Saving Dollars and Making Sense: Scalability in Developing Distance Courseware
Program Brochure (PDF 242KB)

Do individual colleges and universities really need 15, or 30, or more different versions of online courses in history, or English, or government "101," each created by a different faculty member? A more effective, efficient model is to use a team of academic personnel—faculty, instructional designers, and I.T. professionals—to design a single, customizable course to be taught by many faculty, in multiple sections, over numerous semesters. Faculty frequently balk at this notion, believing it to be an infringement on academic freedom. But, many faculty often teach from textbooks and other instructional materials they did not create themselves. By extension, a customizable curriculum created by someone else can also be adapted successfully. This professional development seminar will demonstrate ways to customize "third party" courseware and the advantages of achieving economies of scales: time and labor efficiency, cost-effectiveness, enhancement of the quality of course elements and design, and improvement of student learning and retention.

Saving Dollars and Making Sense: "Un-bundling" Faculty Duties in Distance Courses
Program Brochure (PDF 232KB)

Current surveys show that course management is a major concern for faculty teaching at a distance. Many are overwhelmed with student requests for information and guidance on course administration and navigation problems, and they are spending so much time on those issues they cannot focus on instruction. Research into the costs of distance courses reveals that a key strategy for improving both "the bottom line" and teaching effectiveness is "un-bundling" faculty duties: using faculty exclusively to interact with students on specific instructional issues, and using teaching assistants, mentors, and other staff to handle all other student concerns. Many university faculty "un-bundle" already in face-to-face courses, using teaching assistants, graders, discussion leaders, IT personnel, etc. This program will show how that practice can be translated into distance courses.

Pedagogy 101 for Distance Learning
Program Brochure (PDF 206KB)

In response to repeated requests by faculty, this professional development seminar will be a compilation of best practices for teaching distance learning courses. In the ten previous years, our professional development programs have presented essential information on key elements of good distance learning pedagogy—survival tips for new online instructors, creating learning communities among students, evaluating and customizing courses created by third parties, assessing and evaluating distance learners, improving retention in distance courses, etc. Now, in response to numerous calls for concentrated presentations of more effective, efficient ways to teach at a distance, leading theorists and experienced practitioners will present proven techniques for distance faculty.

Pedagogy 102 for Distance Learning
Program Brochure (PDF 124KB)

This professional development seminar will be a continuation of the presentation on this topic in February 2005. This seminar will pick up where Pedagogy 101 left off by providing a compilation of best practices and more effective, efficient ways to teach distance courses. It will feature panelists who are successful practitioners and highly-regarded theorists presenting the most current and most useful pedagogical models and applications.