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

9:00am – 9:15am Introduction/Welcome

9:15am – 10:05am Blended Learning @ Babson: How resources in IT @ Babson Work Together to Deliver Exceptional Blended Learning Experiences
Speakers: 
Tova Duby, Senior Manager, IT Operations, Babson College
Eric Palson, Director, Blended Learning, Babson College

Babson College has been delivering blended learning programs to students for over a decade now. Designing, creating, launching and supporting blended and online courses requires collaboration between many groups at Babson. From the academic program office to the faculty to the instructional designers to the IT help desk to the technical developers…everyone at Babson has a hand in making our blended programs a smooth and successful experience for the students (and faculty). For the past 10 years, Eric and Tova have been collaborating to do just that – deliver successful blended learning experiences to Babson students and partner with faculty to ensure they receive the support they need. Come hear Eric and Tova share Babson’s cross-departmental collaboration story as it relates to their blended learning programs.

10:05am - 10:20am Break

10:20am – 11:10am Faculty Support at UCONN Online
Speaker: Desmond McCaffrey, Associate Director, UConn eCampus, University of Connecticut

How can colleges and universities provide online teaching faculty with the resources needed to ensure quality academic experiences for online students? A major institutional realignment and dramatic increase in online course offerings at the University of Connecticut led the University’s eCampus to revisit and address this question head on. In this session, Desmond will outline the subsequent developments in their faculty support processes focusing on identifying faculty to teach online, providing faculty with a community of practice, and partnering with the University’s Institute for Teaching and Learning to provide faculty development opportunities.

11:10am – 12:00pm CASTL ... ensuring optimal faculty support through a myriad of skills and services
Speaker: Kristen Palson, Associate Director, Simmons Online, Simmons College

Now more than ever faculty need to be ready to teach in innovative ways. To do this successfully requires integrated and seamless support. The Center for Excellence in Teaching, Assessment, Simmons Online, Technology and the Library (jointly known as CASTL) have merged talents to meet a full spectrum of faculty needs, ensure optimal support through a myriad of skills and services, while guarding against duplicated efforts. CASTL is a committee, representing five distinct entities, that shares a common denominator of enhancing faculty development and experience as well as, concomitantly, enriching the student experience.

With the five departments working separately and together, CASTL is invested in aiding faculty in every way as they deliver rigorous face-to-face and digitally-enhanced academic instruction to enable robust student learning outcomes.

12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch

1:00pm – 1:50pm Collaborations at WPI: Accessibility and Academic Technology
Speakers: 
Kate Beverage, Assistant Director, Academic Technology Center, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Aaron Ferguson, Director of the Office of Disability Services, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

This interactive presentation will focus on how Worcester Polytechnic Institute is providing accommodations for online/blended students with disabilities and also encouraging proactive implementation to promote Universal Design/Access. Attendees will engage in a conversation with the presenters and colleagues at other universities on the partnership opportunities between Academic Technology and Disability Services support staff.

1:50pm – 2:30pm Panel (a Lightning Round format) 
During this session, panelists will share how they are collaborating on their campuses to support the growth in blended/online programs. Attendees will also be encouraged to share their own campus challenges/successes. 
If you are interested in serving as a panelist, please contact Kate Beverage at kwrigley@wpi.edu.

2:30pm - 3:00pm Wrap-up/Final Thoughts