TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast

Guest Dr. Matt Bergman joins Tom and Kelvin to discuss the current role credit for prior learning plays in American higher education and how we can all do a bit more to use this approach effectively in our digital learning work.

In this “call-in show” episode, hosts Tom and Kelvin are joined by some of the past year’s guests in sharing observations about 2024 as it ends and predictions and hopes about 2025 as it begins. Some of the themes emerging include balancing humanness and technology-assistance and staying focused on the aspirational goals of our collective work.

Guest Phil Hill joins hosts Kelvin and Tom to discuss substantive insights on the role of the LMS and trends in online higher ed enrollments. (Must see TV. Even if it is a podcast.)

Hosts Tom and Kelvin talk through themes from the CHLOE 9 report that stand out as broadly applicable to all online education professionals while we all seek to anticipate or shape the future.

Guest and former Hubert Humphrey Fellow Angelica Gabriela Rocha Guevara joins hosts Tom and Kelvin from Guatemala to discuss the similarities and differences of her country’s pursuit of online education compared to that of other countries around the globe.

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.

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.

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.