Recently, the annual WCET (WICHE Cooperative for
Educational Technologies) Annual Meeting was held in Denver, and some of the
CCCOnline staff attended. Below are a few thoughts about what we learned.
At the conference, it was emphasized in more than one presentation that
national surveys of online students strongly indicate that students desire
extensive engagement with their online instructors (good feedback in grading
comments, active discussion participation, etc). This supports the emphasis of CCCOnline
administrators on instructional quality.
-John Ragan
The stand
out topics for me were moving whole programs to competency-based learning
format and accreditation standards for working with vendors.
-Monica Falk
I was struck
by the idea that many hiring managers consider recent college graduates
unprepared for the workforce, as was explained by Vernon Smith (Portmont
College at Mount St. Mary’s). It was particularly interesting to me that the
graduates themselves perceive they have a better mastery over certain soft
skills than their managers think they do; this
survey from Chegg shows the skills with the greatest gaps between the
graduates’ and the managers’ perceptions. In a similar vein (i.e. thinking about lifelong learning and preparing
students for what comes next), I enjoyed the closing keynote, “Social Learning
Revolution,” by Jane Hart; her website, the Top 100 Tools for Learning, is worth exploring.
-Liz Dzabic
Also . . . this holiday week, we all would like to thank you for your ongoing commitment to our students, and we wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving!
Also . . . this holiday week, we all would like to thank you for your ongoing commitment to our students, and we wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving!
