Biography

Karen Skibba, PhD, is a founding member of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Mentoring at the University of Wisconsin-Madison which was created in July 2021. Previously from 2014 to 2022, Karen was the program manager of TeachOnline@UW, a faculty learning community that that helped 450 instructors design and teach high-quality online courses. She also worked in faculty development at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and Milwaukee and was an online program manager at Carroll University.

Karen facilitates a variety of learning communities and workshops and develops resources to help instructors enhance teaching and learning. She co-developed the Course Success Self-Review that provides targeted resources to help instructors enhance their course design and teaching. The Course Success Self-Review has been recognized as an exemplar project in the national 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report |Teaching and Learning Edition. Karen was a panelist at the national EDUCAUSE ELI Annual Meeting showcase, “The Digital versus Brick-and-Mortar Balancing Game.” The Course Success Self Review was also chosen as a finalist for the 2022 Professional and Organizational Network (POD) Innovation Award.

Karen has also conducted research and wrote book chapters on blended learning, including being published in all three of the Sloan-Consortium's “Blended Learning: Research Perspectives” book series. One of Karen’s co-authored research chapters, "Blended Faculty Community of Inquiry Transforms Online Teaching Perceptions and Practices," received the 2020 prestigious POD Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development. Karen’s research has been presented at renowned conferences, including the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Annual Meeting, Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Professional and Organizational Development (POD), Association for Distance Education and Independent Learning (ADEIL), and the Distance Teaching and Learning (DT&L) held in Madison.

In January 2023, UW-Madison's Center for Teaching Leaning and Mentoring awarded Karen "distinguished status."  This honor is intended for staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, are recognized beyond their work unit as outstanding, and have a reputation of excellence in the profession. 

Karen received her doctoral degree in Adult and Continuing Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her dissertation focused on how faculty members learn to teach adult learners in a blended program. Karen received a Master's Degree in Communication Studies from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.