Faculty Sabbatical Leave Spring 2015 By: Dr. Pam Lowry Lawrence Technological University

Objectives Investigate the role of a faculty member at a global educational institution Develop, design a new online course Expand knowledge of additional instructional technologies and course delivery platforms Research effective pedagogies and real- world examples.

Oplerno Start-up online global education institution (Open Learning Organization) Use real-world practitioners, professors, and instructors to offer affordable, accessible, education to students on a global basis Faculty have complete control over creation, content, and ownership of their courses Courses offered through Oplerno’s marketplace

Oplerno April 2014: Approved to operate by Vermont State Board of Education Can start recruiting students and earn credit for classes Allows students to transfer these credits to other colleges and universities (if receiving institution choose to accept them) At this point, approximately 100 part-time faculty, 3 employees, and 4 Board members

Oplerno May 2014: Signed 128 part-time faculty members, 75 classes under development and 5 classes ready to go Oplerno plans to eventually become a degree granting accredited institution June 2015: Signed 186 part-time faculty, 32 courses ready to go, 7 certificates developed

Oplerno June 2015: Signed a contract with a 4 year university to offer courses for credit (announcement in next couple of weeks) Startup Study Group and Oplerno are curently developing a plan to offer virtual accelerators to start-up companies, new business entrepreneurial advisors, and investors (

Oplerno Some URLs: s: Initially used GoDaddy Late May 2015 converted to Mozilla Thunderbird system

Oplerno Faculty Application To set up an Oplerno account/enroll in Faculty Orientation course need to: Submit CV or Resume At least a Master’s degree from accredited university Signed copy of Faculty Contract Instructor is an independent contractor in relation to Oplerno and not an employee Oplerno seeks to offer, through Marketplace software, courses created and owned by instructor and instructor seeks to offer his/her courses in Marketplace to Oplerno students

Oplerno Faculty Application Courses: 3 credit hours over twelve-week term, maximum of 25 students Marketplace listing must specify skills taught through course Within 30 days of conclusion of course, instructor must document skills learned by and competency of, each students as result of completing course for inclusion in student’s Portfolios Instructor designates pricing for course in Marketplace Only instructor may teach course

Oplerno Faculty Application Compensation: Instructor entitled to total course fees for all students enrolled in course (Total Course Fees), minus the greater of 10% of Total Course Fees or $100 per enrolled student (Net Course Fee) Oplerno pays instructor one-half of Net Course Fee half-way through course term and balance upon completion of course and Portfolio Listing

Course Building for Oplerno Faculty Need approved course proposal in order to take training course I took: Six week course Guide faculty through process of creating a course for Oplerno Some experience teaching online Course is ungraded Now offer Online Teaching (Basics/Advanced) Now offer Online Course Design (Basics/Advanced)

Collaborative Statistics Textbook for course I developed: Collaborative Statistics Second Edition By Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean Online: Authors - faculty members at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California.

Free Resources OpenStax cnx.org View and share free educational material in small modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports or other academic assignments OpenStax College provides students with professional-quality textbooks that are free online and low-cost in print ( Google Hangouts Doodle – schedule event, meeting, etc. Doodle – schedule event, meeting, etc..

Free Resources Wikispaces Wikispaces ( Open Professional Education Network Open Professional Education Network ( Slack - platform for team communication ( Crowdcast for team meetings ( Open Educational Resources (OER) ( educational-resources) educational-resourceshttp:// educational-resources

Collaborative Statistics

Internet Tours: Oplerno Collaborative Statistics using Canvas by Instructure (Learning Management System)

Summary My viewpoints: Oplerno still getting off the ground Degree of success still to be determined Concept yet to be tested in practice Experience at end of sabbatical much better than beginning Progress is being made – long way to go Progress is being made – long way to go

Questions? Dr. Pam Lowry Associate Professor Dept. of Math and Computer Science Co-Director, Master of Educational Technology Program (office )