Nicholas Janes is an Online Course Builder helping to develop, build, and manage Duke University’s massive open online courses (MOOCs). He has a wide rang of interests, including web design, digital video, and web technologies. Working as an OCB helps fulfill many of his interests, as well as his desire for continual learning. He graduated in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of North Dakota. Nicholas was one of the first students at the university to earn his communications degree completely online. He plans to enroll soon in an online master’s in Instructional Technology degree program from either East Carolina University or Florida State University.

Currently I supervise our Online Course Builders (OCBs) as we assist Duke faculty to develop massive open online courses (MOOCs). Our team maintains a deep knowledge of the features of the implemented platforms and can offer suggestions on how to use online tools to achieve teaching goals. I am the primary technical liaison for Duke with the Coursera company, and I keep up to date on the latest platform features and issues to share with our CIT staff and Duke faculty. I have previously worked closely on ‘Introduction to Genetics and Evolution’, ‘Introduction to Astronomy’, ‘Medical Neuroscience’, ‘Responding to 9/11’, ‘Understanding 9/11’, ‘Marine Megafauna | An Introduction to Marine Science and Conservation’, and ‘Tropical Parasitology’, all offered by Duke and Coursera. Each course has had a unique character that developed while building the course and blooms when the students join together to engage with the class videos, conceptual ideas, and each other. My goal is to encourage the growth of the unique learning communities that occur within each course. My academic background is in physics (BS from the University of Minnesota) and astrophysics (MS from the University of Chicago).

Shawn leads Duke Learning Innovation in its mission to help Duke students learn more, and to enable more people to learn from Duke.

Matthew Rascoff is the Associate Vice Provost for Digital Education and Innovation at Duke University. He was previously Vice President and founder of the Office of Learning Technology & Innovation for the University of North Carolina system, where he worked from 2014-17. In 2012-13, Matthew launched JSTOR’s first international office in Berlin, where he was also a Fellow of the Bertelsmann Foundation and a strategic advisor to the Robert Bosch Foundation. He previously led product management teams at Wireless Generation, an education technology company (acquired by News Corporation in 2010 and renamed Amplify). In 2011, he built and launched Wireless Generation’s product development center in Durham, North Carolina. Earlier in his career Matthew helped launch the strategy group at ITHAKA, an incubator of higher education technology ventures (now Ithaka S+R). Matthew’s experience includes Google, where he worked on the Book Search operations team, and Katzenbach Partners, a strategy consulting firm. After undergraduate studies at Columbia University he did graduate work at Bogazici University in Istanbul on a Fulbright Scholarship. He also earned an MBA from

Heather Valli is an Online Course Builder, helping to develop and manage online courses in Coursera, Open edX, and Sakai. A former website developer, eLearning administrator, and college instructor, Heather finds online course development an enjoyable way to engage many of her skill sets. Her interests include the environment, global health, transformative media, and English literature. Heather has a BA and and a MA in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Willie Williamson helps develop and manage MOOCs. Willie possesses a strong interest in both public health and online learning. While earning a Masters in Public Health (MPH) and an Ed.D. at the University of North Carolina, he was able to indulge both interests by helping to develop one of the first online MPH degree programs offered in the United States.