I'm back in a strangely warm Iowa. Feels good here. The conference was a wonderful learning experience. I'd say the biggest lessons for me centered on instructor training for online course development. It seems there is or soon will be a mandate for some kind of more formal processes. The Department of Defense is supposed to be come out with a list of criteria that must be met for online courses to be listed as certified. Without their stamp of approval, current officers will not be able to receive funds from the military to take our classes. And this could expand to veterans too. And from there, I expect any accreditation agency will want some more formal process in place. I'll be looking into this more.
Another area of interest at this conference was, as always, student success. And this ties into the first point as well. As you might imagine, instructors who are well trained in course design principles have an easier time helping students. But it goes well beyond this too. It seems everyone agrees there needs to be readiness to learn online. And there are surveys measuring students' readiness. We have one at Kirkwood. What we are missing is a compelling procedure to bring that tool to students. I know we already mail our students a slew of paper they rarely read, but I might try emailing them. It won't reach everyone, but every little bit helps, right? I spoke with one college President at lunch -- his college requires a 2.7 gpa OR (and this is or is crucial) a student can take an online learner orientation course to make up for the less than awesome gpa. I'll be looking into this more.
If you have never been to New Mexico, plan a trip. It's amazing.
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