Online Learning News - September 28, 2022

Free Contact North | Contact Nord Webinar

How to Engage Silent Learners

Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Time: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EST

Register now!

Many of us learn best in silence and need time to reflect before saying or writing our thoughts. In synchronous online classes, we often mistake visual and vocal activity for engagement and learning, while silence is interpreted as a lack of interest or even laziness.

We must develop new methods to allow quiet learners to present their ideas and engage in discussion instead of being drowned out by their more outspoken peers.

In this webinar, Alastair Creelman, an e-learning Specialist from Sweden’s Linnaeus University (now retired), explores how online tools and methods can extend the discussion to engage all participants in the way that suits them best. Simple techniques to make online classes more inclusive include using more silent reflection time, written discussion and greater emphasis on asynchronous activity before and after the synchronous session.

Study Online Successfully (SOS)
FREE Webinar Series for Students

Help your students prepare for online classes and plan for learning success with Contact North | Contact Nord's Study Online Successfully webinar series. Each webinar is just 30 minutes, and teaches essential skills, tips and tricks on how to study online successfully. Choose any or all of the webinars listed below.

1. How to be a Super Successful Online Learner
2. 10 Habits of Highly Successful Learners
3. Making the Best Use of Technologies for Learning

For more information and to register

Dr. Tony Bates’ Blog:
Online Learning and Distance Education

In this blog post, Dr. Bates discusses the strengths and weaknesses of synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning based on lessons from COVID-19.

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

Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of synchronous or asynchronous teaching

Leaders & Legends of Online Learning

Dr. Mark Nichols’ Podcast

Leaders & Legends of Online Learning shares first-person perspectives from online learning experts that inform and inspire. Each interview lasts about 30 minutes, and links to the guest's work and profile.

In this episode, Open Polytechnic of New Zealand Executive Director Dr. Mark Nichols chats with Dr. Aras Bozkurt, Associate Professor of Distance Education at Anadolu University, Turkey, about his interests in networks and learning ecosystems.  

This Week’s Must-Read Book
on Online Learning

Designing Intersectional Online Education: Critical Teaching and Learning Practices

Edited by Xeturah M. Woodley & Mary F. Rice (2022)

Equity, diversity, and inclusion lead us to intersectionality – a place where identity and social conditions meet. Everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression, and we must consider everything and anything that can marginalize people, including gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability and identity, which is especially challenging in an online space. This book infuses today’s technology-enhanced education environments with practices derived from critical race theory, culturally responsive pedagogy, disability studies, feminist/womanist studies, queer theory, and other essential foundations for humanized and socially just education. It alerts us to opportunities, sensitivities and challenges, and is also very practical.

Browse all Must-Read Books

Contact North I Contact Nord’s 
Directory of 83 Online, Open & Distance Learning Associations and Consortia Throughout the World

Contact North | Contact Nord created this non-exhaustive list of online, distance and open learning associations and consortia around the world, providing links to websites (if available) to widen access to the valuable information offered by each.

Explore the directory

Upcoming Events in Online Learning

European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) 

Innovating Higher Education Conference (I·HE2022)

October 19 to 21, 2022

Hosted by Hellenic Open University, Athens, Greece

The Innovating Higher Education (I-HE) conference focuses on trends and high-impact factors in global and European higher education. This year's theme is: Digital Reset: European Universities Transforming for a Changing World

Topics include:

• Blended education
• Online and distance education
• Synchronous hybrid education
• Student readiness and student support
• Diversity & inclusion in open and online education
• Micro-credentials for continuous education
• European university networks, internationalization and virtual mobility
• Internationalization and virtual mobility
• Quality assurance in blended and online education
• Artificial intelligence in teaching and learning
• Staff support services in online and distance education
• Open education and MOOCs, European MOOC Consortium
• Online assessment
• Recognition and qualification of micro-credentials, short learning programs and MOOCs
• Access to online, open and distance education for refugees
• Changing the educational landscape: Towards resilient European universities
• OER and sharing content
• Digital courses in 21st century skills

For more information and to register

About Contact North | Contact Nord

As Ontario's community-based bilingual distance education and training network, Contact North | Contact Nord helps underserved residents in 1,300 small, rural, remote, Indigenous and Francophone communities access education and training without leaving their communities.

Visit contactnorth.ca for more information

Most Popular Resources on teachonline.ca

1. A New Pedagogy Is Emerging... and Online Learning Is a Key Contributing Factor 
2. Searchable Directory of 1,900+ Upcoming Education and Technology Conferences From Around the World 
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4. Ten Facts You Need to Know About Micro-Credentials
5. Ten Guiding Principles for the Use of Technology in Learning