Ask an Expert – Terri Wise

Interviewer: What is your name?    

Marble: Terri Wise    

Interviewer: What is your position at Six Red Marbles?  

Marble: Senior Editor, Higher Education  

Interviewer: What does that position entail?    

Marble: I manage all aspects of content for assigned higher education and professional development titles. I work with authors, clients, and subject matter experts and with editorial, project management, and production teams to create teaching and learning materials for students and instructors.  

Interviewer: How did you become a part of Six Red Marbles?    

Marble: I’ve worked in higher education editorial development, in both permanent positions with publishers and as a freelancer, for about 25 years. I started with Six Red Marbles as the freelance development editor and content lead on an open-source political science title. When the higher ed group was expanding, they hired me to join the team on a permanent basis.    

Interviewer: What is the best part of your job?    

Marble: It’s hard to choose just one thing, but I think the best part is that I get to engage in learning and teaching every day. I embrace the Six Red Marbles motto Always a Student. Working in higher ed, we explore so many different, specific subject areas—often areas in which research is ongoing and fields are changing. We are experts at creating pedagogically valuable teaching and learning resources, but we are not experts in every subject matter area for which we develop products—at least, we’re not when we begin. As developers of educational materials, we get to work with subject matter experts and instructors to help them translate their knowledge and their teaching practices into tools that will help teachers teach and students learn. I approach work on products in subject areas like, for example, nursing, business, or the social sciences as a student of the material who wants to be able to teach it. One of the best ways to illustrate that you have learned something is to show that you can teach it to someone else, and as a partner to our authors and subject matter experts, that’s what I get to do.    

Interviewer: What do you wish people knew about your work at Six Red Marbles?    

Marble: We apply the same quality standards and pedagogical principles to every project, but beyond that each project we are working on at any given time is different. Clients have different needs and requirements, authors have different schedules, personalities, and working styles, and titles have different themes and features depending on a variety of factors, including the course and intended audience. There are always new issues to consider and new problems to solve. We are always learning and adapting.   

Interviewer: What is a trend you see happening in the education space that you’re excited about?     

Marble: There’s a real emphasis on expanding access to education, from how courses are offered to how materials are made available to the use of inclusive language. Whatever the format or audience for the products we’re creating, we see the push for expanded access in everything we do.  

Interviewer: What is one interesting fact about yourself that you’d like to share?    

Marble: I was a semiprofessional concert photographer for a couple of years, and I covered shows, festivals, and conferences like SXSW and CMJ for online outlets, local acts, and, briefly, Vice Media. I conducted a few interviews, wrote record reviews, and mainly photographed lots of emerging acts (like Grimes in a parking lot) and some more established names like Yoko Ono.