Round 1 Kick-Off Conference

Tuesday May 29

5:30pm – 7:00: Dinner / Reception

Wednesday May 30

8:00 – 9:00: Registration & Breakfast

9:00 – 9:45: Opening Keynote: The Education Opportunity & Research Findings

With the rise of open educational resources (OER), big opportunities lie ahead in higher education. CC Director of Global Learning, Cable Green, will talk about what this means for the institutions of higher education and how they can take advantage of OER to advance their work and remain innovative and competitive in the digital age. CC Senior Project Analyst, Anna Daniel, will give an overview of the TA program grantee landscape, and discuss research findings to date.

9:50 – 10:15: Overview: Creative Commons

Creative Commons celebrates the 10th anniversary of its license suite later this year. CC’s Education and Technology Coordinator, Greg Grossmeier, and Communications Manager, Jane Park, will give a brief overview of CC license use in education and its integral and infrastructural role in open educational resources (OER). They will also explain the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) and its requirement for TA program grantees.

10:20 – 10:45: Overview: CAST

This session will provide an overview of how CAST addresses learner variability through applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning. This session will include a discussion of the expertise in the design of learning environments CAST can bring to amplify the good work community colleges are already doing to increase engagement and retention and we will provide details on CAST¹s involvement with the TAACCCT program grantees.

10 min break

10:55 – 11:20: Overview: OLI

The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University strives to transform teaching and learning by applying learning science and technology to increase student success, improve learning productivity and lower barriers to access. This session will provide an overview of the OLI philosophy, and will include a discussion of OLI’s course development process, technology and past work. In addition, the session will provide more details on OLI’s involvement in the TAACCCT program.

11:25 – 11:50: Overview: SBCTC

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) supports elearning and open education for the 34 community and technical colleges in the state of Washington. In this session, SBCTC staff will give an overview of the support they will provide TAACCCT grantees on how to find and share open resources, including how to develop open policies.

10 minute break

Noon – 1:15pm: Working Lunch: “Birds of a Feather” Tables

15 min break

1:30 – 3:00:

  1. Session #1: OLI+CAST services: design principles / methodologies
    • Slideshare: OLI, CAST

    Ongoing work in the learning and cognitive sciences has provided compelling evidence that education is not simply an art to be intuitively practiced by a teacher; student attainment can also be improved by thoughtfully harnessing current scientific knowledge about how people learn. This session will provide an overview of current Learning Design Principles and Methodologies that exemplify our current understanding of learning and can be put into practice by grantees as they develop their own learning resources.

  2. Session #2: CC BY licensing support Q&A, individual platform needs – technical interoperability, OLI LTI spec.

    Since each grantee will have different needs, all four CC staff members plus an OLI representative will be available to answer questions about the technical aspects of hosting and marking content. After an initial Q&A, grantees may group off with organizers according to platform hosting needs for individual support.

15 min break

3:15 – 4:45:

  1. Session #1: OLI+CAST deep dive into co-development
    • Slides: OLI (ppt file), CAST

    Co-development is a collaborative, community based approach to course design and evaluation, bringing together faculty from multiple institutions. OLI and CAST will explain the development process in depth, including the ways in which your project can participate. We will discuss content areas in-demand across grantees, facilitating opportunities for collaboration between grantees. By the end of this session you will be able to describe to your team the benefits and tradeoffs of participation; explain what participation in the development process entails; and recognize alignment between your project’s goals and the co-development opportunity.

  2. Session #2: OLI+CAST deep dive into Platform+

    This session will you help you to decide if the Platform+ service is right for your online course project. OLI will demonstrate the tools available from the learner, instructor, and content developer perspectives. We will also discuss in depth the feature set of the platform, the technical skills it requires, and the training and support on offer. By the end of the session you will have a clear picture of the benefits of Platform+ along with the next steps and timeline for participation.

  3. Session #3: SBCTC services: deep dive

    Come to this hands-on session on how to find, evaluate and share open content. SBCTC staff can help you find the content you need and help you determine how to deliver that content to your users. We will discuss how to manage video, open textbooks, and other delivery options. Bring your questions.

45 min break

5:30 – 7:00pm: Dinner

7:00 – 8:00pm: (optional): Come Chat with OPEN Partners

Thursday May 31

8:15 – 9:00: Breakfast

9:00 – 10:30: CC BY license implementation deep dive: step by step. / Finding existing OER for your project

This session will dive into detail about the CC BY licensing requirement and what it takes to implement the license when hosting content on individual and external platforms. CC staff will go over the license metadata, examples of good implementation, and OER platforms where you can host resources under the CC BY license. We will also demonstrate tools and sites to find existing CC BY or otherwise licensed OER for your project. (SBCTC will share their stories, ie. around Open Course Library.)

10 min break

10:40 – 11:50:

  1. Session #1: SBCTC services: deep dive

    Come to this hands-on session on how to find, evaluate and share open content. SBCTC staff can help you find the content you need and help you determine how to deliver that content to your users. We will discuss how to manage video, open textbooks, and other delivery options. Bring your questions.

  2. Session #2: Metadata + Discoverability, introduction to LRMI

    Providing materials online using a standard descriptive framework provides a means for search engines, and most importantly learners, to find the right materials for their situation. This session will introduce the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) and how it can be utilized by DOL TAACCCT grantees for improved discoverability. LRMI is a way of describing educational resources that are posted online in a way that search engines, and other specialized services, so they can present better quality search results to their users.

  3. Session #3: Data Driven Continuous Improvement

    A powerful feature of online instruction is the ability to embed assessment throughout and capture data on how students are learning. The TAACCCT program calls on institutions to use such data to “continuously assess the effectiveness of their strategies in order to improve their program… and build evidence about effective practice.” In this interactive session, we will share the OLI approach to data driven continuous improvement. Together we will discuss strategies for using learning data to refine course materials by examining examples from our project. We will also present an overview of the learning data and tools available to co-development and Platform+ participants.

10 min break

Noon – 1:00: Lunch “How can my project work with your project?” Tables

1:00 – 1:45: Discussion: What OPEN services need to be changed to better meet your needs? Next steps for projects and the OPEN team.

1:45 – 2:00: Closing Remarks

2:00 – 3:00: (optional) Come Chat with OPEN Partners