About

Judith Sebesta, Ph.D.

Areas of Expertise:

Online/Digital Education

Open Education

Instructional Design

Competency-Based Education

Prior Learning Assessment

Policy

Pedagogy

Judith is the founder and principal at Sebesta Education Consulting LLC, assisting higher education institutions, organizations, and agencies with innovation and transformation to support student success.

Judith has spent over 25 years in higher education as a faculty member, academic administrator, policymaker, analyst, researcher, and consultant. Judith also is proud to serve on the Board of Directors for the 2023-24 Open Education Conference and as the Immediate Past President of the Executive Council for the Community College Consortium for OER.

Recent projects include:

*Managing an AI Working Group for a California Community College District.

*Co-authorship of national toolkit to support the use of Artificial Intelligence in higher education.

*Co-development and facilitation of a course for California Community Colleges on using Generative AI to support Open Education and Open Pedagogy.

*Co-development of an OER professional development course for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

*Creation of an openly-licensed textbook, Telling Stories to Save the World: Climate Change in Narrative Film.

*A national survey on the use of AI in higher education across the country.

Judith currently serves as the Project Manager for the Technical Assistance Program for the statewide California ZTC Acceleration Grants. Additionally, she manages projects in AI and transfer legislation (AB 928) implementation for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in California.

Prior to consulting she was founding Vice President, ISKME Labs/OER Commons and Executive Director of the Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas. She also served in a variety of roles at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, including as Project Director for Open Educational Resources, Director of Innovation, and Program Director for Distance Education, and was the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Competency-Based Education.

Before shifting her career focus to the broader landscape of policy and practice in open education, innovation, and digital education, Judith enjoyed a fifteen-year career as a university professor and administrator. She holds certificates in Online Instructional Design, the Ethics of AI from the University of Helsinki, Human Subjects Research from the CITI Program, Open Licensing for Educators from Creative Commons, and DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) from The Ohio State University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, an M.S. from Florida State University, and a B.A. in Communication Arts from Austin College. Based in Austin, Texas, Judith enjoys spending time with her family and dog, streaming films and series, making music, and gardening.