This checklist shared by Charles Graham can be used to assess where your institution is at in terms of providing strategy, structure, and support for blended learning.
Measuring Digital Professional Development: Analytics for the Use of Web and Social Media
My colleagues and I at NIU were recently notified of the publication of our article, Measuring digital professional development: Analytics for the use of web and social media.
Purpose
As faculty professional development increasingly occurs online and through social media, it becomes challenging to assess the quality of learning and effectiveness of programs and resources, yet it is important to evaluate such initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how one faculty development center experimented with using analytics to answer questions about the use and effectiveness of its web and social media resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study was based on direct observation of the center’s practice and review of selected data generated by the analytic tools.
Findings
Unfortunately, while some analytics are available from a variety of sources, they are often distributed across tools and services. The center developed an analytics strategy to use data from Google Analytics and social media reporting tools to assess the use of online and social professional development resources. Initial results show that the center’s online and social professional development resources are widely used, both within and outside the university. However, more work is necessary to improve the strength and scope of the available analytics.
Practical implications
As a result of the analysis, the center has streamlined online resources, targeted social media use, and has begun developing methods to allow faculty to report online resource use as professional development for academic personnel purposes.
Originality/value
Many faculty development centers have not explored methods of evaluating online and social media resources. This paper outlines a strategic evaluation plan to measure the usage of online resources as well as engagement and interaction through social media.
Citation
Rhode, J., Richter, S., Gowen, P., & Krishnamurthi, M. (2015). Measuring digital professional development: Analytics for the use of web and social media. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 7(1), 19-31.
2015 #et4online Conference Preview
Recently, I had the opportunity to join my colleagues from the Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C), MERLOT, and the Emerging Technologies steering committee to share a sneak peek of what lies ahead at #et4online. We hung out to share details about the upcoming conference being held April 22-24, 2015 in Dallas, Texas.
Who attends #et4online?
image c/o @brocansky
6 Reasons Why You Should Join Us for #et4online
Or hear what the #et4online Steering Committee Members have to say in our 1/30 Google+ Hangout ON AIR (recorded):
Michelle Pacansky-Brock Conference Chair – @brocansky
Jason Rhode, Assistant Conference Chair – @jasonrhode
Jane Moore, MERLOT Program Chair – @janepmoore
Laura Pasquini, OLC Program Chair – @laurapasquini
Here are just a few of the MANY highlights for the #et4online program that we shared:
- The Unconference – dig into topics and direct the agenda as you like it
- Technology Test Kitchen – a maker space to explore, play & learn for ed tech
- Keynote & Plenary Speakers – talks about connection to learning, networked identity, collaborative knowledge, and then some
- Featured Sessions & Workshops – are just a few of the program items NOT to miss and learn from
- Discovery Sessions with VoiceThread – to augment interaction and learning between presenters and attendees
- The Launch Pad & Teacher Tank- Where #edtech start ups can show case their wares to our Ed Tech “sharks.” Submission Deadline Closes February, 13, 2015 – apply now!
Interested in attending (virtual or on site)? Register TODAY! Early bird pricing ends on February 25, 2015. Do you have questions about the conference or program? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter @jasonrhode
Beyond the Headlines: A Decision-Making Rubric for the Next Phase of Online Program Growth
As the number of online degrees have proliferated in recent years, it is even more important for institutions to take a more thoughtful approach to program selection. Often, a university must consider key issues like course offerings and schedules, degree specialization, and admissions requirements in order to offer a competitive online degree.
In this webinar offered 11/12/2014, academic leaders from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Ohio University discussed the key market forces that are present today, and how universities can best position their prospective degrees in the market. Panelists provided practical insights and recommendations on how to handle the change management for a university to offer competitive degree programs.
The participants in this webinar learned about:
- How to effectively plan for the online marketplace, validate program expansion, and reduce risk
- How to influence change across the institution to prepare to take degrees online
- Key considerations when evaluating online program management services
More details and a copy of the webinar slides, are available here.
NIU’s Customizations and Building Block for Blackboard Enterprise Surveys and Course Evaluations
Since the open discussion at BbWorld where NIU shared that we’ve been working on some system tweaks as well as a custom building block for providing an alternative reporting format for Bb enterprise surveys and course evaluations, we’ve conducted a very small pilot of the tool this summer and continued efforts on an initial draft of a building block that provides an alternate report format.
For those interested in learning more about our efforts, I recorded this screencast demo of the functionality at this point that I can share with those who would like to see the building block deployed within our dev environment. I tried to avoid as much technical-specifics as possible and rather just show the workflows and functionality tweaks that we’ve envisioned.
A decision still hasn’t been made institutionally whether we will continue to pursue a wider pilot of the tool with additional building block enhancements to be requested, or look at other 3rd party tools.
For follow-up on any additional technical details about the tweaks and building block depicted, please contact Ruperto Herrera (rherrera@niu.edu) and Matt Kacskos (mkacskos1@niu.edu) who have done all the technical development work.
