OLC Innovate 2019 - Ranger Program

 Participate  |  Engagement Maps  |  Schedule of Events  |  Tours  |  Ranger Talk-abouts 
What’s Next  |  Join the Slack Community  |  First Time Attendee FAQ

New to OLC Innovate? 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 will get back to you with additional information. 

The OLC Innovate Ranger program is designed to enhance the conference experience for first-time conference attendees and anyone looking for additional networking opportunities at OLC conferences.

Engagement Maps

(complete pdf of all persona “maps”; individual maps linked below)

	Red	#TEACH	Troop Teach –  Online Teaching and the Faculty Experience
	Navy	#ID	Troop Design – Instructional Designers
	Burgundy	#TRAIN	Troop Train – Faculty and Staff Development
	Light Pink	#OPEN	Troop Open – OER and OCW
	Yellow	#LEARN	Troop Learn – Online Learning and the Student Experience
	Purple	#BLEND	Troop Blend – Hybrid, Flipped, & Blended Topics
	Turquoise	#SUP	Troop Support – Student Services Professionals
	Beige	#DATA	Troop Data – Data, Analytics, & Research Professionals
	Light Gray	#EDTECH	Troop EdTech – EdTech, Media, and Innovation
	Green	#LEAD	Troop Lead – Administrators & Emerging Leaders
	Lime	#IDEA	Troop IDEA – Diversity and Advocacy
	Royal	#A11Y	Troop A11Y – Accessibility & Universal Design
	Orange	#CC	Troop Two Year – Community and Two Year Colleges

Schedule of Ranger Program Events 

More information to be added as details are confirmed. 

Tours

Join the OLC Innovate Rangers and other conference attendees for a tour of the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center! 

There is no better way to explore this new hotel and learn about conference layout than on a guided tour with the OLC Rangers!  The tour will include the following stops and points of information:

• Conference breakout session areas
• Tuesday Evening Campfire Gathering – Game Night (Ski Village in the Grand Lodge)
• Wednesday Evening Campfire Gathering – IDEA Night (Juniper Pre-function)
• Wednesday Morning Workshop and Summit Breakfast and Friday Closing Event (Spruce Foyer)
• Thursday ProctorU Apres Ski Party following the Keynote Address (Adams Pre-function)
• Aurora (exhibit hall) and Adams (breakfast, general sessions) Ballrooms
• Registration and Ranger Station locations
• Accessibility points, including elevators and escalators
• Restaurants
• Indoor and outdoor water complexes and fitness area
• Shopping and other general areas of interest in the hotel

Join us to familiarize yourself with the conference center layout to ensure your conference experience is off to a great start!  No advance sign-up needed; just meet your Ranger tour guide at the Ranger Station (Aurora Foyer) near conference registration.   

Tour dates and times:

• Tuesday, April 2   6pm
• Wednesday, April 3  10am

Questions?  Contact us at conference@onlinelearning-c.org.

How #OLCInnovate Attendees Can Engage with OLC Rangers

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 Ranger 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 #OLCInnovate Slack team  (What is Slack?) to facilitate communication and coordination.

Interested in being part of the OLC Ranger 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.

Rangers: 

The main overall responsibilities of the OLC Ranger 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 Ranger events;
• Help attendees connect with appropriate networks; and
• Support existing and mentor new OLC Rangers.

Before the conference, Rangers will:

• Participate in virtual discussion, via Slack discussion and/or synchronous virtual meeting. (What is Slack?)
• Guide the development of the OLC Ranger 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 Denver early enough to attend our Face-to-Face Kickoff Lunch and Meeting on Wednesday, April 3 as 12pm MT. Lunch will be served, Ranger Program organizers will lead an orientation, and OLC staff will be on hand to answer questions. 

Rangers 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 Ranger, such as a tour of the conference area for new attendees, a trip off site, 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 Ranger Kickoff session of the OLC Innovate 2019 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 Ranger for a future conference.  

Rangers: 

• 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 off site, 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 Ranger Kickoff session of the OLC Innovate 2019 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 Ranger. Seasoned OLC attendees may ask about the OLC Ranger 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 Ranger Slack discussions.

Rangers: 

• Participate in the the OLC Conference Ranger debrief session, and/or Slack discussions.

What You’ll Receive as part of the OLC Ranger Program

Participants:

• Wednesday kick-off orientation session and lunch
• 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 

Rangers: 

• Wednesday kick-off orientation session and lunch
• Recognition at the opening keynote, in the printed program and on the website
• An awesome Ranger 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 Ranger team and contribute to attendee engagement and networking at OLC Innovate

Sign up to Participate

The Ranger 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 Innovate 2019 Ranger Face-To-Face Kickoff on Wednesday, April 3rd (time and location TBD) in Denver!

Ranger Station  is located: 

• Across from conference 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 #OLCInnovate. We highly recommend you download the Slack applications for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, etc.

Join the OLC Innovate Slack Team

Once you have set up your account login/password, you can visit https://olcinnovate.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 (olcinnovate.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. There are a few default channels and how they might be used: #announcements will only be usable by certain OLC staff or volunteers for making announcements to the entire team #rangercentral – Our primary channel for general Ranger usage. This channel is not specific to a topic, such as accessibility or community college. Use this for ranger meetups or spontaneous get togethers at the event, general introductions, looking for a ranger for a specific purpose, etc. #olcvirtual – specifically for our virtual participants #firsttimers – a great channel for new conference attendees to ask questions #hashtags – this channel is connected to Twitter. Every time somebody tweets about #OLCInnovate – the tweet is posted in this channel. (You may want to turn notifications off or leave this channel – it’s the busiest!)

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 Denver (keep in mind some of these may be sparsely populated until we get closer to the conference): TBD

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.