Online Learning Innovations - Furniture provided by Herman Miller, An EDUCAUSE Silver Partner

Speaking Up Virtually: Teaching Face-to-Face Communication Skills Online
Beverly Baliko, Assistant Professor, and Vera Polyakova-Norwood, Director of Online Learning, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina
This presentation will discuss an innovative approach to teaching face-to-face communication and conflict management skills in an online learning environment. Students use web cams and virtual meeting software to meet with project partners in a shared virtual space (where they can see and hear each other) to practice effective communication techniques and record their interactions. Discussion of the teaching strategy, learning activities, and selected technologies will be supported by video clips of student scenarios featuring difficult conversations in the workplace. Quantitative and qualitative project evaluation data generated over three course offerings will offer evidence of successful learning.

Building a College and a Hybrid Program from the Ground Up
Stella Smith, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Georgia Gwinnett College
What are the challenges faced when simultaneously building a new college and implementing a virtual blended learning program? In this session, the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence will present the strategies implemented in determining key faculty competencies in technology and teaching and applying those findings to the design of faculty workshops on hybrid course development. The presenter will share her plan for providing faculty training that incorporates the various technologies available on her campus to engage and stimulate faculty conversation about teaching in a blended environment.

So, I Married an Instructional Designer...
Joann Martyn Golas, Instructional Design Consultant, and Matt Golas, Student, School for New Learning, DePaul University
Have you ever wondered what students don't (or won't) tell you in their surveys and feedback on the course? Have your students asked why the course was designed in a certain manner? Did you ever wonder why students just would not do an assignment? We can help shed some light on these questions. The answers to these questions (and many more) were discovered when an instructional designer and an online student got married. We will share the lessons we've learned that we never would have discovered had we not shared the same living room couch.

Question and Answer Period