Portfolio Showcase

Mgavi Brathwaite, Adjunct Professor
David Truong, Program Director

“The Digital Learning Team’s energy has translated into the best course design that I've experienced in my sixteen years of online learning. It's been great. I hope that we have the opportunity to work on another course in the near future!”
— Mgavi Brathwaite

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Model for introducing Gen AI responsibly in programming courses
• ✓ Short-form studio video paired with interactive notebook content
• ✓ Process for converting legacy slide-based lectures into modern, asynchronous media-rich content
• ✓ Strategies for supporting first-time programmers in STEM graduate programs

The Challenge

(BI-GY 7663) Problem Solving for Bioinformatics serves students with biology backgrounds, many of whom have no prior programming experience. The course was previously taught in Perl and used static lecture slides. With an evolving tech landscape and new pedagogical goals, there was a need to fully modernize the course, both in content and delivery, to improve student engagement and outcomes.

The Innovation

Professor Brathwaite partnered with the Digital Learning team to overhaul the course for Spring 2025. The redesign focused on creating an interactive, asynchronous learning experience that leverages Python, Jupyter notebooks with live widgets, and Generative AI. The course also deepens its focus on cancer genomics and data science to better align with current trends in the field.

Project Highlights

• Developed over 50 studio-recorded asynchronous video segments (2–5 mins each) demonstrating coding concepts through Jupyter notebooks
• Integrated Generative AI both as a teaching tool (exploring multiple solutions) and a topic of ethical discussion (identifying hallucinations)
• Created interactive knowledge checks using Annotto and Brightspace tools to reinforce learning
• Restructured content to emphasize cancer genomics and data science applications

Outcomes & Impact

• The updated course provides a smoother entry point into programming for students with no prior experience
• Students gain practical coding experience through scaffolded Jupyter exercises, with the option to compare their work to AI-generated alternatives
• The integration of AI literacy into the curriculum sets a precedent for responsible technology use in STEM disciplines
• Improved pacing and clarity of asynchronous videos increases engagement outside the classroom

Ian Dupont, Adjunct Professor
Abhijit Chitnis, Program Director

“Working with the Digital Learning team completely transformed how this course is delivered. The content is now tailored to modalities that suit course topics, and the studio produced lecture content provides students with engaging, high quality walkthrough videos for added instruction. Students who were previously overwhelmed now have a clearer path into some of the most complex material we teach. And working with the team was an absolute delight!”
— Ian Dupont

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Scaffolding and incremental challenge design are critical in advanced technical courses
• ✓ Partial credit systems promote persistence and reduce burnout
• ✓ Asynchronous delivery with high production value improves access and equity
• ✓ Ongoing collaboration between instructors, program directors, and instructional designers leads to better student outcomes

The Challenge

The learning sequence for Offensive Security (CS-GY 9223) was originally designed for students with significant prior experience in cybersecurity. As the field has rapidly evolved and the student population has become more diverse, including many learners new to binary analysis or low-level programming, the need for a more structured and accessible entry point became clear. Feedback from recent cohorts highlighted opportunities to strengthen foundational support - especially in the early weeks of the course - to ensure broader student success, particularly for those participating asynchronously across global time zones.

The Innovation

In partnership with the Digital Learning team, Professor Dupont led a full-scale course redesign focused on incremental learning and foundational reinforcement. Updates emphasized clearer scaffolding, refreshed content aligned with modern tools and practices, and flexible delivery for global students. The course overhaul also addressed instructional design gaps by replacing outdated Zoom lectures with structured, media-rich asynchronous learning modules in Brightspace.

Project Highlights

• Redesigned early units to focus on core concepts like virtual memory, GDB debugging, and Python’s pwntools
• Revamped homework system with incremental challenge design to reduce zero-credit pitfalls and discourage misconduct
• Refreshed and reorganized all Reverse Engineering, Binary Exploitation, Web, and Cryptography modules to reflect modern techniques
• Collaborated with Teaching Innovation Multimedia Studio to film short-form videos and replace lengthy Zoom recordings
• Built an asynchronous learning path to support Cyber Fellows students in India and other time zones
• Began planning for a future “Ramp-Up Program” to help students build confidence before the course even begins

Outcomes & Impact

• Clearer scaffolding has improved engagement for students from diverse technical backgrounds
• Homework challenges now reward partial progress and help solidify foundational skills
• Media-rich modules present more accessible content and reduce cognitive load
• The updated course design provides a template for modernizing other Cyber Fellows courses facing similar pain points

Mark Skwarek, Industry Assistant Professor, Integrated Design & Media

“Translating this course into a fully online format was a big shift, and the Digital Learning team was instrumental in making it happen. They helped shape my materials into a cohesive and engaging experience that reflects the spirit of AR: experimental, exploratory, and highly visual. It’s a pleasure to teach, and the structure gives me more time to focus on the students and their work.”
— Mark Skwarek

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Take time for proper analysis: unstructured courses require time to find the throughline
• ✓ Media production isn’t just about polish: it’s about pacing, clarity, and making complex tools approachable
• ✓ Strong documentation of assignments and expectations supports independent student work and better outcomes
• ✓ Asynchronous critique workflows can successfully replicate the spirit of in-person studio feedback
• ✓ Instructional designers play a crucial role in shaping creative courses when starting from a blank canvas

The Challenge

When Digital Learning launched the MS in Emerging Technologies, Mobile Augmented Reality Studio (DM-GY 6133) was selected as one of the first creative tech courses to go fully online. Unlike traditional lecture-based courses, this transformation wasn’t simply about converting slides or recording lectures. The original in-person version of Mobile AR was fast-paced, flexible, and heavily reliant on live critique and hands-on experimentation, with no existing online framework to build upon.

Our team began with a deep course analysis, reconstructing the teaching arc from scratch. The original assignment flow was flexible and adapted week to week, but lacked a consistent structure. We collaborated closely with the faculty to clarify learning objectives, establish a clear assignment schedule, and revise key projects like the midterm and final to include detailed expectations, milestones, and assessment criteria.

We designed a modular weekly course in Brightspace, with integrated asynchronous lectures, highly produced video content, and curated resources. Our team developed engaging visual slide decks, spent extensive time in the studio recording instructional videos, and supported the faculty through content coaching and timeline planning. Each week included clearly scaffolded activities and asynchronous peer critique - a crucial component for maintaining a sense of studio collaboration in an online environment.

The Innovation

• Built a fully modular Brightspace course, with weekly pages outlining objectives, lecture content, activities, and critiques
• Produced media-rich asynchronous lectures and supporting slide decks, all created in collaboration with the faculty in studio sessions
• Developed and refined detailed assignment documents for the Midterm Proposal, Final Project, and weekly development check-ins
• Introduced peer-to-peer feedback workflows in Brightspace to support asynchronous critique, modeled after studio class dynamics
• Managed communication challenges and re-scoped deliverables as needed to keep the project on track for Spring 2024 launch

Project Highlights

Mobile AR Studio launched as a visually rich and well-structured course within the new Emerging Technologies curriculum. Students engaged with AR platforms like Unity and Adobe Aero, developed independent creative projects, and presented their work to industry professionals during live synchronous reviews - all supported by a well-structured course design that emphasized clarity, pacing, and collaboration.

Outcomes & Impact

This project became a model for adapting creative tech courses to online formats, especially when original materials were developing or lightly structured. It also surfaced key lessons about faculty engagement, production pacing, and the value of thorough course analysis before the design process begins.

Marco Antoniotti, Adjunct Professor
Program Leadership: Mgavi Brathwaite (Program Manager)

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Modular, repeatable storytelling can scale educational media without sacrificing quality
• ✓ Investing in clear creative structure upfront enables flexibility during production
• ✓ Students benefit when storytelling and logistics work in tandem to create visibility and choice

The Challenge

Each year, the ARISE program matches high school students with Tandon research labs for summer experiences. Until now, students had little exposure to the full range of lab opportunities prior to applying, limiting both the quality of their applications and the effectiveness of the matching process.

In early 2024, the K-12 STEM Center partnered with Digital Learning to pilot a Virtual Lab Tour Library - a Brightspace-hosted experience that would help applicants learn about different research areas through short, engaging video tours before submitting their lab preferences.

The goal: produce over 30 videos in under six weeks, each spotlighting a Tandon research lab, featuring faculty voices, and offering students a window into lab culture and real-world research.

The Innovation

Developed a repeatable story structure for all lab videos, blending interviews with B-roll for a short documentary-style format

• Coordinated with dozens of lab stakeholders to film and edit over 30 unique profiles, many with evolving scripts and last-minute pivots
• Created a branded Brightspace course site grouping labs into interest areas
• Produced all instructional and navigational content, including lab videos and onboarding pages for prospective applicants
• Faculty and lab contacts provided varying levels of structure and responsiveness, requiring our team to adapt constantly—especially in defining scripts, clarifying expectations, and maintaining the production timeline under pressure.

Project Highlights

• Narrative clarity and consistent structure helped us scale production across 30+ labs without compromising quality
• The completed platform empowers students to better understand their options and express interest more meaningfully in the application process
• The project provides a repeatable model for future K-12 engagement, increasing equity and visibility into university-level research for younger learners.

Outcomes & Impact

• Most students watched the videos within 1–4 days, indicating strong interest and high engagement.
• 58.3% reported that their favorite video directly aligned with the lab they most wanted and influenced their choice of labs.
• Students found the visuals helpful in evaluating lab personnel, space, and tone, contributing significantly to their understanding of each lab’s culture.
• Most students felt the reality of their lab experience matched their expectations of what the video conveyed.
• 64.1% said they were satisfied and would definitely choose the same lab again.
• 31 video lab tours produced, each 5–7 minutes in length
• Brightspace site with 3 curated pathways based on student interests
• Average estimation accuracy across subtasks: 77%
• Total tracked production time: 612 hours in 6 weeks

Marco Antoniotti, Adjunct Professor
Program Leadership: Mgavi Brathwaite (Program Manager)

“It was a wonderful work experience for me.”
— Marco Antoniotti

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Outdated asynchronous courses can be revitalized with intentional narrative design
• ✓ Instructor collaboration during media production leads to more authentic, engaging results
• ✓ Short animated openers help establish tone, pacing, and continuity, and are now SOP across projects

The Challenge

First built in 2018 and only partially updated in 2022, Translational Genomics and Computational Biology (BI-GY 7733) was due for a full redesign. Much of the course still lived in Articulate Rise, locking students into linear video paths and offering little flexibility. With the professor based in Milan, Italy and students logging in from multiple time zones, we needed to rethink every aspect of delivery: update content, improve access, restructure the Brightspace course, and design new instructional media that could carry complex material with clarity and warmth.

The Innovation

We began with a comprehensive course analysis to identify what still worked, what was outdated, and what needed to be built from scratch. Over the semester, we:

• Developed a repeatable story structure for all lab videos, blending interviews with B-roll for a short documentary-style format
• Collaborated closely with Marco to create fresh lecture sequences, each carefully aligned with updated learning objectives and current educational best practices.
• Refreshed all slide decks to reflect NYU Tandon’s visual standards and branding guidelines, ensuring consistency and professional polish throughout the course materials.
• Redesigned and built a completely new course site structured around weekly modules, incorporating clearly scoped activities, readings, interactions, and assignments for intuitive student navigation.
• Filmed all-new studio content during Marco’s short visit to New York, employing a conversational, instructor-focused "fireside chat" format to bring warmth, clarity, and a relaxed feel to complex scientific topics.
• Introduced animated video openers as a new media enhancement standard, collaborating directly with Marco to incorporate his personality through visual metaphors and custom music, establishing an inviting, cohesive rhythm at the start of each module: a practice now standard in Digital Learning’s asynchronous course design.

Outcomes & Impact

• The course is now fully asynchronous, modular, and platform-native in Brightspace
• Students benefit from short, clear video content, updated assignments, and better pacing
• The redesign positions this course for long-term sustainability and easier future updates

Qingnan James Zhou, Assistant Professor of Urban Informatics

“The lecture recording process was very smooth. The credit goes to the Digital Learning team, who helped me throughout the recording process.”
— Prof. Qingnan James Zhou

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Faculty often underestimate prep time, so clear planning and checkpoints are critical.
• ✓ Modular, media-first design with embedded tools supports working learners
• ✓ Scenario-based assignments are more effective than academic presentations in professional programs

The Challenge

As part of the relaunch of CUSP’s Advanced Certificate in Applied Urban Science & Informatics, the Digital Learning team partnered with Professor Zhou to build a fully online version of Data Visualization (CUSP-GX 8093). This new course was designed for working professionals in the public sector and related industries, many of whom were engaging with online learning for the first time.

Although the instructor had previously taught the course in person, this asynchronous online build had to meet the needs of a new audience. That meant shifting away from academic theory toward tool-based, practice-driven learning, while still supporting modular flexibility and maintaining technical rigor.

The Innovation

Our team partnered with Professor Zhou to:

• Design a Brightspace-native course structure, with clear module-level objectives, asynchronous lecture videos, assignments, and discussion activities
• Film all lectures in studio, with a visual approach centered around case studies, real-world examples, and storytelling with data
• Integrate JupyterHub, giving students a hosted environment to complete ungraded formative exercises and explore real data
• Replace academic-style presentations from the on-campus course with asynchronous, scenario-based assignments
• Build onboarding pathways and assignment guides to support non-traditional learners and working professionals
• Create opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement through guided discussions and collaborative feedback prompts

Outcomes & Impact

• The course is now fully online, asynchronous, and modular, aligned with CUSP’s goals to serve a professional, global audience
• JupyterHub integration enables real-world technical skill building with minimal setup burden for students
• The Brightspace structure is clean, repeatable, and easy to maintain — reducing lift for future updates
• This course now serves as a model for other online offerings in the CUSP certificate, demonstrating how tool-based instruction can work in asynchronous formats
• Faculty reported high satisfaction, praised the Digital Learning team’s process, and expressed willingness to recommend this collaboration to peers

Judith Klein-Seetharaman, Adjunct Professor
Program Leadership: Mgavi Brathwaite (Program Manager)

“The Digital Learning Team made the whole course development process smooth and energizing. They helped shape the content, added engaging learning elements, and produced studio-quality media that made everything feel polished and professional. Their support kept me focused and on track the whole way through.”
— Judith Klein-Seetharaman
 

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Legacy content in Storyline is often visually strong but structurally outdated - course overalls should begin with a full audit
• ✓ Live Zoom components provide high value in asynchronous STEM courses when paired with clear weekly structure and flipped classroom approach
• ✓ Tools like Gradescope simplify grading but require thoughtful integration during the design phase
• ✓ Scaffolding for mixed-background learners is essential: optional pacing, summaries, and early access help close the gap
• ✓ Regular faculty collaboration enables flexible adaptation without project drift

The Challenge

Originally developed in 2019 using Articulate Storyline, Proteomics (BI-GY 7543) had not been significantly updated in nearly five years. While the course featured rich video and graphic content, its format, pacing, and structure no longer met the needs of today’s learners, particularly those from non-programming backgrounds in biology or medicine.

As the Bioinformatics program expanded to include more medical students, the need for a comprehensive instructional and media redesign became clear. The focus shifted to enhancing flexibility, scaffolding content, modernizing asynchronous delivery, and incorporating live engagement opportunities.

The Innovation

• Restructured the entire course around weekly lecture modules, informed by updated learning objectives and prior student feedback.
• Produced new asynchronous studio lecture videos supported by streamlined, branded slide decks to enhance clarity and consistency.
• Created visual summaries and reflective discussion prompts for weekly student engagement, reinforcing key learning outcomes.
• Integrated regular live Zoom sessions into the course rhythm for real-time Q&A interactions and community-building opportunities.
• Implemented Gradescope for more efficient and accessible student assessment, grading, and feedback delivery.
• Developed a fully Brightspace-native course site with modular navigation, embedded multimedia resources, and comprehensive support documentation.
• Designed the course with a flexible start model, enabling students of varied preparation levels to begin asynchronously and progress at their own pace.
• Provided media-rich instruction through professionally produced lectures paired with visuals in each module.

Outcomes & Impact

• The course now supports a mixed student population, including both bioinformatics and medical learners
• Instructional content is scaffolded, modular, and accessible, with optional early start
• The structure enables a blend of asynchronous and live learning, creating flexibility without sacrificing engagement
• The Brightspace build is clean, maintainable, and integrated with NYU tools like Gradescope for streamlined grading

Tandon Digital Learning, NYU IT, Peerceptiv, Tandon CS Department, and NYU Stern.

Key Takeaways

• ✓ Peerceptiv significantly increased feedback quantity and quality, achieving 3–6x more peer comments compared to instructor-only assessments.
• ✓ Reduced instructor grading workload by 50% while maintaining 90% alignment with instructor-assigned grades.
• ✓ Demonstrated strong student engagement across diverse disciplines and global asynchronous cohorts.

The Challenge

Initially launched in 2017 to address writing-intensive assessment challenges within Tandon’s online Cybersecurity and CS programs, the team needed a scalable, integrated solution to provide consistent, high-quality feedback across multiple modalities and growing class sizes. Transitioning Peerceptiv from a pilot to widespread adoption involved navigating complex institutional processes, securing stakeholder buy-in, ensuring compliance with NYU’s IT governance, accessibility standards, and legal requirements.

The Innovation

• Led a comprehensive, multi-year initiative to scale Peerceptiv adoption across multiple NYU schools through strategic collaboration with instructional, technical, and legal teams.
• Secured governance approvals, including IT Architecture, Information Security, Accessibility, and General Counsel.
• Integrated Peerceptiv seamlessly into Brightspace, streamlining workflows through deep LTI linking and GradeSync features, coupled with dedicated instructor training and robust faculty onboarding support.
• Advanced iterative pedagogical strategies in partnership with instructors, transitioning assignment design toward structured, rubric-driven peer engagements across courses in Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, and Urban Informatics.
• Established innovative assessment methods including multi-phase project feedback, structured group-to-group evaluations, creative "grey work" reviews, and 360-degree team evaluations.

Outcomes & Impact

• Expanded from 9-15 Tandon instructors between 2021-2024, reaching over 3,850 students across disciplines including Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Mechanical Engineering, Management of Technology, and Integrated Design & Media.
• Integrated Peerceptiv deeply into signature courses:
  • Cybersecurity Project Milestones - Implemented structured peer feedback at five strategic phases, enhancing ideation, analysis, and presentation.
  • 360 Evaluations - Supported reflective, team-based assessments fostering collaboration and accountability in capstone design courses.
  • Intellectual Property Legal Studies - Enabled experimental student work evaluation through iterative peer feedback cycles, enhancing critical understanding of intellectual property law.
• Demonstrated the critical role of effective rubrics, consistent instructor support, and strong cross-school collaboration in driving successful, scalable adoption.
• Positioned Peerceptiv for university-wide enterprise-level deployment, with Digital Learning continuously enhancing system capabilities and faculty support infrastructure, solidifying Peerceptiv’s role as a core component in NYU’s evolving technology-based assessment ecosystem.