Heather Richards
Heather Richards is the Academic Instructional Designer as well as Faculty for Graduate and Professional Studies (GPS) and Undergraduate Adult Education Program (UAEP) at Nichols College.  She is also a doctoral student at Northeastern University in the Organizational Leadership program where she has recently defended her proposal and deep into her research and data processes.  Her professional work focuses on improving student learning and experiences in online, HyFlex, and traditional classrooms through faculty development training and pedagogies focusing on issues such as engagement, interaction, and connectedness. She is currently amid the process of merging Academic Instructional Design with Library Services to develop a Learning Commons Library with Digital Repositories while furthering the efforts and goals of moving towards open educational resource (OERs) design and support. Heather is the Chair of the ADA Commission for the Town of Webster, Ma., and she is the co-leader for the Canvas CoP. Her doctoral work focuses on the Community of Inquiry (CoI), instructors’ Social Presence, and Instructor-generated Videos.