DIIA Introduces Deputy Director Dr. Robert Bruce
"DIIA is proud to announce that we are expanding our ability to enhance teaching and learning excellence by adding a new position, Deputy Director for Teaching and Learning Excellence,” said DIIA Director Judy Ashcroft. Dr. Robert G. Bruce is on board for the beginning of the fall semester as DIIA’s new deputy director.
After obtaining his Ph.D. in English from Texas A&M University in 1997, Bruce returned to UT Austin. He joined the admissions office fresh on the heels of the Hopwood decision, and assisted them in managing enrollment and external communications. Shortly thereafter, UT Austin began the “We’re Texas” campaign and Bruce aided in the University’s development efforts.
The dot com boom and subsequent increase in available bandwidth became the catalysts for research into online education for many organizations; it was the beginning of wide-spread development efforts toward best practices for effective teaching in an online environment. Bruce left UT Austin and began developing free online courses for notharvard.com, collaborating with educators and instructional designers throughout Austin.
In 2002, UT Austin began looking to incorporate hybrid and online courses to their distance education agenda. Bruce returned to the university and joined UT’s Distance Education Center (DEC) as their curriculum director. At DEC, Bruce collaborated with the UT Austin community, directed the development for all DEC college programming, and conducted research regarding distance, online, and technology-enhanced learning.
He comes to DIIA energized about the idea of combining teaching and technology. He emphasizes that the creation of online and hybrid courses cannot be a production line or cookie cutter process and that people bring their own expectations to the table. “Each subject, each class, is going to approach it differently. We need to embrace these differences,” said Bruce.
Throughout all of his experiences, Bruce has continued to teach his passion, American Humor. Often using Mark Twain as his vehicle, he teaches freshmen seminars on humor theory, dissecting humor to understand its inner workings. Bruce looks forward to his teaching position, viewing it as an opportunity to experiment with best practices regarding effective teaching strategies and incorporating technology in the classroom.
“Dr. Rob Bruce’s credentials and accomplishments align directly with DIIA’s mission and goals. DIIA is fortunate to add his expertise in online learning, technology enhancement, and relationship development to the teaching and learning services we offer the University," said Ashcroft.