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Begin the submission process by selecting your track name below.
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Track:
(Click on track name to enter submission)
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Description
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Faculty and Professional Development & Support
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Research continues to show the important role online faculty play in student learning, and faculty continuously seek guidance on pedagogy and applied effective practices in the areas of online, blended, and mobile learning.
As online learning increasingly expands into corporate training, military training and education, workforce initiatives and professional certification programs, alternative pedagogical approaches have emerged. This track is designed to explore the wide range of evolving pedagogical models, applied effective practices, case studies, and institutional strategies that inform those models.
Proposals submitted to this track might consider, for example: innovative faculty development programs; quantitative and qualitative research on faculty satisfaction with online, blended, and/or mobile teaching; studies of the relationship between faculty development and faculty and student satisfaction; studies of the relationship between faculty effectiveness and student retention and achievement; administering faculty development efforts in online, blended, and/or mobile environments; and unique approaches to faculty support and professional development. Also to be considered are new research on training strategies, instructional design issues in workforce training; reports on innovative corporate training models; working with the military; online, blended, and/or mobile approaches to workforce training and development, and creative partnerships between academic institutions and corporations, unions, and government agencies.
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K-12 Online Education
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The 2009 U.S. Department of Education “Evaluation of Evidence-based Practices” noted the dearth of rigorous studies into online learning at K-12 levels. Nevertheless, online learning is exploding across the K-12 sector. Over 1.5 million K-12 learners are taking online courses every year. In 2009 alone, online enrollments at state virtual schools increased by 40%. The range of models, modes and concerns for implementing online learning in the K-12 sector encompasses issues that are both the same – and very different from – those experienced in post-secondary education. Learner development/independence, parental roles, administrative structures, state regulations and instructional standards, to name just a few, pose and prescribe significantly different responses for curriculum designers, teachers and education leaders.
Proposals submitted to this track will investigate questions, issues and lessons learned in the application, management, development and evaluation of online learning practices and policies within the K-12 educational sector.
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Leadership, Values and Society
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Online learning is one way that higher education institutions are responding to social change and the changing expectations society has for higher education. Online learning is transforming all aspects of higher education including teaching, student services, finance, and administration, impacting and challenging the underlying values of the academy. Institutions and institutional leaders are designing new structures to deal with the opportunities and challenges online learning affords.
Proposals submitted to this track should directly address the relationships that online learning, values, and society share and the role of leadership at the institutional level. Papers in this track might consider societal factors and how leadership can address, channel, respond, or adapt to: changing technologies; diversity and student and faculty demographics; economic, social, and civic capacity development; engagement and partnership, globalization and internationalization of education; open education including open source educational software and open educational resources; access to education; and outcomes based education. Proposals may focus on leadership in terms of governance, policy, or programs, and should be supported by examples of practice.
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Learning Effectiveness
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Online learning is reaching a more mature stage in development and evaluation in which comparative research is being replaced by research explaining learning effectiveness and theory development. Papers submitted to this track should reflect this with a focus on theory and/or research-based approaches to the design and delivery of online or blended learning.
Proposals submitted to this track might consider, for example: applications of learning theory to the design of online learning environments; quantitative and qualitative research on the effects of particular aspects of course design on student learning; the changing nature of learning online; innovative design of online courses or course activities to support collaboration and community; ways of assessing student learning in online courses; creating affective outcomes toward development of the whole person; diversity perspective and cross-cultural issues; and faculty approaches to promoting learning online.
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Open, Global, Mobile
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This track seeks contributions on research and practice that discuss emerging trends in the internationalization of online education, creative uses of open education, and the un-tethering of learners from place-based computing. We are especially interested in the growth and evolution of online education in the developing world, cross border education, and effective international partnerships. Proposals that focus on online education in Latin America are of special interest. Contributions that examine open educational resources, open models of education, massive open online courses and recent advances in assessing and credentialing learning outside the traditional university framework are encouraged. Finally, proposals that look at new forms of mobile learning - especially models of mobility that intersect with and support openness and international efforts are welcome in this track.
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Student Services and Learner Support |
Student services are critical to the support of learning at any institution of higher education. When programs move online, student services need to be re-conceived in ways that are not always obvious. Papers submitted to this track should focus on issues surrounding the provision of student services to online and/or blended learners.
Proposals submitted to this track might consider, for example: library services for students learning at a distance; emerging technologies used in recruitment and retention initiatives; the development of community in online programs; orientation to online programs; advisement and counseling for online learners; services for diverse students; outsourcing of student services; perspectives on the global environment; how student services data (student survey findings, summaries of support desk calls, etc.) can inform faculty and course development services; and how student services can promote student success.
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Technology and Emerging Learning Environments |
Online learning is evolving to include multiple blended approaches, new media for online learning, and new kinds of learning environments, such as MOOCs and serious games. The existence of new learning environments has a multitude of consequences - curricular, administrative, and pedagogic - as well as impacts on cognition - both individual and cultural "habits of mind." Additionally, changes in learning environments have consequences for what it means to be literate. This track invites papers that investigate each of these areas.
Proposals submitted to this track might consider: the design, development, and assessment of innovative environments for learning (e.g., the role and impact of gaming and MOOCs, mobile learning, simulations, e-portfolios, etc.); the use and impact of new kinds of computer-mediated communications; designs for and the impact of incorporating multimedia in online courses; real-world, case-based learning designs and their outcomes; the changing nature of literacy in the age of “YouTube” and other visual media; effective blended learning strategies; environments to promote diversity of students, content, and learning approaches; and other quantitative and qualitative research on such new learning environments.
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