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About OTL

About UCLA Online Teaching and Learning

UCLA launched its Online Teaching and Learning Initiative in 2016 as a response to the growing awareness and need to leverage educational technologies into instruction. Beginning in 2018, the Online Teaching and Learning unit added instructional design and production teams.

OTL’s instructional design team provides campus faculty and academic leaders with the experience, knowledge, and support to incorporate educational technologies into courses. This can take the form of individual consultations, public workshops, and other sessions in promoting and advising on the use of existing, experimental, and new technologies. The instructional designers are available for appointment! Please reach out to a Team Member.

In coordination with the designers, the production team utilizes the OTL production studio in Slichter Hall to help faculty record, edit, and produce content ranging from short introductory material to full lecture content.  For faculty looking to self-produce content, the production team can also provide consultative support.

Meet the OTL Team

We are a team of dedicated professionals, ready to support UCLA faculty and departments

Ava Arndt

Ava Arndt

Interim Director

Before joining the OTL team at UCLA, Ava Arndt taught at UCI where she started using technology in her own classes and experimenting with online learning tools and practices with her students. Following this she worked for UCOP’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI) where she designed and built online and hybrid courses across all campuses within the UC system. When not teaching or designing or playing with technology she enjoys being outside, traveling the world, reading books, walking her dog and playing with her daughter.

Kim Ballard

Kim Ballard

Instructional Designer

Kim Ballard has worked as an instructional designer in higher ed for over 22 years. She joined UCLA in 2022 to assist with the LMS transition to Bruin Learn. Her passion for designing clear, usable, and accessible courses is fueled by her belief in providing high quality educational opportunities for all learners. Kim believes in the value of teaching disciplinary thinking by situating learning experiences in authentic activities and environments. Outside of work Kim enjoys reading, drawing, gardening, traveling, and cooking.

Barry Bishop

Barry Bishop

Producer/Director

Barry Bishop is a Producer/Director in the Online Teaching and Learning team. While his passion is in cinematography he has a deep technical knowledge within the areas of live and post production. Barry’s expertise with technology is instrumental in keeping the OTL studio and post-production workflows as functional and up-to-date as possible. Prior to joining UCLA, Barry worked in the San Francisco Bay area, producing media content for over a decade for multiple tech companies that include Cisco, Facebook and Dolby. In his spare time Barry enjoys programming and 3D modeling in Cinema 4D.

Serge Chenkerian

Serge Chenkerian

Unit Coordinator

Serge Chenkerian is the primary administrative contact for the unit and coordinates Online Teaching and Learning‘s activities and events. His responsibilities include HR functionality, fund management, strategic planning and implementation, event coordination, procurement, and budgeting, just to name a few. Having obtained an MBA in Management and Marketing from the University of Houston, Bauer College of Business, his early career at UCLA led him to a position as the MSO for UCLA’s Academic Senate.

Kim DeBacco

Kim DeBacco

Senior Instructional Designer

Kim DeBacco was a tenured faculty in the Institute for Teaching & Learning at The University of Sydney, and worked in Academic Development at La Trobe University, Melbourne. In the UC, Kim was an Instructional Consultant (UCSB), an Academic Program Director (UCSB Extension), an Instructional Design Analyst (Riverside), and a Senior Instructional Designer at UCLA since 2019. Kim is interested in educational technologies and language learning, with research interests around blended teaching and learning, ethics, and reciprocity in university relationships.

Brittany Goodwell

Brittany Goodwell

Instructional Designer

Brittany Goodwell joined the OTL team as an Instructional Designer in 2023. Before coming to UCLA, she was a Curriculum Developer and Trainer at the City University of New York, developing courses for employees working with those experiencing homelessness in New York City. She has also led instructional design projects for the School of Pharmacy at USC. Brittany has extensive experience working in higher education and a commitment to ensuring student success. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants around the Los Angeles area, and listening to podcasts.

Mark Kayser

Mark Kayser

Instructional Designer

Mark Kayser joined Online Teaching and Learning in 2020 as an Instructional Designer. At UCLA he has worked to improve both the student experience and the Accessibility of UCLA courses. He also enthusiastically supports the use of Open Educational Resources and Authentic Assessments. Before joining the OTL team Mark was at the University of Minnesota where he designed online and blended courses with a primary focus on STEM courses and the unique challenge these domains pose to online learners. For the last 14 years he has also taught Mathematics courses at the collegiate level.

Paul Kimball

Paul Kimball

Managing Producer/Director

Paul Kimball is the Managing Producer/Director for UCLA OTL. He oversees the department’s studio in Slichter Hall as well as all aspects of production for the studio’s creations. He also coordinates regularly with other production units on campus that create video content for UCLA classes. As a key member of the TFT Online team, he shot, edited, and/or oversaw the video production for that program and for the other campus courses built with them. Before starting work at UCLA in instructional media in 2013, he worked in broadcast television and feature film. In his free time, Paul is also a professional screenwriter.

Kate Schaller

Kate Schaller

Instructional Designer

Kate Schaller joined UCLA in 2021 as an instructional designer on the LMS Transformation team. Before this, she was a graduate student, instructor, and teaching assistant at Vanderbilt University, teaching German language and film studies courses in-person, hybrid, and remotely.

During graduate school she also worked in language teaching centers on projects exploring innovative uses of technology in the foreign language classroom, and served as a teaching assistant on study abroad programs.

Agustín Rios

Agustín Rios

Instructional Designer

Agustín Rios has been an Instructional Designer with OTL since August, 2022, where he has presented "Teaching with Technology" seminars for faculty workshops. Prior to OTL, he worked on the LMS Transformation project and was an Instructional Designer at the School of Dentistry. Agustín also served on the Special Practices Group, a committee charged with deciding the budgetary spending of the legacy LMS, and Chaired the Educational Media Group comprised of students interested in creating clinical instructional videos. He developed his skills through seven years as a visual effects artist in the movie industry.

Sirui Wang

Sirui Wang

Instructional Designer

Sirui Wang collaborates with faculty and departments on course design, instructional design, pedagogy, student engagement, assessment, evaluation, and more. In addition to her instructional design services at OTL, Sirui coordinates the Instructional Design Showcases and consults on several campus-wide committees. In 2022, she supported the LMS transformation to Bruin Learn. Prior to UCLA, Sirui provided her instructional design services at Colorado State University for online education. She earned her Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and Design from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2015.

Jim Williamson

Jim Williamson

Director, Educational Technology Systems & Administration

With over 25 years of educational and technology experience, Jim Williamson’s prior roles include Director of eLearning (CSULA), Manager of the UCLA Film and Television’s Archive Research and Study Center, System Engineer (Boeing Satellite), and Manager of the Teaching Enhancement Center (UCLA). His professional experience includes teaching college English composition and literature both in-person and online, digital archiving, copyright, faculty development, educational software, data analytics, database and web design, and e-learning research.

Our Office

In collaboration with the UCLA Library, OTL’s Instructional Design Studio is located in the Charles E. Young Research Library, room 21570. The administrative offices and conference room are located in room 21520.

Campus Partners

CAT Website

Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT)

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching fosters and champions effective teaching, grounded in sound pedagogy and enhanced by innovation, to promote successful learning for UCLA’s diverse student population. To realize this mission, CAT collaborates with faculty and other campus partners, drawing on its wide range of expertise in pedagogy, educational technology, assessment, learning spaces, and curricular research.

teaching.ucla.edu
310-825-9149
70 Powell Library Building

help@teaching.ucla.edu


CEILS Website

Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences (CEILS)

The Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences (CEILS) creates a collaborative community of instructors committed to advancing teaching excellence, assessment, diversity, and scholarship, resulting in the enhancement of student learning experiences in the Life and Physical Sciences.

ceils.ucla.edu
310-825-6695
251 Hershey Hall
612 Charles E. Young Dr. South

media@ceils.ucla.edu


DCP website

Disabilities and Computing Program

The mission of UCLA’s Disabilities and Computing Program at the Office of Information Technology is two-fold. The first goal is to facilitate the integration of adaptive computing technology into the areas of instruction, study, research, and employment at UCLA. The second goal is to make information – including electronic text and multimedia – accessible to all students, faculty and staff.

dcp.ucla.edu
310-206-7133
Disabilities and Computing Program
4909 Math Sciences

dcp@oarc.ucla.edu

Library website

UCLA Library

The University Library, with its many locations, is central to all of UCLA’s research, teaching, and learning activities.  Online Teaching and Learning appreciates the continued support of the UCLA Library, its staff, and use of its facilities.

UCLA Library
310-825-1938

ask.powell@library.ucla.edu

In Memoriam

Prof. Jan Reiff

Prof. Jan Reiff

Professor Jan Reiff (1949-2021) was the inaugural director of UCLA Online Teaching and Learning as well as a faculty in the 1960s GE Cluster. After serving as Chair of the Academic Senate, she functioned for a year as the Senate-Administrative liaison for Online Instruction. Former EVC/Provost Waugh invited her to serve as a special assistant to him in areas connected to online, blended, and technology-enhanced learning. In that role, she has worked with individuals throughout campus to create UCLA Online Teaching and Learning. She was involved with the use of digital technologies in research, learning, and teaching stretching back to her graduate school days at the University of Washington and her first job at the Newberry Library organizing NEH-sponsored institutes on computing and history at the Library and in universities across the U.S. At Northwestern, she founded the Microcomputer Support Group for faculty before assuming a faculty position at Case Western Reserve University where she was the Jesse Houk Shera Assistant Professor of History and winner of the John S. Diekhoff Award for Graduate Teaching and Mentoring. She also served as Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Bremen (Germany) in its Labor Migration Center before coming to UCLA.

At UCLA, she specialized in urban, social, migration, and labor history, having taught and published in each area. A recipient of a Senate Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2015-18 holder of the Waldo W. Neikirk Chair for Undergraduate Education Innovation, she helped launch both the 1960s and Los Angeles cluster.

At the time of her death, Jan was serving as a member of UCLA’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Task Force, Program Owner for the LMS Transformation Project, and as special assistant for online teaching and learning to Chancellor Gene Block and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emily Carter.

Jan passed away peacefully in her home on May 4, 2021.

Adding Chapters to Kaltura Videos

Adding Chapters to Bruin Learn/Kaltura Video Files

UCLA has integrated a sophisticated media delivery platform, Kaltura, to host videos in Bruin Learn. Within Bruin Learn, you’ll find two interfaces to access media stored in Kaltura:

  • My Media presents the media a user has uploaded and/or has permission to edit
  • Media Gallery presents videos selected for a particular Bruin Learn class

Conceptually, adding chapters to a video is similar to chapters found in a book. The author identifies and inserts chapter markers in their desired locations within a video, and students and other users access the specific part of the video using a special menu — somewhat akin to a book’s Table of Contents.

The general steps are:

  • Locate the video in which to insert chapters
  • Review the video and identify where chapter breaks should occur
  • Open the timeline tool to add and save each chapter marker

The finished chapters are accessed via a drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the video display window.

Befitting our complex, media-rich world, there are multiple ways to access media within Bruin Learn. This guide focuses specifically on video in Kaltura’s My Media/Media Gallery functions, and does not apply to media accessed in Bruin Learn’s Media Reserves, YouTube, or other apps.

Video Window
Preview of video showing chapter menu, list, and search bar

Steps to Add Chapter Markers


  1. Within Bruin Learn, identify the MyMedia or Media Gallery buttons.
  2. For the video you want to add chapters to, click on the video image and launch Kaltura’s media environment.

My Media in Bruin Learn

  1. Choose “Edit” from the Action menu beneath and the right of the main video window.

Action menu and edit command

  1. Select the “Timeline” tab to display the Chapter Information fields and buttons.

Enter chapter information

  1. Use the widgets in the video window to control video playback.
  2. At the desired location, click the “Create a new chapter” icon (found to the left of the Timeline).

Create a new chapter marker

  1. Enter the Chapter Information fields as desired.
  2. Important: Save each chapter marker as it is created.

save or Delete buttons

  1. To modify an existing chapter, select the blue bookmark icon in the Timeline and modify the Chapter Information fields.
  2. To delete an existing chapter, click the blue bookmark icon in the Timeline and click the “Delete” button the right.

Tip: The default Kaltura video player contains a transcript window. This machine-based, automatically generated transcript may contain errors, but it can be helpful to identify specific places in the video. For example, if a video is on creating a chocolate cake, a search in the transcript for the word “icing” could help you quickly identify and jump to that portion of the video.

More information can be found on the Kaltura website.

General Editing Tools – Domain Test

General Editing Tools

Videographer Vince Mitchell shares tips on using Premiere Rush, a video editor (05:25).

Videographer Vince Mitchell describes using OpenShot, a video editor with support for Linux, Mac, and Windows. (07:36).

Videographer Vince Mitchell brings together resources for using Apple’s iMovie (08:49).

Course Development Support

Preparing an online course can sometimes require support from campus resources. Online Teaching and Learning provides instructional design support to faculty developing an online course which can also include support from our production and editing studio. Both resources are available to campus at no additional cost and based on availability. Faculty can request an initial consultation by calling the main office at 310-206-3123 or by email at contact@online.ucla.edu.

In addition to the regular resources provided by Online Teaching and Learning, there are various programs that are available to faculty and departments that may provide development funding or additional resources:

The University of California’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI) has funded many of our campus’ online courses. Information on ILTI is available here. These courses must offer cross-campus enrollment to students at the other UC campuses at least five times in five years.

Online Teaching and Learning hosts workshops in various quarters. These workshops provide departments with training for faculty and teaching associates in online instruction and design while creating an online course that the department will offer a minimum of five times over an interval of academic years. Details on each workshop are usually made available 3-6 months in advance of the quarter in which the workshop is offered.

Contact Us

Contact Us

OTL staff can consult with faculty and departments interested in developing single courses or entire programs. Please email us at contact@online.ucla.edu or fill out the form below to get started. Both the email and the form are sent to the same location, so with either method we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Instructional Design

Instructional design is the process by which faculty can re-imagine their courses and add new techniques to their modes of instruction.

Instructional Media Production

Instructional media production involves recording lectures, creating animation, or adding other media-related aspects to your courses.

Self-Supporting Degree Programs

Department staff looking to create or expand their online program offerings can meet with OTL staff for guidance, advice, and program development.