Dr. Tony Picciano is an OLC Board Member, Professor and Executive Officer for the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), a member of the faculty in the Education Leadership Program at Hunter College, the doctoral program in Interactive Pedagogy and Technology at the Graduate Center, and the CUNY Online BA Program in Communication and Culture. Additionally, Dr. Picciano writes regularly on his blog, Tony’s Thoughts, which represents scholarly articles, stories and issues that he reads during his daily review of newspapers, professional journals and social networking activities. OLC is proud to feature Dr. Picciano’s blog o OLC Insights.
The June 2016 issue (Vol. 20, (2)) of the Online Learning Journal(OLJ) is dedicated to research on learning analytics. As described by the guest editors, Karen Vignare and Patsy Moskal:
“…the nine articles provide a range of information including reviewing the literature, examining frameworks in development, presenting a large scale analysis on the effectiveness of learning modalities from the PAR Framework, examining an international study of learning, and providing real-world learning analytics case studies on transfer, facilitation, and medical education. Each of the articles provides new and informative research that we hope can help readers make decisions about applying analytics within the context of their own online teaching and learning environments. This collection of articles presents readers with information about designing environments within online learning while also highlighting studies that expand upon what exists in currently published research. The authors here represent a significant contribution to practical decision making for administrators, insights for faculty teaching online courses, and works for other researchers to build upon.”
I have read the first two articles and plan to read the remaining seven. The articles are available for free download on the Online Learning Journal homepage.
Well-done issue on an important instructional technology!
About the Author
Dr. Anthony G. Picciano is a Professor and Executive Officer for the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is also a member of the faculty in the Education Leadership Program at Hunter College, the doctoral program in Interactive Pedagogy and Technology at the Graduate Center, and the CUNY Online BA Program in Communication and Culture. He has forty-four years of experience in higher education administration and teaching and has served as a director of computer services, dean, vice president, and deputy to the president at CUNY and SUNY colleges. He has been involved in a number of major grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, IBM, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 1998, Dr. Picciano co-founded CUNY Online, a multi-million dollar initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that provides support services to faculty developing online and blended learning courses.
Dr. Picciano’s major research interests are school leadership, education policy, online teaching and learning, data-driven decision making, and multimedia instructional models. Dr. Picciano has conducted three major national studies with Jeff Seaman on the extent and nature of online and blended learning in American K-12 school districts. He has authored or edited numerous articles and eleven books including Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology, 5th Edition (2010, Pearson), Data-Driven Decision Making for Effective School Leadership (2006, Pearson), Distance Learning: Making Connections across Virtual Space and Time (2001, Pearson), and Educational Research Primer (2004, Continuum). In 2012, he published a book with Joel Spring, entitled, The Great American Education-Industrial Complex: Ideology, Technology, and Profit, (Routledge). In 2007, he co-edited a book on blended learning with Chuck Dziuban entitled, Blended Learning: Research Perspectives and has just published (2014) a new version of this book entitled, Blended Learning: Research Perspectives, Volume 2 (Taylor/Francis). He is currently writing a new book with Chuck Dziuban, Charles Graham, and Patsy Moskal entitled, New Pedagogical Frontiers: Conducting Research in Online and Blended Learning Environments.
Dr. Picciano has been on the Board of Directors of the Online Learning Consortium (formerly the Sloan Consortium) since 2001. His activities have included serving on the planning committees for the Annual Conference, the Annual Workshop on Blended Learning, and the Symposium on Emerging Technologies. Lastly, he has been an associate editor of JALN since 2002 and has edited five special editions. In 2010, Dr. Picciano received the Online Learning Consortium’s National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Education by an Individual.