Welcome to the Fall 2012 Newsletter!
Welcome to the Fall 2012 MDE Newsletter. This is the place to find the latest MDE Community news. Our presence in distance education events, our publications, awards, and new initiatives is all presented here! The MDE Community has been busy since last summer! Presentations, honors and publications throughout. Read on for the latest and greatest information on your fellow MDE community members.
Important news...
First there was the great news that Lisa was selected as an EDEN Fellow. This was followed up by her election to the EDEN Executive Committee during the 2012 EDEN Annual Conference in Porto, Portugal, June 6-9. Read more here and here.
Significant Changes in Course Offerings patterns... (must read)There are VERY important changes in the 2-year plan for MDE class offerings, which you should take notice immediately and re-visit your study plan.
Changes starting Spring 2013:
OMDE 601 Re-design
OMDE 601 underwent an extensive redesign recently. Using the backward design process which starts with detailing desired goals and then works backwards determining what practices will illustrate those results and creating instructional activities that will bring students to competency and achieve course goals. Essential to the re-design of OMDE 601, is a closer alignment of learning activities and objectives with support from the writing coach and teaching assistant to integrate more skill building.
New PartnershipUMUC-MDE & Unisa Partnerships
Summer 2012 saw the first students taking advantage of a joint effort between the UMUC MDE Program and the University of South Africa. In the works since a 2011 agreement was signed between UMUC and Unisa. Students joining the MDE this summer, included several Unisa staff members. This collaboration benefits UMUC, Unisa and MDE students in particular. As it provides a great opportunity to hear directly from Unisa staff how distance education is being employed in South Africa.
Events
EDEN 2012 Annual Conference
Porto, Portugal- June 6-9, 2012 "The 2012 Annual EDEN Conference in Porto was again a great success with 350 delegates with over 150 presentations from all over the world. The event was rich both in content and in collaboration opportunities and was highly interactive not only face-to-face, but also on the web."
Several MDE faculty members were present at the event, including Lisa Blaschke, Thomas Huelsmann, Gila Kurtz and Stella Porto. A few of these presentations can be found here:
Awards
In April 2012, MDE Director, Stella Porto received the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Mentoring. Nominees for the award come from throughout the System.
Publications & Presentations
Blaschke, L.M. (2011). Sustaining lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) Research Workshop, June 19-22, 2011. Dublin, Ireland.
Blaschke, L.M., Kurtz, G., & Porto, S. (2011). Online teaching and learning with social media: The MDE perspective. DEHUB Newsletter, Winter (8). Retrieved from http://issuu.com/dehub/docs/dehub-newsletter-no-8-winter-2011 Blaschke, L. & Porto, S. (2012). Adopting emerging technologies: Bridging the gap in preparing distance educators for the 21st century. Presented and published in proceedings of EDEN’2012 Conference. Porto, Portugal, June 6-9, 2012. Chen, D. & Kurtz, G. (Eds.) (2011), ICT, learning and teaching. Or Yhuda: The Center for Academic Studies (Hebrew). Forster, A. (2012, May). Embedded Learning: “Preserving the core and stimulating progress” – Universities as learning organizations. Canadian Network for Innovation in Education, CNIE-RCIE, Annual conference, Alberta, Canada. Frank, I. (2012). The New World Library. In: Lee, Sang-Hie (Ed.), Scholarly Research for Musicians: A Comprehensive Strategy. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions. Fresen, J. W. (2011). Factors influencing lecturer uptake of e-learning. In J. Dalziel, C. Alexander, J. Krajka, & R. Kiely (Eds.), Teaching English with technology (Special Edition on LAMS and Learning Design) 11(1), 81–97. Available at http://www.tewtjournal.org/VOL%2011/ISSUE%201/volume_11_issue_01-08_article_06.pdf Highton, M., Fresen, J., & Wild, J. (2011). Making academic OER easy: Reflections on technology and openness at Oxford University. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 15(2), 28-40. Available at: http://journals.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/viewFile/49/43 Hill, R., Fresen, J., & Geng, F. (submitted) Derivation of electronic course templates for use in higher education. Submitted to Research in Learning Technology, May 2012. Hülsmann, T. (2011). Distance education: From access to accumulation. Paper presented at the The Fourteenth Cambridge International Conference on Open: Distance and e-Learning Internationalisation and Social Justice: the role of Open, Distance and E-learning, Cambridge, UK. Jancke, A., Götter, R., Vogt, S., & Zawacki-Richter, O. (2012). iAcademy – an innovative mlearning approach for lifelong learning. In I. A. Sánchez & P. Isaías (Eds.), Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference Mobile Learning 2012 (p. 377–379). Berlin: IADIS Press. Johnson, D. N. and Porto, S. (2012). “State of the state of Georgia, Distance Learning Association” Presented at the USDLA Conference’2012. St. Louis, MO, April 29-May 2, 2012. Khan, R. (2012). An innovative e-mentoring program for graduate students in an online program. European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) Annual Conference, Porto, Portugal. Jun 6-9, 2012. Kurtz, G. & Chen, D. (2012). Online learning: A digital toolkit for teacher. Or-Yehuda: The College for Academic Studies press. (in Hebrew). Meishar-Tal, H., Kurtz, G. & Pittersee, E. (2012). Learning with Facebook groups. European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) Annual Conference. Porto, Portugal, June 6-9 2012. Olcott, D. (2012). OER perspectives: Emerging issues for universities. Distance Education, 33(2), 283-290. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2012.700561 Olcott, D. (2012). Back to the future: Bridging evidence-based research and evidence-based practice in open and distance education: An integrated framework. DE Quarterly, No.11, Winter 2012, 2-3. Olcott, D.J. (2012). (In press). Beyond the boundaries: The future for borderless higher education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global Publishing. Olcott, D. (2012). (In press). Mobilizing open education resources in the UAE and GCC states: A primer for universities. UAE Journal of Education Technology and eLearning. Abu Dhabi, UAE: Higher Colleges of Technology. Olcott, D.J. (2012). (in press). Beyond open access: Leveraging OER for university teaching and learning. Distance Learning. Published by the United States Distance Learning Association. |
New people and new roles...
Dr. Cindy Whitesel
Cindy Whitesel joins the MDE following a long career as technical writer and editor. She began teaching with UMUC in 1976 and has been teaching online since 1993. Cindy is the author of the well-known, at least to UMUC students, The Guide to Writing and Research for UMUC Students and Faculty. Cindy started in the MDE in Fall 2011, co-teaching OMDE 610 - Teaching and Learning in Distance Education. She has co-taught it since then with several different co-teachers in the MDE, including Steve Kerby, Eli Collins-Brown, Christine Walti and more recently with Cindy Emmans. You can read more about Cindy Whitesel here.
Dr. Cindy Emmans
Cindy comes to the MDE via an extensive career that has included posts with Central Washington University, San Diego State University and the American Public University System. Cindy started teaching in the MDE in the Spring '12 She has taught OMDE 603 with Jim Rawson, and now in Summer '12 is teaching OMDE 603 with Gila Kurtz and also teaching OMDE 610 with Cindy Whitesel. Read more about Cindy's varied career and experiences here.
Dr. Rhonda Blackburn
Rhonda comes to the MDE with more than 20 years of experience in higher education. In addition to teaching duties at UMUC she is the Strategic Account Manager for Higher Education at Desire2Learn.
Her experiences run the gamut from positions at University of Texas at Dallas, to various posts with TxDLA (Texas Distance Learning Association). Rhonda will be teaching DETC 630. Read more about her career and philosophies here. Dr. Alan Tait
Most of you have read some of the works of Alan Tait. He will is now the new Guest Expert in OMDE 601. This is a significant addition to the MDE. According to Alan's LinkedIn profile, Alan "was Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) at the Open University UK from 2007-2012, and before that Dean of the Faculty of Education and Language Studies. He is Professor of Distance Education and Development and has a long record of practice, publication and the support of professional development in distance and e-learning. He is Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Distance and E Learning (EURODL); was from 1989-1998 Editor of Open Learning; President of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) from 2007-2010; and is a senior member of St Edmunds College, University of Cambridge. In 2012 Alan was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Moscow State University for Economics, Statistics and Informatics. Alan is a values-led academic leader who has focused on distance and e-learning in Higher Education, in the UK and internationally."
Dr. Don Olcott
Don Olcott will has joined the MDE faculty and will teach for the first time in the Spring 2013. Don has held a variety of positions in higher education both in the US and abroad. These include a current position as the head of Strategic Planning and Engagement, Higher Colleges of Technology, and previous positions such as Chief Executive of The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (UK), and Executive Director of the Division of Extended Programmes, Western Oregon University. Among his many posts and honors, Don is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a 2010 EDEN Fellow, and adjunct faculty with UMUC and the University of New England-Australia. You can read his full faculty bio here.
Welcome to new TAs and WCs
The teaching assistant and writing coach program continues to grow. This year saw the addition of three MDE graduates: Nancy Smith Wooten (MDE '12), Stuart Adams (MDE '12), and Grace Roscoe (MDE '12). Stefanie Brunner is a new teaching assistant working with the Oldenburg faculty.
Achievements
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Upcoming Events
EDEN Research Workshop : Leuven, Belgium
The Seventh EDEN Research Workshop- Learners in the Driving Seat will be held October 22-23, 2012 in Leuven, Belgium.
The conference focus is "...how are students driving teachers, instructors in the fields where new learning technologies play important role." Read more here.
MDE Orientation The MDE Orientation is held in the third week of each session and brings together a multitude of MDE resources which a valuable to students at every point of their MDE journey. There is extensive information provided on the many support resources MDE students have access to. Additionally. there's great information on the MDE E-portfolio and capstone research project. All MDE students, faculty and alumni are welcome. Sign up either through OMDE 601 or by email to Stella Porto
MDE Virtual Conference Save the date: March 2013. The focus of this 3 day event is Distance Education on the Job Market. Topics will include...
The Seventh EDEN Research Workshop- Learners in the Driving Seat will be held October 22-23, 2012 in Leuven, Belgium.
The conference focus is "...how are students driving teachers, instructors in the fields where new learning technologies play important role." Read more here.
MDE Orientation The MDE Orientation is held in the third week of each session and brings together a multitude of MDE resources which a valuable to students at every point of their MDE journey. There is extensive information provided on the many support resources MDE students have access to. Additionally. there's great information on the MDE E-portfolio and capstone research project. All MDE students, faculty and alumni are welcome. Sign up either through OMDE 601 or by email to Stella Porto
MDE Virtual Conference Save the date: March 2013. The focus of this 3 day event is Distance Education on the Job Market. Topics will include...