The Story Behind B Optimal
A shared way of looking became a shared body of work.
Janine and Tim met while studying sociology in the graduate program at Western Michigan University. What began as a shared academic interest became a close friendship, a life together, and eventually a body of work they continue to build.
Their professional paths took them across higher education and organizational settings — including teaching, learning design, student support, research, program development, curriculum design, and organizational practice. They worked directly with students and alongside faculty, staff, programs, and organizations, designing learning experiences, developing programs and resources, conducting research, teaching, facilitating, supporting learners, and working within the kinds of environments B Optimal now serves.
Their sociological training shaped how they approached that work: looking at people in relation to situations, relationships, expectations, resources, organizations, and systems — and examining the concepts and assumptions through which those situations are understood.
Experience added something equally important: repeated opportunities to see what ideas look like when people actually have to use them. Their perspective comes from both.
Those questions increasingly became part of their design work. Their examination of metacognition led to the development of the Metacognitive Moves Framework and later the broader Metacognitive Moves System™. From there came Learning Practice Programs addressing particular parts of the work learners perform, and institutional approaches intended to strengthen continuity across contexts.
That work eventually led Janine and Tim to create B Optimal — turning what they have learned and continue to learn into practical ways to help people become more capable learners.
