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Phil Ice is the VP of Research and Development at American Public University System (APUS) and Vice President of Research & Development for Sage Road Analytics, LLC. His research is focused on the impact of new and emerging technologies on cognition in online learning environments. Work in this area has brought him international recognition in the form of three Sloan-C Effective Practice of the Year Awards (2007, 2009 and 2010) and the AliveTek/DLA Innovation on Online Distance Learning Administration Award. Sloan-C has also recognized Phil through awarding a team he led at APUS with the Gomory Award for Data Driven Quality Improvement in 2009. He has been recognized by industry through membership in Adobe's Education Leaders Group and Adobe's Higher Education Advisory Board, as well as a recipient of the Adobe Higher Education Leaders Impact Award, 2010.
Phil's vision for the future of technology in higher education is also demonstrated by his inclusion on the advisory council for the 2011 NMC / ELI Horizon Report and his role as Principal Investigator on a $1.05 million WICHE/WCET grant to explore online retention patterns across six institutions. His work has covered the use of technology mediated feedback, which has been adopted at over 50 institutions of higher education in five countries, multi-level institutional assessment techniques, learning analytics and application of semantic analysis for mapping institutional learning assets. Phil has conducted over 100 peer reviewed and invited presentations and workshops, as well as authoring more than 20 articles, book chapters and white papers related to the integration of emerging technologies in eLearning. Other examples of his research include the use of embedded asynchronous audio feedback mechanisms, using web 2.0 tools for collaborative construction of knowledge through integration of RIA’s and remote observation of student teaching experiences using asynchronous, flash-based environments.
Phil is also involved with seven other researchers in the United States and Canada in numerous other research initiatives related to the Community of Inquiry Framework. This research has resulted in the development of a validated instrument that captures the intersection of Teaching, Social and Cognitive presence in online learning environments.
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Karen Swan is James J. Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield. Since receiving her EdD in Communication, Computing and Technology in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1989, she has authored over 70 journal articles and book chapters, produced several hypermedia programs, and co-edited two books on educational technology topics. She became interested in online teaching and learning while a faculty member at the University at Albany, and has spent the last decade teaching, developing and researching online education. Dr Swan has been a member of the steering committees for the Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning and Blended Learning Workshop for many years and is currently the Chair Elect of the former. She serves on the editorial boards of several research journals focusing on online learning including The Internet and Higher Education, the Journal of Open and Distance Learning, the Journal of Distance Education, and the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. Dr. Swan was the 2006 winner of the Sloan C’s award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual. |
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Dr. Anthony G. Picciano is a Professor and Executive Officer for the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is also a member of the faculty in the Education Leadership Program at Hunter College, the doctoral program in Interactive Pedagogy and Technology at the Graduate Center, and the CUNY Online BA Program in Communication and Culture. He has forty years of experience in higher education administration and teaching and has served as a director of computer services, dean, vice president, and deputy to the president at CUNY and SUNY colleges. He has been involved in a number of major grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, IBM, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 1998, Dr. Picciano co-founded CUNY Online, a multi-million dollar initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that provides support services to faculty developing online and blended learning courses. In 2006, Dr. Picciano was part of the faculty group to design the first fully online BA program in CUNY. He currently serves as a representative of the president of the Graduate Center on the CUNY School of Professional Studies Governance Board.
Dr. Picciano’s major research interests are school leadership, policy, Internet-based teaching and learning, and multimedia instructional models. He has authored numerous articles and eight books including Data-Driven Decision Making for Effective School Leadership (2006, Pearson), Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology, 4th Edition (2005, Pearson), Distance Learning: Making Connections across Virtual Space and Time (2001, Pearson), and Educational Research Primer (2004, Continuum). His latest book was co-edited with Chuck Dziuban (University of Central Florida) and is entitled, Blended Learning: Research Perspectives (2007, Sloan Consortium). Dr. Picciano also recently finished a national study with Jeff Seaman (Babson College Survey Research Group) on the extent and nature of online learning in American school districts. It was the first study to collect data on and compare fully online and blended learning in K-12 schools. In 2007, Dr. Picciano served as a guest editor for an edition of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) dedicated to research in online learning in K-12 environments. Most recently, he also guest edited a special edition of JALN dedicated to blended learning.
Dr. Picciano has been on the Board of Directors of the Sloan Consortium since 2001. His activities have included serving on the planning committees for the Annual Conference (2001–2008), the Annual Workshop on Blended Learning (2003–2008), and the Symposium on Emerging Technologies (2008). He has also served as the project director for the Consortium’s Interpenetration Grant Activities. Lastly, he has been an associate editor of JALN since 2002.
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Dr. Peter Shea is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and the College of Computing and Information at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research focuses on the development of communities dedicated to learning in online environments. He has published widely on this topic in journals such as Computers and Education, JALN, Internet and Higher Education, The Journal of Educational Computing Research, Interactive Learning Environments and others. He is past director of the SUNY Learning Network, the online education enterprise of the 64 campus and 400,000 students in the SUNY system. Peter is currently a principal investigator on two grants examining the uses of online networks in education. The Student-to-Student Online Language Laboratory, funded by the US Department of Education investigates the use of online media to help K-12 students to learn Chinese. Through the SUNY Learning Network Research Project Dr. Shea inquires into the experiences of thousands of students and faculty in the fully online learning environment of the State University of New York. He has been a co-recipient of three national awards for online learning, faculty development and online programs from EDUCAUSE and the Sloan Consortium. |
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Laurie P. Dringus, Ph.D., is Professor of Information Systems in the Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences at Nova Southeastern University. Her research interests include human-computer interaction, information design, and online learning environments. She has published widely several articles and presentations related to the research, design, development, and evaluation of online learning environments. Since 1998, Laurie has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Internet and Higher Education, a refereed international journal published quarterly by Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/iheduc).
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