Tag: NOLA

#OLCInnovate, Learning Technologies, Reflections

The #OLCinnovateSDS: Our Re-Cap of the Plan, Design, & Pitch at OLC Innovate 2016

Laura Pasquini

The inaugural OLC Innovate (#OLCInnovate) conference brought over a thousand educators, EdTech-innovators, and learning designers to New Orleans. This year was the inaugural Solution Design Summit (SDS) in which diverse teams of institutional stakeholders, campus partners, and EdTech innovators came together to solve learning challenges. Nine teams were selected to participate in the summit and pitch their learning solutions.

About the Solution Design Summit

Following OLC Emerging Technologies conference (2015) ideas from the “Teacher Tank,” we wanted to know, “How can we use the pitch format to design a solutions-based space for teams to work on solving a learning problem?” What resulted was the 2016 Solution Design Summit.

The SDS call for team proposals required participants to submit a learning challenge and a proposed solution to be worked on by an interdisciplinary team. The nine selected SDS teams then produced a 2-minute video trailer to describe their project. You can watch the 2016 SDS Video Trailers on YouTube or review the full SDS program here: http://bit.ly/olcinnovatesds16

Design Thinking Is A Process

During the Summit, a 3-hour pre-conference working session, the teams identified critical success factors for their learning solutions, gathered feedback from external stakeholders, and used design thinking to refine their “pitch” presentations. During the #OLCInnovate conference, teams delivered their 10-minute pitches in one of three concurrent sessions. The SDS pitches were evaluated by a panel of invited judges and audience participants.

OLCinnovateSDS_2016_Montage

The SDS challenges

The Solution Design Summit asked teams to work on increasing learner success in one of the following four areas: personal and adaptive learning; professional learning and development; the impact of open learning; or choose your own learning challenge.

Listed below are the nine SDS teams. Click on any of the titles to find out about each SDS team’s challenge and solution:

And the Winners are…

The 2016 SOLUTION DESIGN SUMMIT WINNING TEAM is . . .

OLCSDSWinner

Image mashup c/o Tony Dalton from the SDS Muhlenberg College Team

Creating Pathways to Digital Peer Leadership in the Liberal Arts

Team members:  

  • Lora Taub-Pervizpour, Associate Dean for Digital Learning, Professor of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College
  • Kathy Harring, Dean of Institutional Assessment & Academic Planning, Professor of Psychology at Muhlenberg College
  • Sean Miller, Manager of Media Services at Muhlenberg College
  • Thomas Sciarrino, Manager of Instructional Technology and Digital Learning at Muhlenberg College
  • Anthony Dalton, Digital Cultures Media Technician, Digital Media Design Lab Instructor at Muhlenberg College

Summary: Like many liberal arts institutions, Muhlenberg College is exploring the role of the digital in our mission, goals, and practices.  We believe that digital spaces, pedagogical practices, and tools can amplify our liberal arts mission and values, and support deep relationships between teaching and learning, appreciation for diverse ways of knowing, and an education that prepares students for citizenship and lifelong learning. At the heart of our student-centered environment is a nationally recognized peer-mentor model.  Our goal is to create an innovative peer education model that empowers students to develop the relationships, skills, and competencies the need to excel as leaders in digital learning contexts.

Kudos to the COMMUNITY CHOICE award for….

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Team members:  

  • Tracy Stuntz, Instructional designer, lead LMS trainer at California State University, Fresno
  • Jean-Marie Venturini, Instructional designer, lead LMS trainer at Otis School of Art and Design
  • Rex Bartholomew, New Model Development Administrator at Toyota

Summary: The challenge we’re facing is faculty/client attendance at non-mandatory (but needed) training events is low. The focus is on reasons for faculty/client lack of attendance, and how to reach and motivate participants.

Thank You To All Who Played In the Solution Design Sandbox!

A big thank you to the invited stakeholders, judges, audience members, and the SDS planning team who supported this program. Kudos to ALL the SDS teams for your amazing pitch presentations! By asking teams to work on a solution before meeting together and then creating iterations of their work, we know that this type of conference project proposal was not simple. We hope each team received valuable input, feedback, and considerations to bring to their institutions and companies. This was the first year of the Solution Design Summit, and we hope to see a similar track at OLC Innovate 2017 and anywhere educators, designers, and ed tech innovators gather at a conference.

Thanks and much love from the #OLCInnovateSDS: 2016 SDS Planning Team,

#OLCInnovate, Conference, Higher Education, K-12, Learning, Learning Technologies, OLC, Online Learning

Feedback Wanted: #OLCInnovate Solution Design Summit Video Trailers

Laura Pasquini

You may have read my previous CFP post looking for learning challenges & solutions – that was for the NEW program feature of #OLCInnovate, The Solution Design Summit (SDS). Nine SDS teams, who proposed a learning issue with a potential solution, have been selected by a blind, peer-review panel to be our finalists who will participate in our 1st Summit  at the 2016 OLC Innovate conference in NOLA. This pre-conference event will be an opportunity to network with peers from other SDS Teams, specifically to solicit feedback from potential learning stakeholders.

SDS_Teams_2016

VIEW THE SDS TEAM VIDEO TRAILERS

 Learn More About the Solution Design Summit

Now the SDS Teams need YOUR feedback!

Please WATCH the Solution Design Summit trailers on the #OLCInnovate Sandbox (a Canvas LMS site) for the conference. To join this Canvas site, click the “Enroll” button at the top of the page or enroll HERE https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/MGEHMW  

To effectively COMMENT and provide FEEDBACK, our SDS Planning Team has developed  Guidelines for Solution Design Summit: Giving Feedback to Teams Please find all 9 videos and SDS Team pages HERE to do such things. You can READ the full proposal and learn more about these learning solutions by clicking on the “Read more at the Team page” links below.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Read more at the Team page

 Preserving Core Experiences in the Online Learning Environment

Read more at the Team page

 Bridging the Engagement Gap for Distance Students Through Telerobotics

Read more at the Team page
Supporting Adjunct Faculty to Maximize Student Learning in the Online Classroom

Read more at the Team page

 Expanding college classrooms into high schools via distance learning network

Read more at the Team page

 Using Student Data as a Map, Not a Target

Read more at the Team page
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cultural Relevance in the Curriculum

Read more at the Team page

 Creating Pathways to Digital Peer Leadership in the Liberal Arts

Read more at the Team page

 Cohort-specific Online Discussion Experiences

Read more at the Team page

Are you coming to #OLCInnovate? You should also plan to come to SDS Pitch Sessions during the Conference all hosted in Rhythms II Room of the New Orleans Sheraton Hotel. Three SDS Teams will pitch their learning challenge and solution during ONE (1) concurrent session in just 10-minutes. Audience members will be given 5 minutes for Q & A and then encouraged to cast their vote for the best solution design.

Thursday,

April 21, 2016

 11:15 am-12:00 pm 1. Cohort-specific Online Discussion Experiences

2. Expanding College Classrooms into High Schools via Distance Learning Networks

3. Bridging the Engagement Gap for Distance Students Through Telerobotics
Friday,

April 22, 2016

 9:45 am -10:30 am 1. If You Build It, Will They Come?

2. Supporting Adjunct Faculty to Maximize Student Learning in the Online Classroom

3. An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cultural Relevance in the Curriculum
Friday,

April 22, 2016

 11:15 am -12:00 pm 1. Preserving Core Experiences in the Online Learning Environment

2. Using Student Data as a Map, Not a Target

3. Creating Pathways to Digital Peer Leadership in the Liberal Arts

Thanks for your support! Much love from the #OLCInnovate 2016 SDS Planning Team:

  • Mike Goudzwaard, Dartmouth College, @mgoudz (Co-Chair)
  • Laura Pasquini, University of North Texas, @laurapassquini (Co-Chair)
  • Patrice Torcivia, Cornell University, @profpatrice
  • Kyle Johnson, Chaminade University, @kyleejohnson
  • Michael Atkisson, Brigham Young University, @mikeatkisson
  • Adam Croom, University of Oklahoma @acroom
  • Allison Dulin Salisbury – EdSurge @amdulin  (Reviewer)
  • Sean Michael Morris – Hybrid Pedagogy, @slamteacher (Advisor)
#3Wedu, Blended Learning, Learning, Learning Technologies, OLC, Online Learning

Sparking a Few Ideas for #OLCInnovate in NOLA!

Laura Pasquini

April is just around the corner. Some say it brings Spring showers, but I know it brings jazz and learning in New Orleans.  I am looking forward to the NOLA Jazz & Heritage Festival (1st time for me!) and welcoming the many conference participants to the NEW 2016 OLC Innovate (#OLCInnovate). Less than one month from now, we are excited to kick off the new conference with the opening session with the #OLCInnovate Lightning Talks!

This opening session, on Wednesday, April 20th from 5-6:30 pm, will host a series of rapid-fire talks to introduce a variety of themes around the topic of innovation, including pedagogy, structure, workforce, and the challenges we face in learning. The format for the #OLCInnovate Lightning Talks are as follows – each presenter is given 6 minutes to talk while their 20 slides automatically advance every 18 seconds. We hope the quick-pace of these mini-keynotes introduce you to the concepts of innovation inspire you to think further about the conference experience ahead. Here’s the speaker line-up for the evening:

Title of Talk: Reachin’ Out to Meet the Changes

RolinMoe

Rolin Moe (a.k.a. @RMoeJo), Seattle Pacific University

About Rolin’s Lightning Talk: Embracing the structures of education means understanding the complexities of all members of the community. There are no shortcuts. 20th Century poet Laura Riding made it her life’s mission to create a universal dictionary where every word would only have one meaning. This would clear up ambiguity and allow people to communicate more effectively. Since this is probably the first you have heard of Laura Riding, you can imagine the fate of her dictionary. This is a victory for language; it is the imperfection of the human state that creates the most meaning.

 Using Core Values to Collaborate, Innovate, and Educate

JulieLarsenJulie Larsen ( a.k.a. @julieclarsen), University of Washington

About Julie’s Lightning Talk: Starting with values identification allows peer educators to name their own “why” and develop better mentoring relationships. Give your learners the toolbox, and let them build their own course.Training and development is most often focused on policies and procedures. Innovation lies in creating a mentoring and peer education program founded in values-based education that focuses on the “why” more than the “how.” By encouraging students to use discernment and judgment, retention and satisfaction with experience will follow.

From Redlining to Digital Redlining

ChrisGilliard Chris Gilliard, Ph.D. (@hypervisible), Macomb Community College

About Chris’ Lightning Talk: Digital footprints serve discriminatory purposes similar to traditional forms of redlining that are now outlawed. Academic IT policies risk complicity with such discrimination. Where redlining was once a geographic classification for channeling financial advantage to the white, middle-class, it has been reinvented in digital practices that affect finance, employment policing, and education. In education, digital redlining arises out of uncritical policies that regulate the engagement of community college’s working class students with technology.

Today’s the Day: Balancing The Reality of Faculty Scholarship with Innovations in Digital Authorship

 NoriBarajas-MurphyNori Barajas-Murphy (a.k.a. @nononi28), University of La Verne

About Nori’s Lightning Talk: It’s time to rethink the definition of faculty publications. Authoring course texts and designing curriculum are the products of innovative faculty and should be considered scholarship. Developing cultures of innovation for faculty across institution types requires restructuring traditional emphasis on scholarship and publication. Institutions that honor the time needed to develop digital content with course releases and course development sabbaticals will fuel innovation and offer students course materials beyond a textbook cartridge.

There’s A Lot More Going On Behind That Screen

PaulBrownPaul Gordon Brown (a.k.a. @paulgordonbrown), Boston College

About Paul’s Lightning Talk: Moving learners from external to internal motivation and how the developmental process plays out online. Research into the impact of digital and social technology on student development remains relatively new, therefore, consider how we reflect on some of the same questions asked of our learners. To trigger discussion and share strategies, this talk will instigate how practitioners can be more when engaging their learners about digital identity development.

That being said, we hope you are actively contributing to the opening program as well. These fantastic speakers plan to INVOLVE YOU by presenting a question, introducing a challenge, or prompting participants to chat with one another about the central message from their talk. We encourage ALL OF YOU to create a “digital make” using the conference hashtag, #OLCInnovate, to share your thoughts and reflections. And since we are in New Orleans, we will, of course, have drinks and snacks to enjoy. We hope this dynamic welcome allows you to ponder a few innovation ideas and allows you to connect to the OLC and MERLOT community.

Women_Ed_Tech

OLC Innovate: Women in Ed Tech Scholarship Award

Applications for the women in the field of #EdTech who exemplify leadership qualities in the field of online learning are OPEN! In 2015, the Women in EdTech Scholarship was established by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) in conjunction with the Women in EdTech dinner, an event sponsored by Loud Cloud at OLC’s 2015 #ET4Online Conference. The scholarship honors women in the field of EdTech who exemplify leadership qualities in the field of online learning and who contribute to the field through the adoption of innovative practices or new research in the field. This scholarship will be presented at the 2016 OLC Innovate conference in New Orleans April 20-22, 2016. This scholarship includes an OLC Innovate conference registration, 2 nights at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel to use during the conference, attendance at the 2016 Women in Online Leadership Dinner and a commemorative plaque.

This blog post has been cross-posted on the Online Learning Consortium blog. 

#AcWriMo, Higher Education, K-12, Learning, Learning and Performance, Learning Technologies, Online Learning, Professional Development, Research, Training & Development

What *IS* Innovation? Tell us. The CFP for OLC Innovate 2016 (#OLCinnovate) is OPEN!

Laura Pasquini

What *IS* innovation?

This is the FIRST question the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) co-chairs, Karen Vignare, Paige McDonald and I, asked each other as we started to organize the *NEW* OLC Innovate Conference (#OLCinnovate). Innovation is a BIG word. It means so many different things, to so many different people. Before putting out the call and promoting the #OLCInnovate conference (happening April 20-22, 2016 in  New Orleans, LA), we thought carefully about who we wanted to join the planning team and how to design a conference experience to live up to the “hype” of the word INNOVATE. This conference was formed to merge the best ideas of blended learning (from #blend15) and emerging technologies for online learning (from #et4online); however we expect this meeting in NOLA — OLC Innovate 2016 — to be SO MUCH MORE! Thanks to our AMAZING #OLCInnovate Steering Committee (Tw-shout outs HERE and HERE) we support to hash out what innovation means for the program tracks, developed thoughtful session types for program delivery/format, and, we hope, this conference will model the learning design we all strive for at our institutions and organizations.

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So WHY should you attend #OLCinnovate 2016? [What’s in it for me? you ask.]

  • Advancing learning requires continuous visionary leadership from all disciplines
  • Connecting with multiple stakeholders (i.e. learners, educators, administrators, trainers, researchers, administrators, faculty, policy-makers, designers, and industry leaders) to strategize about the evolving needs at our institutions and organizations
  • Sharing learning and development ideas for all levels – K-12, higher education, & industry
  • Implementing solution-based approaches to learning design, support, and structure
  • Researching and developing evidence-based practices for learning is now more critical than ever.

Our #OLCinnovate planning team thinks this conference is a great opportunity to bring ideas, perspectives, research, and practices to the table to truly support innovation in education. The program tracks are structured around areas we all face with learning and development in K-12, higher education, and industry:

  • Workforce Innovation – connections from K-12 to higher ed to the workforce, curriculum to meet industry needs, partnerships for learning & work
  • Structural Innovation – systemic challenges, organization of education, learning spaces, partnerships between educators & technology solutions
  • Pedagogical Innovation – course & program approaches, methods, design, assessment models, etc.
  • Challenging Barriers to Innovation – digital divide, OER, Open Access, sharing evidence, ethical research collaborations, opportunities and areas for learning growth
  • Propose Your Own Topic – Tell us what YOU think innovation IS or what is missing!

Extend_OLCinnovate_Dec2

The call for proposals (CFP) is OPEN until November 9 December 2, 2015 

Program Format (Session Types) include:

  1. Conversations That Work – why have a panel, when you can facilitate a discussion on the topic with others in the room? Think of questions, discussion prompts, and ideas you want to chat about for this 45-minute session.
  2. Emerging Ideas – Forget the “traditional poster session” we want you to share your practice, research, and work-in-progress ideas in 10-15 minutes to get ideas, feedback, and suggestions during this networking event with both on-site & virtual attendees.
  3. Innovation Labs – 5-minute chat about the concept/idea; 20-minute demonstration; 20-minute applied skills for learning, technology, research, design, or other.
  4. Research Highlights & Trends – 15-minute presentation on your original research; abstract due in November; final, full paper due January 31, 2016 with the potential to be invited to a special issue of the Online Learning journal.
  5. Workshops – these are interactive 90-minute sessions with valuable take-away learning outcomes for participants (free to all conference participants).
  6. Education Sessions – a 45-minute lecture about an idea/concept with 5-10 minutes for Q & A at the end.

There are a number of helpful tips provided on the CFP page; however if you have questions or needs, I would be happy to support you with your proposal development/submission. It is getting the right PEOPLE and VOICES to the table that adds value to any learning and development experience. Please help us invite of institutional stakeholders from education (K-12 and higher ed), and industry (technology, design, L & D, and corporate training) to #OLCinnovate. Share this blog post with your peers, and tell me who the #OLCinnovate planning team should reach out to or invite. Thanks!

SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR OLC INNOVATE 2016!

Upcoming announcements of other #OLCinnovate program features, speakers, highlights, and are coming soon… stay tuned for more updates!