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Contact North | Contact Nord Webinars

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Join the thousands of participants from over 75 countries worldwide attending Contact North | Contact Nord's mostly sold out webinars!

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To access recordings, presentation slides and unanswered questions for past webinars select Past (Recorded) Webinars in the radio buttons below.

Webinar Title Date Time (Eastern) Host

Developing Video Simulations to Engage First Year Nursing Students at Cambrian College, Sudbury

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Learn how Professor Laura Killam, from Cambrian College’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program, developed video simulations of in-home visits to enhance the student experience in her Health and Healing I - Family Experience of a Chronic Health Challenge course.

January 26, 2021 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Laura Killam

Professor, School of Health Sciences, Nursing, and Emergency Services, Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology

Photo of Laura Killam

Dr. Marian Luctkar-Flude

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Queen’s University

Photo of Dr. Marian Luctkar-Flude

Dr. Marian Luctkar-Flude is an Associate Professor at Queen’s University School of Nursing, Co-President of the Canadian Alliance of Nurse Educators using Simulation (CAN-Sim) and serves on the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Board of Directors as VP Research. Dr. Luctkar-Flude has extensive experience with high-fidelity patient simulation, interprofessional education and online learning. Her current program of research focuses on virtual simulation game design, presimulation preparation approaches, and faculty development. She was the 2019 recipient of the Principal’s Educational Technology Award at Queen’s University for advancing the use of technology such as virtual simulation games in undergraduate nursing education, and the 2019 Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Pat Griffin  Nursing Education Research Scholar Award.

Twitter: @marianlflude

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-luctkar-flude-1201642a/

CAN-Sim: http://can-sim.ca/

Queen’s University: https://nursing.queensu.ca/luctkar-flude

How to Be a Successful Online Learner

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In this webinar, first-time and experienced online learners get practical advice on how to be a successful online learner from an experienced online professor and gain insight and perspective from a seasoned online learner.

Based on relevant psychological theory, you learn:

  • Theoretical understanding of learning;
  • The importance of your study space;
  • How to manage distractions and procrastination;
  • How to get the most out of your learning;
  • The best use of down time, and;
  • Tips and tricks on how to best prepare for learning on online.

Join Dr. Steve Joordens, a professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and University of Toronto Scarborough undergraduate student Nick Khabaz for an interactive one-hour conversation designed to prepare students to succeed in their online courses.

January 28, 2021 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.

Dr. Steve Joordens

Experienced Online Professor & EdTech Developer

Steve is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Director of the Advanced Learning Technologies Lab and Co-President & CEO of Cogneeto Inc., a start-up company specializing in creating pedagogically powerful online assessment tools.

Dr. Joordens teaches the very large (approximately 1,900 students) Introduction to Psychology class on campus and has extensive online experience. His more recent course on Coursera is Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19.

As Director of the Advanced Learning Technologies Lab, Dr. Joordens leads the development and assessment of educational technologies to maximize efficacy and usability. The lab developed 3 educational technologies: peerScholar, mTuner and Digital Labcoat. The work performed by the lab was recognized by institutional, provincial and national level awards, with the resulting technologies in use globally.

https://stevejoordens.ca/

How Micro-Credentials are Changing the Landscape of Skills-Based Learning: Lessons from Australia

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What’s been happening with micro-credentials Down Under and what can we learn from their use?

Following the release of earmarked funds in 2020, 54 Australian education providers developed more than 345 short courses to respond to the need for upskilling, reskilling and life-long learning. Australia’s federal government is investing in the development of a marketplace for these credentials, seeing them as an opportunity to build international interest.

This webinar explores what happens when a country invests in micro-credentials. In particular, we consider:

  • What’s driving the development of micro-credentials in Australia
  • The essential policy drivers and constraints
  • The kind of micro-credentials that have emerged and what they focus on
  • The lessons we have learned so far
  • The advice we would give to an organization, college or university thinking of developing micro-credentials in the post-pandemic world?

As participants in this webinar learn about the current state of micro-credentials in Australia and the challenges that exist, they will also explore the implications for developing micro-credentials in Canada.

Key takeaways

  • Five key lessons about the successes and failures of micro-credentials in Australia
  • The challenge of matching competencies to employers’ needs
  • Three “must-dos” to make micro-credentials a key component of the college and university strategy to “build back better” after the pandemic
  • The likely next developments in micro-credentials in Australia
February 02, 2021 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Beverley Oliver

Principal Consultant, EduBrief

Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver was Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin until December 2018. She led Deakin's ambitious Student Learning and Experience strategy, including the drive to premium digital education and their partnership with FutureLearn. Her portfolio included Academic Governance and Standards, Cloud Campus, the Library, Deakin Learning Futures, the Dean of Students, the Centre for Research in Assessment for Digital Learning (CRADLE) and DeakinCo. Beverley was also Deputy Chair of Universities Australia’s Deputy Vice-Chancellors (Academic) and Deputy Chair of the Board of EduGrowth, a not-for-profit entity and Australia’s acceleration network for high-growth, scalable, borderless education.

She is the author of Making Micro-Credentials Work for Learners, Employers and Providers

How to Improve Student Engagement in Your College and University Courses by Using K-12 Teaching Techniques

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What can we learn from excellent teaching in elementary and secondary education?

How do we build the capacity of students to be more engaged and able to self-direct their learning?

What can we do as faculty and instructors to facilitate culturally responsive teaching?

Explore with Dr. Varner how:

  • Open-ended questioning with total participation techniques not only work but also ensure everyone is engaged and can participate.
  • Reflective activities designed to get students to find out what actually gets them to learn are vital. This includes engaging students with the concept of metacognition.
  • Flexible grouping of students with norms and protocols is key.
  • Exploratory activities with hands-on materials engage college students as much as a group of kindergartners.
  • Explicit instruction on when to be engaged with technology and when not to be is important.
  • Self-created projects based on clear course objectives can bring a class to life for students as they conduct their individual research as well as share their learning with others.

Three Key Takeaways:

  • Develop successful strategies to engage learners in self-directed learning activities.
  • Learn how to change the mindset of students from passive to active learning.
  • Consider how planning through a lens of access and equity can increase student learning for students of all ages.
February 04, 2021 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.

Dr. Janet Wood Varner

Visiting Professor, St. Mary's College of Maryland

Dr. Janet Wood Varner is a visiting professor in the educational studies department at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and as a part-time adjunct professor for McDaniel College and as a part-time adjunct professor.

She is a US National Board-Certified teacher with 22 years of varied experiences in both K-12 and higher education settings.

Dr. Varner continues to serve as a veteran teacher for St. Mary’s County Public Schools in the role of part-time math coach for special education teachers.

She just completed teaching a course she designed called Social Justice in the Mathematics Classroom, and wrote an insightful article for Inside Higher Ed on the topic explored in this interactive webinar.

Using a Social Media Simulation Tool to Enhanced Student Learning and Engagement in a Course on Digital Marketing at St. Clair College

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Learn how Professor Justina Ciarlariello incorporated a a web-based simulation tool that offers a comprehensive hands-on environment for students to learn social media marketing skills.

February 09, 2021 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Justina Ciarlariello

Professor of Marketing, St. Clair College

Photo of Justina Ciarlariello

How to Be Resilient in a Post-Pandemic World: 10 Steps Toward Personal Mastery and Transformational Change

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Many of us have experienced challenge, change and uncertainty as the pandemic impacts every aspect of society, including the economy.

Whether in our personal lives, our work lives or in our role as leaders, faculty members, instructors and teachers, we are challenged to show adaptability, courage and resilience. For those of us who are fortunate to still have jobs, we had to change how we work, where we work and what we work on. It is a different time, requiring totally different behaviours.

This webinar is aimed at all who struggle to stay positive and focused during the pandemic whether we are students, faculty or administrators in college and universities around the world.

In this interactive webinar, we learn:

  • What is personal resilience?
  • How do we personally build resilience?
  • What do we need to do to develop resilience in our colleagues and to help make our organization agile and nimble?
  • What do adaptive and resilient organizations look like and how we can we assess where we are as an organization on this critical journey?
  • What challenges are we facing in the post-pandemic period that require resilience and agile leadership?

Five key takeaways

  • 10 steps to building your personal resilience
  • A framework for agile and resilient organizations
  • An understanding of resilient and agile management and leadership
  • How to “future ready” yourself and your organization
February 11, 2021 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd

Chief Innovation Officer, Contact North | Contact Nord

Dr. Murgatroyd is a psychologist and co-author of the book Beyond Resilience: From Mastery to Mystery – A Workbook for Personal Mastery and Transformational Change.  

His expertise is as a trainer, facilitator and strategist on organizational change and transformation.

Stephen teaches strategic foresight at the University of Toronto and University of Alberta, and offers a future-focused leadership course in Athabasca University’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.

An experienced educator, he has worked worldwide on future-focused change and innovation for corporations, governments, and colleges and universities.

How to Make Your Course Interactive and Engaging

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Learn five practical ways to go beyond the talking head and ensure high levels of student engagement in your course.

• How do you design and oversee small group work online?
• How do you support individual presentations or group presentations?
• How do you design other activities to ensure interactivity during a class and student engagement between classes?
• How do you give feedback which helps students progress?
• How do you use analytics to see how students are using the online resources in the course?

Four Key Takeaways

1. Making sure students are engaged and involved in online learning.
2. Five things to help students connect and engage with their learning.
3. Giving feedback on student performance in a way that will retain the students in your course.
4. Using analytics to see how students are using the online resources in the course.

February 17, 2021 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd

Chief Innovation Officer, Contact North | Contact Nord

Dr. Murgatroyd has over thirty years’ experience in teaching online as well as developing online courses and programs. He designed, developed and implemented the world’s first online MBA as Executive Director, Centre for Innovative Management at Athabasca University. Dr. Murgatroyd advises colleges and universities on strategies and policies on online learning. He has guided governments on educational policy in Chile, Paraguay, UAE, Australia and New Zealand. Most recently he has been advising the New Zealand government on the ways it can harness its complete reorganization of the polytechnic sector to focus on a skills agenda and multiple routes to learner success. In the UAE he is working with both the Ministry of Possibilities and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research on the future of technology enabled learning, especially focusing on Smart Skills and the role of AI and augmented and virtual reality in reimagining learning.

Micro-Credentials and Skills-Based Learning in the United States

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What does the micro-credentials landscape look like in the U.S.? And what can we learn from it?

In the U.S., Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers such as Coursera and edX, as well as other education providers, including private corporations, developed hundreds of micro-credentials covering a range of subjects seen to be in demand. Since 2014, Digital Promise has developed over 550 micro-credentials with over 60 issuing organization partners in their growing micro-credential ecosystem.

This webinar explores:

  • What’s driving the development of micro-credentials in the U.S.?
  • The essential policy drivers and constraints, and whether they differ between individual states
  • The type of micro-credentials emerging in the U.S.
  • Lessons learned from the development and implementation of these credentials

The webinar helps participants understand the way micro-credentials in the U.S. are unfolding and what is likely to happen within the sector in Canada.

Key takeaways

  • Five key lessons to be gleaned from the successes and challenges of micro-credentials in the U.S.  
  • What the American experience can tell us about aligning competencies to employers’ needs
  • What American colleges and universities must do to ensure micro-credentials are a key component of “building back better” post-pandemic.
  • The most important developments in micro-credentials to expect in the U.S.
February 24, 2021 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Odelia Young

Director, Micro-credentials at Digital Promise

Odelia Younge is the Director of Micro-credentials at Digital Promise. In her role at Digital Promise she leads the strategy, growth, and scale of the micro-credential ecosystem with a focus on equity of access and opportunity. She collaborates across the organization and with over 70 external partners on content development, program implementation, research, policy, and storytelling to support competency-based professional learning. Odelia has over 10 years of experience in the education field, centering racial justice and equity in classroom teaching, program design, professional learning, educator advocacy, and community engagement. She holds an MPhil in Politics, Development, and Democratic Education from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

How to Create Active and Engaging Learning Experiences with Zoom Breakout Rooms

Register

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

Join Contact North | Contact Nord’s Research Associate, Dr. Ron Owston, who describes how educators can:

  • 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 chose 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

Participants have ample opportunity to ask questions during the webinar.

NOTE: Registrants are expected to have a basic knowledge of how to use Zoom.

February 26, 2021 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Dr. Ron Owston

Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate

A pioneer in online teaching and research, Dr. Owston ranks among Google Scholar’s most cited blended learning researchers globally.

 

The founding Director of the Institute for Research in Learning Technologies he is a former Dean of the Faculty of Education and University Professor Emeritus at York University.

 

Dr. Owston's webinars on effective use of Zoom for teaching as part of the Contact North I Contact Nord Webinar Series are lauded by educators around the world:

 

“I've really learned a lot the last 6 or so months watching your Zoom webinars. My students have noticed and I share with you their kudos. I look forward to upping my Breakout Zoom Room game!”

 

“I really appreciate Ron’s effort and I need to watch this all over again to try the different possibilities.”

 

“Thank you very much Ron! This was a very informative session! I am excited to try to put together a class for my learners.”

 

“I wanted to comment on how useful these sessions have been – I have learned a lot from attending and/or watching them afterward. And, I include them in all my PD announcements to encourage faculty to attend.”

 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you—really wonderful!”

 

His website is http://RonOwston.ca

Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic How to Improve How We Teach and Learn Online

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1.5 billion learners around the world now find themselves studying through distance education, much of it online.

Colleges and universities are rapidly responding to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging the power of the Internet for both real-time sessions and online learning anytime. Some colleges and universities are doing exceptional work. Some are struggling, others are challenged but are “making it”.

As faculty and instructors:

• What are we learning from this experience about teaching and learning?
• What can we build on as we get back to class in 2021?
• What changes can we make to how we teach, assess and work with students to make learning more effective?

In this interactive webinar, Stephen Downes presents:

• 10 lessons from teaching and learning in a pandemic
• Three challenges of leveraging these lessons for “what’s next” in online and blended learning
• Three specific ways we can facilitate improvements in teaching and learning, based on these 10 lessons

Key Takeaways

• Understand the nature of teaching and learning in terms of both building a community of inquiry and enabling learners to flourish
• Find out how authentic assessment and moving away from the mid-term and end-of-term exam can facilitate improvements in learning
• Improve how we respond to the diverse needs of learners

March 01, 2021 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.

Stephen Downes

Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate

Stephen Downes is a specialist in online learning technology and new media. He is known for his daily newsletter, OLDaily, which is distributed by web, e-mail and RSS to thousands of subscribers around the world, and is the originator of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

Through a thirty-year career, Stephen contributed pioneering work in the fields of online learning games, learning objects and metadata, podcasting, open educational resources.

He has published extensively in the areas of logic and reasoning, 21st century skills, and critical literacies. He is the author of hundreds of online and print articles and a frequent presenter at conferences, associations and organizations in countries around the world.

How to Design Online Teaching for Engaged Learning: Merging Instructional Design and Teaching and Learning Research

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How do we marry the substantial research on effective teaching and learning with our knowledge and experience of instructional design to ensure effective learning and increase student retention and course completion?

What pedagogical techniques are needed to make online learning engaging and empowering for students?

In this interactive webinar, Dr. Linda Nilson provides:

  • Specific approaches to course design you can take to increased retention and completion.
  • Practical insights on how to improve your online teaching, based on cognitive science and instructional design. Approaches to the assessment of learning that help students succeed.

Three Key Takeaways

  1. We can do much more to ensure student engagement and completion, but it requires us to make effective use of the practices of instructional design and the knowledge from cognitive learning research in the way we design, deliver and support students.
  2. We can ensure, but it requires us to think and design carefully our courses so that they are focused and aligned with key program level outcomes.
  3. We can foster rigour and quality, but this requires us to teach effectively and adequately prepare our students to perform well on out assessments.
March 04, 2021 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.

Dr. Linda Nilson

Founding Director Emerita, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, South Carolina

Dr Linda B Nilson is the founding Director Emerita of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation at Clemson University, South Carolina, USA. She developed and directed professional development programs, workshops, events, and services aimed at improving teaching and learning in all modes of delivery.

She is an author, researcher, scholar and former Director of the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA and Director of the Teaching Assistant Development Program at University of California, Riverside. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She is the author of Online Teaching at Its Best – Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research (Jossey-Bass, 2018).

How to Effectively Use Zoom to Provide an Interactive and Engaged Learning Experience to Students

Register

As an educator already using Zoom to teach online, learn how to leverage Zoom’s many features to enhance student engagement and learning.

Join Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate, Dr. Ron Owston for this interactive session focusing on topics such as:

  • Engaging students through breakout rooms
  • Promoting collaboration with whiteboards and document annotation
  • Enhancing class presentations, including how to use free OBS Studio video software
  • Obtaining feedback through polling and other tools
  • Involving students through screen sharing
  • Organizing large enrollment classes

Considerable time will be allotted throughout the session for participant questions.

Note: before taking this webinar, participants are recommended to view How to Teach Online Effectively with Zoom webinar recording or have experience teaching with Zoom.

March 16, 2021 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Dr. Ron Owston

Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate

Owston ranks among Google Scholar’s most cited blended learning researchers globally.

 

The founding Director of the Institute for Research in Learning Technologies he is a former Dean of the Faculty of Education and University Professor Emeritus at York University.

 

Dr. Owston's webinars on effective use of Zoom for teaching as part of the Contact North I Contact Nord Webinar Series are lauded by educators around the world:

 

“I've really learned a lot the last 6 or so months watching your Zoom webinars. My students have noticed and I share with you their kudos. I look forward to upping my Breakout Zoom Room game!”

 

“I really appreciate Ron’s effort and I need to watch this all over again to try the different possibilities.”

 

“Thank you very much Ron! This was a very informative session! I am excited to try to put together a class for my learners.”

 

“I wanted to comment on how useful these sessions have been – I have learned a lot from attending and/or watching them afterward. And, I include them in all my PD announcements to encourage faculty to attend.”

 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you—really wonderful!”

 

His website is http://RonOwston.ca

How to Motivate and Retain Online Learners

Register

 

  • Learn 10 fully documented and theoretically driven motivational principles that foster interactivity and engagement online.
  • Find out how to inspire your online learners with an assembly of meaningful and purposeful learning activities. Simply put, bored and unengaged online learners will be a thing of the past.
  • Discover a realistic path toward meaningful and engaging online learning.
  • Learn the simple and flexible framework for motivating online learners that works.
  • Learn about research backed and proven interactive online ideas and activities.

What motivates? Answer: A little TEC-VARIETY!

  1. Tone/Climate: Psych Safety, Comfort, Sense of Belonging
  2. Encouragement: Feedback, Responsive, Praise, Supports
  3. Curiosity: Surprise, Intrigue, Unknowns
  4. Variety: Novelty, Fun, Fantasy
  5. Autonomy: Choice, Control, Flexibility, Opportunities
  6. Relevance: Meaningful, Authentic, Interesting
  7. Interactivity: Collaborative, Team-Based, Community
  8. Engagement: Effort, Involvement, Investment
  9. Tension: Challenge, Dissonance, Controversy
  10. Yielding Products: Goal Driven, Purposeful Vision, Ownership
March 18, 2021 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.

Dr. Curtis Bonk

Professor of Instructional Systems Technology

Dr. Bonk is the author of Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online (available free at  http://tec-variety.com/).

He has published a dozen books, including his groundbreaking 2020 volume with Routledge, MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South. His research focuses on emerging learning technologies, online and blended learning, MOOCs and open education, and the global impacts from collaborative technology.

Dr. Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University where he teaches psychology and technology courses. He can be contacted at [email protected] and his homepage is http://curtbonk.com/

The opinions expressed by the presenters in the webinars are their own and do not reflect Contact North | Contact Nord’s opinion.

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