An Analysis and Critique of the United States Department of Education/Institute of Education Sciences New Report on Using Technology to Support Postsecondary Learning: Insights, Suggestions, and Methods
Thursday November 21, 2019 - 11:15 AM to 12:00 PM
Concurrent Session 6

Eric E. Fredericksen is the associate vice president of online learning at the University of Rochester and associate professor in educational leadership at the Warner School of Education. A national leader in online education, Fredericksen provides leadership for the exploration of online learning initiatives across the University. Previously, he was the associate vice provost at the University, where he provided leadership and services that supported the academic and research missions of the University. Prior to the University of Rochester, Fredericksen served as the director of academic technology and media services at Cornell University. As a senior manager in Cornell Information Technologies, he helped craft Cornell's presence and direction in the use of contemporary technologies to support research, outreach, and teaching & learning both in and out of the classroom. Before Cornell, Fredericksen was the assistant provost for advanced learning technology in the Office of the Provost in the State University of New York System Administration, where he provided leadership and direction for all of SUNY's system-wide programs focused on the innovative use of technology to support teaching and learning. This included the nationally-recognized SUNY Learning Network - winner of the EDUCAUSE Award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning and Sloan-C Awards for Excellence in Faculty Development and Excellence in Institution-wide Online Programming. It also included the SUNY Teaching Learning and Technology program and Project MERLOT, which were designed to complement the classroom with technology-supported instruction. Fredericksen was also a co-principal investigator and administrative officer for three multi-year, multi-million dollar grants on Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He was responsible for the fiscal management, strategic planning, policy development, faculty development, marketing & promotion, technical support center for faculty and students, and operations and technology infrastructure. He managed a distributed statewide staff of IT, administrative, instructional design, and faculty support professionals. Under his leadership, the program grew from two campuses offering eight courses to 119 enrollments to 53 campuses offering 2,500 courses to more than 40,000 enrollments in just seven years. He has also designed, developed, and taught online courses for the Department of Educational Theory and Practice in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Albany for the past 12 years. Fredericksen is active in national efforts, including EDUCAUSE, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative and the Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C). He was chair of the Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning and previously served as chair of the Sloan-C Awards Program for Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning. He also served on the advisory board for Enterprise Learning at NYU. In 2012, Fredericksen was elected to the board of directors for the Sloan Consortium and currently serves as the President of the Board of OLC. He was honored as a Sloan-C Fellow in 2013.

Mary Niemiec is the Associate Vice President for Distance Education for the University of Nebraska. She is also Director of University of Nebraska Online – the University‐wide online education initiative collectively offering more than 100 online programs from its four campuses – University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska Medical Campus. Ms. Niemiec has worked in higher education for more than 20 years, primarily in the area of online and blended learning. She was the recipient of a grant from the Sloan Foundation in 2003 for a gathering of 30 faculty, administrators and researchers from the U.S. and Canada to begin exploration of the concept of blended learning and its strategic importance to higher education. Ms. Niemiec was conference chair for the Online Learning Consortium Blended Learning Workshop and Conference for eight years. Prior to joining the University of Nebraska in 2011, Ms. Niemiec held administrative positions in outreach, blended and online education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has received several recognitions including the University of Illinois at Chicago Model Administrator/Alumnus Award by The American Society of Public Administration, Greater Chicago Chapter. Ms. Niemiec was also selected as an OLC Fellow in 2011 for her leadership in blended learning. Niemiec frequently presents at conferences, conducts seminars and workshops on topics regarding administrative strategies and policies, adult learners, online and blended instruction. She serves on several university-wide committees and has leadership roles in various professional organizations.

Peter Shea, Ph.D Dr. Peter Shea is Associate Provost for Online Learning and Associate Professor in the School of Education and the College of Computing and Information at the University at Albany, State University of New York and also the Online Learning Journal Editor in Chief. His research focuses on the development of communities dedicated to learning in online environments. He has published widely on this topic in journals such as Computers and Education, JALN, Internet and Higher Education, The Journal of Educational Computing Research, Interactive Learning Environments and others. He is past director of the SUNY Learning Network, the online education enterprise of the 64 campus and 400,000 students in the SUNY system. Peter's research has been supported by the US Department of Education and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has been co-recipient of three national awards for online learning, faculty development and online programs from EDUCAUSE and the Online Learning Consortium.