D2L09 UNconference Video

The D2L UNconference was a blast last night at the Liffey, an Irish pub in St. Paul. Kyle Mackie (@kylemackie) did a great job as emcee or chief organizer. Here's a short video (4.5 mins) containing several snippets from the evening, although not all presenters are shown. This video has absolutely zero value, as you'll soon see.

There is a good chance that the full video of some of these segments will see the light of day, but probably not from me. I'm just saying.

D2L UNconference at 6:30 today

50 or so of the early-arrivers for D2L09 FUSION will be gathering at 6:30 today for the UNconference prior to the official start of the conference tomorrow morning. Check out the attendance list to see who is going to be having the most fun in St. Paul tonight.

The tag for the conference is D2L09. I expect lots of Twitter activity since many people that are coming are tweet-aholics. Here is a FeedFlash of tweets tagged with D2L09.




I expect there will be much more to report about this as it unfolds. Live streaming might occur if we have good connectivity. We'll be at the Liffey in St. Paul starting at 6:30.

Call for Keynote Presenters

EAT-IT 2009 will happen on August 12-13 at Inver Hills Community College in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. EAT-IT stands for Emerging Academic Technologies and Instructional Techniques (yes, I spent 30 minutes coming up with a name that would fit the acronym.) More information about the conference at the Innovations in e-Education blog.

Here's a little different twist. We're NOT going to ask keynote speakers to come to this conference, they're going to ask us (we hope!). The conference is called EAT-IT! The focus of the conference will be Emerging Academic Technologies and Instructional Techniques. More info here.

So here's the deal. Submit the form below (or here) and tell us why we should hire you as a keynote speaker. Clearly you want to have a message that is on-topic for the conference. Additionally, consider the following:
* We need to know your total required fee. In other words, give us one price that represents the total amount that we will have to pay you. Don't say "fee plus expenses." As an independent contractor we can't separately reimburse your expenses anyway (in other words, roll the expenses into your fee).
* We would really appreciate it if you would also provide a 50-60 minute breakout session in addition to your 60-75 minute keynote (on the same day). However, you can refuse this if you're not interested.
* Feel free to submit more than one proposal if you have different topics that you think we might be interested in for the conference.



Why are we asking for proposals from potential keynote speakers?
* Why ask why? Why not ask why not?
* Because this might be a chance to see a great proposal for a keynote from someone who never gets asked to do a keynote. Newbies are encouraged to apply.
* Because maybe we'll have a chance at getting an expensive speaker at a bit of a discount. Sort of like unsold seats on an airplane - if these dates are open in someone's calendar then maybe they'll be willing to accept less money to have an extra gig. Maybe not, but it was worth a try.
* Because we'll be able to choose among proposals from people who really want to come to our conference - they'll have to persuade us to hire them rather than us having to persuade them to let us hire them.
* Because we'll be able to tell you up front that we won't be able to pay $5,000 for a keynote speaker. We're hoping to hire at least two different people, and we're expecting only about 75-100 people to attend this conference (it is prime vacation time after all) so we won't have a huge budget to work with.

That's it for now. Hope we get some innovative proposals.

e-Learning Leadership Development

It seems obvious that there is a perceived void in the development of future leaders in the field of e-Learning. At least it certainly appears that way. I come to that conclusion based on the fact that there are three different efforts by reputable organizations to develop leadership academies focused on e-Learning. One by ITC (note: I am a board member), one by WCET (note: I am involved in the event planning and execution), and one by SLOAN-C.

From the Instructional Technology Council (ITC): (copied from website)

ITC 2009 Leadership Academy July 26-28, 2009, Costa Mesa, California Application Deadline: May 20, 2009

See Academy Web site

The ITC Leadership Academy is designed to develop and enrich the leadership skills of distance learning professionals in higher educational settings. Ideal candidates include distance learning administrators or learning technologies administrators with three or more years of managerial experience in a distance learning program. Along with a group of approximately 25 fellow professionals from throughout North America, participants will gain the opportunity to:

• Understand your organization and create a sound leadership strategy for your environment

• Develop a leadership model that fits your institution

• Identify and acquire key tools for successful leadership in distance learning

• Build a network of colleagues and fellow practitioners

This three-day academy will be held in beautiful Costa Mesa, a community of Orange County, California. The deadline to submit an application is May 20, 2009.

Visit the Academy Web site for more information and an application form.

(end)

From WCET: (copied from website)

CatalystCAMP

Explore Leadership Strategies for eLearning Success with the Experts. In conjunction with the WCET Annual Conference on October 21-24, the first-ever CatalystCAMP is providing a unique professional development opportunity for emerging elearning leaders. CAMP participants will be teamed with national experts who will lead sessions addressing policy, technical, funding, and accountability issues currently facing higher education. In these tight budget times, all available professional development funds must be spent wisely. By blending CatalystCAMP into the WCET conference schedule, it becomes a "2-for-1" savings on travel and also allows participants to augment their professional development program with selected conference sessions. 5 things YOU will do at CatalystCAMP AWARENESS: Analyze external and internal pressures and what impact they may have on your institution. ANTICIPATION: Identify needed changes and the rubrics for decision-making. ARTICULATION: Plan what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. ACTION: Implement, monitor, and manage change. ASSESSMENT: Evaluate and evolve. (end) From SLOAN-C: (copied from website) The Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) Has your institution recently launched or are you planning to launch an online program? Do you have the next level of leadership prepared to embrace all that online delivery has to offer? If you, like many, see developing the leadership capacity as a critical issue in establishing your an online program, you may be interested in participating in The Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning, a unique blended-learning leadership development program sponsored by Penn State and The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C). "A key objective of the Institute is to get emerging leaders together with online learning pioneers to share their experiences," explains Dr. Gary E. Miller, executive director emeritus of Penn State’s World Campus and one of the Institute leaders. With so many of the early adopters at or near retirement age, there is a real need to foster the development of the next generation of higher education leaders in online learning, Miller notes. The institute is a blended format, which means participants will meet as a group for an immersive experience then continue their learning in an online environment that culminates with a capstone project at The Sloan Consortium's annual conference in October, explains co-director Lawrence C. Ragan. The group experience will take place August 10–13, 2009, at Penn State. (end) I have no doubt that all three organizations will provide valuable learning opportunities for participants. Maybe a better question is whether there are enough potential participants to go around.

Blackborg Goes Creative Commons

In the category of chock one up for electronic communications, MikeLeSombre (his blog) changed his copyright on the image shown above after getting requests from several people (including me) asking him to reconsider his "All Rights Reserved" copyright and allow sharing through Creative Commons licensing. That's exactly what he did.

Now his image is licensed as CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 which means that his image will be used and shared far and wide - legally. Thanks Mike. You have many fans who appreciate your handiwork with this poster.

Resistence is futile* (see note above) All your IMS are belong to us.

Thanks from Online Student Scholarship Winners

A few years ago I started a scholarship fund at Lake Superior College for students who are pursuing an online degree program or at least completing most of their courses via online delivery. Back then I was struck by the irony (or maybe sadness?) while attending the student awards banquet that none of the scholarships were going to online students. That just didn't seem right considering that about 15% of our enrollment was for online courses, but none of the financial support was being given to online students. They were clearly a hidden population. Now the online enrollments make up over 25% of our total enrollment, but I am happy to report that for the past several years we have honored online students on scholarship night. (CC photo by stuartpilbrow)

This year there were three online scholarship winners. Today I received thank you cards from each of them. They want to communicate with all the people who made their awards possible, so I will post their words here in an effort to let people know how appreciative they are.

#1: " Just a short note of thanks for selecting me to receive your scholarship through my education at LSC. I am currently seeking my dgeree in accounting to be able to hopefully upgrade my position with the State of Minnesota. I also am raising my 3 children, so any type of help such as this is greatly appreciated. Thanks, again."

#2: "Thank you very much for choosing me for the Virtual Campus Scholarship. I filled out 11 applications and I am pleased to have received one! I've been struggling to get my foot in the door to college for many years now, and now that I started classes I realized I enjoy college. When I try hard in classes I surprise myself because I never thought I could do that well. Thanks for helping me achieve my goals and believing in me. :)"

#3: "First of all, thank you for choosing me as one of the Virtual Campus Scholarship recipients. I have struggled to get half-way through my program and dealt with many hard things, hindering my abilities. But nothing is more important to me than graduating and being able to start my paralegal career with an A.S. degree in Legal Studies. I rely on financial aid and student loans to pay for college, but because I went over full-time both semesters, I had no funding left for summer classes. I am a single mom and unable to work for a few reasons, therefore, getting this degree as soon as possible is a major priority for me."

"I am very grateful that I was one of the many people chosen. I really needed this scholarship to attend summer classes. It is a great honor and privilege to have received this scholarship and I am so thankful. It has made my life somewhat easier and not as stressful in a few areas of my life. I really do appreciate receiving this scholarship more than words can say."

So there you have it. Those are the reasons that we needed the fund. Thanks so much to the other employees who donate money to the e-Campus scholarship fund and /or help out with the few fundraising events we hold each year. You all make a difference.

Blackboard Hearts Angel

I haven't posted anything about the Blackboard purchase of Angel during the first two days of the hub-bub because as my mother once told me, "If you don't have anything snarky and bitchy to say, just don't say anything at all." As I was preparing to write this post (and while mulling over her words of wisdom), I decided that I need to set the record straight regarding this much-maligned purchase. (CC angel photo by adselwood)

What a fabulous move by Blackboard! Once again, the Blackboard suits in the white hats have pulled a marvelous coup in the LMS market. Current Angel clients should embrace the fact that they have now been adopted by the mothership - where there will always be a bird in every pot, a car in every garage, and a lawyer in every chair.

I'm totally perplexed by all the negativity being expressed by various members of the education community. I even heard a few people remark that Michael Chasen appears to be a complete slimeball in this video from the fabulous Fox Network. I beg to differ. Mr. Chasen appears to me to be a completely sympathetic character; one who is only striving for the betterment of education and one who is not at all slimy. Just knock off all the talk about him being slimy. Clearly that is not the case. I see no slime whatsoever. (And it's certainly not his fault that the woman interviewing him is absolutely clueless.)

I have many friends at colleges and universities that are Angel clients. I have received emails/tweets/wall posts from several of them who want to cry on my shoulder and are expecting my sympathies in return. Get off my shoulder. Get over it. Put down that bottle of whiskey. This is absolutely the best thing that could have happened to you. The Angel platform is certain to live a long and fruitful life now that they have Blackboard's financial backing, BB's cadre of dedicated employees, their best-in-class architecture, and their much-deserved patent on the basic functionality of the LMS. Without this purchase by Blackboard, Angel was heading to a certain death and then where would all the Angel users be? Think of this as your BAILOUT, and Obama didn't even have anything to do with it. Or did he?

At Inside Higher Ed, both the article and the comments are mostly negative about this purchase. Don Gardner, Associate Vice President for Academic Technology at California State University, Long Beach is quoted as saying that Blackboard has provided "consistently poor customer service" and that Long Beach was in the process of switching to Angel because of Angel's superior customer service. Note to Dr. Gardner: since Blackboard is buying Angel they are also buying Angel's fabulous customer service. Therefore, you are going to be getting that great customer service from a company that is 12 to 15 times larger than Angel was, which means of course that you can expect the customer service to be even better than what you were hoping for under Angel - maybe even 12 to 15 times better.

In that same article, Fred Lokken, Associate Dean for Teaching Technologies at Truckee Meadows Community College in Nevada said he objected to the "predatory" way that Blackboard is fighting with Desire2Learn over patents. "Is the idea to own the market so that we have no choice?" Yes, Mr. Lokken. That is exactly the point. That is the American Way, and Blackboard is the poster child for illustrating the American Way of doing business. Every b-school student can learn a lot from watching the shrewd moves that Blackboard makes in dominating the education market with their superior technology and innovative innovations in the user interface and tool set.

"Chasen stressed that the attraction of Angel to Blackboard was respect for just the qualities that Angel's fans praise: teaching tools and customer service. He pledged that Angel customers would continue to receive strong support, that the new version of Angel that is coming out just as this deal is being announced would in fact come out, and that pricing would remain stable." (also from IHE) In this section Mr. Chasen lays out the the basic strategy for the Angel and Blackboard platforms. It reminds me greatly of the old days of General Motors. Pound for pound, Buick cars were always more expensive than Pontiacs. Many of the features of Buicks and Pontiacs were very similar, but Buicks were the big dogs (not as big as Cadillac, but big enough) and Pontiac was the younger, less mature, less expensive sibling. Considering the price differences between Blackboard and Angel, and considering that Mr. Chasen has stated that the pricing would remain stable, I think it's safe to say that LMS customers will now have the choice of buying the more expensive Buick Blackboard or the less expensive Pontiac Angel. And wouldn't those also be great names for cars?

Commenter Dane said "As one who has used Blackboard, I have found that, apart from whatever failings it has in service, it is one of the worst course management programs there is." Dane, you sound like a bitter, broken man. Clearly you are misguided in your opinions about Blackboard. Don't be a hater.

Commenter Kim says "Hmm ...Rapidly escalating prices, ignoring security issues, regularly purchasing competitors, aggressively pursuing patent protection, and deteriorating customer service. Should we not be concerned about the possibility of abusive monopolistic practices?" Yes, we should not. Just move along. Nothing to see here.

In a phone interview, when asked about whether this acquisition would have a stifling effect on competition, Mr. Chasen told Campus Technology "Actually there's more competition today with course management systems than ever before." That does sound perfectly reasonable to me. I have no doubt that Blackboard is actually pursuing a strategy of encouraging more competition, not trying to squelch it. In fact, it sounds like they would love to have a whole bunch of tiny little companies nipping at their heels. It helps keep them more agile that way, sort of like the postman.

Commenter Robert Blechman said "Given our recent economic history why would anyone think that one company controlling 80% of the market is a good idea? Who is going to raise the appropriate anti-trust objections to this merger?" Not me Robert, and not you either. You see, Angel was (still is) a privately-held company which means that most of the anti-trust legislation doesn't apply to this transaction. Translation: Blackboard can buy Angel and no one can stop it. Now that's smart positioning in my book.

Anonymous commenter said "I find it interesting that there has not been a single BlackBoard customer that has come to BB defense. Not one positive comment. It says a lot..." It says nothing. I have no doubt that these blog and news sites are deleting those positive posts because positivity just doesn't sell. There are lots of positive comments about Blackboard, they just don't show up on any public websites. Trust me.

And besides, just to prove you wrong Mr. Anonymous, consider this post to be one long, very positive comment in Blackboard's defense. Blackboard hearts Angel, and I heart Blackboard.

Do you have a mirror? (.dias tsuj I gnihtyreve esrever yletelpmoc tsuj woN)

Student Authentication Update - April 2009

In the previous post I wrote about the second round of discussions by the rulemaking committee that took place this week at the Department of Education in Washington D.C. This is the group that will decide how the distance learning student authentication issue in the Higher Education Opportunities Act will play out.

Thanks to Chris M, the Executive Director of the ITC, I can provide you with a sense of how those conversations have gone so far. The third and final meeting for this group will occur on May 18-20, at which time we expect to have clear language about how accrediting bodies should apply the law as handed down for the HEOA.

Based on the conversations late yesterday afternoon, this is how we expect (best guess?) the language will be handled: (expected changes to the proposed language in red)

602.17 Application of standards in reaching an accreditation decision.

(g) Requires institutions that offer distance education or correspondence education to have processes in place through which the institution establishes that the student who registers in a distance education or correspondence education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the course or program and receives the academic credit. The agency meets this requirement if it --

(1) Requires institutions to verify the identity of a student who participates in class or coursework by using such methods as, but not limited to --

(i) A secure login and pass code, randomly generated personal questions, or proctored examinations; and

[NOTE: there was widespread agreement to drop this phrase in section i since the participants agreed that we shouldn't be locked into the use of any particular technology or method - apparently, no one (who spoke) felt it should be left in.]

(ii) New identification technologies as they become widely accepted; and

[NOTE: it seems that number ii will be dropped entirely, but that is not yet certain.]

(2) Makes clear in writing that institutions should not use or rely on technologies that interfere with student privacy.

--- end of proposed rulemaking language ---

If that is what happens, then I think we will be able to breathe a big sigh of relief. Getting rid of language that specifically promotes one new technology (random questions) and an emphasis on maintaining student privacy goes a very long way toward making this a workable requirement, without closing the door on future possibilities that might develop in this space.

The next time for an update will be in May when the third and final discussion period happens for the negotiated rulemaking. Several people have worked very hard to put some common sense and reasonableness into this language. Let's hope that those thoughts prevail at the end of the day. Either way, they deserve our thanks.

Distance Ed Authentication Rulemaking

The second round of discussions by the rulemaking committee occurs at the Department of Education in Washington D.C. on Tuesday through Thursday, April 21 - 23. It is this group that will decide whether the final resolution of the distance student authentication issue goes beyond the clarifying language attached to the Higher Education Opportunity Act.

You can read the draft language (PDF submitted by the Department of Education) for the second round of discussions by Team III - Accreditation. Of primary importance to distance educators is Issue #1: Definitions of correspondence and distance education and Issue #10: Authentication of distance ed and correspondence ed students.

Issue #1: The lesser of the two issues, this one is an attempt to determine definitions for correspondence courses and distance education. The draft language defines various features of correspondence courses and then states that "Correspondence education may not be considered distance education." (pg. 2)

The definition of distance education is proposed as:
"Distance education means education that uses one or more of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (4) to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. The technologies include--

• (1) The internet;
  
• (2) One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
  
• (3) Audio conferencing; or
  
• (4) Video cassettes, DVDs, and CD-ROMs, if the cassettes, DVDs, or CD-ROMs are used in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (3)."

This is significant in that it clearly delineates between correspondence courses and distance education. However, it is also significant because it does NOT differentiate between fully online courses and hybrid courses. One of the concerns is whether the distance ed requirements will also be applied to hybrid courses since the students are sometimes "separated from the instructor."

Issue #10: (pages 37-40) "Amends current regulations regarding change of scope and agency standards to include references to distance education and correspondence education and to require processes to authenticate distance education and correspondence education students."

This is the section of the HEOA that has all distance educators shaking their heads in disbelief. Fortunately, the draft language isn't too far crazy - but it's not perfect either:
"(g) Requires institutions that offer distance education or correspondence education to have processes in place through which the institution establishes that the student who registers in a distance education or correspondence education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the course or program and receives the academic credit. The agency meets this requirement if it--

• (1) Requires institutions to verify the identity of a student who participates in class or coursework by using such methods as–
  
• (i) A secure login and pass code, randomly generated personal questions, or proctored examinations; and
  
• (ii) New identification technologies as they become widely accepted; and
  
• (2) Makes clear that institutions should not use or rely on technologies that interfere with student privacy."

I certainly hope that the good people working on the negotiated rulemaking come to realize that the inclusion of the "randomly generated personal questions" is very problematic. There is only one company (Acxiom) that is trying to push this down out throats and I question how much influence they have had (can you say lobbyists? Sure, I knew you could) on the process. Being a bit of a conspiracy theorist, I also question whether Blackboard has been influencing this legislation since they are in bed with Acxiom and would potentially stand to benefit if this language doesn't get removed.

The “randomly generated personal questions” is absolutely one of the methods that we were attempting to exclude via the clarifying language as a new identification technology that is not ready for prime time (another is the remote proctor "big Brother" camera). One way to read the language is that they are mentioning three possibilities for authenticating students - and that random personal questions will not be a requirement. However, just by having that language in there leaves open the door for an accrediting agency to require it.

BTW - I'm rather peeved that our accreditors, the Higher Learning Commission (North Central Association), saw fit to jump the gun on the student authentication language in the HEOA. The accreditation report that was due a couple of weeks ago asked us which of these intrusive student authentication methods we have already put in place at the college. We cited the clarifying language of the HEOA and told them that we are doing everything that we are required by law to do at this time. I still stand by that statement.

Blackboard Invented Nothing!

... but of course, we already knew that. Now, the USPTO seems to have figured it out as well. Today they released their Action Closing Prosecution (nonfinal). decision (announced at D2L Patent blog)

Rather than write a long blog post, I'll share my initial thoughts (from Twitter) as I first heard about this and as I was reading the USPTO report (read from bottom up). Basically, the USPTO agrees that prior art renders the Blackboard patent baseless. However, we're still not done with this mess. What next? More Blackboard shenanigans, without any doubt.

ScreenCastle Wins Round One

Just when I was ready to recommend ScreenToaster (a couple of months ago) as a slick browser-based (no download) way to make screencasts, I ran into a problem. Today I tried the new kid on the block, ScreenCastle.

The assignment that I was trying to illustrate with ScreenToaster was the possibility of having a student make a screen recording of how they created a chart using Microsoft Excel. I remember teaching those classes years ago where the students had to turn in a paper copy of their completed chart. Seems to me that this is the same question that is raised all the time about distance learning - "how do I know that Billy Bob is really the person who made that great chart and that somebody else didn't do it for him and now he's just turning in the printout?" or some other long run-on question like that.

By having the students make a screencast of their work they would be able to talk through the steps that they completed. However, to avoid technical problems I really didn't want to have all the students download and install something like CamStudio or Jing. Instead, using a browser-based recorder that is simply click-talk-click would be a better alternative.

Here is the example of this using ScreenCastle. This was my first take and the first time I used Screencastle.



That seems to work pretty well. After you record the screencast, they give you various options for getting the code to the video. Still trying to figure out whether that is a one-shot offer, or if I can easily get those same codes later on. Here is the link to the recording at Screencastle. You don't even create an account at Screencastle so there is no way of associating the screencasts with the creator. In other words, if I can't find the link (now I can in this post, but what about a student who has created a screencast and then closed that page?), I might not be able to find the screencast again.

After it worked successfully with Screencastle, I decided to do exactly the same thing with ScreenToaster. I once again made the chart in Excel. Click on the link below to see the totally unsatisfactory result. This is the same result that I saw a month or two ago.

Here's the lousy Screentoaster version of the same chart making exercise. (Yes, I really did make the chart, you just don't get to see it.)

There are certain things that I really like about ScreenToaster. If they continue to improve their service I have no doubt that it can be a player in this screencating space. One thing I don't like is how your choices go away after recording the screencast. For example, you have the choice to upload (high quality, they say) to ScreenToaster or to upload directly into YouTube. I wanted to do both, however, after uploading to ScreenToaster I was no longer able to upload to YouTube.

BTW, Screencast-o-matic is another browser-only tool in this space, and it works pretty well.

Is Blackboard Losing Clients?

There's lots of speculation about how much ill-will has been created in the education community by Blackboard's predatory business practices, but not much hard data either way. The real question is how many former Blackboard/WebCT clients have left the flock since the merger (acquisition?) of the two giants that was first announced on October 12, 2005.

Now it's 3.5 years later. I thought it would be interesting to try to compile a list of schools/consortia/orgs that have switched away from either Blackboard or WebCT to any of the other alternatives, or vice versa. To that end, I've thrown together a simple wiki where anyone can enter information about changes they've made to their IMS/VLE adoptions during that time frame.

Besides the home page, there are three additional pages on this wiki:

• Those who have left Blackboard/WebCT during the past 3.5 years
• Those that are seriously considering leaving Blackboard/WebCT during the next 2-3 years
• Those who have signed (as new clients) with Blackboard/WebCT during the past 3.5 years

In addition, there is a discussion forum for those who are so inclined.

For those who have missed it, on March 26, 2009, Desire2Learn announced their Million $ Mission in a letter from D2L CEO John Baker to Blackboard CEO Michael Chasen. That same day a Facebook fan page was also created to show support for this offer as a resolution to the ongoing patent battle between the two companies.

Please share this widely. Let's try to get lots of entries on this wiki. (Of course, Blackboard could help us out by publishing a list of new clients added and clients lost, but I'm quite certain that will never happen.)

I saw two things during the past couple of days that made me decide to try to gather this info.

• First, I was intrigued by the listing of the IMS choices of the 64 teams in the NCAA basketball tourney. Those schools seem to be a pretty good cross-section of larger universities in the U.S. The only IMS that appears to be under-represented in the field is Angel (only 1 school). Otherwise, the scoreboard says Blackboard = 49 (77% of the 64 schools), Desire2Learn = 9 (14%), Sakai = 2 (3%), and Moodle = 2 (3%).
• Second, Leonard Low of Australia left a comment on the previous post (Blackboard's Last Chance) stating that "The disapproval of Blackboard's conduct over the last few years has been so strong that 100% of the tertiary institutions in my city (5 of them) - all of which once used WebCT - have now already migrated, or are in the process of migrating to, other platforms. They could have kept us all if they'd conducted themselves with a modicum of integrity." How common is that point-of-view? I hope we find out.
  

Blackboard's Last Chance

Desire2Learn has lobbed a softball directly at Blackbeard (err, Blackboard). We'll see if the Presidential Pirate (Michael Chasen) can hit the ball out of the park.

From the D2L Patent Info blog, we read that D2L's John Baker made the following proposal to Blackboard's Chasen:

• Blackboard drop its recently-filed suit in a timely manner.
• In return, Desire2Learn will donate $1,000,000 to non-profit schools and educational organizations.
• Blackboard is invited to join us with its own donation.
• Up to 50% of the Desire2Learn donation will be directed toward schools in need in and around Washington, D.C., the home of Blackboard.

Obviously, Blackboard hasn't been willing to do the right thing up to this point, and the amount of badwill that they have incurred over these lawsuits has to be a great deal more than they estimated when they undertook this path against D2L. Here's a chance to do the right thing - quite possibly the last chance for Blackboard to begin repairing their image with much of the educational community.

Baker is giving Chasen a chance to be the good guy (not sure that he is interested in such a moniker), and I think he would be wise to take it. Blackboard will most certainly disagree with my next statement, but I believe that the lawsuit is a major contributor to their continued loss of clients.

The 2008 ITC survey "Trends in e-Learning" (will link when website comes back up) was completed by 139 schools. 58% of those schools report that they are using one of the BlackCT products for their LMS. A year earlier the same survey (not exactly the same repsondents) showed a 77% usage rate for BlackCT (that's Blackboard and WebCT combined for the unitiated). "This continues a trend in the decline in usage of Blackboard/WebCT over the past four years." Additionally, 37% of the respondents indicated that they were considering a switch in their LMS platform in the next few years. Obviously, many of those are Bb users. The survey last year also indicated a large number of schools considering a Blackboard dump.

Here's a chance to put this nonsense to rest - to save everybody a ton of money (except the lawyers) - and to put education/teaching/learning at the forefront as it should be. Even Chasen should be able to see that slow-arcing pitch and lay the wood to it. (I was reading today about how men overdo the use of sports analogies, so I couldn't resist.)

8 Week Courses for Online AA Degree

Registration opens soon for both summer and fall terms at Lake Superior College. We will now be offering enough sections of online courses in an 8-week format to allow students to compete the Online A.A. (Associate in Arts) degree on a more flexible schedule. Courses run for 8 weeks at a time instead of 16, although the traditional length courses will still be offered and are in fact still the standard offering in our schedule. However, I do expect the 8-week courses to be quite popular. In addition, students will now have 5 different entry points (start dates) during the school year.
Here's our new video:


and here's the new print ad:

Twouble in Twitterville

Even though I love Twitter as a way to stay connected with really smart people, I still think that this Current.com video is hilarious.


The inane commentary shown in this video is the reason that I almost gave up on Twitter about a year ago. The tweets were basically worthless and I didn't care at all about which bagel shop someone had stopped at. However, then as I added the right people to the network, I started to learn something useful from it every day. Now it is the one web-based tool that I would least want to give up. Still, that is funny and very well done.

Student Introductions in Online Courses

Why not throw away this tired, old assignment? "Please post an introduction of yourself to the rest of the class on the discussion board."

This is the type of response you'll get to this opening week assignment. (This is an actual student post, although YMMV)

"My Name is Kristine. I am currently working towards my LPN degree. I would like to complete my RN someday too. I stay busy, as I have a husband and a 3 year boy & a 2 year old daughter! I also have 5 horses and 4 dogs. They all keep me very busy, but I love it. We live on a farm in rural MN. I am very excited about this course, it should be very interesting!"

Musical Introductions

Change the assignment. Tell students to use a free music service such as iMeem or Seeqpod (or any of several others) to create a 3-song playlist that tells you a little something about them. You might ask them to write why these songs speak to them or what these songs say about who they are as a person.

2008 Web Tools Embed

Creating the playlist is free and easy. They can simply link to the playlist in the discussion board, or with just a little bit of effort they could actually embed the playlist into the threaded discussion area for the introductions (assuming your VLE allows students to edit html, which they can in Desire2Learn).

Comic Strip Introductions

Change the assignment. Tell them to go to Toondoo.com and create a comic strip that tells a little something about them. Pretty much open ended - you never know what you're going to get!

Once again students can either link to there completed Doo or embed it in the discussion post. Another option would be to have a wiki set up where students would just edit the page and add their playlist or comic strip so that you have them all on one page for comparison and future reference.

These are just two examples of how you can use free web-based tools (Web 2.0, if you will) to spice up an otherwise boring assignment. These tools are easy for students to learn, totally free to use, and fun. Nothing wrong with having a little fun while you learn.

This post is based on a portion of a workshop I presented with Kim Goudy at ITC09 titled: "It's NOT my Job to Entertain Students." See the presentation wiki here.

Twitter Favorites from ITC09

At the eLearning 2009 (ITC09) conference last month there was a fair number of active Twitterers who were keeping up with the various activities by tweeting their experiences for others in attendance as well as many followers who were not at the conference at all. Sharing links, making comments, making plans for dinner and other get-togethers, and several other purposes were enabled by Twitter. Below are some of the almost 400 tweets that included the tag ITC09. There were many others that didn't include the tag.

One of the best examples of how Twitter changed the conference for me was when I was sitting in a not-too-special presentation and saw a tweet about how a discussion about accessibility formed in another room after the presenter didn't show up. I was curious about how that was going and two minutes later I was able to join the discussion. I was also able to get almost immediate feedback about sessions where I was presenting to see what worked best and what didn't.

There were several blog posts, including several live blogs of sessions, but I think there was more Twitter activity than blog activity related to the conference. This highlights the importance of having wifi available throughout the conference site to enable this kind of communication. This is a sampling of the tweets about the conference.

1. barrydahl a little less than 1% of photos on Flickr have CreativeCommons licensing. @BryanAlexander ITC0910:16 AM Feb 22nd from web
   
   
4. cmduke a new blog post > What’s missing in online course quality? (ITC09) http://tinyurl.com/cnwqal1:12 PM Feb 25th from twitterfeed
   
   
5. m2sE Moved chairs in a circle to have a conversation rather than lecture for our #itc09 session- what an amazing group 2 share with, thank u all!2:04 PM Feb 24th from web
   
   
6. hardball8 #ITC09 "mass personalization strategies" discussed here: http://tinyurl.com/brulkf2:00 PM Feb 24th from web
   
   
7. cmduke http://tinyurl.com/ckc493 - the Managing the Back Channel section is outstanding.11:15 AM Feb 24th from TweetDeck
   
   
8. cmduke RT @ajwms @sherrymn @cmduke Live blog for "Understanding the Nature of Mobile Learning" http://tinyurl.com/c7wbux10:40 AM Feb 24th from TweetDeck
   
   
9. marsmars2 - Itc09 is awesome - so many great ideas! Whoa!7:17 PM Feb 23rd from Ping.fm
   
   
10. cmduke liveblogging Measuring Quality in ONline Courses Using Multiple Metrics at #itc09 http://moourl.com/fskji5:59 PM Feb 23rd from TweetDeck
    
    
11. gabrielmcgovern Brian keeps suggesting other people for the #ITC09 keynote. I disagree, listening to Brian is like a mashup of all those individuals.11:26 AM Feb 23rd from web
    
    
12. Goamick ITC09 Brain Lamb keynote finds that limiting image searches to freeuse results inbetter images for educational use-besides legal to use yah!11:09 AM Feb 23rd from web
    
    
13. cmduke @mccant there's a good conversation going in a CoverItLive backchannel - http://moourl.com/zl9y511:09 AM Feb 23rd from web
    
    
14. Goamick In Session "It's not My Job to Entertain Students" ITC09 "But it is your job to ENGAGE students" Barry Dahl and Kim Goudy5:39 PM Feb 22nd from web
    
    
15. sherrymn @rashford I agree. Had a conversation with @cmduke after. We are concerned on the impact debate may have had.4:10 PM Feb 22nd from TwitterBerry
    
    
16. ajwms @fleep: community of educators provides a great way to learn and try. Not for all but it is new way to see the future.3:35 PM Feb 22nd from TwitterBerry
    
    
17. ajwms @barrydahl: SL is a creepy treehouse where higher ed is trying to show how cool we are. Not many students are in SL. #itc093:29 PM Feb 22nd from TwitterBerry
    
    
18. gabrielmcgovern Best tip of #itc09 yet: 80% off at restaurant.com: http://tinyurl.com/dlzpkr Thanks Stephen!2:09 PM Feb 22nd from web
    
    
19. gabrielmcgovern #ITC09 wireless seems much better then the presenters ethernet connections. Bizarro world. How did the hotel screw up the land line?12:39 PM Feb 22nd from web
    
    
20. cmduke @BryanAlexander #elearn2009 answer to my question: Clear Forest Gnosis - http://tinyurl.com/2tjjyl11:23 AM Feb 22nd from web
    
    

1. jjjohnson01 #itc09 thanks for attending our presentation. Good conference; can't wait until next year!3:47 PM Feb 24th from twitterrific
   
   
2. jjjohnson01 Last day for #ITC09. It's been a great conference this year. Kudos to the organizing committee and staff!! I'm voting for Nashville!8:37 AM Feb 24th from web
   
   
3. ajwms @barrydahl think ITC is ready for The Rev? 6:20 PM Feb 23rd from TwitterBerry
   
   
4. brlamb I generally hate hit-and-run trips, and I wish I could have seen more of Portland. But I did get to go to Powell's and hang out with @jstein5:02 PM Feb 23rd from web
   
   
5. brlamb Judging from the new Twitter adds, and some @brlamb replies, I made some friends at the talk today. Relieved it went OK, it was a big room.5:01 PM Feb 23rd from web
   
   
6. busynessgirl Wishes there was a website RateYourPresenters.com3:24 PM Feb 23rd from mobile web
   
   
7. seanmckay 12.9% of online growth rate for online enrollments exceeds the 1.2% growth of the overall higher education student population #itc091:44 PM Feb 23rd from TwitterFon
   
   
8. busynessgirl Presenters need to spend more time ontheir real topic and less time leading up to their topic.12:21 PM Feb 23rd from mobile web
   
   
9. evinsmj If you didn't go to the cheatability session, use this survey to determine how cheatable your course is - http://tinyurl.com/6mcq22 #itc0912:18 PM Feb 23rd from TweetDeck
   
   
10. ajwms totally stealing @brlamb's joke about who never raises their hand at talks. Asked them to raise their hand.11:02 AM Feb 23rd from web
    
    
11. brlamb Man, I just looked at the schedule, and my keynote is scheduled to begin at 8 AM. Who the hell would actually want that? I'd better sleep.11:42 PM Feb 22nd from web
    
    
12. jjjohnson01 @fleep @barrydahl Thanks for the debate at lunch! Barry cheated (great debate technique, btw), but good info from both sides.8:01 PM Feb 22nd from web
    
    
13. evinsmj Apparently I'm using twitter too much when @barrydahl pulls up his netvibes account for the conference and the top few tweets are from me!6:11 PM Feb 22nd from TweetDeck
    
    
14. pascher The cheatability factor session this morning at eLearning was great. Thanks John and Jared! http://learningfield.org/ch...5:58 PM Feb 22nd from twhirl
    
    
15. BryanAlexander Live-blogging course management comparison session, Epsilen vs Blackboard: http://tinyurl.com/dd9gqf, at #itc09.5:54 PM Feb 22nd from web
    
    
16. pascher Entertaining the idea of using http://toondoo.com for online class intros and assignments5:50 PM Feb 22nd from twhirl

Live Blog - Brian Lamb Keynote at ITC09

Brian Lamb is the early morning keynote in Portland for the eLearning 2009, the ITC annual conference. Session title: The Urgency of Open Education

Innovations in e-Education

The ITC eLearning 2009 annual conference begins in a few days in Portland, OR. At this event, we are running an advertisement in the conference program for the new service being offered by my employer, Lake Superior College. It is called Innovations in e-Education and it is all about customizing e-learning conference experiences by bringing presenters and a full schedule of sessions to your entire campus, rather than a few people traveling to the next tech conference.

The website is not nearly fully developed, but you can start to get a sense of the offerings for workshops, conferences, and consulting.

The basic idea is that you can bring in 2 or 3 key presenters, for 2 or 3 days at a time, add in some of your local presenters if desired, and have a fully immersive professional development opportunity right at your campus or in your local area. Most of the time it costs about $10,000 to send 3 to 5 people out of state to a conference. For the same cost you can bring a 2-day conference to you and engage 100 or more of your faculty and staff in a similar learning experience.

Contact me for more information. b dot dahl at lsc dot edu

ITC09

ITC09 - eLearning Conference in Portland

The annual ITC eLearning 2009 Conference conference begins this Saturday at the Portland Hilton and Executive Tower in Portland, Oregon. From the conference website: "eLearning 2009 is the friendliest and most comprehensive annual distance learning conference you will find for eLearning practitioners. It is the one place where you will learn who is doing what, what technologies they are using, what works, and what doesn't." This is always my favorite conference of the year, which I certainly hope is true again in 2009.

I'm busy working on presentation materials for all of the following sessions:

The Basics of Blogs, Wikis, and RSS - Saturday morning: 1/2 day pre-conference workshop.

• This workshop will start at the very beginning, with no prior knowledge assumed. We will look at how blogs and wikis can be effectively be used in education. You'll create a blog, and see how you can use a blog to effectively communicate with your students as well as how you can have your students use blogs as a significant part of their learning experience. You'll also learn how RSS feeds make it very simple for you to follow the entries that your students make to their blogs.
• We'll also look at the many effective uses of a wiki in education. You'll create one and learn how to edit the pages, as well as how to share access to the wiki for others to collaborate with you. They can be especially effective for student group projects and other academic work such as committee work and college planning. All materials will be available online for your continued use after the workshop.
  

Using Web 2.0 Tools inside your Virtual Learning Environment - Saturday afternoon: 1/2 day pre-conference workshop

• Social networking and collaboration are enabled by many free Web 2.0 applications that are useful in education and can help enhance student creativity. They can augment and make slide presentations and other forms of course content unique. Barry Dahl will demonstrate the use of these applications inside various virtual learning environments (VLEs), such as Desire2Learn, Blackboard, Angel, and Moodle.
• Each participant will receive access to an online course they can continue to visit after the workshop ends. You will use examples of many free Web-based tools, including SlideShare, Zoho, Flickr, UStream, Wet Paint, Toondoo, Blip, iMeem, Delicious, various Google tools, Twitter, and Netvibes, and learn how to integrate these tools within your VLE for added convenience for your students.
  

Grand Debate: Virtual Worlds are the Second Life for Online Learning - Sunday luncheon: where my far-too-worthy opponent will be Chris Collins of the University of Cincinnati. I'm the Con Man.

• Pro position: Online simulation and role playing in virtual worlds are leading to new forms, methods, and modes of communication, collaboration, and creation that will enhance the educational process. Web-based multi-user 3D virtual worlds continue to attract educators from all over the world by offering a variety of opportunities for interactive learning experiences, developing a rich sense of community, and allowing students a greater freedom of self expression. Well over 100 educational institutions have established a presence in Second Life or other virtual worlds and are actively developing a significant virtual experience for their constituents
  
• Con position: But how much of this is hype and how much is truly useful? How many of these virtual world efforts are simply duplicating things that can be done (better) in real life or using other, less complicated and demanding technologies? Trolling around a virtual world and not finding anyone else to interact with can be discouraging to say the least. Then when you do run into someone in world, they are either a virtual porn star or someone trying to pull some sort of financial scam. Not exactly the environment that we usually send our students into. Maybe there is a great deal of HOPE for the future of virtual worlds in education, but right now it’s mainly HYPE.
  

It's NOT My Job to Entertain Students!! Sunday 3:30 breakout session with Kim Goudy of Central Ohio Technical College.

• Some faculty say it is not their job to entertain students. Yet, to be entertained is to be engaged. Would they also say it is not their job to engage students? Probably not.
  
• The presenters will look at ways you can engage students with technology, in the virtual and face-to-face classroom. Every idea will be something your students can do for free, and many can be used to facilitate student collaborations. One example is a creative writing project where students create an electronic comic strip rather than the same old word processing paper.
  
• The presenters will demonstrate several additional ideas using new social technologies. Participants will walk away with resources that provide access to a large number of free, Web-based tools that they can use in their teaching to engage students in new ways.
  

Sunday evening 6:30 ITC Regional Event: Rock Bottom Brewery. Fun competitions in various games includeing Wii Sports, Wii Guitar Hero, pool, poker, and speed Scrabble.

Web Conferencing 2.0: The Old, the New, and the Difference; Tuesday 10:00 breakout session with Ronda Edwards of the Michigan Community College Virtual Learning Collaborative.

• The proliferation of online meeting tools makes it easier and cheaper to collaborate across distances. However, to get started you must choose from among all those tools. Some are free, some are cheap, and some are expensive. Some are Web-based and some need an install.
  
• The presenters will compare several tools you can use to share documents, make presentations, troubleshoot problems, and collaborate like never before via video and audio conferencing, instant messaging, application/desktop sharing, and interactive whiteboards. Participants will learn which Web conferencing tools work well for various educational applications.
  

Online Student Mentors

I've been asked to do a couple of webinars after winning a 2008 Desire2Excel award for our Online Student Mentor program at the July Desire2Learn conference in Memphis. The slides used for these webinars are shown below. There's a sufficient amount of explanatory text on these slides so I didn't feel the need to narrate then as well. You can also view the slides at SlideShare.

Online Student Mentors - 2008

View more presentations from Barry Dahl. (tags: d2l elearning)

Although I've never actually made a list of my Top 5 accomplishments in my career (nor even thought about it), this program would most likely be on that list. Not because of having the idea of the program, not because we've won a couple of awards for the program, but because this program has had a profound positive impact on so many of the students who have served as online student mentors.

New Scheduling Options for Online Students

As part of our AQIP Action Project dealing with Flexible Learning Options for students, we are proposing a new opportunity for online students who are interested in completing the Associate in Arts degree from LSC through the Lake Superior Connect e-campus. AQIP is our alternative approach to accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission and focuses on continuous quality improvement for the institution.

The marketing plan for these offerings is still in development, so I can’t yet tell you what we will call this, but it will have something to do with the option of taking 2 classes at a time, 8 weeks at a time, and completing the AA degree within two years. (Those are 2-by-8 LEGO blocks in the photo - build your degree using 2-by-8s? Too lame?) There will be five start dates for courses during each academic year, which includes the three normal start dates (summer, fall, spring) and additional start dates in the middle of both the fall term and the spring term.

• Summer 2009 – 8 week session (dates: May 27 – July 21)
• Fall 2009 – 1st 8 weeks – (tentative dates: Aug 23 – Oct 8)
• Fall 2009 – 2nd 8 weeks – (tentative dates: Oct 11 – Dec 10)
• Spring 2010 – 1st 8 weeks – (tentative dates: Jan 10 – Mar 4)
• Spring 2010 – 2nd 8 weeks – (tentative dates: Mar 14 – May 11)

During the Fall and Spring semesters we are looking at offering about seven course sections in each 8-week session. If student demand warrants, we can easily add more sections with the 8-week time length. This will still give students about many course selection options for completing their AA degree requirements using the 8-week courses.

Just for clarification:

1) In MnSCU, students don't actually declare an online program as their intention. They become online program students simply by the courses that they register for. Our student record system does not include a field that indicates whether a student is an on-ground or online program student.

2) Because of the above item, students who start taking these 8-week online courses are still free to mix and match their classes with any delivery method (on-ground, hybrid, or online) and any length of class (typically either 16- or 8-week classes, or any other). This truly does allow the student greater flexibility in their enrollment options.

3) These 8-week offerings are not intended to reduce the number of available courses for students seeking to complete their online AA degree by taking courses that last the full length of the semester. We expect that a majority of our students will continue to select the full-length courses, but we will be monitoring that situation closely. The online A.A. degree is definitely our most popular online offering. We hope this will help build additional capacity.

4) Students who need developmental coursework will be encouraged to complete their developmental courses prior to starting the 8-week course sequences. Developmental courses are offered during the summer session, but we are not currently scheduling them for the other 8-week sessions during the fall and spring terms. We might decide to do so in the future, but at this time we are taking small steps to start this learning opportunity.

CC photo by oskay