eLearning Program Offers Bootcamp Version of Training Institute

We are very excited about the start of the eLearning Program Training Institute Bootcamp which begins on Monday. More than seventy of our full and part time faculty are going through this new experience. I say new because we have modified the time to completion without losing the quality of the training. In addition, we will be offering a Community of Practice (CoP) to assist with the training process. A CoP is a group of people who share a concern for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.  CoPs are particularly useful for online course development because they "provide ongoing support that can alleviate many of the curricular and institutional challenges online instructors face." (Melancon & Arduser, 2013, p. 74) . Our team will include the faculty member (as the subject matter expert), the Dean of Innovative Learning and Academic Support, the Director of Innovative Learning, the Director of the Academic Learning Center, and the LMS Administrator.  In addition, we will be using the Learning Environment Modeling (LEM) curriculum created by the University of Central Oklahoma, which has been used by numerous colleges and universities as part of their faculty certification programs. UCO explains the process as, "Learning environment design is technically an architectural process. Think about how an architect envisions and designs buildings. Learning architects design and build learning environments in much the same way. They often do this without many of the foundational tools used by building architects such as common, uniform practices and models that assist in the understanding, decision-making, and collaborating on the design of the learning environment.Learning Environment Modeling, or LEM, addresses this issue by providing a simple system for designing learning environments that uses an easy-to-understand language combined with a visual modeling process. LEM is used for improving understanding, decision-making, and communication within learning environment design experiences." What we learn in this bootcamp version will be used to enhance the training institute to be held this summer for faculty wanting to teach an eLearning course in the fall semester. This is definitely an exciting time to be involved in the eLearning Program at BRCC.