The 2019 OLC Digital Learning Research Summit builds on the 2018’s inaugural Summit’s goal of providing insights into future areas of research.  This year’s Summit brings together leaders in STEM education to discuss research opportunities, current trends and practices, and pathways for building a STEM learning network to promote research and share practices in online STEM education. Online science education, having lagged other online disciplines, is entering a period of significant growth.  New technologies and online strategies make it possible to deliver an astounding array of learning opportunities for all students. We invite anyone with experience or interest in online STEM education to join us as we build the framework for a national survey on online STEM education. 

 

OLC Research Summit: Online STEM Education | REGISTRATION 
Registration for the OLC Research Summit is included in your OLC Accelerate 2019 conference registration.

 

Schedule 

9:00am – 9:10am – Co-chairs Welcome: Shannon McGurk, Bina Vanmali, Devon Cancilla

9:10am – 10:00am –  Success Stories: Perspectives in Moving STEM Online
Panel discussion: The “hows and whys” of moving STEM education online.  This panel of faculty, administrators and instructional design professionals will discuss the research and reasons of moving traditional courses and programs to the online modality. 

Panelists:

  • Mary Mawn, Associate Dean and Associate Professor – Science, Mathematics, and Technology, SUNY Empire State College
  • Amy Kahn, Dean of Instruction, Colorado Community Colleges Online    
  • Peggy Moore, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Director of E-Learning
  • Michelle Scanavino, Instructor of Biological Sciences, Moberly Area Community College
  • Devon Cancilla, Online Learning Consortium – Panel Moderator

10:00am – 10:15am – Networking break

10:15am – 10:25am – Setting the stage for a National STEM Survey: The state of online STEM Education in North America

Devon Cancilla, Online Learning Consortium

This session will provide the background related to the development of a national survey to better understand the state of online STEM education.  What are the data gaps? What do we need to understand to better promote, practice and teach science online? What are the current and future trends in online STEM education.

10:25am – 10:50am – A Research-based Approach to Developing a National Survey moving STEM education online

Jeff Seaman, Babson Survey Research Group

Experts in the field of research design will provide guiding principles on the strategies necessary to build, deploy and analyze a national survey that generates reliable and useful data.

10:50am – 11:00am – Transition to Break out group work: Bina Vanmali, Shannon McGurk

11:00am – 11:40am – Breakouts: Identifying the Data gaps in online STEM education

Participants will help identify data gaps in our understanding of online STEM education and help formulate the design of a national STEM survey.  The goal of the survey is to better understand issues associated with teaching STEM disciplines online. Why have institutions been slow to adopt online science programs?   What support do faculty need? Are there infrastructure issues that slow adoption? Are there discipline specific approaches?  

11:40am – 12:00pm – Sharing of Ideas/Wrap Up and Next Steps

 

OLC Research Summit Organizing Committee 

  • Shannon McGurk (co-chair), Carolina Biological Sciences
  • Bina Vanmali (co-chair), Grand Canyon University
  • Melissa Csikari, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Peggy Moore, MSEd, Director of E-Learning, Office of Academic Affairs, University of Nebraska Medical Center
  • Elissa Hall, Associate Director Curriculum and Education Technology Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
  • Samuel Butcher, Labster
  • Devon Cancilla, Online Learning Consortium