Online Learning News - March 22, 2023

Free Contact North | Contact Nord Webinar

Content Creation Using AI: How AI Can Be
Used to Build Courses
and Learning Experiences

Wednesday, March 29, 2023
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (ET)

Register Now!

In this engaging and interactive webinar, our host, Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd, Chief Innovation Officer at Contact North | Contact Nord, introduces AI-enabled content creation, including:

• Which AI resources are available that can help you quickly create quality content.
• What you should be cautious about and what we know are problems with AI-enabled content creation.
• How to leverage AI text-to-speech and speech-to-text for learning material creation.
• How to use the AI design features for a variety of material creation activities.
• How content curation is a major opportunity for AI-enabled supports, especially for students with exceptionalities.

10 Kinds of Micro-Credentials

The Government of Ontario’s investment in the development of micro-credentials is a response to the skills challenge in Canada, which has resulted in 1 million unfilled job vacancies. Contact North | Contact Nord has identified 10 types of micro-credentials:

1. On-demand micro-learning leading to badges
2. Gap-based, competency-driven learning
3. Social and non-profit micro-credentials
4. The “tease” micro-credential
5. The industry-driven micro-credential
6. The pick-n-mix micro-credential
7. Faculty-driven micro-credentials
8. Assessment-only micro-credentials
9. The short course
10. The industry-delivered short course

Read the full story

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

In this blog post, Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate Dr. Tony Bates reviews chapters 28-33 of Olaf Zawacki-Richter, and Insung Jung’s Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Learning (2023), which focuses on organization, leadership and change.

Read Dr. Bates’ post:

Organization, Leadership and Change in Open, Distance and Digital Education: book review, Part 1

Podcasts and Vodcasts on Online Learning

Leading Lines Podcast

Hosted by Derek Bruff, assistant provost and executive director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, Leading Lines is an enlightening podcast that delves into the realm of educational technology in higher education. The focus is on discovering innovative, purposeful, and efficient ways to use technology to improve student learning, providing insights into the future of educational technology in college and university environments. Through engaging conversations with educators, researchers, technologists and industry experts, they showcase groundbreaking ideas and influential voices that are driving the development of digital learning and pedagogy.

Choose your episode

This Week’s Must-Read Book
on Online Learning

Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: A Practical Approach 

Edited by: Prathamesh Padmakar, Churi, Shubham Joshi, Mohamed Elhoseny & Amina Omrane (2022)

This collection of papers contains valuable insights for instructors, instructional designers and administrators. It discusses learning methodologies, intelligent tutoring systems, intelligent student guidance and assessments, intelligent education chatbots and artificial tutors, and presents the practicality and applicability implications of AI in education.

The book offers new and current research along with case studies showing the latest techniques and educational activities. It raises both practical implementation challenges — costs, integration with existing systems, the innovation readiness of staff and students — as well as the more “regular” concerns with security, algorithmic bias and the impact of AI on human relationships. Good material, well presented and clear.

Browse all Must-Read Books

Contact North | 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 

New MOOC: Designing for Communities of Inquiry in Online Courses (DCOI)

March 12 to April 15, 2023

This free, five-week massive open online course (MOOC), provided by the Commonwealth of Learning in partnership with Athabasca University, is open to administrators, teachers and other education professionals.

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a pedagogical model that supports digital teaching and learning. The introductory level Designing for Communities of Inquiry in Online Courses (DCOI) MOOC explores the why and how of using the CoI as the basis for developing and teaching quality online and blended courses.

For more information and to register

About Contact North | Contact Nord

Contact North | Contact Nord is a free, local bilingual service to help residents in 1,500+ rural and remote Ontario communities access online programs and courses from colleges, universities and training providers without having to leave their communities.

Visit contactnorth.ca for more information

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