About Sandy Schaeffer

Sandy has been with The University of Memphis since 2002 and retired from the central IT organization where he had directed the campus teaching and learning center in 2014. His current role within Fogelman College consists of three major components: (1) teaching undergraduate and graduate BIT courses, (2) supporting the college's accreditation needs in the area of teaching quality, and (3) providing guidance to Fogelman faculty on best practices in fully online instruction.

Professionally, Sandy has four decades of IT experience across a variety of industries, including software engineering and technology innovation, banking and finance infrastructure, technology sales and support with IBM, and founder/CTO of Memphis-based ThoughtWare Technologies, an e-learning and workforce development software company. 

Education

Doctor of Education, The University of Memphis
Master of Science, The University of Memphis
Bachelor of Science, Rhodes College

Research Interests

faculty teaching effectiveness and culture, quality of learning in fully-online teaching

Teaching interests

the role of technology in organizational effectiveness, internet governance, project management, data analytics and visualization

Selected Research

Schaeffer, S. & Racer, M. (2019). Faculty with Disabilities. In C. Schiro-Geist (Ed.), Minority Voices in Higher Education. San Diego, CA: Cognella Press.

Spiceland, C., Spiceland, D., and Schaeffer, S. (2015, January 15). Using a course redesign to address retention and performance issues in introductory accounting. Journal of Accounting Education. Retrievable at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0748575114000979#.

Schaeffer, S. (2014, April 4) – Maximizing Employability and Employment as an IT Professional in the 21st Century. Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges – Mid-South Symposium. (Lemoyne Owen College, Memphis, TN.)

Schaeffer, S. (2013, May 29-31) – Analysis and findings on the role of technology in a multi-year institutional course redesign effort at the University of Memphis. EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference (Atlanta, GA).

Schaeffer, S., St. Clair, J., Melton, R., and Plyler, M. (2011, October). Campus-Wide Integration of Mobile Technologies for Teaching and Learning: Elements of Success. Regional Conference on Mobile Technologies for Teaching and Learning (Memphis, TN).

Conrad, L., Gates. K., Johnson, R., and Schaeffer, S. (2011, June). Can We Do It? Making It Work in the New World; or, Managing Increased Complexity at the Organizational Level in the Real World. EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference (Charlotte, NC).

Schaeffer, S. (2010, September/October). Online Learning is here to stay. EDTECH Focus on Higher Education.
East, R. and Schaeffer, S. (2010, June). The Changing Fabric of Higher Education: What Lies Ahead? EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference (Atlanta, GA).

Schaeffer, S. (2010, May). An exploration of the influence of instructional technologies on faculty motivation and teaching innovation on a research campus. Doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Memphis College of Education.