Living with Exigency

September 20, 2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

Today we welcome David Dannenberg, the Director of Academic Innovations, State Authorization, and eLearning with the University of Alaska Anchorage. David joins us to discuss the economic issues facing higher education in Alaska and his reactions to the financial exigency process the state went through. Many of you have read the news stories about this […]

Creating Videos to Explore Open Education

September 18, 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

A flowchart for the video creation workflow. 1. Reflect, think about what you wnat to say and what you want your audience to learn. 2. script: draft and refine the script for your video. add explicit pauses in the script to break up topics. 3. record: record your audio/video. Expect this process to require multiple taks. 4. Create: create visuals for your video. If you recorded live video, create graphics and end screens. 5. Edit your audio, sync audio and visual cures, and add openly licensed background music. 6. Export: export your finished video, review for quality, and tweak export settings for the best results. 7. Upload: upload your video to youtube, vimeo, or your preferred space for sharing content. 8. Finish: add a video description, captions, CC license, citations for related works, and additional metadata.

Welcome today to Abbey Elder, the Open Access & Scholarly Communication Librarian for Iowa State University, who is here to discuss the development of a series of videos about open education. Abbey’s post today provides a wonderful outline for how you could create your very own series of educational videos, including an open access flowchart […]

From Policy to Compliance: What do Faculty Need to Develop Accessible Course Content?

September 12, 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

Geographic distribution of the responses. Note higher concentration of responses in the eastern United States.

Accessibility of college and university materials and services is an important topic for all those involved in education today. Higher Education institutions are working to develop policies and guidelines for ensuring accessible content for all learners. Do such policies result in more accessible digital environments? How can institutions help support faculty to develop more accessible […]

Choose your own EdVenture at #WCET19

September 6, 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

WCET 31st Annual Meeting image. Read's Denver CO November 5-7 on a teal background with geometric mountains

The WCET 31st Annual Meeting in Denver has something for anyone interested in the intersection of policy and practice of technology-enhanced teaching and learning in higher education. With a blend of inspiring keynotes, panels, loosely organized roundtable discussions, and freeform unconference sessions and a wide array of topics and speakers, attendees can chart their own […]

Happy New Academic Year! – WCET Updates and Previews

August 29, 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

A road with trees on each side and fog over the road

Well, it’s that time of year again—students and faculty are descending, virtually and physically, on college campuses everywhere, eagerly awaiting the start of the 2019/2020 academic year. That means that it is also time for the Marist College (formerly Beloit College) annual mindset list exploring all the changes to the world since the class of […]

Building a Network for Curation – the #femedtech movement

August 22, 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

As a women working in edtech, open education, and higher education, the #femedtech network has provided hope, joy, and encouragement for me and many others working within the space. Although Maren and I have never met in person, I am a Twitter friend and I invited her to write a WCET blog post exploring the […]

Today, State Authorization. Tomorrow, The World (Perhaps)!

August 15, 2019.Reading time 13 minutes.

What does your career trajectory look like? Today we welcome Dan Silverman, Assistant Director of WCET’s State Authorization Network (SAN), to discuss career pathways for state authorization and compliance staff. Dan conducted interviews with several compliance officials about their careers. Each of them have helpful advice for those looking into the future. Thank you to […]

Adaptive Learning: The Future is Up to Us

August 8, 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

Today we’re excited to welcome back Patricia O’Sullivan, the Program Manager for Externally Funded Academic Innovation Projects at the University of Mississippi. Patti inspired us last year with the University of Mississippi’s work in this area to help their students and improve student success. Today she’s back to Frontiers to consider what’s happening with adaptive […]

An Introspective Look at WCET’s Own Accessibility Practices, Part II

August 5, 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

Photograph showing a pink accessibility sign, which points towards a “Step Free Route.”

Last week, I began to explain what WCET is doing – and potential areas of improvement – about web accessibility, based on different disabilities and barriers that people with those disabilities may encounter as described by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Check out my first post for background information on what led me to […]

An Introspective Look at WCET’s Own Accessibility Practices, Part I

August 2, 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

Alt text: Icon produced by the Accessible Icon Project showing a person in motion in a wheelchair.

Are your course materials and institutional websites accessible for all learners? Here at Frontiers, we discuss accessibility quite often, but today we have a very practical post that directly reviews content to determine accessibility for all. I’m excited to welcome Rosa Calabrese, WCET’s Digital Designer, who is here to discuss her review of the accessibility […]