Senior Instructional Designer
Jessica joined the Distance Education and Learning Design (DELD) team as a Senior Instructional Designer in October 2024.
Before joining DELD, she supported faculty, staff, and students in the College of Arts and Sciences as an Instructional Designer in the ASC Office of Distance Education, supporting courses across departments such as Mathematics, Microbiology, EEOB (Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology), Geology, Film Studies, English Literature, and ASL. A major part of her work focused especially on the development of several online language courses, including a series of four non-credit Less Commonly Taught Language and Culture courses and fully asynchronous versions of the French 1101-1103 Ohio State language series.
Jessica comes to DELD with professional experience in teaching and learning and curriculum design. From 2018-2021 she served as the Director of Finance and Education at the Columbus Council on World Affairs (CCWA) where she was primarily responsible for the creation and development of both in-person and online intercultural competency curriculum for a three-year experiential learning program offered to high school students in and around the Columbus area. Before her role at CCWA, Jessica was a Graduate Teaching Associate of Italian from 2012-2018 in the Department of French and Italian at Ohio State, teaching beginner-level Italian language courses and supporting Italian film and literature courses. In addition, she brings with her a wealth of data analysis expertise thanks to her prior experience as a Pricing Analyst for Progressive Insurance.
Jessica maintains ABD status in Italian Studies and holds a Master of Arts in Italian Studies with a specialization in Mediterranean Studies and Medieval and Renaissance Literature from Ohio State University. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a Concentration in International Economics and Modern Languages from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.
When not working, Jessica and her husband spend most of their time wrangling their two young kids and shuttling them to after-school activities like dance, piano, and taekwondo. But when time allows, Jessica enjoys any hobbies that involve music, art, and crafting. She has played the piano since she was 5 years old and loves to sing, draw, and paint. She also enjoys learning other languages. She speaks fluent Italian and knows some French and Spanish, with a goal of one day learning Arabic and Greek so that she can continue to explore the history and culture of her Sicilian heritage.
In her work as an Instructional Designer, Jessica continues to employ many of the pedagogical skills that she acquired as a language instructor to create educational experiences that are both accessible and inclusive for as many students as possible. She loves to think outside the box and is particularly interested in areas of student motivation, engagement, and user experience in online learning environments. Jessica’s design strategies focus especially on incorporating interactivity, gameful learning strategies, virtual simulations, and scenario-based learning practices. She has worked with several instructors to create innovative course assignments and full course designs that integrate tools such as ThingLink, H5P, Adobe Express, and PebblePad to increase student engagement, while also addressing the current challenges and affordances of Generative AI.
In September 2024 she presented her work alongside her former colleague, Sarah Dove, on the development of immersive Digital Educational Escape Rooms at the 2024 European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning in Krems, Austria, and, in addition, began initial course design work for a grant-supported project that seeks to maximize student autonomy through a complete Choose Your Adventure style course design.
Jessica’s preferred method of contact is via email at henderson.651@osu.edu or directly on Microsoft Teams.
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