Hey there! I’m Ryan Baltrip, and I’m passionate about helping leaders and organizations discover and deliver value. Currently, I’m an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University, where I get to share my love for marketing and AI with students. I also have the opportunity to contribute to the Loyalty Science Lab as its Associate Director.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of leading teams and institutions through periods of exciting growth and transformation. Whether it was developing strategic plans that boosted academic quality or spearheading the creation of new academic programs, I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of finding innovative ways to create value. In fact, I’ve been fortunate enough to help create over 50 new academic programs that now generate over $50 million in revenue annually and serve over 40,000 online students through various digital learning initiatives.
Before joining ODU, I was the Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Carson-Newman University. I oversee a wide range of academic programs and enrollment activities. My team and I worked hard to establish a new college, create a strategic plan focused on growth, and develop exciting new graduate and undergraduate online degrees.
I also had the amazing privilege of helping shape the strategic direction of digital learning initiatives at Miami University. Serving out of the Provost Office as the chief online learning officer for the main campus, we launched a variety of successful online, hybrid, and professional development programs while enhancing academic excellence and extending learning innovation. And earlier in my career, I was part of another incredible team at William & Mary where, out of the Provost Office, we cast a vision for and fostered learning innovation and helped expand a variety of online, hybrid, and distance education offerings across the university.
Overall, it’s been a fulfilling journey filled with opportunities to learn, grow, and make an impact. From my seminary days, I came across a quote from the missionary William Carey that said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things from God.” It kind of captures the essence of my outlook on creativity, business, education, innovation, and life as a whole. Let’s keep moving forward with hope and great expectations!
The Bridge Bible
Many people read the Bible, but how many do not understand it? The Bridge Bible was created to help address this problem. In clear and straightforward language, the Bridge faithfully translates the original biblical texts into an innovative, user-friendly, and easy to understand Bible. The Bridge Bible is a Bible for the 21st Century. It is the most dynamic Bible translation available and will help you fill the gap between the biblical and contemporary world.
Click any of the covers below to see the books of the bible that are available now or visit www.bridgebible.net to learn more.
Steps to Improving Online Learning Video Production
High-quality video is an essential component of engaging online courses. In 2017, while at William & Mary, I teamed up with Instructional Design Specialist Josh Chung to present at the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). Our presentation, “Steps to Improving Online Learning Video Production”, offered practical strategies and insights for educational institutions seeking to enhance the quality and impact of their online learning videos.
Presentation Summary: A Roadmap to Better Online Videos
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The Challenge Online learning videos can range from basic and uninspiring to highly polished and effective. Understanding models and processes for continuous improvement is essential.
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Profiles: Basic, Better, Best We outlined three broad categories of video quality (Basic, Better, and Best). Each level reflects increasing […]
Managing Second-Level Effects of Innovative Projects
Innovative projects offer exciting possibilities, but their implementation often has complex ripple effects beyond what is initially expected. In 2017, while at William & Mary, I presented at the WCET conference in Denver on the topic of “Second-Level Effects.” This presentation explored the challenges of managing these unexpected consequences of innovation and offered potential strategies for success.
Presentation Summary: Managing “Second-Level Effects“
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The Nature of the Challenge: Often, we carefully plan for the initial, anticipated outcomes of a project (“First-Level Effects”). We may address challenges like increased workload or resistance from stakeholders. However, “Second-Level Effects” are much harder to predict. These are the indirect and often surprising changes that emerge as a project is implemented. Because they are […]
Techniques for Effective Facilitation & Management of Online Discussion Boards
One of my very first professional presentations as an online learning leader, way back in the early 2010s, was on how to improve the facilitation and management of online discussion boards. Over a decade later, I like to think online learning has come a long way and that most of this is common knowledge. However, the 3 steps for effective facilitation and management of online discussion boards still ring true! So, there may be some practical insights here worth considering. If nothing else, these points are good reminders & encouragements, even for more experienced online teachers.
Best Practices for Teaching Blended (or Hybrid) Courses
During my first director role, in the early 2010s, we created created a hybrid, modular way to not only complete courses but an entire graduate degree. Now, keep in mind, we are talking about true blended/hybrid teaching, where part of the course is completed online and another part of the course is completed in-person. We are not talking about hyflex, which some wrongly called hybrid, where teaching occurs simultaneously for in-person students and online students via live streaming. We are not talking about hyflex but true hybrid teaching.
In the early 2010s, there was still some resistance to creating fully online programs at some institutions. They believed that the in-person element of education was extremely valuable and worth preserving. Yet the student dynamics, […]
How to Make Your Online Teaching More Human: 5 Ideas
Online learning can be impersonal, uninteresting, inhuman, and dreadfully boring.
I came up with this years ago and have been saying this as an online teacher or leader in one form or another for years. Why? Because it’s true! Online learning can be every bit of that – impersonal, uninteresting, inhuman, and dreadfully boring.
One of my favorite presentations that I have given is this one – How to Make Your Online Teaching More Human: 5 Ideas.
For much of my career as an online leader and educator, I have been dealing with this aspect of online learning. Distance education from the beginning until today suffers from transactional distance. That’s just the way it is, by definition. However, as an online teacher, there are things […]
How to Improve the Visual Appeal of an Online Program
How to Improve the Visual Appeal of an Online Program
Introductory note: In the early-to-mid 2010’s, I had lead an online learning program to drastically improve its collective visual appeal. In the early-to-mid-2010s, online video and graphics was not as easy and abundant as it would be a decade later. So, those insights and lessons learned were turned into a key presentation that I gave at a conference. While I can’t find the slide deck, I did find the presentation script (for some reason I have that!). So, below is a script from the presentation on how to improve the visual appeal of an online program – highlighting the need, the steps taken, and the lessons learned along the way.
Presentation Script
Let’s face […]