Pushing the Envelope in Education: New Roles for Libraries with MOOCs and eLearning

in partnership with Dysart & Jones Associates

Pushing the Envelope in Education: New Roles for Libraries – MOOCs, eLearning & Gamification

Monday & Tuesday September 30th & October 1st, 2013

Sponsor: Cisco Systems Canada

www.moocsandlibraries.org

Libraries are expanding their strategies in education and learning.  Some public libraries are offering online credit courses and certificates.  Some are offering credit recovery for high school drop-outs.  Many are expanding the economic vitality and capacity of their communities.  Things a re changing.  Some academic libraries are exploring the role of the library in MOOCs and e-learning and distance education.  And our schools for the professional education of  librarians are diving into free MOOCs for continuing education.  Is your library system considering and exploring these innovations and opportunities?

Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are a new type of college class based on Internet lecture videos. As the New Yorker magazine says, “a MOOC is ‘massive’ because it’s designed to enroll tens of thousands of students. It’s ‘open’ because, in theory, anybody with an Internet connection can sign up. ‘Online’ refers not just to the delivery mode but to the style of communication: much, if not all, of it is on the Web. And ‘course’, of course, means that assessment is involved—assignments, tests, an ultimate credential. When you take MOOCs, you’re expected to keep pace. Your work gets regular evaluation. In the end, you’ll pass or fail or… just stop showing up.”

In the past two years, Harvard, M.I.T., Caltech, and the University of Texas have together pledged tens of millions of dollars to MOOC development. Many other schools, from U.C. Berkeley to Princeton, have similarly climbed aboard. But how are the students supported?

This two day event features speakers immersed in MOOCs as well as those struggling to create strategies for their academic, college, school and public libraries to support students who are learning more and more online and faculty who are faced with new ways of teaching and assessing students.

Speakers:

Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor, San José State University

Michael J. Hemment, Director, Information Products & Innovation, Knowledge & Library Services – Baker Library, Harvard Business School

R. David Lankes, Syracuse University

Sandy Hirsh, Professor & Director, School of Library & Information Science. San Jose State University

Mimi Calter, Stanford University

M.J. D’Elia, University of Guelph

and more . . .

Other innovators will be video-conferenced in as well

Conference Co-Chairs:

Jane Dysart, Senior Partner, Dysart & Jones

Stephen Abram, Consultant, Dysart & Jones”