Available as an on-demand course, Zoom Towards Engagement targets best practices when teaching online via Zoom.  Many of the resources are also useful for administrators and staff as many events and functions have transitioned into an online environment.  This course will be continuously updated as new Zoom updates and functions are released.

Held on October 30, the 2020 Oklahoma OER Summit is now available as an on-demand course.  Faculty and staff may complete a short quiz upon viewing the resources to earn the OER CHAMPION digital badge from the Online Consortium of Oklahoma (OCO).

Description: For nursing faculty and online learning professionals: a workshop to uncover issues related to teaching traditional skills and nursing simulations remotely. The workshop will brainstorm ideas and help participants start a plan to prepare for any future transition to remote instruction.

Facilitators: Brad Griffith (Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education)

Description: Learn how Western Oklahoma State College shifted its student tutoring programs to a fully virtual format using existing tools, including Zoom.

Facilitators: Melissa Smith and Katie Brewer (Western Oklahoma State College)

Description: Has anyone ever said to you that online education does not have as much quality or rigor as face-to-face instruction? Have you struggled to provide and intelligent reply? Are you concerned about the quality of your online course during the recent, and rapid, conversion to remote instruction? If so, this topic is for you! This session will provide a blueprint for establishing quality measures, gathering data, seeking student and faculty input, and building a process for continuous improvement to help ensure quality in your online environment. Examples will be given as well as lessons learned, from a recent start-up of an online program track.

Facilitators: Nancy Gwin (University of Central Oklahoma)

Description: Many faculty approaching a new term of fully remote instruction may now be wondering how to ensure academic integrity and identity of learners outside of the traditional classroom. This session will first provide you with an overview of various techniques to assess learners in the online environment, some of which do not require any form of proctoring. For those cases where proctoring is necessary, a sampling of current online proctoring strategies and technologies will help inform faculty and administrators.

Facilitators: Bucky Dodd (University of Central Oklahoma); Brad Griffith (Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education)

Description: Have you been grappling with whether labs can be delivered effectively in the online environment? This session will review what the Eberly College of Science at Penn State University is doing for online labs, proving that it’s not about the labs, it’s about the outcomes. This highly interactive and collaborative session will utilize problem-based learning to help participants uncover strategies to use in their own courses.

Facilitators: Melissa Hicks (Penn State University)

Description: All hands on deck! With the spread of COVID-19 this spring semester, many institutions have answered the unexpected call to action to continue operations by bringing online education to all students. This session will ask attendees to dig in and explore ways to maintain the quality of online learning and innovation within this record-paced transformation of interactions, environments, strategies, and cultures. During this collaborative session, we will develop a toolkit with resources to help you promote innovation in teaching, course design, program design, and learning culture at your institution.

Facilitators: Brad Griffith (Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education), Bucky Dodd (University of Central Oklahoma)

Friday, April 10, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: This session will provide attendees a pathway forward for increasing availability of low/no-cost course materials for students within Oklahoma institutions.  Lessons from the field will help you expand your “why” of OER and envision where we can go as a system through harnessing current resources and future opportunities.

Presenter: Kathy Essmiller (Oklahoma State University)

Thursday, April 9, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: AI is the next evolution of big data’s use in education. As more institutions develop their capabilities and architecture to obtain more data on their students, mining this data to better serve the student will become the focus of getting students to completion. Yet, the process to “hire” AI and implement it at scale should be guided by thoughtful conversations from administrators, faculty, students, and staff. While the promise of specific AI technology will be discussed, the leadership required to advance AI enabled strategic change will be a focus of the conversation.

Presenters: Luke Dowden (Alamo Colleges District), Karen Srba (St. Francis University)

Wednesday, April 8, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Central

Description: The world is in unprecedented territory. You’re being asked to move your classes online, and seeing enrollment in existing distance education climb. Students are not on campus. How do we make sure that we keep our obligations to students with disabilities in the middle of all of this change? During this session we will discuss how critical it is, especially now, to build accessible educational environments. We will share some tips and guidance and leave you with resources to help.

Presenter: Rob Carr (Oklahoma ABLE Tech)

Wednesday, April 8, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: Each of us has a finite amount of mental bandwidth for all the tasks in our lives. By bandwidth, I’m referring to attentional resources. This isn’t about how smart a person is, but about how much of their cognitive capacity is available for learning. One of the most powerful bandwidth stealers is uncertainty. In this public health crisis, our students – and our instructors – are living in a situation where uncertainty is the only constant. What can we do, within classes and as institutions, to provide environments of certainty for our students so they can recover a bit of bandwidth for learning?

Presenter: Cia Verschelden (Malcolm X College)

Tuesday, April 7, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Central

Description: This session will provide an overview of un-grading, a movement in both K-12 and higher ed to put the focus on feedback, not grades. The goal: increase motivation, decrease stress, and advance learning by providing students with actionable feedback instead of number/letter grades.

Presenter: Laura Gibbs (University of Oklahoma)

Tuesday, April 7, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: Best practices to keep students involved and moving through an online course.

Presenter: Akram Taghavi-Burris (University of Tulsa)

Monday, April 6, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: This event will showcase the 2020 Oklahoma Online Excellence Award winners.

Facilitator:  Brad Griffith (Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education)

Guest Presenters: Jason Stone, Breeman Ainsworth, Dorothy Weaver (OSU-OKC Division of Liberal Arts)

Friday, April 3, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: Learn what skills are critical for online instructors, and how to develop those skills while also motivating online instructors to stay active and engaged in their courses right alongside their students.

Presenter: Simon Ringsmuth (Oklahoma State University

Thursday, April 2, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Central

Description: From the humble beginnings of automating a paper statistics report to predictive analytics, the KPI Dashboard (custom built by the IDEA Team at UCO using Blackboard Analytics) has had its share of growing pains as well as triumphs. This session will discuss some of the features (room search, schedule toxicity, enrollment projection, and department and university profiles) and the pitfalls, both hit and avoided, along the way.

Presenter: Liz Crowell (University of Central Oklahoma), Sean Gausman (University of Central Oklahoma)

Wednesday, April 1, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Access On-Demand Recording from March 30, 2020

Description: The U.S. Department of Education is redoing several regulations regarding distance education and educational innovations offered by colleges and universities. This session will explore those that you most need to understand and take your questions.

Presenter:  Russ Poulin, Executive Director (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technology)

Tuesday, March 31, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: This presentation highlights key trends, issues, and updates related to online and blended learning in Oklahoma.

Presenters: Bucky Dodd (University of Central Oklahoma); Dana Lindon-Burgett (Rose State College); Brad Griffith (Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education)

Monday, March 30, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central

Description: Introduction to digital accessibility in Microsoft Word 2019.

Facilitators: Lyssa Prince (OK ABLE Tech)

Description: This presentation highlights key trends, issues, and updates related to online and blended learning in Oklahoma.

Facilitators: Bucky Dodd (University of Central Oklahoma); Kyle Foster (Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education)

Description: This presentation will cover proven strategies to set-up faculty, their students, and their departments for success in online courses. The use of data-driven decisions, mobile course design, mobile content development, implementing OER, and the engagement-edutainment of students will be demonstrated from online science courses across Oklahoma. This presentation will empower you to achieve higher enrollment, higher student completion rates, and higher personal satisfaction in your online courses – while having a blast!

Facilitators: Kenny Tapp (University of Central Oklahoma)

Description: Learners formulate their first impression of a course before they even step inside. In the typical online course, the syllabus can be very telling of what one can expect to learn and experience. It can be follow the standard “terms of contract” approach or it can be designed in a way that grabs attention, engages, and initiates the learner’s interest. This session will present design methods that can be used in the course syllabus to maximize the value of the learner experience.

Facilitators: Tracy Fairless (University of Central Oklahoma), Steve Covello (Granite State College)

Description: Beginning with the end in mind, this workshop will take a look at measurable course objectives and how they provide the foundation for much of the design, including types of learning activities and assessments that are necessary to help learners achieve the desired outcomes. We’ll consider course mapping and module mapping and how participants might share those in their online course designs. The emphasis throughout this session is on alignment.

Facilitators: Dana Lindon-Burgett (Rose State College)

Description: We will take some time to discuss how accessibility in technology spans across traditional higher education silos and some of the people that are key to moving accessibility from a project or add-on to a sustainable program.

Facilitators: Rob Carr (Oklahoma ABLE Tech)

Description: This presentation takes a look at the new Oklahoma Learner Readiness Tool and how the tool can assist first time online students. The tool covers areas such as organizational skills, time management, learning preferences, and more. In many cases students are overwhelmed with self-directed learning. This tool will help first time online students to be successful in online courses.

Facilitators: Gary Dotterer (Rogers State University)

Description: If you have never taught online, recently began teaching online, or would just like a refresher, consider joining us for this 2 hour session focused on helping educators begin their online teaching journey. The session will be interactive and include several examples. Some of the topics that will be covered are: • Faculty readiness • Needed technical skills and how to strengthen those skills • Creating an online community • Re-thinking the instructor’s role in an online class • Ideas to help student’s start strong in an online class • Examples of consistent organization & navigation

Facilitators: Randy Dominguez (Tulsa Community College), Dana Lindon-Burgett (Rose State College)

Description: This presentation will focus on experiences gained through implementation of the OpenStax OER in a community college science course. Tools that have assisted with this implantation will also be presented and discussed.

Facilitators: Amanda Carlisle (Beaufort County Community College)

Description: Augmented, Mixed, and Virtual Reality are powerful and fundamentally different from existing communication mediums. Ken Parker will explain them and how can you potentially use them for education.

Facilitators: Ken Parker (Next Thought)

Welcome to the 2019 Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit! 

Next week we kick off the 2019 Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit. Here’s what is coming up!

Wednesday we gathered for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to honor a group of individuals who demonstrate excellence in online learning across Oklahoma. The 2018 Online Education Excellence Awardees are the pillars of leadership, innovation, teaching, and teamwork in our state. Below is a summary of each awardee.

Description: This session will be an interactive exchange of ideas and effective practices from expert online educators across Oklahoma. Topics will include online teaching and course design practices as well as questions from the audience.

Facilitators: Bucky Dodd, moderator (UCO); Maria Christian (NSU); Randy Dominguez (TCC); Gary Dotterer (RSU); Brett King (UCO); Stacy Southerland (UCO)

Description: This session will be a discussion of the characteristics of online learners and tips and strategies for supporting them as they prepare to enter the world of online learning. Please come join the conversation as we discuss ways to prepare students to enter the world of online learning.

Facilitators: Glenne’ Whisenhunt (OCCC)

Description: Learn the interactive elements this instructor implements in her online class and the budget-friendly resources she uses. This workshop features free (and almost free) tech tools and resources for creating interesting instructional videos and facilitating student engagement. Skill level: beginner to intermediate. More advanced Q&A also available for animation, etc.

Facilitators: Kinda Wilson (OSU)

Description: Identifying barriers to accessibility may not be as difficult as you think. There are tools and techniques that you can use, for free, to test your web and non-web content for accessibility. Join Steph Rogers from the University of Central Oklahoma and Rob Carr from Oklahoma ABLE Tech to learn some of the basics of testing websites, PDF and Microsoft Office content for accessibility.

Facilitators: Steph Rogers (UCO); Rob Carr (Oklahoma ABLE Tech, OSU)

Description: Open licensing, open access journals and open educational resources provide the foundation for a world in which universal access to education is possible. Governments are supporting this shift with a move toward open policies: requiring public access to publicly funded resources. Dr. Cable Green, Director of Open Education at Creative Commons, will provide an overview of open licensing and OER, and discuss specific examples where faculty, institutions and governments have moved the default on practice, culture and funding from “closed” to “open.”

Facilitators: Cable Green (Creative Commons)

Welcome to week 2 of the Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit.

Here are some exciting events happening this week!  

Description: Detecting academic dishonesty in the online environment isn’t always easy. This session will focus on tools, tips, and tricks to reduce academic dishonesty in the online environment. The discussion will also give examples of how some of these tools and practices were used to detect and stop student cheating.

Facilitators: Travis Hurst, moderator (Rose State College)

Description: When developing an online course, there are different third-party programs and software that can be used to help enhance the students experience. The University of Oklahoma’s College of Professional and Continuing Studies will discuss and demonstrate the following products: SoftChalk, Salas, GoAnimate, Google Drive, and others.

Facilitators: John Boekenoogen (OU)

Description: This session is a virtual panel discussion on lessons learned from administration, faculty, and Instructional Design perspectives for those who are just beginning to teach online. Issues addressed will include training needed, course design considerations, managing an online course, and communication tips. Join us for a panel presentation and then open discussion on how to get started with teaching online.”

Facilitators: Randy Dominguez (Tulsa Community College)

I hope you are enjoying the 2018 Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit!

I want to provide a few updates and information related to the summit.

Description: Class time is valuable, particularly in labs. This presentation will focus on the use of video to free up time to focus on content by moving the pre-lab material online and will discuss how SCORM content is used for a “flipped class” model.

Facilitators: Amy Hurst (Rose State College)

Description: This session shares innovative initiatives and collaborations occurring across the state of Oklahoma aimed at growing the quality and excellence of online and blended education opportunities.

Facilitators: Bucky Dodd (University of Central Oklahoma); Kyle Foster (OSRHE)

I’m excited to announce the launch of The Guide to Online Teaching. This resource was created by members of the Council for Online Learning Excellence and highlights course design techniques and principles relevant for educators who teach in online and blended learning environments.

Thank you for making the first Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit a wonderful success! 

Throughout April, more than 370 educators from across Oklahoma (and beyond) came together to share and learn innovative ways for helping students succeed. 

Please take a few moments to complete the following brief questionnaire about your experience.  Your input will be valuable as we plan the next summit together. 

Best Practices for Online Learning – “Dirty Dozen” (our must do’s for online teaching)

• POP’s – “Palmer’s Online Pointers” weekly tips from our Title III Star Instructor
• Instructor Online Training

Ways to ensure rigor and best practices are being used.

• Faculty Resource Page
• Title III Department Resources
• Meeting with Instructional Designer
• In-Service Trainings
• Professional Development

What are some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for online teaching?

• Flexible Schedules, hybrid availability, family connectedness
• Technology knowledge, on the fly learning
• Students able to take courses that may not be able to attend on campus
• Online Tuition-free colleges?

This information was gathered from RSU faculty.

1. The best advice I can give for teaching online is to respond to student emails in a quickly and timely fashion. This may sound trivial or you may believe that you already do this. Consider these questions: Have you told your students the turnaround time to expect? Do you post this information in your syllabus or in your emails the turnaround time for responses?

I also give all online students my cell phone number so they can reach me outside of normal office hours (or as an adjunct that doesn’t have an office), I tell them to leave a message and I will call them back.

I include the following statement in my student emails:

Students:
All communication needs to contain your full name and course. Emails may take up to 24 hrs (or by the end of the following business day) to return – excluding weekends, holidays, between semesters, and when the college is closed.

Feedback that I receive from students is that they can’t believe how quickly I respond to emails (usually same day) and that most of their teachers take a week (or more) to answer questions.

2. Consider delivering several modes of instruction for each piece of content/assignment. Preferences in how one receives information is critical in online education and the learning process.

The Oklahoma Online Learning Excellence Awards were established by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education’s Council for Online Learning Excellence to recognize individuals and groups from organizations in the State of Oklahoma that are dedicated to supporting and advancing excellence in online learning. Nominees have been determined by their peers to display the highest levels of achievement in leadership at their home institutions as well as across the state of Oklahoma and the nation, develop ground-breaking innovations in the industry, cultivate collaborations with internal and external peers, and promote high quality online learning experiences that evidence robust learner achievement and success.

Here are the notes from the meet up held at the University of Central Oklahoma.

We’ve had a wonderful week of live sessions and meet-ups! If you weren’t able to attend, be sure to check out the recordings on the Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit Facebook group.

Welcome to Week 2 of the Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit

This week we kick off the live online sessions for the Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit. Here’s what is coming up!

Here’s a summary from the Meet-Up at Rogers State University.

Welcome and Introductions

 Identify barriers that attribute to lower students outcomes in online courses vs on-ground courses

Discussion – Tools of Engagement in online courses

• Forum/discussions
  • Advanced use of multimedia in forum/discussions
• Gamification
• Peer Review/Collaboration – Embedded tools to promote collaboration
• Pitfalls using engagement tools
•  Incorporation of forums in Advanced Math Courses
• Statistics
• Discussion – Accessibility
  • New standards are now being finalized and approved by WCAG 2.0
  • HLC CRAC- Guidelines specific to Guideline 6, 8, and 9
  • HLC – Criteria for evaluating online courses/programs

Greetings!

I would like to welcome you to the first Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit! Thank you for registering. The Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit focuses on advancing excellence in online and blended learning practices and providing educators in Oklahoma (and beyond) the opportunity to learn about new ideas for helping students succeed. Throughout April you’ll have many opportunities to learn from your colleagues around the state and share your expertise with others. I will provide updates and highlight upcoming learning opportunities through a weekly email. You can also visit the summit website at http://www.onlineexcellence.onenet.net/ for the latest information and resources. Here are some learning opportunities that are coming up!