Online & Blended Education: A Professional Development Opportunity

A professional development program for Workforce and ABE/ESL faculty in online and blended education
The Sloan Consortium, Inc.(Sloan-C)
and
Workforce Strategy Center
John Bourne and Maureen Bozell

Outline of talk
What is Sloan-C (J. Bourne)
What does Sloan-C do, how can we help you.
Workforce educational strategies in blended and online learning (M. Bozell)
The workshop program of Sloan-C for professional development (J. Bourne)
Next steps

The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C)
Sloan-C is a professional not-for-profit membership organization for both institutions and individuals. Created in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization after 12 years of funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Sloan-C provides professional development to higher education professionals, hosts conferences, publishes materials, conducts research and delivers online workshops.
Sloan-C operates on membership fees, workshop and conference surpluses, research fees and publication income

Over 8000 enrollments in
1345 courses offered
At 158 institutions

Elements of Quality – The Sloan-C Pillars
Frank Mayadas first proposed using the pillars for measuring quality.

The Annual Survey
www.sloanconsortium.org

Localness concept
Blended
Virtual Blended
Learner Population growth
SBCTC partners with Sloan-C to spread word nationally
SBCTC faculty can help:
Form new communities
Help Sloan-C reach out

On-Ground Conferences, Workshops, Symposia
Annual Conference
Orlando, Florida
October, 2010
Online access available
Blended Conference and Workshop
Chicago, Ill
April, 2010
Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning
San Jose, CA
July, 2010
Online Symposium

Online workshops
Provide >70 per year (75 in 2010)
From beginners to more advanced
Workshop packages:
Professional Development Package (a.k.a. “College Pass” ) is very popular.
Workshops rotate – always cutting edge!
On-line Teaching Certificate available.
Foundation course +3 elective workshops+ practicum (mentored by subject matter experts from colleges and universities across the country)
Workshops typically run ten days and are offered asynchronously/synchronously

Reasons to join Sloan-C
Institutions
Reduce costs for training faculty for online education
Secure seal of approval for institution
Reduce costs for professional attendance at conferences
Individuals
Professional recognition
Awards
Nominate people to serve on Board of Directors
Conference and workshop discounts
Corporate Affiliates
Gain interaction with Sloan-C members
Different benefits in each membership category

College Pass
$3495 for 100 seats in workshops
Income funds: workshop creation, facilitators, mentors, support and workshop coordination.
College pass provides passes to colleges that may be distributed to others. SBCTC has secured through purchase and grants a significant number of seats for 2010.
We offer a Sloan-C certificate in Online Teaching with a blended teaching track

Sloan-C Outreach: Social Networking and Content Dissemination
Use Web 2.0 systems as base for:
Content management (website)
Delivering content (Sloan-C View)
Organic Groups
Example: new group on online workforce education. Maureen Bozell point person.
Member blogs
News, Forums, Events articles

Social Network Activities
Listserv
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Second Life
Washington Community and Technical College faculty can join listserv, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and engage in Second Life activities.

Virtual Worlds initiative
Realistic, student-centered combined asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences. Hypothesis – create high quality learning in a virtual world.
Space for Washington State faculty on Sloan-C islands.

Sloan-C Headquarters in Second Life

Learning Opportunities for Virtual Worlds include:
Ways of reaching new populations with online education
Blended opportunities, localness
Corporate, alumni, and others
Workforce, ABE/ESL
K-12
Improving retention, graduation rates
Increasing Learning effectiveness
Cost reductions, improving scalability
International connectivity and liaisons
Creating “Do-learn” experiences that are risk-free
Influencing policy

What is Sloan-C doing right now?
Large effort in Social Networking
Publications
Conferences
Planning for Emerging Tech conference in July in CA and Blended Conference and Workshop in Chicago in April
Creating Alliances
Global initiatives
Blended, Localness, Workforce, and Minority initiatives
Membership drive

Maureen Bozell
Workforce Strategy Center
The Importance of Online/Blended Education for Workforce Education

Responding to the Economy
WSC’s mission is to make education and workforce development more responsive to the economy
Today almost every job requires using technology

More and more postsecondary institutions are using technology to:
Build student real world problem-solving skills
Increase student retention
Increase scheduling flexibility
Allow instructors more time to teach and coach
Decrease the time needed to prepare students for employment

Community College Online Initiative Community College Online Initiative (CCOI)
Goal: to increase the effectiveness of community colleges in workforce education and training by encouraging the use of blended learning solutions
Stage 1—Planning
Stage 2—Implementation

Planning
Work with SBCTC to pilot blended learning for workforce development
Publicize the pilot to bring blended learning to scale
Customize blended learning solutions for workforce development
ABE/ESL
Incumbent workers
Dislocated workers
Planning

Implementation
Establish blended learning solutions for workforce development in 10 community colleges
Train and certify faculty in blended teaching
Create a series of advanced blended learning workshops
Provide technical assistance
Document and disseminate CCOI
Implementation

The Workshop Program

How Colleges are interacting with Sloan-C.
States and Colleges purchase mixtures of colleges passes
Tennessee Board of Regents purchased college passes for all its 20 schools.
Colorado State purchased a franchise for Sloan-C workshops
Maryland purchased college passes for its system
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is our largest and most ambitious program to date

Program for SBCTC
Objectives:
Professional development program for faculty at Washington’s 34 community and technical colleges to assist workforce and ABE/ESL faculty
College Passes
900 seats in online workshops; 33% dedicated to ABE/ESL
Sloan-C Teaching Certificate
5 Sloan-C Teaching Certificates for the blended track; 1 dedicated to ABE/ESL
All decisions about allocation of these resources are being made by SBCTC and College ABE Directors and Workforce Deans

Example pathway for learning
Certificate Foundation course (9 weeks)
Add three elective one week courses to basic course to secure certificate
One week courses:
Getting Started in Online Teaching
Dynamic Collaboration and Facilitation Practices
Blended Learning (3-course series)
The “Quality Matters” Rubric
Technology Bootcamp, and/or Second Life series
Accommodating Students with Disabilities, Copyright Compliance, Academic Integrity, Using Laboratories Online, Workload Management, Media and Other Tools to Improve Online Learning, and others.

Workshop Dates
For updated schedule:
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/2010_workshop_schedule
Workshops continue throughout year

Looking forward
WA Community & Technical College faculty get ready to take workshops
Note: SBCTC staff are working with Workforce Deans and ABE Directors to distribute resources.
We begin planning with faculty/administration on additional ABE/ESL workshops and Workforce-related workshops
Various colleges in Washington State using SL (note: nursing simulator)
Consider social network within Washington; example, on Sloan-C island in SL. Attempt collaboration with other states that have bought into this model: Maryland, Tennessee

Workshop Opportunities by Specialization
Administration
Blended
Design and Delivery
Tools and Techniques

Administration Specialization
* Prerequisite for Teaching Certificate if no online/blended teaching experience

Blended Specialization

Design and Delivery Specialization

Tools and Techniques Specialization

Next Steps
SBCTC staff allocates workshop resources to ABE and Workforce faculty.
Kick-off webinar with college representatives
Review registration process
Preview upcoming workshops
Q & A

In conclusion, a beginning:
“The greatest real thrill that life offers is to create, to construct, to develop something useful. Too often we fail to recognize and pay tribute to the creative spirit. It is that spirit that creates our jobs. There has to be this pioneer, the individual who has the courage, the ambition to overcome the obstacles that always develop when one tries to do something worthwhile, especially when it is new and different.”
Alfred P. Sloan

Questions?
Visit:
http://www.sloanconsortium.org
Contact information:
John Bourne, jbourne@sloanconsortium.org
Maureen Bozell, mbozell@workforcestrategy.org

Online & Blended Education: A Professional Development Opportunity

by Wa State Board Community and Technical Colleges

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