National Distance Learning Week November 11-15, 2013

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1 V O L U M E 1, I S S U E 1 N O V E M B E R L S U O N L I N E S T A F F : Charity Bryan, PhD Director, LSU Online [email protected] Pleasant Hall Amanda Major Instructional Design [email protected] Pleasant Hall I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : Faculty Focus 2- Dr. Andy 3 Schwarz Free Board 4 of Regents Conference! Faculty/Staff 4 Professional Development National Distance Learning Week November 11-15, 2013 National Distance Learning Week (NDLW) seeks to promote and celebrate the tremendous growth and accomplishments occurring today in distance learning programs offered by schools, businesses, and governmental departments. Sponsored by the United States Distance Learning Association, you can find more information at Currently, over 3.5 million college students are taking online course and/or earning online college degrees. At the secondary school level, over 700,000 high school students are taking one or more courses online, and nearly 40 states have established statewide or state-lead virtual schools. Michigan became the first state in 2007 to require high school students take at least one online course for graduation. ( The United States Distance Learning Association offers webinars, professional development opportunities, and support for professionals in distance learning programs. Check out today and Happy National Distance Learning Week! SLOAN-C Workshops Open House at FTC 5 6

2 P A G E 2 Faculty Focus: Dr. Andrew Schwarz Dr. Andrew Schwarz, the Milton J. Womack Developing Scholar and Francis M. Coates MBA Professor is an Associate Professor of Information Systems in the E. J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University. He graduated with his Ph.D. from the University of Houston in Prior to his career in academia, Andrew was a consultant in the market research industry, working on projects for Fortune 100 companies on topics related to market segmentation, brand imaging, and brand awareness. His research interests focus on the adoption of new technology, IT-business alignment, and IT outsourcing. For the years , Dr. Schwarz ranked in the top 100 researchers in the world in the IS community for publishing in top tier journals. His teaching area is in the area of IT Management and the Strategic Use of IT, where he teaches in the full-time, professional, and online MBA programs as well as teaching in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences (ISDS) Department. Tell me about your foray into the world of online teaching. How did it come about? I have been convinced for years that we need to fundamentally re-think how we need to change how we teach and mentor our students. Our pedagogical approach has remained fundamentally consistent over hundreds of years at universities, yet we have learned that we all have different learning styles. Inside of the classroom, my journey to online education began through my leveraging of more technology inside of the classroom. This shift worked and students became more engaged to the material. However, over the past three years, I became involved in moving my classes from a traditional face-toface environment to a strictly online environment by the movement of my undergraduate IT management class to a 100% online environment. I discovered that my students were able to engage with their material in a more meaningful manner as they digested the information where and when they wanted to. I was then on the leadership team to move our faceto-face MBA program online and am now the first course that our MBA students encounter during their time in the program. L S U O N L I N E

3 P A G E 3 Faculty Focus: Dr. Andrew Schwarz What are/were some initial challenges you faced in transitioning courses from face-toface to online? There are a number of misconceptions about online programs that they are less rigorous, that they require less time for faculty, and that students cannot achieve the same learning outcomes. I would challenge any faculty that believe that this is true to create an online course. I have found that it is possible to achieve a class with the same amount of rigor and that achieve the same learning outcomes online as you would traditionally encounter in a face-to-face environment. And, if done right, quality online courses can require more time for a faculty member. However, instead of focusing my time upon the more operational aspects of the course, I find myself engaging with my students through rich discussions and challenging both myself and my students to move beyond the material to a deeper level of learning. This requires a faculty to stay engaged with their students and the material you (or your students) cannot afford not to! What have been some successes or moments you are proud of in this journey? My online journey has now taken me full circle. Now, I have found that I am integrating the content and assignments that I created for my online course back in to my face to face course and I have true convergence between my programs. I do not view the world from either an online lens or a face-to-face lens, but instead view my course as the content and the location as the delivery mechanism and whether you encounter the course face to face or online, my students will learn about the exciting ways that IT has fundamentally changed businesses and how IT will continue to shape business in the future. How can faculty become more engaged in this process? Universities are going through a tremendous upheaval and must adapt to the changing environment. We as faculty must not sit back and let these changes pass us by, but seize this time as an opportunity to shape our own destinies. I would encourage my colleagues to join this online movement and take some chances in how we engage our students. These are exciting times to be a university professor and I am honored and excited to be aboard for the journey! L S U O N L I N E

4 V O L U M E 1, I S S U E 1 P A G E 4 Creative Pathways for Modern Learners The Louisiana Board of Regents and its elearning Strategic Planning Task Force is sponsoring the Creative Pathways for Modern Learners Adult Learner Summit 2013 November 20, 2013 at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808). Free registration at: Agenda 9:30 10:00 Registration 10:00 10:10 Welcome and Introduction Jim Purcell,0 Commissioner for Higher Education 10:10 11:00 Keynote Speech Scott Jaschik, Editor, Inside Higher Education Disruption is the word of the day in higher education. Is it true or a fad? What should college leaders and policymakers consider for future planning, survival and growth? Speaker: Scott Jaschik, Editor, Inside Higher Education 11:10 12:00 Where Are We Now and Where Do We Go From Here? Reaction to Keynote Moderator: Jim Purcell; Panelists: Public Higher Education System Presidents (LCTCS, LSU, Southern, UL) 12:00 1:00 Lunch In a world in which adult learners have more educational options than ever, colleges would do well to look at ways in which companies in other industries create meaningful relationships with students. Speaker: Dr. Russell Poulin, Deputy Director, Research and Analysis for WCET - WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies 1:00 2:00 National Perspective State and federal governments are trying to address rapidly escalating college prices while grappling with the rapidly emerging un-accreditable sector of course providers. What s going on out there? Panelists: Matt Gianeschi, Vice President of Policy and Programs Commission of the States; Burck Smith, CEO and Founder, StraighterLine; Belle S. Wheelan, Ph.D., President, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Commission on Colleges 2:15 3:15 Stakeholders: Employers and Students Employers pay to send employees back to college and rely on colleges to prepare employees. What do they expect? Are they getting it? Students rely on colleges to prepare them for employment. Are they getting it? Panelists: Jennifer Semien, Learning and Development: Corporate-Ed Relationships, Aaron s; Charles Bur nell, M.D., Medical Director, Acadian; Tracey E. Rizzuto, Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, As sociate Professor, Human Resource & Leadership Development, Louisiana State University 3:15 4:15 Marketing Strategies for Adult Students Adult students might be the student segment most marketed to. The growth of large-scale for-profit and non-profit online providers has resulted in wide range of successful strategies to attract these students. However, given the competition for students and ever-changing technologies, these strategies quickly evolve. This session will pull back the curtain on successful enrollment strategies for online programs Panelists: Burck Smith, StraighterLine, Using Low-Cost Pathways to Attract Students; Todd Zipper, Learn ing House, Outsourcing Using Marketing Firms; (TBD) Corporate Tuition Reimbursement Programs 4:15-4:30 Closing Comments Jim Purcell, Commissioner for Higher Education For more information about this free conference, please contact Darlene Williams ([email protected]) or Larry Tremblay ([email protected])

5 Sloan-C Training Opportunities Free to LSU Faculty and Staff! Sloan-C is an institutional and professional leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, helping institutions and individual educators improve the quality, scale and breadth of online education. A unique feature of Sloan-C is the Sloan-C institute, created to provide opportunities to engage in professional development about online teaching and distance learning. LSU Online is excited to offer an incredible online professional development opportunity through the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C). LSU faculty and staff can enroll in Sloan-C Workshops (1 week in duration) or the Sloan-C Certificate Program (9 weeks + 3 workshops) at no cost to you! New to Online: The Essentials is the entry-level Sloan-C Workshop for faculty/staff. The next course is scheduled for November 1-8, 2013, and will be offered again January 24-31, Registration for the 2014 Certificate Program will begin in October. Training dates for the 2014 Certificate Program are: January 14 - March 21 April 1 - June 6 June 17 - August 22 September 9 - November 14 October 7 - December 12 Just a reminder that faculty who are teaching in LSU Online are expected to have successfully completed New to Online: The Essentials through Sloan-C. To register for an upcoming Sloan-C training, please contact Amanda Major at [email protected]. The LSU Online Lunch & Learn (Brown Bag) Series features topics relevant to online learning facilitated by LSU Online staff as well as campus leaders. discussions of best practices and Q&A will be included during each session. The Brown Bag Lunch Series is in 1240 Pleasant Hall from noon-1 pm on the dates listed below. Fall 2013 Dates and Topics (15- to 30-minute presentations with time for Q&A): Wednesday, November 4th "Convergence or divergence? A demonstration of the relationship between online and campus-based courses to achieve the same pedagogical outcomes." Dr. Andrew Schwarz from the MBA program Thursday, November 21st Managing Online Students Behaviors facilitated by Katie Barras, Student Advocacy and Accountability Questions? Contact: Amanda Major ([email protected])

6 Celebrate National Distance Learning Week! Come to an Open House featuring LSU Online, Continuing Education and the Faculty Technology Center (FTC). Wednesday, November 13th from 11am to 1pm at the FTC (109 Middleton) Meet featured faculty members, such as Brian Bourke and Tracey Rizzuto, as they demonstrate exemplary components of their online courses. Charity Bryan, Director of LSU Online, will offer a brief overview about LSU Online programs and services. Other featured guests include representatives from Continuing Education, the FTC and LSU Online. Please stop by the FTC at your convenience to learn more about distance learning. We look forward to meeting you. Critical Thinking in the Online Classroom Free Webinar This webinar offers strategies to prompt critical thinking skills, particularly conducive in the asynchronous online modality. The webinar will also offer practical, empiricallybased techniques for fostering critical thinking among online students through course learning goals and objectives, questioning and instructional strategies, as well as instructional activities. Contact Amanda Major to access the webinar recording: [email protected] 5 Myths about Online Learners Free Webinar You are invited to view a webinar by Innovative Educators that will challenge your beliefs about online learners. The webinar will also offer best practices for improving communication, building trust, and re-focusing students on learning objectives in the online classroom. Contact Amanda Major to access the webinar recording: [email protected]