iNACOL Announces New Webinar: "What K-12 Online & Blended Education Can Learn from Higher Education"

VIENNA, Va., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) will host a webinar on Wednesday, April 11 focused on educational resources, tools and examples to help K-12 educators and administrators learn from project leaders in higher education building new models of innovative "next generation" learning.  The presenters are Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) grantees in colleges and universities working on new models of online and blended learning.

"This webinar will explore examples of universities developing and implementing high-quality online and blended-learning programs through the Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative.  These examples provide valuable resources, tools and guidance that may help K-12 education leaders interested in implementing new blended and online learning programs at scale," said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of iNACOL. 

"Working in both secondary and post-secondary education, NGLC is focused on identifying and accelerating quality, technology-enhanced learning solutions that can be replicated and scaled as quickly as possible," said Andy Calkins, Deputy Director of NGLC.  "Bringing innovators together from across the nation – and across education sectors like this –­ to exchange ideas is critical to seeding the education community with proven models that lead to dramatically improved outcomes for students."

Webinar presenters will include Christa Weisbrook, Faculty Fellow at the University of Missouri; and Tom Cavanagh, Assistant Vice President of Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida.

Weisbrook will discuss the Missouri Learning Commons, a program funded by a NGLC grant involving a consortium of 13 four-year public universities in Missouri engaged in a statewide course redesign initiative to design and implement blended learning models.  Weisbrook will present the process of selecting courses for redesign, the principles guiding the redesign and the early feedback from faculty, students and undergraduate learning assistants involved in the pilot offerings of the courses.

Cavanagh will discuss the Blended Learning Toolkit developed by the University of Central Florida for the NGLC Open Educational Resources (OER) project. While the Blended Learning Toolkit was developed by experts for higher education, it also provides valuable open resources and tools for school districts and teachers interested in implementing blended and online learning programs in K-12 education.

The webinar will be held Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.  For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.inacol.org/events/webinar/index.php

About iNACOL

iNACOL (www.inacol.org) is the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership association based in the Washington, DC area with 4,000 members. iNACOL is unique in that its members represent a diverse cross-section of K-12 education from school districts, charter schools, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, colleges, universities and research institutions, corporate entities and other content and technology providers. iNACOL is host to the annual Virtual School Symposium (VSS). VSS 2012 is scheduled for Oct. 21-24, 2012, in New Orleans, LA (www.virtualschoolsymposium.org).  Keep up with iNACOL on Facebook (www.facebook.com/inacol), Twitter (@nacol) or follow our blog at susanpatrick.inacol.org.

About Next Generation Learning Challenges

Next Generation Learning Challenges is a collaborative, multi-year initiative created to address the barriers to educational innovation and tap the potential of technology to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States, especially among low-income and minority students. NGLC is guided by the belief that providing investment capital to expand the use of proven and emerging learning technologies, collecting and sharing evidence of what works, and fostering a community of innovators and adopters will result in a robust pool of solutions and greater institutional adoption which, in turn, will dramatically improve the quality of learning experiences in the United States. NGLC is led by EDUCAUSE in partnership with the League for Innovation in the Community College, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

SOURCE iNACOL