In 1992 United Bible Societies seconded me to work with Project 95 at SIL International, an institution affiliated with Wycliffe Bible Translators. I worked as an Instructional Designer, finding appropriate software and methods to develop support. During this time, I also took and helped teach many courses given by Dr. Evelyn Davis. She had an Ed. D. in Adult and Higher Education, Auburn University, 1975. She was dictating courses on learning systems,  enhancing instruction and implementing teaching strategies among professors teaching courses to Bible Translation students. In time I became her supervisor. We were good friends.

Later, in 1994, United Bible Societies decided to go ahead with the development of Paratext, a software that simplified Bible translation and editing. It was originally created by Dr. Rainier De Blois, a Scholar in Bible Translation who developed his own exegesis tool designed for his translation work. When he showed it to Dr. Katy Barnwell at SIL, she was interested and advised him to learn Visual Basics. He did and went on to wrote the program in that computer language. UBS then fell in love with the program. I was assigned to work on this project. I did, but since my programming abilities showed to be a bit rusty, I was assigned to train and support the users of Paratext. The software was starting to be used by many translation teams. I loved my work, helping people and writing the Paratext Help feature from the point of view of a user. After all, I had previously done a lot of usability testing before producing any software.

Then it was 2001, and I was living in Miami. My father had died the year before, and my mother was in an Assisted Living home. I was working from home. I was not only writing the Help system, but adding special help for translation and supporting users of Paratext by email and phone. I did not need an office at the United Bible Societies offices in Miami. To develop the Help system, I was using RoboHelp, a help authoring tool developed and published by Adobe Inc. I had taken courses on how to use the tool, and I found it very appropriate.

At the end of that year, I received an email from Nova Southeastern University asking me if I could go for an interview at the Fischler School of Education (FSE) in Fort Lauderdale. I had a meeting with Dr Michael Simonson.

He explained that NOVA Southeastern University offered a Doctorate in Education through the Abraham S. Fischler School of Education in different countries in Latin America. The program was offered in Spanish and endorsed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in the United States. The University had made agreements with other Universities in Argentina, República Dominicana, Belize, Guyana, Panamá, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Colombia, y Venezuela to offer this Doctorate in Education program.

Dr Simonson told me they had a need for a professor to go to Venezuela from March 1-3, 2002. The task consisted of starting two courses in person and then continuing the training online. The courses were required for the Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) in Instructional Technology and Distance Education program that NOVA was offering through a University in Caracas. Another professor at NOVA had found my Curriculum Vitae online and they had decided to contact me. Obviously, the Lord had another thing for me to do.

In Spanish, the name of the program was “Doctorado en Educación en Tecnología Instruccional y Educación a Distancia.”

I consulted with my supervisors at United Bible Societies and since the University job would be only from February to May 2001, they did not see any conflict in allowing me to take this opportunity. I continued developing the Help system and supporting Paratext users, but during weekends I concentrated on contacting online my students in Venezuela. I took four days of vacations to go to Venezuela in March 2001.

The courses I had to teach were Managing and Evaluating Instructional Technology and Distance Education and Applications of Distance Education Technologies.

I was given a description of both courses.

Managing and Evaluating Instructional Technology and Distance Education (ITDE): theories and methods of planning, operating, and evaluating instructional technology and distance education are studied and applied to case studies. This course explores the process for managing ITDE programs in educational and corporate settings, and emphasizes the principles of staff training, proposal development, and legal issues of the ITDE manager.

Applications of Distance Education Technologies: This course deals with the examination of large-scale distance education projects, including all kinds of technology and distance education initiatives existing at the time. Special attention is directed towards the changed roles of students, teachers, and the curriculum. Virtual schools and virtual training are studied. The study of leadership for online learning is included in this course. Technologies for distance education are examined.

I took several weekends from January to March in 2002 to prepare materials and resources for the two courses.

When I flew to Caracas I had my laptop on the plane. Right there I developed a syllabus for each course. The syllabus consisted of an outline with summarized information about the course. It included the list of topics to be studied, the NSU grading policies, the number of assignments and due dates, my contact information, and the days I was going to be available online. It was a short guide for my students. I also gave detailed information about what I was expecting from them during the course, offered my help on how to study, and an extensive bibliography on the subject. I also offered to publish online the best assignments so everybody taking the course could see them. I created a website for each course.

Also, during the flight, I developed Powerpoint presentations about managing different existing learning management systems and their application. Later I sent them several PowerPoints on how to make 5-minute PowerPoint presentations, how to write Educational Objectives and how to grade students, management, how to plan design and write courses for distance education, how to design and use a budget, and many other themes related to these courses.

The three days with my twenty-four new students in Venezuela were delightful. All of them were really interested in the field of distance learning and its applications in their real-life careers. The classes took place at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV).

Of course, some of them took time to introduce me to Venezuelan food and took me around Caracas. I maintained good relationships with all of them, despite the political situation that was already affecting their country. I openly shared with them about my role at United Bible Societies and Wycliffe Bible Translation.

Not only in Venezuela, but also in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Colombia, I worked with professionals in different fields such as university professors, medical doctors, veterinarians, librarians, and others who were taking the ITDE program with NOVA.

When my contract as an Adjunct Professor with Nova ended in May 2002, I was offered the chance to continue working with NOVA as a Dissertation Advisor and Committee Chair. A dissertation process takes an average of two to five years. I had the pleasure of working with outstanding students from 2002 to 2014, when I resigned from my position.

Also, in 2004 I did some work for Moddy Bible Institute as an Instructional Designer. I adapted several traditional course materials to online courses using the Blackboard Learning Management System. After I started my work for Wycliffe Bible Translators as a missionary, having to raise my own support, I needed to invest much time contacting and speaking in churches, explaining what I was going to do as the International Coordinator of Instructional Methodologies. I could not continue doing Instructional Design for Moody Bible Institute.

At SIL International, my main contribution was to start a Distance Education service for SIL International and JAARS for providing training in linguistics, literacy, language development and computer applications. It was developed in Moodle, a free and open-source learning management system, focusing on supporting blended learning and distance education. This allowed teachers and others in SIL to create distance learning courses for continued development of translators and other personnel in the field without having to return to the U.S.. I taught how to use Moodle in English and in Spanish to many members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. It was a joy to train Alejandra Guajardo at SIL Global, in Peru, how to use the system to train others in Spanish. She used it to the benefit and the glory of our Lord! There were more than a hundred courses using the system and thirty under development when I retired. All course were free of charge because it was a service of SIL International And JAARS.