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Education

Master of Arts in Educational Technology Leadership; George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Bachelor of Science, Information Systems; Charter Oak State College, New Britain, Connecticut. Graduated with honors.

• Member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, 2008 to present.

Employment Experience

Director, E-Learning Services; Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia; 2006 to 2009.

• Overall responsibility for non-academic aspects of the university's distance learning program, including Blackboard administration. Provided instructional design services to senior faculty to expand distance learning offerings.
• Supervised university's video production and multimedia centers.
• Developed training on a wide range of educational technology topics to students, faculty, and staff, and oversaw its delivery. Chaired the technology track at the university's annual faculty conference.
• Oversaw nine computer labs in three locations with fifty full and part time workers.
• Planned and implemented $660,000 annual budget.

International Student Advisor; Southeastern University, Washington, D.C.; 2005 to 2006.

• Primary Designated School Official for international student advising. Advised foreign students on U.S. culture and legal status. Liaised with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Submitted marketing plan to increase international student population.
• Drafted policy changes including new TOEFL requirements, and acceptable sources of transfer credit.
• Designed and submitted ten postgraduate certificate programs and one Master's level program at the request of the Academic Dean.
• Advised domestic and foreign students on which courses and degree programs meet their needs and career goals.
• Evaluated domestic and foreign transfer credit for applicability.

Student Services Coordinator; Keiser College, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; 2003 to 2005.

• Acted as liaison between system's largest physical campus and online campus. Coordinated action of deans, faculty, staff, and students to maximize online student retention and success.
• Provided technical training seminars for students new to online classes on how to best use the online campus interface, eCollege, to get the most out of their classes.
• Designed and built three database systems as tools for tracking student attendance and retention.
• Joined faculty on committees covering various aspects of university activity, including regional accreditation, information technology usage, and inter-campus communication.
• Provided employment counseling to students searching for their first position in their new field during a difficult economy. Helped match students, staff, and faculty with graduate programs best meeting specific needs.

Project Manager; LongLever Consulting, Dominica, West Indies; 2000 to 2003.

• Performed contracted operations, technical, and training operations for a variety of e-commerce clients, most with a strong emphasis on information security and strict financial privacy.
• Managed development of systems using open source technologies such as Linux and MySQL.
• Developed modern web sites using XHTML, CSS, graphics applications, JavaScript, and Flash.

Technical Director; Jackson Trading Company, Melbourne, Florida; 1999 to 2000.

• Assumed leadership of the dot-com financial services company's team of five developers.
• Assisted with development and system administration, focusing on Windows NT 4.0, MS-SQL Server 7, IIS 4, and Linux-based firewalls.
• Responsible for overseeing design of complete rewrite of three complex online payment systems.
• Advised CEO on technological, organizational, and marketing strategies.

Tier II Technical Lead; NCR Corporation, Rockville, Maryland; 1997 to 1999.

• Provided tier two helpdesk and occasional on site support for point-of-sale terminal hardware, MS-DOS 6.22, Windows NT 4.0, and proprietary software.
• Promoted to be team's technical lead, trained new team members in supporting our proprietary technology while maintaining top customer service standards.
• Created and maintained the team's extensive Lotus Notes knowledge base using an inclusive, team-based approach to knowledge management.
• Administered our Remedy incident tracking system, later designing and developing Remedy databases for use as call center incident tracking and reporting.

Technical Writer; American Management Systems, Fairfax, Virginia; 1996 to 1997.

• Contracted to train programmers to write summaries of 800 programs, coordinate their effort, and revise their work to produce documentation deliverable to firm’s largest client.

Research Assistant; Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia; 1995 to 1996.

• Provided legal assistance to attorneys in civil litigation division, including extensive research in Attorney General's and State Supreme Court law libraries.
• Evaluated depositions for consistency for analysis of risk management.

Political Campaign Coordinator; U.S. Term Limits, Washington, D.C.; 1993 to 1994.

• Traveled to Maine, Idaho, and North Dakota to direct statewide petitioning drives and market concept of term limits to voters in those states.
• Contacted interested citizens to assist them in establishing municipal level organizations to promote term limits at all levels of government and provided them with ongoing support and relationship management.

Teaching and Consulting Experience

E-Learning Consultant; eLearners.com, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2007 to present.

• Conduct research and write articles and blog entries on distance learning and higher education topics.
• Respond to inquiries from prospective students on a commercial web forum on education, providing comprehensive advice on all aspects of distance learning.
• Advise content managers on possible technical enhancements to content delivery.

Adjunct Faculty; La Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Hayward, Wisconsin; 2007 to present.

• Design, build, and teach online university-level courses in Web Page Development and Operating Systems using the Moodle platform.

Volunteer Experience

Community Council Member; WikiEducator, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 2007 to present.

• Appointed, later elected, to serve on advisory body of international organization that uses Web 2.0 technologies and social networking to use collaboration to develop curricula primarily for the developing world.
• Attended conferences to make presentations introducing the project to prospective participants and supporters, wrote promotional articles published in popular media.

Director of Instructional Technology; Free Curricula Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; 2004 to 2007.

• Co-founded non-profit organization that produces free alternatives to commercial textbooks and online courses.
• Maintain web presence and administer Content Management System (Moodle).
• Assist Executive Director with all aspects of organization including recruiting participants and advisors, and applying for 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.

Communications Director; Sincere for Delegate campaign, Arlington, Virginia; 1993.

• Raised two thousand dollars for candidate for state legislature through online fundraising.
• Designed print materials to promote political candidate to general electorate.

Selected Presentations

"Rebuilding the Haitian Education System," Connecting Online 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia, February 6, 2010. Presented remotely.

"Getting More out of Blackboard: Moving Your Course Online," Innovations in Teaching and Scholarship, Arlington, Virginia, March 26, 2008.

"The 'Playlist' Model of Online Course Development," iCommons iSummit, Dubrovnik, Croatia; June 15, 2007.

"Social Networking Sites as Educational Technology," CICV Annual Technical Meeting, Arlington, Virginia; June 6, 2007.

"Student Participation in Wiki-Based Curriculum Development: An Introduction to WikiEducator," Free Culture National Conference, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; May 26, 2007

"Promoting Collaboration Amongst OER Projects and People," Tectonic Shift Think Tank, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, British Columbia, April 11, 2007. Presented remotely.

"Using Web 2.0 Technologies in Curriculum Design," Innovations in Teaching and Scholarship, Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia; March 21, 2007.

"Use of Open Content in Creating Curriculum Materials," Pan-Commonwealth Forum 4, Ocho Rios, Jamaica; November 2, 2006.

"Alternative Payment Systems and Internet Gaming," Caribbean Offshore Business Conference and Internet Gaming Summit, Roseau, Commonwealth of Dominica; March 6, 2003.

"The Future of Online Payment Systems," Panel participant; Awdal Developments Conference, Houston, Texas; September 17, 2001.

Selected Articles

Foerster, S.H. (October, 2010). How eLearning can help solve India's PhD shortage. Information Technology in Developing Countries, 20(3). forthcoming.

Foerster, S.H. (May, 2009). Should you consider an internship? Career Stimulus Package Newsletter 1, 2.

Foerster, S.H. (February, 2009). The 'Playlist' model of course development: Using closed content to make open courses. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1338922

Foerster, S.H. (August, 2008). WikiEducator project: A new media platform for education. Information for Development, VI(8), 10-11.

Technical Skill Summary

• Leadership: Project management, team leadership, relationship management
• Desktop Support: Windows 3.1, 95, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP; Ubuntu Linux
• Web Design: HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, Flash, GIMP, PHP
• Instructional Technology: Blackboard, Moodle, eCollege, Jing, Articulate
• Database Development: Microsoft Access, MySQL
• Information Security: PGP, GnuPG, SSL, Enigmail