As a member of the 2013 steering committee, I invite you to submit a proposal for the 6th Annual Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium, to be held April 9-11, 2013 at The Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas, NV. The Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium, a joint Symposium of Sloan Consortium and MERLOT, is designed to bring together individuals interested in the review and evaluation of online teaching and learning technologies. Proposals for presentations must be submitted by December 10, 2012 at http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2013/et4online/call-for-presentations. The ET4Online Symposium offers you an opportunity to study best practices, understand applications, discover new technologies, and connect to others who share a love for and belief in the promise of educational technology. In 2012 the symposium developed a new mission statement designed to emphasize the innovation and invention that is the focus of the conference: A conference devoted to the emerging and innovative uses of technology designed to improve teaching and learning online. Symposium tracks highlight and demonstrate research, application and effective practices and noteworthy technological tools in the following areas: Learning Spaces and Communities Open and Accessible Learning Evidence-based Learning Faculty and Student Development Innovative Media and Tools Faculty, students, instructional designers, instructional technologists and academic administrators are encouraged to submit proposals which are engaging, informative and interactive. These sessions can be targeted to all attendees or beginners, intermediates, or experts. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for this conference, plan to join us for our FREE webinar "Five Tips on How to Submit a Successful Conference Proposal". The goal of this webinar is to assist you in submitting a successful abstract to the Call for Presentations. November 29, 2012 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm (Eastern Time) For today’s educator, selection as a conference presenter is often required in order to attend a conference. For every online learning conference, educators submit and conference committees evaluate hundreds of proposals in order to create a robust program for conference attendees. The number of proposals accepted for a conference depends on program size, topics covered and quality of abstracts submitted. Join this free webinar to learn from experts on the Sloan Consortium and MERLOT Conference Team what they are looking for in proposal submissions. Topics covered will include the importance of topic selection, what reviewers look for in a proposal submission, and tips from track chairs on how final selections are made. Please login or register to sign up for this webinar.

Textbooks have been with us since the dawn of time (or at least it feels that way). They have been researched, tested, reviewed, vetted and used for editions upon editions. But in a world where a first-year college student could have been born in 1996 - the year Derek Jeter won his first World Series - and would have been 11 years old when Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone, their expectations are that they will be able to do much more online in their courses than read PDF pages on a screen. So where does that leave time- and budget-pressured college faculty looking to provide students with outstanding learning experiences? Between a textbook and a hard place. One place to explore options is courseware - but what it is and how to define courseware is a bit murky. So to start we’ll describe things we’ve seen that lay claim to the courseware moniker: Publisher Tools: They carry names like MyLabs, Connect, MindTap and may or may not be followed with a mysterious "Plus". For assessment-driven courses where completing frequent problem sets is a core part of the learning process the depth of configurability, massive arrays of items types, and in depth training requirements is awe-inspiring. Time savings for faculty are questionable, what we do know is they can cost more than $100 per student for only a few months of use. When was the last time you paid that for software? Adaptive Learning Platforms: This expanding class of applications claims to be able to craft a learning experience to an individual learners needs while improving course completion rates and pass rates. If the aforementioned homework tools are the equivalent of luxury cars, adaptive courseware right now are the sports cars of the space. But like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Porsches these are tools suited to address specific needs. As an example, adaptive tools may make sense for developmental mathematics where there is a high failure rate, and it’s skill and drill, but does this really play in say, Freshman Composition, Introduction to Sociology or US History? Learning Management Systems: No, they aren't courseware in and of themselves. At it’s core, an LMS is really just an empty box into which you can plug your course materials. But fill them with enough content, applications, tools and data and they start to look an awful lot like some of the tools above. Who has the abundance of time available to find, curate and integrate learning resources into these platforms? Great question, not any faculty I’ve met recently. Courseware Service Providers: Companies like Bisk, EmbanetCompass (Pearson), Deltak (Wiley) and others will do the work to build instructor’s existing courses into online experience. Sounds too easy, so what's the catch? Watch out as the cost of doing so can be as high as 30-50% of every tuition dollar! Easy to build, sure as someone else is doing the work. Easy to update quickly and regularly, not so much. And quite a costly proposition. Open Courseware: As if that weren't enough there is courseware that uses only open education resources (OER) such as MIT OpenCourseware which may or may not include open textbooks, assignments, simulations and other tools. But why force educators to choose OER or premium resources? Shouldn't academic freedom imply instructors can use whatever resources and tools they need to help their students learn? Open, therefore, is limiting and those who spend the time evaluating and curating resources will tell you it certainly isn't free. Integrated Courseware Companies: There is now an emerging class of companies (shameless plug for my company, Junction) that combine the best of all of the above - curated videos and readings, LMS integration, basic assignment and assessment functionality (with auto-grading and gradebook) - delivered in an easy-to-use package that can be tweaked and tuned by instructors to serve the needs of their students. Heck, they can even include textbook chapters in their digital courseware and provide a rich layer of data-driven insights to boot. Call it putting the power of technology - simply and effectively - back in the hands of skilled educators who know best the needs of their specific student populations. This is the space to watch in 2015. Great courseware doesn't need to cost 30-50% of tuition, or anywhere close to it. At $40-50 per student per course Junction is usually the most affordable option available and the one 82.6% of students rate as being more or much more effective than alternatives. Picture License  Some rights reserved by Theen

Have you wondered what Twitter is and what if any practical applications there are for teaching and learning? Perhaps you are among the 30% of faculty who now use Twitter in some capacity and you would like to learn some tips and tricks for better utilizing Twitter in education context. During this online session offered 11/30/2012 we introduced the basics of Twitter and explored best practices for using Twitter in teaching, learning and professional development. | view podcast in iTunes For links to archives of other online workshops offered by NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, visit www.niu.edu/facdev/programs/archives

Since its launch in 2010 Start-Up Chile has hosted over 1000 startups from across the globe in its six month accelerator program, based in Santiago de Chile. Besides free co-working space, mentorship and a visa for the country, entrepreneurs receive a $40.000 grant in return for no equity. The program by the Chilean government comes with the objective to create a tech scene in the country. Unfortunately, due to the lack of follow-on investment opportunities most startups relocate after the six months of the program in order to raise funding or simply burn out. In order to give the best performing startups of each batch more runway and an incentive to stay in Chile, Start-Up Chile has announced its own follow-on fund Start-Up Chile SCALE. Through the fund up to 10 startups of each batch will have the opportunity to get up to $100.000 in funding. In return the startup needs to stay another year in the country and needs to have a permanent legal presence in Chile. During the extended period, the startups will have access to all Start-Up Chile resources. The follow-on funding is, like the $40.000 grant, equity-free but in order to receive it the startup needs to match the grant with a 30% outside investment. According to TechCrunch, Start-Up Chile companies have raised over $110 million with 85% coming from investors outside of Latin America. According to the website about 80 edtech startups have participated in the Start-Up Chile accelerator program. Further Reading Start-Up Chile Launches Follow-On Fund To Boost Local Growth | TechCrunch Chile’s Grand Innovation Experiment | TechCrunch Links startupchile.org/scale

As smartphones are becoming more popular, college students are relying on them more and more. This infographic depicts findings from one recent study exploring smartphone use among college students.

Pearson is planning on investing an additional $50 million in edtech startups from emerging markets through the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund. Originally launched in 2012 with a budget of $15 million the fund has already invested in edtech startups from South Africa, Ghana, India and the Philippines. Half of the startups have a female CEO. Pearson Affordable Learning Fund aims to support initiatives that have an impact on underserved, low-income learners. Besides investing in startups, the fund also runs edupreneur programs in partnership with Village Capital that aim at helping founders with their business and investability. "We believe that start-up culture can inject innovation and determination into some of the world's toughest educational systems." states Katelyn Donnelly, managing director of the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund. Pearson also announced the launch of a new social impact campaign titled Project Literacy. Through the campaign and its partners Pearson aims to accelerate improvements in literacy throughout the developing world. "The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund has already shown it is possible to address this challenge by making low-cost, high-quality schools and services accessible to parents in the developing world. We are tripling our investment in the Fund because we know that this approach works, and makes a transformative difference to lives across the world." states Pearson chief executive John Fallon. Further Reading Pearson makes new investments to improve learning outcomes in developing world | Press Release Link affordable-learning.com

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As part of its Kindle Direct Publishing program Amazon announced the launch of KDP EDU. The new portal aims to help educators and education authors to easily convert existing textbooks or other study materials from pdf to digital textbooks. Those digital textbooks can then be accessed on a variety of devices, from Amazon’s own Fire tablets, to iOS devices and Android devices to Mac and Windows desktops. Books that are created with the new Kindle Textbook Creator also have some useful features baked in. Multi-Color Highlighting - Learners can highlight and categorize key concepts for easy reference. Notebook - Learners can capture key passages, images and bookmarks and automatically add them to the notebook. Learners can also add their own notes and easily access them from one location. Flashcards - Learners can create flashcards and study important terms, concepts, and definitions in each chapter with a simple, easy-to-use interface. Dictionary - Learners can find definitions and Wikipedia information for difficult terms to improve retention. Buy Once, Read Everywhere - Learners can access their etextbooks on all of their devices. Educators and authors can earn up to 70% in royalties while maintaining complete control over the content. They can also participate in the different marketing formats offered by Amazon including the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. The Kindle Textbook Creator software can be downloaded for free and runs on Mac OS X 10.8 or later and Windows 7 or later. Further Reading Amazon Launches Kindle Textbook Creator | Business Wire Link kdp.amazon.com/edu

This infographic, llustrating data from a Pew Internet survey, highlights some key metrics around digital engagement and higher education.

Thanks to increased access to the Internet and faster connections, Latin America has become one of the growing markets for online based education services. Etutores is an online learning platform that aims to connect students and teachers. The online portal offers additional features like online booking, a virtual classroom environment, mobile applications and teacher training. Introduce your startup and give a short description of what you are doing. Etutores is a free online tutoring portal that connects teachers and students in a seamless, interactive and unprecedented way. Our company taps into the rapidly expanding education market in Brazil, but focuses upon the untapped niche of interactive online tutoring with the focus on the teacher segment as a target audience. Who are the founders, how did you meet, what are your different roles in the startup. Andrea Paschoal CEO Etutores. She is an educator with experience in the management of teachers and the production of online content. Andrea has a DELTA diploma from the University of Cambridge, UK. She has coordinated and managed teachers at Embassy CES Oxford - UK and developed projects in the area of online learning at the BBC and Macmillan Publishers. Andrea understands the Startup dynamics and the Brazilian market well. She is capable of designing bespoke online learning solutions with a fast, cost effective approach. Bruna Piacente Offline Marketing Consultant for Etutores. Bruna has a lot of experience as a producer of promotional events and an extensive portfolio of work done for large companies in Brazil, such as Biolab and Claro HDTV. She can plan, coordinate and execute successful offline marketing campaigns. We met when working together on a roadshow of a project from the BBC in partnership with Universidades Anhanguera in Brazil. What is the main problem in education that you aim to solve. Teachers tend to be dissatisfied with their compensation at work and will often spend a long time filling school paperwork and commuting. They welcome the opportunity to gain more autonomy and earn more by managing their own workload and schedule. Etutores responds to the demands of the teaching profession by establishing a platform as a commodity in order to attract students. Etutores focuses on a transparent and fair business model, whereby the teacher is an asset and an active member and representative of the brand. Furthermore, there’s potential to grow to another big market, since an increasing number of educational institutions which offer courses online, are continually focusing upon the development of content and video lessons to cater for this ever-growing number of students that are taking up these courses. As a result, significant numbers of institutions are actively seeking solutions to offer their students a more balanced teacher vs. content learning experience. In which markets / regions are you active. What markets / regions are next. We chose Brazil as our initial market. The decision was made based on the size of the market and the local demand. It also made sense to start somewhere we knew well. The natural expansion would be to cover other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Peru, and we have plans to launch an English version on the platform in the UK soon. Who is your target audience. Etutores focuses primarily upon one distinct customer segment: Teachers; Professors at the University level along with secondary school teachers will be targeted in the initial product rollout. That’s a total number of 2.5M prospects. Our goal is to reach 3% marketshare by the end of year 3. Who are your main competitors? At present, there is no free online tutoring platform in Brazil. There are, however, three companies which offer similar services on a monthly subscription or commission per lesson basis. Unlike Etutores, none of them offer any teacher development courses. How do you engage with your target audience. How do you convert them into users of your product. We plan to initially promote Etutores through campaigns on LinkedIn and Facebook, and then support those campaigns with personal networking and outreach. We have already tested these approaches at a smaller scale, and they have delivered strong results. The teaching community in Brazil is already very active online, especially in social networking sites. With the basic functionalities of the product offered for free, the strategy to convert existent non-paying users to paying users is to promote the premium functionalities of the platform via the platform itself, email and online campaigns. These are initially; online invoicing and payment tools, advanced booking calendar and enhanced visibility in the search results. What is your business model. How much does your product / service cost. At present the platform is completely free. However, in the next couple of month we'll launch the premium memberships for teachers, which will be offered for a USD20/ month fee, through a monthly membership contract. This is comparatively cheaper to competitors’ prices. Offering variations of membership such as a more sophisticated plan or a more economic one are an option to try to capture an even wider range of users, but for the purposes of this business plan I will keep all forecast to the initial 2 variations of monthly fees (USD20/50). If you raised funding, how much did you raise. Who are your investors. If not, are you planning to raise funding. We are planning to raise funding in the first quarter of 2015. Initially we are approaching potential Angel investors, but we are also launching an equity crowd funding campaign soon. Are there milestones you are especially proud of and would like to share. In just over the first 3 months of our beta version, we had drawn subscriptions from 900 educators and 1300 students! So far the platform has facilitated over 500 private lessons and our community is growing organically and with the support of the teaching community in Brazil. What are the next steps in growing your startup. To obtain this market share we plan to use a "freemium" online portal that will offer basic, but robust tutoring capacity for teachers and students. We will draw revenue from members who subscribe to our premium membership, which includes customizable add-ons, such as advanced booking, a convenient and safe online payment and invoicing functionality. Teachers will also have access to a library of free open source content and unlimited use of virtual whiteboard rooms. As well as the opportunity to purchase teacher training and certification from the platform. Once a pool of qualified and experienced teachers is formed and graded by users, and internal assessment tools, by the end of year two, Etutores will be in a position to place itself as the "LinkedIn of online tutoring" being the complete online tutoring solution in the national market. Offering Educational Institutions a route to the recruitment of trained, certified, independent online professionals, which will cater for the growing trend to adapt online courses to a more blended learning reality. How can people get in touch with you. andrea@etutores.com.br +55 41 4042 2390 (Brazil) +44 7711088678 (UK) www.etutores.com.br https://www.facebook.com/etutoresbrasil