Mark Your Calendar for October 17-18, 2007 — No Matter Where You Will Be!

The OTL Conference Online will take place completely online on October 17 and 18th, 2007. Facilitators will lead live interactive workshops (which will be recorded to accommodate all participant time zones and schedules), engage in threaded discussion forums, and lead collaborative networking activities. Keynote sessions, happy hour chats, and hands-on tool workshops will all make this the most jam-packed and exciting few days you will have spent online. A special pre-conference workshop will be held online October 16, 2007.

See the latest program below, including recently confirmed Keynote and Special Session speakers:

OTL Author Session:
Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community
with Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt

In this interactive session, honorary OTL Conference co-chairs and authors Palloff and Pratt offer practical guidance for faculty seeking to help their students work together in creative ways, move out of the box of traditional papers and projects, and deepen the learning experience through their work with one another. The facilitators draw on their extensive knowledge and experience to show ways in which collaboration brings students together to support the learning of each member of the group while promoting creativity and critical thinking.

OTL Author Session:
Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction
with Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson

This session introduces an innovative framework—the Phases of Engagement—that helps instructors become more involved as knowledge generators and cofacilitators of a course. The workshop will offer specific ideas for tested activities that can go a long way to improving online learning. Participants will engage in an active idea generation activity which will lead to a pile of new strategies that can be put to use immediately.

OTL Author Session:
Learning in Real Time: Synchronous Teaching and Learning Online
with Jonathan Finkelstein

In this fast-paced, engaging workshop, virtual classroom pioneer and author Jonathan Finkelstein shares and models creative techniques for synchronous learning activities. Anyone teaching live and online or wanting to humanize and improve interaction in their online course will benefit greatly from this session.

OTL Author Session:
Exploring the Digital Library: A Guide for Online Teaching and Learning
with Kay Johnson and Elaine Magusin Fabbro

This session addresses the key issues in providing library services for faculty and their students in the online learning environment. Facilitated by librarians at Athabasca University, a leading institution in distance education, this workshop shows how faculty can effectively use digital libraries in their day-to-day work and in the design of electronic courses.

OTL Author Session:
Conquering the Content: A Step-by-step Guide to Web-based Course Development
with Robin Smith

Robin Smith demonstrates chunking course content into absorbable pieces of information. With a focus on preparing, designing and organizing content, this session will be an amazing resource for anyone who is involved in developing high-quality learning experiences for online learners.

Keynote Session:
Understanding and Accessing Intrinsic Motivation in Online Learning
with Raymond Wlodkowski

Join Raymond Wlodkowski, author of several books including Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults, for a special keynote session during the OTL Conference Online. In his engaging and thought-provoking session, Wlodkowski will explore what intrinsic motivation is, how it relates to optimal learning, diversity, and transfer, as well as its relationship to emotions and neurological processing. This will all be addressed in terms of the online environment, related research, the student's perspective, and the motivational framework and activities that can elicit it.

Special Session:
Podcasting for Educators
with Susan Maninng and Dan Balzer and special guest Evo Terra

Wondering what the podcasting craze is about and how you could get started? Questioning how this would support student learning online? This very scaled-down session - led by hosts of the LTGreenRoom podcast -- will introduce newcomers to podcasting as a method to getting their voices heard by students. In addition to why you might want to use audio in your teaching practice, the basics in recording, editing and hosting will be reviewed by seasoned professionals, but at a speed and lingo you'll understand. Susan and Dan will be joined by special guest Evo Terra, co-author of Podcasting for Dummies.

Special Session:
Skype for Educators
with Loren and Susan Abdulezer and Rick Lillie

In this special session, co-authors of Skype for Dummies share concrete ideas on how to use instant audio and text messaging to open the classroom to the world and support learning. Tools like Skype empower students and teachers with features for collaboration, live video, and instant file sharing. The session will facilitate the sharing of strategies among participants on using Skype and related free instant messaging tools to support online learning. A few free copies of Skype for Dummies will be awarded to participants during the conference. The authors will be joined by Rick Lillie of California State University, San Bernardino, who will share his real-world, real-time experiences as well.

Here are a few of the people who will be leading sessions during the OTL Conference Online:

Rena Palloff & Keith Pratt
Palloff is adjunct faculty at the Fielding Graduate University and at Capella University. Pratt is adjunct faculty at Fielding Graduate University and is the Faculty Trainer for Northcentral University. They are managing partners of Crossroads Consulting Group, and authors of Collaborating Online, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace, Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom, and The Virtual Student all from Jossey-Bass. Palloff and Pratt are honorary co-chairs of the OTL Conference Online.

Jonathan Finkelstein
Finkelstein is founder and executive producer of LearningTimes and president of the LearningTimes Network. He founded the first synchronous learning certification program, and is the author of Learning in Real Time.

Rita-Marie Conrad &
J. Ana Donaldson
Conrad has taught online courses for Florida State University, Capella University, Nova Southeastern University, and LERN. Donaldson is Associate Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Northern Iowa. They are authors of the best-selling book Engaging the Online Learner.

Kay Johson &
Elaine Magusin Fabbro
Johnson is head of reference and circulation services, Library Services at Athabasca University. Magusin Fabbro is reference services librarian, Library Services at Athabasca University. They are the authors of Exploring the Digital Library.

Robin Smith
Smith is assistant professor and coordinator of web-based learning at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She is author of the forthcoming OTL guide book entitled Conquering the Content.