Irina Pearson
Michael Cooperman, a Pierce College multimedia developer who worked on the Pierce Web site, is taking a job at Los Angeles Valley College.
“The new position will be more consistent with my master’s degree in educational technology,” Cooperman said. “It’ll give me greater opportunities to get into instructional development.”
Cooperman helped design the older version of the Pierce Web site and has up until recently been at work on Pierce Online, a support site created for students who are taking classes online.
He has also has been overseeing other projects, including the creation of an Internet video series called Textbook Accessibility for Deaf Community College Students.
“We’re putting together a series of interactive courses,” Cooperman said. “They are based on the textbook material translated by the sign language interpreters.”
The developer has been involved in the project for the last couple of years and says two full American history textbooks have been fully translated will soon be accessible online.
Some students on campus realize the importance of this tool.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” said Lisa Rubin, 18, English major. “It will give everyone an equal footing to succeed.”
Cooperman has been at Pierce for about seven years and will continue to teach video editing this semester, as well as work in the art department in the fall. He said he wouldn’t have stayed here for so long if he didn’t like it.
“I was working at the College of the Canyons when the department chair told me about a position opening at Pierce,” he said. “I got the job and loved working here right from the start.”
He has taught in the multimedia department as well as a few computer science classes. He will be teaching similar classes at valley College, but full-time.
Given his busy professional schedule, he still finds time to pursue one of his hobbies — scuba-diving. He went to Mexico for training and says the rigorous exercise was like “a scuba camp.”
Cooperman will start at Valley sometime at the end of April.
Cynthia Alexander, a Pierce Online staff member, said there was no way of knowing whether there are any new candidates being considered for Cooperman’s replacement yet.
“There probably will be a committee formed to make the decision,” Alexander said. “It might take several months, but as of right now there are no people interviewed for the position.”