Teaching With Technology Festival 2019: Conference Roundup
Digital Learning & Innovation proudly hosted the 4th Annual Teaching with Technology Festival on October 3rd, 2019 at the George Sherman Union. Over 150 Boston University faculty, staff and leadership were in attendance—collaborating, networking, and sharing expertise.
The half-day conference kicked off with opening remarks from DL&I’s new Director of Educational Technology, Ernie Perez. Perez, who previously served as the director of Instructional Technologies for California State University Northridge, quickly jumped into his new role as the Teaching with Technology Festival emcee. “Today is my ninth day on the job and I am honored to be a part of this year’s Teaching with Technology Festival,” Perez told attendees.
Immediately following, Chris Dellarocas, Boston University’s Associate Provost for Digital Learning & Innovation and Richard C. Shipley Professor of Management at the Questrom School of Business, welcomed all in attendance and spoke about higher ed’s changing landscape and the increased demand for multimodal teaching and learning.
“Interestingly the students that come on campus are different and they have different expectations,” Dellarocas said. “They expect more active and experiential learning and they are no longer happy to be sitting with 500 people [in a classroom] especially given the price tag they are asked to pay.”
This, he said, leads to an increased demand for multimodal teaching and learning even with traditional students.
Dellarocas also called out that more and more people are opting to get their master’s or professional degrees online—prompting the emergence of low-cost degrees at scale. “Degrees that used to cost $70,000 and $80,000 are now being offered for $20,000 and $10,000 via edX and Coursera.”
In response to this emergence, BU recently announced Questrom’s $24,000 online MBA in partnership with edX. “This is a major breakthrough and a very ambitious, good action for the university,” he said.
With the announcement of BU’s 2020 Online MBA initiative coupled with DL&I’s longstanding partnership with edX, Dellarocas announced the creation of DL&I’s new Digital Initiatives (DI) unit. This unit, now comprised of the Digital Education Incubator and Instructional Production Services teams, will support a variety of digital content production and delivery endeavors across BU—including the production and delivery support of large-scale degrees and other innovative programs, such as ones offered in partnership with edX. DL&I’s Romy Ruukel will serve as director of the new unit.
“BU is launching its first low cost large scale degree in conjunction with edX and we have been the unit responsible for producing everything we do with edX. This will require large level of instructional design and delivery support.”
In addition to the creation of the DI unit, Dellarocas shared an overview of services available through DL&I. “An important part of the DL&I mission is to help faculty with their change efforts. Through the assistance of the Digital Education Incubator, Center for Teaching & Learning and Educational Technology, we are able to help faculty enhance their teaching and learning by incorporating new technologies and new pedagogies in a purposeful way.”
Watch Dellarocas’ welcome address and learn more.
Teaching with Technology Festival Highlights
The half-day conference featured 13 Expert Stations with over a dozen Boston University technology experts on hand answering questions, exchanging ideas, hosting mini-workshops and more. Here, attendees were able to dive into a variety technologies—data analytics, podcasting, Zoom, Digital Multimedia Expression in BU Hub, to name a few, in a one-on-one or small group setting.
Igniting Interest Through Conversation
Faculty presentations, called Conversation Sparks, focused on faculty expertise within specific fields of study. Faculty from Boston University’s College of Arts & Sciences, College of Engineering, School of Hospitality, Questrom School of Business and School of Public Health shared their digital teaching and learning knowledge around Turnitin, Zoom, ePortfolios, Echo360, Team Learning Assistant and more.
Keynote Address: Quality Teaching Online: Putting Pedagogy First
Keynote speaker, Kaye Shelton, Ph.D., professor of Educational Leadership in the Center for Doctoral Studies at Lamar University, presented on the topic, “Quality Teaching Online: Putting Pedagogy First,” and offered insight and ideas for teaching online with quality and with pedagogy in mind.
About Kaye Shelton, Ph.D.
Prior to her role at Lamar University, Dr. Shelton served as the Dean of Online Education for Dallas Baptist University. In this position, she led the development and ongoing operation of their online education programs with over 55 fully online majors and degrees offered.
Dr. Shelton is a certified online instructor, teaching online since 1999, and an online education consultant. Winner of both the Blackboard and eLearning exemplary online course awards, she has published over 60 articles and book chapters in the field of online education, including a book entitled An Administrator’s Guide to Online Education.
She was awarded the John R. Bourne award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Education, and was inducted into the Texas Distance Learning for her research on quality online education. Recently, Dr. Shelton has worked with groups in Latin America with the deployment of a Spanish version of the Quality Scorecard.
Watch Dr. Shelton’s Keynote Address.
Special thanks to all that made the 4th Annual Teaching with Technology Festival a tremendous success. Visit Digital Learning & Innovation to learn more about available programs and services.
