inherent to
the college. And students have to to be aware of
them, have to engage with them regardless of the
program they're in enrolled and then. We have also

(10:31):
standards that support the consistency, for
instance, web design standards. We want to make
sure that our courses have the same look and feel
that the navigation of our courses follow a
similar standard because that requires less
cognition for our students as they're navigating.
Can you imagine if you're a student normally takes
two courses or four terms and if each one of them

(10:52):
was completely different from the other and the
students would have to learn every single time how
to navigate each course then aspect of our courses.
We have to remember the we have a brand and
variable is brand does left a mark on
everyone in the industry. We want to make sure
that we were represented well, that the name and

(11:15):
the logo are there regardless of what course
students are taking. But eagle, I mean, not just the
eagle itself. I'm talking about the brand, but I
think that's how I see the processes, support and
consistency within our courses. So I think that
really does kind of segway kind of into the next
question. And maybe that kind of answers the next

(11:37):
question a little bit, too. But here in a real
world wide, as you mentioned, we do use templated
courses, which means that all instructors are
teaching the same exact content that was designed
during that course design process. So from your
perspective, what is the benefit of using that
template? That goes back to what I mentioned a few

(11:59):
minutes ago. A quality ensures a quality a certain
level of quality delivery of our courses. That's
not to discredit the work of instructors. In fact,
we rely a lot on the instructors to enhance what
we create, designing templated courses in
delivering contemplative courses. They are not

(12:19):
mutually exclusive terms. You can design a course
and use the delivery to enhance it. It's not like
in the we need to move away. We need to divorce
ourselves from the idea that because I teach an
online course, a template is the one course that I
cannot do anything with it. You can. You certainly
can, in fact, be encouraged to do so. There are
several avenues within the course. They can add

(12:41):
your flair, your own flair, or I'll share your
expertise. Aside from what the course of career
has created, an instructional designer
announcements, feedback within the grading system
and the discussion forums, whether it's an all
white office, the student lounge or the creative,
contemplative discussion forums, videos, learning

(13:02):
technologies that you can use within our course to
enhance the learning experience. So the the
template approach really is just to provide the
instructor with the baseline, the springboard, if
you will, from which they can deliver their
courses. So it's really up to the instructor to
decide whether they want to they want to deliver
as intended, which is completely acceptable. And

(13:24):
if we want to add more to it, we'll never reduce
because then that will be for the detriment of the
student. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that what
you said, designing a template, of course, and
delivering a template, of course, are not mutually
exclusive. I think that's a really wonderful way
to look at it, because, yes, the material within
the course, the content within the course is the

(13:46):
same from section to section. But the way one
instructor is going to deliver that content versus
another could be very different, just based off of
their own field experience and what they have gone
through and want to share with their students and
their lives. What types of announcements is that
video? What types of things are they're adding to
their instructor by policies page? And how often

(14:09):
are you utilizing the discussions of what types of
things are you saying in the discussions? And are
you if you have an instructor corners, are you
utilizing those and you supplementing the
materials that are already in the course? And that
really does make a difference, especially for an
instructor presence and engagement. But I think
that having the templated course makes sure all

(14:31):
students are going to need the same exact learning
outcomes. We know that all the students who are
leaving our degree programs have this foundational
knowledge that will hold up in the field based on
all of the research that you guys have done and
all the experts that you have consulted. So I
really, really like the way that you worded that.
I think that's going to change the way that people

(14:53):
look at teaching in the online modality. If
anything, at least from my perspective as an
instructor, I appreciate the words. Of course,
Oprah has done. Like I said, it helps me build
upon that, ensuring that the students, as you said
so eloquently, they achieve the learning outcomes.
Yeah. And there's a lot to be said about the

(15:13):
template, of course, for the student experience.
Like you had mentioned before, every single course
that they take within the campus alums, most
things are going to be in similar places. The
announcements are in the same place. Usually the
syllabus is going to be in the same place where to
find the policies. The same place, and that does
make a big difference, as you mentioned, the

(15:34):
cognitive load is not as great when they know
exactly where to go to get that information time
after time after time. How can faculty help
promote and enhance consistency? And of course,
the question from my perspective really is by not
deviating from what was created by the course
developer, you have to take a few steps back and

(15:57):
understand how the course was created, what it
looks like. I mean, the colleges, they they go
through a rigorous process to select the best or
the most adequate faculty members, work as a
course developer and once selected and they work
with us. Those those team members of folks,
members we check all colleagues because they are

(16:19):
it's a partnership. We put a lot of effort, a lot
of work onto creating the course. Whether it is
the strategy behind the activities, the
instruction materials, you'll be almost like a
disservice to the student if any of those elements
were removed from the course. And I'm talking
about, of course, the course of actually these

(16:41):
structures taking the online courses because with
the multimodality template, you have a larger
degree of or larger or latitude really to modify
the course. But for online, strictly online
structures, instead of removing elements of the
course, try adding them. That will be a good way

(17:01):
to preserve what was created by the course
developer and the instructional designer, which
was done with so much care and use it as, like I
said, as a springboard. Do not deviate from it,
just add onto it. It's usually not a situation
that we're not willing to listen to feedback
either. All instructors are given that survey at
the end of the term. So if there is a suggestion

(17:24):
or a problem that they've encountered, they can
definitely be open and honest about the troubles
that they've had. And like I mentioned before, you
guys are very open to considering all of that
feedback in those Kick-Off meetings and making
those necessary changes if need be, correct?
That's absolutely right. The feedback is perhaps
one of the most, if not the most important

(17:46):
elements of an instructional model. We want to
make sure that whatever it's creative, whatever
its design actually works. And the only way to
measure that as we assess that really strong
feedback from from the end users, whether the
instructors or the students. And we do take
feedback very proudly say and eagerly from course

(18:06):
developers, from instructors, from students,
because that's what's going to help us make the
product better. So we don't we don't encourage
instructors to go rogue and start publishing
everything or deleting assignments. But, yeah,
definitely bring those things to our attention.
But knowing and trusting that the course
developers of these content experts have really
taken a lot of time in choosing the right

(18:26):
materials and the right delivery methods for their
content. Right. And you have to look from the
perspective something that has happened a few
times, at least that I've seen throughout the past
12 years as instructors. More often than not, they
have some really, really good ideas. To me, that's
almost like a natural step because they are using
what we create. If you just like I said, if you

(18:49):
just go rogue and and just make those changes in
your course, you're depriving the larger community,
your peers, the instructors, teaching the same
course that you are teaching from that great idea.
So why not share that with the course developer
who shares it with us? Or if you even if your
instructor that is, of course, developing another
course and you have direct contact with a working

(19:10):
relationship, you can always contact us as well.
So there are so many avenues that you can share
your expertise, your great ideas with the larger
community. You have to look from that perspective
as well. So is there anything else you'd like
faculty members to know about ID for? First things
first, everything that we create here, it's a
result of a lot of work, all the instructional

(19:32):
designers, the media producers, the digital media
specialists, leadership within the team. We work
very diligently with the colleges to create the
best of the most structurally sound course for our
students. With that being said, though, we are not
here. Rest on our laurels. We we are open to

(19:52):
feedback. We are we in fact, we want to hear more
from instructors, from course developers as what's
working, what's not working, of course, because
they do have great ideas that benefits the entire
campus, entire learning experience for our
students, as much pride as we take from designing
our courses. We do understand that this is not a

(20:13):
one man show. It's it's a product. It takes a
village. Does this if you want to create a
structurally sound and exceptional and course it
takes a work from several stakeholders,
instructors. They are a vital component of these
ecosystems I'm talking about. And we are always.
Welcoming their feedback, their input, their
opinion. We want to hear more about their

(20:36):
experience teaching a course, because it's going
to help us have a wider perspective of of
everything we do here. Thank you so much. I really
appreciate you taking the time to do this. Well,
thank you for allowing me to share some of what we
do here in the hopes that it will contribute to
the success of our university.

(20:57):
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