Meet Alan Aycock,
Instructional Design Consultant,
Learning Technology Center, UW-Milwaukee


TTT: Please describe your work at UW-Milwaukee.
AA: I work full-time as an instructional design consultant at the Learning Technology Center, and teach a buyout course each semester in cultural anthropology (the latter was my main occupation for over 30 years).

At the LTC, I have numerous jobs. Fortunately, I now share these tasks with two other instructional designers! I organize the teaching-with-technology workshops that we offer to faculty each semester, help prepare the workshop materials, and co-teach the workshops (several per week). This includes our new online and hybrid faculty development programs, which are becoming very popular with a number of programs here at UWM. I am a system administrator for our campus course management system (Blackboard) -- more than 500 courses and 12,000 users each semester. I usually am involved in one or more LTC grant projects or public presentations at UW-System or Educause or somewhere. Like everyone else here, I handle scores of emails, phone calls, and drop-ins from instructors each day: training, trouble-shooting, consulting on effective ways to teach with technology. Over the last year or so, I've also been looking after the hardware and software purchases, installation, and maintenance in the LTC.

TTT: How long have you been in your current position?
AA: This is my fourth year at the LTC. Before that, I was a professor for many years in Canada.

TTT: What do you enjoy most about your job?
AA: There's an enormous amount of variety day to day, and many new opportunities to learn in a field that's rapidly changing. You learn something new every single day! We work with most UWM faculty at one time or another, and it's wonderful to have acquaintances (including many new friends) throughout the university. Unlike most who work at UWM, my social network isn't limited to my particular area. And by and large, the faculty are extremely happy with the help we offer -- and say so. When you're teaching, it's relatively rare to get immediate positive feedback, but it happens all the time at the LTC.

TTT: What's the most memorable thing that has happened to you at this job?
AA: We went through a scary period in September 2001 (yeah, I know) when Blackboard wouldn't work properly, and everything slowed to a crawl. I put in about six weeks of 12-15 hour days trying to help get things back on track. Eventually we succeeded, and nothing like that has happened since, but that was something that remains vivid (most unpleasantly so) in my mind.

TTT: What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Any hobbies, recent trips or hidden talents you'd care to tell our readers about?
AA: I enjoy traveling and shopping and eating at nice restaurants, all of these with my wife, who's a professor here at UWM. I also enjoy time with my American family (two daughters in college) and see my Canadian family (a son, his wife, and two granddaughters) whenever we can. I'm an enthusiastic exerciser, reader, and chessplayer.


Thanks, Alan!