Reminder: USDLA 2012 And K-12 Online Learning

A reminder that the 2012 United States Distance Learning Association annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri is from 29 April to 02 May 2012. I have searched through the initial program and the following sessions will have some K-12 online learning focus.

Monday, April 30, 2012

10:00am – 11:00am: Concurrent Sessions 1

Salon B (Panel)
TOPIC: Blended Learning
Moderator: Nell Thompson (Full Sail)
Panelists: Michael Pregot (Long Island University), Sribhagyam Srinivasan (Lamar State College – Orange), and Jim Ellis (Lamar State College – Orange)

11:15am – 12:15pm: Concurrent Sessions 2

Salon F
Technologies and Techniques for the Busy Online Teacher
Presenter: Darcy Christianson (University of Phoenix)
Constituency: K-12/HE
This presentation discusses technologies and techniques for the busy online educator. The presentation provides demonstrations of some lesser-known computer and common program shortcuts, reviews useful software to consider, and shares example approaches of some fun, clever techniques to help keep the online educator efficient as well as effective.

2:00pm – 3:00pm: Concurrent Sessions 3

Salon E
Designing for Quality in K-20 Online/Blended Learning
Presenters: Todd Hitchcock (Pearson) and Mickey Revenaugh (Connections Learning)
Constituency: K-12/HE
As K-20 institutions increasingly turn to online/blended learning for direct impact on college readiness and success – through secondary school college prep, high school-college bridge programs, and skill development for college entrants, among others – hear how the field’s leaders are designing such programs for maximum quality and student benefit.

3:15pm – 4:15pm: Concurrent Sessions 4

Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room)
Trust but Verify: Ensuring Positive Student Experiences through Quality Assurance
Presenters: Pam Birtolo, Teresa King, and Kim Rugh (Florida Virtual School)
Constituency: K-12/HE
What are the expectations you have for your organization? How do you verify that your instructors are meeting those expectations? In this session, two members of Florida Virtual School’s Instructional Quality Assurance team will provide an overview of innovative best practices in ensuring the quality of your students’ experience.

Salon G
Strengthening the Legitimacy of Online Degrees Using Remote Proctoring Technology
Presenter: Douglas Winneg (Software Secure)
Constituency: K-12/HE/CORP
As the numbers of students enrolled in online degree programs continue to grow, the institutions that provide them, as well as employers are now facing an integrity challenge with an important question: Does the online degree carry the same value in the market place? Securing the testing environment is a critical component for strengthening a student’s future academic credentials. How can this be achieved? We will explore the various authentication approaches and security requirements (K-12 Virtual School) and (Higher Ed Institution) explored, and then we will discuss why they ultimately chose to require its students to use a Remote Proctoring solution, instead of going to campus, traveling to testing centers, or relying on usernames and passwords.

6:00pm – 7:00pm: USDLA 2012 Poster Session

It’s a Win Win for the Mainstream
Presenter: Paula Galland (Mercury Online Education)
Constituency: K-12/INTL
Public schools are looking for online options for their students, without having to develop their own online programs. This poster will describe a partnership between an international provider and a group of schools in Pennsylvania which enables the schools to provide full or part time online options for their students.

Tuesday May 1, 2012

10:15am – 11:15am: Concurrent Sessions 6

Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room)
Questions Around Migrating to a New LMS
Presenters: Rhonda Blackburn (Desire2Learn) and Daryl Diamond (Broward County Public Schools)
Constituency: K-12/HE
How can you help the migration process? How can you leverage this migration as a benefit to course design? What are the best approaches to train faculty? These are the various questions that will be addressed in this session. Come explore the wonderful world of faculty development and technology.

Salon G
Homebound, In-Treatment – and Online
Presenters: Mickey Revenaugh (Connections Learning), Rhonda Rochon Cotton (Houston Independent School District), and T.J. McCray (Connections Learning)
Constituency: K-12
Every year, hundreds of Houston Independent School District students are sidelined by illness, accidents, and other conditions that make conventional schooling impossible. Meeting the needs of these students is a real challenge. Discover an online approach that harnesses technology to provide a comprehensive, compassionate 21st century homebound/in-treatment program that works!

Broadway 2
Making Virtual Field Schools a Reality
Presenters: Patrick Smith, Robyn Herry, and Emin Saglamer (Texas State University-San Marcos)
Constituency: K-12/HE/INT’L
Texas State University media specialists and instructional designers have collaborated with geographers and faculty to design and implement a virtual field school experience intended for use by university-level geography and secondary education students. We will share our design/development processes, as well as lessons learned in our endeavor.

11:30am – 12:30pm: Concurrent Sessions 7

Broadway 2
The Blended Advantage–Engaging & Effective Instruction for K-12 Learners
Presenter: Paula Galland (Mercury Online Education)
Constituency: K-12
This session will demonstrate how an online charter school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade combines high quality online instruction with essential face-to-face learning. The model allows for students to work independently on learning paths identified that address individual student needs.

2:15pm – 3:15pm: Concurrent Sessions 8

Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room)
Distance Learning – Its Role In Achieving Global Digital Solidarity
Presenter: Daryl Diamond (Broward County Schools)
Constituency: ALL
Distance learning – catalyst closing the digital divide by giving access; encouraging digital inclusion through digital literacy and online content and services; ensuring underserved individuals’ access to education and tools improving their lives. This session discusses 25 years of best practices and USDLA’s role in future global digital solidarity projects.

Broadway 1
Who Are Our Learners?
Presenter: Renee Aitken (Northcentral University)
Constituency: K-12/HE/GOV’T
In this presentation, we will look at the characteristics assigned to adult learners and discuss why those 20 year old stereotypes may not be accurate, especially in an online environment. We will look at how stereotypes influence teaching, course design, grading, and the impact stereotyping students has had on regulations.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

9:00am – 10:00am: Concurrent Sessions 10

Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room)
Growth Just Doesn’t Happen, You Plan For It!
Presenters: Richard Copeland and Amanda Williamson (Georgia Virtual School)
Constituency: K-12
Plan for Growth! Learn how Georgia Virtual School went from serving a couple hundred to 45,000 students by implementing online, blended and shared resources. See how using innovative instructional practices, organized data and a few creative ideas can ensure staying power and growing power to take your program to the next level.

Salon E
Creating a Statewide Education Network
Presenters: James Hodges, Jeff Egly, and Louie Valles (Utah Education Network)
Constituency: K-12/HE
This session will focus on the Utah Education Network (UEN) and their implementation of cutting edge video technologies that have allowed them to increase collaboration in the classroom. Positive results include increases in number of high school graduates with college credits and a growing number of graduates with associate’s degrees.

Again, if you know of ones that I have missed, please leave them below as a comment.

Can’t Join Us In St. Louis? Connect In Via Our 2012 USDLA Virtual Conference Classroom Today!

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USDLA 2012 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE CLASSROOM! Can’t join us in St. Louis? This year, USDLA is excited to announce that it will offer a portion of its 2012 National Conference virtually! By registering as a Virtual Classroom attendee, you will have complete live access to select virtual sessions. Many thanks to our sponsor, Blackboard Collaborate, for helping make this happen!  Please note that as a registered USDLA Virtual Classroom attendee, you will also have access to the archived live sessions for later viewing! Registration costs for the 2012 Virtual Classroom is $150 (USDLA Member)/$200 (USDLA Non-Member). Link to register: http://www.usdla.org/2012_national_conference/vcregistration.html ==================================================== MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012  Virtual Session 1   Monday, April 30, 2012 10:00am – 11:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Next-Generation Collaboration Technology for 21st Century Teaching and Learning Presenters: Rajeev Arora (Blackboard Collaborate) and Marcel Bechtoldt (University of Missouri – St. Louis) Constituency: ALL Today’s educators require a solution that will help them squarely meet the multitude of academic, technical, and financial demands placed on them. Learn how online collaboration solutions for teaching and learning engage more students, significantly improve learning outcomes, deliver professional development, and lower operational costs. Virtual Session 2   Monday, April 30, 2012 11:15am – 12:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) The Phoenix Way- Engaging Students Through Immersive Experiential Learning Presenters: Douglas Beckwith (Toolwire), David Jame Clarke IV, Cecilia Gregg, and Yvonne Phelps (University of Phoenix) Constituency: HE Higher Education institutions today have a tremendous opportunity to engage and retain more students in their first year of study through the use of innovative online experiential learning environments that can be accessed by students anytime, anywhere. Learn how the University of Phoenix is spearheading innovation in this exciting field. Virtual Session 3   Monday, April 30, 2012 2:00pm – 3:00pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Expanding the Usage of Mobile Devices to Improve Corporate Learning Presenter: Ron Zamir (Allen Communication) Constituency: HE/CORP/GOV’T/MIL/TH As new learning technology emerges, there are always questions about how it can be utilized by corporations to improve operations, disseminate information, and to train employees. We will discuss how recent instructional design strategies incorporate mobile learning’s unique capabilities and how these strategies can help the participant’s future training efforts. Virtual Session 4   Monday, April 30, 2012 3:15pm – 4:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Trust but Verify: Ensuring Positive Student Experiences through Quality Assurance Presenters: Pam Birtolo, Teresa King, and Kim Rugh (Florida Virtual School) Constituency: K-12/HE What are the expectations you have for your organization? How do you verify that your instructors are meeting those expectations? In this session, two members of Florida Virtual School’s Instructional Quality Assurance team will provide an overview of innovative best practices in ensuring the quality of your students’ experience. ===============================================   ** 2012 USDLA Awards Ceremony – 7:00pm – 9:00pm  ==================================================== TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012  Virtual Session 5    Tuesday May 1, 2012 9:00am – 10:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) USDLA Quality Standards: Pathway to Excellence, Leadership, and Best Practices Presenters: George Collins (LEARNTECH CORP.), Jan McMahill (Drake University), and Felicia Ryerson (Florida Virtual School) Constituency: ALL This engaging presentation highlights the importance of USDLA’s Quality Standards Certification for those providers seeking to achieve true excellence in their distance learning programs. The certification process is first described and then a successful applicant will outline how they prepared for and benefited from the review. Virtual Session 6    Tuesday May 1, 2012 10:15am – 11:15am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Questions Around Migrating to a New LMS Presenters: Rhonda Blackburn (Desire2Learn) and Daryl Diamond (Broward County Public Schools) Constituency: K-12/HE How can you help the migration process? How can you leverage this migration as a benefit to course design? What are the best approaches to train faculty? These are the various questions that will be addressed in this session. Come explore the wonderful world of faculty development and technology. Virtual Session 7    Tuesday May 1, 2012 11:30am – 12:30pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) The New Interactive Embedded Course Resource Presenter: Mary Jane Clerkin (Berkeley College) Constituency: HE Accessible from computers, laptops, and mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Android, and Smartphones and available directly from within the course management system, the new embedded textbook allows online instructors to add rich learning materials into their embedded texts and allows students to engage and collaborate within the text. This presentation will show how an instructor has used this embedded course resource in an actual online course and how the instructor has added annotations, notes, bookmarks, discussions, videos and interactive links to enrich the text and to encourage the students, not only to read the text, but to engage and interact within it thus providing students with a robust online learning experience. Virtual Session 8   Tuesday May 1, 2012 2:15pm – 3:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Distance Learning – Its Role In Achieving Global Digital Solidarity Presenter: Daryl Diamond (Broward County Schools) Constituency: ALL Distance learning – catalyst closing the digital divide by giving access; encouraging digital inclusion through digital literacy and online content and services; ensuring underserved individuals’ access to education and tools improving their lives. This session discusses 25 years of best practices and USDLA’s role in future global digital solidarity projects. Virtual Session 9   Tuesday May 1, 2012 3:30pm – 4:30pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Developing, Maintaining, and Growing a State Chapter Presenters: Ken Conn (USDLA), Darrell Naylor Johnson (GADLA), and Stella Porto (GADLA) Constituency: ALL As the title states, this session will focus on developing, maintaining, and growing a state chapter of the United States Distance Learning Association. You will have the opportunity to learn with various state chapter leaders who will share their experiences and discuss opportunities, potential and challenges of developing and sustaining a state-wide organization that serves a broad constituency of distance learning professionals.   ==================================================== WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2012 Virtual Session 10    Wednesday, May 2, 2011 9:00am – 10:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Growth Just Doesn’t Happen, You Plan For It! Presenters: Richard Copeland and Amanda Williamson (Georgia Virtual School) Constituency: K-12 Plan for Growth! Learn how Georgia Virtual School went from serving a couple hundred to 45,000 students by implementing online, blended and shared resources. See how using innovative instructional practices, organized data and a few creative ideas can ensure staying power and growing power to take your program to the next level. Registration costs for the 2012 Virtual Classroom is $150 (USDLA Member)/$200 (USDLA Non-Member). Link to register: http://www.usdla.org/2012_national_conference/vcregistration.html     About United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) is a non-profit association formed in 1987 and is located in Boston, Massachusetts. The association reaches 20,000 people globally with sponsors and members operating in and influencing 46% of the $913 billion dollar U.S. education and training market. USDLA promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Distance learning and training constituencies served include pre-k-12 education, higher and continuing education, home schooling as well as business, corporate, military, government and telehealth markets. The USDLA trademarked logo is the recognized worldwide symbol of dedicated professionals committed to the distance learning industry. http://www.usdla.org

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Can’t join us in St. Louis? Connect in via our 2012 USDLA Virtual Conference Classroom today!

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USDLA 2012 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE CLASSROOM! Can’t join us in St. Louis? This year, USDLA is excited to announce that it will offer a portion of its 2012 National Conference virtually! By registering as a Virtual Classroom attendee, you will have complete live access to select virtual sessions. Many thanks to our sponsor, Blackboard Collaborate, for helping make this happen!  Please note that as a registered USDLA Virtual Classroom attendee, you will also have access to the archived live sessions for later viewing! Registration costs for the 2012 Virtual Classroom is $150 (USDLA Member)/$200 (USDLA Non-Member). Link to register: http://www.usdla.org/2012_national_conference/vcregistration.html ==================================================== MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012  Virtual Session 1   Monday, April 30, 2012 10:00am – 11:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Next-Generation Collaboration Technology for 21st Century Teaching and Learning Presenters: Rajeev Arora (Blackboard Collaborate) and Marcel Bechtoldt (University of Missouri – St. Louis) Constituency: ALL Today’s educators require a solution that will help them squarely meet the multitude of academic, technical, and financial demands placed on them. Learn how online collaboration solutions for teaching and learning engage more students, significantly improve learning outcomes, deliver professional development, and lower operational costs. Virtual Session 2   Monday, April 30, 2012 11:15am – 12:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) The Phoenix Way- Engaging Students Through Immersive Experiential Learning Presenters: Douglas Beckwith (Toolwire), David Jame Clarke IV, Cecilia Gregg, and Yvonne Phelps (University of Phoenix) Constituency: HE Higher Education institutions today have a tremendous opportunity to engage and retain more students in their first year of study through the use of innovative online experiential learning environments that can be accessed by students anytime, anywhere. Learn how the University of Phoenix is spearheading innovation in this exciting field. Virtual Session 3   Monday, April 30, 2012 2:00pm – 3:00pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Expanding the Usage of Mobile Devices to Improve Corporate Learning Presenter: Ron Zamir (Allen Communication) Constituency: HE/CORP/GOV’T/MIL/TH As new learning technology emerges, there are always questions about how it can be utilized by corporations to improve operations, disseminate information, and to train employees. We will discuss how recent instructional design strategies incorporate mobile learning’s unique capabilities and how these strategies can help the participant’s future training efforts. Virtual Session 4   Monday, April 30, 2012 3:15pm – 4:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Trust but Verify: Ensuring Positive Student Experiences through Quality Assurance Presenters: Pam Birtolo, Teresa King, and Kim Rugh (Florida Virtual School) Constituency: K-12/HE What are the expectations you have for your organization? How do you verify that your instructors are meeting those expectations? In this session, two members of Florida Virtual School’s Instructional Quality Assurance team will provide an overview of innovative best practices in ensuring the quality of your students’ experience. ===============================================   ** 2012 USDLA Awards Ceremony – 7:00pm – 9:00pm  ==================================================== TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012  Virtual Session 5    Tuesday May 1, 2012 9:00am – 10:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) USDLA Quality Standards: Pathway to Excellence, Leadership, and Best Practices Presenters: George Collins (LEARNTECH CORP.), Jan McMahill (Drake University), and Felicia Ryerson (Florida Virtual School) Constituency: ALL This engaging presentation highlights the importance of USDLA’s Quality Standards Certification for those providers seeking to achieve true excellence in their distance learning programs. The certification process is first described and then a successful applicant will outline how they prepared for and benefited from the review. Virtual Session 6    Tuesday May 1, 2012 10:15am – 11:15am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Questions Around Migrating to a New LMS Presenters: Rhonda Blackburn (Desire2Learn) and Daryl Diamond (Broward County Public Schools) Constituency: K-12/HE How can you help the migration process? How can you leverage this migration as a benefit to course design? What are the best approaches to train faculty? These are the various questions that will be addressed in this session. Come explore the wonderful world of faculty development and technology. Virtual Session 7    Tuesday May 1, 2012 11:30am – 12:30pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) The New Interactive Embedded Course Resource Presenter: Mary Jane Clerkin (Berkeley College) Constituency: HE Accessible from computers, laptops, and mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Android, and Smartphones and available directly from within the course management system, the new embedded textbook allows online instructors to add rich learning materials into their embedded texts and allows students to engage and collaborate within the text. This presentation will show how an instructor has used this embedded course resource in an actual online course and how the instructor has added annotations, notes, bookmarks, discussions, videos and interactive links to enrich the text and to encourage the students, not only to read the text, but to engage and interact within it thus providing students with a robust online learning experience. Virtual Session 8   Tuesday May 1, 2012 2:15pm – 3:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Distance Learning – Its Role In Achieving Global Digital Solidarity Presenter: Daryl Diamond (Broward County Schools) Constituency: ALL Distance learning – catalyst closing the digital divide by giving access; encouraging digital inclusion through digital literacy and online content and services; ensuring underserved individuals’ access to education and tools improving their lives. This session discusses 25 years of best practices and USDLA’s role in future global digital solidarity projects. Virtual Session 9   Tuesday May 1, 2012 3:30pm – 4:30pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Developing, Maintaining, and Growing a State Chapter Presenters: Ken Conn (USDLA), Darrell Naylor Johnson (GADLA), and Stella Porto (GADLA) Constituency: ALL As the title states, this session will focus on developing, maintaining, and growing a state chapter of the United States Distance Learning Association. You will have the opportunity to learn with various state chapter leaders who will share their experiences and discuss opportunities, potential and challenges of developing and sustaining a state-wide organization that serves a broad constituency of distance learning professionals. ==================================================== WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2012 Virtual Session 10    Wednesday, May 2, 2011 9:00am – 10:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Growth Just Doesn’t Happen, You Plan For It! Presenters: Richard Copeland and Amanda Williamson (Georgia Virtual School) Constituency: K-12 Plan for Growth! Learn how Georgia Virtual School went from serving a couple hundred to 45,000 students by implementing online, blended and shared resources. See how using innovative instructional practices, organized data and a few creative ideas can ensure staying power and growing power to take your program to the next level. Registration costs for the 2012 Virtual Classroom is $150 (USDLA Member)/$200 (USDLA Non-Member). Link to register: http://www.usdla.org/2012_national_conference/vcregistration.html   About United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) is a non-profit association formed in 1987 and is located in Boston, Massachusetts. The association reaches 20,000 people globally with sponsors and members operating in and influencing 46% of the $913 billion dollar U.S. education and training market. USDLA promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Distance learning and training constituencies served include pre-k-12 education, higher and continuing education, home schooling as well as business, corporate, military, government and telehealth markets. The USDLA trademarked logo is the recognized worldwide symbol of dedicated professionals committed to the distance learning industry. http://www.usdla.org

Forward email USDLA | 8 Winter Street | Suite 508 | Boston | MA | 02108

Can’t join us in St. Louis? Connect in via our 2012 USDLA Virtual Conference Classroom today!

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USDLA 2012 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE CLASSROOM! Can’t join us in St. Louis? This year, USDLA is excited to announce that it will offer a portion of its 2012 National Conference virtually! By registering as a Virtual Classroom attendee, you will have complete live access to select virtual sessions. Many thanks to our sponsor, Blackboard Collaborate, for helping make this happen!  Please note that as a registered USDLA Virtual Classroom attendee, you will also have access to the archived live sessions for later viewing! Registration costs for the 2012 Virtual Classroom is $150 (USDLA Member)/$200 (USDLA Non-Member). Link to register: http://www.usdla.org/2012_national_conference/vcregistration.html ==================================================== MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012  Virtual Session 1   Monday, April 30, 2012 10:00am – 11:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Next-Generation Collaboration Technology for 21st Century Teaching and Learning Presenters: Rajeev Arora (Blackboard Collaborate) and Marcel Bechtoldt (University of Missouri – St. Louis) Constituency: ALL Today’s educators require a solution that will help them squarely meet the multitude of academic, technical, and financial demands placed on them. Learn how online collaboration solutions for teaching and learning engage more students, significantly improve learning outcomes, deliver professional development, and lower operational costs. Virtual Session 2   Monday, April 30, 2012 11:15am – 12:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) The Phoenix Way- Engaging Students Through Immersive Experiential Learning Presenters: Douglas Beckwith (Toolwire), David Jame Clarke IV, Cecilia Gregg, and Yvonne Phelps (University of Phoenix) Constituency: HE Higher Education institutions today have a tremendous opportunity to engage and retain more students in their first year of study through the use of innovative online experiential learning environments that can be accessed by students anytime, anywhere. Learn how the University of Phoenix is spearheading innovation in this exciting field. Virtual Session 3   Monday, April 30, 2012 2:00pm – 3:00pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Expanding the Usage of Mobile Devices to Improve Corporate Learning Presenter: Ron Zamir (Allen Communication) Constituency: HE/CORP/GOV’T/MIL/TH As new learning technology emerges, there are always questions about how it can be utilized by corporations to improve operations, disseminate information, and to train employees. We will discuss how recent instructional design strategies incorporate mobile learning’s unique capabilities and how these strategies can help the participant’s future training efforts. Virtual Session 4   Monday, April 30, 2012 3:15pm – 4:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Trust but Verify: Ensuring Positive Student Experiences through Quality Assurance Presenters: Pam Birtolo, Teresa King, and Kim Rugh (Florida Virtual School) Constituency: K-12/HE What are the expectations you have for your organization? How do you verify that your instructors are meeting those expectations? In this session, two members of Florida Virtual School’s Instructional Quality Assurance team will provide an overview of innovative best practices in ensuring the quality of your students’ experience. ===============================================   ** 2012 USDLA Awards Ceremony – 7:00pm – 9:00pm  ==================================================== TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012  Virtual Session 5    Tuesday May 1, 2012 9:00am – 10:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) USDLA Quality Standards: Pathway to Excellence, Leadership, and Best Practices Presenters: George Collins (LEARNTECH CORP.), Jan McMahill (Drake University), and Felicia Ryerson (Florida Virtual School) Constituency: ALL This engaging presentation highlights the importance of USDLA’s Quality Standards Certification for those providers seeking to achieve true excellence in their distance learning programs. The certification process is first described and then a successful applicant will outline how they prepared for and benefited from the review. Virtual Session 6    Tuesday May 1, 2012 10:15am – 11:15am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Questions Around Migrating to a New LMS Presenters: Rhonda Blackburn (Desire2Learn) and Daryl Diamond (Broward County Public Schools) Constituency: K-12/HE How can you help the migration process? How can you leverage this migration as a benefit to course design? What are the best approaches to train faculty? These are the various questions that will be addressed in this session. Come explore the wonderful world of faculty development and technology. Virtual Session 7    Tuesday May 1, 2012 11:30am – 12:30pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) The New Interactive Embedded Course Resource Presenter: Mary Jane Clerkin (Berkeley College) Constituency: HE Accessible from computers, laptops, and mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Android, and Smartphones and available directly from within the course management system, the new embedded textbook allows online instructors to add rich learning materials into their embedded texts and allows students to engage and collaborate within the text. This presentation will show how an instructor has used this embedded course resource in an actual online course and how the instructor has added annotations, notes, bookmarks, discussions, videos and interactive links to enrich the text and to encourage the students, not only to read the text, but to engage and interact within it thus providing students with a robust online learning experience. Virtual Session 8   Tuesday May 1, 2012 2:15pm – 3:15pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Distance Learning – Its Role In Achieving Global Digital Solidarity Presenter: Daryl Diamond (Broward County Schools) Constituency: ALL Distance learning – catalyst closing the digital divide by giving access; encouraging digital inclusion through digital literacy and online content and services; ensuring underserved individuals’ access to education and tools improving their lives. This session discusses 25 years of best practices and USDLA’s role in future global digital solidarity projects. Virtual Session 9   Tuesday May 1, 2012 3:30pm – 4:30pm Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Developing, Maintaining, and Growing a State Chapter Presenters: Ken Conn (USDLA), Darrell Naylor Johnson (GADLA), and Stella Porto (GADLA) Constituency: ALL As the title states, this session will focus on developing, maintaining, and growing a state chapter of the United States Distance Learning Association. You will have the opportunity to learn with various state chapter leaders who will share their experiences and discuss opportunities, potential and challenges of developing and sustaining a state-wide organization that serves a broad constituency of distance learning professionals. ==================================================== WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2012 Virtual Session 10    Wednesday, May 2, 2011 9:00am – 10:00am Salon A (Blackboard Collaborate Virtual Room) Growth Just Doesn’t Happen, You Plan For It! Presenters: Richard Copeland and Amanda Williamson (Georgia Virtual School) Constituency: K-12 Plan for Growth! Learn how Georgia Virtual School went from serving a couple hundred to 45,000 students by implementing online, blended and shared resources. See how using innovative instructional practices, organized data and a few creative ideas can ensure staying power and growing power to take your program to the next level. Registration costs for the 2012 Virtual Classroom is $150 (USDLA Member)/$200 (USDLA Non-Member). Link to register: http://www.usdla.org/2012_national_conference/vcregistration.html   About United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) is a non-profit association formed in 1987 and is located in Boston, Massachusetts. The association reaches 20,000 people globally with sponsors and members operating in and influencing 46% of the $913 billion dollar U.S. education and training market. USDLA promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Distance learning and training constituencies served include pre-k-12 education, higher and continuing education, home schooling as well as business, corporate, military, government and telehealth markets. The USDLA trademarked logo is the recognized worldwide symbol of dedicated professionals committed to the distance learning industry. http://www.usdla.org

Forward email USDLA | 8 Winter Street | Suite 508 | Boston | MA | 02108

2012 USDLA CONFERENCE (April 29 – May 2, 2012) – Keynotes, Pre-conference Workshops and Virtual Conference Access

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2012 Premium Sponsors:       2012 Gold Sponsor: 2012 Silver Sponsors:             =======================================================   KEYNOTE SPEAKERS  Dr. Mark David Milliron Chancellor Western Governors University  University Texas Austin, TX Michael Baker Strategic Vertical Market Development Vaddio   Gunnar Counselman Founder & CEO Fidelis PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS Workshop 1: Mobile Learning: From the Margins to Mainstream Presenters: Bill Zobrist, Director, Mobile and Online Learning Product Planning, Pearson and Neil Allison, Director, Market Development and Strategy, Pearson Education is on the cusp of the next technology revolution and it is mobile! This workshop will explore how educators and product developers see mobile learning moving from the margins of academia into the mainstream. We will look at the fast changing mobile learning market – real examples and lot’s of them – from a view on the ground. These examples will be of educators using the products and their stories as exemplars for others to consider. The workshop leaders will pose crucial questions designed for attendees to engage in substantive discussion on challenges facing mobile learning implementation with the goal of helping them consider their implementations. Workshop 2: State Chapter Leadership Workshop Presenter: Ken Conn, Senior Vice President for State Chapters, USDLA Join us at the first gathering of the state chapter leadership attending the National conference to network, share, plan, and learn with one another. We will focus on various aspects involved with state chapters that will provide knowledge, resources, momentum, and energy to take back to your local teams. This pre-conference workshop will have value in bringing the state chapter leadership together in a face to face format to network, share, plan, and learn with one another. Following this session it is expected that the attendee will (1) have knowledge of the active and forming state chapter leadership, (2) have resources and strategies that other state chapters are using to maintain and grow their associations, and (3) have a stronger network of individuals that they can collaborate with. Workshop 3: Learning from YouTube: How Pseudo-Synchronous Interactions Can Enhance Video Instruction Presenter: Dr. Ari Bader-Natal, Chief Learning Architect, Grockit Video is playing an increasingly important role in online learning, and exciting new web technologies are now emerging that enable a new level of peer interactions and learner collaborations around video instruction. For self-paced distance learners engaging with long-form presentations of complex concepts, content-centered peer dialogue can be incredibly valuable. Most video-hosting websites today support some limited peer interactions through a shared comment thread, but this format inherently treats the video as a two-dimensional object, ignoring its most meaningful dimension: time. What could peer interactions around web video look like when temporal context is treated as critically-relevant? In this session, we explore a number of freely-available tools that provide answers to this question, and share a set of concrete examples of how distance learning educators and administrators can benefit from using these tools in their courses and programs. Join us to learn how to spark lively student discussions around (and within) video instruction. Help us discuss and explore ways that this coming wave of web technologies can transform the distance learning experience.   CONFERENCE PROGRAM     Can’t join us in St. Louis? This year, USDLA is excited to announce that it will offer a portion of its 2012 National Conference virtually! By registering as a Virtual Classroom attendee, you will have complete live access to select virtual sessions. Click here for more information about our virtual classroom. About United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) is a non-profit association formed in 1987 and is located in Boston, Massachusetts. The association reaches 20,000 people globally with sponsors and members operating in and influencing 46% of the $913 billion dollar U.S. education and training market. USDLA promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Distance learning and training constituencies served include pre-k-12 education, higher and continuing education, home schooling as well as business, corporate, military, government and telehealth markets. The USDLA trademarked logo is the recognized worldwide symbol of dedicated professionals committed to the distance learning industry. http://www.usdla.org

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