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"Speakers: Malcolm Brown, Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Andy Calkins, Deputy Director, Next Generation Learning Challenges George Siemens, Associate Director, Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute, Athabasca University Date: November 20, 2012 Time: 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET (UTC-5); convert to your time zone Topic: This free hour-long webinar, "The Current and Future State of Higher Education," will outline an open online course, conducted in fall 2012, that evaluated the change pressures that face universities and the opportunities that can help universities prepare for the future state of higher education."

"Published March 21, 2013 Kelly A. Lack As online courses continue to gain in popularity at colleges and universities throughout the country, knowledge about the effectiveness of this mode of instruction, relative to that of traditional, face-to-face courses, becomes increasingly important. A 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Education provides a meta-analysis of studies published up to 2008, examining the relative effectiveness of the different delivery formats in helping various populations of students learn different types of course content. This Ithaka S+R literature review complements that effort. It examines several studies that are not included in the DOE report, focusing on research that compares online or hybrid learning to face-to-face instruction in the context of semester-length, undergraduate-level, credit-bearing courses. The review yields little evidence to support broad claims that online or hybrid learning is significantly more effective or significantly less effective than courses taught in a face-to-face format, while also highlighting the need for further studies on this topic. The value of research of this kind will only grow as even more sophisticated, interactive online systems continue to be developed, and as the current budgetary constraints and enrollment pressures on postsecondary institutions strengthen the case for improving productivity."

EDUC439/639 Social Networking Mathieu Plourde University of Delaware This class will focus first on personal information management practices, and will then expand to include connecting with the right people online, collaborating with them, and using social media and web 2.0 services in educational settings. Even if you don't currently teach, you'll be able to use the skills developed during the course to become a lifelong learner, and you'll be in a better position to convince colleagues and stakeholders of the value of social media and web 2.0 for teaching and learning in your unit.

Designing Technology and Pedagogy to Promote 21st Century Literacies in the Humanities A talk by Brian Johnsrud (Stanford) and Emily Schneider (Stanford) at the Digital Humanities Focal Group "We've been told time and again: the information landscape is shifting, creating new ways of interacting with multimedia, sprawling archives, and digital, participatory cultures. These changes are (slowly) being echoed in the humanities classroom, as reading digitally, communicating online, and analyzing interactive, multimedia artifacts are being integrated into existing practices traditionally valued in the humanities. In this talk, Brian Johnsrud and Emily Schneider will share their research on how traditional humanistic practices can be enlivened and extended with new digital tools and objects of analysis. The key questions inherent to this research include: What kinds of "21 st century literacies" are required for productive engagement with new media and learning practices,both in and outside of classrooms? And how might courses in the humanities support students in developing these literacies? Lacuna Stories, a digital reading and writing platform currently being developed in the Poetic Media Lab, takes on this challengeby merging academic texts and media with the interactive affordances of the Web. This talk will give an overview of"21 st century literacies," discuss their connection to the overall learning goals of the humanities, and showcase several "old"and "new" literacies that Lacuna Stories is designed to support."

"The Faculty Engagement Strategies Survey centers on faculty engagement in terms of 'educational technology strategies' and aims to collect information about how different administrators, staff and faculty at different institutions engage faculty and course instructors on the topic of effective use of educational technologies inside and outside of the classroom. The hope is that by collecting information on different strategies and their effectiveness we may all be able to make better, more informed decisions on this topic. Data is collected by sending out short monthly questionnaires on the CCUMC mailing list and three different EDUCAUSE mailing lists where a lot of educational technology professionals can be reached. The data collected each month is summarized and shared with the mailing lists. Feel free to explore the FAQ document in the left-hand menu for more information on the survey. You may also study the results of the different survey parts, which are listed under Results. You are welcome to contact the survey administrator Jacob E. Larsen (jlarsen@iastate.edu) if you have any questions."