AACE E-Learn Conference

I also had the opportunity to attend the AACE Conference in Las Vegas last month. I was very proactive prior to arriving in Las Vegas—I picked some sessions to attend online with the Personal Scheduler. However, it wasn’t until I arrived that I saw the overwhelming number of sessions available. While this may sound like a good thing, it turned out to be more of a distraction than anything. There were a number of sessions that were 20 minutes or 30 minutes and people were entering and departing constantly through the presentations. However, in the midst of all of that, I found a number of informational tidbits that were helpful to me:
Thinking about how we ask questions

• Professors tend to use three types of questions: Horizontal, Non-Referential, and Referential. Our questions should be designed in a strategic way so that we have a goal of what we want the student to walk away with. Too many professors ask questions very haphazardly, and students do not obtain the anticipated results. Additionally, there was some discussion on how questions are processed (cognitively), and how to frame them in a way to get students to use higher-order thinking.

Developing hybrid courses

• There was a couple of discussions on the benefits of hybrid classes versus traditional classes and online classes. This is something I have done at a previous institution, and would love for Winston-Salem State to adopt. I have had some push back on it, but I think students would really enjoy this online/in-person format. The presenters said they suggest listing the class as traditional, but a significant portion of the class will take place online. While the session was really informative, I did not get some of my questions answered by the presenters. For example, how do you market a hybrid class to your department or dean, when there is such a big push for student contact hours?

Effective and efficient ways to use discussion boards and blogs.

• There were a number of presenters who spoke about using discussion boards and blogs in their classes. Much of the focus was on actual usage, but there were a few people who had good and fresh suggestions that made sense. One suggestion was to change the Required Posting format so that students have to post their responses prior to reading any other posts. This prevents students from *paraphrasing* another student’s response. Another suggestion was to do Fishbowl discussions online. Students are selected and assigned to a discussion, while other students don’t respond but read and reflect on the discussion that took place. Finally, the suggestions to post an article (news-related, pop culture, etc.) and have students respond to it on the discussion boards/blogs. While this is not innovative, the way in which the presenters set this up for their students was really cool. Perhaps the key to success is in the selection of material to post.

Using Wikis for Small Groups

• The final piece of information I found helpful was about using Wikis. I already use Wikis in my classes, but they had some of the most elaborate Wikis I have ever seen. They used a template to create small group workspaces. I don’t believe we currently have access to this template, but if we did-- I think it would greatly improve student usage.

I did learn that Winston-Salem State is a bit behind in some of the technological tools that were on display during the conference. However, I also learned that our quality of teaching and presenting is probably better than most of those I came in contact with during the week. Overall, it was a great experience to see and hear some of the latest and most innovative ways to disseminate knowledge to our students. I will say the biggest disappointment of the conference was the organization. Hopefully in the future, more thought will be given to specific tracks for participants, or a re-vamping of how the presentation sessions are designed.

E-Learn Conference in Las Vegas

I had an opportunity to attend the E-Learn Conference in Las Vegas, NV. I must say that with the long flight, time difference, long line at check-in and lack of food, I was extremely exhausted. After I had gotten over jet lag, I registered for the conference. I was excited to see the variety of interesting workshops in the registration manual. The global contribution to this conference was amazing. There were people from Japan, Australia, South Africa and a host of other countries who shared knowledge about there research in education.

The E-Learn conference was different from what I was used to. Instead of having thirty minute or hour long sessions, most sessions ended up being in twenty minute increments scattered across the conference area. Which I found difficult when trying to attend more than one session. Though frustrated, some of the sessions that I attended were enlightening and benefical. I especially liked the session on "Second Life," a virtual reality enviroment that uses "avatars"(virtual person) to relate or communicate with people. The facilitator began to show the audience how this program could be used to reach and connect with students. This website has virtual campuses such as: Michigan State University, Duke University as well as community colleges. I began to think, "Is Winston-Salem State University ready for this level of technology"? No, I think that we have a long way to go, but attending conferences such as this one, can start the thinking "outside the box."

The conference was filled with innovative ways of using technology and online tools to initiate response and promote learning.

13th Annual E-Learn 2008

I attended the 13th Annual E-Learn 2008 World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education in Las Vegas. The reason I decided to attend the conference was my first online I teach this semester. Since this is the first time I teach any online course, I have had some difficulties in that class. Being a quant-oriented course wouldn't help me either.

While it was a great experience to see how others approach online courses, I was not able to find exact answers I was looking for. However, one thing is for sure in that online teaching may or will be the major part of higher education. For example, the State of Minnesota mendates 25% of courses to be provided online by 2015, and we know the UNC Tomorrow wants to increase online courses as much as 60% (if my memory is correct). As one of Keynote spear, Mark David Milliron, said, the "Next Generation" rely on cell phones & instant messages to communicate, build online communities, and spend much more time online, as much as 12.2 hours per week. As a faculty, I need to deal with future, or some current students who are so used to technology.

After attending several sessions, however, I realized Winston-Salem State University is way behind other institutions in terms of E-Learning. At the same time, I face a dilemma as a faculty whose job is research, teaching, and services. Even at a teaching-oriented university, research cannot be ignored since the productivity in research will dictate your marketability. In my experience, online teaching requires a huge commitment from faculty and can be really time-consuming at the expense of research. However, once a course is fully developed, I can see next time will be much easier, evidenced by the University of Pheonix.

As a closing remark, we live in a world where technology evolves in such a fast pace and the next generation will rely on new technology. In business, once a company, for example the Big 3, is behind innovation, it is very difficult to overcome the technology gap and to remain competitive. While I am not a big fan of online teaching, especially for my course, we must keep working on development so that we are not behind our peers.

JSK