Larry Cox II

Biography

Larry A. Cox II is a Senior Instructional Designer and practitioner-researcher at Virginia Tech’s Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies (TLOS), where he has worked since 2014 in roles spanning instructional design, faculty development, and organizational learning. He holds a Ph.D. in Instructional Design and Technology from Virginia Tech, an M.A. in Instructional Design and Technology from Virginia Tech, and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan.

Cox brings to the classroom more than a decade of applied experience designing learning experiences, consulting with subject matter experts, and building the conditions for knowledge transfer across complex organizations. Central to his work is a systems thinking orientation: understanding how the parts of a system interact, how decisions ripple across stakeholders, and how context shapes what gets created and why. This lens informs his approach to understanding how decisions are made within complex systems, whether in educational institutions, creative industries, or organizations navigating rapidly changing environments.

His background in instructional design also offers a less obvious but equally relevant parallel. The process of working with faculty and organizational leaders to extract tacit knowledge and translate it into structured learning experiences closely mirrors the market intelligence and audience insight work that drives product and service development. Cox draws on this experience to help students think analytically about how organizations gather information, interpret their environments, and make decisions under uncertainty.

In addition to his instructional design work, Cox serves as Project Lead for TLOS’s Digital Fluency Initiative and has published and presented research on generative AI in education, systems thinking, instructional designer roles in organizations, and data-informed course design. He is a longtime reviewer for the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and the Online Learning Consortium. Currently, he serves as Treasurer of the Networked Learning Collaborative of Virginia and on Virginia Tech’s University Council.

Education

• Ph.D., Instructional Design and Technology, Virginia Tech, 2024
• M.A., Instructional Design and Technology, Virginia Tech, 2013
• B.A., Sociology, University of Michigan, 2007

Professional Service

• Treasurer, Networked Learning Collaborative of Virginia (2023 – present)
• Member, University Council, Virginia Tech (2014–2015; 2024 – present)
• Reviewer, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (2014 – present)
• Reviewer, Online Learning Consortium (2018 – present)

Focus Areas

Systems thinking, organizational behavior, learning and knowledge design, decision-making