Sloan-C View
Perspectives in Quality Online Education
Volume 8 Issue 10 - October 2009
ISSN 1541-2806
Quality, Scale and Breadth

Issue Contents


Join the Sloan Consortium on Linkedin, Twitter & Facebook

Stay connected with The Sloan Consortium and its members through the Sloan-C networking groups on Twitter and Linkedin. Learn what others in online education are doing as well as receive news and conference updates from the Sloan Consortium.

Linkedin: Click here to join the Sloan Consortium group.

Twitter: Click here to follow the Sloan Consortium.

Facebook: Click here to join the Sloan Consortium group.

Plaxo: Click here to join the Sloan Consortium group.


The 2009 Minority Scholars Program Recipients Announced

Sloan-C recently invited people to participate in the 2009 Minority Scholars Program that provides scholarships of up to $1,000 for scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions and Tribal colleges to attend the Sloan-C annual conference, to be held in Orlando, Fl , Oct 28-30, 2009. The objective of the program is to engage more participants from minority –serving institutions in the rapidly growing world of online learning.

2009 Minority Scholarship Program Recipients

Connie Drake Wilson, Estrella Mountain Community College

Sajid Hussain, Fisk University

Ziyad Motala, Howard University

Dr. Hakim Rashid, Howard University

Carolyn J. Harris, Howard University

Masoud Kavoossi, Howard University

Walter Crockett, Jackson State University

Jeton McClinton, Jackson State University

Penny R. Smith, Kentucky State University

Ahlam Tannouri, Morgan State University

Dr. Nadia Enura, Morgan State University

Caroline S. Booth, North Carolina A & T State University

Daryl B. Ingram, Paul Quinn College

Dr. Leah Gaskin Fitchue, Payne Theological Seminary

Dr. William Augman, Payne Theological Seminary

Eric Baxter, Payne Theological Seminary

Kevin P. Johnson, Spelman College

Paula Grissom, Spelman College

Daniel Soodjinda, Ed. D., The University of the District of Columbia

Heidi Oliver O'Gilvie, The University of the District of Columbia

Dr. Djavad Djavadi, Virginia State University

G. Sherrie Lewis, Virginia State University

Dr. Edem Tetteh, Virginia State University


15th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning - Virtual Conference Registration Open

Virtual conference registration available ($89.95)

The 15th Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning: "The Power of Online Learning: Opportunities for Tomorrow." takes place from October 28 - 30, 2009 in Orlando, FL. For fifteen years, the Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning has been the lead conference in online and blended learning, continuously improving and responding to emerging trends.

Don’t forget to visit our wonderful sponsors and exhibitors throughout the conference. Special thanks to our Coast to Coast Sponsors who supported both the Sloan-C Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications and the Annual Conference on Online Learning.

Can't join us in Orlando? Registration is now open for the virtual conference.

This year’s virtual offering consists of 20 key presentations delivered from Orlando via live-webcast. Presentations broadcast include keynote, plenary and closing sessions, 6 "Best-in-Track" sessions and 11 featured sessions, including a simultaneous event with a Sloan-C Regional Conference hosted by the University of Southern Maine and a featured sessions with Martin Dougiamas, the creator and lead developer of Moodle. Virtual conference access includes post-conference on-demand access of the recordings for up to 1 year. The cost to participate virtually is $89.95 or $149.95 if you bundle it with an Individual Sloan-C Membership ($209.95 value.) Click here for the broadcast schedule.


Social Networking and Technology at the 15th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning

One of our goals for this conference is to more seamlessly integrate the attendee experience with our website. We would like you to easily find information about the sessions that interest you! Here are some of our current initiatives:

1. During the Emerging Technologies conference in June, we introduced a new platform “My.Sym” which allowed attendees to create a personal conference schedule and message (twitter-like) other conference attendees. In the next few weeks, start looking for "My.ALN" which will be available at: http://myaln.sloanconsortium.org. Attendees will receive an e-mail invitation with a link to accept the invite. The link will bring you to a page where you will be able to create your username and password.

2. We will be using Sonic Foundry’s MediaSite for streamed sessions. This year, the keynotes and featured sessions will be available to on-site and virtual attendees. MediaSite has integrated some great new tools which will help us integrate social networking with each streamed session. View the broadcasting schedule here.

3. What else? SlideShare! We will be publishing tagging information so you can easily find this year’s presentations on SlideShare. The twitter tag to use this year is #sloancaln.

4. We’ll also produce a basic FaceBook page.

5. This year’s conference blogs will be available at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/2009ALN_Blogs.

6. IMPORTANT: In October, we will be opening our Technology Bootcamp to registered attendees as a self-paced course in Moodle to review this information.

7. Training in Elluminate to review access information and technologies used for conference attendees on October 6th at 2:00PM*.

Sloan-C MY.ALN Information Session

Time: 2:00PM ET
Date: 10/6/09
Where: http://tinyurl.com/myaln2009 (an Elluminate session)

*If you receive this e-mail after October 6th, you can view the recording here: https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.7EF5E1C7EB8EAA1B0DBAE64B1B5BE0.

The most up-to-date information will be available at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/aln. We are excited about how these technologies are evolving and hope to see you either on-site or virtually at the conference this year!


Share Your Views: Another Way to Participate in the Sloan-C Community

Below are blog posts of interest collected from www.sloanconsortium.org. Feel free to share your ideas by posting comments.

Did you know that if you have a Sloan-C account, you can create blog posts on the Sloan Consortium website? Log in to your account and the "My Blog" link will be under the "Quick Links" menu on the right.

How Do You Help Students Complete Online Courses?
by Janet Moore
How do you help students complete online courses? To coincide with JALN 13:3, a special issue on retention strategies, the Sloan-C faculty development advisory board shares tips for keeping students on track and engaged to complete online courses successfully.
Click here to read the blog post.

The new research question: Why is online better?
by Peter Shea
As I ponder the crucial issues that confront attendees to the next Sloan-C conference I am reminded of what I have been discussing with my current group of doctoral students at UAlbany. To me the question is simple: Why is it that college students in online courses are doing better than college students in classroom courses? Now you may be thinking - ok, Peter is just being controversial.
Click here to read the blog post.

Welcome to the 15th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning
by Karen Swan
The theme of this year’s conference is “Opportunities for Tomorrow,” and indeed recent developments in field indicate enormous opportunities for online and blended learning in the coming decade. For example, the number of students choosing online and blended course offerings continues to grow nationwide, far exceeding growth in classroom based education.
Click here to read the blog post.


Join the Sloan Consortium on Linkedin, Twitter & Facebook

Stay connected with The Sloan Consortium and its members through the Sloan-C networking groups on Twitter and Linkedin. Learn what others in online education are doing as well as receive news and conference updates from the Sloan Consortium.

Linkedin: Click here to join the Sloan Consortium group.

Twitter: Click here to follow the Sloan Consortium.

Facebook: Click here to join the Sloan Consortium group.

Plaxo: Click here to join the Sloan Consortium group.


2009 Sloan-C College Pass Professional Development Package

*A cost effective solution for faculty training*

A 2009 College Pass Professional Development Package provides:

- 150 seats per year in over 30 Sloan-C online workshops which cover a variety of key online education topics
- A cost-effective and convenient way to improve quality in online education while networking with new colleagues
- Supplements your on-campus efforts with access to a wide variety of topic coverage from experts around the nation

Online workshops are 1 - 2 weeks long with convenient synchronous and asynchronous delivery. 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 for a 2009 College Pass Professional Development Package today at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/info/2009colpass or e-mail info@sloanconsortium.org.


Sloan-C 2009 Institutional Membership

*Join the Sloan-C Community of educators from around the world.*

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.


Learn From the Experts - The Sloan-C 2009 Workshop Series

2010 schedule now available.

Learning Online 2.0: 20 Engaging, Interacting and Syndicating Applications - Oct 14 - 23

Web 2.0 technologies are revolutionizing the way in which instructors engage and interact with students online. Through RSS syndication, instructors are automating the delivery of learning objects to the students. Through Web 2.0 applications a whole host of new ways to engage and interact with students has emerged. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, interactive whiteboards, VoIP, tagging, image sharing, discussion rooms, and many more learning tools are freely available to educators.

Click here for details and registration.

Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Your Online Course - Oct 14 - Nov 6

Recognizing quality is much like recognizing art; everybody sees something different. With regard to online courses, your students, faculty, administrators, peers, and accrediting bodies may not know what to look for in assessing quality. Defining quality standards proves crucial to successful course design and implementation.

Click here for details and registration.

Social Media Marketing - Oct 21 - 30

Recruitment and retention continue to serve as key issues in online higher education. Currently the management of this process is changing in response to the growing array of social networks that have created new paths for communicating and sharing information and have become a vital part of the online learning environment. In online marketing, for example, there has been rapid growth in the evolution and use of social media and social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube. At the same time, a growing number of students are actively participating in some form of social media such as weblogs, forums, wikis, social blogs, and tweets. Social media is not a buzzword, and institutions can no longer afford to exclude social media from online marketing strategies. A growing number of colleges and universities are using social media as an integral component of their marketing strategy because they realize marketing is not a marketer-led, one-way form of communication, but a student-led, two-way dialogue. By becoming part of this conversation, you too can learn about how to incorporate social media as part of your marketing strategy to reach these students.

Click here for details and registration.

Getting Started: The First Step Toward Online Teaching - Oct 21 - Nov 6

Getting Started: The First Step toward Online Teaching is a prerequisite to the Online Teaching Certificate program and to the Blended Teaching Certificate program. This workshop introduces potential faculty and/or administrators to online education fundamentals. You will not only discuss the concepts but use the technologies to gain practical “hands-on” experience.

Click here for details and registration.


Elluminate

21st Century students learn differently. As 21st Century educators, you need the tools to reach them-regardless of geographical, physical, intellectual, and economic barriers. At Elluminate, we take global accessibility very seriously. While most eLearning and Web conferencing products are built with the mass market in mind, we take a radically different approach, elevating accessibility to a whole new level. Our No User Left Behind philosophy means that Elluminate Live! is completely cross platform, optimized for low bandwidth, and designed to engage all types of learners, including those with disabilities. Learn more about how Elluminate can help you deliver 21st Century learning today, http://www.ilearndifferently.net/.


Sloan-C Quick Links

Membership - Join Sloan-C and enjoy added savings and access

Workshops - Tailored for faculty and administrators

Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) - The leading journal for online education

Survey Reports - Latest findings from our research

Publications - The state-of-the-art in online learning

Effective Practices - Learn what works best from the best

College Pass - Dramatic group savings at Sloan-C workshops

Sloan-C Catalog - Listing of Sloan-C member online programs

Academic Continuity - Maintaining continuity of learning in a crisis situation

 

Featured Download

Sloan-C Honors Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning - Winners Announced

Online learning has greatly progressed since 1992 when the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation began giving grants to institutions for online learning initiatives. "The investments made in online learning are paying real dividends as enrollments continue to soar,” says Bruce Chaloux, President of Sloan-C: “Our watchwords of quality, scale and breadth are epitomized by individuals and institutions we honor this year." Burks Oakley II, Chair of the Awards Committee, adds "The 2009 recipients all have demonstrated exceptional leadership and real success in advancing online education. Sloan-C is pleased to make the first Sloan Consortium President’s Special Achievement Award to Ellie Olazabal of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, honoring her service to the Sloan Consortium."

Please click here for the awards brochure.

 

Upcoming Sloan-C Workshops

2009 Workshops - 2010 Schedule Now Available

Oct:

Nov:

Dec:

 

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The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is composed of institutions and organizations dedicated to continually improving the quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs, according to their own distinctive missions, so that education becomes a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.

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