Online Educators, Come Out of Your Caves!
Why I Love Conferences
By Mark Welch

December 8, 2009

Online education conferences are unlike any other conferences I've attended. Then again, online educators are unlike any other people I've met.

At most conferences by 4 p.m., everyone is headed to the bar, to their hotel rooms to sleep, or to the airport, hoping to catch an earlier flight home. But that's not what happens when online educators get together. As online educators, our work often puts us in basements or closet-sized home offices, where we grade papers and administer to students across multiple states, provinces, and sometimes continents. When we emerge from our technological caves, we're jonzeing to socialize and network ... and network.

We onliners are still considered the step-children of higher education. When we get together, it's a relief to meet other people who speak our language. It's important for us, as a segregated group of professionals, to band together for other reasons, too.

How long can we deal with professors who push against online education but can't even figure out how to access their university email?

And of those who seem a bit more savvy about online education, yet are still pompous about old-school schooling, I like to ask several questions:

• Do you have your syllabus online?
• Can students turn in their assignments online?
• Can students check their grades online?
• Can students access library services and student services online?

Yes? That's when I gently break it to these tweed-jacket-with-elbow-patches professors that they are already using a blended learning or hybrid model of online education. Yes, there will be more online tools, and yes, their schools will likely require that they adopt them—until they are well on their way down the slippery slope of online education.

When I confront people in this way, their response is usually a dumbfounded look.

I love that look. I live for that look.

We say that online education is for people in front of the technological curve. I think it's a bit more than that. The times I have attended the Educause Conference, which is the techno-geek aspect of online education software, I met excited salesman and bored reps, but no actual online professors.

However, this past summer, I went to the Pearson–eCollege National Conference, which was filled with real live deans and professors of online education! It had the zeal of a Star Trek convention. (Full disclosure: My college does not use eCollege; I attended to recruit faculty.) I found that at 4 p.m., when the sessions ended, people not only lingered but were still talking shop five hours later.

At the end of one of the sessions for deans of online education, I stood up and said, "I'm a dean of online ed for 12 campuses, and I need to hire 20 professors today or I don't get a plane ticket home."

I didn't get 20; I hired 26 from that conference.

In short, we online folks are truly social creatures who love to come out of our caves and network. If you see me at a conference, know you have met someone from your tribe of electronic cave dwellers—I mean online educators.

About the Author
Mark Welch, PhD, has a diverse background that stretches from working for the U.S. Congress, to Microsoft, graduating from Oxford University, later earning a PhD, teaching online, and becoming a dean of online education for 12 campuses for a century-old private college.

From: Diane (email) www.drdianehamilton.com Online is the Future Date: 05/26/2010 01:07:55 I recently did some research into the popularity of online learning. It is estimated that in the next 5 years, there will be around 22 million students getting at least part of their college education online. It seems we are overcoming some of the stigma attached to online learning. However, dropout rates for online students are still high. I teach for 6 online universities and have done so for many years. Although I teach bachelor through doctoral level students, I really enjoy the newbies to online learning. I think people need to realize that online is the present and the future of learning. It is too bad that more help isn't available to first-time students. I have found many newbies who have very limited skills.   From: Tracy Greenwood (email) Stevens-Henager College Professor Date: 12/09/2009 04:01:22 When I talk to people about online education, I remember the line from The Graduate. "I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics." Now I want to say one word. Just one word. Online. I think when Harvard and other prestigious schools threw their hat in to the ring, the credibility of online programs moved up immensely. You are correct about online educators being social creatures. I love getting calls from my students and doing live office hours online.   From: Kathy Howe aka SedonaKathy (email) REEA, how2educate LLC OnLine Educators Date: 12/08/2009 04:45:50 You excite me! Am reviewing an online real estate course contract from one of the on-line companies I write continuing ed classes for... and I am going to take my CDEI from ARELLO over the holidays. I'm also a grad of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and a past Foundation Board President. NAU is steeped in online learning... As President-Elect of the Real Estate Educators Association, online learning is one of our priorities. We are working with ARELLO and others to make the learning experience one that the learner passes on to others. Thanks for the post. I'm in search of information and education... where are the educators of tomorrow?? Thanks for pointing me in a positive direction.

Comments Leave this field empty Post a Comment: Comment Title (Required) Name (Required) E-Mail (Required) Affiliation (Required) Comment (Required - HTML syntax is not allowed and will be removed)