Amanda Rodenborn has been teaching in higher ed for over a decade, beginning as a teaching assistant in English and Speech while earning her master’s at Iowa State University. Over the next few years, she worked as an adjunct instructor at a handful of colleges and, to date, has taught a variety of courses: Preparatory Reading, Study Strategies, The College Experience, Composition, Communication Skills, and Public Speaking. In addition to teaching, she previously served as an academic advisor and also worked as the volunteer and marketing coordinator for a small, nonprofit arts organization. It was there that she further cultivated her passions for design, technology, and helping people.
In 2013, Amanda joined Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) as a full-time faculty member in developmental education. She also supported students in the Writing Lab, where she gained valuable insights into students’ thinking and approaches to learning—even more so than her education and classroom teaching had prepared her. She would later go on to apply this knowledge to online course design.
Amanda developed and taught her first online course in 2014 and quickly realized that teaching online required different skills and methods than face-to-face instruction. To improve, she began researching online strategies and tools, consulted with DMACC designers, and enrolled in graduate courses related to instructional design. After implementing all that she had learned while constantly working to improve her courses to better meet her students’ needs, she grew to love the online learning environment. She also became a point-person for her colleagues on LMS troubleshooting and online course design. In 2019 she was invited to serve on the Signature Course development team for The College Experience. With all of this, it seemed like a natural transition when an instructional designer position opened up at DMACC. In 2019 she joined the Distance Learning team and also remains on as a faculty member so she can continue to teach and learn from students.
