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The New Sloan-C Blended Teaching Certificate
The Sloan Consortium is happy to announce a brand new teaching certificate for those interested in blended learning and teaching. Blended teaching offers significant advantages for faculty, students, and institutions for optimizing access, learning, convenience, flexibility, and resources. The Sloan-C certificate in blended teaching provides practical and comprehensive training in all aspects of course redesign via synchronous and asynchronous communications. Download information at http://sloanconsortium.org/flyers/blendedteachingflyer.pdf.
Effective blended teaching requires significant rethinking and design. Participants will develop new teaching skills for:
-Managing online interaction
-Incorporating assessment
-Using interactive and organizational tools
-Integrating online and face-to-face activities
Participants will actually start designing and developing blended course content in their own disciplines , receiving feedback from facilitators, and taking away valuable skills and materials for their first blended courses.
Three foundational workshops:
-Designing Blended Courses & Building a Blended Learning Community,
January 12 - February 2, 2009
-Delivering Content, Fostering Student Interactivity, and Assessing Learning in Blended Courses,
February 16 - March 9, 2009
-Staying Organized, Evaluating Course Design, and Moving Forward with Your Blended Course,
April 13 - May 4, 2009
Three additional elective workshops may be completed within 2 years.
Cost of Program: $1,499 (Only covers certificate fee and 3 foundational courses. Additional electives must be paid for separately.)
The program starts next January 12th. Register today!
Please take our blended learning poll at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/blended_poll. |
Blended Learning as a Strategy
Mary P. Niemiec
Executive Director, External Education
School of Continuing Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago
Blended learning can provide opportunities to enhance teaching and learning through a pedagogically-driven integration of online and face-to-face instruction. Currently, colleges and universities around the world are strategically using blended learning to address student access and institutional resource issues. Closed sections due to a lack of sufficient classroom space, a student population in need of flexible scheduling, retention issues, time to degree pressures, restricted course availability due to limited instructional resources...sound familiar? Most institutions are dealing with these pressing problems and very few in the current economic climate have sufficient resources for traditional solutions.
Resources are scarce for students as well. As the cost of higher education continues to increase, the longer a student spends in school the greater the opportunity cost of an education. The national average time to an undergraduate degree is six years. The Lumina Foundation reported in 2007 that only 55% of students seeking bachelor’s degrees will graduate within six years from the same institution they first entered, and only 63% will receive a degree from any institution. Students who are dependent on financial aid are most severely impacted by the inability to complete their coursework within a four-year period. Whether students drop-out or stop-out, personal finances often are the reason they leave school. Once students leave, the probability of them returning is not high. This phenomenon has financial consequences for the students, the university and our national economy.
Strategically planned growth in the number of students a university admits provides increased access and additional resources through tuition revenue. The greatest barrier, if a university wishes to increase student enrollment, is the lack of physical and instructional capacity to offer sufficient sections of undergraduate general education courses. Physical space limitations constrict the number of registrations in a given course section. Flat or nearly flat state appropriations impact capital improvements, infrastructure enhancements and the ability to hire new faculty. These converging factors – more demand and fewer resources - impact a student’s ability to enroll in required courses at convenient times and on a timely basis. Now, more than ever in the current economic climate, we must develop institutional strategies that allow us to meet our missions, maximize resources and serve our students. Blended learning can be one of these strategies.
The Sixth Annual Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning and Higher Education – Blended Learning: Getting the Best of Both Worlds – hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago will take place April 26 to 28, 2009. This international workshop is dedicated solely to the research, pedagogy and implementation of blended learning.
Welcome the Sloan-C Faculty Development Group
Beginning this month, you will see a new feature at sloanconsortium.org—the Faculty Development Blog. The blog is an activity of the Sloan-C Faculty Development Group, an advisory board for the Online and Blended Teaching Certificates. Facilitated by Sloan-C members to expand professional development opportunities for faculty, the certificates have received very positive response. We’ve invited experts to help assure that Sloan-C certificates are the best they can be, delivering current, practical tips for teaching with continuously emerging effective practices. The Faculty Development Group share with Sloan-C their experience and knowledge from their own robust faculty development programs
Thanks to these individuals for their generous collaboration:
Bethany Bovard, New Mexico State University
Phil Ice, American Public University System
Bob Kaleta, University of Wisconsin Madison
Susan Ko, U of Maryland University College
Ron Legon, QualityMatters
Shari McCurdy Smith, University of Illinois Springfield
Maria Puzziferro, Colorado State University
Larry Ragan, Pennsylvania State University
Nan Chico, California State University
Philip DiSalvio, Seton Hall University
Judith Effken, University of Arizona
Lori McNabb, University of Texas System
Kim Eke, University of North Carolina
Kaye Shelton, Dallas Baptist University
Bill Pelz, State University of New York
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The International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning
Call for Proposals open until December 8, 2008.
We are pleased to announce the dates and location for the 2009 International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning. The symposium will be held June 17-19, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.
In addition, the Call for Proposals is now open at the Symposium website, http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org/.
Program Tracks include:
- Emerging Technologies for Administration, Infrastructure, and Support Services
- Immersive Learning and Virtual Environments
- Inventive uses of media and tools
- Pedagogy and new learning environments
- The New Learning Communities
For more information about this symposium, please visit http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org/. |
The Fourteenth Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning: The Power of Online Learning: Improving Learning in a Networked World
In his keynote address to this year's conference, "OERs and a Good Educational System," Terry Anderson, Professor and Canada Research Chair at Athabasca University, introduced produsage as the name for the way the Internet enables greater access for people who want to share their learning with people who want to learn.
Judging from attendance at the conference this year, many are interested in improving learning in the networked world. Attendance was 1170 participants, including:
Administrators, 36%
Faculty, 28%
Instructional Designers/Technical Positions, 16%
Vendors, 16%
Corporate, 4%
79% of attendees came from east of the Mississippi and 18% from the west. Attendees came 46 states and 33 attendees came from 7 countries. 488 people attended pre-conference and post-conference. One attendee noted:
I have been well-pleased with this conference since the first time I attended in 2002. I get takeaways that have benefited my program and helped me anticipate course, faculty, and program needs. I will keep coming as long as I can! And, to be honest, being able to get away to the sun the first week of November before winter sets in is a big draw too!
Meg Benke, Dean of the Center for Distance Learning at SUNY/ Empire State College and conference chair noted that keynote sessions opened our perspectives to emerging approaches to teaching and learning, new technologies, research and ethical issues. These perspectives were continued in stimulating workshops, featured sessions, poster sessions and general sessions. The quality of our research-based presentations has particularly improved in recent years under the expert guidance of Karen Swan, program chair of the next conference. We also saw much higher participation and interest in our poster sessions and in our exhibit areas.
Benke noted that this year's attendance, even in tough budget times, shows that the Sloan community continues to offer high quality professional development and research opportunities for faculty, instructional designers, student service professionals and administrators. These opportunities are extended through the Sloan-C series of online workshops and two other annual conferences. As a leading learning organization, we appreciate your comments and suggestions for keeping this engagement at the highest levels.
Look for this year's proceedings to be posted here. And start planning now to join next year's conference, October 28-30, 2008 at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando.
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Using the 5 Pillars to Evaluate Webcasting the Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning
R.T. Brown
Online Academic Support Specialist, Sloan-C
Erica St. Angel
Vice President, Sonic Foundry
Last month, Sloan-C webcasted key conference sessions at the International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando. Sessions proceeded as they normally would have, with Sonic Foundry using its Mediasite platform to automatically capture, synchronize and stream presenters’ audio, video and visual aids. You can watch these presentations on-demand in the Conference’s online presentation catalog.
Because Sloan-C uses the five pillars of quality to assess program effectiveness, we outlined a preliminary analysis of webcasting the conference here, and look forward to receiving your feedback.
Access: Sloan-C’s main reason for webcasting the conference was to broaden access to the valuable information presented at this annual event. Through the Sloan-C View newsletter and other conference communication, all conference attendees and Sloan-C members were made aware of the webcasting initiative. The online catalog is now available on both the Sloan-C and conference websites and all presentations can be viewed via a standard web browser. These presentations can now also be used as learning resources for Sloan-C member institutions who may want to forward specific presentations to colleagues or schedule viewing or discussion groups.
Student satisfaction: Based on the August survey results, 95 percent of respondents expressed interest in having access to the archived sessions, with over half stating they not only would attend the conference, but also sign up to watch the streaming presentations at a later time. Attendees valued having a knowledge archive for reference and the ability to watch sessions that they missed because they either could not attend given budget restrictions on travel or due to scheduling conflicts during the event. To date, Sloan-C is not aware of any bandwidth or technology constraints that would limit viewership or access to the presentations.
Faculty satisfaction: Webcasting introduced no additional burden on conference presenters, other than to ensure they used a high-quality, well-placed microphone and occasionally repeated questions posed by the on-site attendees. Mediasite accurately captured what took place during each session, and the online archive now enables presenters to reach new audiences.
Learning effectiveness: On-demand webcasting provided the conference audience and Sloan C members with a learning experience almost equivalent to physical attendance at these sessions. However, by design the presentations were captured for post-event viewing, providing no opportunity for live Q&A with presenters from an online audience. Sloan-C is considering live webcasting in the future which would enable online viewers to pose questions to presenters.
Scale: By partnering with Sonic Foundry, Sloan-C provided webcasting at no additional cost to conference attendees and at the same time offered new online learning resources to its membership. Capturing the conference sessions presented only a minimal impact on conference planning costs, resources, time and effort. The online catalog will now help Sloan-C extend brand awareness for the conference after the event and build conference loyalty with current and future attendees. |
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Elluminate Research Grants
In partnership with Sloan-C, Elluminate has made the generous offer to support registration at the West Coast Sloan-C Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Online Education for up to ten individuals who undertake online education research projects using Elluminate in the upcoming semester and report on their results at the symposium. See http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org for registration details.
If you are a winner, Elluminate will provide a free 50-person Elluminate vClass for 9 months - approximately a $5,000 value. The winners will be decided in the upcoming 30 days so that you can use the classroom for research during the next 9 months. Once winners are selected, the vClassrooms can be set up within a few business days.
To participate, please submit a paragraph proposal to Kathleen.Ives@sloan-c.org; all awardees will receive full use of Elluminate for a class for the upcoming 9 months. We will announce the winners in one month, in time for you to incorporate Elluminate in your course during the upcoming semester. |
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Sloan-C Early Registration Discounts on the 2009 College Pass Professional Development Package!
Less than two weeks left to receive your discount on a 2009 Sloan-C registration.
We would like to remind you that the 10% discount on a 2009 College Pass expires on December 15th. Sloan-C's online workshops are based on years of Sloan-C research and effective practices - anytime, anywhere flexibility combined with an attention to quality and access to top experts and new colleagues in the field. Now you can provide your institution complete access to these workshops through the end of 2009 with the Sloan-C College Pass Professional Development Package.
A 2009 College Pass Professional Development Package opens the door:
- 150 seats per year in over 30 Sloan-C online workshops which cover a variety of key online education topics
- Use the workshops as a cost-effective and convenient way to improve quality in online education while networking with new colleagues
- Supplement your on-campus efforts with access to a wide variety of topic coverage from experts around the nation
Register for a 2009 College Pass Professional Development Package today at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/info/2009colpass.
This offer expires December 15, 2008. |
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Sloan-C Discounts on a 2009 Institutional Membership!
Your chance for a 10% discount on a 2009 Membership expires on December 15th.
Membership in the Sloan Consortium provides knowledge, practice, community, and direction for educators.
A 2009 Institutional Membership includes:
- 10 $50 coupons toward the 15th Annual Conference on Online Learning Networks in 2009 in Orlando, FL
- 20 $150 coupons toward over 30 Sloan-C online workshops for faculty, staff, and administrators in online education
- Full access to Sloan-C effective practices, networking opportunities, and many Sloan-C publications
Register for a 2009 Institutional Membership today at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/membership.
Offer expires December 15, 2008. |
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Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate
How do you know that you and your faculty are following the most effective practices in teaching online?
How do you keep your online faculty in sync with the growth in your online program(s)?
How do I manage learning to teach online effectively when I am so busy teaching online?
Sloan-C developed the Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate to provide online programs access to a world-class online teaching certificate program at an affordable cost.
The Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate program is unique because faculty can take key lessons from the Getting Started and Quality Matters workshops, immediately apply these lessons in a laboratory environment, and receive feedback from both faculty mentors and faculty peers. As with all Sloan-C online workshops, these are offered in both asynchronous and synchronous modes that you'll find flexible for a busy schedule.
The Online Teaching Certificate foundational series costs $1499. Three additional electives may be funded by coupons available through Sloan-C membership discounts and the Sloan-C College Pass professional development package.
We encourage you to sign up soon, as the next program begins in January.
To register or receive more information on a Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate please visit the Sloan Consortium site. |
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