Monday, December 06, 2021

RPP #198: Adam Geller of Edthena

  • Interview with Adam Geller, Founder and CEO of Edthena. "Edthena is the complete solution for teacher growth, leveraging classroom videos for reflection and best practices." We discuss their video-powered professional learning:
    • Adams background
      Adam Geller, CEO
    • History and founding of Edthena
    • K-12 Teacher training programs
    • Teacher candidates recording themselves
    • Use in teaching methods and field experience
    • Toolset to support evidence based approach on how to teach
    • Eportfolio for sharing and assessment 
    • Time-stamped comments: question, suggestion, strength or note
    • Professional standards video tagging
    • Performance dashboards at group and organization level
    • Used in HigherEd Centers for Teaching Excellence
    • Used to help recruit and retain HigherEd adjunct instructors
    • Used in classroom or online (Zoom, etc.)
    • Tool to blur video to mask student names or faces
    • Supports school district privacy and security requirements

  • Links
Duration: 42:04

Friday, November 12, 2021

Covid-Converted Edition #7: Reshaping Curriculum Design and Attitudes about Online Learning


Interview with Amanda Smith, Chief Academic Officer, Academic Partnerships, and Maria Andersen, General Manager of Coursetune.

This special COVID-Converted Edition audio and video podcast series responds to the impact of COVID-19 on the way we live, learn, and work. Teachers all over the world have been thrown into teaching their "COVID-Converted" courses online. This series will focus on moving from this emergency remote teaching and learning to more thoughtfully prepared learning experiences. COVID is reshaping curriculum design and attitudes about online learning.

Academic Partners is "an online facilitator that assists public institutions of higher education in taking their academic programs online and recruits and retains qualified students through program completion. Coursetune helps institutions improve course and program design by focusing on mapping and assessment alignment." We discuss:
Watch on Youtube
  • Amanda and Maria's background
  • Overview of Coursetune, an elegant visual course planning tool
  • Academic Partnerships' role
  • Growth of online programs
  • Need for change in curriculum design
  • Release of Courseplan ("Coursetune light")
  • AP Off Campus toolkit to move instruction from classroom to online
  • Critical outcomes alignment and support
  • Faculty training
  • Role of instructional designers
  • Challenge of short term vs. long term thinking
  • Integration with the LMS
  • New features on the way: "variation layers" 
  • Podsafe music selection
    Duration: 51:59

    Friday, October 15, 2021

    RPP #197: Melvin Hines of Upswing


    Interview with Melvin Hines, CEO, and Co-Founder of Upswing. "A virtual assistant and student services platform to reach, relate to, and retain your non-traditional students." We discuss:
    • Melvin's Background
      Melvin Hines, CEO
    • History of Upswing
    • Great disparities in education 
    • Reach, Relate, and Retain
    • Reach: answer questions via text chatbot
    • Relate: connect to campus or Upswing human resources via web conferencing to provide support and tutoring on more than 400 topics
    • Retain: collect analytics to identify students at greatest risk   
    • Result: 15% reduction in dropouts each year
    • Unique chatbot technology integrates with campus calendars to schedule web conferences with campus and Upswing staff and tutors
    • Support for mental health and wellness 
    • Support for faculty     
    • Changes due to the Pandemic 

    Duration: 37:48

    Wednesday, September 08, 2021

    RPP #196: Dan Avida of Engageli


    Interview with Dan Avida, CEO, and Co-Founder of Engageli. "Engageli's digital learning platform
    enables higher-ed institutions to provide educators and learners with an active, social, collaborative, inclusive and engaging learning experience."  We discuss: 
    Dan Avida, CEO
    • Background of founders including Dan's wife Daphne Koller,
      co-founder of Coursera
    • Works in class or online (synchronous or asynchronous) and hybrid
    • No need for breakout rooms
    • Student "table" with the group of peers: "Learn with Friends"
    • Students can talk at the same time as the instructor
    • In-class students log in so they can take notes and capture instructors screen
    • In-class student presses button to ask questions - other mics are muted 
    • Polls and quizzes embedded into presentations
    • Recordings, notetaking, captioning built into the platform
    • Integrated with the LMS using LTI
    • Works with Chromebooks - no app to download
    • Video is not re-streamed  
    • Supports thousands of students in a class using TAs  
    • Extensive analytics to detect students at risk 
    • AI and ML coming in a future release

    Duration: 40:15

    Tuesday, August 10, 2021

    COVID-CONVERTED EDITION #6: Interview with Jeff Borden on Education 3.0


    This special COVID-Converted Edition audio and video podcast series responds to the impact of COVID-19 on the way we live, learn, and work. Teachers all over the world have been thrown into teaching their "COVID-Converted" courses online. This series will focus on moving from this emergency remote teaching and learning to more thoughtfully prepared learning experiences.

    Interview with Jeff BordenChief Academic and VP of Academic Affairs at D2LAccording to Dr. Borden, Education 3.0 entails a confluence of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and education technology, using web-based digital and mobile technology to help students learn efficiently. We discuss:
    • Watch on Youtube
      Jeff's background
    • History of Education 1.0 and 2.0
    • Eric Mazur - Confessions of a converted lecturer
    • What to keep from the pandemic experience - record lectures
    • Neurotransmitters that enhance learning
    • Gamification and creating novelty to enhance learning  
    • "Habitable Worlds" simulation at Arizona State
    • Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve 
    • Drawing enhances learning
    • Community-based portal and student groups reduce drop out
    • Peer instruction and removing class barriers
    • Future of the LMS, and more

    Duration: 40:23

    Monday, August 02, 2021

    RPP #195: Thomas Waite & Steve Mildner of K16 Solutions


    Interview with 
    Dr. Thomas Waite, CEO, and Steve Mildner, CRO of K16 Solutions. K16's Scaffold Designer is the industry’s first cloud-hosted, fully integrated LMS migration and course development tool that automates manual processes and improves efficiency. "Migrate Course Content. Archive Student Data. Build Better Courses. 
    LMS Solutions for Educators by Educators." We discuss: 
    • Thomas and Steve's backgrounds
      Thomas Waite, CEO & Steve Mildner, CRO
    • Mission: course design, LMS migration, and archiving
    • Partners: Blackboard, Canvas, D2L, and Open LMS
    • Reduced cost of migration between LMSs
    • Global text replacement during migration (LMS name, phone numbers, etc)
    • Migration duration shortened from months to hours
    • No need to run both LMSs during the migration
    • Historical data from legacy LMS archived on the K16 platform for easy retrieval
    • Scaffold solutions for efficient course design  

    • Podsafe music selection
    Duration: 50:53

    Monday, July 12, 2021

    RPP #194: Britt Nichols of ExamSoft

    Interview with Britt Nichols, Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer of ExamSoft. ExamSoft is a leading provider of educational assessment technology. "Our secure assessment platform allows educators to more efficiently create, administer, grade, and analyze assessments with the goal of improving student performance and streamlining curricular design and accreditation reviews." We discuss:
    • Britt Nichols
      Britt's background 
    • Examsoft: exam maker and reporting platform
    • Examplify: exam taker app 
    • ExamNow: audience response polling
    • ExamID: facial authentication 
    • ExamMonitor: proctoring
    • ExamSCORE: rubric product   
    • ProctorU partnership for authentication and proctoring
    • Turnitin acquisition of Examsoft
    • Future of using data to improve learning outcomes

    • Podsafe music selection
      • 50 Ways to Lose Your Luggage by Robert Lund of the Funny Music Project
    Duration: 32:35

    Tuesday, June 15, 2021

    RPP #193: Danny King of Accredible

    Interview with Danny King, CEO, and co-founder of Accredible. Accredible is a comprehensive digital badge and certificate platform. "Accredible is one of the only platforms available that is a full-service digital credentialing solution. Certificates, diplomas, badges, blockchain credentials, and wallet cards - all in one place." We discuss:
    • Danny King, CEO
      Danny's background
    • History of Accredible
    • Digital credentials, certificates, badges
    • Audience 
    • History of credentials
    • Credentials on the blockchain 
    • Integration with LMS and publishing tools
    • Revoking and editing blockchain credentials 
    • Vaccine credentials and Covid Passports
    • Evidence portfolios attached to credentials
    • Credentials sharing on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter 
    • Certificate as referral/marketing machine  
    • Podsafe Music Selection
      • Vivaldi: Concerto No. 1 in D Major (Spring, 1st Movement) from The Four Seasons by the American Baroque Orchestra
    Duration: 37:33

    Wednesday, May 19, 2021

    RPP #192: Liz Simon of General Assembly

    Interview with Liz Simon, Chief Operating Officer of General Assembly. General Assembly is a pioneer in education and career transformation, specializing in today’s most in-demand skills such as web development, data, design, business, and more. They began as a co-working space in 2011 and have grown into a global learning experience with campuses in 20 cities and over 35,000 graduates worldwide. We discuss:
    • Liz's background as a lawyer
      Liz Simon, COO

    • Obama Administration and the US Digital Service
    • Audience: students wanting to learn a new skill or companies needing to retrain staff or create a pipeline of new talent
    • Impact of the pandemic on teaching methodologies
    • Course and program time commitment
    • Three-month intensive learning, 9-5, 5 days/week
    • Differentiation with MOOCs
    • 90% get a job in their field within 3 months
    • Partnerships and articulation agreements
    Duration: 31:05

    Saturday, April 17, 2021

    RPP #191: Marcus Popetz on Harmonize by 42 Lines

    Interview with Marcus Popetz, CEO and co-founder of 42 LinesHarmonize is a discussion tool that allows students to communicate, interact, and engage more easily with one another. It supports richer discussion and collaboration. Faculty and students upload multiple files directly within posts and easily record audio and video comments. We discuss:
    • Why 42 lines?
      Visit 42Lines
      Marcus Popetz, CEO

    • What's wrong with discussion boards
    • Discussion board, group chat, instant messaging,
    • Requires LMS LTI integration
    • Analytics to lower instructor workload
    • Creating a hybrid cadence between synchronous and asynchronous
    • Integration with Zoom and other video conferencing systems
    • Accessibility accommodation including auto-captioning
    • Compatible with smartphones  
    • Visual layout with 'cards' instead of a long list of text
    • Faculty can mark up videos! 
    • Peer to peer interaction is coming
    • Future direction to use data science to build "formative drop-out detector" to improve student retention
    • Podsafe music selection
      • Kiss This! (Hey IRS)" by Robert Lund of the Funny Music Project, a parody of Faith Hill's "This Kiss"
    Duration: 37:59

    Thursday, March 18, 2021

    COVID-CONVERTED EDITION #5: Class Technologies - Interview with Michael Chasen

    This special COVID-Converted Edition audio and video podcast series responds to the impact of COVID-19 on the way we live, learn, and work. Teachers all over the world have been thrown into teaching their "COVID-Converted" courses online. This series will focus on moving from this emergency remote teaching and learning to more thoughtfully prepared online learning experiences.

    Interview with Michael Chasen, co-founder, and CEO of Class Technologies Inc. Class adds teaching and learning tools to Zoom making virtual classrooms feel like real classrooms. We discuss:
    • Watch on YouTube
      Michael Chasen's background
    • Class for Zoom features
    • Attendance
    • Tests, surveys, proctored exams
    • One-on-one student conversations
    • Multiple gallery seating charts: view by name, the order of hand raising, participation view
    • Measuring engagement using extensive analytics
    • Combined in-person and remote students
    • Monitor multiple Zoom rooms simultaneously
    • LTI integration with the LMS

    • Podsafe music selection
      • "Run" from the new age piano album "Lines Build Walls" by Ehren Starks.
    Duration: 35:33

    Monday, February 15, 2021

    RPP #190: Turnitin - Interview with Arjun Singh, Chief Strategy Officer at Turnitin

    • Interview with Arjun Singh, Chief Strategy Officer at Turnitin. Turnitin offers campus-wide assessment products for homework, quizzes, final exams, and term papers—whether online or in-person. We discuss: 
      Arjun Singh

      • Arjun's background
      • Gradescope - automated grading workflows
      • Feedback Studio aka Turnitin plagiarism detection
      • Their plagiarism database
      • Draft Coach
      • Ithenticate to protect academic integrity and safeguard institution reputation
      • LMS integration
      • Examsoft joining Turnitin
     Duration: 34:46

    Friday, January 15, 2021

    RPP #189: Covid as a Catalyst for Positive Change by JT Kostman

    • This special audio and video podcast is a recording of the Keynote presentation by JT Kostman, Ph.D., AI Psychologist and CEO of ProtectedBy.AI on "Covid as a Catalyst for Positive Change" presented at the 2020 PADLA eLearning 3.0 Conference"Join us for a provocative conversation with Dr. JT Kostman to gain insight into the four areas that will make all the difference for your organization and your career over the coming months and years." JT talks about helping our institutions to survive and thrive during this crisis. 
      Watch Video
      Click Image to Watch Video

      • He uses storytelling to tell us how we can take ACTION:
        • Alignment
        • Capabilities
        • Trust
        • Innovation
        • Opportunities and
        • Network   
      • His four stories illustrate how we can make a difference and thrive:
        • Strategy
        • Human Capital
        • Insights
        • Technology including Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence Augmentation  

    • Podsafe music selection
      • Vivaldi: Concerto No. 4 in G Minor “Winter” (Allegro movement) from The Four Seasons by the American Baroque Orchestra.
    Duration: 49:05