This blog written by:

Janine Lim

USDLA Board Member
Associate Dean, Online Higher Education Andrews University
Department of Digital Learning and Instructional Technology

As a social media online instructor myself, I was thrilled to learn about USDLA 2017 Award Winner Kinda Wilson, online social media instructor. Her creative work is an inspiration to any online teacher!

Professor Kinda Wilson has been teaching various marketing courses for the Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business for 12 years. Kinda is popular with students because they notice and appreciate her sincere desire for and efforts toward their success. Besides her work in the classroom, Kinda has published two books, is an entrepreneur, and is a popular public speaker. She has worked as a marketing consultant as well as a PR and Marketing Director. 

Kinda began teaching the online version of her 8-week Social Media Strategy course in Fall 2016. The overall learning goal of the course is, “At the end of the course, students should have gained both a theoretical knowledge of social media and a skill set of tactics with which to market a company, person, or organization on social media.” The students learn how to post strategically on    Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. The online course currently has around 35 students in the online section. The course is delivered via OSU’s system-wide LMS, Brightspace by D2L.

Kinda has a variety of best practices included in her online course, but let’s look at what I consider to be the top five excellent strategies she uses:

1. Organization

Professor Wilson is very perceptive of her learners’ needs. For example, while most of her students come to her class with a basic knowledge of the social media platforms used in her class, some do not. Kinda does not leave anyone behind. She chunks her instructional videos into short, one-topic videos, so that students who need to re-watch how to use a particular platform, such as Instagram, can easily find and review the step-by step-step instructions. A current student emailed Kinda about the course organization, “Thank you so much for your videos on Brightspace and the emails! I have never felt successful at online classes because I usually feel lost. I have felt in control of this class and have learned so much thanks to the organization of it!”

2. Being Personal: Creative Videos

Often in online courses, one feels disconnected from the teacher and other people. Kinda, however, jumps through the screen! You immediately feel like you’re getting to know her, her enthusiastic personality, and her creativity. For example, look at this video lecture about Developing a Buyer Persona. Marketing personas may be a topic undergraduate students struggle with, but she literally brings the concept to life. Kinda came up with the innovative idea of having the persona appear as a person, rather than just Kinda’s being a head talking about an abstract concept.

See how this Week 1 intro video makes you feel. Look at the extra touches that make it special: the call outs, using her hand to count off the five items, even emphasizing five items!

3. Video Content Engagement

Aren’t 60 minute lecture videos the worst?! Lecture videos can be the bane of online learning. But look at the best practices in one of Kinda’s online lectures:

• Around 10 minutes long or shorter
• Illustrations
• Opportunities for students to engage and write something down (see about 1:23 on)
• Talking to the students as if they are right in front of you

4. Real-World Application

Kinda maintains eight sets of social media accounts for the groups in her course. Each fictional “company” has an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest account. The students “take over” the social media accounts of the company at the beginning of the course, and then make a video giving advice on what they learned to the future students who will be in charge of those accounts. In these videos and others where the students talk about what they learned during the course of their group social media project, students demonstrate their use of inductive reasoning to determine why some social media posts worked and others didn’t based on their observations of evidence such as post likes and shares.

Several of Professor Wilson’s students commented that they could immediately apply what they were learning in class in their own businesses or jobs. One of her Fall 2016 students provided insight into her focus on real-world success:

I loved the Social Media week assignment as it prepared you for a real life Social Media position. You have timed and scheduled posts you must prepare for review. It was like working in a corporate environment and extremely beneficial for those who want to pursue a career in with a social media position.

5. Humor and Storytelling

While humor is a tried-and-true classroom engagement methods, it’s not often seen in online courses and makes a huge difference when it’s natural throughout the course.  “Her sense of humor really cannot be matched. She is funny in every video, and approachable via email and Brightspace, but still maintained a professional demeanor and delivered TONS of knowledge,” stated one of her students. It’s clear from the video clips of her speaking that she is a master storyteller!

Meet Kinda Wilson

If you’d like to learn more about Kinda Wilson, visit her websites:

• KindaWilson.com
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Her book, The Echo Factor

This blog post written by:

Julie Young

USDLA Chair Emerita

It’s hard to change the world.  People spout platitudes about being world-changers, reaching to be a landscaper of thoughts, ideas, and practices. Leaders strive to be part of a system that makes such a difference to the people within it.  One of the most impactful practices that has truly changed the world is distance education. A leader in the pack from within distance education, Western Governor’s University once again has set itself apart as a winner of the 2017 USDLA 21^st Century Learning Award. 

When I first worked to open Florida Virtual School and now launching ASU Prep Digital, I learned that the landscape of distance education evolves very quickly:  thought leaders emerge, soar high, and then welcome other leaders into the space. It’s the rare school that remains constantly at the forefront of innovative learning practices because ideas wane, new thoughts rise to the top, and it becomes another’s time to shine.  However, year over year, WGU has proven that its mission-driven approach to competency-based education remains the leader for all those who come after. And this year, WGU has once again been honored for their breakthrough practices in distance education.   

Western Governor’s University had a good idea—it wanted to take high quality education and ensure that everyone, regardless of geography or resources, had access to education to meet the demands of employers and industries across the nation.  To put it simply, WGU took that good idea and made it more than an idea:  they made WGU a household name.  They did this with a combination of some great ideas, hard work, and absolute faithfulness to their mission to expand access to higher education for all. 

All innovators have to face the hard choice between mission fidelity and mission drift—remaining and improving upon a good idea, or iterating far away from center.  WGU has navigated its evolution through the last 20 years with poise and devotion to helping adults meet their goals—educationally   and in their careers. 

Nelson Mandela wrote, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Western Governor’s University started with a mission to change the world.  And so they did.

In Photo: Dr. Allison Barber, Chancellor of WGU Indiana and Dr. Fred Hurst, WGU’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement, and John Flores, PH.D., C.E.O/Executive Director USDLA

Save the Date: 

2017 Policy Forum

National Distance Learning Week (NDLW)

2018 National Conference

Learn more about the USDLA and how you too can be a member. The association supports all core markets including Enterprise, Government, Telemedicine, Education and others.

USDLA Membership

Our Association is unique, not only for its historical commitment to distance learning, but also for engaging with a broad spectrum of distance learning professionals – K-12, higher education, corporate, government, military, telehealth, and home schooling. While more narrowly focused organizations have an important role, a powerful perspective emerges when bright minds serving diverse constituencies come together.

The USDLA was formed in 1987. At that time, companies like Yahoo and Google were still years away. “Power users” were boasting of their Intel 386 processors. In that context, DL was a concept well outside the educational mainstream. Granted, a few people knew something of the process but hands-on DL experience was rare. USDLA, then, provided a means for these pioneers to find one another.

Today, with more than one-third of college students taking an online class, it’s a far different world but USDLA remains a vital player. Our members continue to seek out other DL professionals. These practitioners still want to grow and want to offer students a strong education in a robust community of learning. Today’s USDLA stands out as a remarkable resource for teachers and administrators who want to enhance the learning experience.

Become a USDLA Sponsor today!

This blog post written by:
Patrick Pluscht

Presidential Appointee,
U.S. Distance Learning Association Board

After enjoying a fireworks show a few nights ago, I was thinking about how we recognize innovation in the online higher education space and how some of the most brilliant innovations appear effortless at first glance—and yet upon closer inspection, we find they required an immense amount of talent, effort, and leadership. I’ll admit that I’ve loved fireworks ever since I was a little kid growing up in the country. They are colorful and festive. When we watch them together, they make us ooh and aah. Videos and photos never do them justice. You really need to be relatively close to the action to experience the full effect. There’s also the limited, but real, risk of danger even when watching a professional pyrotechnic show. This just adds more excitement to the air. But behind the scenes, there’s an amazing amount of work that goes into manufacturing various types of fireworks and even more into organizing them into a cohesive display that people will enjoy.

At the USDLA Annual Conference Awards dinner in April, many of the brightest and most hard-working innovators in distance learning were on display. And in a way it was like a fireworks show – well-orchestrated, buzzing with energy, and full of oohs and aahs.  And while it’s not possible to recreate the experience, I’d like to take a moment to shine a spotlight on one of this year’s 21^st Century Award recipients: Southern New Hampshire University’s College of Online and Continuing Education (COCE).

Caption: Michelle Dunn, Communications Director for COCE, is pictured with Dr. John Flores receiving the 21^st Century Award on behalf of SNHU’s College of Online and Continuing Education.

The 21^st Century Award is given to an agency, institution, or company that has shown outstanding leadership in the field of distance learning. The award recognizes pioneering organizations in the field that have changed distance learning, challenged existing practice, or developed new and effective solutions. If you’ve been to a national distance education conference in the past 5 years, you’ve probably heard President Paul LeBlanc or Executive Vice President Amelia Manning share news of SNHU’s pioneering efforts to make high-quality education accessible and affordable for all. And I don’t use the term “pioneering” lightly. SNHU was the first university in the nation to be approved for federal financial aid under the U.S. Department of Education’s direct assessment provisions, independent of traditional credit hours. They have built their online programs around the needs of their students, ensuring that higher education can fit into the lives of busy adult learners. While college tuition across the country continues to climb, SNHU College of Online and Continuing Education has held tuition rates across all 200 of their online programs for six consecutive years.  As of 2016, SNHU offered one of the most comprehensive and deliberately designed first-year experiences of any online school and continues to refine the experience to ensure learner success.  And though SNHU’s light burns brightly, if you visit their website you’ll be hard-pressed to find COCE staff bio pages or strategic planning documents.  Instead, you’ll find student-focused communications and educational opportunity within easy reach. But just like a fireworks show, what SNHU’s College of Online and Continuing Education makes look easy demands the characteristics recognized with the 21^st Century Award and so I celebrate their well-deserved acknowledgment this holiday week.

Save the Date: 

2017 Policy Forum

National Distance Learning Week (NDLW)

2018 National Conference

Learn more about the USDLA and how you too can be a member. The association supports all core markets including Enterprise, Government, Telemedicine, Education and others.

USDLA Membership

Our Association is unique, not only for its historical commitment to distance learning, but also for engaging with a broad spectrum of distance learning professionals – K-12, higher education, corporate, government, military, telehealth, and home schooling. While more narrowly focused organizations have an important role, a powerful perspective emerges when bright minds serving diverse constituencies come together.

The USDLA was formed in 1987. At that time, companies like Yahoo and Google were still years away. “Power users” were boasting of their Intel 386 processors. In that context, DL was a concept well outside the educational mainstream. Granted, a few people knew something of the process but hands-on DL experience was rare. USDLA, then, provided a means for these pioneers to find one another.

Today, with more than one-third of college students taking an online class, it’s a far different world but USDLA remains a vital player. Our members continue to seek out other DL professionals. These practitioners still want to grow and want to offer students a strong education in a robust community of learning. Today’s USDLA stands out as a remarkable resource for teachers and administrators who want to enhance the learning experience.

This blog post written by:
Elaine Shuck
USDLA Chair of the Board

And this year’s USDLA Innovation Award goes to Algebra By Hand™ (ABH).  One of the exciting things about being a USDLA board member is getting to see and SHOUT OUT all of those cool new gadgets and technologies popping up and under the “distance learning” umbrella.  Prior to this year’s banquet each board member was a given an award winner whose story we would share with the broad DL community. Mine was Michael Eiseman with Algebra By Hand™.  My mission was to touch base with Michael at dinner, set up a meeting for a later date to discuss his “WINNER” web application, and get a selfie. Mission accomplished!!

It’s no wonder he regularly hears from people who are newly introduced to Algebra By Hand:

“This is genius! It’s brilliant.” “This is amazing!”

Check out this video for yourself!!

In a global economy, more than ever having a good skillset – critical thinking, collaboration abilities, digital aptitude – is critical to a decent life and a productive future.  And yes, solutions like Algebra By Hand are critical in this effort.

What it does.  Algebra by Hand:

• is the only application on the web that allows drag and drop algebra solving,
• works on any device (mouse or touch-driven Chromebooks, Mac and PC laptops and desktops, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets) that has a connection to the internet and can run a web browser such as Edge, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox,
• does not charge students,
• provides automated help to students upon request,
• provides much richer feedback to teachers to let them see their students’ thought processes. Teachers never need to tell students to show their work, because the ONLY way for a student to solve the problem in ABH is to show their work

Daily now I see technology delivering on the promise of transporting learning across the boundaries of time and distance and, yes, to some extent even across the barriers of economic status.  So, educational technology holds vast promise, immense potential and that is vitally important to each of us.  Certainly, though, the technology is not an end and, at best, a technology deployment is only a starting point.

For close to 20 years, I have had the opportunity to travel across the country promoting the use of technology in the classroom and have worked with my own children’s teachers.  I am passionate about sharing the opportunities technology offers to education.  Michael is a kindred spirit; we share the same passion.  Not only do we see this in his innovative technology, but on a more personal level, for several years he has volunteered to tutor challenged high school students.

For me, technology is the great equalizer, offering learning experiences beyond the classroom walls in ways not otherwise possible. It is a tool that engages students, promotes greater interaction and transforms learning through innovative teaching.  Different styles of learning?  We can do that, too!  Today’s innovative learning environments allow faculty and students to be anywhere, use any device, and use multiple modalities for delivering and accessing content.

And this is why Algebra By Hand is a winner!! Congrats Michael for creating this wonderful app!!

Please reach out to Michael if you are interesting in learning more!

In photo: Michael Eiseman & John Flores, PH.D., C.E.O/Executive Director USDLA

Michael will be presenting this year at the National Distance Learning Week (NDLW). Stay tuned for more information about this event.

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To celebrate our 30th year we are offering discounted membership rates for any new member that joins during the month of June.

For those of us who work with technology as part of our daily roles, we understand that the luxury of advanced planning doesn’t always fit into everyday reality. Such was the situation at our annual U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) awards dinner.

As my fellow Board members and I were busy planning the 2017 USDLA annual conference this past May in Indianapolis, I had a unique request from an awards winner just days before the event – could I bring her into the conference virtually to accept her award?

Since I love a good challenge, it didn’t take me long to say “we can do that” and so began the effort to bring Lee Gambol from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History into our annual awards dinner.

It’s moments like this that I truly enjoy, minimal time for planning (since we are dealing with technology at an unknown venue), a little pressure (as we are doing this in a live event in front of hundreds of attendees) and the chance for a huge amount of satisfaction if it can bring a smile to the face of the award winner.

The awards are a big deal in the USDLA world and having been present for the past 10+ years, I can still see the smiles on the faces of the winners from years past and sense the feeling of pride as they take the stage to accept their awards.

Working for an integration company has its advantages in situations like these; a couple of extra cables, a camera, some audio gear and a partner relationship with Zoom Video Conferencing (by the way, a great product) was all that we needed to transport Lee from Ohio into the meeting room.

Not only were we able to successfully beam Lee into the room virtually to accept her award, we went one step further. We actually positioned her on the screen so that when we did a group shot of all the award winners at the end of the show, she was there as well! No need for Photoshop here folks, just good old-fashioned ingenuity.

It’s moments like these that make me even prouder than I already am to be associated with this organization. If you want to join our incredible organization visit us at www.usdla.org/membership. And be sure to mark your calendar to join us next year in Indianapolis!  Maybe you, too, can be an award winner.

Learn more about the USDLA and how you too can be a member by visiting www.usdla.org/membership. The association supports all core markets including Enterprise, Government, Telemedicine, Education and others.

USDLA Membership

Our Association is unique, not only for its historical commitment to distance learning, but also for engaging with a broad spectrum of distance learning professionals –  K-12, higher education, corporate, government, military, telehealth, and home schooling. While more narrowly focused organizations have an important role, a powerful perspective emerges when bright minds serving diverse constituencies come together.

The USDLA was formed in 1987. At that time, companies like Yahoo and Google were still years away. “Power users” were boasting of their Intel 386 processors. In that context, DL was a concept well outside the educational mainstream. Granted, a few people knew something of the process but hands-on DL experience was rare. USDLA, then, provided a means for these pioneers to find one another.

Today, with more than one-third of college students taking an online class, it’s a far different world but USDLA remains a vital player. Our members continue to seek out other DL professionals. These practitioners still want to grow and want to offer students a strong education in a robust community of learning. Today, USDLA stands out as a remarkable resource for teachers and administrators who want to enhance the learning experience.