Online Courses and Student Success Webinar

Online learning is no longer an anomaly in U.S. higher education, but many still question its efficacy, especially for students most at-risk for failure. This Webinar will showcase the exciting results of recent research that suggests that taking online courses is not necessarily harmful to students’ chances of being retained at an institution. Designed to further explore the recent report, “Retention, Progression and the Taking of Online Courses” in the special Learning Analytics edition of Online Learning, the expert panelists will explain how a large scale analysis on the effectiveness of learning modalities compiled within the Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework revealed that online courses can provide both flexibility and access while improving student completion.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Karen Swan
Karen Swan is the James J. Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership and a Research Associate in the Center for Online Learning, Research, & Service (COLRS) at the University of Illinois Springfield. Karen’s research has been in the general area of electronic media and learning for the 25 years since she received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her current research interests center on online learning Karen has authored over 125 journal articles and book chapters, produced several hypermedia programs, and co-edited two books on educational technology topics. She has directed projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education and the New York City Board of Education, as well as several corporate foundations, and is currently involved in WCET’s Predictive Analytics Reporting Project and ACE’s MOOCs as Game Changers Projects. Karen is the Special Issues Editor for the Journal of Educational Computing Research, and serves on the review boards and/or steering committees for many educational technology journals and conferences, and is the Chair of the American Educational Research Association’s Special Interest Group on Online Teaching and Learning. She is on the OLC Board of Directors and the steering committees for the Blended Learning and Online Learning conferences. Karen was awarded the OLC award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual in 2006 and was inducted into the inaugural group of OLC Fellows in 2010. In 2010 she also was given the Distinguished Alumni award by her alma mater.