Kelvin Thompson Editor

Safary Wa-Mbaleka is an associate professor of leadership in higher education at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, where he teaches doctoral research courses fully online. He holds a PhD in instructional design for online learning and an EdD in curriculum and instruction. He has worked with online higher education since 2004. His experience with online education includes being a director of online education, director of online instructional design, instructional designer, in addition to designing and teaching online courses for different universities in different countries in the Americas, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. He was one of the 3 lead architects of the national standards and guidelines for online education as mandated by Kenya’s Commission for University Education. He is a consultant for MasterCard Foundation e-Learning Africa Initiative. He has authored and co-authored more than 40 scholarly journal articles and more than 20 books and book chapters. Dr. Kelvin Thompson works to make online and blended learning even better a little bit every day. Kelvin writes, speaks, and consults within the US higher education community. During his 24 years at University of Central Florida, he created a number of resources for use by the broader online community (e.g., the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository; the Faculty Seminars in Online Teaching; and the BlendKit Course). He also co-hosts the popular “TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast.” In 2020, Kelvin was selected as a Fellow of the Online Learning Consortium. Currently, Kelvin Thompson serves at the University of Louisville as Vice Provost for Online Strategy and Teaching Innovation. Leni Casimiro, PhD, is an educator, researcher, and administrator, serving currently as the Director of AIIAS Online, the virtual campus of the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) in the Philippines. Her more than 20 years of experience in the field of online education ranges from serving as instructional designer, faculty and student support coordinator, course developer, and program evaluator to participating, in a wider scale, as leader of online program accreditations, online learning consultant, and training expert in various higher education institutions around the world. She has been a presenter and invited speaker in academic international conferences and has published research papers and book chapters for various refereed journals and books. Dr. Leni is ranked as professor of education, specializing in curriculum and instruction and online learning, and also serves as Associate Dean of the AIIAS Graduate School and Chair of its Education Department.