The JSRCC QEP and April Activities

April is an active month for the JSRCC QEP. The College's focus upon distance learning, and on the engagement of faculty, administrators, staff, and students with the broad issues of teaching and learning, coincides well with this year's development of a collaborative theme for the various conferences and symposia that typically highlight April at Reynolds. This unifying theme is Screen Time: Teaching, Learning, and Working in a Mediated World.

Presentations and sessions focused upon Screen Time began with Staff Professional Development Day on March 14. They continue this week at the VCCS New Horizons Conference in Roanoke, Virginia. Four different presentations will be made at New Horizons that are directly connected to the JSRCC QEP:

1) One panel of presenters will discuss the transformative impact a QEP has upon an institution.
2) Another panel will discuss the ways in which JSRCC has used institutional data to develop its faculty training program for online instructors.
3) The development of remediation and orientation modules for online students will be presented in a third session.
4) Finally, a fourth session will focus on the new Peer Academic Leaders (PALs) program that has emerged from the College's efforts to provide greater support for online learners.

JSRCC's Virtual Conference kicks off immediately after New Horizons on Monday, April 18, and continues until April 29. A variety of sessions and presentations are directly connected to the issues that impact the JSRCC QEP. Registration details for this free conference are available, and faculty, staff, and administrators are encouraged to participate. The final day of the Virtual Conference leads directly to the Technology Summit scheduled for Friday, April 29. One of the important links between the Virtual Conference and the Technology Summit will be presentations by John Sener, external evaluator for the JSRCC FIPSE grant.

John Sener will lead a plenary session during the Virtual Conference entitled, "Improving Teaching and Learning in a Screen Captured World."  His keynote address at the Technology Summit is "Cyberized: The Seven Futures of Higher Education." These presentations build upon core ideas defined in "Cyberized Education," published earlier in The Reynolds Ripple.

Coinciding with these activities also is the Fifth Annual Faculty Research Symposium on Friday, April 22. The Research Symposium will host a variety of presentations, many of which directly address issues of teaching and student engagement in a "mediated" world.

The final events of Screen Time will occur through presentations on Wednesday, May 11, Faculty Professional Development Day. Further details for registration and participation will be made available soon.

All of these activities highlight The Ripple Effect of the College's QEP and the interlinked nature of its various efforts.