Conference Wrap-up

"Alright, which one of you keeps tapping me on the shoulder?"

I tend to feel shoulder-tapped after a good bit of conferencing. There are the new technologies tapping my left, and the beneficial processes tapping my right, and anecdotal stories tapping either side or both sides. And then there are the multitude of questions that remain and need for more research that can't happen quickly enough. It's all a tad overwhelming.

To help summarize, here is a bulleted list of questions and thoughts:

• Does improved design improve retention/learning?
• Is text dead or dying?
• Can video fill the reading gap?
• Are we diluting education by reducing reading, and speaking to other modalities?
• Do faculty want to learn or be trained?
• Do students want to learn or be trained?
• How social should learning be?
• Why can't I sync this iPod to more than one computer?
• Why is it so cold in Iowa?
  

Course Design Bootcamp

The idea is to offer training to improve online teaching and course design. Their model was an 8 week course (2 hour sessions, once a week for 8 weeks) to cover such goals as Instructional Design Model, LMS Training, Web 2.0, Communication, Learning Modules that work, Assessing Learning, Assessing Courses, Best/Worst practice, etc... They are exploring moving the whole training online.

Faculty at the college developed the checklist used and the instructional design criteria. This has proved rather helpful. The document is available on their website. Might be something we could use as we evaluate different course evaluation tools.

The other passing thought that was mentioned was using Project Management Software in the course development process. I've never really used project management software, but maybe there would be some benefits?