‘Learning Institute’ comes to campus

The topic of distance learning has brought nearly 50 educators from across the state to the University this week.

BGSU is among six colleges and universities—and the only one in northwest Ohio—hosting a “learning institute” sponsored by the Ohio Learning Network. OLN, an Ohio Board of Regents initiative, is a consortium of colleges and universities.

On campus for the institute today (Jan. 6) and tomorrow are small, OLN-funded groups, called learning communities. One group is from Kent State University and another, from Belmont Technical College (St. Clairsville). Three other participating learning communities have representatives from, respectively: Kent State, Cleveland State, Youngstown State and the University of Akron; Ohio University, Columbus State and Sinclair (Dayton) community colleges, and from Sinclair and Owens community colleges and Hocking College (Nelsonville).

Staying on its home campus for the event is a nine-member BGSU learning community led by Julia Matuga, educational foundations and inquiry, and called the EFFECT (Educational Foundations For Every Classroom Teacher) Consortium. Funded by $28,000 in OLN grants, the group plans to create four online graduate courses in EDFI for Ohio classroom teachers seeking advanced degrees.

A second BGSU learning community, backed by similar grants, is traveling to Kent State to attend a learning institute. Led by Connie Molnar, Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, that group intends to offer Web-based instruction in technical topics—Excel and Web page development, for instance—to graduate teaching assistants wishing to become more proficient in instructional technology.

Like the other host institutions, BGSU received $75,000 to plan, present and assess the learning institute, which will address how students learn using new technology.

The institute will be “a great place for sharing ideas,” said Dan Madigan, director of CTLT and a member of OLN’s Professional Development Committee. “That wouldn’t happen any other way.”

The two-day program includes keynote addresses by Donald Hanna, professor of educational communications for the University of Wisconsin-Extension; Cheris Kramarae, Distinguished Professor of Women’s Studies, Linguistics, and Speech Communications at the University of Illinois, and Van Weigel, professor of ethics and economic development at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa.

All three keynote speakers will also help present two-hour workshops, along with local experts. BGSU presenters are: Savilla Banister, Division of Teaching and Learning and a co-director of Project PICT (Preservice Infusion of Computer Technology); Kris Blair, English and director of that department’s Digital Language and Literacy program; Gwen Evans, University Libraries; Terry Herman, director of online learning for Continuing Education, International and Summer Programs, and graduate student Tara Clark.