1. Opening the Future of eLearning:  Connecting Individuals with Communities
Gerry Hanley, Ph.D.
Executive Director, MERLOT
Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Technology Services
Shaping the Future of eLearning Conf.
Baton Rouge, LA April 4, 2017

2. Thank You for Inviting Me Back to Louisiana
Thank You for Inviting Me Back to Louisiana! Thank You For Many Years of a Productive Partnership

3. EDUCATION MUST BE BETTER!
Education Can Be More….
Effective Efficient Enjoyable Affordable Available Accessible Predictable Productive Personalized/Customized Convenient Scalable
EDUCATION MUST BE BETTER!

4. HOW? Begin with WHO is responsible for making education better…
Institutions educating individuals (LA Higher Ed)
Industry needing educated individuals
Individuals wanting education
HOW MUCH are these stakeholders responsible?

5. Annual U.S. Post Secondary Education and Training Spending (2013) in $ Billions
Employers Invest
Over $600 BILLION Annually
Higher Education Invests Over $400 BILLION Annually

6. What would it take to do this?
What IF…
Louisiana Board of Regents could reduce the cost of employer expenses for education and training by 2% and LBR gets ½ the savings?
In the US, 1% = $6 Billion annually
What would it take to do this?

7. My Job: Give You A Gift and Not A Burden
YOU DECIDING TO DO IT!
My Job: Give You A Gift and Not A Burden
Outline the Challenges in improving education with eLearning
Recommend Strategies & Tools to get it done
Provide Evidence that it has been done

8. Looking Through 3 Ends of the Education Telescope
Individuals choosing a career path to an uncertain future
Education Institutions accrediting individuals with degrees as indicators of learning and capabilities
Industries enabling prospective and existing employees to become more valuable to the company
The world looks different from each of these perspectives

9. Disconnections Cause Problems
Learning outcomes and pedagogies can be disconnected from students’ goals and interests as well as industries’ workforce needs.
Students drop out
Employers don’t hire or retain graduates
Bad for Students, Industry, & YOU!

10. Disconnections Cause Problems
Students’ life decisions can be disconnected from educational and workplace opportunities.
Students are not motivated to learn
Students drop out
LBR & Industry not achieve their goals
Bad for Students, Industry, & YOU!

11. Your Institution delivers industry-aligned quality instruction, assessments, and advising for STUDENTS
INDUSTRY helps advise & educate STUDENTS about the requirements and prospects of work
Industry
Your Institution
Students
Your Institution and INDUSTRY collaborate on the learning outcomes and pedagogy to prepare high quality employees

12. How to CONNECT for Success?
U.S. White House & Dept of Labor’s
Job-Driven Workforce Development Strategy

13. Engaged 62% of the nation’s community colleges.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program is a $2 billion investment to build the capacity of community colleges to serve the educational needs of adult dislocated workers – people who qualify for Trade Adjustment Assistance OR learners with similar needs. Of course, the investments may help others as well.
Rather than funding the CCs to train participants, these grants are funding CCs to develop or enhance programs of study, among other things. All the POSs they develop have to lead to an industry-recognized credential. And these 700+ institutions have developed a LOT of curriculum and other materials, with more to come over the next two years, which is what we’re here to talk about today.
Design innovative and effective programs that address specific industry needs and lead to improved learning, completion and career outcomes for TAA- eligible workers and other adults.

14. Accelerated Programs Designed for Adults
developed with employer partners.
elearning, credit for prior learning, competency-based models, stacked/latticed credentials, and innovative models to increase access to credentials for underprepared learners.
Through TAACCCT more adults, are earning industry-recognized skills that help lead to family-supporting jobs.
TAACCCT transforms the way colleges design and deliver courses so they are accessible for TAA-eligible workers and others who are un- and under-employed, and lead to industry-recognized credentials.
Educational Innovations
Programs have been designed to help students move quickly to earn credentials and enter employment:
Credit for prior learning systems make sure that veterans and other working adults earn credit for what they have learned through work experience.
Competency-based models measure what students know and not how much time they have sat in the classroom
Online and blended learning improves accessibility
Under-prepared learners, students with lower levels of math and literacy, are also served through programs that integrate basic skill development with technical skills
including on-the-job training, internships, and registered apprenticeships.

15. 7 Community Colleges across 5 states in USA focused on 4 career sectors
Computer Programming
IT Networking
Cybersecurity
Geospatial Technologies

16. Business and Industry Leadership Teams created for each career sector
Identified critical knowledge, skills, & abilities required for careers in industry
Worked with colleges to align curriculum, identify gaps, & propose strategies
Collin College (lead) TX, Bellevue College - WA, Bunker Hill Community College MA, Del Mar College CA, Moraine Valley Community College CA, Rio Salado College CA and Salt Lake Community College. UT

17. Virtual Lab Empowers Learning and Enables Learning Opportunities

18. Industry Partnerships and Technologies Transformed Education

19. Mentoring & Tutoring Key Advising Services

20. Internships Connects Students with Industry and Institution

21. STUDENTS Empowered for Success INSTITUTIONS Delivering on the Promise of Education INDUSTRY Benefiting From Well-Qualified Workforce

22. Missouri Healthcare Workforce Project: Making a Difference

23. Would you like FREE access to all the materials created through the TAACCCT program NOW?

24. 2014-2015: Contribute and Discovery

25. TAACCCT Grantees Produced OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: FREE for you to REUSE, REVISE, RETAIN, REMIX REDISTRIBUTE NOW!

26. Open Educational Resources
ALL materials produced with TAACCCT grant funds had to have a Creative Commons BY license.
materials downloaded to date
materials uploaded and more every month

27. Find Quality Course Syllabus
ADD ATTRIBUTION: This work, “Syllabus for Networking Course” by RPCC is a derivative of “Syllabus” by the National Information Security and Geospatial Technologies Consortium (NISGTC), and was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. The “Syllabus for Networking Course” by RPCC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

28. Find Quality Lab Content

29. Find Quality Lesson Plans

30. Find Quality Assurance of Content

31. Technology integrations with hands-on curriculum

32. Roadmap to complete certificates and degree to get a job

33. And some materials in Spanish by San Juan College in Puerto Rico

34. Improved Visualization for Browsing the Collection

35. Search for Information Security

36. 2 rounds of projects have contributed materials to the collection; 2 more to go!

37. Who can use SkillsCommons?
Higher ed institutions & faculty teaching
Government agencies for workforce development
Professional associations for workforce development
Industry HR Departments providing workforce development
Individuals seeking workforce development
EVERYONE!!!!!

38. Can we rely on SkillsCommons?
23 campuses, 480,000 students, 46,000 faculty and staff
Collaboration required
Digital library services manage about 1 billion digital assets; 8 years experience with D-Space
20 years in the open library business
Over 500 campuses within consortium
75,000+ resources and 145,000+ individual members
Over 40 customized services for different communities and can translate MERLOT into over 40 languages

39. Remember Last Year’s Presentation? “Give a Gift and Not a Burden”
Open Online Library for Academics in LouisianA
(OOLALA)

40. Would You Like Another Gift?
How about a $45,000 subaward from the Cal State University to support your Open Louisiana Project?
Expand the collection of courses that have free and open educational resources aligned and trusted by faculty.
Share this work through MERLOT’s infrastructure so everyone benefits.

41. You need more than online CONTENT for a successful eLearning initiative!

42. Enabling Ecosystems with policies, leadership, business models
Developing Demand with communications, training, professional development
Creating Capabilities with convenient & affordable online access to learning &teaching
Leveraging Content Providers Publishers--Libraries-- Academic Authors—OER (MERLOT & SkillsCommons)
Bottom to Top You have to manage a complex
Elearning strategy

43. Louisiana has CREATED CAPABILITIES for quality, convenient, and affordable eLearning
Faculty, staff, and administrators dedicated to quality education
Learning management systems
Instructional design methodologies
Open Louisiana Project!

44. How Do You Assure the Quality of eLearning? CREATE MORE CAPABILITIES!
Quality curriculum that captures the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed for success on the job and in life
Effective instructional design enables rather than interferes with the desires to learn
Accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities
Assures integrity of students’ performances (no cheating)

46. Community Review Processes for Content
MERLOT’s peer review processes by editorial boards – 17 years building tools and processes
MERLOT’s community review processes by membership
Comments, Lesson Plans, Discussion Forums
Industry reviews by subject matter experts of TAACCCT project partners
SkillsCommons CONNECT Center and IMPACT Communities

47. Quality of Instructional Design
Online Learning Consortium- Quality Scorecard
Quality Matters TM - variety of rubrics
Institutionally developed rubrics -CSU QOLT- Quality Online Learning and Teaching

48. “Certified” training for faculty learning to apply the QM Rubric
“Certified” Peer Reviewer
“Certified” Master Reviewer/Train the Trainer
“Certified” evaluation of course against the QM Rubric
Consortium pricing
Rubric for Course Design and Delivery
Aligns with QM
Faculty recognition program within the CSU
Free

49. Quality and Accessibility
All learners, including those with disabilities, must have equally effective access to learning and succeeding
DIGITAL +
OPEN LICENSE
ACCESSIBLE ≠

51. Quality by Academic Integrity
How can you assure that the student performance in your class was by same person who enrolled in your class?
How can you assure that the student performance represents the students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they will bring to the job?

52. Managing Academic Integrity
Before the assessment
Authentication of student (No confederate)
Controlled access to assessments (No learning the test)
Unique design your assessments (No plagiarism)
During the assessment
Proctoring of student performance (No “study aids”)
After the assessment
Controlled access to assessments (No sharing of test)
Authentication of the performance (No Plagiarism)

53. Enabling Ecosystems with policies, leadership, business models
Developing Demand with communications, training, professional development
Creating Capabilities with convenient & affordable online access to learning &teaching
Leveraging Content Providers Publishers--Libraries-- Academic Authors—OER (MERLOT & SkillsCommons)
How do you get people to “demand” eLearning?

54. Communications Develop Demand
Face-to-face Workshops & Communications to Special Groups
Custom Webinars and Online Communities for Special Groups
General Webinars and Online Outreach for All
Listservs, Social Media, Online Tools for All
Online Library of User Guides and Tutorials for All
COST Effective Scalability

56. SkillsCommons IMPACT COMMUNITIES

57. Show off impact of TAACCCT program
Provide easy access to the best resources for different user groups
Create CONNECTION opportunities

58. Enabling Ecosystems: All About Leadership
Establish Business and Industry Leadership Teams partnering on curricular goals, apprenticeships, internships, mentoring, and program evaluation
Redefine Business Relationships
Each takes risks and Each gets benefits
All are responsible and All are celebrated
Review Hallmarks of Excellence for Online Leadership by University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) for a comprehensive guideline

59. Going far can seem overwhelming…

60. But together, we can transform workforce development….
Mass = Putting OER into Educational Practices
Mass = Higher Education and Industry Partnerships

61. THANK YOU Questions?