Christopher Haynes, PhD
I am Associate Director for Learning Experience Design in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder. With almost a decade of experience both in front of the classroom (as a teacher of face-to-face and fully online courses) and behind (as a learning designer and program developer), I am committed to bringing imagination and humanism to the work of digital pedagogy and online learning. My work combines project management and instructional design competencies to develop new scaled online learning environments grounded in the mission of providing transformative education to all students from all places.
My academic research focuses on the intersections of literary studies, media studies, and critical digital pedagogy. Specifically, my dissertation argues that in the current climate of “crisis,” narratives of nostalgia and narratives of progress divide higher education. Technological mediation, and the changes it necessitates in the production, organization, and dissemination of knowledge, stands uneasily at the fault line. But rather than stay stuck in disruption, I argue that we recognize in this mediation continuity with the most fundamental principles of humanist inquiry. Drawing on the first century of print, the mass market production of comic books and graphic novels, and the emergence of innovative course design and delivery mechanisms like MOOCs, my research highlights the historical relationship between humanism and technology.
My recent publications include
- “What is a MOOC in 2018?” (January 2018), White Paper for CU Boulder – Academic Futures Initiative https://www.colorado.edu/academicfutures/2018/01/11/what-mooc-2018-haynes
- “The Pedagogy of Boredom” (November 2017), Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/11/15/embracing-unconstrained-time-online-courses
- “Time to Change the Narrative of Online Education” (August 2017), Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/08/23/time-change-narrative-online-education
- “Breaking Through the Stigma of Online Education” (May 2017), Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/05/24/breaking-stigma-online-education
- “Confessions of a Graduate Teacher (Once Lost, Now Found)” (October 2016), Hybrid Pedagogy http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/hybridped/confessions-graduate-teacher/
You can find me on Twitter @_chrishaynes.
