Webinar

This webinar session highlights findings of a study on teachers implementing blended learning in Michigan and building their own professional learning networks to improve their practice.

This session touches on four dimensions of a successful virtual community: the online persona and virtual classroom, the synchronous session, giving meaningful feedback and the encouragement of student engagement.

This episode is the first of a series that MVLRI is undertaking to explore the use of online learning for credit recovery here in the state of Michigan. In our first episode of the series, we’re talking with Dallas Bell, the co-founder of Success Virtual Learning Centers, originally based in Berrien Springs and Escanaba, Michigan. Dallas paints a picture for us on how at-risk students attend school through SVLC and receive both instructional and personal support in their journeys toward a high school diploma.

Our research fellow Dennis Beck will present an overview of the research on the use of games in K-12 online and blended courses and provide recommendations for practitioners and future research.

In this episode, we’re talking with Dr. Barbara Treacy, an instructor at Harvard University and Digital Learning Consultant. Those two titles certainly don’t do justice to all the important work and service that Barbara has provided for the field of K-12 online and blended learning over her career. During our conversation, we touch on her work in providing online professional development for teachers with EdTeach Leaders Online, serving on the Digital Learning Advisory Council for the state of Massachusetts, teaching graduate students at Harvard, and working to develop leaders in blended learning with the Friday Institute.

This session highlights findings from a study on enrollment patterns of students in brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania, and how these enrollment patterns differ across geographic locale.

In this episode, we talk with Bi Vuong, the Director of Proving Ground at Harvard University. Bi gives us some details on how she and her team provide school districts and states with rapid-cycle research services to help them tackle specific issues facing their program. We chat for a bit about the work that the Proving Ground project has done to date around educational technology software implementation, and then talk about the direction of the program going forward.

In this episode, we’re chatting with Amy Valentine, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning. Amy joins us to talk about all of the major initiatives that her foundation has undertaken since it launched not long ago, providing needed funding for students toward postsecondary tuition, for educators doing innovative work in their classrooms and districts, and for researchers exploring questions around blended and online learning. Learn more about the organization by visiting their website and following them on Twitter at @FoundationBOL.

This session shares findings from a case study examining the design process of eleven high school teachers as they designed their first online courses, focusing on the resources shown to be valuable to them: variety in technological tools and pedagogical strategies, belonging to a community of practice, and time.

In this interactive panel session, one provocateur and three discussants with a wide range of experiences with academic journals share insights on how the journal article review process unfolds.