EDUCAUSE 2005: Swapping Award Stories with the Team from Virginia Tech

When I saw that John Moore, Shelli Fowler and Anne Moore from Virginia Tech (VT) were making a presentation at the conference I was so happy that I could meet more online friends and colleagues face to face. John, Shelli and Anne presented the third of a series of synchronous online events we called Educating the Net Generation Webinar Series and the third was titled "Faculty Development for the Net Generation". These live webinars were attended by participants from 14 universities across Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. At one point we had 230+ people online simultaneously and the series reached over 500 people. These sort of live online events, where more than one location have numbers of people in attendance, are called Multiple Venue Presentations (MVPs) and I had to develop some new ways to manage the participation and interactivity.

Not only was I planning a podcast with them, it was especially thrilling for we had received a Live Online Award called a LOLA for the Educating the Net Generation webinar series in the category of "Creativity in Synchronous Design". I was advised of this while at Educause 2005 and was able to record an acceptance speech while in the USA. I also had a particularly enjoyable time announcing the award, to Diana Oblinger's complete surprise, at an Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) meeting of about a 100 people.

Like the webinars series, this podcast felt like it had a cast of hundreds well that's a bit exaggerated, but it certainly was the most people I had interviewed at any one time so far. It started with just three but as other Virginia Tech team members jumped in with great contributions, the final podcast contributors involved were:

• John Moore : Director Educational Technologies
• Ed Schwartz Director New Media Center and Faculty Development Institute (FDI)
• Anne Moore: Associate VP Learning Technologies
• Shelli Fowler: Director Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI)
• Eddie Watson: Co-Ordinator of Instruction FDI
• Jeshua Pacifici: Learning Systems Manager

It was also a particularly meaningful time for the VT team as they were presenting about the Faculty Development Institute (FDI) which was featured in and helped Virginia Tech win an Educause Award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning. In part this award reads: "Today, 85 percent of the university academic departments participate in online distance education. More than 90 percent of the faculty have participated in Faculty Development Institute programs, leading to more than 100 course transformation projects over the past five years through grants totaling more than $3.1 million. The Math Emporium alone serves 6,000 students each semester. " This podcast had a lot to discuss.

The Educause awards are very prestigious and one of the conference highlights was the video announcemnt at one of the Keynotes. This award video showcases some really cutting edge initiatives and people. It is worth a watch. You will need the Real Player for this to work, but this video presentation can be seen online by visiting this web address.

Quotes and Highlights from this Podcast

• The Faculty Development program has been running for 13 years
• 25% of the faculty attend each year and they get a computer and software as an incentive but take away a lot more
• The Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI) targets current student instructors and helps them become the future faculty and hopes "Teaching, learning and integration of technology become normative practice for 21st century academics and better engage the Net Generation and transform the Academy"
• Faculty response: reaches more than 95% of the faculty and they are getting better teachers as exampled by the success of the Math Emporium. There also has been a dramatic increase in the number of workshops requested and attendance has increased for each type.
• Helps faculty be more creative in their teaching even providing workshops for the CAVE environment. That is "Computer Activated Virtual Environments"
• Increasing dialogue between faculty and support - 90,000 questions have been answered.
• "We will not have good marriages between Learning and Research infrastructures with content areas unless we have reallly good investments in the the imagination of people on both sides of that aisle to do that"

If your organisation is facing professional development challenges then you will find this podcast helpful and thought provoking. This podcast is part of the Educause 2005 Conference Podcast program and can be found at this Conference Podcast web address. Please listen to it and  consider the possibilities then add your comments.

Regards
Allan