As director of Instructional Services, Dave leads the daily operations and strategies of a high-performing team of enterprise instructional technology specialists, academic technology consultants, and learning designers in the ITS Office of Teaching, Learning and Technology. Instructional Services provides campus-wide support for teaching and learning through impactful, robust digital learning environments at an enterprise scale, as well as individualized consulting that supports pedagogically appropriate integration of technologies and instructional design best practices to support student success.

Using strong leadership skills, Dave collaborates with groups across the institution to ensure Iowa's instructional technology services are responsive to instructor, student, and staff needs. Applying techniques and practices from areas such as digital transformation, service implementation, change management, cross-departmental collaboration, ITSM, and other frameworks, the Instructional Services team ensures Iowa's instructional technology and course improvement work is aligned with the overall strategic mission of OneIT and the University of Iowa.

In 2007, Dave earned the Improving Our Workplace Award for his contribution to the ICON implementation project. In 2021, Dave was recognized with the University of Iowa Outstanding Staff award.

Committees and memberships

• Internal groups at Iowa
  • ICON (Canvas) Steering Committee. This is the advisory board for the University of Iowa's LMS system, and is sponsored by the Academic Technology Advisory Council.
  • IT Leadership Development Team (member 2018–2020, chair 2019–2020). Sponsored by the CIO, this group's charge is to ensure continued leadership development and application of leaderships skills at the individual, unit, and institutional levels. This group assists with organizing the MOR Associates IT Leadership Development Program at Iowa, organizing "What's on Your Mind?" events, and IT professional development events.
  • ITAdmins (member). A grass-roots organization for IT administrators and support staff who manage local IT resources in the context of University of Iowa enterprise services.
  • Support Community for Instructional Technology (SCIT) (member). SCIT provides a venue for anyone who works with instructional technology at the University of Iowa to connect with one another on best practices, emerging trends, and new instructional technology.
• External groups
  • Big Ten Academic Alliance Learning Technology Liaisons (member, chair for 2022–2023 term). This group focuses on online learning technology and classroom hardware and shares best practices among other Big Ten institutions.
  • Unizin Learning Tools Strategies and Operations (member). This group focuses on online learning technology and shares best practices among other Unizin institutions.
  • Canvas R1 Institution Peer Group (member, 2016–present). The Canvas Peers Research Universities Group brings together representatives from large public and private research universities to share best practices around using Canvas to support teaching and learning.
  • Unizin/Instructure Customer Advisory Board (chair, 2022–present).
  • Unizin Anti-Plagiarism Requirements Task Force (member). This short-term committee worked on defining requirements for a plagiarism detection service.
  • MultiState Desire2Learn Users Group (chair 2012–2014, member 2010–2016). This collaborative group of technical and functional leads representing large higher education institutions (over 20,000 FTE) working in consultation with and reporting to the LISA-B group.

Presentations and publications

Long, D., Kondoff, K. (UT Austin), Sanchez, K. (Yale). (2023, July). Stop, Collaborate and Listen: Compare and Contrast of Campus Engagement Strategies Across Three Institutions [Conference Presentation]. InstructureCon 2023, Denver, CO.

Long, D. (2023, June). Cultivating Belonging Through Conversation [Conference Presentation]. Tech Forum, Iowa City, IA.

Long, D. (2023, June). Leading Effective Meetings [Online Conference Presentation]. Tech Forum, Iowa City, IA.

Long, D. (2023, April). Use Intention to Drive Ongoing Professional Development [Online Article]. MOR Associates website.

Long, D. (2022, October). But How Do You Know It Is Fixed? Leadership Skills to Resolve Complex Issues Across the Institution [Conference poster session]. EDUCAUSE 2022 conference, Denver, CO.

Long, D., Burgess, D. (Michigan), Rota, A. (Harvard), Wijesuriya, R. (Arizona State). (2022, June). UCLA LMS Transformation - All Hands Meeting Panel [Online webinar panel discussion]. UCLA webinar.

Long, D., O'Brien, S. (Internet2), Zemlyak, J. (Indiana University), Jelinkova, K. (Harvard), Suess, J. (UMBC). (2021, October). When Unlimited Hits Its Limits [Conference Presentation]. EDUCAUSE 2021 conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Long, D., Kemp, L. (UCLA), & Martin, M. (University of Central Oklahoma). (2021, July). The Challenge of Major Incident Management in Higher Education [Conference Presentation]. Service Management World online conference.

Long, D. & Espey, M. (2021, March). Content Retention in Panopto [Online webinar]. Panopto webinar.

Long, D. & Espey, M. (2021, March). Content Retention in Panopto [Online webinar]. Internet2 webinar.&

Long, D., Fisher, A. (Pennsylvania State University), Hariths, V. (The Ohio State University), & Pelaprat, E. (Unizin). (2020, December). Learning Impact On-Demand HED Program: Leveraging Data for COVID Response [Online webinar]. IMS Global webinar.

Long, D., Beck, A., Dority Baker, M. (Nebraska-Lincoln), Gordy, B. (Wisconsin-Madison). (2019, October). Are You Striking Out or Hitting Home Runs on Building Campus Relationships? [Conference poster session]. EDUCAUSE 2019 conference, Chicago, IL.

Long, D., Sowalsky, J (University of Maryland). (2019, October). A 2-University Implementation of Canvas Catalog Through Campus Partnerships [Conference Poster Session]. EDUCAUSE 2019 conference, Chicago, IL.

Long, D., Downs, D. (Harvard), Foster, L (Oregon State). (2019, July). Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Canvas Catalog [Conference Presentation] InstructureCon 2019 conference, Long Beach, CA.

Long, D., Beck, A., Quick, J. & Hickey, D. (Indiana), Gordy, B. & Treige, P. (Wisconsin-Madison), Lytle, K. (Penn State), Weber, J. (Minnesota). (2019, April). Protecting Your Institution: Licensing, LTIs, Security, Accessibility, oh my! [Conference Presentation]. Unizin Summit 2019 conference, Denver, CO.

Long, D. & Beck, A. (2016, August). Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box [Conference Presentation]. Northwestern CanvasCon 2016, Chicago, IL.

Long, D. & Beck, A., (2015, October). How to Not Ruin Your Customers' Day: The University of Iowa's LMS Service Management Framework [Conference Presentation]. CIC Tech Forum 2015, Iowa City, IA.

Long, D., (2015, June) How to Not Ruin Your Customers' Day: The University of Iowa's LMS Service Management Framework [Conference Presentation]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2015 conference, Orlando, FL.

Long, D., Felix, M. (Arizona), & Campbell, M., (2015, June). You're Doing What with Our Data? A MSDL Panel Discussion About Evaluating and Deploying LTI Integrations [Conference Presentation]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2015 conference, Orlando, FL.

Long, D. Johnson, L. & Speth, A., (2015, June).Multi-State Desire2Learn (MSDL) Users Group [Conference Poster Session]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2015 conference, Orlando, FL.

Long, D., Werth, J. & Johnson, L. (2014, July).Automating the LE: Removing Routine from Administration [Conference Presentation]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2014 conference, Nashville, TN.

Long, D., Felix, M. (Arizona), Johnson, L. & Speth, A. (2014), July.Change It on Test Before You Change It on Prod: Change Management Best Practices from MSDL [Conference Presentation]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2014 conference, Nashville, TN.

Long, D., McMullen, D. (MnSCU), Felix, M. (Arizona), & Sombach, L. (Calgary School District). (2014, July). Meet MSDL members and learn how to participate [Conference Poster Session]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2014 conference, Nashville, TN.

Long D. & Werth, J., (2013). Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do: Automated Interface Testing of the D2L LE [Conference Presentation]. Desire2Learn FUSION conference, Boston, MA.

Long, D., Voeks, D. (UW-System), Condon, M. (MnSCU). (2013, July). Multi-State Desire2Learn (MSDL) Users Group [Conference Poster Session]. Desire2Learn FUSION 2013 conference, Boston, MA.