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You are here: Home / Archives for online learning

August 21, 2019

The best teachers are also amazing learners

One of my favorite parts of each year’s USDLA National Conference is the Awards Banquet and now I get to share with you some of the details of the award winner in the category of USDLA Excellence in Teaching/Training. This award goes to an individual who has demonstrated measurable outcomes in their teaching facilitated through technology.

This year’s recipient was Matthea Marquart, the Director of Administration of the Online Campus at the Columbia University School of Social Work for her highly successful development of the Institute on Pedagogy and Technology for Online Courses, an innovative approach to preparing instructors for the transition from classroom to online facilitating.

A rich history that keeps getting richer

While the Columbia University School of Social Work dates back to 1898, it was not until 2015 that the Online Campus was launched and the program offering a Master of Science in Social Work was first offered to students across the United States. Great preparation was needed to ensure that the same standards of exemplary teaching would be provided to the online students as those attending on campus. This was also an opportunity for Columbia to blaze the trail. It is the only top-three school of social work to offer a fully online Master’s degree program.

The mission of the Institute

One of the most interesting things about the Institute to me is the fact that it does not just focus on pedagogical theory and giving the instructors information about how to use the new technologies, it lets them fully experience what it is like to learn in this new environment. It puts the instructors directly in the shoes of the learners they will be teaching.

Ultimately these instructors will have the freedom to design their own courses, so rather than teaching them one “right” way to put together an online course, the Institute’s program introduces them to an array of options. During the program, instructors will have the opportunity to explore a host of different techniques and tools so they can make informed decisions about the right combination of elements for their particular courses and students.

I cannot stress enough how powerful this type of process is. They not only gain confidence and mastery of the technologies, but they get a good deal of support, from a very diverse team of practitioners and fellow participants, on the human side of interacting with students in a way that is very different from the one they are accustomed to. Facilitating an online course, no matter how experienced one is in the classroom, requires a very different skillset and commitment to building a virtual community of engaged and successful students.

The results are in

The first cohort of the Institute on Pedagogy and Technology for Online Courses completed their five-week-long experience in 2017 and the Institute has continued twice a year since then. To date, 208 people from 33 different states have graduated from this award-winning program and have gone on to facilitate approximately 100 online courses per year. Student satisfaction has been high, both among those going through the Institute and those students who then were taught by graduates of the Institute. That is a true testament to the effectiveness of this program.

When recent cohorts were asked to rate the overall quality of the Institute, their average score was 9.72 and they said things like: “The Institute set a golden standard for online education. The live sessions, along with the assignments, modeled holistic learning opportunities and effective teaching strategies. It was incredibly well-rounded and of high quality!”

Always striving to improve

The Columbia School of Social Work is never one to rest on their laurels and they have continued to iterate and improve with each new cohort. What began as a brief training has been expanded and made more rigorous to better suit the needs of Institute participants.

It is no surprise that the Institute is finding great success under Matthea’s leadership. She made a point of reminding me that she has an amazing team of people working with her. One need look no further than the picture of Matthea and Delia Ryan, a Columbia Social Work alum and Live Support Specialist with the Online Campus who worked closely on improvements to the Institute’s program, to see that teamwork in action.

The other thing that we should all remember, however, is that the real winners in all of this are the students that the Institute’s graduates will be working with. Instructors are reporting that the benefits of the experiences created by the Institute are influencing not just their online interactions, but are also improving their effectiveness in traditional classroom courses. I look forward to seeing how the Institute continues to evolve and nurture countless more instructors in the years to come.

Valary Oleinik is one-part artist, one-part geek, and 100% committed to finding ways to help people develop and deliver more engaging and effective learning experiences. She is a project manager at Weil, a top-tier international law firm, where she has been involved in training and development of both technical and professional skills. She is also a frequent speaker and educational consultant on gamification and creativity, and a member of the USDLA Board of Directors.

Filed Under: General News Tagged With: Columbia University School of Social Work, online learning, Teaching/Training, United States Distance Learming Association, USDLA Award Winner, USDLA National Conference, Valary Oleinik

May 15, 2019

What will the future of learning look like? I bet Robbie knows!

Blog post written by Dr. Reggie Smith III

When I think back to the numerous people, I have met over my 28 years in the field of distance / online learning, Dr. Robbie Melton tops the list. Yes, I am older than you think but younger in the mind than you could imagine. I would dare to say the same for Robbie. Every time we chat or meet somewhere, she gives off a warm vibe with a truckload of energy and excitement about our field.

Dr. Melton is a tenured full professor at Tennessee State University. She formally served for twenty years as the chief administrator for the Tennessee Board of Regents’ (6th largest system for higher education in USA, 2016) for overseeing the vision, mission, and initiatives for the Strategic Planning for Emerging Mobile Smart “The Internet of Everything” (IOE) Technologies for Global Education”. 

She is a renowned international presenter, researcher, and technology evaluator regarding the transformation of smart mobile devices, wearable technologies, and mixed reality technologies of virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and holograms (HR) technologies for immersive learning. Melton has acquired a new distinction as an “App-ologist” due to her study of the pedagogy teaching with mobile apps, and her curation of mobile apps for all spectrums of education. http://www.appapedia.org

These are exciting times and distance / online learning is transforming the way we work. We live in a globally connected 24 X 7 world that can provide unprecedented opportunities for everyone to take advantage of now. Yes, distance learning has existed in the United States for more than 120 years. Not surprisingly, though, many still consider it a new phenomenon due largely to the emergence of the Internet. The explosion in online / Internet learning has been quickly embraced throughout the education and training communities encompassing K-12, higher education, corporate and government sectors.

Distance learning is about using available technologies and technology infrastructures to make more effective learning opportunities accessible to all learners, whatever their age, location, or reason for learning from anywhere, at any time, and at any pace, in accordance with the individual needs of each student.

Robbie along with Dr. Arletha McSwain and others have done so much work in our field and more specifically, leveraging Open Educational Resources (OERs) for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). HBCUs have been the cornerstone of education for the African-American community for more than 150 years. These institutions have prepared graduates to compete with the best and brightest minds globally. Recently, I had the honor of joining her prior to the HBCU Affordable Learning Summit during the OLC Innovate Conference with Dr. McSwain, Hubert Grimes, Esq., President, Bethune–Cookman University and Dr. Gerry Hanley, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Technology Services, California State University Office of the Chancellor and Executive Director of MERLOT. This was where Bethune-Cookman received the MERLOT/Online Learning Consortium Service Award for their work in the OER space.

Photo: Dr. Gerry Hanley, Dr. Arletha McSwain, Mr. Hubert Grimes, Esq.
Dr. Gerry Hanley, Dr. Arletha McSwain, Mr. Hubert Grimes, Esq.
Photo: Dr. Reggie Smith III, Mr. Hubert Grimes, Esq., Dr. Robbie Melton
Dr. Reggie Smith III, Mr. Hubert Grimes, Esq., Dr. Robbie Melton

Dr. Hanley noted that, “Bethune-Cookman University is not only leading the HBCU Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) initiative, but is a national model for how an institution of higher education can be innovative and agile in adopting Open Education Resources as a powerful student success program. Interim President Grimes, his staff, and his faculty presented their exemplary practices and proven outcomes on the positive impact of their AL$ program for their students. We are so grateful for his leadership and encouragement ‘not to compete but complete’ each other’s mission to improve student success in engaging, innovative and affordable ways.”

Robbie and Arletha have done groundbreaking work with OERs/online/digital learning and they are leading the way for not only HBCUs but for the rest of the industry. This is what makes Robbie so special. She is not only an amazing person but she empowers and challenges all of us to step our game up across a wide-range of technologies. I am looking forward to hearing her keynote during our USDLA 2019 National Conference on Wednesday, May 22. The title of her keynote is “How Smart Are Your Shoes? Future IOE Innovations of Emerging Smart A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and Mixed Realities Technologies for Distance Teaching and Learning” and will highlight the latest emerging educational and workforce IOE (Internet of Everything) smart A.I. and mixed realities technologies (VR/AR/Holograms/Wearables) innovations and OER transforming teaching, learning, and training, at a distance. In addition, she will do an addition session on May 23rd covering OER Access and Universal Design Strategies.

You do not want to miss her presentations. Join us today in Nashville to hear Robbie and the rest of our amazing speakers. Almost forgot…since you are reading this blog….I will let you know that Dr. Robbie Melton has been elected to the USDLA Board of Directors and will be inducted into the 2019 USDLA Hall of Fame!  Congratulate her as you see her traveling around the world doing amazing things for society!

For more information about USDLA:

USDLA Conference Registration: https://usdla.org/2019-registration/
USDLA Virtual Conference: https://usdla.org/2019-virtual-conference/
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Filed Under: General News Tagged With: Affordable Learning Solutions, AR, Arletha McSwain, augmented reality, Distance Learning, Gerry Hanley, HBCU, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, holograms, Internet of Everything, IOT, MERLOT, mixed reality or virtual, mobile learning, OER, online learning, Open Educational Resources, Reggie Smith III, Robbie Milton, USDLA, USDLA Conference, VR

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