RPP #220: Ethan Webb of Mindsmith

• Interview with Ethan Webb, Founder & CEO of Mindsmith, a next-gen eLearning authoring tool that uses generative AI to make it easy to create and share learning content. We discuss:

• 

  Ethan Webb, CEO

  Founders' inspiration & background
• Mindsmith's competitive advantages
• Serves corporate, higher education, and K12 audiences
• Engages instructional designers and learners
• Turns instructional designers into course architects
• eLearning industry challenges
• Generative AI: creating and sharing content
• LMS integration using advanced SCORM via Mindsmith Cloud
• Embeds interactive learning widgets
• What's next? Mindsmith's future roadmap

• Podsafe music selection
• Voices  of Insight - created using Udio

Duration: 32:19

RPP #207 William Ryan on Flipped Learning

• Interview with William J. Ryan, Founder & CEO of Ryan Consulting, LLC. We discuss his process that allows learners to interact with instructors and peers to practice, apply and synthesize content in the context of their mutual experience. We discuss:
• Dr. Ryan's background

  

  William Ryan, CEO

  
  
• Evolution of web conferencing tools
• Impact of the pandemic on remote teaching and learning
• Importance of core instructional design models 
• Creating time for online social interaction
• Assimilate, practice, and time for reflection
• Integrating Zoom with the LMS
• Simplifying and reducing PPT presentations   
• Don't use polls; just ask questions or use a chat
• Upper limits of online class size, and more

• Podsafe music selection
• "As The Wind Blows" by Kitaro

Duration: 41:02

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

• Wonderful Day by Debbie Poryes Trio - Jazz Pianist, Composer, Teacher & Vocalist

Duration: 51:59

COVID-CONVERTED EDITION #3: Equity & Inclusion in Online Course Design

This special COVID-Converted Edition audio and video podcast series is in response 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.

• This episode is an abstract of a PADLA webinar entitled "Equity & Inclusion in Online Course Design" by Carrie O’Donnell, Founder of O’Donnell Learn, and Brett Christie, Director of Learning Experience Design for O’Donnell Learn. Watch, listen, and learn about:
  
  

  

  Watch on Youtube
  

• 8 Elements of Effective Learning
• Principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Quality vs. Equity vs. Inclusion
• The Bandwidth Immediacy Matrix
• Establishing a Sense of Community and Belonging
• Ensuring Multiple Means of Representation, Engagement, and Expression
  
  
• Links
• Learning Glass: A Mini-Lecture Recording Tool
• Blackboard Ally: A UDL Accessibility Tool
• PadLet: Works the way your mind works - with sight, sound, and touch
• Voicethread: A tool for online engagement
• Zoom: Virtual poster presentations
  
  
• Save your seat for the next FREE PADLA Equity & Inclusion in Online Course Design Webinar on September 10 to participate and hear the full story.

• Podsafe music selection
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) from the CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

Duration: 32:44

RPP #187: CoursePlan - Interview with Maria Andersen

• Interview with Dr. Maria Andersen, CEO of CourseTune, makers of the new CoursePlan product for individual faculty users to design their courses using visual tools. 
  
  
  
• We discuss:
• Background of CourseTune and how CoursePlan is different
• Course design layers: “What are students learning” and “When will they learn it”
• Aligning learning and assessment activities to the learning objectives
• Visualizing the entire course at once
• Support for HyFlex delivery
• Accounting for student load and time on task
• LMS integrations and future directions
• Contingencies for teaching this Fall during the pandemic

• Podsafe music selection
• New Age Piano: Lines Build Walls by Ehren Starks

Duration: 42:13

COVID-CONVERTED EDITION #2: Interview with Phil Hill

This special COVID-Converted Edition audio and video podcast series is in response 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.

This episode is an interview with Phil Hill, Publisher of PhilOnEdTech, and Partner at MindWires Consulting. We discuss podcasting, especially his new PhilOnEdTech Podcast, and the Covid-fueled hybridization of Higher Ed. We cover:

• His background
• Why he decided to start podcasting now
• What he covers on his blog and podcast
• His thoughts about the Fall Term
• Higher Ed herd mentality
• Emergency remote teaching/learning using Zoom 
• Importance of instructional design
• Student tolerance for learning online
• Links
• COVID-CONVERTED EDITION #2 on YouTube
• RPP #176: The Future of Learning Platforms by Phil Hill
• PhilOnEdTech Podcast
• Cleanfeed - audio recording
• Garageband - sound editing
• Sonics.ai - transcription service
• Podsafe music selection
• Loving Hank by Debbie Poryes Trio - Jazz Pianist, Composer, Teacher & Vocalist

Duration: 40:22

RPP #178: K16 Solutions - Interview with Thomas Waite

• Interview with Dr. Thomas Waite, CEO of K16 Solutions. K16's Scaffold Designer is the industry’s first cloud-hosted, fully-integrated course development tool that automates manual processes and improves efficiency for instructional designers and faculty. Scaffold products are integrated with Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Brightspace, and Sakai. We discuss: 
  
• Background of Dr. Waite and history of K16 Solutions
• Scaffold Designer and Scaffold Migration
• Migrate or rebuild courses
• Migration tool for most LMSs
• Customers including K12 and OPMs (Online Program Management Companies)
• Working in elearning ecosystems as opposed to LMSs
• AI, machine learning and algorithms
• New Scaffold Faculties, a faculty management system
• Links
• K16 Solutions Overview Video
• Scaffold Migration Demo Video
• Scaffold Product Specs
  
• Podsafe music selection
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) from the CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

Duration: 35:08

RPP #168: The Blackboard Ultra (Conversion) Experience

• Discussion with Rob McCunney, Blackboard Sysadmin and Instructional Designer, University of the Sciences. We discuss our conversion from Blackboard Learn managed hosting to SaaS and then to the Ultra Experience and Ultra Courses. 
• We discuss:
  

  

  Adoption of Blackboard Learn Ultra

• Moving from Managed Hosting to SaaS:
• What were some of the conversion issues?
• How much time/effort was expended?
• Were there any surprises?
• What advantages did you see?
• Turning on Ultra Experience:
• What were the conversion issues?
• What are the limitations?
• Turning on Ultra Course View:
• What are the limitations?
• How was Blackboard support?
• Links
• Blackboard Learn Ultra Experience
• RPP #157: Blackboard Roadmap - Interview with Jim Chalex
• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) from the CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

[Disclaimer: The University of the Sciences is a customer of Blackboard.]

Duration: 31:13

RPP #165: Coursetune - Interview with Maria Andersen

• Interview with Maria Andersen, CEO and Co-Founder, Coursetune. Coursetune has a completely new way to visualize the underpinnings and framework of curriculum design - a way to "harmonize" your curriculum. We discuss:
• Maria's background
  
• Need for a Coursetune
• Improving curriculum design beyond spreadsheets and whiteboards
• How Coursetune works
• Why it is like "Autocad" for learning design
• Target audience
• and more
• Podsafe music selection
• "See the Sun" by Black Lab from California with tunes featured in the movies "Spider Man" and "Blade: Trinity"

Duration: 39:12

RPP #139: Design for the Mind - Interview with Victor Yocco

• Interview with Victor Yocco (@victoryocco), design researcher and author
  
• We answer the questions:
• What are your background and interests?
• What is andragogy?
• What are some of the key principles of learning design?
• How can psychology inform design?
• Can you tell us about your new book? 

• Links
• Design for the Mind
  For a 39% discount on the book, use the Promo Code: smayocco
• PhillyChi
• PADLA
• Podsafe music selection
• Vivaldi: Concerto No. 4 in G Minor “Winter” (Allegro movement) from The Four Seasons by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

Duration: 25:54

RPP #134: Bb World 2015 Recap: SaaS vs Ultra

• Rod discusses his experience at Bb World 2015, especially what he learned about the new SaaS offerings and Ultra Experience. Listen to the audio podcast as usual or listen and watch accompanying slides via Youtube. 

• Thanks go to Jim Chalex, Sr. Director of Product Management, and Greg Ritter, Product Management Director at Blackboard Inc, for their BbWorld presentations on this topic. I hope I got it right!

View Rod's #bbworld15 Tweets

• SaaS vs Ultra
  
• Bb Learn 9.1 & Ultra Roadmaps
• Bb Collaborate Ultra Roadmap
• Bb Mobile Ultra Roadmap
• New Persona-based Apps
• Benefits of SaaS
• SaaS: Standard, Plus & Advantage
• Transition and Migration Options
• Ultra Tabs and Modules
• Blackboard up for sale!

• Links
• try.blackboard.com
• www.bbworldlive.com

• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• Don't Be Long: The Beatles v Elken, a mashup of George Harrison's Blue Jay Way by Elken, a 60's influenced band from Dublin, Ireland. 

Duration: 21:58

RPP #109: Undercover Student: Interview with Gwen Burbank

• Interview: Gwen Burbank, Curriculum Manager/Instructional Technology Specialist for the MBA program at St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies. Gwen is also a member of the Pennsylvania Distance Learning Association (PADLA.org)
• Gwen went undercover as a MBA student in St. George's synchronous online program. We discuss:
• key educational management issues
• instructional design factors 
• teaching techniques helpful in keeping students engaged and honest
• "the good, bad and ugly" of synchronous online learning
• Podsafe Music Selection from Jamendo
• "Woods of Chaos" by Rob Costlow - New Age Piano"

Duration: 30:55