Mark Your Calendar for October 7-8, 2008 — No Matter Where You Will Be!

The OTL Conference Online will take place completely online on October 7 and 8th, 2008. 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 6, 2008.

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

OTL Author Session:
Assessing the Online Learner: Resources and Strategies for Faculty
with Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt

In this interactive session, OTL Conference co-chairs and authors Palloff and Pratt offer guidance on creative online assessment practices. The session focuses on authentic assessments based in real-life application of concepts, and collaborative activities that move away from the traditional use of tests and quizzes that assess amount of information retained rather than quality of student learning.

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

This session highlights 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 active idea generation 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 a new round of 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.

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

In this interactive session, 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.

Keynote Session:
Developing Critical Thinkers
with Stephen Brookfield

Join Stephen Brookfield, author of several books including The Power of Critical Theory: Liberating Adult Learning and Teaching, for a Keynote Session that puts the “critical” back into critical thinking. This session presents powerful arguments for the importance of critical theory in fostering the kind of learning that leads to a truly democratic society, and it explores a number of tasks for adult learners including learning to challenge ideology, contest hegemony, unmask power, overcome alienation, learn liberation, reclaim reason, and practice democracy.

Keynote Session:
Learning in Virtual Worlds: Teaching Tips from the Virtual Frontier
with Cynthia Calongne

In this Keynote Session, Cynthia Calongne, also known as Lyr Lobo in Second Life, will offer perspectives on the use of virtual worlds for engaging learners. Calongne's software engineering courses at Colorado Technical University include class and projects in Second Life. For thirteen years, she worked as a software engineer in support of Air Force Space Command and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Her doctoral research specialized in the design of easy-to-use, immersive virtual reality systems. Today, her research includes games and game-based rubrics in education and in virtual worlds.

Featured Session:
Gender, Digital Technologies, Games and Learning
with Elisabeth Hayes

In this Featured Session, Dr. Betty Hayes shares the latest from her current research interests, which focus on gender, digital technologies and learning, particularly the development of IT fluency. She is a lead investigator on two MacArthur-funded projects: GameDesigner, a project to create innovative game design software that will help young people acquire technical, artistic, and cognitive skills, and the TechSavvy Girls project, which is investigating how gaming can be a starting point for the development of IT fluency, particularly for girls and women.

Featured Session:
Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
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 Featured Session during the OTL Conference Online. In his engaging and thought-provoking session, Wlodkowski will explore the conditions that evoke student motivation and show the ways in which teachers of adults can create learning environments that stimulate and nourish the desire to learn.

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 a tutor and course author for Athabasca University. From 2000-2007 she specialized in the delivery of distance library services to Athabasca University students, faculty and staff. 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.