March 9, 2006

Connie Molnar, Director of IDEAL, and Terence Armentano, Instructional Designer delivered an “Innovation Island” presentation at the recent 2006 Ohio Digital Commons for Education Conference. The ODCE 2006 Conference - The Convergence of Libraries, Learning and Technology was held from March 5-7, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio and is sponsored jointly by the Ohio Learning Network, OhioLINK, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center / OARnet. Attendees included distance learning directors, faculty, librarians, instructional designers, professional development personnel, campus and college technology coordinators and student support personnel from across the state.

IDEAL’s presentation, “BGSU Online Faculty Training Program” showcased our 3-week online training seminar developed for faculty who are new to teaching online. The highly interactive seminar uses Blackboard to deliver the content which consists of readings, video, and Flash presentations. Assessments and projects are assigned throughout the project and extensive discussion participation is required. The seminar covers technical and pedagogical aspects of teaching online and is unique because faculty experience being an online student as they learn to develop and teach an online course. In addition to being students in the course, faculty are assigned a development course so they develop an online course while they are students in an online course. The seminar itself can be used as a model for the development and implementation of an online course.

There was a strong interest and much positive feedback from conference attendees to the presentation. In addition to the presentation, Terence and Connie attended technology demonstrations as well as workshops on the topics of instruction, libraries and electronic media, e-learning and technology-enabled education and research in Ohio. Keynote speakers included: Dr. John Seely Brown -- author of The Social Life of Information and self-appointed "Chief of Confusion" and Dr. Mark Taylor, Director of Guidance Services at Arkansas State University at Beebe.