The SUNY Albany department of Education Theory and Practice (ETAP) and the SLN education team have partnered to create an opportunity for their Master of Science in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology (CDIT) program students to participate in a 3-credit internship program with the SUNY Learning Network (SLN). ETAP’s objective is to enhance the appeal of their CDIT program with an opportunity to complete an internship at SLN, a well-known, award-winning, internationally respected online teaching and learning program. The CDIT program becomes more attractive to their current and prospective students when the program can offer them an opportunity to apply theoretical skills in the real world. An internship at SLN with the education team will have significant appeal from the student perspective. This includes an opportunity to demonstrate to potential future employers that they have experience in the support of online faculty in higher education, a common pre-requisite for positions in the field.
SLN Internship Program Overview
The SLN/UAlbany Education Department Internship program’s mission is to:
1. Provide graduate students from the UAlbany CDIT program the opportunity to gain real world experience in our award winning online teaching and learning faculty development program.
2. Create a program that contributes to the development of a qualified entry-level workforce pool of online instructional designers, technologists, and faculty development and support professional staff for the education pipeline.
3. Apply the Intern’s and his/her skills as a resource to assist the SLN education team in projects and initiatives to improve our support and services to campuses, faculty, and the program.
The internship benefits CDIT, SLN, and the intern in several ways:
Benefits:
Benefit to UAlabany
• Enhances attractiveness of UA academic programs.
• Increases the usefulness of the academic program.
• Helps the department maintain and grow enrollments.
• Creates a pool of more competitive applicants to the program.
• Keeps the program relevant in the face of changing teacher certification requirements.
Benefit to Students:
• Provides a bridge between theory and practice, creating a significant opportunity to apply what they have learned in their program.
• Provides the opportunity to gain practical experience in the real world.
• Results in experience that can assist students with their employability after graduation.
Benefit to SLN:
• Access to a resource for entry-level work, freeing professional staff for higher-level work and projects.
• We assist in the development of a cadre of graduates ready to for the entry-level workforce in ID positions (in SLN and SUNY wide).
• Gives us the opportunity to offer entry-level supervision and program management experiences to internal staff.
• Gives us the ability to enhance our services to campuses, by for example, providing us with an additional resource that can create instructional captivate and written documentation, or participate in QM/course reviews.
Logistics:
Internship: 3-credits in the CDIT program.
Hours/timeframe/location: 10 hours per week, with one day in the SLN office on the UAlbany semester calendar, August – December and January – May.
Process:
-Short term: interns are nominated by UAlbany for participation in the program.
-Long term: a more competitive program can be developed where SLN develops specific objectives based on current SLN education needs where Interns apply for specific internship projects.
SLN internship program admin and mentor (supervisor): Dan Feinberg
Physical location: SLN office, education unit.
UAlbany contact: Peter Shea is the UAlbany internship admin and advisor, and SLN program liaison.
The intern will:
1. Review SLN education current needs, projects and initiatives and propose learning objectives for the internship
2. Be required to keep an internship reflections blog documenting experiences and learning, and
3. Produce a final written report on lessons learned from the internship experience.
4. Provide suggestions to improve the internship program for SLN.
5. Produce a comment about the internship experience for the SLN internship webpage.
Metrics for UAlbany’s success of the internship program will be:
1. The intern’s self-assessment and written report.
2. SLN’s report and satisfaction with the intern.
3. Increased interest in the program due to the internship opportunity (applicant self reports; increase in applications)
4. Interns report greater success in getting interviews and/or getting hired due to completion of internship (intern self report)
Metrics for SLN’s success of the internship program will be:
1. Intern’s contribution to the education team.
2. Enhanced productivity of SLN education team (additional useful work is completed)
3. Increased ability to serve the needs of the campuses (because work is completed more efficiently or additional services can be provided, e.g. course reviews etc.)
4. Intern’s, UAlbany, and staff satisfaction with the program.
5. Ease of supervision of the intern.
The NUTN 2010 Summit was held September 27-29, 2010 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This year’s theme, “Leading the New Normal in Higher Education; a Forum for Innovative Leaders” brought together distance learning leaders from across the US and beyond.
SUNY and SLN are new members and participants in the NUTN membership organization that provides networking and professional development opportunities for innovative leaders in the advancement of teaching and learning. SLN Associate Director Alexandra M. Pickett was elected to serve on the 2010-11 Advisory Board and attended the Summit to participate in Advisory Board meetings and as 2009 winner of the NUTN Distance Education Innovation Award, was invited to present the award to this years’ winners at the awards luncheon on September 29, 2010.
At the core of its mission:
NUTN members represent a majority of the current experience that exists within higher education in planning, designing, producing, distributing and evaluating distance education.
NUTN is unique in its service to the breadth and diversity of higher education communities serving public, private, lower and upper division, and graduate institutions, in the United States and abroad.
NUTN members address the needs of traditional and non-traditional learners by applying their expertise in producing and delivering high quality content utilizing teaching and learning technologies.
NUTN provides a forum for continuing collaboration among its membership as well as with external organizations, corporations and agencies.
The Conference began with keyynote speaker, Peter Smith, Senior Vice President of Academic Strategies and Development at Kaplan Higher Education. A self-described recovering politician and former college president he was self-effacing, provocative, and passionate about serving the under-served… and he is optimistic … he was not at all what i expected and i was not prepared to like him, or to be engaged by anything he had to say. But i did and i was. I thought… he is here to shill his book Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent: A New Ecology of Learning(Jossey-Bass), and I did not think that he could possibly have anything to say that would be interesting or relevant to me. He said a lot of stuff. For example, 20% of all ninth graders will obtain at least and associate’s degree in the next 10 years. He asserted that in order to sustain our leadership role in the global economy, we will need to double the number of people with at least an Associate’s degree by 2025. He contends that if we are serious about increasing success rates in higher education, America must adopt radically new understanding of effective teaching and learning in the 21st Century. To remain competitive in the global marketplace, he says we must dramatically increase our success rates in higher education and bring millions of people from the margins of America’s economy into the mainstream. He says that the failures of our traditional educational systems have profound and far-reaching social, civic, and economic consequences. He said that the new ecology of learning needs to change from one of “scarcity” to one of “abundance.” He said that learning platforms and networks are the new architecture where placenotcampuses are “where” learning happens, and where networks and networking are the new process for learning. He talked about course level learning outcomes and consistency, and that the new definition of “quality” in a mobile learning environment was the eportfolio as reference and reputation. Where learning was valid, reliable, and consistent with independent 3rd party evaluation. He also said that higher education should stop aspiring to be the “Waldorf Astoria” and aspire to be the “Olive Garden” – i guess to feed the masses… i have trouble with the MacDonaldization of higher education metaphor, but he said that our hierarchic faculty system is incapable of turning theory into practice and that there is a disconnect between curriculum, and learning and learners. Students, he says, are paying 25K for 5 years for stuff that is only 30% useful and relevant to their future jobs and that people are increasingly not caring about validation by earned degree or credential. He said that the end of scarcity is truly disruptive to the traditional model of higher education. He said that change is not driven by government and that innovation requires protection. He said that there is in higher education a climate of fear preventing innovation and change. He ended by saying that the promise of opportunity needs to engage the economically disadvantaged and that our country is at risk if that promise of opportunity does not apply to them. He made me think. If the traditional model of education blocks access to opportunity and wastes talent and stifles innovation for the many by indulging in an archaic model of education that it won’t or can’t change because it can’t or won’t see that it needs to change, then we will get the “Olive Garden” education that Kaplan is more than willing to sell to a more than willing consumer that can’t tell and can’t afford the difference. They can and they will employ teaching and learning models that appeal to varied learning styles. They will be creative in how they apply resources. They will focus on the learner, and on their needs convenience. They will develop systematic ways to assess, validate, and recognize life experiences, and they will figure out how to create transfer policies that recognize earned credit from other qualified sources to reduce time, costs, and frustration on the path to a degree. They will technology enhance instruction and leverage online learning to personalize and meet the needs of every learner. If they can do what we can’t, what is the solution? I am thinking we need to partner. What do you think?
The plenary session – Presidents and CEO’s Opportunities & Challenges: Leadership Under New Norms with George Boggs from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Edward Hammond (Fort Hays State University) and Bernard Luskin (Turo University Worldwide). This session was disappointing at first as it started out as a benefits of membership in AACC, but it got better. Here are my take aways. 50% of baccalaureate degree recipients started at community colleges. Students that start in CCs are less likely to graduate from a 4 year institution. Students that transfer from CCs do well. Challenges: Transfer from the CC to a 4 year is often a challenge for students. There is a need for standards between 4-years and CCs. Collegefish.org is a database of CC students and transfer planning tools. Some universities offer discounts for CC graduates to remove that barrier. There are partnerships between for profits and CCs. (Broome and HVCC are partners with Excelsior College). Physical presence on the CC campus appears to be key. This would then give institutions like ESC an advantage. 60% of high school graduates are not ready for CC. They require remedial math and language arts. With local control of school curricula, there are no uniform standards from district to district. Poor children more around a lot and this results in a disconnect and inconsistencies in their learning experiences and environments. The minimum requirements for 8/9th graders don’t prepare students for college. There needs to be a k16 partnership to address these challenges. Online learning may be able to be used to diagnose and remediate students. However, high risk high school students need a lot of individualized attention. Metrics: CCs are asked to report completions, which means that they need to try to keep the student to the AA degree. If the student transfers, then that is reported as a failure. What metrics do we need to capture? Can we measure student intent? How do we measure the ultimate success of the student? We need better metrics.
This keynote was about the role of OER in National K12 and higher education policy. Federal and state policies are encouraging institutions to consider open approaches to collaborating on resources and learning materials. Susan discussed the current status of OER domestic policy in Washington, DC and also how state initiatives are encouraging sharing, collaboration, and even commercializing on top of open educational resources across all levels of education. According to Susan the #1 indicator to break the poverty cycle is a college education. The Gates Foundation reports a finding from recent research that the education of the mother is the highest predictor of a child’s ability to break the cycle of poverty. We have a 70% national high school graduation rate. That rate is 40-50% for students of color. To education students we spend $10,000/per student. The US has the highest tolerance for inequality. There are currently 3,000,000 teachers. 1.5 million will be retiring in the next few years. We loos 40% of all new teachers within 3years. We loose 50% of all new teachers within 5 years. The single greates barrier to online teaching and learning in K12 is the cost of course development. Many grants from the US department of labor and other governmental RFPs will have open courses and OER elements. STEM and educational technology provisions will also have strong OER provisions. OER licenses materials to share, access and collaborate and allow for customization and personalization of content. http://nextgenlearning.com/about
Panel: Breaking Free of the Technology Bungy: Delivering Untethered Learning for Today’s Socially Wired World
Ingrid Day is Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Academic & International) at Massey University, New Zealand, and Mark Brown is Director, Blended and Distance Education at Massey University, New Zealand. Henry van Zyl is Vice Provost, Directed Independent Adult Learning (DIAL) at Thomas Edison State College, New Jersey.
This session presented 2 case studies of how two different institutions respond to the challenge of meeting the needs of today’s highly diverse and mobile learners. It reported a number of major technology-enhanced learning initiatives that have a mission to go beyond quick thrills and one-off leaps of faith. The first case study presents a new blended and distance education approach at Massey University, New Zealand. Several innovations are described which aim to make the ‘new normal’ an integrated and mainstream feature of university-level education for all learners. Mark (nee Gary) asks what is the problem to which technology is the solution? He presented the technology expectation cycle (Cuban 1986) High expectations, growing support, subsided enthusiasm, Rebukes and lame (of teachers). In the metaphor of a bungy cord, it returns to where it started… thought it doesn’t always bounce back to exactly the same point. Delivering untethered learning that truly disrupts the old normal the pump, pump, dump model. Massey is creating their new normal with strong leadership and a clear vision. to producce a exceptional and distinctive experience for all students through a new bl=ended and distance learning. Cost was not the driver to move to moodle. LMS –> VLE = Stream (their branded VLE) it is a metaphor for life long learning. They provide a strong teacher presence with low production video. They use 5+5 = five slides plus five minutes to introduce content (mini lectures). Some of their core tools: annotate, SBLI light work, Kryterion, mahara. They blend with purpose. They employ a quality enhancement framework that provides high autonomy for the academy which employs scholarly peer review of courses. quality indicators are based on Chickering * Gamson’s seven seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education (1986). Faculty are provided a workload calculator so they can calculate how much work they are asking students to do online . New learners are well supported and provided a are provided an online orientation, preview of courses, an intervention plan, and a workload calculator. Challenges: buy in rom senior executives, Build institutional will and commitment, moodle 2 is coming, ongoing sustainability. Students are the most potent mechanisms for faculty adoption. At Massey the Stream is the new normal.
The dual themes of flexibility and untethered access continued in the second case study, which explained a multi-pronged approach that Thomas Edison State College has adopted to providing flexible high-quality higher education for self-directed adults. They use an independent study course model with minimal faculty intervention. Key features of this initiative include online testing at home, modules delivered to mobile devices and courses on flash drives called Flash Track. The primary goal was to eliminate active duty deployment as an obstacle for distance learning. The problem: Military students without connectivity. The solution: Portable cms on a flash drive = flash track. No Internet required, no install, self contained asps that run directly from the drive. Flash track 2= flash top- targets commuting students who have some Internet connectivity at some point.
This was a great conference with many excellent speakers, ideas, and participants. Highlights for me were seeing Barbara Truman from UCF, seeing Ken Udas from UMass Online and his panel presentation with James Fay and Alon Krashinsky, Seeing Ed Bowen, Executive Dean at Dallas TeleCollege, John Sener, Karen Vignare, Gary Greenberg, Alma Cervantes, and meeting the NUTN Advisory Board members.
A Multilevel analysis of the effect of prompting self-regulation in technology-delivered instruction Traci Sitzmann, Bradford S. Bell, Kurt Kraiger, Adam M. Kanar
Published in Personnel Psychology http://adlcommunity.net/file.php/13/Web-Based_Training_Meta-Analysis/WBI_Conference_Proceedings.pdf
Meta analysis found that web-based instruction was more effective that classroom instruction for teaching declarative knowledge.
National survey of student engagement 2008
Indiana University – George Kuh
http://nsse.iub.edu/
Results show online students are more engaged than F2F students.
US Department of Education
Evaluation of evidence -based practices in online learning – a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies – 2009
The meta analysis found that on average students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving f2f instruction. And that students in blended learning conditions performed better than those receiving online or f2f instruction. http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html#edtech
Internet-Based Learning in the Health Professions
A Meta-analysis
David A. Cook, MD, MHPE; Anthony J. Levinson, MD, MSc; Sarah Garside, MD, PhD; Denise M. Dupras, MD, PhD; Patricia J. Erwin, MLS; Victor M. Montori, MD, MSc
JAMA. 2008;300(10):1181-1196. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/300/10/1181
The meta analysis found that Internet-based instruction is associated with favorable outcomes across a wide variety of learners, learning contexts, clinical topics, and learning outcomes. Internet-based instruction appears to have a large effect compared with no intervention and appears to have an effectiveness similar to traditional methods.
Staff from The National Research University, Higher School of Economics (HSE), Russia
SLN was pleased to co-host with the SUNY CPD a delegation from the Curriculum Support Department of the Higher School of Economics from Russia on July 19, 2010. The delegation, headed by Dr Maria Yudkevich, director for academic development, and coordinated by Yaroslav Bykhovsky, deputy head office for curricula support , came about from a contact with Alla Nazarenko, a fulbright scholar from Moscow State University, at SUNY System Administration that spent significant time with SLN during her stay with the SUNY Learning Network to learn more about online teaching and learning.
The specific aims of their visit were to learn more about professional development for faculty, support, and increasing motivation technology enhanced instruction, as well as the practical experience of LMS (Learning Management System) development and usage in the SUNY Learning Network, including:
Services and functions of ‘personal e-cabinets’ for students, faculty staff and administrators
Opportunities for faculty staff to storage, present their educational materials, evaluation of students’ progress
Opportunities for students to report the results of training activities
Opportunities for the organization of individual ‘learning paths’ for students
Opportunities for students’ collaboration, communication with other students and teachers
Services for administrators: scheduling, obtaining statistics on educational achievements
Main problems associated with the implementation process of LMS
What were the criteria for LMS system choose?
How the faculty staff is motivated to use the LMS system?
This visit and their tour of other universities in the United States (including Georgetown, MIT, Pratt, BU to name a few) is part of HSE’s development strategy as a national research university (in October 2009 we were awarded this status by the decision of the Russian Government) in order to share practical experiences in faculty professional development, learning management systems development, and effective practices in general university administration from American higher education colleagues.
Curriculum Support Department Delegation Maria Yudkevich – Director for Academic development
Anna Korovko – Head Office for Curricula Support
Yaroslav Bykhovsky – Deputy Head Office for Curricula Support
Natalia Katasonova – Senior Lecturer of Economics Faculty
Alexander Porshnev – Lecturer of Socio-Humanities Studies Department
Alexander Krasilnikov – Graduate of Department of Microeconomic Analysis
SUNY staff
Carey Hatch, Assistant Provost for Library & Information Services and Director of the SUNY Learning Network
Alexandra M. Pickett, Associate Director, SUNY Learning Network
Kim Scalzo, Director, SUNY Center for Professional Development
Rob Piorkowski, Assistant Director of Online Learning
Gerard Marino, Assistant Director for Business Services
Doug Cohen, Assistant Director for Application Services
Lori Thompson, Associate Director for SUNY International Partnerships
Alena Rodick, Assistant Program Officer, SUNY International Programs, Russia Specialist
The SUNY Learning Network had the opportunity to participate in a unique initiative to take a global snapshot of the state of online learning around the world. Coordinated by friend and colleague, Larry Ragan, the director on online faculty development at Penn State’s World Campus, each region of the world was represented by a research group leader that coordinated groups of international collaborators to document the state of online learning in each region culminating in a live and virtual series of presentations at Penn State University on July 12, 2010.
SLN provided the research and presentation of the online learning snapshot in the form of a wiki that provides a profile of 13 countries South American countries: http://onlinelearningsnapshot-sa.wikispaces.com/
More that 113 people from all over the world collaborated on this project to research and document the state of online learning in each of the global regional areas. Frank Mayadas, Sloan Foundation, Gary Miller, former PSWC executive director, and Wayne Smutz, PSU also attended the presentations.
For more information on the online learning global snapshot, links to the presentations, and list of research teams and members visit: http://globalsnapshot.ning.com/
What in the end is their suitability for education?
For teachers and learners, what is the value of being active in new media?
Having a presence on Twitter?
Being an active blogger?
What is the validity of knowledge in Web 2.0
How can we measure recognition and achievement?
How do media portray the changing open and distance learning practice?
How can we control the potential of media to ensure that they work for all?
How all is this affecting the modes of knowledge organisation?
With the convergence of media, how are the major issues of learning mirrored in the “traditional” media channels, in TV, newspapers and journals?
I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be here for this conference on this topic and to visit Valencia again. I am really looking forward to the presentations, the keynote presentations (especially seeing George Siemens again), and to sharing a demonstration of my online course (on Friday, June 11th) that pushes learning outside the boundaries of the traditional online course management system and into the social web.
Paulina Carrasco Briones arrived today to begin a month-long internship with the SUNY Learning Network, Education Services. Ms. Carrasco works as an instructional designer at the Center for Innovation on Education (CIedu), INACAP in Santiago, Chile, and is an instructor in their master’s program in higher educuation applied pedagogy. She will be working with us under a memorandum of understanding signed between INACAP and SUNY to learn more about SLN’s online faculty development processes and online instructional design approaches, and to experience first-hand an SLN faculty development cycle. Ms. Carrasco joins her colleague, Fransisca Capponi, to jointly observe and participate in SLN Education services activities and events, and to collaborate with her on activities to adopt and adapt SLN processes, materials, and approaches for use by INACAP. We are very pleased to have Paulina here with us and to “share what we know” to assist INACAP to develop and grow their online faculty development efforts.
The State University of New York’s Annual Conference on Instructional Technologies (SUNY CIT) was held in at SUNY Plattsburgh this year on May 25th – 28th.
I have the opportunity to attend many conferences and have been to every CIT since 1995 and it is without reservation that I say that CIT is the best annual conference that I attend each year. In its 19th year, SUNY CIT continues to bring together faculty and instructional support professionals, providing us with an opportunity to share experiences and expertise, discuss common problems, brainstorm solutions, and explore innovative avenues for improving the learning environment with technology.
The highlights for me in addition to the carpool experience with Bill Pelz and Jane Verri and playing poker with the guys : ) follow:
Tuesday, May 24th
The SLN ID RoundTable discussion: an annual opportunity for SLN education and campus-based instructional designers to meet face to face to discuss issues of mutual interest and professional development.
This year we discussed our current research on online student self-regulation (the focus of the spring 2010 student survey) with the ID community. We enlisted the help of the SLN ID community to review and improve the student survey questions on online student self-regulation.We asked the IDs to discuss in small groups what was good, weak, missing, or needed to be reworded in the survey questions. Dr. Peter Shea, SLN senior researcher, led the lively interactive activities and discussions. Following the group feedback on the survey, Peter presented a preliminary summary of the SLN spring 2010 student survey results and some surprising initial findings.
We then asked SLN IDs to review the items of the survey with the aim of recasting the instrument for use with faculty to support online student self-regulation. We asked them to consider the survey, preliminary results, and our discussion, and to discuss in small groups and report to us their suggestions for what we can do to support faculty to foster and support online student self regulation, and how we can amend the Teaching Presence construct to foster online student self regulation. We also asked them to consider the implications for faculty in course revision, course information, and faculty development activities, and to develop item statements that we might provide faculty to self assess on the indicators of student self regulation based on the student survey.
We explored the emerging notion of learning presence, a new construct growing out of our work to further understand and apply the Community of Inquiry model to inform our online instructional design practice and online faculty development approaches. We have identified a gap in the CoI model that can be resolved with this notion of Learning Presence to take into account learner and learning oriented indicators: Online student self-regulation. One of our next steps will be to take the results of this meeting and use them to create a faculty survey self-assessment that we will use to collect data from SLN online faculty as well as a tool to assist us to build awareness among the faculty of what they can do to support their online students’ self regulation.
My presentation this year was an hour an a half long hands-on demo entitled Teaching and Learning in the Clouds. I felt like a ‘rockstar’ when i arrived an hour before i was schedule and there were already about 5 people in the room staking out their seats in anticipation of the anticipated crowd for my session and calling themselves my “groupies” : ) I LOVE this presentation and I LOVE talking about taking online instruction outside the confines of the traditional online CMS. There were an estimated 70 people at the presentation and i was told that dozens were turned away at the door for exceeding the room capacity : )
I attended Welcome to Wikis: learning and Collaborating in Virtual Spaces a hands-on demo by Nathan Grassi and Shaun Hoppel from the University at Buffalo.
I attended several very interesting presentations:
Collapsing the Chronotope: influencing students’ perception of when and where learning takes place by Linda Ryder from Hudson Valley Community College, and
Facilitating Chronotopic shifts: teaching polychronic learners in online learning environments by my former online student Stephen Klingaman (SUNY Morrisville), a PhD student in the UAlbany ETAP program. I LOVED these presentations and learning that i am highly polychronic – (it explains a lot) and has very interesting cross-cultural implications for online teaching and learning. (to find out what you are you can take this FB inventory. This is completely unrelated to Steven’s presentation. Just fun to do : )
Of course the main highlights from Thursday were the SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher’s address and Malcolm Brown’s (director of the Educause Learining Initiative) Keynote address titled: What’s my paradigm? Learning environments for 21st century learning
Technology and culture are both changing rapidly, at a pace somewhere between evolution and revolution. This is challenging many of higher education’s fundamental assumptions, and nowhere is this challenge more evident than in teaching and learning. But these challenges present opportunities as well. In this session, we will seek to discover what some of those opportunities are, looking especially at the new mobile technologies and the shifting roles of faculty and students. We will examine the concept of learning environments as an overarching framework for the new enterprise of teaching and learning.
I also attended the FACT committee Luncheon, the open and closed meetings of the SLN advisory board.
Friday, May 27th
The highlights for me today were that I got a great look at D2L 9 – a vendor presentation, a look inside learning environment 9. It looks like moodle, has a course creator type wizard tool, and looked VERY cool. And i was thrilled to see Joe Fahs’ (Elmira College) presentation on Creating eportfolios for learning with google sites for education. Joe is a member of my PLN and i was happy to hear and see him speak in person.
If you did not have the opportunity to attend CIT this year, I highly recommend that you put it into your calendar for next year. The only thing I wish is that I could have gotten to more sessions and connected with more people. I loved seeing Wayne Jones, Harry Pence, Linda Smith, Jim Greenberg, Ellen Marie Murphy (now from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire) and meeting her new posse, Clark Shah-Nelson, and Pat Masson to name a few, not to mention all the campus-based instructional designers.
