Author Biographical Data

Ayshah Alahmari holds a BS in English literature, and an MS in curriculum and instruction/teaching and Learning. She is currently completing her doctorate in teaching and learning at Illinois State University. She has worked for over 10 years as an English teacher in Saudi Arabia. She currently directs an online professional development program for in-service educators in Saudi Arabia.Ray J. Amirault holds a PhD and a MSc in instructional systems from Florida State University, and a BS in computer science from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida. Amirault has held both academic and professional positions at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Florida), Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan), Illinois State University (Bloomington, Illinois), and The Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida). Amirault has some 20 years’ experience in online education, including designing, deploying, and teaching in instructional technology online programs, serving as an instructional designer in numerous projects for academic, government, not-for-profit, and business settings, and working in the cross section of instructional design and instructional technology. Amirault has served as an editor for two award-winning books on distance learning, has served as colead editor for two special issues of QRDE, and has written several chapters for books on instructional technology and distance learning. Amirault has been published by Cambridge University Press, ETR developing full-scale instructional and performance solutions for a broad and diverse range of contexts, audiences, and domains; creating learning/performance initiatives from “ground up”; and, developing learning/performance interventions based on existing requirements/systems. She is extensively published in a wide variety of key journals in the field, both as an author and editor, and has served as an editor and author for three award-winning books on distance learning and higher education. Her experience spans both international and U.S. contexts. She is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Dutch, and proficient in Portuguese. Visser holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from the American University (Washington, DC), and a MSc and PhD in instructional systems from The Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida). She currently works for the College of Education at Illinois State University. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, walking, meditation, and (largely amateur) still life photography of people in their environment. Visser was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and grew up in sub-Saharan Africa.