Featured Sessions

Authoring Assessment-Rich Learning Environments - A Faculty Development Tool to Drive Transformation

Monday, January 29, 2001
12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. FS06

Donald P. Buckley, Professor of Biology & Director of Learning Technology, School of Health Science, Quinnipiac University

In order to transform the academy, we must begin to create and use new learning environments based on principles of active learning and the cognitive development of learning. If we don't want faculty to use the technology that could create and support these environments to merely "make a better lecture," they need a development environment that supports and encourages pedagogical self-examination and self-reflection, in order to shift from a Teaching Paradigm to a Learning Paradigm. Dr. Buckley will describe a curriculum-wide program in which faculty are being trained in educational technology authoring in order to create an experience that is pedagogically transformational, and how they are learning to create discovery environments that are very powerful, learning-centered and inquiry-oriented. A critical step was the articulation of a simple pedagogical feature set for the technology that resonated across the curriculum. These features include (1) interactivity to foster active learning, (2) sensory-rich information formats to allow exploitation of new insights about the cognitive development of learning, and especially (3) formative assessment, serving a variety of roles. (Attend companion concurrent session, 2 - 3 PM, for follow-up and discussion of this featured session). (See companion concurrent session, "Authoring Assessment-Rich Learning Environments-A Faculty Development Tool to Drive Transformation," Monday, 1/29, from 4:30 - 5:30 PM).

Community: Fostering an Environment for Communication & Collaboration
Moderated by Anne Archambault, NLII Fellow

Monday, January 29, 2001
12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. FS05

Anne Archambault, Manager, Educational Multimedia Production, Technical University of British Columbia

Mark Schlager, Associate Director of Learning Communities, SRI International

Stephen Weimar, Vice President of Learning Partnerships, WebCT, A Blackboard Company

The rise of Internet technologies has enabled new means to communicate and collaborate. New online communities of practice are emerging to support those sharing common purposes, problems or interests. These online communities foster active participation and act as incubators for new ideas and knowledge.

This panel will showcase exemplary communities of practice. It will address how community technologies can support educational groups and organizations, and thus foster the transformation of higher education. The panel will conclude with a discussion of future trends and directions in the field. (See companion concurrent session, "Community: Fostering an Environment for Communication and Collaboration," Monday 1/29 from 2 to 3 PM.)

Enabling Transformation: Reducing Risk Through Real-Time Research

Monday, January 29, 2001
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. FS02

Richard N. Katz, Vice President, EDUCAUSE

As information technologies become increasingly insinuated into all elements of higher education's mission, decisions regarding IT's use have become increasingly consequential. Recognizing this trend and the fact that very little research has been applied to the role of IT and of new competition in higher education, EDUCAUSE has committed to build ECAR, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. This session will outline EDUCAUSE plans for developing data and analysis to support decision making in higher education through ECAR, will identify the rudiments of ECAR's initial research agenda, and will solicit input on research priorities in domains of interest to the NLII.

MERLOT: Cooperative Strategies for Success

Monday, January 29, 2001
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. FS01

Timothy J. Buell, Director, Faculty Development, University of Calgary

Gerard L. Hanley, Senior Director, Academic Technology Services / Executive Director, MERLOT, California State University, Office of the Chancellor

Susan E. Metros, Deputy CIO & Associate Vice Provost, University of Southern California

Peter J. Shea, Professor, University at Albany, SUNY

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a growing online community that provides faculty and students a free, open, and searchable database of learning materials, assignments, reviews, technical tips, and people for the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. Twenty-three Institutional Partners are collaborating within MERLOT to serve each institution's strategic technology initiatives. The Institutional Partners combine their membership fees and in-kind contributions to implement the MERLOT program, with special emphasis on the peer review of instructional technology. MERLOT's strategies for facilitating the cooperative with governance, planning, communication, development, and operations processes and tools will be presented. Institutional Partners will present their rationale for participating in the MERLOT cooperative. (See companion concurrent session, "Making Instructional Technology Accessible and Usable with MERLOT" from 4:30 to 5:30 PM on Monday, 1/29).

Partnering in the Learning Marketspace

Monday, January 29, 2001
12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. FS04

Linda L. Baer, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic & Student Affairs, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

Ann Hill Duin, Associate Vice President & Deputy CIO, University of Minnesota

Doreen Starke-Meyerring, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Minnesota

Partnerships of the 1990s focused primarily on complementing gaps, allying with distant partners, and outsourcing services. However, these partnership strategies no longer provide a successful framework for sustainable partnerships in the virtual world. Recent Xerox PARC Research on web e-cology shows that web markets follow what is known as the universal power law, with a small number of large marketspaces commanding the majority of traffic. Characterized as "winner-take-all-markets", these marketspaces require innovative partnerships built around and for relationships.

When faculty, students, administrators, policy developers, as well as industry, community and government leaders learn of these partnerships, they find themselves asking crucial questions: How does the digital environment alter partnerships? What is a learning marketspace? What outcomes should we expect? How do we anticipate and identify obstacles? How do we manage the challenges of leadership in the learning marketspace?

The presenters will provide a framework for envisioning and building learning marketspace partnerships, based on their research and involvement in developing inter-institutional virtual partnerships as well as their scholarship on demographics, construction of online learning environments, and e-mentoring. NLII members will receive a copy of their book on this topic when it is published later this spring. (See companion concurrent session, "Partnering in the Learning Marketspace," Monday 1/29, 2-3 PM.)

Policy Change in an Era of Transformation: Lessons Learned (and to be Learned)

Tuesday, January 30, 2001
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. FS07

Bruce N. Chaloux, Director, Electronic Campus, Southern Regional Education Board

There is little doubt that the higher education "industry" is experiencing dramatic transformations in what can be called the "Age of Learning." New organizational structures, new competitors, new delivery systems, and movement towards a student or consumer-centric model are posing real challenges for higher education. As these transformations take root, there is real policy conflict between the rules as we know them and the rules as we would like them. Can we create a policy environment that will reduce the conflict and encourage needed change? What changes are needed? This session will focus on these issues and the work underway at the Southern Regional Education Board and the Distance Learning Policy Laboratory, an effort to define needed policy change and to promote the adoption of policies to overcome barriers throughout the 16 states in the region. The issues that have been defined, the strategies and approaches for tackling these issues and the lessons learned, and those to be learned, will be presented and participants will be encouraged to comment in this interactive session.

Preserving Quality in Distributed Learning Environments

Tuesday, January 30, 2001
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. FS09

Carol A. Twigg, President & CEO, National Center for Academic Tranformation

The advent of distributed learning has raised a series of questions about quality assurance. Ninety-four percent of all colleges and universities are either currently (63%) or planning to be (31%) engaged in distributed learning, outstripping the capacities of state agencies, accrediting agencies, and others to monitor quality. How do established distance learning institutions assure quality? What more needs to be done? This presentation will explore the results of a Pew roundtable on this topic, with a special emphasis on how Web technologies might be adapted to enable students to have better access to information at the course level.

Principles of Scalability

Tuesday, January 30, 2001
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. FS08

Paul R. Hagner, University of Hartford

Joel L. Hartman, Vice Provost, Information Technologies and Resources, University of Central Florida

One approach to transforming the institution is to create an environment where as many faculty and students as possible have successful experiences with changing teaching and learning. What "success?" Are there common principles we can use to create this environment and to design usable, scalable systems and services to support it? The presentation will center on how transformation can be sustained through expanded faculty involvement, support and assessment; and how the path institutions select determines the scalability of the support. This discussion is being framed, in part, by work done during the three NLII Focus Group Sessions held during 2000, and by research on best systems for faculty engagement and support conducted by Dr. Paul Hagner.

Readiness Topology

Monday, January 29, 2001
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. FS03

Lev S. Gonick, Vice President for Information Technology Services/CIO, Case Western Reserve University

Diana G. Oblinger, Vice President, EDUCAUSE

The NLII has been exploring the topic of Institutional Readiness-the the capacity of a university to use technology to accomplish specific institutional goals-for the past year. For example, how can a campus tell if it is "ready" to take on distance learning? With the help of a Task Force and a project team of volunteers and staff, the prototype of a web-based decision tool has been developed that is designed to lead a user through information about a topic in a responsive and meaningful way, not only to stimulate productive discussions between members of a campus but also to provide the user with case studies and specific suggestions that relate directly to their current campus environment. The project team has been focusing on specific readiness topics (e.g., readiness to engage second wave faculty, readiness to enter the distance learning market) and on the more general concepts of what constitutes an institution's readiness to make any initiative successful. Critical success factors and questions designed to elicit a clear picture of where an institution stands are being identified and repurposed into the web-based decision tool.

At this session presenters will demonstrate the prototype, discuss the settings (and types of decisions) for which the tool may be useful, and describe the next stage - using the prototype in several pilot projects. (See companion concurrent session, "Readiness Topology," Monday, 1/29, from 3:15 - 4:15 PM).