Luna in a Higher Education Institution
Abstract:
Luna, based in Santiago, Chile, is a seasoned professional in education and e-learning. She holds degrees in English-Spanish interpretation and pedagogy, transitioning from teaching English to instructional design after earning a master’s in educational technology from Arizona State University in 2017. Luna has worked at institutions such as the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, contributing to virtual course design. Currently, she leads distance education at Universidad de los Andes.
What is my day-to-day? I work on a project that has four objectives and I am in charge of the third objective that has to do with the training of teachers in distance education. I do training, or look for training for teachers, on how to transfer face-to-face courses to e-learning with instructional design. I was looking for the [name of course] training and I have been motivated to get the professors enrolled in these courses. The other element of my job is the design aspect. I have to design a manual of good practices in distance education. I’m already in the part of collecting literature and looking for books that we buy on Amazon. All the literature is in English and there is almost nothing in Spanish. In the manual, I divided it into 10 sections. I have five chapters, they are not large chapters but five topics developed.
Key takeaways from this interview emphasize the importance of proficiency in authoring tools, multimedia, and project management for instructional designers. Luna advocates for building trust with faculty who are resistant to change. Luna’s leadership highlights the potential of instructional design to transform education through collaboration, evidence-based practices, and innovative technologies.
At my institution it is difficult as the professors are reluctant to change. For example, the university is implementing the HyFlex instructional modality and I did the training. I read the book from Dr. Brian Beatty. I took a five-day workshop with Dr. Beatty and I felt that I had knowledge needed. One day, I sat down with a professor who had researched some papers, then he talked to me about Hyflex and there were many things he (the professor) said that challenged the information I had shared from Dr. Beatty. I didn’t say anything to him (the professor) and I let it go. But, that part is kind of difficult. I don’t like working with the instructors because of that, their ego is so big that they don’t realize that they know their subject but they don’t know how to deliver that subject online and they might not even know how to do it in-person. I said that in a meeting and the director of accreditation told me: but Luna we (the instructors) have been here for so many years and I don’t think we have done it (teaching) so badly. I agree, but they could do it better.
Romero-Hall, E. (2025). Learning Designers in Context: Examining Practices Across the Global South. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003270591
Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash
Design Goodiness 