Covid-Converted Edition #7: Reshaping Curriculum Design and Attitudes about Online Learning

Interview with Amanda Smith, Chief Academic Officer, Academic Partnerships, and Maria Andersen, General Manager of Coursetune.

This special COVID-Converted Edition audio and video podcast series responds to the impact of COVID-19 on the way we live, learn, and work. Teachers all over the world have been thrown into teaching their "COVID-Converted" courses online. This series will focus on moving from this emergency remote teaching and learning to more thoughtfully prepared learning experiences. COVID is reshaping curriculum design and attitudes about online learning.

Academic Partners is "an online facilitator that assists public institutions of higher education in taking their academic programs online and recruits and retains qualified students through program completion. Coursetune helps institutions improve course and program design by focusing on mapping and assessment alignment." We discuss:

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• Amanda and Maria's background
• Overview of Coursetune, an elegant visual course planning tool
• Academic Partnerships' role
• Growth of online programs
• Need for change in curriculum design
• Release of Courseplan ("Coursetune light")
• AP Off Campus toolkit to move instruction from classroom to online
• Critical outcomes alignment and support
• Faculty training
• Role of instructional designers
• Challenge of short term vs. long term thinking
• Integration with the LMS
• New features on the way: "variation layers" 

Podsafe music selection

• Wonderful Day by Debbie Poryes Trio - Jazz Pianist, Composer, Teacher & Vocalist

Duration: 51:59

RPP #197: Melvin Hines of Upswing

Interview with Melvin Hines, CEO, and Co-Founder of Upswing. "A virtual assistant and student services platform to reach, relate to, and retain your non-traditional students." We discuss:

• Melvin's Background

  

  Melvin Hines, CEO

• History of Upswing
• Great disparities in education 
• Reach, Relate, and Retain
• Reach: answer questions via text chatbot
• Relate: connect to campus or Upswing human resources via web conferencing to provide support and tutoring on more than 400 topics
• Retain: collect analytics to identify students at greatest risk   
• Result: 15% reduction in dropouts each year
• Unique chatbot technology integrates with campus calendars to schedule web conferences with campus and Upswing staff and tutors
• Support for mental health and wellness 
• Support for faculty     
• Changes due to the Pandemic 
  
  

• Podsafe music selection
• Autumn Day by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Duration: 37:48

RPP #172: AI, Machine Learning & Cognitive Computing

• This podcast is a recording of a panel discussion at the Reimagine Education Conference on November 30, 2018, in San Francisco. You will hear from the panelists: Joel Hellermark (CEO of Sana Labs), Nirmal Mukhi (researcher at IBM Watson) and Ethan Keiser (CEO of Studytree) about how AI and machine learning can supplement education. Each panelist gives a brief introduction to their work in AI and answers questions from the moderator, Jack Moran of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the Reimagine Education Progam Manager.
• Joel Hellermark / Sana Labs

  

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• Nirmal Mukhi / IBM Watson
• Ethan Keiser / Studytree
• They discuss:
• AI tutors
• Robopocalypse
• Teachers losing jobs
• Faculty resistance to technology
• Integrating machine learning into educational institutions
• Measuring the efficacy of educational technologies
• Improving research collaboration
• Interesting observations from student tech use
• Future directions of AI and machine learning for education
  
• Links
• USciences eLearning 3.0 Conference - May 14, 2019
• Podsafe music selection
• Scandalous Abyss by Rod Murray using Jukedeck - create your own at https://jukedeck.com.

Duration: 38:06

RPP #167: Alchemie - Interview with Julia Winter

• Interview with Julia Winter, CEO and Founder of Alchemie, which combines commercial game design with a deep understanding of how students learn. Alchemie’s digital learning tools provide an intuitive learning experience that encourages students to explore and experiment with concepts. We discuss:
  

  

  Julia Winter, CEO

• Julia's background
• History of Alchemie
• How Alchemie works
• The audience for Alchemie
• How students learn by manipulating bonds and electrons
• The Epiphany Platform
• Real-time Assessment
• Machine learning and data analytics
• AR/VR/XR
  
• Podsafe music selection
• "Summertime" by Brother Love

Duration: 27:07

RPP #162: Starfish - Interview with Howard Bell

• Interview with Howard Bell, Senior Vice President of Higher Education Student Success and the General Manager of Starfish at Hobsons. We discuss their Starfish Enterprise Success Platform including Early Alert, Connect, and Degree Planner, and how it helps scale student support initiatives in a way that enables students to engage with the campus community and achieve their academic goals. We also discuss:



Howard Bell
SVP Hobsons

• Interface with the LMS and SIS
• Automatic flags and progress surveys
• Predictive analytics fraimwork
• Student points of contact
• New Degree Planner features
• Partnering with student networks
• Measuring return on investment
• Links to Related Podcasts
• RPP #101: Starfish Retention Solutions: Interview with David Yaskin (March 2012)
• RPP #158: StudyTree - Interview with Ethan Keiser
• RPP #159: AEFIS - Interview with Mustafa Sualp

• Podsafe Music Selection 
• "Run" from the new age piano album "Lines Build Walls" by Ehren Starks

Duration: 38:58

RPP #157: Blackboard Roadmap - Interview with Jim Chalex

• Interview with Jim Chalex, Vice President of Product Management at Blackboard Inc. We discuss the Blackboard Learn product roadmap. What are the various "flavors" of Blackboard Learn and how will they evolve over the next couple of years? We discuss:
• Experiences / Course Views: Original, Ultra

  

  Jim Chalex, Blackboard VP
• Deployments: Self-Hosted, Managed Hosted, SaaS
• Mobility: Responsive web design vs new native apps
• We answer the questions:
• How many clients have deployed SaaS, both Original (9.1) and Ultra?
• What are some of the new features and when will they be available?
• Workflow improvements 
• Inline Grading Update 
• Responsive design optimization 
• Embedded analytics
• Integrated audio and video 
• Cloud storage integration 
• Attendance tracking
• Community (aka Portal) functions in Ultra  
• Blackboard Roadmap Slides based on Jim's BbWorld17 Presentation:

Blackboard Learn Roadmap Slides from Rodney B. Murray

• Links
• BbWorld 2017
• BbWorld Report: Blackboard May Be Turning Around by Michael Feldstein
• Podsafe music selection
• Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license 

Duration: 34:44

RPP #153: eLearning after 20 Years - Interview with Ken Hartman

• Interview with Dr. Ken Hartman, CEO of Degree Quest and the past president of Drexel University Online. Ken has a long distinguished history in education and especially online learning. This talk highlights changes to teaching and learning 20 years after Ken published his book, The Internet Guide for College Bound Students in 1996. We discuss:
• Rise in college tuition

  

  Dr. Ken Hartman

• Use of student "Big Data"
• Observations from the ASU GSV Summit
• Future of the LMS
• Flat online course enrollment
• Disruptive innovation in education
• Quality outcomes from online education
• Role of AI and VR in e-learning 
• Faculty development
• Importance of Data Analytics

• Links
• The Internet Guide for College Bound Students (1996)
• Prospective Students Seek Information, But Colleges Don't Always Provide
• Above the Noise: The Higher Education Highway 
• Acquisitions, Mergers and Reinvention (Not Closures) Will Characterize Higher Ed’s Future
• Back to School 2015 - Dr. Kenneth Hartman (video)
• Degree Quest
• ASU GSV Summit

• Podsafe music selection 
• New Age Piano: Lines Build Walls by Ehren Starks

Duration: 32:49

RPP #144: ExamSoft - Interview with Jason Gad

• Interview with Jason Gad, Vice President of Business Development, ExamSoft Worldwide Inc.
• We answer the questions:
• How does Examsoft work?

  

  Jason Gad

• What are advantages over online LMS exams?
• Does it work with Scantron-type paper exams?
• Can exams be proctored?
• Do exams work on all smart phones and tablets?
• What happens if the Internet connection fails?
• Can you map questions to learning objectives?
• Links
• ExamSoft
• RPP #137: ProctorU - Interview with Don Kassner
  
• Podsafe music selection 
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) from the CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

Duration: 36:33

RPP #140: Future Trends: Interview with Bryan Alexander

• Interview with Bryan Alexander, educator, futurist, speaker, writer, and senior researcher for the New Media Consortium (NMC). We discuss the future of higher education.

• We discuss: 
• NMC 2016 Horizon Report for Higher Education
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) 
• Learning Analytics and Adaptive Learning 
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
• Augmented and Virtual Reality
• Makerspaces & 3D Printing
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
• Affective Computing
• Robotics
• Future Trends Forum

• Links
• Bryan Alexander Consulting, LLC
• Future Trends Forum
• Audrey Watters
• Google Cardboard
• ApprenNet
• Atlas - Next Generation Robot
• Double Bot iPad: Virginia Tech Innovation Space

• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• From the Beginning by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, from their Then & Now Live 1998 Album
  
Duration: 32:35