The Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology Blended Learning Transformation program (BlendLT) offers faculty the opportunity to redesign a course into a blended format through faculty development, instructional design consultations, and assessment support to gather evidence and measure success. This replicable three-pronged approach addresses the top 3 key issues in teaching and learning in 2016 as reported by ELI. In the case of BlendLT, the framework empowers faculty to develop and teach innovative and engaging blended courses. The framework can also be used to support other issues and opportunities in teaching and learning.Outcomes: Discuss advantages of the 3-prong approach of faculty development, instructional design, and assessment in transforming learning *Identify areas where a similar approach could be applied
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During this session, participants will explore emerging effective practices as identified by experts with experience developing competency-based curriculum in higher education. Specifically, we will analyze the identified effective practices related to developing competencies, assessments, and leveraging learning resources in competency-based models of learning. Participants will discuss challenges in achieving these emerging effective practices and share how they have used the effective practices in their own development of competency-based programs.Outcomes: Evaluate emerging effective practices for developing competency-based curriculum in higher education *Recommend emerging effective practices for developing competency-based curriculum in higher education *Apply emerging effective practices for developing competency-based curriculum to your institution
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Active learning classrooms (ALCs) have captured the interest of instructors and institutions throughout the world. Inspired by the desire to improve student learning outcomes, guided by rigorously executed research, and based on pedagogically sound practices, ALCs are disrupting the normal landscape of the traditional college and university classroom. The proliferation of ALCs requires that faculty and students alike shift their expectations of and approaches to learning and teaching. Having examined the evidence for and considered the challenges created by these spaces, we will offer some practical advice for those willing to push themselves and their students to become active teachers and learners.Outcomes: Identify relevant research that demonstrates the efficacy of ALCs *Address common challenges associated with teaching in ALCs *Foster a community of practice using ALCs as an anchor for broader discussions about active learning
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As institutions implement competency-based programs, is their focus on educational business practices or on academic transformation leading to cultural changes that focus on learning outcomes? Joi Ito (MIT Media Lab) makes a useful distinction between education and learning: “Education is what people do to you, and learning is what you do for yourself.” Empowering learners and enabling them to achieve their lifelong learning goals is at the heart of CBL, and modifying educational practices (CBE) needs to be guided toward this end. Explore how ecosystems can promote the value of competencies, based on research from the American Council on Education.Outcomes: Challenge the status quo of educational practices that do not support lifelong learning *Articulate the quality dimensions of connected credentials and competencies to promote dialogue and action to focus on learning outcomes *Analyze CBL innovations at your institution with regard to focusing on lifelong learning, career pathways, and education-to-employment bridges
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Gamification implies the deconstruction of the concept of a game to arrive at individual components that compel engagement with the game. We will present a set of instructional design elements for higher ed applications and share an exemplar that uses the design elements to reimagine a first-year experience course with gamification. Data from student interactions with this first-year course will be analyzed to determine if the desired effect of increased student engagement with materials and motivation to complete course assignments occurred. Outcomes: Define gamification and compare and contrast gamification dynamics, components, and elements *Select appropriate gamification design elements that could be used to reimagine a curriculum, course, or instructional unit as a “gamified” instruction *Describe ways to use learning technologies and analytics to gauge student engagement with course materials and enhance student motivation to complete assignments
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Communities of Practice: Bringing Disparate Voices to Concerted ActionHow do we focus the wide array of talent at our colleges and universities on the issues affecting our institutions? What mechanisms do we have or need to create to bring campus voices together for action when our structures are designed to separate? Leading transformation across a campus or system poses a challenge because bringing community voices together requires running counter to the environment in which many of us work. At the University of Minnesota campuses, a formal community of practice (fCoP) framework brings together talent from different campuses, colleges, and units in order to solve our large, cross-boundary challenges.Outcomes: Consider your campus culture as it applies to this fCoP model *Understand the 3 key principles necessary for a successful fCoP *Relate to the experience of an fCoP processInfiltrate, Integrate, Intertwine: E-Learning Programming Focused on Relationships and Social NetworksHow do we keep e-learning a vibrant contributor to academic transformation? Practitioners know that increasing technology use doesn’t necessarily equate to instructional innovation. We propose a novel approach that prioritizes outcomes of deep integration with academic initiatives over faculty skill development or technology adoption. Built on theories of social networks and information ecologies, the approach can (1) integrate e-learning into major academic initiatives, (2) ground a more effective model of faculty engagement, (3) develop new programming, and (4) establish metrics for academic impact and institutional ROI. Examples and checklists will be provided for participants developing embeddedness-based programming for their own institutions.Outcomes: Convert your institution’s existing faculty development programming to an embeddedness paradigm *Apply social network and information ecologies methods to identify new opportunities for faculty engagement in e-learning *Advocate more effectively for the impact and influence e-learning to campus leaders by using a new set of metrics and reporting tools
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This session will examine the process of transformative academic change and how framing change can have an impact on its outcome. Innovation is often touted as the holy grail of educational change (Christensen and Eyring, 2011, Doss 2014). However, focusing on innovation for its own sake can lead to unrealizable expectations and feelings of failure even when important change occurs. In this session, you will be given an opportunity to review several cases of academic transformation through this lens and to reflect on your own institutional context.Outcomes: Articulate a personal definition of innovation relevant to your own context *Reflect on the usefulness of distinguishing between innovation and evolution in supporting large-scale campus change *Analyze one of your current or planned change initiatives using the proposed framework
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Can emotional presence impact learning? How can streaming media, audio fiction, and virtual conferencing tools facilitate emotional presence? Teachers have always included videos of Shakespeare plays to allow for better access to the bard’s words. We take this idea to a new level, where the intentional application of technology captures an interaction with the texts or content to develop students’ emotional presence within a community of inquiry framework. For example, we will share how students talk to contemporary Irish writers about the Troubles or hear from educational technology leaders about some of the decisions they’ve made on their career paths.Outcomes: Learn about emotional presence and place it within the context of the community of inquiry framework *Explore the opportunities technology presents for developing emotional presence in online, blended, and face-to-face courses *Critically examine the place of technology in facilitating emotional presence through immersion in the experiences of others
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Effective leadership of large-scale project collaborations requires a blend of organizational skill, clear deliverables, and incentives to foster engagement with stakeholders who often bring diverse needs and varying levels of enthusiasm to the effort. This panel will organize their stories across common themes and offer principles for how to lead transformative projects and services at a campus, multi-campus, or even global scale.Outcomes: Identify principles of leading effective large-scale collaborations *Evaluate principles with regard to applicability to your current or upcoming projects *Lead (or influence), plan, and implement a successful collaboration with diverse stakeholder groups
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This demo discusses how Utrecht University develops and uses simulation games and learning analytics through Educate-it, a university-wide program stimulating innovations in education. In particular, we will show how we use Communicate, a serious game for practicing communication skills, in medicine, pharmacy, psychology, and other programs, and we will show a learning analytics service used to collect information about conceptual understanding and misunderstanding of students working in Communicate or on digital assessments.Outcomes: Learn how to create an environment where you can develop simulations that allow students to practice professional skills *Learn how to set up an environment to analyze activities from students in simulations for professional skills and digital assessment tools *Learn how to develop an ecosystem for technology for learning to support or improve functionality, usability, and sustainability
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