Spotlight on Innovation: Attacking High Text Costs While Improving Outcomes

Spotlight On Innovation: Attacking High Text Costs While Improving Outcomes

Date: Monday, April 11th, 2011 Time: 3:30 pm ET / 12:30 pm PT Duration: 50 minutes followed by a live Q&A session As the high cost of college texts negatively impacts student retention and outcomes, what actions can faculty and institutions take to reverse this trend? Register now for this webinar to learn about three of the most exciting initiatives aimed at driving costs down while enhancing innovation and outcomes. Moderated by Eric Frank, President and Co-Founder of Flat World Knowledge, this panel will begin with an overview of what open texts are and how they've emerged as a force in past years, and then spotlight the innovative work of the University System of Ohio, Washington Open Course Library Project, and Virginia State University. Join us on April 11th. Click below to register.

Featured Speakers: THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF OHIO Darlene McCoy Associate Vice Chancellor, Affordability and Efficiency Dr. Steve Acker Research Director, EText Ohio Project; Emeritus Professor, The Ohio State University WASHINGTON STATE OPEN COURSE LIBRARY PROJECT Dr. Cable Green Project Director of eLearning and Open Education, WA State Board for Comm. and Tech. Colleges VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY Dr. Mirta Martin Dean, Reginald F. Lewis School of Business Dr. Andrew Feldstein Assistant Professor

Can't Make It? Feel free to check out our pre-recorded webinar library which contains many 30-60 minute webcasts. Visit our webinar library.

OER Africa: Course Development Handbook

Image via WikipediaI am currently reading Santosh Panda's textbook Handbook on In-House Style for Course Development.  This would be recommended reading for new course developers or distance education admins who are new to the field or need to develop a systematic course development program
 with new staff. I am always on the look-out for possible training materials for new instructional designers or ways to enhance or streamline the course development process. This handbook contains a lot of useful materials and seems to be written with an awareness of what actually happens in online classes. It is light on theory and heavy on the practical. I have been in presentations on instructional design where the why was the focus instead of the what and the how. This inevitably leads to having a teacher stand up and say "Great. How does this actually supposed to work?" This not to say that Panda's book is theory-free somehow - the book models a lot of good theory through its use of concept maps and emphasis on course structure, and his discussion of constructivism. I would like to see more examples of student interaction in the example assignments but again, this is a practical handbook for getting things off the ground.

To think I had to travel all the way to Africa to find a book that was written in our own backyard :-) I am always looking for good instructional design materials. If you have a favorite online, please post a link to it in the comments.

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