SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2025: FIT – Pamela Snyder-Gallagher

Pamela Snyder-Gallagher is a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology teaching Fashion Design-Art and Textile/Surface Design. Pamela earned her BFA from Kent State University, and her MFA from New York University. Technology has led her to additionally pursue a Certificate in Instructional Design from the University of Washington that she obtained in July of last year.

I am so thrilled to be recognized for my online achievements at the Fashion Institute of Technology! I see myself as an early adopter of the online classroom having authored my first fully online class back in 2009 for the fashion marketing program at Berkeley College. I enjoyed the process so much that I went on to design and implement three more classes from the ground-up that were certified Quality Matters by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. These populated course shells were also shared amongst fellow faculty members who could augment them to fit their own coursework. I was fortunate enough to have taught a total of nine different online courses in this manner, some authored by me and others by my peers. I enjoyed seeing my fellow faculty members’ online work just as much as getting feedback on my own. The act of piecing together another’s methodology that goes into translating onsite coursework into an online delivery truly fascinated me. When FIT started offering online courses, I immediately signed up and with the help of our stellar staff in the Office of Online Learning, I was able to update my skills and get my passion project online. The Fashion History classes by nature translate wonderfully into the online environment. At the same time I was rest assured to be offering our talented student body the convenience of the subject without compromising in quality of delivery. I look forward to authoring more classes at FIT—only now with the assistance of AI!

I am currently enjoying creating YouTube videos for my technical classes using sophisticated video editing software like Camtasia and am tinkering with course authoring tools that are traditionally used in the corporate world for training purposes (Adobe Captivate, Articulate Rise 360, etc.) since I do see them eventually being integrated into the academic realm as students become even more accustomed to interactivity and gaming–and eventually even some microlearning as a method for tutoring and further prepping for exams. Thank you so much for this opportunity to share in the collective enthusiasm of online learning at SUNY’s Online Summit!