Thomas J Kapocius

THOMAS J. KAPOCIUS PhD Instructional Design; MA Education, BA Journalism 4328 Lyndale Avenue South • Minneapolis, Minnesota M:- •-HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS Experienced Learning Consultant with 15+ years of success in instructional design, eLearning content development, and LMS administration across K-12, higher ed, and government sectors. Proven ability to engage stakeholders, assess training needs, and develop accessible, user-focused digital learning content. Adept at all phases of instructional delivery—from intake and analysis through QA and implementation. Skilled in Articulate 360, LMS platforms (Canvas, Moodle, Workday Learning), and Agile project management tools. Former educator and published researcher with a PhD in Instructional Design.  Technical Product Enablement Specialist and Product Manager focusing on AI and CRM.  Online instructor, instructional designer, classroom educator and digital product owner in the educational tech and higher education space with more than 15 years of experience.  Published “The Characteristics of Problem-based Learning: Triggers as Valued by Designers and Learners” in 2017, presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of doctorate degree; focus of research on the design of PBL factors as they relate to learning goals, learner experience and longterm retention.  Expert in designing scenario-based learning activities; demonstrated skills in academic research and adept at conducting customer needs analysis, and designer of assessment strategies.  Leveraged data analytics experience to determine ROI and metrics for the introduction and training programs. Performed and documented UX interviews and testing on designs, wireframes, and prototypes of media applications and incorporated user feedback into development and new features; knowledgeable in Agile process workflow through management of cross-functional software development team and collaboration with scrum master.  Employed Change Management approaches with new products and software enhancements to ensure and measure efficiency gains and ROI.  Researched and developed user stories and use cases for product management, including ROI.  Leveraging Agile methodology, create and maintain sprint work and capacity levels work in Azure. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Assistant Director of Digital Learning, Nebraska Department of Education 2/2021 – 4/2025 Nebraska Department of Education  Helped develop professional development courses for k-12 educators and administrators for the state of Nebraska.  Developed and delivered presentations to educators and administrators on relevant topics for NDOE ‘Road Shows.’  Contributed to statewide Future Ready Conference by vetting conference proposals, scheduling sessions and providing support during conference; attended by k-12 and post-secondary educators and administrators throughout the state.  Contributed to the creation of the Digital Hierarchy Document, a document detailing the educational technology goals and objectives of the state over the next five years with the needs of all Nebraska learners.  Served as software support for state’s educators with LMS and e-learning software. Technical Product Enablement Specialist and Product Manager 5/2022 – 2/2025 Ivanti Technical Product Enablement Specialist ● Develop and deliver training sessions, workshops, webinars and office hours to educate staff and other end-users on the features, functionalities and best practices of Ivanti products. ● Create and update technical documentation, user guides, and training materials to support product THOMAS J. KAPOCIUS Page 2 adoption and usage. Work with Channel Partners to assess needs and provide support. Work with development team in Agile environment to prioritize new features, write test scripts and compose release notes. ● Assist with the deployment. Technical support and troubleshooting assistance to resolve productrelated issues faced by stakeholders. ● Gather and communicate feedback from product users to identify areas for improvement and product development. AI Product Manager ● Stay up to date with Ivanti product updates and industry trends in Artificial Intelligence, focusing on CRM solutions (Salesforce). ● Serve as subject matter expert on Ivanti AI products. ● Assist with product customization and integration with existing systems. ● Interview product users to formulate roadmap and write use cases for development. ● Promote product benefits to drive user adoption and best practices; monitor and report on product usage and performance. ● Manage vendor relationships to drive adoption within Ivanti. ● Continuous Improvement: Participate in initiatives to enhance processes and training programs. ● Identify opportunities for automation and efficiency with Ivanti systems and products. ● Create Epics, User Stories, Features and PBI for tracking of development. ● Leverage Agile methodology to manage feature development and team capacity. ● Write and employ test scripts prior to deployment into production. ● Manage product deployments and hyper care. ● ● Curriculum & Multimedia Manager/Product Owner 5/2014 - 10/2020 Capella University Minneapolis, MN ● Innovative and problem-solving leader of 17-person team comprising of developers, designers, writers, and audio-visual engineers responsible for the design and development of custom-designed media applications for online university of 40,000+ learners. Helped develop Human Resource goals for team members aligning with KPIs for the organization. ● Product Manager and Product Owner of Capella simulated environment for Health Care, Education and Public Safety programs. University leveraged the environment as a key market differentiator in educational technology/higher education space. ● Strategic thinker able to manage multiple projects, responsible for P&L and department budget of more than $3 million, including salaries, third-party media purchases, and ancillary costs associated with production of more than 300 new learner-facing media applications per year. ● Developed team’s workflow processes leveraging Lean, Agile and Continuous Improvement methodologies, thereby increasing productivity efficiencies and improving learner outcomes through greater alignment of supportive media applications to assessments. ● Acted as a consultant for department-wide Agile workflow process examination for team’s software development. ● Steered team efforts toward being a key market differentiator through the design of innovative program-wide media strategies aligned to a competency-based curriculum model. ● Oversaw the resourcing as well as the collaborative design and development of multiple milliondollar instructional media deliverables for colleges to meet business needs and program competencies. ● Managed relationships with offshore contract teams in India responsible for QA, ADA compliance issues, and general. Wrote user stories for contractor team to conduct QA. This led to key savings and efficiencies in the course and media development process. ● Managed vendor relationships with software and hardware partners to maintain existing course materials and expand learner experiences. ● Conducted market scans to maintain industry and current-state knowledge of instructional web applications. This resulted in key strategic moves in the development of multimedia for learner THOMAS J. KAPOCIUS Page 3 engagement, team resource scalability and ROI. Senior Interactive Course Media Editor 4/2009 - 5/2014 Capella University, Minneapolis, MN ● Oversaw all phases of media construction from scoping, design, development and QA of multimedia applications appearing in the virtual course room for a university of 40,000+ learners. ● Helped develop instructional approaches involving problem-based learning simulations as an assessment strategy. ● Collaborated with subject matter experts, instructional designers and interactive designers to create media applications (problem-based learning simulations) that allowed for practice learning in authentic environments and helped increase learner retention. ● Managed team all resource, roadmap, workflow and process documents through company’s SharePoint. Curriculum Editor and Training Specialist 10/2007 - 11/2008 Infinite Campus, Blaine, MN ● Developed and wrote training curriculum for learning management systems used by more than 3 million individuals. ● Conducted evaluation training effectiveness and product functionality. ● Developed documentation process workflow for Learning Tools Team, thereby increasing efficiencies for the trainers and improved learner outcomes. ● Conducted just-in-time training sessions for building representatives responsible for front-line support of system software. Curriculum Editor and LMS Support 7/2006 - 10/2007 TIES (Technology Integration Education Systems), St. Paul, MN ● Created, edited and managed all user and training documents for statewide learning management system. ● Designed end-user assessments, conducted evaluation of training effectiveness and product functionality. ● Developed documentation process workflow for Learning Tools Team. Adjunct Online Instructional Designer and Instructor 7/2006 - 8/2009 Minnesota Online High School (MNOHS), Minneapolis, MN ● Developed instruction and multimedia for online courses aligning to state and U.S. Department of Education standards. ● Leveraged instructional design and curriculum process knowledge to develop engaging instruction, including collaborative activities, and assessments ● Represented organization through attendance at digital learning forums and professional development training in e-learning. EDUCATION PhD Instructional Design for Online Learning Capella University, Minneapolis, MN MAT Master of Arts in Teaching University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN BA THOMAS J. KAPOCIUS Page 4 Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES Articulate Storyline 360, Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Rise, Camtasia, LMS platforms (Canvas, Blackboard Learn, Moodle, Workday Learning), SharePoint, HTML and CSS, Agile/Scrum, Azure DevOps.