Stephen Kosslyn showed off his university, Minerva University in
Pushing the reset button on higher education
where he gave us examples of how the university focuses on practical knowledge that covers critical
thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, effective interaction through personal and interpersonal skills. None of these can be taught in lecture, so classes are capped at 19 students, and the online learning platform incorporates tools that focus on student engagement and interactivity. I am very much hoping that other LMS look at these options as well for future development. In addition, Study Abroad is reaching a different level at this university with teams of 150 students going to 7 different international cities for 4 months each.
Takeaway for immediate application for everyone is the expressive focus on learning goals at the beginning of a lesson with a followthrough at the end of each lesson.
A national study of leadership for online learning in us higher education
conducted by Fredericksen from U. of Rochester - he discovered that the leaders of online education in higher education tend to be faculty who have some online learning, but little online teaching experiences, at least 10 years of other leadership experience.
Yet again - new standards for calibrating fair use
Enghagen discussed the latest development in the law suit between Georgia State and textbook publishers. The law suit is now in its 8th year, with Georgia State having spent over $3 Mio at this point. In March, 2016, the Appeals court asked the original judge to review the judgement. The judge did just that, with the outcome reducing the number of incidents considered copyright infringement from 5 to 4. The key difference appears to be the differentiation between fact and opinion, and a textbook that contains a lot of opinion cannot be distributed in parts to students under fair use.
More importantly, maybe, the judge also found that if a publisher has an easy way for someone to ask for permission to use partial materials, then this someone has less of a chance to claim fair use. As a result, publishers are now adding Permission Request buttons to their web sites to make it easier for folks to ask for permission -- with a high chance that you will have to pay for excerpts.
So, we may now have new numbers for how much one can pull out of a textbook without violating copyright.
And now the publishers have asked for an injunction as it appears they are using this as a test case how far they can squeeze fair use.
The impact of personalized learning on low income and underserved post secondary students. Strategies for improved outcomes from early innovators
Georgia State and National Louis University shared their ideas about using adaptive learning to improve student success of students who usually are not that successful when going through college. Scariest were the numbers that only 45% of high school students coming from households with ca $35000 annual income start college, and only 9% graduate within 6 years. And this percentage of graduation has not changed since 1970. Other income groups have seen dramatic increases in college attendance and graduation, but this group of students still very much needs our help.
Never see a syllabus the same way again. Alternative approaches to reflective practice
This session shared some techniques to help faculty rethink and revision their syllabi and courses -- so maybe some ideas for Course (Re)Design.
Techniques were: narrate your syllabus, turn your syllabus into an infograph, use blackout poetry, learn a technology tool you are particularly uncomfortable with, create a short animated video as a trailer for your class.
Tools were: Voyant for a wordle tool with additional functionality
Canva to create infographics
Blackout Poetry: http://www.makeblackoutpoetry.com/
