Leading the eLearning Transformation of Higher Ed - Part Two: Ensuring Operational Effectiveness

Please note: This is Part 2 in a series of 3 webinars. You will need to register individually for each webinar you are interested in attending by visiting our Webinars page.

This webinar will be broken up into 2 separate panels with the authors of each chapter.

Panel 1 (1:00-1:45pm ET) – Supporting Faculty Success in Online Learning: Requirements for Individual and Institutional Leadership

After 20 years of delivery of online programs, faculty development is recognized as a critical element of a successful online experience and is viewed as affecting the return on investment of the online program. The value and need for sustainable faculty support services is generally well appreciated and implemented. Faculty support has moved into the core professional development services offered by many institutions. Specifically, two domains of supporting faculty success in online education require particular consideration: (a) the development and preparation of the individual online instructor and (b) the institutional-level services to ensure online faculty success, including the appropriate institutional recognition of and incentives for online teaching. This webinar will offer a candid discussion of best practices in faculty development from several leaders in the field.

Presenters: Thomas B. Cavanagh, Raymond Schroeder, and Kelvin Thompson

Panel 2 (1:45-2:30pm ET) – Accessibility

Many institutions are making system plans for the digital accessibility of those with disabilities. This is because accessibility is the right and smart thing to do, and because it is the law. The time has passed for any institution to rely on post-hoc accommodations for digital access to its programs and services. Administrators who desire operational effectiveness must include digital accessibility. In order to oversee what for many is new work, there is a need to be aware of the big picture. This webinar will provide participants with an overview of components that are necessary as they transform the digital footprint of their programs and services to one that is accessible to those with disabilities.

Presenter: Cyndi Rowland

Speaker Bio

 

Larry Ragan
Lawrence C. Ragan (Moderator)
Co-Director for the Center for Online Innovation in Learning at Penn State University

Dr. Lawrence Ragan serves as the Co-Director for the Center for Online Innovation in Learning at Penn State University where he helps direct the Center’s mission of research, scholarship, technology innovation, and leadership development programming. Dr. Ragan has been a part of the creation and management of Penn State’s World Campus since its inception in 1998. From 1995 through 2008, Dr. Ragan served as Director for Instructional Design where he provided leadership in the design, development, and delivery of courses via the World Campus. Since 2008, Dr. Ragan has led the design and development of Outreach and Online Learning Faculty Development, which offers a range of professional development programming for World Campus and Penn State faculty preparing for online and continuing education teaching success. Dr. Ragan has also served as the Co-Director of the OLC’s Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) from 2009-2017.

Thomas B. Cavanagh
Vice Provost for Digital Learning at the University of Central Florida

Thomas Cavanagh, Ph.D. is Vice Provost for Digital Learning at the University of Central Florida. In this role he oversees all classroom technology and the distance learning strategy, policies, and practices of one of the nation’s largest universities, serving 68,000 students, where online learning represents more than 47% of the university’s annual credit hours. In his career, Tom has administered e-learning development for both academic (public and private) and industrial (Fortune 500, government/military) audiences. He has been recognized with a number of awards including the WCET Richard Jonsen Award, the USDLA Outstanding Leadership Award, and been named an Online Learning Consortium Fellow. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and serves on a number of national advisory boards. He is also an award-winning author of several mystery novels.
Raymond Schroeder
Professor Emeritus, Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield

Ray Schroeder is Professor Emeritus, Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield and Director of the Center for Online Leadership at the University Continuing and Professional Education Association (UPCEA). Each year, Schroeder publishes and presents nationally in online and technology-enhanced learning. Ray publishes five daily blogs on various aspects of news, research, and trends in technology-enhanced learning in higher education. He is recipient of the 2002 Sloan-C award for the “Most Outstanding Achievement in ALN by an Individual” and inaugural 2010 recipient of the Sloan Consortium’s highest individual award – the Frank Mayadas Leadership Award. He is an inaugural Sloan Consortium Fellow, the 2012 Innovation Fellow for Digital Learning by UPCEA, and 2016 United States Distance Learning Association Hall of Fame Award.
Kelvin Thompson
Executive Director of the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida

A popular speaker and facilitator, Dr. Kelvin Thimpson regularly addresses groups throughout the US on topics related to online/blended learning and educational technology while he serves as the Executive Director of the University of Central Florida’s Center for Distributed Learning with a faculty appointment. Dr. Thompson has collaborated on the design of hundreds of online and blended courses over the past twenty years and is active in the online education community. Kelvin developed the BlendKit Course open courseware as part of UCF’s Blended Learning Toolkit, and he also co-hosts TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast. His personal research interests center around how interaction affects learner engagement, and information on his Online Course Criticism qualitative evaluation model for facilitating the scholarship of teaching and learning in online and blended environments.
Cyndi Rowland
Founder and Executive Director of WebAIM and the National Center on Disability and Access to Education

Dr. Cyndi Rowland is the Founder and Executive Director of WebAIM and the National Center on Disability and Access to Education, both housed at Utah State University. Since 1999 she has focused on research, tool and resource development, training, and policy initiatives for web accessibility in education. The work of both WebAIM and NCDAE are viewed as important resources in web accessibility. NCDAE has rich resources for administrators and faculty alike who wish to make changes in their systems and individual practice to be more accessible. This includes a Benchmarking and Planning Tool, as well as accessibility Cheatsheets used frequently by others. Dr. Rowland has engaged in her accessibility work at top tier national and international levels. Examples include sitting on the U.S. Section 508 refresh committee and working on initiatives out of UN organizations.