More MERLOT 2009

(Click on this YouTube video and listen to me read some lines from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” I used this as an introduction to my MERLOT presentation, titled Creating Productive Digital Identities in the Online Classroom.)

Can we deliver online college courses through cell phones? How do we apply humor in online courses without face-to-face contact? How can we improve online discussion forums?

These questions bring up just a small segment of the issues discussed by college online educators this weekend at the 2009 MERLOT Conference, which I’m attending in San Jose, California, the center of Silcon Valley.

As I wrote earlier, MERLOT, which stands for Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, is one of the premier higher education organizations related to online teaching and technically enhanced traditional classes at the college level. Its annual conferences bring together academics, information technology specialists and software/hardware company representatives to share knowledge and information in a fast growing field in higher education.

I posted about presentations I find relevant to my own academic interests on Thursday. Let me add to the list:

Delivering Courses via Blackberry: A Mobile Learning Case Study

This presentation is about a learning program delivered through Blackberry devices by Pearson Learning Solutions and Louisiana Community & Technical College.

I Need More Than My LMS

This presentation gives ideas about how to embed more learning tools in open source class management systems, such as Moodle and SAKAI.

Did You Hear The One About? Important Considerations for Instructors in Applying Humor in Online Courses

It’s sometimes difficult to be humorous on a personal level in online courses. This presentation by experienced online instructors shows the upside and downside to using humor in online education.

From ChitChat to Discourse: Improving Online Discussion

This presentation is about using rating functions to improve posts on discussion boards, which are an important part of many online courses.

Here’s the complete program. Here’s MERLOT’s main site.

Much of the discussion at MERLOT this week has been about how to meet the academic needs of our current tech savvy college students and the generation of students that will follow them. It’s organizations like MERLOT that ensure the academy will be ready for them.