Description: Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines (CAST, 2018) as a framework for discussion, this panel will share strategies and best practices for the differentiation of student learning through technology and intentional course design.

Facilitators/Institution: Kyle Vareberg, Sophia Burch, Renee Cambiano, and Kari Henry Hulett (Northeastern State University)

Description: This session is an overview of what humanized online learning is and how it can help students succeed in college and university courses. Tips are provided for instructional designers and faculty to use in their courses to help make their online offerings have more relevant content that in turn helps to improve student motivation.

Facilitators: Lora Pezzell (University of Central Oklahoma)

Description: This presentation discusses proven strategies for building a workable balance between ensuring consistency and standardization throughout an online program while maintaining faculty academic freedom.

Facilitators: Dr. Nancy Gwin (University of Central Oklahoma)

Description: Two most important learning outcomes in STEM courses are critical thinking and problem solving. I talk about course design technique and applied methodology for active learning in online STEM courses. I share ideas to humanize an online STEM course to provide students with engaging classroom experiences.

Facilitators: Susmita Hazra (Cameron University)

Description: This session will cover the importance of organization, consistency, and communication in supporting online learners’ self-regulation in asynchronous courses.

Facilitators: Dr. Kalianne Neumann (Oklahoma State University)

Description: Grading feedback is only effective in the learning process if it is reviewed and used by the students. For my Composition class, I have re-designed the rubric to contain instructions for a follow up assignment, personalized to what they individually need to work on to improve their writing skills. In this session, I will show the rubric I have made and how it is used in my class. Participant discussion of how this could be improved or how a similar approach might be used for other subjects will be welcome!

Facilitators: Christala Smith (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)

Description: Are you hesitant to call on your college students in class? Are you looking for a way to include more students in your synchronous online discussions without embarrassing anyone or causing anxiety? This presentation will help you develop a method for increasing student engagement and participation in your class in a non-intrusive manner. Most college instructors are looking for ways to bring learner-centered pedagogy and high-impact practices into the classroom, especially strategies that prioritize diversity and inclusion. This session will help you to build relationships and trust with your students in a short amount of time, and more students will be actively engaging in classroom discussions. The percentage of students participating in your class will dramatically increase! If you’re looking for a way to move from a traditional lecture format to more of a discussion format, this session is for you!

Facilitators: Tracy Jackson (Tulsa Community College)

Description: Create an area in your online classroom for brain breaks so that students have the option to take a break without leaving the online classroom. Look at a module with links and suggestions so that you can get ideas to create an optional resource module to guide students through a quick breathing exercise, screen break, a stretch, or music for focusing.

Facilitators: Ally Sharp (Langston University)

Description: As an online business communications instructor, my quest every semester is to find more innovative and creative ways to engage students in online learning – how can I bring a face-to-face experience into an online platform? While I continue to learn more and more every semester, I would love to share some of the creative solutions I have drummed up over the last couple of years. Join me for a preview of my business communications course and the technology and resources I am using to breathe LIFE in my online classes!

Facilitators: Dr. Niccole Miller (University of Central Oklahoma)

Description: This presentation will look at the foundation of the online course design and look at some of the ideas and steps you can take before actual course design. They are steps in backward design, the basic foundation of online courses such as interactivity, discussion, effective feedback, modules, and navigation. It also presents some ideas for designing online courses based on other’s experiences and findings.

Facilitators: Dr. Abe Soltani (Langston University)

Description: The easier it is for students to access and understand your content,​ the easier it is for students to engage in and learn from your course. Office 365 has tools to help everyone.

Facilitators: Ally Sharp (Langston University)

Description: Following best practices and processes in instructional design is key to a quality course. Looking at rural areas where broadband access is limited, download times of images are important to the learning process and supplanting visual ques. When file size of images exceed norms and are detrimental in the download process when broadband is not available. In this session you will learn little tricks of the trade preparing imagery for online course content delivery, sizing, layout, adding accessible tags, etc.

Facilitators: Dr. Gary Dotterer (Rogers State University)

Description: Online students miss out on the informal interactions which are typical on campus. In a F2F session, students and professors have non-course related talks which relate the professor as a person to the students. Everything from current events to (sometimes awful) jokes are shared. Heightened because of COVID – students need more interactions. Students want more interactions. The human is a social being and the isolation from online classes can be minimized (not eliminated). You can add these to your online course without trying to be a standup comic.

Facilitators: Dr. Marty Ludlum (University of Central Oklahoma)

Description: A demonstration of how Articulate Rise is used to increase learner engagement in self-paced online courses offered by OSU Extension.

Facilitators: Joan York (Oklahoma State University)

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: 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: 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: 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: 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)

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)