TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast

Hosts Kelvin and Tom consider the centrality that online learners’ needs must have in shaping the work of online higher education. Particular attention is given to how responsibility for this common goal must be shared between individual faculty and institutional processes to assure quality at scale.

Return guest Nicolaas Matthijs joins hosts Tom and Kelvin to discuss some of the trends he’s seeing in the rapidly changing AI-assisted technology space with an eye toward how digital learning professionals can make wise use of the tools in our work. Podcast Recording Download Transcript: PDF Nicolaas Matthijs Episode 170 Show Notes: Episode Synopsis via Twitter View complete list of episode highlights via Twitter Coffee Links Tanzania Peaberry Lyamungo from Sunergos Coffee (Louisville, KY) Content Links [Please Click and Vote Now!] Listener Poll: Crowdsourced Input on “TOPcast Live” Session at OLC Accelerate 2024 Visual: “Gartner Hype Cycle” Video Interview: “Exploring the Frontiers of AI: A Conversation with [Columbia University] Professor Hod Lipson” Keynote Video: “If AI is the Answer, What is the Question: Thinking about Learning and Vice Versa” (Dr. Chris Dede) Prior TOPcast Episodes #158: “AI-Assistance Built-In: Less Obvious/More Useful” (with Nicolaas Matthijs) #146: “Get Hands-On with AI” (with Dr. Rohan Jowallah) Just-for-Fun Pop Culture Link [On vinyl 45 rpm records] “Bemused and a Bit Bereaved on Behalf of the B Side” Extra Special Feature Video Version of This Episode!

Hosts Tom and Kelvin discuss the relationship between the strategic value institutions find in online education and institutions establishing senior roles of responsibility for online and digital learning. Implications for a variety of institutional roles are considered. Podcast Recording Download Transcript: PDF Episode 169 Show Notes: Episode Synopsis via Twitter View complete list of episode highlights via Twitter Coffee Links Mysterious Clues on “Ruthie’s Blend” from Stomping Grounds Coffee Co., Louisville, KY Content Links [Research study] “A National Study of Online Learning Leaders in US Higher Education” (Fredericksen, 2017) [Research study] “A National Study of Online Learning Leaders in US Community Colleges” (Fredericksen, 2018) UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership [UPCEA article] “The Chief Online Learning Officer: Competencies, Roles, and Trajectories” (Herron, Lashley, Salley, and Shaw, 2016) [From UPCEA, 2023] “Definition Update: Chief Online Learning Officer (COLO)” [Edited book] From Grassroots to the Highly Orchestrated: Online Leaders Share Their Stories of the Evolving Online Organizational Landscape in Higher Education (Bouchey, Graz, Kurland, 2023) TOPcast Episodes #36: “Finding Online Learning Leaders: ‘Fredericksen’s List’” #126: “COLOs, Context, and Community” #136: “Online Higher Ed: Finding Ourselves in Other People’s Stories” Just for Fun Pop Culture Links Hidden Brain podcast Extra Special Feature Video Version of This Episode!

Guest Melissa Loble joins hosts Kelvin and Tom to share an optimistic vision for the future of technology-enabled higher education. Amidst heightened automation and AI assistance, the uniquely human affordances of relationships are all the more crucial in solving our challenges. Podcast Recording Guest Melissa Loble Download Transcript: PDF Episode 168 Show Notes: Episode Synopsis via Twitter View complete list of episode highlights via Twitter Coffee Links Single-Origin Costa Rica Central Valley from Dunn Brothers Coffee (Minneapolis, MN) Content Links Melissa Loble’s Online Profile Melissa Loble’s Reflection Post on InstructureCon 2024 (referenced in this episode) Dr. Mary Murphy’s (Stanford U/Indiana U) Work on Growth Mindset in Organizational Cultures Past TOPcast Episodes Episode 64: “Principles for Humanizing Online Education… and Remote Teaching/Learning” [with guest Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock] Episode 151: “What a Year [of Disruption] It Has Been! […But] 2024 is Upon Us!” [featuring remarks from Jared Stein] Extra Special Feature Video Version of This Episode!

Hosts Kelvin and Tom explore the catalyzing personal and organizational value of individuals cultivating a “startup mindset,” regardless of personal role, in the work of digital higher education.

Guest Dr. Justin Shaffer joins hosts Tom and Kelvin to discuss the role high structure course design can play in making online STEM courses more effective… and fun!

In this episode, hosts Tom and Kelvin explore the rationale underlying continued institutional efforts to prepare faculty for online course design and teaching. Hint: It’s about students.

Dr. Jenny Sumner joins hosts Kelvin and Tom to discuss the growing role “coaching” plays, especially online, in centering students and their success within our higher ed work.

In this episode, hosts Tom and Kelvin invite “fun with syllabi” by exploring the multiple roles played by the syllabus in online courses and encouraging adjustments to make syllabi more meaningful and inviting for students.

In this time-sensitive episode (listen now!), return guests Russ Poulin and Cheryl Dowd explain how proposed actions by the US Department of Education (US ED) may negatively impact many online learners and US higher education institutions.

In this Season 10 kick-off episode, hosts Kelvin Thompson and Thomas Cavanagh revisit a “time capsule” of past predictions and pivot toward the various flavors of “possible futures” available now in online education.

Guest Dr. Jean Mandernach joins hosts Tom and Kelvin to discuss how faculty and instructional designers can design more meaningful and engaging learning assignments for students, online or anywhere.

Hosts Kelvin and Tom talk through the importance of consulting trusted sources of data and information as the basis for sound decision making in online education, no matter what role one holds.

Guest Nicolaas Matthijs joins hosts Tom and Kelvin to discuss the emergence of AI-assistance built into educational technology platforms and how this is a departure from past phases of artificial intelligence implementation.

In this episode, hosts Tom and Kelvin summarize the current issues surrounding proposed changes to “inclusive access programs” for digital instructional materials and how this affects the affordability work of digital education professionals.

Guest Dr. Carmin Chan joins hosts Tom and Kelvin to consider how we might reframe the typical institutional data that might not present clearly the needs and progress of post-traditional learners served by online education.

In this episode, spring-boarding from one of the chapters in the new SAGE Handbook of Online Higher Education, hosts Kelvin and Tom advocate for high-quality online discussions and reflect upon research-based practices that lead to well-designed and successful discussion experiences.

Guest Dr. Anna Porcaro joins hosts Tom and Kelvin to share insights on how higher education institutions can be more effective in meeting workforce needs through digital alternative educational programs.

As a follow-up to the pre-2024 call-in show, hosts Tom and Kelvin talk through the need to re-examine, challenge, and change existing institutional structures as we seek to serve learners better - both existing students and a wider variety of potential new students.

Guest Patti O’Sullivan joins hosts Kelvin and Tom to discuss the significance of advance planning for academic continuity and the role that digital teaching and learning can play. Important all the time - not just for global pandemics.