My BbWorld 2016 Presentation Schedule

BbWorld16

I’m fortunate to be able to attend BbWorld for the fifth time this year. Here’s a list of the presentations I’ll either be collaborating with colleagues to give this year at #BbWorld16…

Blackboard Collaborate: Strategies and considerations for institutional adoption

Date/Time/Location: Tue, 7/12/16, 1:00PM-1:50PM, Titian 2205
Presenters: Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter, Jeff Geronimo
In this session, we will share NIU’s recent Blackboard Collaborate roll-out strategy, practices, and lessons learned. Learn how NIU’s carefully planned adoption approach has been helping to make anytime synchronous collaboration simpler, more reliable, and more enjoyable. Bring your own questions and experiences and join in the discussion!

The Blackboard Portfolio tool: Features, uses, and campus-wide implementation process

Date/Time/Location: Thu, 7/14/16, 9:35AM-10:25AM, Titian 2205
Presenters: Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter
The new Blackboard Portfolio tool released with Blackboard learn in April 2014 is much-improved and provides an easy-to-use platform for students to demonstrate and reflect upon what they have learned throughout their university career. Northern Illinois University (NIU) implemented the portfolios campus-wide during 2015, and it was used by thousands of students in a relatively short time. This presentation will provide an overview of the portfolio tool, strategies for developing portfolios that serve different purposes, and best practices for institutional adoption. Sample portfolios and exemplars from faculty who are using Blackboard portfolios in their classes will be shared, along with NIU’s campus-wide implementation process. Opportunities and challenges will be discussed to provide insights for others planning to roll-out portfolios at their institutions.

If be tweeting @jasonrhode my #BbWorld16 insights and takeaways and will post the slides from my presentations here on my blog.

Educator Preview for Blackboard Learn Ultra Now Available

Blackboard Learn

With feedback from users, Blackboard is building a new user experience called “Ultra” for both learners and educators that is more modern, personalized, and intuitive. The focus has been to zero in to improve the most-used features and significantly reduce the number of clicks per task.

Blackboard has announced its new Educator Preview where instructors can test drive the new Blackboard Learn with the Ultra experience. In the Educator Preview you’ll see a new, easy to use navigation as well as two course types to play around in.

Laptop

  • The Original Course has all of the features you’re familiar with from Blackboard Learn today.
  • The Ultra Course leverages Blackboard’s new design and makes it easier than ever to build and teach great courses.

To get started, simply visit preview.blackboard.com and click register.

Get Started Now

 

 

For more information, email educatorpreview@blackboard.com

IDs, Faculty, and Administrators of AACSB-accredited Online MBA Programs Sought for Online Quality Assurance Study

I’m passing along the following request from a doctoral student at Boise State University who is seeking instructional designers, faculty, and administrators of online MBA programs accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). For more information or to participate in this study, please follow-up with Glori Hinck at ghinck@stthomas.edu.


AACSBI am completing my EdD through Boise State University. For my dissertation I am studying quality assurance in online MBA programs. I am currently seeking an expert panel for a Delphi study that will start in the next 1-2 weeks. This study will involve three online surveys, each taking approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. I am recruiting for three groups of experts:

  • Instructional designers with at least 5 years of experience in online learning currently working in an AACSB-accredited online MBA program.
  • Faculty with at least 5 years of experience teaching in an AACSB-accredited online MBA program.
  • Administrators with at least 5 years of experience at the program director level or above in an AACSB-accredited online MBA program.

If you know any instructional designers, faculty or administrators that meet the criteria above and would be willing to participate, please consider forwarding my request to them. I greatly appreciate any assistance you can provide!

Thank you for your time,
Glori

Quality Online Teaching: Managing the Online Teaching Workload

We often tell students that they need to be organized to manage their workload when they take an online course. But, it is even more important for you to manage your own time when teaching an online course. The lack of pre-defined, scheduled class times, combined with navigating the tools for online grading and communication can make it feel overwhelming. This archived online workshop will introduce you to some strategies for keeping up with the course, techniques that can save you time, and best practices to manage student expectations of you, including some simple suggestions for saving time and increasing your efficiency.

Latest Trends in Educational Technology Use Identified in 2016 Horizon Report

2016 Horizon Report

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) have jointly released the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition. This 13th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

“The release of this report kicks off the 15th year of the NMC Horizon Project, which has sparked crucial conversations and progressive strategies in institutions all over the world,”says Larry Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the NMC. “We are so appreciative of ELI’s continued support and collaboration. Together we have been able to regularly provide timely analysis to universities and colleges.”

“This year’s report addresses a number of positive trends that are taking root in higher education,” notes ELI Director Malcolm Brown. “More institutions are developing programs that enable students and faculty to create and contribute innovations that advance national economies, and they are also reimagining the spaces and resources accessible to them to spur this kind of creativity.”

[Watch the video summary]

Key Trends Accelerating Higher Education Technology Adoption

The NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition identifies “Advancing Cultures of Innovation” and “Rethinking How Institutions Work” as long-term impact trends that for years affected decision-making and will continue to accelerate the adoption of educational technology in higher education over the next five years. “Redesigning Learning Spaces” and the “Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches” are mid-term impact trends expected to drive technology use in the next three to five years; meanwhile, “Growing Focus on Measuring Learning” and “Increasing Use of Blended Learning” are short-term impact trends, anticipated to impact institutions for the next one to two years before becoming commonplace.

Significant Challenges Impeding Higher Education Technology Adoption

A number of challenges are acknowledged as barriers to the mainstream use of technology in higher education. “Blending Formal and Informal Learning” and “Improving Digital Literacy” are perceived as solvable challenges, meaning they are well-understood and solutions have been identified. “Competing Models of Education” and “Personalizing Learning” are considered difficult challenges, which are defined and well understood but with solutions that are elusive. Described as wicked challenges are “Balancing Our Connected and Unconnected Lives” and “Keeping Education Relevant.” Challenges in this category are complex to define, making them more difficult to address.

Important Developments in Educational Technology for Higher Education

Additionally, the report identifies bring your own device (BYOD) and learning analytics and adaptive learning as digital strategies and technologies expected to enter mainstream use in the near-term horizon of one year or less. Augmented and virtual reality technologies and makerspaces are seen in the mid-term horizon of two to three years; affective computing and robotics are seen emerging in the far-term horizon of four to five years.

2016 Horizon Report Topics

The subject matter in this report was identified through a qualitative research process designed by the NMC and collaboratively conducted by the NMC and ELI that engaged an international body of experts in higher education, technology, business, and other fields around a set of research questions designed to surface significant trends and challenges and to identify emerging technologies with a strong likelihood of adoption in higher education. The report details the areas in which these experts were in strong agreement.

Download the Report