Online Conferences and Other Ways Virtual Technologies Save Schools Money
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2010-05-14 11:00 am EDT
Presenter: Gayle Nelson, Director of Instructional Design, & Lee Scarborough, Troy University Online
Troy University traditionally holds an annual colloquium for the professors teaching in online classes. The goal of this colloquium is to allow faculty to meet and share ideas; to offer a 'Collegial' setting for discipline meetings; to create a venue for the presentation of research findings; to offer new ideas and workshops to improve courses; to introduce new university policies and goals; and to share ideas and information. The problem is that the online faculty is as widespread as its students with faculty located across the country and even overseas.
The growing national financial crisis of 2009 forced Troy to move to online delivery for the 2009 colloquium. The goal of the move was to increase our reach to the online faculty and to lower expenses. The results were surprising in both areas. We were able to more effectively reach the increasingly globally-located faculty. It also allowed the archiving of presentations for later viewing by faculty.
Costs were cut to virtually nothing. Sponsors picked up over 99% of all costs as well as donating the prizes for the drawings. These drawings were held during the online presentations and prizes ranging from coffee cups to Netbook computers and Kindles. Presentations were both live and pre-recorded. All are being made available online throughout the year. This allows those who 'attended' the sessions to review them and those who were not able to attend to view the sessions at their convenience. Our presentation features both discussion of and a demonstration of the program that made this possible and shows the itemized savings and benefits. It will also offer tips on how to offer the same experience at little to no cost for other institutions. It will show the planning, logistics and results of the Online Colloquium. We will also share comments by attendees and presenters.
The intent is to share our experience to assist other schools to be able to take advantage of this positive, and cost effective, communications tool.