Feed Editor Lite (Unlicensed) 26 Aug 2007 05:29:27 GMT News from the Centre for Distance Education, Athabasca University http://cde.athabascau.ca/ en Find out about: what's new in CDE; how to get your work published; student achievements; the latest research and publications; important information about maintaining your program status; things to do and virtual places to visit; and, much more . . . 12 June 2013 14:32:45 GMT https://landing.athabascau.ca/discussion/view/326124/cde-summertime-news Submission Deadline extended to June 3, 2013 by midnight (MDT). This is a great opportunity to meet each other, share your research, and get feedback on your work and/or the future publication of your work. Date: September 13 – 15, 2013. You are invited to submit an abstract (300 words) for a poster or paper presentation. All abstracts must be submitted electronically by completing the online submission form at http://fgsconf.athabascau.ca/abstract/ and will be peer-reviewed by a committee. Notification of acceptance will be e-mailed to the submitter by June 24, 2013. All presenters must register for the Conference by July 31, 2013. 16 May 2013 9:46:23 GMT http://fgsconf.athabascau.ca/ by Rory McGreal (Editor), Wanjira Kinuthia (Editor), Stewart Marshall (Editor), Tim McNamara (Editor). Open Educational Resources (OER) – that is, teaching, learning and research materials that their owners make free to others to use, revise and share – offer a powerful means of expanding the reach and effectiveness of worldwide education. Those resources can be full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, software, and other materials and techniques used to promote and support universal access to knowledge. This book, initiated by the UNESCO/COL Chair in OER, is one in a series of publications by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) examining OER. It describes the movement in detail, providing readers with insight into OER’s significant benefits, its theory and practice, and its achievements and challenges. The 16 chapters, written by some of the leading international experts on the subject, are organised into four parts by theme: OER in Academia – describes how OER are widening the international community of scholars, following MIT’s lead in sharing its resources and looking to the model set by the OpenCourseWare Consortium; OER in Practice – presents case studies and descriptions of OER initiatives underway on three continents; Diffusion of OER – discusses various approaches to releasing and “opening” content, from building communities of users that support lifelong learning to harnessing new mobile technologies that enhance OER access on the Internet. Producing, Sharing and Using OER – examines the pedagogical, organisational, personal and technical issues that producing organisations and institutions need to address in designing, sharing and using OER. Instructional designers, curriculum developers, educational technologists, teachers, researchers, students, others involved in creating, studying or using OER: all will find this timely resource informative and inspiring. 16 May 2013 9:46:23 GMT http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=446 Giovanni is currently an EdD student with our Centre. He has been awarded $15,000. /year for 4 years. It was a competitive pool of applications with more applications than last year. This is the second year that AU has been given the opportunity to offer this award. Depending upon the amount of funding received from AI-TF a second call for applications may occur later this year. The award is to support academically superior graduate students leading to a master's or doctoral degree. The scholarship is designed to enable these promising students to succeed in areas of scientific research which are strategically important to Alberta. These areas are: Information and Communication Technology ( ICT ), Nanotechnology, and Omics in and of themselves or additionally which support the areas of Health, Bio-industries, Energy, and Environment (Alberta Innovates- Technology Futures). Sincerest congratulations! 11 April 2013 10:59:25 GMT http://fgs.athabascau.ca/announcements.php On Feb 28, 2013, Mariea Spray and Sue Erdman-Burton, two MDE students at Athabasca, saw a proposal for a DE project that they had developed for one of their courses become a reality - the Rural and Remote Maternity Education (RRME) program went on-line. Based at the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) in northern Ontario, the program uses DE to deliver high-risk and specialized obstetrical education to registered nurses serving remote and rural communities. Many of these professionals have trouble accessing best-practice education because of their isolated locations – a single two-day program in Toronto can easily cost $2,500 in travel, living and course costs. “Our intensive, six month program costs $2,000 per person and is almost entirely delivered on-line” said Mariea, who is the Staff Education and Professional Practice Manager at SLMHC. “We also have a practicum of one to two weeks during which our students receive hands-on training at the SLMHC which is itself state-of-the-art with computerized mannequins capable of simulating a woman in labour.” 11 March 2013 11:41:44 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/news/news_student_project_funded.php Teaching in Blended Leaning Environments provides a coherent framework in which to explore the transformative concept of blended learning. Blended learning can be defined as the organic integration of thoughtfully selected and complementary face-to-face and online approaches and technologies. A direct result of the transformative innovation of virtual communication and online learning communities, blended learning environments have created new ways for teachers and students to engage, interact, and collaborate. The authors argue that this new learning environment necessitates significant role adjustments for instructors and generates a need to understand the aspects of teaching presence required of deep and meaningful learning outcomes. Built upon the theoretical framework of the Community of Inquiry – the premise that higher education is both a collaborative and individually constructivist learning experience – the authors present seven principles that provide a valuable set of tools for harnessing the opportunities for teaching and learning available through technology. Focusing on teaching practices related to the design, facilitation, direction and assessment of blended learning experiences, Teaching in Blended Learning Environments addresses the growing demand for improved teaching in higher education. Authors: Norman D. Vaughan, Martha Cleveland-Innes, and D. Randy Garrison 23 January 2013 2:45:15 GMT http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120229 In this video, Dr. Debra Hoven provides a brief overview of the e-portfolio project. For more information, please visit our e-porfolio site:http://cde.lms.athabascau.ca/course/view.php?id=102 22 January 2013 4:14:23 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/video/eportfolio/e_port_intro.mp4 Educational technology — edtech for short — has forever changed the learning landscape in the past decade, and in the coming years, these changes are only bound to accelerate. George Siemens hopes the first-ever EdTech Innovation conference in Canada will help Canadian education stakeholders both to discover homegrown edtech innovations and run with them so that Canada remains a leader in the field. 2 January 2013 9:44:23 GMT http://www.edinnovation.ca/ A special issue of selected papers from the Cambridge OER 2012 conference, edited by Anna Comas-Quinn, Alannah Fitzgerald and Ian Fairweather. Contribution by Dianne Conrad and Rory McGreal of Athabasca University. 11 December 2012 12:45:35 GMT http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/issue/view/2012-Cambridge-OER Video 5 December 2012 9:15:35 GMT http://vimeo.com/54148728 This paper is a reaction to the increasing high cost of higher education and the resulting inaccessibility for the millions of potential learners now seeking opportunities for quality higher education opportunities. The paper examines the cost centers associated with campus-based and online education systems and then suggests that disaggregation may prove to be a cost-effective way to reduce tuition payments, while maintaining quality. The paper suggests that discount service models, now available to consumers in many industries may also be attractive in new models of higher education. The paper also briefly looks at the Open Educational Resources University initiative, a pilot, collaborative project attempting to test some of these innovations in a consortium of high quality, accredited public universities. Finally, we note both the disruptive characteristics of this model and commiserate opportunities for innovative providers of higher education. 29 November 2012 12:37:35 GMT http://www.ifets.info/ A recent regulation change has made e-portfolios an official part of the M.Ed. (Distance Education) program. 25 September 2012 15:25:20 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/news/news_eportfolio_oct_2012.php Detailed information about Open Access week can be found at the website: http://openaccess.athabascau.ca/ 21 September 2012 10:48:32 GMT http://openaccess.athabascau.ca/ Ally, M. and Needham, G. (2012). M-Libraries 3: Transforming libraries with mobile technology. Facet Publishing, UK. 21 Mar 2012 11:20:55 GMT http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=7760 The theme of the conference “*/Research and the Knowledge Frontier in an Online Environment/*” exemplifies the mission and the goals of Athabasca University as a leader in open and distance education. This conference will not only highlight the work being done by our graduate students using the latest in distance technology as a tool to facilitate interactive discourse, but will also enable students and faculty to discuss research in a traditional ‘in person’ format. *Call for Abstracts:* Please encourage graduate students from all disciplines to submit a proposal for an oral presentation or a poster that can be presented either in-person or virtually. Abstracts must be submitted electronically on the conference website and are due by *April 15, 2012*. Please visit our website: http://fgs2012.ca. You may also contact fgs@athabascau.ca for any questions. 12 Mar 2012 10:14:55 GMT http://fgs2012.ca/ The deadline for conversion is July 31, 2012. Alumni who wish to convert their MDE degree to MEd should complete and submit the online Parchment Replacement Request Form along with the required $60 fee. Choose “Other” in the list of check boxes and indicate “Convert MDE degree to MED”. 7 Feb 2012 4:50:42 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/news/news_med.php CDE Professor, Dr. Mohamed Ally, was an expert participant at the First UNESCO Mobile Learning Week at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Officials from Ministries of Education, international experts and practitioners in mobile learning, as well as representatives from major partners in the mobile learning field were invited to share innovative ways of learning with, and through, mobile technologies, and of using them to achieve the Education for All goals and improve the quality of education. For more information on the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week, go to the URL below. 7 Feb 2012 4:39:42 GMT http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mlw/ This is the third in a series of occasional letters from Susan Bainbridge to The Insider (AU newsletter) by Susan Bainbridge, an AU doctoral student in distance education, who teaches at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates and has been working in support of the Mansingh Dharma School in Kathmandu, Nepal. 5 Feb 2012 10:58:36 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/news/news_nepal_mobile.php I was fortunate enough to recruit Atahabasca University doctoral student Julie Shattuck and together we analysed the 5 most widely cited DBR articles over each of the ten years since the methodology was first promoted. You are welcome to read the results published this week Terry Anderson and Julie Shattuck (2012) Design-Based Research : A Decade of Progress in Education Research? Educational Researcher, 41: 16-25,http://edr.sagepub.com/content/41/1/16.full 3 Feb 2012 14:38:26 GMT https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/blog/read/100107/hitting-the-big-time-with-an-article-in-educational-researcher The research will identify how communities of inquiry can develop via mobile technology—particularly how student interaction may differ when compared to more traditional devices for online learning such as desktop and laptop computers—and how communities of inquiry may relate to the relationship between learner, device, and social aspect identified in the FRAME model of mobile learning. 3 Dec 2010 13:10:26 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/news/ Sage has launched two new books co-edited by Jon Baggaley and Tian Belawati, Rector of the Open University of Indonesia. The launch took place in October at the annual conference of the Asian Association of Open Universities in Hanoi, Vietnam. The books are Distance Education Technologies in Asia and Policy and Practice in Asian Distance Education. In his foreword to the first, Sir John Daniel calls it "a most stimulating book...it has coherence, a breadth of coverage, and a rigour of analysis that is rare in such collections." Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan describes the second book as "a valuable resource for all those interested or engaged in open and distance learning...it contributes enormously to the growing base of distance education literature in the world." For more about the conference: http://aaou2010.hou.edu.vn/index.php 2 Dec 2010 12:23:15 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/rss/news.rss Dr. Cleveland-Innes thought she was just invited to speak at the Open EdTech Summit in Barcelona in October, 2010. Little did she know that she would go to cooking school. As she comments, "the food and the cooking activity became a prop for us to get to know each other, share a lot of experiences and ideas about learning, teaching, education, and technology in general . . . " To hear her comments, advance to 3:00. The video is 13:40 in duration. For more about the conference, please see: http://www.openedtech.org/ 30 Nov 2010p 11:56:32 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDVCN_Q9HpM After a long gestation, Lynn Anderson and myself have finally seen the images of our new book Online Conferences: Professional Development for a Networked Era. The book is available from IAPpublishers for $39 and for a free preview at Google Books. For some reason the book can also be ordered from Amazon.UK, but not yet from Amazon .com or .ca We still haven’t held it in our hot little hands, but maybe that is appropriate for a book on online conferences. Supposedly a copy is on its way for Lynn and I to drool over! 17 Nov 2010 15:34:07 GMT https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/blog/terrya/read/35985/new-book-on-online-conferences If you have an AU login or are an invited guest, this is your site. You can use this site to share, communicate and connect. Make and join groups, blog, create wikis, share files, share bookmarks, share photos, discuss, comment...you are in control. 17 Nov 2010 14:34:07 GMT http://landing.athabascau.ca An Introduction to Distance Education is a comprehensive look at the field today, outlining current theories, practices and goals. The book reviews the influence of past distance education theory and practice, along with current changes. It outlines the practical skills and information that are essential to effective distance education design, delivery and navigation. This volume brings together seminal contributors who have and who are currently researching and shaping our understanding and practice of distance education. A discussion of past and present practices in higher and distance education leads to an understanding of accessible education and the appropriate use of Web 2.0 technology. Utilizing a student-guided approach, each chapter offers the following pedagogical features to engage and support the teaching and learning process: 1) Key Questions to Consider: Students can use these questions as triggers for further thoughts related to the topic. Instructors can use these questions for classroom and online discussion. 2)Thinking Points: Strategically placed throughout the text, these points act as a springboard for further reflection and classroom discussion. A perfect textbook for Educational Technology PhD, Masters and Certificate programs, students will find An Introduction to Distance Education a solid foundation from which to explore and develop new approaches to designing and implementing online courses. - M. F. Cleveland-Innes is a faculty member and program director in the Center for Distance Education at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada. - D. R. Garrison is the Director of the Teaching and Learning Centre and a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary. COMING SOON! 18 Jan 2010 20:12:38 GMT http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t913854910 Dowload the entire book or each chapter separately. - OR - Purchase paperback for $39.95 (Candadian dollars). 16 Apr 2009 16:35:50 GMT http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155 Awarded the Charles A. Wedemeyer Award by the University Continuing Education Association. The Charles A. Wedemeyer Award recognizes publications of merit that make significant contributions to research in the field of distance education. DOWNLOAD FREE: 2nd edition of the Theory and Practice of Online Learning at http://www.aupress.ca/books/Terry_Anderson.php edited by Terry Anderson. This 2nd edition and its individual chapters continue to be freely available online under a Creative Commons license. The 2nd edition is also available in print for a purchase price of $39.95 Canadian. 30 Jul 2008 18:07:27 GMT http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/second_edition.html From the introduction: "This book deals with the design of distance education at an emerging dual-mode university, that is, a university offering courses both on-campus and via distance education or online in a variety of manners. It was written from the point of view of an instructional designer (ID) working alongside university professors in designing their courses for distance delivery.¹ It originated as my logbook, which I kept over a period of three years and in which I relate the ups and downs as well as the dos and don’ts of designing learning materials for students studying at a distance. It introduces you to ten faculty members with whom I shared this experience and lifts the veil on a seldom-reported, essentially undocumented, working environment. Before presenting the cases, I will outline the underlying research study as well as introduce the design model that served as my original design prototype." 20 Oct 2009 16:33:14 GMT http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120161 Video: Views of employees and students about why AU is a great place to be. 9 Jun 2009 19:38:07 GMT http://library.athabascau.ca/Digitization/alberta.html