Mohamad Ali, Ph.D
Educator & Instructional Designer
Learning System Design & Technology
mohamadalibaba@gmail.com
“Designing impactful learning experiences through evidence-based practice, data analytics, and inclusive pedagogy.”
About me
Theory & Data-Driven Educator, Learning Designer, & Strategist
Carbondale, IL
Empowering the future of learning through data-driven design, technology, and innovation.
An educator with over 20 years of experience in instructional design, educational technology, and curriculum development. Throughout my career, I’ve worked across higher education and corporate training environments, designing learner-centered courses, empowering faculty, and using data to drive meaningful improvement.
My work blends innovation, analytics, and leadership to create learning experiences that are relevant, inclusive, and future-ready. Currently, my research and design projects integrate data science, instructional design, and educational innovation—transforming LMS data into actionable insights that enhance online teaching and learning.
Experience
Lead Instructional Designer, Producer, & Curriculum specialist
Alpha Genesis Group
01/2023 – Present
- Collaborate and support the development of learner analyses to determine appropriate content for the Leadership Challenge Workshop.
- Design and develop content and evaluate training objectives, materials, and activities in consultation with the lead trainers for the Leadership Challenge Workshop.
- Producer of Leadership Challenge Virtual training via Zoom and MS Teams platforms.
- Collaborate with the trainers in designing great learning experiences and effectively use multimedia, instructional methods, technology, and software.
Instructional Designer
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
09/2017 – 12/2022
- Designed and developed over 20 online, hybrid, and competency-based courses leveraging Blackboard and D2L Brightspace, ensuring alignment with instructional goals and learner needs.
- Collaborated with 25+ faculty across three academic programs to conduct learner analysis, achieving a 95% alignment rate between assessments and course objectives.
- Led the creation of 100+ detailed learning outcomes, rubrics, and technology-enhanced activities, resulting in a 30% improvement in course completion rates.
- Provided expert pedagogical support and training to 20 faculty members, achieving a 95% satisfaction rate in post-training evaluations.
- Advised and trained faculty on multimedia integration, leading to a 40% increase in the use of interactive media within online courses.
- Authored and presented annual assessment reports for accreditation, achieving compliance without recommendations in three consecutive review cycles.
Curriculum Developer
College of Applied Engineering and Technology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
08/2016 – 08/2017
- Collaborated with 20+ faculty members to conceptualize and launch five new academic offerings, enhancing program diversity and learner engagement.
- Designed and developed a minor program in STEM Leadership for the School of Applied Engineering and Technology, enrolling over 200 students within the first two years.
- Established eight program-level learning outcomes directly aligned with leadership and technical competencies, achieving a 95% alignment rate in curriculum mapping.
- Authored 15+ course syllabi, instructional guides, and lesson plans, ensuring consistent, high-quality instruction across multidisciplinary courses.
- Developed 30+ formative and summative assessment instruments, resulting in a 20% improvement in learner performance as measured by program evaluations.
- Coordinated with the Office of Academic Provost for program review and changes
Instructional Designer
College of Applied Engineering and Technology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
01/2012 – 05/2016
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- Led the successful migration of 20+ online and blended courses from Blackboard to Brightspace D2L, maintaining 100% instructional continuity and achieving a 98% faculty satisfaction rate with the new platform.
- Designed and developed 20+ asynchronous and hybrid courses within the LMS, incorporating interactive technology tools that increased learner engagement by 30%.
- Collaborated with 25+ faculty and subject matter experts to conduct comprehensive learner and content analyses, ensuring a 90% alignment between course activities and assessment strategies.
- Directed the complete instructional design cycle for 40+ courses, including the creation of 150+ measurable learning outcomes, assessment rubrics, and instructional materials, resulting in a 25% improvement in student performance.
- Provided expert pedagogical consultation to faculty, achieving a 95% adoption rate of evidence-based teaching practices and adult learning principles.
- Co-designed engaging, student-centered learning experiences with 30+ faculty members, leveraging multimedia, instructional technologies, and digital tools to enhance learner outcomes by 35%.
Head of Department, Professional Development
Continuing Education Center, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
01/2008 – 12/2010
- Coordinated with 50+ faculty and subject matter experts to deliver off-campus and distance education programs across five regions, reaching over 1,000 learners annually.
- Negotiated and formalized national partnerships through Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with five distance education providers, expanding program reach by 60%.
- Designed and led the successful implementation of the Industrial Skills Enhancement Program (INSEP), reskilling over 300 unemployed STEM graduates with a 75% job placement rate within six months.
- Developed a comprehensive curriculum for INSEP, incorporating 20+ technical skills modules and soft skills training in communication, leadership, and entrepreneurship, resulting in a 90% learner satisfaction rate.
- Provided a report of the tracer study to the Ministry of Finance.
- Lead university community service program.
LECTURER
Faculty of Technical & Vocational Education, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
08/2007 – 12/2010
- Delivered courses in Educational Psychology, Educational Technology, and Microteaching for graduate and undergraduate teacher preparation programs (BSc and M.Ed. in Technical and Vocational Education).
- Led the development and continuous revision of 10+ curricula, ensuring alignment with pedagogical standards and the integration of cutting-edge educational technologies, resulting in a 20% improvement in learner engagement.
- Supervised 15 undergraduate capstone projects and instructional design initiatives, facilitating hands-on, real-world teaching applications and achieving a 95% project completion rate.
- Advised and mentored 15+ graduate students in completing master’s theses focused on instructional innovation and teacher education, with 80% of graduates securing educational roles within six months.
Head of Department
Center of Instructional Development and Multimedia, Polytechnic Premier Ibrahim Sultan Malaysia
01/2006 – 07/2007
- Oversaw multimedia production operations for 30+ instructional development projects, managing a team of 10+ staff members, optimizing scheduling, and ensuring efficient resource allocation.
- Designed and produced 40+ interactive learning materials, enhancing digital learning initiatives and increasing learner engagement by 40%.
- Delivered 15+ faculty training workshops on instructional media design, reaching over 130 educators and achieving a 95% satisfaction rate in post-training evaluations.
- Authored technical specifications and procurement plans for multimedia hardware, software, and audiovisual infrastructure, securing budget approvals totaling over $500,000.
- Served as technical director for 10+ large-scale institutional events, managing multi-camera production, live streaming, and audiovisual coordination, reaching audiences of up to 5,000 participants.
instructor
Department of Design and Visual Communications, Polytechnic Premier Ibrahim Sultan Malaysia
01/1999 – 07/2007
- Taught over five courses in Graphic Design, Multimedia Development, and Course Authoring Tools, instructed 400+ students in industry-standard tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro, achieving a 95% course satisfaction rate.
- Designed, evaluated, and continuously revised program curricula for Graphic Design and Multimedia, ensuring alignment with industry trends and emerging technologies, resulting in a 30% increase in student enrollment and a 20% improvement in graduate employability.
Education & SKills
Skills
Instructional Design
Online & Hybrid Course Development
Learning Management System
Learning Outcomes Assessment
Course Authoring
Task Analysis
Video Production
Photography
Project Management
Authoring Tools - Captivate, Camtasia, Articulate
Web Design
Machine Learning - Supervised & Unsupervised Learning
Learning Analytics
Graphic Design - Canva, Adobe Creative Suite
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Ph.D in Curriculum & Instruction (Learning System Design & Technology)
2025
Courses: Instructional Gaming, Systematic Approach to Instruction, Seminar in Behavioral & Cognitive Foundation, Instructional Development, Instructional Theory, Principle, & Practice, Learning Models for Instruction, Task Analysis, Digital Video Production, Instructional Development Studio, Inferential Statistics, Multiple Regression, Content & Learning Management System, Utilization of Educational Media
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
M.Sc. Curriculum & Instruction
2019
Courses: Advanced Child Development, Design of E-Learning, Action Research, System Approach to Instruction, Foundation of IDT, Interactive Multimedia, Curriculum Design & Development, Data Mining/Big Data Analysis, Cultural Diversity
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Master in Education
1999
Educational Psychology, Educational Technology, Educational Philosophy, Educational Sociology, Pedagogy, Assessment, Curriculum Development
The Ohio State University
B.Sc in Human Ecology
1997
Courses: Psychology, Clothing & Humanity, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Business Writing, Professional Development, Human Ecology Foundations, Health & Behavior
certificates

Instructional Design: Needs Analysis

Elearning Essentials: Instructional Design

Project Management Essentials

Ethics Training
AECT Convention Paper Reviewer

Data Driven Learning Design

ID: Working with SMEs

Cyber Security Training

Consent & Respect
MS Planner
Portfolio
Summary of my recent works in a slideshow
Previous Works
A Storyboard for a Scenario Based Learning Tutorial
Backward Design in Curriculum
Project: Improving Social Presence in Online Learning
Universal Design of Learning
Webinar: Active Learning in E-Learning
An example of my Instructional Design Journal – Click for audio narration
Mohamad Ali Design Journal
Fundamentals of Leadership online
My initial proposal for this project was to design a course that can be run in both on-demand and cohort mode. However, based on the feedback, I realized it is better for the course to be designed for one mode only, and for that reason, I chose to make an online cohort mode for the Fundamentals of Leadership course. However, I also keep the option to convert this course into an on-demand mode in the future. Currently, this course is only offered in a face-to-face mode. I have to redesign this traditional face-to-face course into an online mode, which can be a challenging task, as the current course is based on due dates, and most of the instructions are given during the face-to-face sessions. The instructor is also not a fan of virtual or synchronous mode. Therefore, I cannot make a prerecorded lecture for this course. As a result, the course should be able to be delivered in asynchronous mode. One of the positive sides of this is that it allows this course to be utilized in a blended mode to support the current face-to-face classroom.
Informal reflection on design and activities
For this course, I reused the readily available materials and focused on the design process. I structured each weekly lesson into a lecture, an assignment, and quizzes. For content, there are also resources from textbook publishers.
The course structures are totally different if viewed from the instructor’s view versus the students’ view. This is because I populate the course with additional materials just for the instructor. I stored additional materials for as guidance for the instructor to teach the course. To avoid the confusion, I made 2 different folders, one for the instructor only and one for students only. I put the instructor resources folder in draft mode, so the students will not be able to see them. Therefore, students can only view the student resources folder, as it is published for students to view. There are also some additional folders for the students, which give specific instructions about Respondus Lockdown Browser, information about the textbook, and instructions about the two main projects in this course. I created these folders outside the normal weekly lesson, so that students can easily access them, and these folders can be directly viewed from the content menu of the D2L homepage.
As part of the design, I used the D2L checklist tool as a way to help the students in accessing the course and focus on the required deliverables. The checklist tool allows students to record their progress throughout the course by ticking the activities that they have accomplished. It also provides a direct link to the contents and activities so that the students do not have to scroll down the menu to find the content. From a design perspective, the checklist tool can provide a lighter front-end design for specific learners who do not favor a highly structured interface. From my experience, adult learners prefer the checklist tool as they want a straightforward and easy way to navigate the Learning Management System (LMS).
Another important component that I use to redesign this course is called Condition Release. In condition release, learners will only see the following content or activity after he or she has completed the previous content or activity that we set the condition. This tool will allow instructors to set a custom learning path for students. This tool is essential for both online and on-demand courses. Instead of going through the course randomly, we can set a learning path and sequence that requires students to meet all the prerequisite conditions before they can participate in the next task. For example, we can ensure that learners have mastered certain content and submit an assignment for it before they can take the quiz for that lesson. In an on-demand course where the learning is primarily unguided, this tool can effectively ensure that learners follow the proper learning sequence. In this course, one of the important prerequisites for learners to submit the Leadership Profile Paper is to complete the weekly reflection and action assignments. Therefore, all of these weekly assignments are sequenced using the release condition tool. The same goes to the quizzes. Learners are required to visit the content of that particular lesson and submit the weekly assignment before they can take the quiz. In my opinion, condition release is a very important tool in online learning.
Interface Design
I customized the D2L homepage with a banner to reflect the course. I created widgets to post important information, such as release conditions, and provided the link to the checklist tool. I used a simple interface with only the necessary information, such as calendar, textbook, and course announcements. I provided an external link at the bottom for students to access external resources.
One of the hidden but critical tools in this course is the competencies tool. With the competencies tool, I can map the course learning objectives to the learning activities and assessment tool. For example, a learning objective can be tied to the rubric that assesses whether or not a student has accomplished the particular learning objective. A threshold is also set to inform the system of the minimum requirement for a student to achieve the particular objective. The D2L system will automatically measure the competencies’ achievement for each student. At the end of the day, the instructor can create a report for his/her class.
Besides the tools mentioned above, the pedagogical approach for this course includes communication tools, content tools, assessment tools, and a gradebook. For this course, the contents were mostly acquired from the textbook publisher. I tried to get the instructor to record his voice over the PowerPoint, but due to time constraints, this was not achieved on time. I also added a glossary of terms for the course. As a communication tool, I set up a discussion board that requires students to discuss some of the topics in leadership and the lesson. The first forum is created for learners to introduce themselves to the class. There is also another forum that is dedicated to learners to post questions about the course. Based on my experience, many online students like to use this forum, especially when they face difficulties in the course. This forum acts as a course support tool for the students. For the assessment, quizzes are set up for each lesson. Other assignments include weekly assignments and two term papers. The first paper is called the leadership profile paper, and the other one is called the ethics assignment. Each paper is designed in its own folder. For example, the ethics paper folder includes the instructions, resources, a URL link for external resources, and the assignment submission folder inside the D2L folder. This ensures students can navigate all the required information easily without having to scroll back and forth from one location to another in D2L. Finally, online rubrics are set up for both assignments so that the instructor can provide timely feedback to the students. The rubrics are also included in the course syllabus, so that students can use them as guidelines for the term papers.
Feedback
From the feedback from peers, I can see some improvements that can be made to the course. For example, adding small but essential things such as instructor contact in the welcome announcement cannot be taken for granted. I also receive feedback on how the course is structured and can be confusing for someone who has not used D2L before. I think the use of checklist can aide in the navigating the course for new users. I can see that the checklist tool is important for learners to navigate the course. Since the course is structured for both instructor and students, it is important to see the course in a student mode. Otherwise it can be overwhelming to navigate.
Self-Evaluation
One of the tools that I use to evaluate the course is through the QM rubric. Specifically, there are rooms for improvement for all the criteria. Generally, I tried to follow the standards stated in the rubric. Some of the standards are addressed in the course syllabus. For example, some of instructions and descriptions about course overview, assessment, learning objectives, and learner support are already addressed in the course syllabus. Some of the standards are also addressed in the course delivery. For example, for the Learning Objectives, the competencies tool is used to describe and measure course learning objectives. Another rubric, quality check for online courses also provide good guidelines for designing online courses. For example, there are standards for course design, engagement, communication, assessment, and course improvement. Based on these criteria, I believe that I have to work out the engagement and course improvement criteria for this course. For example, the online instructor and course evaluation survey can be added to the course to get feedback for continous improvement. Further improvement can be done to the content area. Adding more instructor presence such using screencast can improve course engagement especially to an online course. However, this will require commitment from the course instructor.
Overall, I think that this course follows the instructional design requirement for a cohort based online course. It is a challenging task to convert a face-to-face to an online course, as there are many factors that need to be considered. However, with feedbacks and rubrics, the processes are made easy and systematic.
Promotional Video for An Online Course
The Exposure Triangle Tutorial Storyboard
Guidelines for Managing Asynchronous Discussion
Learning Outcomes Assessment in LMS
Online Course Design
Presentation at AECT 2020
Online Course Design Based on CoI Framework
Create An Engaging Classroom
My Recent Articles
Article in Online Learning Consortium
Article in eLearning Industry
Testimonials
In addition to his instructional design and curriculum development expertise, he has become known across campus for his expertise in learning outcomes assessment using the D2L platform. He has been invited to present twice at the SIU Assessment Conference and led a competencies assessment workshop. Currently, he has implemented a plan to achieve an integrated school-wide competencies assessment program and report that spans our on-campus, off-campus, and online programs. He also assists our school director in preparing the annual accreditation report. In the process, he has developed a competencies assessment template for the school, which could also be used across the entire university. His dependability and willingness to take initiative played an integral role in the rapid growth of our school’s online and blended learning system. In that time, he has helped us launch both of our undergraduate degrees and our master’s degree online through D2L, making our school’s online programs one of the most successful, profitable, and admired on campus.
Mr. Ali has impressed me in consulting with faculty on translating traditional college courses into online courses. He knows the area and has fine people skills.
Mohamad Ali depth of knowledge of distance education and its related technologies using Desire2learn and Adobe Connect was fantastic in assisting me to create this totally new course. He went beyond his time with me to then create a Youtube video that explains the course ! He was a pleasure to work with and I already miss our weekly meetings discussing how to structure an on-line course ! Thank you Mohamad
My Diversity Statement
“Diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness.” – Ola Joseph
My commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in academia is grounded in my years of teaching, leadership, and service to the community. Diversity and equal opportunities can empower people to improve their lives, and education plays an essential role in preparing learners to meet the needs of diverse communities. Growing up as a minority in my home country inspired me to help others. Studying and working in Malaysia and the United States has made me more appreciative, respectful, understanding, and accepting of differences, both inside and outside the classroom. I have seen how a diverse team can make academia stronger and more creative. At Southern Illinois University, I was involved in PRIDE (Promoting Respect through Inclusiveness and Diversity Excellence), a registered student organization aiming to help students and faculty understand and learn about each other. These multicultural experiences have provided me with valuable skills and informed my approach to implementing diversity and inclusion in the classroom, where I try to understand and accommodate the uniqueness and strengths of each learner. I value, for example, that some second language learners are more reflective and can contribute more through asynchronous discussion. Therefore, I am a proponent of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which provides a flexible learning environment that offers learners multiple ways of representation, engagement, action, and expression. Through engagement, understanding, and respect, I believe I can contribute to the process of embracing diversity and inclusion.
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