Empire State College offers Coursera MOOCs : Registration Now Open | Innovations in Online Learning

Empire State College offers Coursera MOOCs : Registration Now Open

Empire State College (ESC) is offering its first ever Coursera MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as part of two projects funded last year by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITG). Registration is now open at the Coursera site for both courses.

The Metaliterate Learner Figure by Tom Mackey, Trudi Jacobson, and Roger Lipera

The first Coursera MOOC , “Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World,”  launched yesterday, Feb. 2 and has more than 3200 registered participants.  The second, “iMOOC: Mastering American eLearning,” begins March 23 and will be open for enrollment until then, but already has 642 people signed up. Both MOOCs feature videos produced at the Empire State College TV studio with the support of John Hughes, director of media production and resources. In addition, the iMOOC (the“i” is for international) also includes a logo designed by the college’s Office of Community and Government Relations and learning materials prepared by ESC faculty.

“Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World” is the result of a collaboration between instructors from Empire State College and the University at Albany. Tom Mackey, Kathleen Stone, Michele Forte and Amy McQuigge, all from Empire State College, worked together with Trudi Jacobson, Kelsey O’Brien, Jenna Pitera and Allison Hosier of UAlbany. This MOOC is supported by another top-tier IITG project as well, “Designing Innovative Online Learning: Integrating a Coursera MOOC with Open SUNY Badging.” Stone, the Coursera manager for this course, explained that the MOOC employs open content developed by the team of instructors on metaliteracy-related topics including:

• becoming a digital citizen
• participating as a global contributor
• creating and curating Information
• empowered learning: from learner to teacher

The MOOC also features special guests. There is an interview with ESC alums Sandra Barkevich and Anita Di Cianni Brown in which they talk about packaging and sharing information in today’s social media environment. Ronnie Mather, Interim Dean at the Center for Distance Learning, explores questions about metacognitive reflection.  The course includes videos, animated vignettes and other multimedia resources, as well as open resource readings.

“iMOOC: Mastering American eLearning” is a collaborative effort among Empire State College faculty and staff: Val Chukhlomin, Bidhan Chandra, Anant Deshpande, Jeannine Mercer, Lorette Pellettiere Calix, Dana Gliserman-Kopans, Amy Giaculli and Antonia Jokelova.  This project is supported by another top-tier SUNY IITG, “iMOOC: A Multiuser Platform for International Students to Navigate U.S.-style Virtual Learning Environments” .iMOOC is a competency-based, skill-building course intended to help non-U.S. students, first-generation immigrants and foreign-born professionals better understand and master American eLearning, as well as other U.S. virtual environments for college and career success. This course also makes use of open educational resources and ESC-developed videos. iMOOC will be piloted by ESC International Programs and SUNY New Paltz, as well as two international institutions, SUNY Korea and Irkutsk State University in Russia, for their on-campus students.

This entry was posted in Learner-Centered, Open Education on February 3, 2015 by betsy braun.

Tens of thousands take first ‘massive open online course’ offered in Western New York - City & Region - The Buffalo News

The most popular college course in the region this semester cost nothing to take, had no set meeting times and did not require students to step inside a classroom.

Nearly 41,000 people – more than the undergraduate and graduate enrollment at the University at Buffalo, the area’s largest school – signed up for the course, called “Ignite Your Everyday Creativity.” Developed at SUNY Buffalo State, it was the first massive open online course, or MOOC, to come from Western New York. The course ended Sunday.

And most of the students live nowhere near the Buffalo State campus. They’re in just about every state and 185 countries.

A few years ago, MOOCs received as much hype as the iPhone debut. Some proponents predicted MOOCs – which are free but don’t count for college credit – would revolutionize higher education, chopping away at spiraling costs and making many campuses obsolete.

The hype died down after a 2013 University of Pennsylvania study found that few students completed MOOCs, souring some educators on their potential.

But the free online courses continue to proliferate. Buffalo State is among more than 100 colleges and universities, including elite schools like Yale, Columbia and Duke, that are partnering with Coursera, one of several technology companies and nonprofit organizations that provide platforms for online courses.

MOOCs are just a small part of a tidal wave of change in store for higher education, said Carey Hatch, associate provost at SUNY, who oversees SUNY’s online initiatives. (Entire article available via the Buffalo News website.)

Open Mic: What Am I Doing in Your Classroom? UB Students Tell Their Tech Stories - Digital Challenges Series

UB students -- tell us how you use your phone, tablet or other tech tools in class. http://goo.gl/o6KMWD ‪#‎ubuffalo‬ ‪#‎ubuffalodc‬

• Wednesday, April 1, 2015
• 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
• 145 Student Union (North Campus)

Today’s students use smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices constantly in all areas of life, including the classroom. Though conventional wisdom suggests students are using their devices in class to text or engage social media, this program will highlight the ways in which students are integrating these powerful devices into their educational lives.

UB associate professor Valerie Nesset will set the tone for the day’s events with a keynote address focusing on the ways in which students are adopting and adapting technology to address their learning and research needs. A series of brief, informal talks and micro workshops will follow during the open mic, giving UB students an opportunity to demonstrate how they’re using mobile technologies to improve their educational experience. 

See event details and schedule: http://www.buffalo.edu/digitalchallenges/events/Open-Mic-What-Am-I-Doing-in-Your-Classroom.html

DoIT Student Team Builds New Exam Proctoring System for SUNY

DoIT Student Team Builds New Exam Proctoring System for SUNY
March 26, 2015

The new Exam Proctoring System helps students taking online classes to easily schedule exams at nearby SUNY-approved test centers.

By Will Welch, '16


Open SUNY announced a new online tool last month that makes it easier than ever for students taking online courses to find nearby test centers. It is called the SUNY Exam Proctoring System, and it was developed by Stony Brook’s own University Information Systems (UIS) Applications Solutions team in the Division of Information Technology.

The new system allows students to find SUNY-approved test centers in their area and register for exams in a matter of minutes. If there isn’t a test center near the student, he or she can quickly suggest a new test center for approval, doing away with the time-consuming process of manually scheduling exams, and making it easier for SUNY’s online progams to grow. ramsb

One of the programs that will benefit from the system is Stony Brook’s Biology Online Program.

“We will be able to address the needs of more students taking our courses from remote locations, yet insure the academic integrity and fairness of the content and assessment of learning for all our online courses for all students,” said Joanne Souza, director of the online biology program.

It was Souza who brought up the need for a better proctoring system to Patricia Aceves, Stony Brook’s Faculty Center Director. In March 2013, Souza, Professor Paul Bingham, and Aceves co-wrote an application for a SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) to build an online system. Although the application did not fit the current grant period, they were later contacted by the SUNY Associate Provost for Academic Technologies and Information Services, who offered advanced funding for the project under the 2013-14 grant period.

“The process of locating a proctor outside of an institution is very manual and labor intensive, so this system benefits faculty offering online courses throughout the SUNY system,” Aceves said.

Once the funding was secured, University Information Systems was selected to develop the new application. The system was built by three computer science students working on the Application Solutions team:  Jonathan Rodriguez, Nicholas Branzburg and Daniel Fourman.

Each student worked on a portion of the project directed at a different audience -- students, the University, and test centers. They also gained valuable experience working as a team to deliver the final project using the Microsoft ASP.NET framework, a tool which they all use in their current jobs.“We always want students to be able to leave with something that is meaningful, something that is challenging and also has a positive impact on the University,” said Raymond Chan, UIS Director of Application Solutions. “I thought this application was a perfect fit for these students who were graduating.”

Rodriguez is now a software engineer at ERP Maestro, Fourman is a technology analyst at Citigroup and Branzburg is a software engineer at FactSet Research Systems.

After graduating in May, the team reunited later in the month to present the new system at the SUNY Conference on Instructional Technology (CIT). However, they overcame major challenges to do so when they learned the database was down the night before the presentation. Working late into the morning, the team was able to recreate and re-populate the database on a new server. “Because of the team's effort, the presentation went as planned,” Chan said.

Students Kristen Stewart and Bikramaditya Ghosh Dastidar carried on the torch after the first team graduated to prepare the proctoring system to launch this year. Student Tonian Lamont, working with the Biology Online Program, contacted potential remote test center sites to be included at launch.

Now that phase one of the application is complete and live, phase two will involve other SUNY schools adding support for their classes to the system. The application is currently hosted on Stony Brook’s servers, but it will later be moved to SUNY’s infrastructure where it will continue to support hundreds of online classes.

For More Information Contact

Communications and Web Strategy

doitcomm@stonybrook.edu

(631) 632-6275

Google Camp - April 20, 2015 - Syracuse, NY

Google Higher Ed Camp

April 20, 2015


Sheraton Syracuse Hotel & Conference Center 
801 University Avenue, Syracuse, NY

Register early to reserve your spot! 


Topics include but are not limited to: 

1. Chromebooks in the Classroom 
2. Google Apps Management 
3. Google + Hangouts 
4. Understanding Google Classroom 
5. Going Google 
6. Customizing Chrome to make your life awesome! 
7. Google Scripts 
8. Google Apps for Mobile Devices 
9. Deep Dive with Drive

Select registration option: 

• $125 per person – includes full program, Google Chromecast, lunch, and breaks 
• $99 per person – includes full program, lunch, and breaks. 
• Institutional Doodle Representative 

All attendees are eligible for door prize drawings, to be held during the closing remarks. 

Please register online at: http://www.nyscate.org/conferences.cfm?subpage=722 
or fax registration to: 518-786-3983. 

What is an Edcamp Format? 
An “unconference” without keynoters; everything to be discussed that day is determined by the attendees themselves on the morning of the event. Four exciting, interactive, practical sessions will result, with a focus on all things Google

NMC Beyond the Horizon > 2015 NMC Summer Conference Preview | The New Media Consortium

Join the NMC and our panel of 2015 NMC Summer Conference presenters on Tuesday, April 14th at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET(check for local time). This one-hour session will be held in the Business Hangouts On Air platform and broadcasted live on YouTube. Participation is free for all attendees.

Open SUNY COTE Instructional Design Competency Development Program - Event Summary | Online Registration by Cvent

This training opportunity is available to both SUNY and non-SUNY participants:



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The Open SUNY COTE Instructional Design Competency Development Program kicks off on March 31st.  If you have already completed this program, please forward this announcement to a friend or colleague who might be interested.



Course 1: Helping Faculty with New Course Development

Date: March 31 - April 27, 2015



Intended for: Experienced and Expert Online Instructional Designers, Online Faculty Developers, Librarians, and Multimedia Specialists/Developers

Optional for: Exemplar Coach and Mentors: Faculty

Overview: Participants discuss how to dispel the initial apprehensions for teaching online, strategies for planning faculty development experiences, creating and managing course development milestones, and the practice and procedure for implementing a continuous improvement plan.

FACT2 Survey of SUNY on Interactive Content

Forwarded on behalf of the SUNY FACT2 Task Group

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A survey conducted by The FACT² Task Group on Interactive Content in Teaching and Learning 

Dear Campus Representatives,

This survey closes on March 23rd. With the remaining time we'd like to include as much feedback as possible. Currently, faculty represents the majority of the responses. We'd like to include as many instructional designers, instructional support and students as possible. Please feel free to share this with as many colleagues as possible. The text of our original letter follows below. Thanks

The FACT² Interactive Content in Teaching and Learning Task Group invites you to help us by sharing your experiences using interactive tools in teaching and learning. Students, faculty and those providing  instructional support are all welcome to participate. Please encourage your colleagues to contribute so that we can accumulate a substantial amount of input. To begin this collaborative effort, please complete a short questionnaire to assess the interactive tools being used or considered within the  SUNY community. 

Participate in the survey by clicking this link: http://tinyurl.com/l7tw5w8

We will share the results of this survey and the task group’s findings at CIT, Wed, May 27, 2:00pm – 2:30pm

Thank you for your participation and best wishes for an exciting and rewarding semester.

FACT² Task Group on Interactive Content in Teaching and Learning.

Jeffrey Riman FIT-Chair

Mark McBride, Monroe CC

Margaret Schedel, Music / cDACT Stony Brook University

Lenore G. Horowitz, SUNY Albany

Russ Kahn, SUNY Polytechnic

Jiang Tan, Cobleskill CC

Deborah Spiro, Nassau CC

Dave Ghidiu, Open SUNY

Ashley Tyree, Student Assembly

Fred Hildebrand, SUNY System Administration Liaison

What Middle States Wants: Perspectives From Team Evaluators - Event Summary | Online Registration by Cvent

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!!!

The Board of Directors of the Assessment Network of New York (ANNY) is pleased to present the following webinar: “What Middle States Wants: Perspectives from Team Evaluators”

March 20, 2015

12:00 noon – 1:15pm

Presenters Include:

Rosalyn Lindner, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, Buffalo State College

Michael Heel, Assistant Director of Curriculum & Assessment, Monroe Community College, ANNY President, Victoria Ferrara, Ed. D., Director of Educational Assessment, Mercy College, Program Moderator

This webinar is offered free-of-charge to current ANNY members;

non-members will be charged $25, or may register for free by enrolling in ANNY for $50 membership

TO REGISTER, GO TO:  http://www.cvent.com/d/drqllq

Global Education Conference | UNIVERSITY of RIVERSIDE

The Global Conference on Education is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practices in education. The Global Conference on Education promotes collaborative excellence between academicians and professionals from Education.

The aim of Global Conference on Education is to provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the knowledge gap, promote research esteem and the evolution of pedagogy. The Global Conference on Education invites research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation.

7th Annual Teaching & Learning Colloquium | The Faculty Center at Stony Brook University

7th Annual Teaching & Learning Colloquium 

& Educational Technologies Expo

Friday, April 17, 2015 | 8:30am to 3:00pm

Student Activities Center, Ballroom A

 

Featuring keynote speaker Bryan Alexander

Dr. Alexander is an educational technology futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher, working in the field of how technology transforms education. He completed his English language and literature PhD at the University of Michigan in 1997.

2015 COIL Conference Webcast Agenda | COIL

2015 COIL Conference Webcast

We are very pleased to again be able to offer a free live webcast to allow individuals across the world that may not be able to attend the event for geographic, financial, political or other reasons to benefit from the many informative sessions on being offered focused on this year's theme of The Expanding Landscape of COIL Practitioners, Networks, and Hubs: What’s Next?

If you are interested in joining the webcast please complete the short registration form at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2015COILConWebcast.

Please share info about the webcast with anyone you think may be interested to join us.

You can see the list of sessions which will be webcast below. You can view the times of the event in other parts of the world by clicking the links below. Please keep in mind that USA already entered Daylight Savings Time on March 8th.

March 19, 2015: 1:00 - 6:00 p.m. NYC EDT Time
March 20, 2015: 10:45 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. NYC EDT Time

An agenda for the webcast is below. You can also access presenter bios for the conference.

We will also be recording all conference sessions to be made available as a video archive on the COIL Center website at the end of April.

7th COIL Conference Webcast Agenda - Thursday, March 19, 2015

40th Annual POD Conference | November 4-8, 2015 | San Francisco, CA

We cordially invite you to participate in the 40th Annual POD Conference to be held in San Francisco, California on November 4 ­ 8, 2015.

This year’s conference theme is Back to the Future: Critical Reflection, Effective Practice​. This theme will guide us as we celebrate an amazing accomplishment, our 40th annual conference, and affords us a unique opportunity to appraise our past and present work as educational developers. The theme also seeks to inspire conversations about the future direction of our organization by connecting the previous presidential addresses by Kathryn Plank, who encouraged us to look at ourselves in the present, and Leslie Ortquist­Ahrens, who guided us through an examination of our past.

Beyond the Basics: Meeting International Students’ Needs - UB Events Calendar

Beyond the Basics: Meeting International Students’ Needs



How can UB staff better respond to international students' needs? This workshop involves discussion of critical incidents in order to understand better some strategies used by UB international students and the reasons why they employ such strategies. Gain additional insights into the causes of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Learn strategies for successful communication and cultural understanding. - See more at: http://wings.buffalo.edu/intlservices/events_this_month.html

Crossing Boundaries—Transforming STEM Education | Association of American Colleges & Universities

Crossing Boundaries—Transforming STEM Education

2015 Network for Academic Renewal STEM Conference

November 12, 2015 to November 14, 2015

Westin Seattle

1900 5th Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101

The AAC&U STEM Conference addresses the national imperative to produce more competitively trained and liberally educated STEM graduates.  It is designed to assist colleges and universities as they work to make inclusive excellence the foundation for institutional purpose and educational practice in higher education. With attention to the complexity and criticality of these issues, the AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal STEM Conference will focus on the inextricable link between increasing STEM baccalaureate degree earners and ensuring a scientifically literate citizenry. Issues the conference will address include integrative, cross-disciplinary STEM teaching and learning; inclusive excellence and broadening participation in STEM; STEM faculty support and reward systems; and institutional transformation to advance hands-on learning and to increase all students’ achievement of key learning outcomes.

AAC&U intends to leverage the interests it shares with the national undergraduate STEM reform community to diversify the undergraduate STEM disciplines and to support a national community of STEM faculty and administrators who are developing learning environments that support and empower all students.

Ensuring that STEM higher education reform remains at the center of our nation’s discourse, particularly as the challenge to meet demands for the STEM workforce grows, will require radically different approaches, deeper levels of intentionality, and a stronger willingness to embrace all disciplines, include all students, and engage all perspectives. Conference sessions will explore the latest research findings on how students learn; bridge theory with practice; and examine the many ways that communities of practice, both institutional and national, can strategically and synergistically contribute to undergraduate STEM education reform.

#ELD15 Opens Call for Proposals « CHSS Emerging & Instructional Technology

#ELD15 Opens Call for Proposals

For any of you who might be interested in presenting….please also share with your colleagues.

The 2015 Emerging Learning Design Conference (ELD15) is accepting proposals for its 5th annual conference, to be held May 29th 2015 on the campus of Montclair State University.

INITIAL PROPOSAL DEADLINE – NOVEMBER 21st, 2015. See below for details.



The theme for this year’s conference is CONNECT, CONSTRUCT, CREATE: ENGAGING APPROACHES TO TEACHING AND LEARNING