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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Day-Long Workshops: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Emerging Technologies: New Paradigms for Sharing, Teaching and Constructing Knowledge
Presenter(s): Dr. Phil Ice
Location: Curacao 3 & 4

Description: A part of creating effective online learning experiences entails continually evaluation of new technologies to determine if they will be of benefit in terms of content delivery, student satisfaction, efficiency and, most importantly, the ability to allow for collaborative construction of knowledge. However, it is often difficult for instructors, instructional designers and administrators to make informed, adoption related choices without understanding the optimal, pedagogical context for application of many cutting edge technologies. This workshop will introduce participants to twelve emerging technologies along with practical applications. In many instances this will include the ability to interact, survey and use the technologies reviewed. Shared architectures, granular content management, rich internet applications, mobile learning, advanced student services platforms and serious gaming are among the technologies reviewed. The workshop will consist of a pre-conference component in which participants can explore and discuss the technologies being reviewed and full-day, onsite component in which they will have the ability to interact with developers and practitioners to further explore implementation in their own programs.

Blending with Purpose
Presenter(s): Mary Niemiec, University of IL at Chicago, and Tony Picciano, Hunter College
Location: Curacao 7 & 8

Description: This full day workshop session builds off the Sloan-C Blended Learning and Higher Education Workshop held in Chicago this past April where attendees were introduced to the intentional and purposeful methodology of integrating online and face-to-face instruction. Strategically deciding what, why and how to blend provides multiple benefits for learners, teachers and institutions. The challenge is in maximizing those benefits. The workshop will provide lessons learned, opportunity to engage in interactive discussions, strategies to take home and brainstorming sessions.

Throughout the day participants in this workshop will take an in-depth look at three case studies to explore key issues, principles and strategies for blended learning. These case studies will incorporate a comprehensive systemic approach to blended learning – the pedagogical practices, the administrative perspectives and approaches to evaluation. In both full workshop and small group activities, participants will also have an opportunity to share their own blended learning activities, identify issues and concerns and share with their small group successful strategies and challenges they’ve encountered.

Workshop Facilitators:
Joel Hartman (University of Central Florida), Mary Niemiec (University of Illinois at Chicago), Tony Picciano (City University of New York – Hunter College), George Otte (City University of New York), Karen Swan (Kent State), Karen Vignare (Michigan State University)

Morning Workshops: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Creating Accessible Multimedia on No Budget
Presenter(s): Martie Dixon, Director and Patrick Ryan, Assistant Director, Center for Alternative Course Delivery, Erie Community College
Location: Curacao 1 & 2

Description: Erie Community College in Western New York, like many institutions, has seen a tremendous growth in the online program in just a few years. The Center for Alternative Course Delivery was created to oversee the future growth of the program and to assist faculty in course creation and management. One area of concern is ADA compliance of online courses. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires “Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation” for web-based applications. Staff will discuss and demonstrate low cost solutions to incorporate multimedia presentations into online courses and web-based training programs.

Staff will have participants create a screen capture video using Windows Media Encoder, create a transcript in Notepad and then create a caption file using MAGPie. Also, staff will demonstrate how to create a Playlist using Notepad.

Beyond the Lead: The Enrollment Management Boot Camp
Presenter(s): Andrew Gansler, EducationDynamics, and Sean Kaylor, Marist College
Location: Curacao 5 & 6

Description: You’ve generated a lead--what next? Student acquisition is a process extending far beyond mere lead acquisition. Getting students in the door is only a small part of the battle. Beyond the Lead: The Enrollment Management Boot Camp shares the knowledge and experience gained from veterans in the field of online student acquisition to help institutions avoid common pitfalls of enrollment management and convert more leads into enrolled students. Beyond reviewing the challenges and opportunities in online lead generation, this workshop tackles effective communications campaigns to foster interest, engage students and ultimately, “close the deal.” The workshop also includes a practical, reality based case study from Sean Kaylor, vice president of admissions and enrollment planning at Marist University, who will walk participants through his institution’s student acquisition processes analyzing both good and bad practices in enrollment management.

The battle to acquire students is on. While many schools have become savvy in capturing prospective students through online lead generation, they often fail to address the ensuing stages of the ‘marketing lifecycle’—a process that is far more compressed in the online education space, with successful schools reporting a lead-to-enrollment timeframe of 40-60 days or less. To compete, student acquisition plans must become increasingly aggressive and targeted. This presentation will concisely and practically provide proven best practices in enrollment management to bolster a school’s effectiveness beyond the lead.

Learner-Centered Assessment: Real Strategies for Today’s Distance Learning Students
Presenter(s): Celeste Fenton, Ph.D.; Hillsborough Community College, Brenda Ward Watkins, Hillsborough Community College
Location: Bonaire 5 & 6

Description: Instructors who employ multiple types of assessments actively engage students in the learning process and help students apply learning in new and challenging ways. Advances in technology invite instructors to expand their repertoire of student-centered assessment. The 2008 League for Innovation Patricia Cross Fellowes, Celeste Fenton and Brenda Ward Watkins, share excerpts and assessment strategies from their book, Learner-Centered Assessment: Real Strategies for Today’s Students, the 11th volume in the Cross Paper series. Many institutions are encouraging the use of e-portfolios as demonstration of student competency and comprehension. As such, this session provides participants with the opportunity to explore and utilize a variety of free multimedia applications to develop and implement e-portfolio assessment of student learning. In addition, participants will learn the importance of and will use specific rubric templates as evaluation criteria. Multimedia files, rubric templates, Internet resources, and multimedia application tutorials will be provided to each participant on a flash drive. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will glimpse into the future of assessment, and be stimulated to embrace and explore a fusion of old strategies and new technologies.

Retention Strategies That Work: Personalized Success Coaching for Distance Learners
Presenter(s): Alan Tripp, CEO and Founder, InsideTrack
Location: Bonaire 7 & 8

Description: Online students participating in a one-on-one coaching program are more engaged with their educations and more likely to persist in school. The result for universities is higher retention and graduation rates. Success Coaching enables students to become more engaged with their educations and better able to balance multiple commitments. Coaches meet with students by phone on a weekly basis to focus on developing life-effectiveness and academic skills. Using two innovative web-based tools, RightTrack and Catalyst, coaches and students work together to create action plans, assess progress and address challenges. Success Coaching methodologies enable students to:

  • Develop and review long-term and short term-goals and develop strategies to meet these goals;
  • Clearly identify reasons for success, or lack of success, during the prior week;
  • Share positive feedback for successful activities;
  • Directly address ineffective approaches;
  • Create strategies, define action plans and set deadlines for the upcoming week and for the future.

Through a case study with a leading online university, we will illustrate how Success Coaching delivers measurable retention improvement. This session will highlight:

  • How to define student Success Coaching;
  • How coaching meets university learning missions and how it differs from but complements other services;
  • Methodologies used in student coaching programs;
  • Implementation process and considerations;
  • The value of coaching to the student;
  • The value of coaching to the university;
  • Results that can be achieved – 15-20% improvements in retention.

Getting Started: An Open Forum
Presenter(s): Janet Moore, Sloan-C and Kathleen Ives, Sloan-C
Location: Antigua 1 & 2

Description: This interactive session is designed for newcomers to the Sloan-C conference to learn about Sloan-C activities and to network with each other and with track chairs. Track chairs will provide a brief overview of the conference tracks to help participants in selecting sessions to attend based on educational background and interests. Participants are encouraged to bring questions or to email them to the facilitators.

Innovation Cases: E-learning Strategy as if Local Learning Communities Matter
Presenter(s): Janet Poley, President/CEO, The American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), Frank Mayadas, The Sloan Foundation and Dave King, Oregon State University
Location: Bonaire 3 & 4

Description: This half-day workshop will explore the definitions, stages and processes of innovation and how using online learning as a strategic asset can result in organizational and program change. Participants will engage in a series of case studies analyzing and critiquing strategic approaches with particular attention to back home applications. Most often innovation happens "at the margins" where local needs (crisis, changed circumstances, new drivers) intersect with trusted relationships, information and expertise. Each participant will develop and share an example of a local "innovation" related to online learning and discuss its use as a strategic asset.

Afternoon Workshops: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

From R2D2 to the Matrix: A Galaxy of Online Learning Style, Motivational, Blended Learning, and Learner-Centered Examples
Presenter(s): Curtis J. Bonk (Indiana University)
Location: Bonaire 7 & 8

Description: Retention is a key issue in online learning. Another is developing interactive and collaborative activities and environments. Creating a motivational and interactive online environment can enhance student retention, completion, and overall enthusiasm for this new type of learning arena. Part of the solution that institutions of higher learning are adopting relates to blended learning and part relates to becoming more learner-centered. As part of this movement, in this talk, Curt Bonk will provide dozens of pedagogical ideas and solutions that motivate students in the online learning environments. Bonk will provide best practices in online teaching, based on two decades of his own research as well as many others, that creatively engage students into deeper and better learning. Using his new R2D2 learning style framework for online instructional design as well as his TEC-VARIETY model for online student motivation, he will also present engaging strategies that relate to different student learning strategies or preferences. He will also discuss how the R2D2 method can be expanded or altered to fit your particular needs. He will also highlight his most recent instructional design method called the MATRIX. No matter what galaxy or planet you are on, these ideas and techniques can be linked student motivation, collaboration, interaction, and general engagement in the learning process. Bonk will offer many such linkages. More importantly, specific steps will be provided for each technique described in this entertaining and informative talk. As a result, this session will include many practical strategies that can be incorporated directly into one's virtual classes, events, or programs.

HigherEd 2.0: Pedagogy, Deployment and Evaluation of Web 2.0 Tools in Higher Education
Presenter(s): Dr. Edward Berger, University of Virginia
Location: Curacao 5 & 6

Description: Web 2.0 has changed the way people interact with each other (social networking), but it has also afforded users an unprecedented ability to control their information space. Users create, share, and manage digital content and data, enjoy ubiquitous (portable) access to their media, and can quickly search and filter content to meet their current needs. In higher education, we can explore the usage of web 2.0 tools in both face-2-face and blended environments, including podcasting, blogging, wikis, and even text messaging or tools like Twitter. This workshop details usage and evaluation of web 2.0 technologies in higher education ("HigherEd 2.0"), specifically engineering education, although the tools and techniques are applicable to many disciplines.

Ask the experts -Tips, techniques and creative strategies for teaching online
Presenter(s): Susan Oaks, Empire State College, with others TBA
Location: Bonaire 5 & 6

Description: This workshop brings together past recipients of Sloan-C's Excellence in Online Teaching and Effective Practice awards to offer tips on online teaching and present specific techniques and strategies for organizing and facilitating online courses that have worked for them. A significant portion of workshop time will be devoted to group consideration of participant questions concerning online teaching.

Leading Convergence: Administering Online Learning in the Mainstream
Presenter(s): Gary E. Miller, Executive Director Emeritus, Penn State World Campus and Jacqueline F. Moloney, Executive Vice Chancellor, University of Massachusetts-Lowell
Location: Curacao 1 & 2

Description: While the earliest innovations in online learning tended to be focused on expanding access through distance education, online learning is having a transforming impact on higher education. Increasingly, colleges and universities are blending online and face-to-face instruction to increase their impact in their local communities, developing online materials to ensure curricular integrity, creating hybrid courses to control cost and improve the effectiveness of high-enrolling on-campus courses, and sharing resources with other institutions to expand curricula available to on-campus students – an unanticipated convergence that is creating new challenges for the administration of online learning. This half-day workshop will allow administrators to explore these issues with colleagues and to discuss the organizational, governance, and policy issues that need to be addressed as online learning enters the institutional mainstream.

Facilitating Diverse Instructional Strategies in an Online Environment
Presenter(s): Heather Kanuka
Location: Bonaire 3 & 4

Description: When considering the integration of Internet communication tools (e.g., asynchronous, text-based forums) as a platform for learning, it is essential to understand that this environment is fundamentally different from face-to-face learning environments. In established learning environments, question-driven guided discourse has been hailed par excellence, and has tended to be effective at facilitating higher levels of learning, such as critical, creative and complex thinking skills. However, when this traditional tenet of teaching is transferred to online discussion forums, it tends to create discontinuities in the learning transactions that are not present in traditional learning environments. These are partly the result of the transfer of our existing beliefs to Internet communication media and partly the result of the ways in which the instructor has chosen to use the software. If higher levels of learning and thinking are to be achieved through active and engaged activities in online environments, there is a need to expand our perspectives of teaching and learning beyond what typically occurs in our on-campus classrooms.

The purpose this workshop is to provide a practical and hands-on overview of instructional methods that facilitate active and engaged learning through the use of diverse instructional strategies. Research has shown that these instructional strategies can be effective at achieving higher levels of learning and thinking in the online classroom. Instructional methods covered will include guidelines on how to facilitate online case studies, debates, invited guests, brainstorming, WebQuests, Nominal group technique, and problem-based learning.

Educator as grounded bricoleur: blending broad principles for context analyses and effective action
Presenter(s): Elizabeth Burge
Location: Antigua 1 & 2

Description: Interested in longer views of technology impacts? Curious about information transfer from other fields? Need a short retreat for lateral thinking? Join Liz Burge and collegial bricoleurs (who get the job done with tools at hand) to re-view our contexts of practice. And compare the grounding of our work with lessons from very experienced international colleagues.

 

For more information or questions contact 1-866-232-5834 or email aln@mail.ucf.edu