OLC Innovate 2016
Reflections TAYKEN and Shared
Overview
As OLC Innovate 2016 comes to an end in New Orleans, LA, I thought it might be helpful to look back and reflect on my experience before it becomes mental miscellany. Overall, I found the OLC community to be very inspiring. Nearly all of the attendees (~1100 in total) seemed to share and unite around the common interest of improving online education, and more importantly, the success of students. There was a refreshing sense of authenticity regardless of who I spoke to, and a ubiquitous pursuit of community and human interaction (something you might not expect to find at a conference centered on the non-human element of education).
Even random strangers were more than willing to take part in impromptu lunchtime selfies, and this willingness towards connection filtered through the majority of my experience.
This feeling of inclusivity was also aided by some strategic social media options set up by the OLC team. For example, #OLCDiningBuddies allowed me to connect up with Ben Scragg (Ohio State) and Andy Saltarelli (Harvard) on Thursday night and have some great conversation at Elizabeth’s (if you have the chance, just go. You won’t be disappointed). Conversations ranged from the timeless wisdom of instructional design to the weirdest Airbnb stories. I was totally blown away by their pursuit towards making OLC an inclusive experience, both at the conference and beyond.
Showtime: AIDNet
After a day of getting my feet wet, I started to focus on my session, MSU Denver Agile Instructional Design Network (AIDNet). I had done some heavy promotion via an early blog post (big thanks to OLC Insights), and an automated, three-day Tweetdeck gif storm involving Luis C.K., Barney Stinson, Moe Szyslak (and many others), so I was happy to see an eager group of about 20 instructional designers show up to engage.
I’d also had multiple conversations leading up to the presentation with leaders at other institutions who were eager to stay connected around this idea of bridging entrepreneurship and education. In fact, these lead-up conversations prompted me to whip up a quick Typeform and capture some contact info from anyone interested in developing a larger learning community around the potential of new ID paradigms like AIDNet. I’m really looking forward to continuing the momentum generated at OLC Innovate with regards to AIDNet, and hopefully MSU Denver can be a leader in this growing entrepreneurial sub-culture of instructional design.
Want to experience the session? Lucky you! It can be accessed via the virtual session archive
Bits & Pieces
The conference sessions, spaces, vendors, keynotes, and supplemental activities and resources were all well-crafted. The Innovation lab and installation were critical spaces allowing attendees to get away from typical conference routines, Angie McArthur’s keynote was the perfect complement to the conference theme, and nearly every session I attended left with something to think about or act upon.
Although limited, there were a few elements in need of improvement. The mobile app was less than useful (see my whiny tweet) and the Keynote Lightning Talks were sporadically painful. Timing a talk to automatically advancing slides always works much better during rehearsal than live on the big stage.
Session Summary
A less than inclusive summary of memorable sessions, along with key take-away from each:
- How Predictive Analytics Can Impact Student Retention: Students often want analytics as much as faculty and administration.
- Leading By Solving Problems: A Framework For Motivating Change At Any Level: Messy design can live within rigid process structure.
- Building The Infrastructure For Innovative Collaborative Course Design And Development: Promoting a culture of change, doesn’t have to mean giving up an institutional commitment to quality.
- Diving In: Scaffolding The Online Design Process For Accelerated Change: A well produced introductory video, along with course alignment and consistency, goes a long way.
- Innovation In Higher Education: Unprecedented Opportunity: The Department of Education is using the word Revolution, which they see as technology + equity.
- Innovation Is Not Enough: Building Soft Infrastructure To Incubate Good Ideas: Distinguish Hard vs. Soft Infrastructure
We define soft infrastructure as the resources, values, and affirmations that support faculty agency in experimenting with digital learning.
A Jazzy Fin…
This was a tiring few days, but I knew I’d regret not mixing in some New Orleans Jazz to round out the trip (especially with Jazz Fest a few days away). No better option than Fritzel’s Jazz Pub when the ivory ninja Richard Scott is on the keys. Enjoy!
