Professional Development

OLC to Deliver Discounted PD on Online Instruction to Minority-Serving Institutions

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/18/20

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) has received a grant to work with minority-serving institutions as they shift to online instruction. The $50,000 award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will fund delivery of affordable, short-term workshops to reach instructors in institutions that need professional development resources most.

Under the grant, OLC will make 13 workshops available at a discount price of $45, including five that are self-paced. Among the criteria for qualifying are stipulations that learners be employed at a federally recognized minority-serving institution and fairly new to delivering online instruction at a school where other internal training resources are limited.

Topics cover:

• "New to online essentials" (in three parts);
• "Strategies for facilitating live, online sessions";
• "Giving effective feedback" (also available in a self-paced format);
• "Engaging learners in online discussions";
• "Increasing interaction & engagement";
• "Applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to online courses to increase accessibility & engagement";
• "Creating effective assessments" (self-paced);
• "Strategies for designing and facilitating engaging online discussions" (self-paced);
• "ADA & Web accessibility" (self-paced); and
• "Strategies for increasing interaction & engagement" (self-paced).

The program, available on a first-come, first-serve basis, is expected to continue through December 2020.

Registration is open now on the OLC website.