|
Issue
Contents
|
2008 Sloan-C Award Winners
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) awards will be presented
at the 14th Annual International Conference on Asynchronous Learning
Networks: Improving Learning in a Networked World in Orlando, Florida.
The Inaugural Ralph E. Gomory
Award for Quality Online Education – University of Central
Florida
"For developing a sustainable culture of evidence in online learning
at the University of Central Florida based on the Sloan-C Pillars of
quality online education."
The Inaugural Ralph E. Gomory
Award for Quality Online Education – University of Illinois
at Springfield
"For innovative work in using quantitative data in a process of
continuous quality improvement to assure excellence in online teaching and
learning at UIS."
Excellence in Institution-Wide
Online Teaching & Learning Programming – Fort Hays
State University
"For implementing a robust, university-wide online program known for
its global reach and affordable excellence."
Most Outstanding Achievement in
Online Teaching & Learning by an Individual – Gary E.
Miller, The Pennsylvania State University
"For exemplary work and inspirational leadership that have helped to
shape the theory and practice of online education on a state, national, and
international level."
Excellence in Online Teaching
– Jeannette E. Riley, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
"For innovative development of learner-centered strategies for online
teaching that promote intellectual inquiry, critical analysis, and
self-reflection, and inspire students to pursue life-long learning."
Excellence in Online Teaching
& Learning Faculty Development – Studio e, University
of West Florida
"For building an exceptional framework for faculty development and
ongoing support enabling outstanding online instruction to the benefit of
students at the University of West Florida."
Most Outstanding Online Teaching
& Learning Program – Online Graduate Behavioral
Intervention in Autism Program, UMass Lowell, UMass Medical - Shriver
Center, UMassOnline
"For creating a rigorous, high-quality online graduate program that
meets the growing need for individuals with expertise in dealing with the
challenges of autism."
2008 Sloan-C Effective Practice
Award - Brian Beatty, San Francisco State University
Using the Hyflex Course and Design Process
For designing Hyflex,
giving greater access and choice for learners, faculty and schools.
2008 Sloan-C Effective Practice
Award - Ed Gehringer, North Carolina State University
Engaging Students Through Electronic Peer Review
For enabling greater
active learning and real-world skills through online peer review.
2008 Sloan-C Effective Practice
Award - Susan Wegmann ,University of Central Florida
Content Area Vocabulary Digital Stories
For connecting teachers
with their students with new learning technologies.
Journal of Asynchronous Learning
Networks
2008 Paper of the Year - Katrina Anne Meyer, University of Memphis
For "If higher
education is a right, and distance education is the avenue for making
higher education universally available, then who shall pay?"
a JALN paper analyzing the potential of higher education institutions and
state governments to support access to higher education.
Special Recognition
Eric E. Fredericksen
With gratitude in recognition of 5 years (2003-2007) as Chair of the
Sloan-C Excellence Awards Selection Committee
To
read the full brochure on the 2008 Sloan-C Awards, click here.
|
|
The Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning
Come Celebrate the 14th Year of
Our Conference With Us!
Join us at the 14th Annual Sloan-C International
Conference on Online Learning from November 5th-7th in Orlando, FL. The
conference will explore current topics in online education, such as:
- Learning Effectiveness
- Student Eervices and Learner Support
- Technology and Emerging Learning Environments
- Faculty and Professional Development and Workforce Training
- Leadership, Values, and Society
Keynote speaker: Terry Anderson, Director, Canadian
Institute for Distance Education Research
To
celebrate the conference's 14th year, Sloan-C is offering a 10% Early Bird
discount on both the 2009 College Pass Professional Development Package and
2009 Institutional Membership. Visit the Sloan Consortium
for more details.
Visit the 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference
on Online Learning site for more conference information. We hope to see
you there!
Sloan-C thanks our Diamond Sponsor- Compass Knowledge Group for
their generous support of this event.
|
|
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/.
|
|
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
In August, Sloan-C conducted a brief survey to gauge
member interest in streaming conference sessions at the International Conference on Online
Learning, November 5th-7th in Orlando, Florida. In keeping with its
mission to make quality online education a part of everyday life, Sloan-C
sought to broaden access to the valuable information presented at this
annual event.
Sloan-C piloted conference webcasting with Mediasite by Sonic Foundry at its
International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online
Learning in Carefree, Arizona. The online
presentation catalog is publicly-available and features fourteen
presentations including "Education
= Communication: Understanding how technology changes the ways we
communicate and the ways we teach" by Sarah
"Intellagirl" Robbins.
Results from the August survey revealed overwhelming
support for webcasting, with 95 percent of respondents expressing interest
in having access to the archived sessions, and over half stating they not
only would attend the conference, but also sign up to watch the streaming
presentations at a later time.
Comments accompanying the survey responses clearly
supported the value of having a knowledge archive for reference after the
conference and the ability to watch sessions that attendees may miss due to
scheduling conflicts on-site during the event.
Moreover, given current economic conditions and
increasing budget restraints on travel, several members provided feedback
that while attending in person is ideal, disseminating conference material
online is now essential to their professional development. "Our
institution has cut back on travel expenses, so it would be a way for me to
attend without losing out on all on the valuable information,"
observed one member.
Because Sloan-C uses the five pillars of quality
to assess program effectiveness, Sloan-C and Sonic Foundry will be
evaluating the conference webcasting initiative against these principles,
and look forward to receiving
member feedback both leading up to and after the event.
|
Looking at the Broader Context (excerpts from
Sloan-C listserv)
Gary E. Miller, D.Ed.
Executive Director Emeritus
Penn State World Campus
In Fareed Zakaria's excellent book, "The Post-American
World" he notes that, while America is a world leader in higher
education, "Everyone knows that the American school system is in crisis
and that its students do particularly bad in science and math." The real
problem, he argues, "is not one of excellence, but of access."
Aggregate national scores "hide deep regional, racial, and socioeconomic
variation" with poor and minority students scoring well below the
American average, while students in affluence suburban schools scoring nearly
as well as Singapore-the world leader in math scores.
However, Zakaria also notes that one reason why the US
scores so low is that, "Other educational systems teach you to take
tests; the American system teaches you to think," adding "It is
surely this quality that goes some way in explaining why America produces so
many entrepreneurs, inventors, and risk takers." He reports that
Singaporean officials "recently visited U.S. schools to learn how to
create a system that nurtures and rewards ingenuity, quick thinking, and
problem solving."
This reinforces the idea that those of us who are involved
in online learning need to be thinking about our work within a broader
strategic framework: How can online learning help with both the access
issue-ensuring that poor and minority students have equitable access to the
best education-and with building our educational system's ability to create
innovators and problem solvers-the pedagogy issue. In asking these questions,
we need also to ask how we can avoid the danger of commercialized
"massification" of education while reinforcing the values of
community-based schooling and the diversity of ideas and perspectives that
this generates in the overall American population.
For instance, it may be that, while we need some courses to
be available entirely online to meet access needs (calculus for rural
students, for instance), in other curriculum areas we need a blended approach
that that allows students to develop their skills in inquiry and problem
solving within a small school environment. Part of our challenge is to
envision how online can contribute to a broader vision for the role of public
schooling in a knowledge society. In turn, this requires us to rethink how
individuals can be part of different communities in this new society and the
role of schooling in building the individual student's sense of belonging
to-and being empowered in-a community.
I think we are at a transition point in the development of
online learning and that the future will require a stronger sense of social
purpose, so that online learning becomes a tool of social policy. The first
generation of online learning was all about access. Access will continue to
be important, of course. In the K12 environment, access is--or should be--a
social policy issue: We need to ensure that all young people have access to
the key courses that they need in order to compete for jobs in a knowledge
economy and to move on to higher education. At one of our Sloan conferences,
Susan Patrick at NACOL noted that, while the industrial age required that 25
percent of high school graduates move on to college, the information age
requires that 80 percent of high school graduates have some postsecondary
experience. It goes without saying that we also need a higher percentage of
students to graduate from high school with workplace and citizenship skills.
Online learning can ensure that students in rural schools and inner-city
schools all have access to critical courses that are difficult to staff in
poor or small districts.
The second generation is about pedagogy. This includes
(today, at least) incorporating web 2.0 applications that allow students to
work in teams, to create knowledge in a learning community, and apply that
knowledge to solve problems. These are critical skills for today's workplace
and today's community. Beyond that, online learning can help us re-perceive
communities in the new environment--an increasingly critical social issue.
My hope is that we can concentrate on these two elements on
online learning in the coming years while self-consciously avoiding
unintended consequences. We should be able to use online learning to allow
small community schools to thrive. The two can go hand in hand if we are
purposeful about it. At this juncture, we need to be more self-consciously
social in our thinking, understanding that online is not an innovation in
isolation, but a tool that will allow us to adapt our schools to a very
different social/economic/cultural environment.
Zakaria,
Fareed. (2008).The Post-American World. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
Inc.
|
Compass Knowledge Presents on The Economics of Online
Learning
Compass Knowledge is proud to be this year's Sloan-C
Diamond Sponsor at the 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on
Online Learning. We take this responsibility seriously, and as such we want
to share our experience in online learning with our colleagues.
During the conference, we will provide multiple
presentations on The Economics of Online Learning, where we essentially
analyze this industry's value chain, assign an average cost to each
component, and provide an abundance of economic and other performance data
on over 40 online program launches across a number of universities and
disciplines. The topics and schedules are included in your conference
packets.
We hope you are able to join us in these groundbreaking
presentations and discussions. We also wish you a most productive and
enjoyable Sloan-C experience this year.
About Compass Knowledge:
Compass Knowledge partners with top-tier, non-profit ,
academic institutions to help them plan and implement online programs for
academic, financial, and strategic success.
Our success is built upon a long history of predictable
performance well above industry standards and an exceptional understanding
of academic process and culture. We were the first and continue to be the
premier organization to provide e-learning services. Those services are as
follows:
1. Conduct market viability and institutional readiness
assessments
2. Finance the launch of online programs
3. Market the institution's online programs to prospective students
4. Recruit more and better-qualified students
5. Develop curriculum and courses
6. Design and build online classrooms
7. Manage the online learning environment
8. Support, recruit, and train faculty
9. Retain students through proactive retention services
10. Assist our academic partners to continuously become more competitive
We are a group of academicians that includes faculty,
textbook authors, researchers, skilled teachers, former Deans, and a former
University President, all surrounded by more than 170 professional
marketers, retention specialists, recruiters, instructional designers, and
technologists. And we love online learning.
|
|
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.
|
|
Sloan-C Early
Registration Discounts on the 2009 College Pass Professional Development
Package!
Register before October 31 and
receive a 10% discount and 50 additional workshop seats.
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.
Register before October 31st and receive a 10% discount
on a 2009 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. Use coupon code 1661-5134-7385 for a 10% College Pass discount.
This offer expires October 31st,
2008.
|
|
Sloan-C Discounts on a 2009 Institutional Membership!
Register before October 31 and
receive a 10% discount.
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 October 31st, 2008.
|
|
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.
Register for a 2009 College Pass
Professional Development Package today at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/info/2009colpass. Use coupon code 1661-5134-7385 for a 10% College Pass discount,
which will include 50 additional bonus seats.
To register or receive more
information on a Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate please visit the Sloan
Consortium site.
|
Learn From the Experts - The Sloan-C 2008 Workshop Series
Toppling Global
Barriers: The Emerging Culture of the Online Classroom - Oct 15 - 24
Cross-cultural virtual classrooms are fast becoming the
rule rather than the exception. In today's interconnected and independent
world, the online learning environment is becoming more diverse. Faculty and
students involved in international learning communities provide opportunities
for both to understand the world across the breath, depth and complexities of
human experiences. This workshop explores the opportunities and challenges
institutions face as they expand their classroom doors overseas, such as
instructor/learner preparation, conflict resolution, team building, and time
zone/holiday management. Participating institutions will demonstrate how
effective management of the global classroom contributes toward building
human-to-human connections and rendering educational boundaries between
countries irrelevant.
Click here for details
and registration.
Getting Started Primer -
Oct 15 - 31
This workshop introduces potential faculty and/or
administration to online education fundamentals. The proposed workshop length
is two weeks with face-to-face and online components. Below is an outline of
subjects that will be covered. Participants will not only learn about the
concepts discussed, but through taking the workshop, technologies will be
used first-hand to gain practical "hands-on" experience.
Click here for details
and registration.
Using the Quality
Matters Rubric to Improve Your Online Course - Oct 15 - Nov 7
Recognizing quality is much like recognizing art - you know
it when you see it, but everybody sees something different. And when it comes
to online courses, your students, faculty, administrators, peers, and
accrediting bodies may certainly not see what you do. In fact, they might not
even know what to look for in assessing quality. Sloan-C announces an interactive
online workshop focused on learning how to improve your online course(s).
Learn how to use the rubric tool developed by the nationally recognized,
FIPSE-funded Quality Matters (QM) project. The QM rubric provides a
research-supported framework with annotations and examples for applying
quality practices to specific course design standards. Affirm the strong
areas in your course(s) and generate specific ideas for improvements.
Additionally, this course will familiarize participants with the QM course review
process.
Click here for details
and registration.
|
|