UF IT

Greetings! This page is for sharing work examples with the hiring team at UF’s Information Technology within the Academic Technology unit.

About Andy Sheppard

Andy Sheppard wearing a blue collated shirt.

As highlighted on my resume, I spent 17 years at the University of Florida and 10 years at Santa Fe College, designing and facilitating professional development for staff and faculty.

The page below includes related work done at Santa Fe College. My colleagues were kind enough to leave this course published and publicly accessible. Please note that I did need to remove some of the videos from the Teaching Examples module to meet newer SF brand guidelines. I also no longer have direct editing access, so I’m not able to further update the course site.

Santa Fe College Work Examples new window

In the past few years, I’ve become more engaged with accessible design; and I’m most excited about the intersection of pedagogy, digital accessibility and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. I share a few related examples below, as well as more recent instructional design work that I’ve engaged in.

An AI-Generated Venn diagram

Emerging AI Tools

In collaboration with SF’s Artificial Intelligence faculty committee, I scripted and edited the following video for SF College’s ‘AI Toolkit,’ introducing recent AI advances to faculty. Notably, in just the past few weeks, an AI platform made a major leap, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o now generating complex imagery alongside accurate text.

I have been exploring a variety of new AI tools, with a particular interest in promoting accessibility and inclusion. I created the following video using video clips generated by OpenAI’s Sora platform (released in December of 2024). The audio was AI-generated using the Eleven Labs platform. As impressive as this new video tool is, it’s noteworthy that it took me nearly 25 generations to produce a few usable clips.

Social Considerations

I scripted and edited the following video, which is also part of SF’s ‘AI Toolkit.’ It was met with some understandable skepticism. Regrettably, “AI Companions” have since been attributed or linked to recent teen suicides.

Reflections

For this UF IT position, I experimented with various WordPress themes, which allow for easy site customization. However, many themes don’t meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). While I prefer a more colorful and expressive portfolio, I chose a simpler, more accessible theme.

With regards to AI: Many faculty have concerns about the use of Artificial Intelligence tools to create and/or enhance educational content. I share some of these concerns. However, these tools are increasingly becoming baked into the systems we all use. For example, the latest version of Microsoft Paint now includes an image creator. At the end of the day, I view generative AI as another tool set we can leverage.

For the video below, I asked ChatGPT to describe the image of my classroom on my course homepage, then used that description as the ‘Alternative Text,’ which is read aloud by screen readers. I was surprised it mentioned the haphazard chair arrangement—something I might not have thought to include. However, this detail could be helpful for students with low vision or anyone uncertain if they’ve entered the right room

Lastly, as an alumnus of UF, the University of Florida holds a special place in my heart. Moreover, I began my professional career at UF. I’m excited at the prospect of returning to a place I love while advancing the knowledge and skills of the UF community.