Biography

Crystal Donlan is the Instructional Designer and Online Learning Specialist at Elizabethtown College and an adjunct English and Communications instructor at Luzerne County Community College. Crystal holds a M.Ed. in Learning Design and Technology from Penn State University, where she is currently engaged in doctoral study with the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education program. An educator for over 20 years, Crystal has taught in K-12, correctional, community-based, and - most frequently - higher education settings, where she has facilitated face-to-face, hybrid, and online learning. Coping with the complexities of autoimmune disease, Crystal became interested in distance education and began exploring the remote facilitation of meaningful learning experiences in order to continue her life’s passion. Crystal’s primary research areas are the literacies – specifically information, digital, and media literacy – in higher education settings, and enhancing those literacies and other 21st century skills through self-paced, digitally scaffolded learning journeys. In preparing her dissertation, Crystal continues to study how these experiences enhance student competencies, influence transactional distance, and enrich the learning landscape; she hopes to continue exploring how literacy-based online initiatives may improve student outcomes in hybrid-delivery and distance learning settings.