Faculty Sabbatical Leave

Spring 2015

By: Dr. Pam Lowry

Lawrence Technological University

Objectives

Investigate the role of a faculty member at a global educational institution

Develop, design a new online course

Expand knowledge of additional instructional technologies and course delivery platforms

Research effective pedagogies and real-world examples

.

Oplerno

Start-up online global education institution (Open Learning Organization)

Use real-world practitioners, professors, and instructors to offer affordable, accessible, education to students on a global basis

Faculty have complete control over creation, content, and ownership of their courses

Courses offered through Oplerno’s marketplace

Oplerno

April 2014:

Approved to operate by Vermont State Board of Education

Can start recruiting students and earn credit for classes

Allows students to transfer these credits to other colleges and universities (if receiving institution choose to accept them)

At this point, approximately 100 part-time faculty, 3 employees, and 4 Board members

Oplerno

May 2014:

Signed 128 part-time faculty members, 75 classes under development and 5 classes ready to go

Oplerno plans to eventually become a degree granting accredited institution

June 2015:

Signed 186 part-time faculty, 32 courses ready to go, 7 certificates developed

Oplerno

June 2015:

Signed a contract with a 4 year university to offer courses for credit (announcement in next couple of weeks)

Startup Study Group and Oplerno are curently developing a plan to offer virtual accelerators to start-up companies, new business entrepreneurial advisors, and investors (http://www.oplerno.com/accelerator/)

Oplerno

Some URLs:

http://oplerno.com

http://www.oplerno.com/#learn-anything

http://www.oplerno.com/our-team

http://www.oplerno.com/support

Emails:

Initially used GoDaddy

Late May 2015 converted to Mozilla Thunderbird email system

Oplerno Faculty Application

To set up an Oplerno account/enroll in Faculty Orientation course need to:

Submit CV or Resume

At least a Master’s degree from accredited university

Signed copy of Faculty Contract

Instructor is an independent contractor in relation to Oplerno and not an employee

Oplerno seeks to offer, through Marketplace software, courses created and owned by instructor and instructor seeks to offer his/her courses in Marketplace to Oplerno students

Oplerno Faculty Application

Courses:

3 credit hours over twelve-week term, maximum of 25 students

Marketplace listing must specify skills taught through course

Within 30 days of conclusion of course, instructor must document skills learned by and competency of, each students as result of completing course for inclusion in student’s Portfolios

Instructor designates pricing for course in Marketplace

Only instructor may teach course

Oplerno Faculty Application

Compensation:

Instructor entitled to total course fees for all students enrolled in course (Total Course Fees), minus the greater of 10% of Total Course Fees or $100 per enrolled student (Net Course Fee)

Oplerno pays instructor one-half of Net Course Fee half-way through course term and balance upon completion of course and Portfolio Listing

Course Building for Oplerno Faculty

Need approved course proposal in order to take training course I took:

Six week course

Guide faculty through process of creating a course for Oplerno

Some experience teaching online

Course is ungraded

Now offer Online Teaching (Basics/Advanced)

Now offer Online Course Design (Basics/Advanced)

Collaborative Statistics Textbook for course I developed:

Collaborative Statistics Second Edition

By Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean

Online: <http://cnx.org/content/col10522/1.40>

Authors - faculty members at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California

.

Free Resources

OpenStax cnx.org

View and share free educational material in small modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports or other academic assignments

OpenStax College provides students with professional-quality textbooks that are free online and low-cost in print (https://openstaxcollege.org/)

Google Hangouts

Doodle – schedule event, meeting, etc. .

Free Resources

Wikispaces (http://oplerno.wikispaces.com/)

Open Professional Education Network (https://open4us.org/)

Slack - platform for team communication (https://slack.com/)

Crowdcast for team meetings (https://crowdcast.io)

Open Educational Resources (OER) (http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education/open-educational-resources)

Collaborative Statistics

Collaborative Statistics

Internet Tours:Oplerno

Collaborative Statistics using Canvas by Instructure (Learning Management System)

Summary

My viewpoints: Oplerno still getting off the ground

Degree of success still to be determined

Concept yet to be tested in practice

Experience at end of sabbatical much better than beginning

Progress is being made – long way to go

Questions?

Dr. Pam Lowry

Associate Professor

Dept. of Math and Computer Science

Co-Director, Master of Educational Technology Program

plowry@ltu.edu 248.204.3653 (office )