Dr Dina Vyortkina | NU Head of Instructional Technology
Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan | Kazakhstan

Dr. Dina Vyortkina holds a Master’s degree in Instructional Design and PhD in Educational Leadership and Administration. She was teaching courses in Information Technologies for School Leaders at the Educational Administration Master’s program and Organizational Theory for PhD candidates at the Florida State University (FSU), USA. As a faculty member she was coordinating and teaching online classes in Blended and Online Learning and Teaching program (BOLT).She has been involved in design, development, delivery, and improvement of online courses and distance learning programs since 1997 in US. She worked as an E-learning Director at the University of East London, UK, in 2006-2008. Upon her return from UK, she resumed her job at the Florida State University as the Director of the Office of Information and Instructional Technologies. 

Her expertise involves, but is not limited to instructional design, organizational development, performance improvement and human resource development, pre- and in-service teacher preparation in the area of blended and online learning and teaching, competency-based learning, faculty professional development, technology integration in higher education, learning managements systems, and information and communication technologies for educational administrators and school leadership preparation programs Recently, her interest evolved around distance and blended learning initiatives in the Republic of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, academic quality assurance mechanisms, and professional development and enhancement of faculty in higher education.  

In October 2013 Dr. Vyortkina returned to her native Kazakhstan to work at Nazarbayev University as Head of Instructional Technology, where she leads initiatives in enhancing learning, teaching, assessment, and research with technologies university-wide. 

Dr. Vyortkina is a reviewer and program committee member for SITE--Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference, Ed-Media -- World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, and Global Learn Asia Pacific-- Global Conference for Learning and Technology. She is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Cyber Ethics in Education.