eLearning 2011 Conference

WOW! What a wonderful experience at my first eLearning conference sponsored by the Instructional Technology Council. First the location -- St. Pete Beach, Florida in February at the TradeWinds and second the opportunity to reconnect in person with the members of my leadership class from the previous summer. In fact, we gave a presentation on the ITC Leadership Academy. The next academy will be held in Colorado Springs beginning July 24 and runs for three days. Check out their link at http://www.itcnetwork.org/leadership.html.

Enough about that -- let's talk about what I learned at the conference. The conference was jam-packed with so many different sessions and attended as many as possible, but just to get a flavor of all of the different titles here is the link to the program: http://www.itcnetwork.org/images/stories/eL2011FullSchedule.pdf. My reason and rationale for attending the conference (other than Florida in February -- can we say 75+ degrees every day and blue skies) was to gain tools to assist with the implementation of the DE Strategic Plan. So I planned my workshops around that theme.

Had the opportunity to attend the following sessions:

• So You Think You Want to Teach an Online Class? A Three-Tier Training Module"
• "How'd You Do That? Tips and Tricks That Might Account for My 95% Retention Rate"
• "Quality in Online Education - Priceless"
• "Online Course Peer Reviews: What the Past Three Years Have Taught Us"
• "What's NEXT? Developing a Next Gen Classroom"
• "Online Andragogy: Strategies and Tools to Help Adult Learners be Successful Online Students".

What a great line-up! Learned so much and wanted to share with all of you. The keynote speakers every day were engaging and if you have the time here is the link where you can watch them yourself: http://bit.ly/i7lh1q.

So, what did I learn? Here are some tips and musings:

• Need to use the Web 2.0 tools and technology to enhance learning
• Training and ongoing support for faculty and instructors who teach using technology is required not optional
• Faculty engagement of students is the key to retention
• Quality of online and hybrid courses are a hot topic for all colleges and universities
• Peer review of online courses should be voluntary and the rubric and training should occur before review
• Classrooms need to be more flexible to allow for team work and collaborative learning
• Adult Learners need more flexibility such as allowing students to work ahead or complete a course early.

And number #1 was "how do I bring back these ideas and share with our folks"? The answer -- hold an Educational Technology Academy at Roane State and invite some of these innovators along with our own to hold workshops. Still working on the details with Mike Hill, Darren York and Nichole White, but hold the dates June 1 - 3 (Wednesday - Friday) if you think that you will want to attend. Will make the announcement after Spring Break! So with that in mind, enjoy the photo of the sunset from St. Pete Beach!