There is considerable agreement among faculty and administrators that the cost of an education is becoming financially out of reach for many students, and inflation will continue to pose a problem. But what do students think? Do they believe that distance learning is worth the cost? Furthermore, do distance students believe they're getting the same value as those taking only in-person classes?

To find out, we polled over 2,000 currently enrolled students from a variety of backgrounds and institutions, to gather their thoughts about the value of their education.

Specific questions that this session will address include:
• Do students who enrolled to improve their future job and employment prospects rate the value of their education differently?
• Do student opinions about the value of technology for teaching and learning impact their value perceptions?
• How do student perceptions vary by student demographics and by type of educational institution?
• In which disciplines do students think they are getting the best value, and in which are they the least satisfied?
• Is there a relationship between perceived value and how students rate their interactions with fellow student? With faculty? With support staff?

Oh my! We looked back at our title, and it sounds 'old school.' But we're not! We should have called our session – 'to boldly go where no designer has gone before!' Here's the scoop – this workshop is designed to keep you engaged! You may even be on the edge of your seat at times. Why? Because you will get a completely new perspective on instructional design. It's magical, it's practical, and it's doable. It's based on what we love about teaching or training others in our favorite subjects and topics. You'll take a journey with us to new curricular places and spaces. Your trip has been designed with passion and purpose. Pack your bags and come on board the 21st Century Design ship. There will be a smorgasbord of great ideas, activities and takeaways that will help make your courses or trainings out of this world!! See you at the docking station.

AI Technologies, ChatGPT, Esports, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed realities (MR), Blockchain, the Internet of Everything (IoE) and other emerging technologies are not only revolutionizing various industries such as healthcare, gaming and entertainment but are also changing the landscape of higher education. These technologies provide unique opportunities for engaging students and creating personalized learning experiences that enhance their success. This workshop aims to explore how these emerging technologies can be leveraged to improve student success in higher education.

Esports is a rapidly growing industry that provides opportunities for students to develop skills such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. AR, VR, and MR can create immersive and interactive learning experiences, allowing students to explore complex concepts in a way that traditional methods cannot match.

The integration of these emerging technologies in higher education has the potential to transform the educational experience, providing immersive and interactive learning opportunities that engage students and enhance their understanding of complex concepts. By leveraging these technologies, we can create personalized learning experiences that are tailored to individual students' needs and abilities.

New to building training/instruction? Want to quickly learn how to design a quality online course? Join this 2.5-hour transformation accelerator workshop to quickly get up to speed with creating your own efficient online training, through a series of hands-on exercises. To make the most of this experience, you are encouraged to bring your own internet-connected computing device, as well as anything you wish to incorporate into your online course.

Chat GPT has taken higher education by storm, frightening many educators and administrators. Rather than ban the tool, we should use it to our advantage. Chat GPT is excellent for higher education in multiple ways. It can be used to improve our online programs and enhance our team's efficiency.

Flipped learning is not a new concept, but as the technology revolution has emerged into education, flipped learning has been undergoing a significant transformation. This transformation has been accelerating with the exponential development of virtual learning since the Covid-19 pandemic. The learning experience with flipped classroom accumulated in the virtual learning environment over the past years certainly is changing the dynamic of traditional learning.
The presentation first addresses some misconceptions about flipped learning in practice, and then scrutinizes three enhanced flipped learning models that significantly contribute to developing students' active learning, critical thinking and higher order thinking skills. The presenters will offer some insight and strategies for successful implementation of each model to the audience. After this presentation, the audience will have a better understanding of what flipped classroom approach is, and how to implement and enhance flipped learning by engaging all students in the diverse learning environment, whether it is asynchronous, synchronous or in-person.

This concurrent session will guide participants through discussion of emerging topics on possibilities and advancements in AI, VR, AR, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and how we want to use these tools, the concept of imaginaries and divergent thinking to shape the future of distance learning. Our discussion will center around 1) What do we need to know about the latest advances in AI, VR, AR, and DAOs to better understand them, 2) What excites you about these new technologies and how we may use them to shape the distance learning futures, 3) What are the next steps to begin leveraging these technologies, and 4) what worries/ concerns have emerged as we explored these new technologies?

In 2020, Dr. Alsop started working with world-renowned educator and founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation, Erin Gruwell, alongside life-long educator Dr. Freda Braddock, to develop Waldorf University's Master of Education in Social Emotional Learning. A firm believer in SEL, Dr. Alsop's passion for educating the whole student and providing a place for Erin's original class of students to achieve resulted in a world-class SEL graduate program and a powerful partnership between several thought leaders worldwide of K-12 and collegiate online education. Come learn more about this impactful and inspiring collaboration.

Learn about the array of resources that NC-SARA is making available to colleges and universities to support the growth and quality of interstate distance education programs. From SARA Source -a new searchable catalog of SARA distance education programs- to NC-SARA's interactive data dashboards that share publicly available enrollment and out-of-state learning placement data, to resources and webinars. NC-SARA offers information, insights, and guidance for navigating the SARA universe. We'll highlight student's consumer protections through SARA, give an update on the SARA landscape, and share how institutions and other stakeholders can participate in the new SARA policy modification process. Join us for an interactive tour and discussions about SARA!

Hear how Germanna Community College is focused on encouraging different modes of expression in Music, and Government courses to make their students more comfortable engaging with the content and getting their ideas out without having to worry as much about grammar anxiety and being judged for their writing skills. A more recent benefit of this type of structured open expression is that it naturally side steps the worry about AI writing in the classroom.

Almost 50% of 2022 entering college students report being "Mentally Exhausted' (BCSSE, 2022) as they were beginning college.

With the increase in student need running head first into the employee Great Resignation/Quiet Quitting, sustainable solutions are complicated. How can we meet and support the increasing well-being needs of students?

This interactive session will highlight the national data on student wellness and supporting student success through telehealth solutions. A telehealth use case to address well-being and retention will be shared.

Several decades ago, courses were being offered online, but today entire programs and degrees are now being completed online. One particular field that has seen rapid growth in online degree completion is teacher education. The Prekindergarten Associate degree program at Miami University is a teacher preparation program for those students planning to teach children birth-5 in childcare and preschool settings. This early childhood teacher preparation program is offered on Miami's regional campuses, where many of the students are non-traditional with numerous responsibilities outside of furthering their education. Quality online instructional design and suggestions for creating an engaging online learning environment will be addressed in this presentation to support online teacher preparation programs or online instructors to meet the needs of all students.

Institutions must be aware and plan for compliance with Federal regulations that will affect the implementation of distance education courses and programs including activities across state lines.

Attendees will learn about the ambitious U.S. Department of Education plans to hold another rulemaking to develop new and revised regulations in addition to recently released proposed regulations for which compliance is tied to Title IV Federal Financial Aid. Issues likely to be addressed include the definition of distance education (regular and substantive interaction), working with third party servicers (such as OPMs), state authorization and reciprocity, as well as the release of proposed regulations addressing programs that lead to a license or certification.

We will discuss strategies to plan for advocacy and plan for change.

Microlearning has been trending as an optional instructional and learning strategy. The concept of short bursts of learning is a preference of many learners. However, change is hard, and more evidence to support the inclusion of microlearning is needed to encourage implementation by educators. Using the research findings, I led a major course redesign that included microlearning as a strategy. When leading a redesign, one needs to consider many steps and roles. During this concurrent session, you will work in groups to develop ways to redesign a course with microlearning strategies that fully fill the course objective. Bring your specific course with objectives for possible inclusion in the group activity.

Within distance education and remote leadership, there are opportunities for leaders to lead in a positive manner that still supports innovative and organizational changes while being mindful of balance for us all.

More than the traditional ROI where the cost of the expenditure in terms of software, trainers, and tools to create the learning are measured against the return (profit and revenue), the Return on Learning, ROL, measures the cost of the problem and its impact on the organization against the cost of creating and delivering the learning solution. From attrition to leadership communication, there is a cost in the decline in operational performance that can be impacted with performance solutions that should be measured and show the alignment of these solutions to business processes.

Today's instruction often requires a hybrid approach and reorienting a classroom for this type of instruction doesn't have to add complexity and unsightly cabling. There are solutions on the market today that work with your existing environment, provide wireless access to the needed peripherals (Camera, Speaker(s), Microphone(s)) and allow you to use the device(s) you are comfortable with to deliver your content and instruction in a way that benefits both in room and remote learners. This will be a high-level overview of this type of solution and examples will be given of equipment available to accomplish this type of solution.

This session combines two related sessions on the research and application of kindness in an online university. In 2019, two faculty recognized there was an opportunity to highlight the importance of kindness at their university. This session highlights the journey that was taken to establish objectives and goals grounded in the theory of reasoned action that were the foundation for developing and offering a variety of kindness focused initiatives in the college and throughout the university. Attendees will learn about the objectives, goals, and key kindness initiatives and related collaborations that were established. Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn about research-based strategies for using kindness virtually. The presenters will share their research related to faculty strategies using kindness virtually. The purpose of the qualitative exploratory case study was to explore kindness strategies faculty use virtually. The primary research question was 'what kindness strategies do faculty use virtually?' Key themes included instructional strategies, tone of communication, method of communication, student-centered behaviors, and self-regulated behaviors.

Standard English (SE) is one of many dialects of English in the USA, each with complex grammar rules. Historically, however, a lack of mastery of SE has been seen as a deficit in education, or worse, in intelligence. In academia, this misconception has translated into evaluating tools like rubrics, so that students who have had little or no experience practicing SE, and who then understandably struggle with the scholarly version of SE: Standard Academic English (SAE), can be penalized excessively. A student's cultural language cannot be separated from their identity, and it can allow them to communicate meaningfully and effectively. Yet in higher education the uncritical promotion of SAE can marginalize students, especially students of color and multilingual students. The focus of mechanics over meaning unduly burdens student learning, particularly in undergraduate programs. SAE should be taught and framed as academic and professional tool. Written demonstration of critical thinking skills, mastery of content, consideration of audience, and ability to express ideas clearly should supersede close adherence to SAE in students' evaluations. This presentation will discuss linguistic diversity, how it serves to celebrates students' linguistic variants, and how it can help faculty practice equity and compassion in their classrooms.

Educators are tasked with delivering curriculum and creating consistent learning outcomes--yet, we must arrive at each session ready to dance in the moment with each new group of learners. Students bring tremendously diverse perspectives, experiences, prior knowledge, learning styles, and personalities. Our role as educators requires thinking on our feet; sensing and being responsive to the ever-shifting dynamics and surprises of the classroom; listening well; and embodying a flexible, confident, and engaging presence. How can educators--from the newest to the most seasoned--step out of default patterns and comfort zones in order to be more effective facilitators of learning? How can we meet learners where they are, adapting to the needs and opportunities of each group, while maintaining focus on key learning outcomes? How can we bring a more engaging, energizing, conscious, confident, and fully embodied presence to each session? How can we keep content we've repeatedly delivered fresh? Carrie Spaulding, an educator and professional improviser with 23 years of experience designing and delivering robust curricula for diverse learners, knows firsthand the game-changing power of improvisation skills in a learning environment. Participants will learn core concepts of improvisation that will instantly help them lead learning experiences with more confidence and impact.

Chemists love to create! They mix things together and are often rewarded with amazing changes - beautiful colors, flames, and totally new substances. And they can accelerate these changes with a catalyst. So, too in teaching and learning! The chemistry of success is what matters. Amazing changes can happen when learners become engaged. And that can be speeded up when we add intellectual, social, emotional, and behavioral catalysts. In this workshop we'll show you how it worked in a fully online chemistry lab and give you guidelines to do the same in your courses. If that sounds like an impossible task, then you will want to join us on this quest for success. Because the chemistry of success is what matters in teaching & learning!

Aesthetics, an important instructional design element for online learning, is largely ignored by e-learning platforms. Research supporting the deliberate use of aesthetics to increase learner outcomes is encouraging educators to implement aesthetics in online learning to increase learner outcomes. This hands-on workshop is for educators and trainers who want to take their online classroom to the next level in their visual appeal, personalization, and interactive nature. By creating a Bitmoji classroom that fits the age and content area of the students, teachers will have endless possibilities to use this platform as a springboard for lectures, centers, libraries and more. Let us walk you through the steps of creation and save you time by bypassing common mistakes. Attendees should have their own computer, wifi access or hot spot, and a Google account. Bitmoji classrooms are an effective way to visually engage learners teaching, organize and manage resources, and increase learner outcomes.

The Freedom Writers Diary, and movie, Freedom Writers is based on the true story of an idealistic teacher, Erin Gruwell, who inspires a class of freshmen students to dream beyond their circumstances by harnessing the power of creative writing and storytelling. Gruwell compiled these stories of perseverance into her first book, The Freedom Writers Diary. While all of her 150 students graduated high school in 1998, not all were able to attain their dream of a college education. Since 2018, Waldorf University has been working to navigate a path to a baccalaureate degree for these Freedom Writers. Each student begins with "Lessons for Life" courses that build upon their life experiences by integrating Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion principles. In these courses, students are introduced to the process by which people apply the knowledge and skills necessary to manage emotions, set positive goals, and extend empathy, all while maintaining healthy relationships. In this informative session, we will share with participants how The Freedom Writer's Foundation has partnered with Waldorf University to fulfill the dreams of the original Freedom Writers in attaining a college degree, and offering graduate courses for teachers to embrace a unique pedagogy involving social emotional learning and DEI.

We re-imagine online higher education as elevating the promise of social and economic mobility by addressing issues of justice and equity, across a learner's educational lifespan. The learner as changemaker must be supported within institutional communities of care that afford intellectual, academic, financial, social, and emotional support. More than 'holistic' student support, a community of care honors and engages individual lived experiences, including physical and mental health, socio-cultural and economic contexts, and natural and built environments. These socially determined aspects of human experience are unique to each learner, and can be supported through the development and use of individual thrive indices: data that can be synthesized and shared within the institution to promote learner success and well-being, and by operationalizing equity mindsets and norms of care in an environment valuing the inherent worth, dignity, and humanity of all engaged in the learning process. It will be through such intentional, inclusive, and sustainable institutional organization and communities of care that higher education can empower learners to affect positive social change. This re-imaging is more than theory and practice, it is the call to action of our time.

Gaining administration and faculty buy-in is the first step, and not an easy one, when suggesting some parts of technical education can be placed online. In this session, the presenter will discuss how a small technical college was able to garner resources to help hard tech faculty build interactive online content for their students. Samples of interactive content will be presented along with software used to build.

In this session, learn how "Big Data" from your LMS and SIS can be transformed to gain holistic views of students and programs. Identify students and tuition at-risk, increase engagement and drive powerful interventions with your students to improve outcomes and promote institutional success.

It is common for online education leaders to pay attention to short-term trends in the industry. We also teach our students to review past events to understand our present and potential future. However, how many of us were prepared for a pandemic in 2020 or ChatGPT in 2022? What were the signals that indicated a change in our environment? This session will introduce participants to Foresight. According to Tsoukas and Shepherd (2004), Foresight is described as 'the ability to see beyond seeming perplexity, to identify developments before they become trends, to recognize patterns before they emerge, and to spot relevant features of social currents that potentially shape the direction of future circumstances' (as cited in Ahvenharju, 2022, p. 25). Recognizing that there is a cone of possibilities and a variety of futures allows leaders in online education to embrace uncertainty and explore those potential futures. The presenters in this session will share their experience with strategic foresight and explore the idea that while online education will continue to be part of the future of higher education, there are signals of the future indicating potential changes in the way we teach and support learners.

Many faculty, administrators, and students during the pandemic had to navigate new waters of engagement and learning. Not all of us were in all three roles. As a person who held all three roles, I gained a new perspective on what I was doing well, what I was not doing well, and new areas that should be explored. Relearning how to listen and hear, building relationships, and critically evaluating processes became essential to making it through the day. Using a journaling process, I was able to chronicle my journey as a student, online faculty, and administrator. I was able to identify areas where I am good, areas where I really need help, and areas that I am going to continue to explore to create a supportive engaging online experience in all roles. This session will explore ways of finding barriers, cases used to engage first-year students, and a strategy to break down processes that no longer made sense. I will share my journey and future as I evolve into all roles.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased demand for hybrid and online courses, and the emergence of revolutionary technologies, colleges and universities are revisiting--and often revising--distance learning (DL) policies. The resulting documents both shape and reflect the attitudes and behaviors of those who created and those who interpret the policies. The documents are also a reflection of the institution's stance on distance learning and how distance learning fits into the institution's goals and mission. Instructional designers rarely have a voice in policymaking. But, they can become policy arbiters, especially if DL policies require or recommend 'quality assurance' of online courses.

This session will highlight preliminary data from a rhetorical content analysis of distance learning policies from the California State University system and discuss implications not only for instructional designers but also faculty, students, and other staff. Those involved with creating and/or interpreting distance learning policies are encouraged to attend. Participants will be asked to consider their institutional policies in light of this discussion and share examples as appropriate.

This session will provide background information regarding social constructivism, or connectivism, and share an ongoing research project
regarding learner engagement in an online, graduate level course. Innovative pedagogical approaches utilizing a connectivist approach will be examined with preliminary results shared. While many educators have long relied on behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism as theories to guide their teaching philosophy, some educators and education researchers are now embracing a social constructivist approach called connectivism. Connectivism is built around two pillars – learning autonomy and learning networks. The majority of research regarding connectivism has been conducted in higher education because those learners often have both autonomy and network. Connectivism learning is facilitated by educators when ideas are made between learning networks; To visualize this, note that the 'learners role is not to memorize, but to find, process, and apply knowledge when and where it is needed' (Smidt, Thornton, & Abhari, 2017, p. 2117) through active participation and knowledge construction individually and with small groups or networks of other learners.

Higher education has been quick to adopt remote students yet slower to adopt remote employees. The onset of the pandemic, however, forced many higher education employees to work remotely bringing unprecedented challenges to higher education administrators and their employees. Questions of oversight, accountability, and productivity were raised. Now, several years after the onset of the pandemic, many faculty and staff continue to work remotely, and current labor statistics reflect that remote employment continues to rise across the United States. Supervising remote teams is a relatively new enterprise in higher education but will likely become the new norm. In this session, we will discuss ways to effectively lead remote eLearning teams like faculty, instructional designers, and support staff. Sharing research-validated best practices while also discussing our lived experiences, we will explore ways to provide proper oversight and accountability to remote eLearning teams. We will also provide practical steps in building positive work culture and increased productivity amongst remote eLearning teams.

Shinning a spotlight on microlearning as more than a trend. Research findings support microlearning as an equally effective strategy compared to recorded lectures. This poster and the table discussions will review quantitative research comparing the statistical significance of microlearning and recorded lectures while ideating innovative implementation strategies into your environment. Providing the quantitative data, qualitative discussion, and literature support to continue advancing our fields.

This exploratory study builds upon the expertise of a panel of faculty, administrators, students, and instructional designers (IDs) who lived through the pandemic and dealt with the associated challenges firsthand. These participants provided insight on how to establish systems that would create successful online teaching and learning opportunities in the post-vaccine and post-pandemic world. Four major themes emerged: (a) integrating technology to facilitate and enhance education; (b) structural support and resources needed to build sound processes for effective online education; (c) establishing faculty presence to facilitate learning; and (d) joint ownership and responsibility of learning-everyone must play a part. These themes have been described in light of theoretical frameworks, such as the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, Community of Inquiry (COI), and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Finally, evidence-based tips will allow academic institutions to successfully emerge out of the pandemic while still making plans to adjust and adapt in the post-vaccine world.

New data added to published study - [Link - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00472395211063754]

In this session attendees will see how a digital escape room was developed as an asynchronous activity for a Latin American Humanities course to increase engagement for online students. The presentation will share the pedagogical, accessibility, logistical, and technological considerations needed for creating such an activity. Session attendees will be provided with the background of the project, the development of the escape room, and resources for creating a digital escape room. In addition to the hints and strategies, attendees can have a hands-on experience with the digital escape room.

In the 111th academic year, the average scores for English subject in the four-year college and two-year vocational programs were as follows: the overall average score was 46.21, the front-standard score was 65, the mean-standard score was 41, and the back-standard score was 26. The low English grades re-quire educators to reflect deeply and provide effective methods that can help students in their learning. This research paper aims to investigate the impact of attribution re-training on the academic performance of low-performing college students in Taiwan. The study focuses on a specific intervention, namely, the participation of students in an international invention contest that requires the use of their second language, English. The intervention involves a six-hour-per-week English training program conducted prior to the contest. To gather data, a 5-scale questionnaire was administered to assess learning outcomes, satisfaction, and motivation. Additionally, interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the students' experiences. By exploring the students' performance in the contest, as well as their confidence, motivation, and satisfaction with English learning and speaking, this research seeks to shed light on the potential benefits of such interventions. The findings can inform educational institutions and educators in developing strategies to support students.

Do you know what competencies your students or employees are gaining through work or training? Are you able to track their learning and progress? Do you know how to build programs that allow your learners to utilize their skill sets? Or, provide a transparent and fun way to develop the skills they need to succeed? You can also use CBE as a way to recruit and retain students, help them finish faster with less debt, and align with industry leaders in your city or state. If any of these resonates with you, CBE may be the right solution to implement! Let's discuss together and take a deep dive into the world of competency-based education including topics like what is the right program to build and how to engage your learners.

This session is designed to illuminate the benefits of an esports program in a school setting. Whether brick-and-mortar, hybrid, or virtual, esports provides a platform for student engagement, SEL fundamentals, leadership growth, and relationship development. As distance learning opportunities continue to open the world to students, esports gains traction in schools across the country. Discover how esports can help provide marginalized student groups a place to belong. Find ways to incorporate elements of the esports ecosystem into any school setting to help reach students in a new and novel way.

Health care and education in rural communities were social determinants significantly impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. These communities continue to experience substantial challenges regarding health care access and inadequate college and career preparation for secondary students. To address these challenges, the University of Tennessee campuses at Martin (UTM) and the Health Science Center (UTHSC) in Memphis developed a partnership to offer a diverse array of health education programming designed to reduce health disparities and increase academic learning experiences throughout rural West Tennessee using distance learning (DL) technology. Supported by grant funding from the Rural Utilities Service – Distance Learning Technology (RUS-DLT) program, 5 rural high schools, 4 rural off-campus sites, UTM, and UTHSC received new DL technology and telehealth carts to provide these opportunities. The collaboration is creating and providing content with ancillary health benefits that address issues such as substance abuse and telemedicine awareness. Coupled with an NIH R25 Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA), new DL-based dual enrollment courses, STEM-based laboratory experiences, data and laboratory science training for high school students, health informatics and medical laboratory science career information and guidance, summer enrichment activities, and professional development opportunities for regional K-12 educators and administrators are in process.

Post Pandemic, distance learning, and digital learning initiatives have become the darlings of the education and training fields. Leaders must consider many tools, services, policies, and procedures to plan, implement, and evaluate their institution's return on investment. However, with efforts to quickly implement distance initiatives, some actions create success and shine, while others cause confusion, frustration, and a dim outlook. This session will share activities that assist with achieving initiative success and others that threaten distance learning initiatives. Attendees will leave the session with practical guidance to help them implement somewhat complicated site-wide initiatives.

As we are aware, an institution offering out-of-state activities (including distance education) is subject to the laws of that state, such as institutional approval through the state higher education agency. A fundamental principle of compliance is that an expansion of the institution's out-of-state footprint will increase its regulatory obligations in the locations where the institutions is operating. Regulation is always catching up with technology and states may choose to regulate new and emerging issues. What are those emerging issues? How does it affect an institution serving students by distance education?

In this session we plan to engage with the attendees in a game show format to learn their level of regulatory knowledge. We also want to engage attendees with an interactive discussion of potential scenarios and institutional strategies to address compliance.
Finally, our presentation is intended to share direction with the attendees. Resources will be provided to the attendees to point them to analysis of these laws and regulations, institutional strategies, and next steps that can be taken at the institution.

The algebra-based introductory physics course series has been transformed into a personalized adaptive learning (PAL) courseware. The PAL system allows flexibility and provides unique pathways through complex material, After 7-semesters delivery, the adaptive courseware has been adopted by three other instructors, benefiting thousands of students. Results have shown that the PAL courseware has improved students' learning performance, especially in challenging topics.

In this session, we will explore the potential of virtual environments within the context of online and distance learning. What does a virtual campus offer in terms of community building, collaboration and a sense of belonging, beyond what is available in synchronous platforms? Our presenter will share a first look of UNIVERSE by ViewSonic, a virtual campus developed specifically for online learning.

Have you ever felt confined by perceived limitations in online teaching? Join us as we deconstruct and challenge five widely held beliefs that have been perceived as limitations in the digital teaching landscape.

We will explore the power of gamification's ability to boost student engagement and motivation, overturning the notion that online learning is an inherently passive experience. Next, we will focus on personalized learning techniques natively built into our LMS and through incredible and accessible ed tech, defying the idea that all students must follow a one-size-fits-all learning journey.

We will also highlight the development of a strong online learning community, dispelling the belief that virtual classrooms are devoid of social interaction and collective learning experiences. We will delve into innovative approaches to circumvent AI-enabled academic misconduct, combating the perception that online teaching is plagued by unavoidable widespread cheating.

Lastly, we'll discuss the transformative impact of effective course design, contesting the claim that online courses are intrinsically dull and uninspiring. We will showcase real-world examples and practical strategies for educators to harness these innovative techniques and tools, demonstrating that what was once deemed "impossible" in online teaching is not only achievable, but instrumental in shaping the future of education.

Emotional intelligence is a superpower of successful mentoring through recognizing and effectively managing emotions in self, others, and among groups. This session, by design, is to help participants understand themselves better through self-awareness and how their behavior may impact others. The discussion goes beyond emotional intelligence basics to mentoring transformative strategies to build trust, manage difficult conversations, increase resilience, mentor for long-term success, and positively influence virtual learner engagement. There is an opportunity for participants to engage in a reflective exercise and create a transformative emotional intelligence personal development plan. The session outcomes might lead to mentors expanding their transformative emotional intelligence capacity to positively influence virtual learner engagement in an inclusive environment for a community of care.

Thanks go to Social Constructivism and its great impacts on formation of community of inquiry, it becomes more feasible to build an effective constructive online learning environment and foster a community of inquiry in which learners interact and construct new knowledge through projects and problem solving. Garrison and Archer (2001 & 2007) proposed the Community of Inquiry( COI) model in which underlying constructs such as social presence, teaching presence, as well as cognitive presence were spelled out as legitimate building blocks for community building and growth.
Based on COI, in this workshop, the facilitators will accordingly propose the three important dimensions to facilitate the three types of presence. Specifically, how learner to learner, learner to teacher, and learner to content interactions can help build social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence respectively. The facilitators will argue that to a large extent, learner-content interaction tends to be neglected as compared to the other dimensions of interaction in online course design. Facilitators will share design samples to elaborate how learner-content interaction can be built and enhanced in the online, hybrid, and hyflex instructional settings.

Join your host Kevin Pridemore for a fun and interactive experience. We will take a field trip, get instant feedback from our group, and even race for fastest correct answers, all within the simple Nearpod format.' Audience members can all participate by bringing an internet capable device (like a phone). We will use these devices to gather real-time data through formative assessments in a wide variety of assessment types. Attendees will leave with the ability to create their own custom presentation.

Remote learning has undoubtedly had a positive impact on educational equality and inclusion. As our classrooms have become more diverse, discrimination may not be as blatant (or even intentional) as it once was. In the 21st century, both conscious and unconscious biases are commonly displayed as microaggressions. Microaggressions are covert derogatory offenses directed at a member of a marginalized group. Over time, being on the receiving end of microaggressions can negatively
impact students' and/or faculty mental health. This interactive workshop will provide a safe space to discuss the various types of microaggressions in distance education. Practical strategies and interventions aimed at decreasing such occurrences will be shared.

Leveraging Technologies in Online Courses: An improved use of Announcements and Discussion for better communication and the use of rubrics and grade center features for effective feedback. One of the best ways to provide clear and effective communication is to leverage readily available in the LMS technologies. This session will provide tips and best practices that aim to elevate communication with students by providing effective Announcements and engaging Discussion Boards; it will also demonstrate how to provide effective feedback through rubrics and grade center features found in the LMS.

Take an exclusive peek into Mallori's approach to storyboarding for gamification as she reveals her strategy for crafting a storyboard for an engaging and immersive gamified experience. Deep dive into her creative process, you'll gain valuable insights on how to keep storyboards coherent and well-structured while discovering effective techniques for using them to build captivating gameplay experiences. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and skills to leverage the power of storyboarding to enhance your game design skills and create more dynamic and entertaining learning experiences. So, if you're ready to level up your game design expertise, join Mallori and unlock the secrets of successful gamification with storyboarding.

Our future for delivering healthcare and improving access will need to include investing in technology and telecommunications connectivity in public places. Public places where we can have private conversations about our health whether we are at our local library, school or visiting a mobile unit connected to the internet. Technology + Connectivity can connect everyone in our communities to healthcare for both clinical and educational applications and our libraries have become partners in telehealth. This session will feature a panel to explore several state programs and modalities currently being used to provide access to healthcare in our trusted public places for people who often need it most. Investing and managing in technology and devices for those who do not have them is a critical part of increasing access to healthcare and eliminating the digital divide. We will explore several interesting programs from across the United States while sharing best practice protocols that will include everything from delivering telehealth services to our schools, in our libraries as well as the use of mobile units that provide not only technology and telecommunications connectivity but also deliver space and the ability to connect to our communities 'anywhere'.

This session presents the results of integrating Universal Design for Learning, IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility), and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) strategies in a redesigned online graduate-level Engineering course. We will review our design strategy, demonstrate technologies used, present preliminary data, review lessons learned, and invite attendees to discuss the future of blended and online STEM education.

The pandemic pivot to online learning has been referred to as 'panic-gogy' (Kamenetz, 2020) but now that higher education is settling into the new normal, we can be more intentional about the technological innovations we want to continue to incorporate. At Southeast Missouri State University, we explored Hyflex class delivery at scale during COVID-19.  In a Hyflex class, students can choose to attend on campus, asynchronously online, or synchronously online, each class period (Beatty, 2017, 2019). This type of course environment can serve a variety of student populations, and help institutions meet the need of a diverse and changing student demographic (McNeely & Sumner, 2023). Beyond Hyflex course delivery, two program leaders with unique student populations have explored and implemented Hyflex programming.  In this conference session, we will share how our institution came to adopt Hyflex, and how two programs are using it to meet the needs of their very diverse student groups. Attendees will be encouraged to share experiences implementing Hyflex and will leave the sessions with ideas regarding this model at their own institutions. 

Many organizations & academic institutions claim to prioritize DEI, but the reality is that many Black Women (and other BIPOC) experience cultural taxation on a daily basis. In this session, we'll discuss the meaning of cultural taxation, how it negatively impacts individuals and organizations, and how DEI initiatives should be enhanced to create workspaces that are equitable and inclusive for all.

This session will provide a roadmap to planning, development, and implementation of a virtual dual enrollment program.

Student success is a hot topic in discussions about online and remote courses. Learn how to use the '20% Survey' early intervention tool to help resolve technology, textbook, syllabus, assignment or faculty issues. Additionally, useful data can be mined from the survey for continuous improvement measures and instructional design planning.

At some point in time, we have all been 'the new person' as we change roles at school, work, or other activities. Perhaps you wondered what the workplace culture was like? Or, what were the performance expectations? Who do you ask how to find/start/complete 'XYZ?' Perhaps there was some nervousness about being the newest team member in a group that's worked together for many years? These concerns may be exacerbated when working in a remote capacity where new employees can feel isolated and alone. A successful workplace mentoring program will not only benefit the mentee but the mentor and organization as well. Not only does it provide guidance through a transfer of knowledge that improves the retention of talent, but it helps cultivate relationships and a sense of community which is essential in a remote workplace. In this session, we will share insights into how Purdue University Global's Science Department has successfully incorporated its faculty mentoring program to support new full-time and part-time adjunct faculty. We will describe how we follow our new faculty from their initial hiring offer, through the end of a term, and beyond.

Whose voices, perspectives, and ideas are represented in your classroom? Have you taken a bird's eye view of your course content, teaching methods, or curriculum design? This session will share how a health science center is moving students and faculty beyond assimilation to representation through the power of video storytelling.

This presentation will share the latest results from our national survey tracking the awareness of open educational resources (OER) in US K-12 and higher education classrooms. Since 2009, Bay View Analytics has been tracking the growing awareness and adoption of OER through annual surveys of teachers, faculty, and administrators. These surveys identify and track multiple factors that impact OER awareness and adoption, including the rise of digital curricula, professional development assessment, and competition from inclusive access solutions. The presentation will show how OER trends vary by grade level, course discipline, and school demographics.

This session will share the continuous improvement process leveraged by the University of Arizona Global Campus's Academic Operations department to carry out faculty focused system and process initiatives. The focus will be specifically on the design, development, and implementation of a new adjunct faculty compensation model the university launched in October of 2021, and the continuous improvement process leveraged to evaluate and collect feedback from faculty and staff which helped make informed decisions on planned improvements to the model for the next fiscal year. The presentation will conclude with a full breakdown of the phased approach for implementation and an outline of the next steps we are taking to implement the feedback collected. Included will be a review of current data reporting structures being created to better support the evaluation of the changes being made as we continue through the continuous improvement process again.

This round table conversation will be an excellent opportunity to network and share what individuals and their home states are up to in the world of implementing technology for patrons to access in their local public library. We look forward to continuing the conversation from our session to provide a way for the audience to interact informally about their challenges and successes in this space. Connected technology to empower library patrons to manage their health and have access to telehealth services is an excellent way to improve health and access to technology in our digital world. What a great way to foster digital equity while improving the health of your community!

ChatGPT has only been around a few months but has taken the education industry by storm. While some educators fear it will be abused by students and increase plagiarism, others point to an opportunity for increased learning and understanding of challenging topics. Whether you are friend or foe of ChatGPT, it's important to understand strategies that will benefit your students. In this session, learn how to use ChatGPT to your advantage as an educator in teaching and designing curriculum.

In this presentation, the nine core principles for designing inclusive online curriculum and classrooms are shared. Theoretical support as well as evidence from research are provided for each principle in addition to specific curriculum design strategies appropriate for all degree levels. These principles, when used to design online curricula or to evaluate and revise existing curricula, can help create a learning environment in which students feel welcomed and valued for their unique individual contributions, experiences, perspectives, and identities. Participants in this session will have the opportunity to ask questions and to share examples from their own practice.

Transformative Education is innovative and creative. Educators are encouraged to design courses that support access and accessibility through course design in Higher Education. This session promises to explore practical and innovative strategies that result in positive learning outcomes that transform the learner experience. Three points of consideration for framing the student outcome reside in the following practices at the institutional and program levels:
1. Quality Initiatives encourage high faculty participation and improved outcomes.
2. Faculty development supports course design practices that incorporate intentional design principles.
3. Sustainable Solutions build engaging student experiences that elevate program and course designs.
In this post-pandemic era, it is vital to build strategic networks combined with mental patterns for successful learning in digital modalities. Faculty and instructional designers can collaboratively document and utilize course design innovations to intentionally review the options for improved student engagement and learning outcomes.

This 4 compass points roundtable will guide participants through a discussion of emerging topics to include the possibilities and advancements in XR mixed reality, artificial intelligence (AI), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)s and how we want to use these tools, the concept of imaginaries and divergent thinking to shape global education.

· Discuss VR, AR, AI, DAOs and other emerging technologies and how they will shape the future.

· Identify next steps participants can take to start to integrate these technologies

Each person will take turn answering

· What is exciting?

· What is worrisome?

· What is the current stance or opinion?

· What else do we need to know?

The purpose of this session is to explore a best practice framework that educators can use to help students achieve long-term subject-matter retention when print content is transferred to digital content that uses modalities such as extended reality (XR) or artificial intelligence (AI). This topic is timely and significant, especially in the field of distance education and learning, as educators increasingly seek out technologies to engage students at a more authentic level using technologies that mirror what one may encounter in a real-world setting. These technologies often take traditional print content and transfer it to a digital platform which necessarily alters the content, whether that alteration is intentional or unintentional. Therefore, teaching and learning are impacted as now educators must be deliberate in helping students' perceptive realities based on the intended learning outcomes through conscious teaching of multimodal literacy skills. In this presentation, a specific framework, the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework will be explored as a scaffold for educators to use when teaching multimodal literacy skills.

Inadequate or ineffectively communicated feedback may impede the development of cordial, collaborative relationships between doctoral students and supervisors and may impede successful capstone outcomes, particularly in the context of distance education. In this session, we will share tips learned from our qualitative study addressing online faculty's use of technology when supervising doctoral capstone writers. Suggestions will be shared on how technology can be used to ensure accountability, provide instruction, enhance communication, increase motivation, and promote self-regulation among online writers. Particular attention will be given to the benefits of asynchronous and synchronous feedback, using appropriate technology to address the social-affective element of feedback, aligning the purpose of feedback with appropriate technology, and developing strategies to promote a dialogic feedback cycle. Session attendees will be given the opportunity to share and reflect on the challenges and successes they have had in using technology for feedback in the online environment and will leave the session with a plan to purposefully implement new technologies and strategies to improve the feedback cycle with online student writers.

Design principles provide powerful guidance in the development of learning that enhances "core cognitive mechanisms" and support of optimum learning environments. The idea of "Learning by Design" addresses content creation using any tech resource from a surface level (WYSIWYG) to deeper applications that address and apply the science of cognition to inform and more efficiently support learning. Based upon Instructional Design theory, this workshop informs and guides participants in the incorporation of these principles in LMSs, Presentations, and other widely used multimedia resources.

In this session, participants will explore implicit bias and how it can affect family engagement. Participants will explore the importance of family engagement and awareness of expectations. Participants will learn strategies to counter implicit bias and way to build sustaining relationships with families. The goal is to become aware and to challenge individual assumptions.

Rooted in a perceived normalcy or cultural assumptions, microagressions are subtle comments and gestures that create a sense of difference from the established community among members of equity-seeking groups. Classrooms are one kind of community where microagressions occur.

Ableist microaggressions are those that specifically impact people with disabilities. The impact of ableist microaggressions can be long-lasting and very destructive. One study (Ackerman-Barger, et al. 2021) found they can increase stress and depression while negatively impacting academic performance, including retention.

To address these negative student outcomes, educators must also become familiar with microinterventions:
'Microinterventions are unintentional or intentional words or deeds that validate the targets' experiences, affirms their racial identity, and offers encouragement, support, and reassurance that the target is not alone (Sue et al., 2019).

In this workshop, Sheila Fry will demonstrate the imperative for instructional designers, educators, and online course facilitators to prevent, identify, and manage the three types of microaggressions in online classrooms and to use the three types of microinterventions as a tool in achieving inclusivity.

Distance learning projects can bring students together with others whose geographic, sociocultural, and sociolinguistic backgrounds may be very different from their own (O'Dowd, 2015). Such projects are 'most effective when [they] force learners and teachers out of their comfort zones and bring them to engage in linguistic, intercultural, and technological learning experiences which they would not usually be confronted with in their day-to-day learning' (Baroni et al., 201, p. 107). This presentation shares the voices and experiences of US-based students who as part of a semester-long course were paired with adult learners of English in Afghanistan for synchronous online tutoring; the pairs met for ten 90-minute sessions. Student reflections demonstrate that through their interactions in the virtual intercultural borderland (Minett et al., 2022) students developed technological skills (Zhang et al., 2016) and digital skills (Baroni et al., 2019), increased their global awareness (Lenkaitis, 2020; Sánchez Hernández, & Alcón-Soler, 2018), and reexamined their understandings of themselves and of the world (Minett et al., 2022). Attendees will leave this presentation with ideas and resources for implementing their own projects in which students, and instructors, question their assumptions and are challenged to step outside of their comfort zones.