OLC and MERLOT are pleased to announce OLC Innovate 2023 and the opening of our Call for Proposals. Join us onsite April 18-21, 2023 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN (or virtually April 4-6, 2023). Share your innovative ideas with your global network of colleagues, your community, and those who inspire and seek inspiration.
ASU+GSV Summit 2023 BRAVE NEW WORLD – ASU+GSV April 17-19 (San Diego)
Imagining a new era in which all people have equal access to the future.
Teaching Professor Annual Conference – Faculty Focus June 9-11 (New Orleans)
Expand your love of teaching at the Teaching Professor Annual Conference in New Orleans, June 9-11, 2023. Give yourself something to look forward to at the end of your school year: a conference to network, learn, and refocus on why you got into teaching in the first place! This is the conference to delve into pedagogy, share experiences with peers, and reengage your mind and teaching with new insights, new sights, and new friends.
36th USDLA National Distance Learning Conference – USDLA July 17-20 (Orlando)
Many lessons have been learned over the past few years and there are countless new participants and practitioners in the distance and digital learning space. To help us all to reflect on the power and importance of distance education and to collaborate on the ideas and innovations that will move everyone forward, we have selected the theme: “Distance Learning’s Time to Shine.”
InstructureCon 2023 – Instructure – July 26-28 (Denver)
In 2023, InstructureCon is happening in Denver, Colorado, at the beautiful Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center! It’s finally time to get back together again and have the best “eduventure” yet. We’ll have more ways than ever before to collaborate, learn, and have fun, not to mention a very special secret line-up of entertainment.
Helping Students Prepare for Digital Learning: Providing Information at the Time of Enrollment – WCET
As digital learning professionals, we know that there are a variety of issues that can factor into student success in a digital course. Such issues range from access to the necessary technologies and bandwidth to better understanding instructor expectations for virtual (and in the case of hybrid) student engagement. In order to make the best decisions possible, students need an abundance of information about their digital courses prior to registration. Yet much of the information about a digital learning course outside of whether or not it is online or hybrid may be unknown to students at the time of registration. During 2022, WCET, in collaboration with the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association (CDLRA) and Bay View Analytics, conducted research on the definitions of digital learning. In an attempt to better understand how we can best help students make sure that enrollment in digital learning will best work for them, WCET and The Ohio State University’s Office of Technology and Digital Innovation collaborated on a student focus group to better understand what information students believe is most critical to know when making decisions about enrolling in digital learning courses.
Student Data Privacy and Security: A Call for Transparent Practices – Educause
During the spring of 2022, EDUCAUSE conducted a national survey of 820 undergraduate students in the United States. (For more information, see the Methodology section.) In this increasingly hybrid world, data privacy and information security are becoming daily topics of conversation. However, specific privacy and security policies and practices at higher education institutions can be confusing and challenging to navigate, even for instructors and staff. These challenges are amplified for students, leading to a lack of trust and confidence in their institutions.
Where Applications to College Have Swelled During the Past Decade – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Over the last decade, the volume of applications submitted to the nation’s colleges has mushroomed, according to a Chronicle analysis of recently released U.S. Department of Education data. The 1,229 public and private nonprofit four-year colleges in the Chronicle’s analysis received 11.4 million applications for the fall of 2021. That’s an increase of 46 percent from the 7.8 million applications those same institutions saw for the fall of 2011.
Why Nurses Say They Are Striking and Quitting in Droves – The Washington Post
More than 7,000 union nurses went on strike in New York City this past week, protesting staffing levels, which led to two of the city’s largest nonprofit hospital systems agreeing to strengthen staffing ratios at some hospitals.
Report: Trust in Higher Ed Institutions Increases, But Listening Strategies Need Improvement – CampusTechnology
In a new report, experience management company Qualtrics found that students, families, and alumni said their experiences at colleges and universities improved in 2022, making them likely to recommend these institutions.
Pearson says 2022 beat forecasts on strong demand for learning – Reuters
Pearson said its 2022 profit beat forecasts, helped by strong demand for English language learning materials and as more people sought qualifications in healthcare and I.T., and took courses to improve their skills. For 2022, Pearson said it would post adjusted operating profit of about 455 million pounds ($560 million), up 11% on an underlying basis on the prior year, and ahead of average forecasts of 446 million pounds.
Why Banning ChatGPT in Class Is a Mistake – Campus Technology
Artificial intelligence can be a valuable learning tool, if used in the right context. Here are ways to embrace ChatGPT and encourage students to think critically about the content it produces.
State Budgets Are Booming. How Will Higher Ed Fare? – Inside Higher Ed
any states ended the last fiscal year with record surpluses. Colleges and universities are vying for a piece of the pie- though for most the chances of securing a large slice are slim. State budget season is here, and with a few notable exceptions—California and New York among them—many states are entering it with a significant surplus. But will public higher ed institutions see some of the windfall, as predicted a year ago? Or will an unsteady economy and political uninterest shrink their piece of the pie?
Workforce development, K-12 teacher shortages top list of state higher ed leaders’ concerns – Higher Ed Dive
Improving workforce development and addressing K-12 teacher shortages are top of mind for state higher education leaders as the 2023 legislative sessions begin, according to a new survey from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
Gates Foundation Response to Posts on Courseware Evidence – Phil on EdTech
Phil on EdTech wrote a series of posts in the fall about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s work in postsecondary education centered on digital courseware, challenging their claims of following the data. This is the Foundation response.
How Instructors Are Adapting to a Rise in Student Disengagement – EdSurge
Professors are finding that they can’t just go back to teaching as they did before the pandemic and expect the same result. It takes more these days to hold student attention, and convince them to show up. Check out part two of our series reported from the back of large lecture classes to see how teaching is changing.
Tracy Schroeder on Leveraging Frameworks – Educause
Hosts Cynthia and Jack talk with Tracy Schroeder, Vice President for Information Services & Technology at Boston University.
Ungrading: The Misconceptions, the Research, and the Strategies – Faculty Focus
In this episode, we’ll cover what ungrading actually is, some of the research behind it, and how it can be brought to any classroom by having an honest conversation with your students. And then we’ll take a few minutes to dispel some misconceptions about ungrading, because ungrading doesn’t mean you have to completely eliminate grades in all forms from your classroom. Lastly, we’ll cover a few ungrading assessment strategies that you can implement into your own course.
AI Tools for Student Engagement – The Chronicle of Higher Education and UIA – January 31
As colleges increasingly rely on artificial intelligence, how can they ensure it is benefiting students? Join a panel of experts to discuss how to best use the technology on campus.
Behind the Scenes Look At Canvas Support – Instructure – February 2
To kick off 2023, we want to pull back the curtain on:
- The Canvas Support Process
- Get the Support Technician’s perspective
- Learn tips from our Support Supervisors
- Best practices for managing individual cases based on your market and support level
- Tips for simplified case management and escalation
Should Students Pay to Turn in Homework? Navigating Digital Courseware Models – Educause – February 8
In this session, participants will collaborate on the problem of expensive homework systems (courseware) that students encounter in many of their courses. Connected to the course management system, many of these products require students to pay a fee to access assignments, quizzes, helpful hints, and electronic textbooks. Sometimes these fees make courses unaffordable for students. Let’s brainstorm how we can approach this issue and make a difference for students on our campuses.
Supporting Transformational Change with Design Strategy Tools – Educause – February 9
Join Phyllis Treige, chief experience officer at UC Santa Cruz, as she shares her experience and strategies for designing and supporting institutional transformational change. In this webinar, you’ll learn about design strategies, techniques, and processes to align projects and change efforts to human-focused impacts and concrete outcomes. Practical and easy-to-use methodologies will be shared.
From Research to Practice: Re-Energized–Focusing on Engagement to Promote Faculty Wellbeing – Faculty Focus – February 14
Rather than focusing on mitigating burnout, the presenters of this seminar have created an Engagement Support Framework for engaging faculty to promote wellbeing. This research-based framework keys in on six potential domains of your faculty’s job – workload, values, control, reward, community, and fairness – and connects each to crucial areas of faculty engagement – energy, involvement, and effectiveness.
Demo Day | Analytics Platforms – Educause – February 28
Analytics help colleges and universities advance institutional goals, improve quality and efficiency, strengthen student outcomes, and enhance teaching, learning, and advising. Curious to learn more about the future development and roadmap of these essential platforms and services?
