Hello! This is Dr. Tao, your online course instructor. A little bit about myself:

I was born and grew up in a city named Suzhou (about two hours’ drive from the metropolitan city of Shanghai) on the east coast of China. My journey in instructional technology began in 1995 when I started college in central China, majoring in computer-assisted instruction. In 2000 I went to graduate school at the University of Central Florida (Orlando, Florida) where I finished a master’s degree (2001) and a doctoral degree (2014), both in instructional technology.

Professionally, I work full time for a private university in Orlando, Florida as the Director for Instructional Technology. I have two main responsibilities there: 1) to train faculty to use various technologies to improve teaching and learning; 2) to design, develop, and support my institution’s online curriculum. Since 2009, I have been teaching online courses on different subjects in the instructional technology field and I enjoy online teaching ever since!

Personally, my wife and I raise three energetic boys, ages 9, 14, and 16, and we live in the Central Florida area (about 45 minutes’ drive from the Walt Disney World). In my spare time, since we can’t afford Disney (^_^), I instead choose to enjoy gardening, puttering around the house, road-trips, jogging and hanging out with my family.

If you have any questions during this course, feel free to contact me via email: jtao@coastal.edu. I am very responsive to your emails and will try to get back to you within one business day.

Good luck!

Dr. Tao