An Elluminate Center of Excellence

University of Alberta The University of Alberta is located in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital city. With over one million people Edmonton is dynamic and vibrant and best known as the “Festival City”. Edmontonians have learned to take advantage of both their long, warm summer and cold, crisp winter days.

Edmonton Alberta

The University With 37,000 undergraduate students, 4,000 graduate students and 1,500 full-time academic staff, the University of Alberta is one of Canada’s prominent research-intensive universities. The university offers over 200 undergraduate programs and 170 graduate programs, including over 60 doctoral programs.

Dare to… The vision for the University of Alberta has been articulated by our president Dr. Indira V. Samarasekera in two volumes: Dare to Discover and Dare to Deliver. The former provides our vision for the future while the latter delineates how to make that vision a reality.

Our Cornerstones Talented people Learning, discovery, and citizenship Connecting communities Transformative organization and support

Our Strategies Enriching the undergraduate and graduate student experience Integrating teaching, research, scholarship and creative activities Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration Northern, aboriginal, rural and international engagement

Elluminate Implementation Our implementations of Elluminate across the disciplines support these strategic initiatives by providing a mechanism through which we can enrich, integrate, and engage our students and faculty as we create collaborative learning environments at the University of Alberta. The On-Line Program Support Group submits this presentation as our application to become an Elluminate Center of Excellence.

OPSG OPSG (Online Program Support Group) is a grass roots Community of Practice (CoP) started at the university in The group is interdisciplinary and consists of Instructional Technology practitioners from Faculties and Schools across campus. The primary purpose of the group is to provide a forum for interaction and collaboration and the sharing of information and expertise. It’s about connecting people. Members of OPSG have been instrumental in advancing the use of learning technologies within individual faculties and across the university as a whole.

Theory Behind Practice Three key elements in building effective learning environments: Community building Social presence Teaching presence

The Sense of Community Integral to developing community is the ability to provide the sense of social and teaching presence. By increasing social and teaching presence and building on-line communities we increase our ability to make authentic connections between and with our learners. Community Social Presence Teaching Presence

Social Presence Affective communication Open communication Cohesive communication

Teaching Presence Design and organization Facilitating discourse Direct instruction

Elluminate provides us with an array of tools that facilitate both social and teaching presence. This leads to a greater sense of community within the learning environment and ultimately provides us with a way to make authentic connections with our learners.

Overview of Elluminate across Campus Elluminate Live! Licensed campus- wide in August, 2006 Over 500 Elluminate Live! meetings held during the past year Used in 15 different areas

Overview of Elluminate Uses Across Campus Support online learning Online programs and courses Blended learning Virtual office hours Professional development Guest speakers in F2F classes Research, meetings & collaboration

Elluminate Users Across Campus Faculty of Nursing Faculty of Education Centre for Health Promotion Studies Health Sciences Council AICT E-Learning Services Faculty of Pharmacy Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry School of Business Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Extension Faculty of Arts Campus Saint-Jean Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics Augustana Faculty Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine Faculty of Science

Professional Development - Pharmacy Description 12 week, professional development course for pharmacists to explore the use of laboratory values in their practice. Two-day workshop Three distance sessions - case study, group discussion (WebCT), Elluminate session Practice-based assignment Benefits of using Elluminate: Fostered connection and interaction Reduced barriers to access and participation Convenient

Guest Speakers - Education A well-known researcher joined the class via Elluminate Live! to discuss a research project students had read about in a journal article.

Research Groups - Nursing Elluminate is being adopted by a growing number of principle researchers as a venue in which they can collaborate with their national and international research partners. We currently have 13 research groups in the FON working in Elluminate. It provides them with a meeting place for sharing information and results, discussing their findings and connecting with their research partners at a distance. It is cost effective, intuitive and has provided many of our research groups opportunities to meet frequently and throughout the duration of their projects.

Community Groups Community building - Health Promotion Studies, Medicine

Engagement Office hours - Science, Education, Continuing Education Recruiting - Science Clerkship and Practicums - Medicine

Online Courses - MES Designed for educators who want to complete their masters degree without taking time off work. It is a cohort program that requires Fall and Winter courses to be taken online. Adult students have multiple demands in their lives and therefore require communication technology that is flexible and convenient. The MES program adopted Elluminate as a tool that, among other things, enabled us to maintain our community with each cohort. Students are geographically located across Canada and one in the United Arab Emirates.

Elluminate’s Impact Students have positive perceptions of courses Technology did not “get in the way” - easy, fast, cost effective, classroom without walls Improvement over other forms of teleconferencing and collaboration Increased engagement, understanding and confidence Effects of distance reduced greatly Initial apprehension about technology has been overcome through ease of use Students initiating meetings

Future Plans Admission and recruitment Reach out to the best and the brightest Enrich the Undergraduate experience Increased flexibility in delivery modes and media Provide access to more experts Enrich the Graduate experience Greater range of research opportunities Greater ability to collaborate Achieving out Academic Plan Engage local, regional and international communities

FACULTY OF PHARMACY & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES