I attended many virtual sessions of the “Accelerate 2022” conference hosted by the Online Learning Consortium (another “OLC!”) – my first time attending any OLC conference. The OLC is a non-profit organization that supports a range of professional development and quasi-academic (more white-paper than full research) offerings. In its own words:
OLC is a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators, dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Below are the top themes I took away from the conference, with an emphasis on how educational leaders can continue to evolve university services.
Connect Learning to Employment
This was a major theme of Amelia Parnell’s keynote talk on “How Online and Blended Learning Can Accelerate Student Success.” She highlighted the continuing focus on the future of the “Learning and Employment Record” (digital portfolios, badges, etc.). She also noted the importance of Prior Learning Assessments (“PLAs”) for attracting and graduating students (students using PLAs completed their credentials at a 20+% higher rate).
Support Faculty Video Development
OK, we’re preaching to the choir here, but it’s still important. Not unexpected from a conference about online learning, but several sessions highlighted the importance of adding original video to courses. A session on “Building Hyflex Programs through Cross-functional Collaboration” looked at how faculty were more successful at deploying multimedia with university staff support. A session on “The Influence of Instructor-Generated Video Content” highlighted how using videos to communicate class expectations led to better a faculty experience with students throughout the semester.
Teach with Confidence
I enjoyed learning some public speaking and performance tips from Jory Basso (founder of Hybrid Health and Fitness, an integrative health clinic in downtown Toronto). Here are his “9 tips for public speaking:
Change with The Internet
In a “Technology and Future Trends” session, speakers discussed structural changes to the web (i.e., “Web3”, “Web 3.0,” etc.) and possibly implications and possibilities for educational institutions and learners. I’ll let this one speak for itself:
The internet is changing and online learning will necessarily change with it. Terms like “crypto,” “blockchain,” “NFT,” “DAO,” and “Web3” are possibly not entirely new to you, but do you know what to expect when these stop being theoretical and become infused into the very bedrock of online learning? Join our panel of experts and educators to help answer questions like “What problem does this solve?,” “What value does this add?,” “How does it work?,” and “What does it even do?”
The panel was comprised of 4 people who are all involved in a “decentralized, autonomous organization” called Ed3DAO. While they were certainly selling their Koolaid, they also had some interesting ideas about the future of credentialing using blockchain technology.
Build Your Platform
And not just figuratively: a session on the “Barnes Foundation’s Digital Learning Platform” was about designing, engineering, and testing their new learning platform. As they are in the art education space, the Foundation built a unique web-based experience for remote learners to experience art education as taught by Barnes educators. The ability for learners to toggle between “self-exploration” and “instructor-led exploration” was very slick.
And more!
That’s what I was able to glean from this experience with the Online Learning Consortium community. After many years of seeing OLC publications, this was my first time attending one of their conferences. In whole, it wasn’t particularly strong on research, theory, or business. It was more like a passing glance at some current issues in the vast field of online education. I’m glad I was able to engage with this content, but based on the overall quality of the conference presentations, I’m not sure I would attend again anytime soon.