Agenda:

7:30am – 9:00am Registration and Coffee

9:00am – 9:15am Welcome and Introduction

9:15am – 10:15am Software and Cloud Applications for Collaboration
Speaker: Phillip Knutel, Ph.D., Executive Director, Academic Technology, the Library and Online Learning and Assistant Professor, Information Design and Corporate Communication, Bentley University

 In this session, Dr. Knutel will provide an overview of some of the collaborative and cloud applications used at Bentley University. Tools include Google Apps, used for administrative purposes and IT project management - including working with Grant Thornton on an institutional IT assessment and survey of Bentley faculty, staff, and students, then documenting and managing the process of implementing their recommendations. Google Apps are also used for student-student collaboration in and out of Dr. Knutel’s class meetings, which he will describe. He will also detail how Bentley is using Citrix GoToMeeting to support trustee and other executive-level administrative meetings and for classes in which Saba Centra isn’t ideal.

10:15am - 11:15am Developing Collaborative Learning Spaces; Practices and Examples
Speaker: Philip Lombardi, Director of Academic Computing & Media Services, Bryant University

This presentation will cover Bryant University’s experiences in developing collaborative teaching and learning spaces. It will review traditional and nontraditional approaches, as well as lessons learned, with layouts, furniture types, technologies and partnerships formed to create environments that meet a variety of programming needs.

Part of the session will focus on Bryant’s recent classroom pilot called the Ideation Lab; a unique campus classroom designed with the sole purpose of exploring new methods to teaching and learning. The room, which is oriented “in-the-round”, rather than front lecture style, was designed so that the instructor could easily engage students and guide discussions. It consists of flexible work stations, writing surfaces throughout, including glass, and a digital whiteboard to foster ideas, creativity and interaction. After a year of use, this space has quickly become one of the highest utilized classrooms on campus with faculty asking for more.

The session will conclude with concept planning underway to develop a new interactive lab, located in Bryant’s library, for collaborative classroom instruction and after class study space. The room is being designed with portable collaboration pods, Video Telepresence and a data visualization wall.

11:15am – 11:30am Break

11:30am - 12:15pm Looking back, looking forward: A year with the Brown University Library Digital Scholarship Lab
Speaker: E. Patrick Rashleigh, Data Visualization Coordinator, Brown University Library

In the fall of 2012, the Brown University Library opened the DSL, a lab with a high-resolution display wall and video switcher that allows for simultaneous display of up to 12 video sources. Many of the original design decisions behind the lab have proven useful, but even after a year we are still learning lessons about this space and its technology, and the lab remains very much a work in progress.

12:15pm – 1:15pm Lunch

1:15pm – 2:15pm Learning Together – Anytime, Anywhere
Speakers: 
Linda Beith, Ph.D., Director of Instructional Design, Roger Williams University
Karen Jones, M.A.T., Director of Media Services, Roger Williams University

As higher education institutions expand outreach and choices for course delivery, the need for exploring new ways to foster collaboration emerges. Roger Williams University now supplements traditional on-campus course offerings with blended courses, hyflex courses, fully online asynchronous courses, synchronous online courses, accelerated courses and flipped classes. RWU faculty and staff value both collaboration and experiential learning so these threads run through many courses and have offered the opportunity for faculty and academic support staff to re-envision the concept of a “collaborative learning environment” both on campus and online. We will share our latest experiments with fostering online collaboration strategies including using virtual desktop environments as well as some web-based strategies to supplement on-campus learning, including a new Barco Clickshare group space, virtual polling and Library redesign.

2:15pm – 3:00pm Discussion – Wrap-up – Final Thoughts

3:00pm End