Online Learning News - May 12, 2021 | Welcome to TeachOnline

Read time: 6 mins

A bi-weekly update from Contact North ǀ Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network

Now on teachonline.ca:

UK’s Open University Shares Findings on the Innovations That Will Provoke Dramatic Change

For the past nine years, the UK’s Open University has produced an annual review of developments in pedagogy. Intended for educators and policy-makers — indeed anyone who wants to explore pedagogical innovation as education continues to evolve in the post-pandemic world — the 2021 analysis pares down recent developments into a list of 10 that will have the most impact, including:

How learning is evolving at this precarious time in our history
How enthusiastic students are becoming partners in their own education, engaging in learning at a much deeper level
How connections and collaborations are expanding to transform the post-secondary landscape
How augmented and virtual reality is making shared learning experiences possible and enriching day-to-day reality

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Everything You Need to Know about Zoom Breakout Rooms!

Thursday, May 20, 2021
11:00 - 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Register Now!

Zoom’s breakout rooms provide a unique opportunity to learn to create active and engaging learning experiences for students.

Move beyond holding ineffective, unstructured breakout room discussions
Create distinctive breakout room roles for students to promote active participation
Employ a variety of tools and techniques to enhance breakout room experiences
Pre-assign students to breakout rooms or allow them to choose their own
Design creative ways for students to report breakout room outcomes to the whole class
Make use of breakout rooms in large enrolment courses

Our Host:

Dr. Ron Owston
Research Associate
Contact North | Contact Nord

Spots Available!
Learn More About the Future of the Hybrid Campus

Thursday, May 13, 2021
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Register Now!

In this interactive webinar, Cole Clark, Managing Director of Higher Education at Deloitte, will share his thinking and the findings from some recent explorations:

How the academic portfolio will be reshaped by a shift to the hybrid campus
What the hybrid campus means for the college and university workforce
What the hybrid campus needs in terms of technology supports, analytics and professional development
What students will be able to experience in the hybrid campus
What challenges will be faced in the shift to hybrid campus, especially in unionized environments
What the medium to long term outcomes of this approach would represent

Our Host:

Cole Clark
Managing Director of Higher Education at Deloitte

Developing a Class Response System to Promote Active Learning During Online Courses

A Seneca College Innovation

Learn how Dr. Ken Kwong-Kay Wong, Professor at the School of Marketing at Seneca College in Markham, Ontario, Canada, developed a class response system called Presentria that helps to promote active learning and enhance engagement in online classes.

The tool pushes polls and questions to the student’s device to encourage group discussion with innovative questioning techniques, which get more students involved in-class participation. In addition, there are advanced features such as team competitions, speed challenges, peer review, peer feedback and experiential learning.

Dr. Ken Kwong-Kay Wong
Professor, School of Marketing
Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology

Learn How to Avoid Turning Online Learning
Into an Unmitigated Disaster

Although there are many examples of successful online learning all over the world — from self-paced with peer and educator engagement to highly structured and engaged — it is critical to accept the reality that in some cases, online learning is an unmitigated disaster.

Looking back on our collective experience over the last 12 months, here are five ways online learning can turn into an unmitigated disaster.

Lack of theory, research and planning
Creeping digital surveillance
Embedded (dis)trust
Increased (digital) inequalities
Assessment without integrity

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This Week’s Must-Read Book
on Online Learning

Best Practices in Engaging Online Learners Through Active and Experiential Learning Strategies: 2^nd Edition

By Stephanie Smith Budhai & Ke'Anna Brown Skipwith (2022)

This book will become available in July 2021. It is very practical, focused on designs for authentic and engaged learning for college and university students and adult learners. It explores the integration of active and experiential learning approaches and activities including simulations, gamification, social media integration, project- and scenario-based learning, virtual tours, and online micro-credentialing as they relate to the development of authentic skill-building, communication, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills in learners. New and emerging learning technologies of virtual and augmented reality along with artificial intelligence are included in this updated second edition with examples of how they can be used in online courses to actively engage learners in experiential learning and explorations.

Browse all Must-Read Books

Visit Contact North | Contact Nord’s Directory of 75+ Ontario EdTech Companies

Ontario is a major hub in the fast-growing EdTech market, with more than 75 established and recent start-ups in educational technology and corporate training.

With this searchable directory, Contact North | Contact Nord provides colleges, universities, training providers and investors from the around the world with information on how to find the latest products and services from Ontario-based EdTech companies. Their products and services often lead to improved learning experiences.

Explore the Directory

Read Dr. Tony Bates’ Blog Post

In this blog post, Dr. Bates summarizes the findings and comments on the recently released report from the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association (CDLRA) addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state of digital learning in Canada.

Read Contact North I Contact Nord Research Associate Dr. Tony Bates’ blog post:

Digital Learning in Canadian Higher Education in 2020: CDLRA report

Lessons from a Pandemic for the Future
of Education

EDEN Virtual Annual Conference

June 21-24, 2021

This year’s conference supports educators in online and distance education by providing a space to explore the issues and insights that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It enables educators to share their experiences and best practices related to a range of topics relevant to this situation. These topics include:

learner-centeredness in education;
the continued evolution of online and distance learning;
transitioning from emergency remote teaching to online learning;
digital preparedness, digital literacy, and digital citizenship;
the continued adoption of Artificial Intelligence;
methodological advances;
health and wellness in online education; and
non-traditional assessment solutions.

For More Information and to Register

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