IOL 2008

Registration is now open for the fourth annual Innovations in Online Learning (IOL) conference May 21 -23, 2008 in Austin. (www.IOLconference.org) This conference is a great opportunity to meet faculty and staff from other institutions who are involved in online teaching and course development. The full program will be announced next month, but pre-conference workshops (offered on May 21) might interest you as well:

Introduction to Flash: Creating Interactive Instructional Material
This 3 hour workshop introduces faculty to designing and developing engaging online interactions using Adobe Flash CS3. Participants must bring their own laptop. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Demonstrate familiarity with the Adobe Flash CS3 working environment.
2. Design and develop some basic Flash interactions useful for student engagement in learning.
3. Discuss the advantages of incorporating Flash interactions into instructional materials.

Assessing Technology and Student Outcomes

The intended audience is faculty who use innovations in technology (both online and other) in their teaching, and staff who support these technologies. This workshop will facilitate participants acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct a best practices technology assessment. After attending this workshop participants will be able to:

• Understand the technology assessment process
• Plan their own technology assessment
• Choose appropriate data gathering methods
• Use assessment findings to make recommendations

The first workshop is limited to 20 participants, so if you are interested – register soon. We hope to see you in Austin in May.

Sloan-C Symposium

Sloan-C has announced a symposium on emerging technology applications for online learning. The symposium will be held physically at the Carefree Resort in Carefree, Arizona on May 7-9, 2008. However, if you can’t join in RL, Sloan-C is offering numerous pre-conference and conference events in Second Life and other community spaces. The pre-conference events and community will provide attendees with an introduction to the topics, allowing the conference to emphasize advanced techniques. If you are a robust user of cutting edge on-line learning technologies, you can hone your craft and push the envelope even further.

The conference website is open for registration at http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org/, and proposals are welcome in five conference tracks:

1. Support Services
2. Learning Communities
3. Media and Tools
4. Pedagogy and Environment
5. Assessment

Presentations that demonstrate advances that have been actually accomplished are particularly welcome. We expect to openly discuss implementation and utilization of advances as well as issues and complications. The deadline for proposals is December 3rd.

Even if you can’t attend in person, help shape the Symposium agenda and participate in the virtual events. Pre-conference workshops will use the Moodle Learning Management System with Second Life with the aim to engage the community in a year-round exploration of educational possibilities using a variety of applications. The Washington State University island in Second Life will be the main hub for the workshops and for virtual events during and after the Symposium. The University of Illinois at Springfield and other Second Life teaching islands will also participate.

Full disclosure: I am the track co-chair for Learning Communities.

- Michael Anderson

Adobe Developer Week sessions

The online sesisons fromthe Adobe Developer Week are now archived.

You can find them all here:

http://www.adobe.com/communities/developerweek/

Most are general or for beginners, but there is some good information here.

Adobe Events

Adobe has loads of events coming up in June.

They have several Elearning seminars that are pre-recorded.

May 2006 Horizon Wimba Desktop Lecture Series schedule

Here is the May 2006 schedule to Horizon Wimba

1) Demonstration of Horizon Wimba’s PowerLinks for WebCT Campus Edition & Vista
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 2pm EDT
Presented by: Aaron Bond, Horizon Wimba

2) Demonstration of Horizon Wimba’s Blackboard Building Blocks
Thursday, May 11, 2006 at 11am EDT / 4pm BST
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 2pm EDT
Presented by: Jody Wexler, Horizon Wimba

3) The University of Salford and Synchronous Instruction
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 9am EDT / 2pm BST
Presented by: Sarah Ricketts, University of Salford

4) Overview of Course Genie 2.0
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 11am EDT / 4pm BST
Presented by: Richard Standen, Horizon Wimba

To register for any presentation, click on:
http://www.horizonwimba.com/community/upcoming.php

If you would like to show a brief overview of capabilities to your instructors, have them sign up for a free demo:
http://www.horizonwimba.com/demos/