Spotlight Archive

Beginning at the WCET Annual Meeting in Minneapolis October 12-14, 2016 your two new Executive Council members will take office - Dr. Vernon Smith, Vice Provost for Distributed Learning and Associate Professor of Practice at the University of the Pacific and Dr. Michelle Weise, Executive Director of Sandbox Collaborative, the research and development lab of strategy and innovation at Southern New Hampshire University.  You can read more about the qualifications in today's news release.

Over the past three years, adaptive learning has gone from an ill-defined concept in higher education to an important category of teaching and learning technology. Join us Thursday, August 11 at 2pm MDT as we dig into the findings from the Learning to Adapt 2.0 report, including recommended best practices for implementation, potential impact on student outcomes, and insights into the evolution of this technology. Tyton Partners, who conducted the research, will be leading the discussion and answering questions from participants, and sharing a new tool that just launched, the Courseware in Context Framework, an open, field-governed resource for evaluating quality that is meant to support institutions in their effort to make use of adaptive and other digital learning. 

Join us in Salt Lake City June 8th - 9th for a day-and-a-half intensive, interactive discussion of questions related to student credentials in the 21st Century. The Summit, 21st Century Credentials: Learners + Institutions + Workforce, will bring together the perspectives of institutions, workforce, and learners to build a bridge from the traditional academic transcript to the connected credentials 21st Century learners need to be successful in the workforce. This bridge will serve as a guide for bringing the conversation back to your institution or organization.

WCET is focusing on OER throughout the month of February. The Frontier's Blog will feature promising practices and funding opportunities for furthering OER adoption and webcasts will cover tools for finding and managing OER as well as OER across states and systems.

Strategies and Tools for Finding, Adopting, and Managing OER
February 18, 2016
Consortia Success Stories: Institutions Working Together on OER Innovations
February 24, 2016

Join WCET & NUTN for a Think.In where attendees will have a discussion on “regular and substantive” interaction in higher education and the role of accreditation in distance and online education with a cross-section of educators: leadership from regional and national accreditors, college accreditation liaisons, distance education administrators and other stakeholders. April 15, 2015 at North Lake College. Learn More!

Join WCET's visionaries and leaders for a discussion of what edtech trends and issues are on the horizon. What should you be thinking about as you kick-off the 2016 academic year? What emerging issues are you seeing at your institution? Share them, and ask your questions during the open virtual conversation portion of the webcast. Register for this January 21st webcast.

Are you charged with managing the state authorization at your institution? Do you need help navigating the chaotic world of state regulations, federal updates, and the seemingly endless paperwork involved? Are you relatively new to authorization and compliance issues? If so, the WCET State Authorization Compliance Workshop may be the answer! Race to Louisville, KY March 8-9, 2016 to learn with us.

WCET is pleased to announce new members of the executive council and new leadership for both the steering committee and the executive council. At WCET, leadership reflects the cooperative model and collaborative spirit of our organization. By putting decisions in the hands of our membership, we stay in close sync with members' interests, even as they evolve. Read the full news release.

The award is named in honor of Richard Jonsen, the WICHE Executive Director who nurtured the idea of a technology cooperative and founded WCET in 1989. Exuding the principles espoused in the award, Dr. Thor has served the higher education community for over forty years with a pioneering and visionary spirit that has supported success for many students, many of whom might not have had a pathway without the opportunities Dr. Thor set in place. Read more about this well deserved honor.

To recognize the importance of accessibility as we kick off the fall semester, WCET will feature several Frontiers blogs and webcasts on accessibility issues and best practices across the institution.  We invite you to join in the learning by registering for our remaining webcast: Accessibility for Edtech Across the Campus: Turning a Negative into a Positive - September 29, 2015

Or view the archives from:
Video Captioning: Features, Costs, Good Practices, and How Captioning Benefits All Students - September 10, 2015
Promoting a Culture of Accessibility for Online Students - September 24, 2015

If you missed the WCET Annual Meeting November 11-13 or if you just want to relive or share the learning & laughter, view the recordings of the general sessions or check out the photos on Flickr. See: Robbie Melton's IoT antics during the opening keynote, the Reflecting and Looking Forward session which included two special acknowledgements, edtech leaders share their advice during the Leading Innovation in Higher Education general session panel, the WOW award luncheon, and the closing IoT panel. Our sincere thanks to Mediasite and Sonic Foundry for recording the sessions.​

Did you know that for WCET members, preconference sessions at the upcoming 27th Annual Meeting are no additional charge?  Not a member (yet!), these fantastic sessions can be added to your registration for only $75.  Held from 10am – Noon on Wednesday, Nov. 11th, you won’t want to miss:

• Adaptive Learning as an Applied Innovation: How to Get Started
• Strategic Innovation: Working Through the Strategy and Skeptics

​Already registered? Log back in to add these invigorating sessions. Haven’t registered? Do so quickly, as we’re nearing a sell-out!

The old educational technology categories of LMS, SIS, and portal are being challenged by Learning Relationship Managers. As retention and completion are superseding access as priorities in U.S. higher education, these products may be well-positioned to help institutions take a leap forward in reaching those goals in the same way that customer relationship management tools have transformed the business world. Join this Oct. 22 webcast to learn more from the representatives of two LRM providers: Fidelis, Inc. and Motivis and two pioneering institutions: American Public University System and Capella University. Register Today.  

The learning continues this fall with webcasts to help you address edtech needs on campus.  Gather your colleagues and perhaps a cup of warm apple cider to investigate the following topics:

• Teaching Competencies for 21st Century Learners. Join this Oct. 6 WCET Hangout, and follow along on twitter with #21CFaculty, to answer the questions, “is there a digital divide between Millennial students and today’s traditional teaching faculty? And what do we do about it?”
• Out with the Old In With the New. The old educational technology categories of LMS, SIS, and portal are being challenged by Learning Relationship Managers. Join this Oct. 22 webcast to  learn more from the representatives of two LRM providers and two pioneering institutions.

Photo Credit: Doug Jones 

To recognize the importance of accessibility as we kick off the fall semester, WCET will feature several Frontiers blogs and webcasts on accessibility issues and best practices across the institution.  We invite you to join in the learning by registering for our webcasts:

Video Captioning: Features, Costs, Good Practices, and How Captioning Benefits All Students - September 10, 2015
Promoting a Culture of Accessibility for Online Students - September 24, 2015
Accessibility for Edtech Across the Campus: Turning a Negative into a Positive - September 29, 2015

With over 50 concurrent sessions and over 100 speakers, the 27th WCET Annual Meeting is "chalk" full of great learning.  

Highlights include:

• Preconference session on Strategic Innovation: Working Through the Strategy & the Skeptics 
• A workshop on applying the work of the National Distance Education and Technological Advancement (DETA) Research Center.
• A new "Edtech Meet-up".
• Plenary sessions on the Internet of Things.

We look forward to seeing YOU in the Mile High City for warm day, cool evenings and hot learning!

Photo Credit: Trevor Munson 

This year's WOW award recipients have all implemented solutions in areas shown to have impact on student success.

• Boise State University: Virtual Reality Nursing Simulation with Custom Haptic System for Patient Safety.
• The NROC Project: EdReady, A College Math Readiness System.
• University of Central Florida: Directo Connect to UCF Pathway.
• University of Maryland University College: Open Educational Resources Initiatives.

Read more about these exceptional programs in the press release and catch them at the WCET Annual Meeting Nov. 11-13, 2015 in Denver.

On June 10-11, 2015, WCET will hold the Leadership Summit, "Adaptive Learning in Higher Ed: Improving Outcomes Dynamically" in Santa Fe, New Mexico where institutional leaders and corporate innovators will convene to explore the challenges, benefits, and tools related to adaptive learning in higher education. Learn more and register today! Photo Credit: Jim Nix

To recognize the importance of accessibility as we kick off the fall semester, WCET will feature several Frontiers blogs and webcasts on accessibility issues and best practices across the institution.  We invite you to join in the learning by registering for our remaining webcast:

Accessibility for Edtech Across the Campus: Turning a Negative into a Positive - September 29, 2015

Or view the archives from:

Video Captioning: Features, Costs, Good Practices, and How Captioning Benefits All Students - September 10, 2015
Promoting a Culture of Accessibility for Online Students - September 24, 2015

With over 50 concurrent sessions and over 100 speakers, the 27th WCET Annual Meeting is an outstanding lineup of forward thinking innovators, practitioners, and thought leaders in higher education technology. In typical WCET fashion, nearly every session includes multiple perspectives on topics such as:

- The Internet of Things.
- Adaptive Learning.
- Federal Policy & the Impact on Students, Institutions, States, & Accreditors.
- Managing CBE -- From Starting an Initiative to Developing a Transcript.

Photo Credit: Wally Gobetz