Work Examples

Ron was the lead designer for a series of online tasks designed to measure collaboration and collaborative skills among groups of adults. The 19 tasks, framed around an overarching story of a group of people stranded on a deserted island,  focused on general and science specific knowledge needed to survive on the island. The tasks were administered using an online collaboration platform.

The research project was funded by the National Science Foundation. 

Ron was the lead designer of a novel micro-learning game for early- and mid-career cybersecurity professionals that supports  anytime, anywhere learning. Called Cyber Attack!, it features brief 3-  to 5-minute cyber threat game scenarios from both the hacker and defender  perspectives to support cybersecurity professionals in self-directed  career learning.  

Ron created the game using Articulate Storyline and administered it using MoodleCloud learning management system.

https://www.sri.com/education-learning/project/satc-edu-microlessons-to-build-readiness-in-the-cybersecurity-workforce/

Our team developed a 19 course business school for the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The program included instructor-lead and self study courses, videos, work experience, and a wide range of knowledge and simulation testing. Ron was responsible for creating, implementing, and administrating the program's high stakes assessments. 

Ron also led a follow up project which redesigned the curriculum to move from a hotel-based program to a permanent facility. His management responsibilities included supervising internal staff and external consultants including subject matter experts, conducting meetings, setting project timelines, and overseeing the project's budget. The project finished on time and well under budget while maintaining the clients' standards for quality.

https://www.sri.com/hoi/professional-golfers-association-education/

Ron was the Principal Investigator and project lead for a team that created assessments for fourth grade students to measure learning gains based on the Hot Wheels Speedometry curriculum developed by the University of Southern California's School of Education in partnership with Mattel. The online pre- and post-assessments were administered to 1000's of students during the evaluation stage of the program's development.

Ron's management responsibilities included working with external clients and vendors, supervising internal staff, conducting meetings, setting project timelines, and overseeing quality control and the project's budget. 

Ron was part of a small team of writers who worked with Lego to create the first draft of the Lego Mindstorms Constructopedia user guide. The draft and the included activities were used by Lego to create their final version of the document.  

https://www.lego.com/cdn/product-assets/product.bi.core.pdf/4129439.pdf

For a project funded by the United States Department of Education Ron created a "how to" manual that provided information on how to conduct meetings using the materials developed for the project. The manual contained step-by-step instructions and easy-to-use checklists for conducting the activities presented in the paper-based guide.

Ron led SRI International's effort to transform traditional in-person on-boarding and compliance training to an online format. The online courses were developed using Adobe Presenter and Articulate Storyline. Ron also did the voice over narration for more than 20 internal training courses.

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/563ba8fe-03ab-43f1-ba60-348aaef48b0b/review

Ron was the creator and lead developer of an innovative online assessment based on national standards for middle school physical science. The interactive assessment was nationally recognized as an exemplar assessment task built by using evidence-centered design principles and national science standards.

https://ctlweb.sri.com/assessment/performancetask/pinball/

Ron helped write, edit, and format a series of technical reports developed for a project funded by the National Science Foundation. The project, Principled Assessment Designs for Inquiry, was a groundbreaking research study on the use of evidence-centered design (ECD) for the development of science inquiry assessments. Ron co-authored several of the 22 total reports and was the document designer for several other reports in the series.

https://padi.sri.com/publications.html

Ron helped create the training materials and was one of the lead trainers for a software application that allowed school administrators to observe and assess teachers and recommend professional development opportunities. The training was conducted for district administrators throughout the state of Florida and was funded by the Miami Museum of Science.

Ron created and and made the original storyboards for an elementary school science curriculum focused on urban runoff. The curriculum unit combines science, engineering, and computer science to allow students to solve a problem associated with a playground that floods during rainstorms.

https://spiceprojects.org/

Ron helped lead a team that served as the external evaluators for Verizon Foundation's summer science program for thousands of under-served middle school students in over 50 sites around the country. Ron led the development of student knowledge assessments, the design and implementation of participant surveys, and conducted focus groups, interviews, and site visits to collect data. The results were presented to Verizon in both written reports and oral presentations to all stakeholders.

Ron has created numerous job aids to help administrators, researchers, and other staff use equipment and administer programs. Examples include "Quick Start" guides for setting up camera equipment for classroom filming. 

Ron has worked as a freelance photographer for over 40 years. His work has included newspaper and magazine photojournalism, sports photography, advertising and product photography, and photographing live events. Ron's photography  expertise includes the use of  film and digital still and video cameras, lighting and sound engineering, and the use of teleprompters and green screens. His expertise in image processing includes the use of traditional darkroom techniques, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Apple Final Cut Pro.

Ron was an early adopter of digital presentation techniques and has been using Microsoft PowerPoint for more than 30 years to develop 100's of presentations. He is well-known for his public speaking skills before small and large audiences. After one particular presentation related to program evaluation a stakeholder commented "You make data interesting!".

Ron's BA degree in Journalism and minor in English helped develop his writing and editing skills. These skills have been used on many reports, scripts, training guides, and other written documents. Ron has also co-authored a number of research-related papers (see the Publication tab for a list of his publication credits).

Ron has created training guides and manuals for administrators, instructors, researchers, and teachers for everything from equipment set up, to program administration, to site visit and interview procedures. Examples include instructional guides for trainers, cognitive lab protocols for researchers, and administration guides for implementing and scoring knowledge and simulation assessments. 

Ron created a training and support conceptual model that was used to inform both internal and external clients about the process and needs associated with the development of training programs and materials. This included a focus on transitioning learners from "Practice Ready" (skills they learn in the classroom) to "Game Ready" (the skills need to perform tasks in the real world).