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Issue Contents Academic Continuity-Emergency Management Workshop The Sloan Semester program in fall 2005 helped provide academic continuity for some of the students affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The success of the Sloan Semester naturally generated interest in continuing its operations and applying its lessons to future disasters. Since then, a series of workshops has been held to address these issues. Among the workshop findings was the need for academic institutions to establish linkages with governmental agencies involved in emergency management. To carry out this task, a working group representing higher education, federal and state emergency management, and other experts met on June 27, 2007 to discuss academic continuity and its role in the broader context of emergency preparedness and campus resiliency. The goal of the workshop was to create connections among participants and to consider a sustainable process for maintaining the continuity of teaching and learning and the support systems needed to provide for the ability to recover quickly from emergencies such as natural disasters. The workshop was funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and hosted by the University of Maryland University College. Participants attending the workshop included representatives from a variety of sectors and constituencies including the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, National Association of Counties, International Association of Emergency Managers, EDUCAUSE, Southern Regional Education Board, emergency management professionals at the national, regional and state levels, academic institutions from across the country, national education organizations and non-governmental organizations. Workshop participants agreed that academic continuity and campus resiliency are inextricably linked, but connections between emergency management professionals at all governmental levels and the higher education community are inadequate and need to be improved. Emergency management guidelines, examples and assistance that focus on teaching and learning are lacking or difficult to access. Since teaching and learning is the 'core business' of higher education, preparedness plans need to include strategies to maintain academic continuity and improve campus resiliency to facilitate the recovery process from an emergency or disaster. Also, alternative ways of teaching and learning need to be explored to enable academic continuity. For example, The Louisiana Board of Regents is encouraging all higher education institutions to develop full capabilities in both 'brick' (physical campuses) and 'click' (online learning) environments as a strategy to provide for academic continuity and improve campus resiliency. The workshop laid the groundwork for developing long-term, sustainable approaches dealing with the issue of academic continuity and emergency management. The workshop also generated nine recommendations for future actions, including development of a national center for academic continuity to make information and resources available to key stakeholders. The complete workshop report is available on the Sloan-C academic continuity web site at www.academiccontinuity.org.
Thai International Conference Thailand Cyber University (TCU), a project of the Ministry of Education Commission on Higher Education, emphasizes expanding educational opportunities for people via online education. Its second annual conference, "Cyber Education for the Next Generation," brought together international educators to share resources on policy and strategy for integrating e-Learning with traditional education, quality assurance and standards, project management, learning design, and innovative technology. The conference audience of 1500 participants also attended workshops and a Moodle Moot. Supannee Sombuntham, Director of TCU, opened the conference by introducing Krissanapong Kirtikara, the Secretary-General of Thailand's commission on higher education. Kirtikara noted that higher education faces massive changes as today's students live in a world we never imagined. They spend more time with IT devices than in study with books, and they expect just-in-time, personalized learning. These expectations will make traditional educational structures obsolete. Thus, nations must focus on systematically building information infrastructures that bridge public and private spheres, network internally and internationally, and overcome language barriers. Educators must emphasize assessment and the psychology of learning. The first day of the conference included presentations about next generation learning from Japan's National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME), Korea's Institute of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Collaborative Education (IACE), and the U.S. Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C). Representatives from China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand reported on learning design, change management, innovative technology, and open courseware. For a summary of conference proceedings, see Thailand Cyber University National E-Learning Conference, August 2007. Bangkok Moodle Moot Moodle is designed for transformative, enjoyable learning...and it will always be free. These two points explain a great deal of Moodle's popularity with more than 5 million users in 75 languages from 190 countries at 30,000 sites that have registered with Moodle [1]. Besides being free, Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), has another advantage for its users-as an open source platform, it is continuously being developed by its users who freely share Moodle resources with each other. Thailand Cyber University sees Moodle as a way to encourage community development of online education. Thus, day two of the TCU conference brought together developers, faculty and students to share information about knowledge management, information literacy, integration with campus systems, case studies, and using open resources and web 2.0 applications. For Second Life educators, Sloodle is developing tools such as blogs, toolbars, chatcast, enrollment and registration booths, gestures, glossaries, grid status, quizchairs, and real names. More information about advances in Moodle is available at the Moodle Roadmap. (Join Catheryn Cheal, Oakland University, Kathleen Ives, The Sloan Consortium, and Jonathan Small, New England College of Finance in the Sloan-C online workshop, Using Moodle to Create Online Courses, October 10th - 19th.)
Quality Matters Today Ron Legon
The rapid growth of The Quality Matters™ Program is evidence that the QM Rubric and the process to apply it respond to a widely felt need in the field of online education. Today, just four years after its inception, and only one year after launching a subscription service, this initiative has been formally embraced by more than 100 institutions nationwide, and informally by many more. It is worth stepping back for a moment from our focused efforts to meet the needs of the expanding QM community and examine the reasons behind this widespread and growing interest in QM. Quality Matters began, modestly enough, as an effort by a voluntary consortium of colleges and universities in Maryland (MarylandOnline or MOL) to develop a common set of standards for the design and organization of online courses. Their willingness to collaborate on this effort and to pilot a cross-institutional, faculty-based, peer review process that held the potential to be widely replicated, convinced the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to support the project. FIPSE funding enabled the MOL to maintain an aggressive calendar for development of the rubric and underwrite the training of more than 700 faculty peer reviewers during the grant period. Initially, the rubric was used to assess mature online courses that had been offered at least a few times. Instructors of these courses overwhelmingly reported that the insights of the experienced online teachers who constituted the peer review teams identified issues they had neglected and helped them to improve their courses. Peer reviewers felt that they too gained insights that benefited their own online courses from the process and the opportunity to view the courses of other instructors. Today, we find that the QM standards and tools are being used in a variety of ways not anticipated by the MOL developers. -Instructors are applying the standards in the rubric to their own courses, with the help of a facilitator. The Sloan-C sponsored QM workshops are of this type and have now been incorporated into the Sloan-C certificate program. -QM trainers and trained instructional development staff are incorporating QM standards into the guidance they provide faculty members as they develop new online courses. -Institutions are incorporating some or all of the QM standards into policies governing online education. -Implementation of the QM standards and process are being cited in re-accreditation reviews as evidence of quality assurance in distance learning. -QM subscribers and staff are collaborating on a wide range of initiatives to adapt the QM Rubric to additional modes of distance learning, different levels of instruction, and different audiences. These efforts will result in an expansion of the Quality Matters Rubric and possibly to variants of the rubric tailored to these different circumstances. All these by-paths are the result of active participation by an ever-wider circle of Quality Matters users. Cross-institutional collaboration, which has been a defining characteristic of online education over the past decade, is driving the further evolution of Quality Matters. (Join Ron Legon, Quality Matters Program and University of Baltimore and Jean Runyon, College of Southern Maryland in the Sloan-C online workshop, Using the quality matters rubric to improve your online course(s) , October 17th - November 2nd.)
Learn From the Experts - The Sloan-C 2007 Workshop Series- New Workshops for the Fall! Fall is here again and Sloan-C is proud to announce the new Fall workshop schedule. Membership ends in just a few short months, but there are still plenty of workshops to participate in. Make sure to benefit from your institution's membership and use up remaining discount codes. Getting Started: Online Course Development Basics- Sept 12 - Oct 5 Based on research and the Sloan-C effective practices, this workshop provides the foundation for designing and delivering online courses. Faculty gain enhanced pedagogical knowledge and learn effective strategies for creative, online classroom facilitation. During the three-week workshop, facilitators will review the benefits and challenges of online curriculum development and teaching and address the qualities of effective online education. The workshop is designed as an 'active' learning experience, enabling faculty to explore actual online courses in several disciplines and institutions, as well as build a syllabus leading to the major outcome of the workshop: building a complete online course module relevant to their own educational interests. Click here for details and registration. NEW - Introduction to Second Life for Educators - Sep 19 - 28 Throughout this workshop participants will learn the basics of Second Life, and integrate learning theories in the use of virtual worlds. Participants will be encouraged to create activities that are student-centered and maximize the real potential of virtual worlds. A primary goal of the workshop is to get educators thinking about their classes and how the tools used in Second Life can be personalized for the learning environments that they create. The workshop will explore examples of good teaching in Second Life and move beyond PowerPoint, lecture, and passive learning. Participants will make use of asynchronous discussions, multimedia materials, reading assignments and live, interactive class sessions to collaborate, learn, and expand the range of instructional possibilities that are available to students. Click here for details and registration. Visual Pedagogy, Collaborative Learning, and Meaning-Making in Online Environments* - Sept 19 - 28 Visual Communication and Interactive media are transforming teaching, knowledge production, and learning in 21st Century learning environments. Facilitators Martinez and Feinblatt have been collaborating on theory, research and best practices related to the use of the mediated image in learning. This workshop will provide participants with a brief introduction to theory, strategies, and examples of visual pedagogies that promote collaborative learning, followed by conversation and activities designed to illustrate the meaning-making; deeper levels of learning; and dynamic interaction elicited within visual approaches to the curriculum. Click here for details and registration. *This workshop is part of the Select Series and College Pass Members must use their additional 50 seats provided to take advantage of this workshop. NEW - Podcasting in higher education: Current Trends and Applications - Sep 26 - Oct 5 Podcasting has had a revolutionary impact on formal and informal teaching and learning. Rising out of the advent of the Apple iPod, podcasts have grown into the mainstream of online media since their inception in early 2004. The power of the individual to use podcasts to communicate globally has important implications for educators. Higher education professionals must learn how to harness the power of podcasting to reach an increasingly more tech savvy population of students and colleagues. Learn all about podcasts and podcasting in this online workshop conducted by two of the pioneers in using this technology in higher education: Burks Oakley II and Ray Schroeder. Click here for details and registration. Millions of United States residents need adult basic education to achieve their goals for their families, communities, careers, and workplaces. Fewer than 10% of adult learners have access to classroom-based education required to earn a high school diploma (Project Ideal, 2004). This workshop explores the potential of online learning as an alternative for adults when college/university brick and mortar options are not available and/or not a good fit. This workshop provides information regarding effective strategies for attracting, orienting, and retaining adult learners; national accountability requirements, effective teaching practices; learner characteristics and skills. Experts in the field will discuss how the effective use of technology by educators and adult learners can assist in overcoming barriers that keep the vast majority of adults from getting the basic education skills they need. Click here for details and registration. *This workshop is part of the Select Series and College Pass Members must use their additional 50 seats provided to take advantage of this workshop. |
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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. The Sloan-C View is published by Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C™). Responsibility for the contents rests with the authors and not with Sloan-C™. Copyright ©2007 by Sloan-C™. If you have a question or comment, would like to submit an article for publication, or would like to suggest an event to be listed on the Sloan-C View Calendar, please email sloan-cview@sloan-c.org. Materials in the Sloan-C View, unless otherwise noted, may be distributed freely for educational purposes. However, if any materials are redistributed they must retain the copyright notice and use the proper citation. Kindly send an email to sloan-cview@sloan-c.org indicating how you are using the material for distribution. Your privacy is important to us, you can view our privacy policy at www.sloan-c.org/aboutus/privacy.asp The Sloan Consortium, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02492-1200 | |||||||||||||||||||||