Biography

Arizona State University - English

Lecturer at Utah State University
Higher Education
M. Whitney
Olsen
Logan, Utah
I teach English courses at the university level. I have taught a variety of English courses, including first-year composition, researched persuasive writing, interdisciplinary writing, advanced composition, professional editing, technical writing for technical majors, interdisciplinary writing, and persuasive writing on public issues. I espouse a constructivist-oriented pedagogy driven by theory-based instruction and authentic/real-world writing assignments and projects. My students engage in learning experiences directly applicable to their current or future professional lives, and real client projects whenever possible.

I am also an editorial consultant for a major publishing firm and have worked on a variety of freelance projects, including writing content for college English instructor's manuals, developing and producing instructional videos, conducting in-person and computer-mediated CMS trainings, aligning curriculum materials with cognitive taxonomies, and hosting focus groups and webinars with university faculty across the United States.

I am in the latter stages of completing my Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences from the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University. I am investigating, through triangulated qualitative research, the information behavior (especially research practices) of undergraduate writing students in the context of writing assigned essays.