Participate | Engagement Maps | What’s Next | Join the Slack Community
New to OLC Accelerate? Attended previous OLC conferences and want to share your knowledge and expertise? Interested in connecting with others to discuss particular topics like instructional design, blended learning, faculty development, emerging technologies or digital literacy before, during, and after the conference? To participate, please fill out this short form, and we’ll get back to you with additional information.
Engagement Maps (complete PDF of all persona “maps”; individual google doc maps linked below)
| Red | #N2O | New to Teaching Online | |
| Navy | #XID | Experienced Instructional Designers | |
| Burgundy | #DEV | Faculty Development | |
| Light Pink | #NID | Novice Instructional Designers | |
| Yellow | #XFAC | Experienced Faculty | |
| Beige | #RSRCH | Data, Analytics, & Research Professionals | |
| Hot Pink | #BLEND | Hybrid, Flipped, & Blended Topics | |
| Turquoise | #SVCS | Student Services Professionals | |
| Light Gray | #GEEK | EdTech Geeks | |
| Kelly Green | #LEAD | Administrators and Emerging Leaders | |
| Lime | #LIB | Media & Library Service Professionals | |
| Royal | #UDL | Accessibility and Universal Design |
How #OLCAccelerate Attendees Can Engage with OLC Field Guides
Conference attendees will enjoy a guided experience that has been custom-built by peers and colleagues who seek to share their knowledge and insight, but also are experienced in navigating OLC conferences.
You can participate in as few or as many Field Guide activities as you’d like, and are free to explore the different guided learning journeys integrated with the various conference tracks and networking events.
We invite you to participate in a series of short and collegial engagement activities occurring before, during and after the conference. By signing up, you’ll be invited to join the #OLCAccelerate Slack team (What is Slack?) to facilitate communication and coordination.
If this sounds good, please sign up!
Interested in being part of the OLC Field Guide Program? Please read on!
Before the Conference
Participants:
- Participate in virtual discussion, via Slack discussion and/or synchronous virtual meeting. (What is Slack?)
- Receive engagement maps targeted for specific demographics (faculty, instructional designers, administrators, library, etc.). These maps will detail pathways through the conference program that include theme-based sessions to attend in support of a specific topic or focus area.
- Participate in on-site and virtual networking and mentoring events.
Field Guides:
The main overall responsibilities of the OLC Field Guide are to:
- Familiarize attendees with the OLC conference landscape and language;
- Encourage dialogue and interaction between new and seasoned conference attendees;
- Help to create and distribute engagement maps through the conference program;
- Guide conversations at established OLC Field Guide events;
- Help attendees connect with appropriate networks; and
- Support existing and mentor new OLC Field Guides.
Before the conference, Field Guides will:
- Participate in virtual discussion, via Slack discussion and/or synchronous virtual meeting. (What is Slack?)
- Guide the development of the OLC Field Guide operations manual. This will help us scale and measure the effectiveness of our program!
- Create engagement maps through the conference program for targeted demographics (faculty, instructional designers, administrators, library, etc.). These maps will detail pathways through the conference program that include theme-based sessions to attend in support of a specific topic or focus area.
- Contribute to developing logistics and resources for on-site and virtual networking and mentoring events.
During the Conference
Please be sure to arrive in Orlando early enough to attend our Face-to-Face Kickoff Session, at 12:00pm -12:45pm on Wednesday, November 14. Field Guides and participants are encouraged to join in as many of the following activities as they would like.
Participants:
- Receive guidance before, during, and after the conference. You can use Slack for instantaneous communication to help participate in meet-ups during the conference.
- Engagement maps are available, providing detailed pathways through the conference program that include theme-based sessions to attend in support of a specific topic or focus area.
- Join a field trip or Walk ’n Talk with a Field Guide, such as a tour of the conference area for new attendees, a trip to one of the Disney sites, a group dinner, or participate in a table discussion. Pick whatever you’d most enjoy, and explore and learn with new colleagues.
- Join a table discussion during the Face-to-Face Field Guide Kickoff session of the OLC Accelerate 2018 Conference. Some tables will be focused on navigating the conference, while others will be focused on issues or challenges that arise in the pre-conference discussion of different conference streams (e.g., managing relationships between faculty and instructional designers; getting buy-in to implement analytics).
- Learn about how to become an OLC Field Guide for a future conference.
Field Guides:
- Guide conference attendees during the conference. You can use Slack for instantaneous communication to help coordinate your meetups during the conference.
- Lead a field trip or Walk ’n Talk with conference attendees, such as a tour of the conference area for new attendees, a trip to one of the Disney sites, a group dinner, or lead a table discussion. Pick whatever you’d most enjoy, and share your experience and expertise with new colleagues.
- Contribute to social media and other channels in support of guiding conference attendees through the engagement maps, and updating maps as needed. Whenever necessary, provide wayfinding services for attendees as they navigate through established learning pathway maps.
- Lead a table discussion during the Face-to-Face Field Guide Kickoff session of the OLC Accelerate 2018 Conference. Some tables will be focused on navigating the conference, while others will be focused on issues or challenges that arise in the pre-conference discussion of different conference streams (e.g., managing relationships between faculty and instructional designers; getting buy-in to implement analytics).
- Mentor a future OLC Field Guide. Seasoned OLC attendees may ask about the OLC Field Guide program. Encourage them to explore what you are doing and share your experiences with them.
After the Conference
Participants:
- Participate in the the OLC Conference Field Guide Slack discussions.
Field Guides:
- Participate in the the OLC Conference Field Guide debrief session, and/or Slack discussions.
What You’ll Receive as part of the OLC Field Guide Program
Participants:
- “Brown-bag” lunch at the Wednesday kick-off session
- Engagement maps
- Learning opportunities in our growing online Slack community (200+ and growing)
- A chance to build your networks, strengthen your online learning community and find people with similar interests
Field Guides:
- “Brown-bag” lunch at the Wednesday kick-off session
- Recognition at the opening keynote, in the printed program and on the website
- An awesome Field Guide scarf and button for designation
- Leadership opportunities in our growing online Slack community (200+ and growing)
- A chance to build your networks, strengthen our online learning community and find people with similar interests
How to Sign Up
Please respond as soon as you can if you’d like to join the Field Guide team and contribute to attendee engagement and networking at OLC Accelerate.
The Field Guide Pre-Conference Meeting will be announced soon for program participants. We’ll discuss:
- using Slack
- what to expect
- engagement maps
- getting organized before the conference
- and answer all your questions!
After that, we hope to see you in Slack, and at the OLC Accelerate 2018 Field Guide Face-To-Face Kickoff on Wednesday, 11/14/18 12:00pm – 12:45pm ET in Orlando!
Basecamp is located:
- Convention Foyer, across from registration
Questions? Please ask us on Slack or email conference@onlinelearning-c.org. We look forward to meeting everyone very soon!
Please meet up with us on Slack! Slack is a “Team Communication Platform” (TCP), basically a chat client, but more expansive, since you can join “channels” or groups about various topics of interest, rather than just chat one-to-one. Slack can be used via a web browser, or as its own application on desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. For the uninitiated, please watch a short video demonstrating what Slack can do.
We have set up a Slack team to be used before, during, and after #OLCAccelerate. We highly recommend you download the Slack applications for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, etc.
Join the OLC Accelerate Slack Team
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Once you have set up your account login/password, you can visit https://olcaccelerate.slack.com to sign in with your new credentials on any of your devices. (Please note that you will need to sign in to the team separately on every device on which you use Slack. So, if you sign in on a phone, that doesn’t mean you’ll also be signed up when you open up the application on your desktop. You’ll need to add the team (olcaccelerate.slack.com) on each device, and sign in on that device to get started.) Once you have signed in, you’ll see a few default channels you have been added to. To see what other channels are available to join, click the “Channels” link in the left navigation to browse all channels. (Channel names may not exactly match what you see in this image.) You’ll find a list of channels you can join, channels you belong to, and the number of participants in each channel. You can join as many channels as interest you – and you can always leave and re-join channels later based on your needs. You can also configure different types of notifications for each channel so that you aren’t constantly inundated with notifications. Here are a few of the default channels and how they might be used:
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You’ll also find channels for various personas or special interests in order to connect with like-minded folks, share ideas, and perhaps meet up in Orlando (keep in mind some of these may be sparsely populated until we get closer to the conference):
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Once you have joined some channels – you can start by introducing yourself in a channel or two, perhaps posting a link to an interested or inspiring article or a question that is on the top of your mind. Share information about the conference, upcoming sessions, sessions you are excited to see, things you plan to do during the conference, etc. Just keep in mind that communication in Slack may be somewhat synchronous, but may be entirely asynchronous, too, depending on when others are online and participating. If you have other ideas for channels or connected apps, please let us know and we’ll see what we can do.
Some Slack Video Resources to get you started:
- A short video on messaging in Slack. Keep in mind that if you really want to alert someone personally and quickly, you can use a direct message to that person, OR use @username in the channel to mention that person and send a notification.
- A short video on managing the notifications in Slack
We are inviting everyone to start joining the Slack channels whenever you like leading up to the conference. You can share session tips, ask questions, plan meet ups and your conference schedule, etc.