UT Symposium 2018

Quality is a critical success driver for any business operation, especially for meeting customer expectations in a competitive marketplace. It is no different for the business of higher education. As institutional strategic directions mandate student success and sharpen the focus on innovation in e-learning, how do we define and measure quality in online and blended courses? Furthermore, how does quality translate for the student experience to become a differentiator in a competitive marketplace?  Remember, without quality, there is little chance of (student) success in academic and career pursuits.

 Join this examination of effective teaching and learning for online environments and put into practice strategies for engaging your students in their learning,  enhancing their experience and building their success

Julie K. Little-Wells, EdD, is a life-long learner with interests centering on the effective integration of technologies to support the academy's teaching and learning practices. In both national and international forums, she serves as an advocate for professional learning, facilitating communications and collaboration in distributed learning environments, and designing effective uses of instructional technologies for learner success.

Her portfolio leverages thirty years of experience teaching at the secondary and postsecondary level and progressive administrative positions in higher education, most recently retiring from EDUCAUSE as vice president. Her professional service includes the Apple Distinguished Educator Higher Education Leadership Team and E-learning Advisory Board for the Ministry of Higher Education in the United Arab Emirates. Underpinning this portfolio is a bachelor of arts in government and international studies and master of arts in teaching from the University of South Carolina, and a doctor of education from the University of Tennessee. During precious moments of downtime, you can find her in the garden of her Smoky Mountain home.

In these sessions, quality online, hybrid and web-enhanced courses will be highlighted.  Faculty colleagues will present their courses and demonstrate how they address quality criteria.  The presenters will discuss their experiences, including tips to creating a quality course design.

Session Titles

• Application of Generally Accepted Course Quality Criteria
• Teaching the RN-to-BSN Option Online for Practicing Registered Nurses
• Course Design Example using Student Centered Pedagody

In these sessions, participants will learn about ways to engage students in the online and hybrid learning environments.  Presenters will discuss their experiences with using activities and assessments to engage their students.

Session Titles

• Building Online Learning Communities: Active Environments & Large Online Classes
• Designing a Collaborative Online Graduate Course in Counseling
• Using Zoom to Teach Debate Techniques in Health Policy

In this session, participants will learn about the basic principles that govern making content accessible for people with disabilities.  In addition, participants will learn how addressing accessibility fits in to Universal Design for Learning principles that focus on making learning accessible for all learners regardless of ability status. 

Session Titles

• Designing with UDL 

In this hands-on session, participants will practice writing measurable, student centered course and lesson objectives.  Participants will also have an opportunity to learn how to align their course and lesson objectives to course learning activities and assessments. 

Session Titles

• Creating a User-Friendly Course: Lesson Objectives and Course Alignment