Dear Educator:

Please take a moment to review this month's Sloan-C NOW, a digest of events, information and notices of importance you won't want to miss.

Sloan-C Webinars

This year, Sloan-C has added webinars to its resources for educators. Webinars typically last anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half. Most are free to Individual Members. Institutional members and non members pay a separate fee. New webinars will be added soon. Check the webinar site frequently.

Best Practices for Online Course Discussions - September 28th 2:00 - 3:30 ET

As online learning use increases, so does a major component in many asynchronous online courses - the threaded discussion. Learn strategies and techniques for using discussions in online learning courses as drawn from research and the personal experiences of an online instructor who has taught many online courses using a variety of learning management systems, including Blackboard, ANGEL, and Moodle.

Teach Lab Science Courses Online – Meet Student Needs and Increase Enrollments - September 29th 2:00 - 3:30 ET

Teaching science courses, including a "hands-on" laboratory component, fully online is a reality and you do not have to reinvent the wheel! Dr. Jim Brown, professor of microbiology at Ocean County College in New Jersey demonstrates how he converted from a campus-based, face-to-face course to online delivery.

Customizing Moodle to Enhance Faculty Performance - October 13th 2:00 - 3:30 ET

Learn ways to customize Moodle to maximize faculty’s interaction with students and minimize the time they spend learning and navigating the system. This webinar will present a case study of Berklee College of Music’s unique approach to assessing and customizing Moodle 1.9 through close collaboration with faculty. The webinar will demonstrate simple modifications, such as renaming interface elements to make them more intuitive, and more complex ones, such as developing a customized grading page that allows faculty to review, provide feedback, and grade all student submissions from a single page.

Success Strategies for Online Students - October 27th 2:00 - 3:30 ET

Students have a variety of unique issues they face in the online environment. Many are either too intimidated to ask, or are unaware of what to ask instructors about how to be successful. This webinar will address how students and online professors can both benefit from guidance provided in the online classroom.

For more information or to register, please go to the webinar page.

View recordings of previous webinars.

Full Program now posted for the 16th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning

• The full program for the Nov. 3-5th conference is now posted! Sign-up here to receive conference updates as they occur.
• We are pleased to announce our two plenary speakers!

Julie Young, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Florida Virtual School, will present the Friday plenary address at this year’s conference. Join Julie for "Through the Looking Glass: Florida Virtual School's Journey to Invent New Worlds of Learning," where she will share insights from the development journey of the nation's largest and most successful K-12 public online learning program. Learn how her team transcended traditional educational boundaries and reinvented the learning processes - and how they are continuing to do so. Don't miss this glimpse of next-generation, tech-supported learning environments.

Barbara Means, Co-Director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, will present the Thursday plenary address "Research on the Effectiveness of Online Learning: Insights, Controversies, and Gaps." Join Barbara as she describes the design principles for online learning that can be derived from available research and areas where further research is needed.

Key Action Items to Prepare for the Orlando Conference

• Register now for Early Bird Pricing! Don’t miss your opportunity to register at the reduced rate of $495 for regular attendees or $445 for Sloan-C members. Early Bird registration deadline is October 15th
• Reserve your hotel room now at the Caribe Royale Hotel at special rates starting at $159.00 plus taxes for Sloan-C attendees. Reservations should be made by October 3 in order to receive these special rates.
• Register Now for pre- and post-conference workshops, available to full conference attendees at special discounted prices of $125 for ½ day and $225 for full day workshops; lunch is provided to all workshop attendees. Space is limited and most workshops tend to fill quickly. Visit our conference website for full descriptions.
• Join us for a FREE preview of the conference! Sign up for our Thursday, Sept. 30th webinar @ 2:00pm ET. This is the 2nd installment in a series of 4 webinars, each covering different aspects of Sloan-C’s annual online learning conference. This webinar will focus on an overall introduction of the conference and program content, with special focus on 4 tracks: Faculty Development and Support; Professional Development and Workforce Training; Leadership, Values and Society; K-12 Online Education. This session will be recorded and available on the conference website immediately following the live session.

Virtual Attendee Option

Can’t join us in Orlando? Register for the Virtual Attendee Option! The virtual attendee option offers a robust program of presentations, including the keynote, plenary sessions, featured sessions, best-in-track presentations and select vendor showcase presentations. View the virtual attendee program here.

Volunteers Sought to Convene Sessions at the 2010 Annual Sloan Consortium Conference

If you are planning to attend the 16th Annual ALN conference in Orlando this November, the Sloan-C Planning Committee is looking for volunteers to convene the concurrent sessions. Helping to kick off these sessions gives you a great opportunity to network with presenters and get an up-close and personal view of their topics. It is also a great way to become more involved in the mission of the Sloan Consortium – to integrate online education into the mainstream of higher education.

Being a conference convener is easy. Volunteers can request specific sessions to convene. Before the conference, volunteers contact the speakers and familiarize themselves with the presentations. The conveners also go over some basic "house cleaning" items such as presentation time limits and computer and connectivity requirements. During the conference, the conveners introduce the speakers, facilitate a brief Q/A session at the end of the presentation, and collect session surveys from attendees. An example of how a convener would kick off a session can be viewed on YouTube.

If you would like to sign up to be a convener during the ALN 2010 conference this November, please let the Planning Committee know by filling out the convener volunteer form. You can request specific sessions to convene by referencing the schedule of concurrent events. Any questions about being a convener for the ALN conference can be directed to Robert Zotti at webcampus@stevens.edu.

*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.

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Sloan-C Membership - More Benefits, Same Price

Join the Sloan-C community. In 2010 Sloan-C instituted many new member benefits and options based on input from our members and friends. We made membership rolling (no longer based on a calendar year) and added free webinars, practitioner documents and new membership types, with no increase in rates. Membership includes full web access to effective practices, the JALN, free webinars, practitioner docs, discounts on workshops, conferences and much more.

Click here for more details.