- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to celebrate National Distance Learning Week

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:45:06 +0000

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Office of eLearning and Scholarly Technology and Resources (STaR) will host a week of events from Nov. 5-9 in support of continued academic excellence in online education as part of National Distance Learning Week. This year’s events will begin with a STaR Open House for faculty and staff in Dickinson 101 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 5. Attendees will be able to learn about ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s online programs, Quality Matters, professional development, as well as have the opportunity to ask questions regarding STaR’s services. A separate open house for students, featuring games, door prizes, student success tips, Blackboard support, and free professional headshots, will be held in the Donaghey Student Center from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7. The Office of Admissions will also waive the application fee for any student that applies for an online campus program on this day. Throughout the week, STaR will host several faculty-focused events in Dickinson 101 that touch base on a variety of topics that impact distance learning, including resources, benefits, tools for success, and instructional design. A final celebration of online and distance learning will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 9. For more information about National Distance Learning Week at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, check out the full schedule of events. All events are free and open to the campus community and will be .

��Vlog��ý Little Rock recognized as Top 10 value for online education

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:15:20 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been ranked one of the Top 10 universities in the nation to earn a degree online quickly and affordably. College Values Online ranked ��Vlog��ý Little Rock sixth on its list. Online degrees are particularly appealing for nontraditional students like working professionals and busy parents who have limited study time. Rankings were based on U.S. News and World Report rankings, cost to attend, best undergraduate and graduate programs, options to accelerate the completion of a degree, and unique features or programs. College Values Online highlighted that online students can fast track their degrees in fields like criminal justice, nursing, education, and communication. “Accelerated programs move twice as fast as traditional programs, and students can take courses on a hybrid or fully online basis,” the article stated. “University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s online students are taught by the same award-winning professors who teach on-campus classes, and they also enjoy many of the same resources such as university library access and assistance from the school’s writing lab.”

Amar Kanekar honored for excellence in online teaching

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 17:50:28 +0000

When Nita Copeland first met Amar Kanekar in 2012, the new professor was not convinced of the merits of teaching online. “When Amar first came here, I asked him what he thought about online learning. He said, ‘Teachers needs to be in the classroom,’” said Copeland, senior instructor in the School of Counseling, Human Performance and Rehabilitation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Copeland took Kanekar under her wing and taught him everything she knows about online education. Six years later, Kanekar, a graduate program coordinator of the Health Education and Promotion program, was honored as a recipient of the 2017-18 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Award during a March 29 reception in the Donaghey Student Center. “Online learning was totally new, and Amar was always so positive. He saw that if you taught online correctly that you can have great results,” said Copeland, who has previously received a Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Award. “He has always jumped right in and would try anything.” The Blackboard awards program recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges, and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning. Kanekar won the award for his “Health Education Program Evaluation,” a senior-level online course that focuses on health program planning and evaluation. “I am deeply humbled by this big honor from Blackboard,” Kanekar said. “I would like to extend my thanks to my coworkers and family. I also want to thank the STAR (Scholarly Technology and Resources office) team for helping me with all my training. There is a very special person here, Nita Copeland, who always motivated me and encouraged me to go for this award.” Cori Schmidtbauer, an instructional designer in the STAR office who is friends with Kanekar, remarked that Kanekar has definitely earned the award through his dedication to teaching. “Amar is very student oriented,” Schmidtbauer said. “He is very passionate about learning and ensuring students get a successful learning experience, especially online students.” Kanekar has completed the Blackboard Learn Advanced training and served as a guest speaker for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Summer Academy for Online Teaching Excellence. He has also received a Quality Matters certificate for one of his online courses this year and received one of the first Open Education Resource mini grants from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2017. In the upper right photo, Amar Kanekar (right) and Nita Copeland (left) celebrate Kanekar’s recent award at a reception in the Donaghey Student Center Leadership Lounge. Photo by Marisa Perry.

Online Courses Receive National Recognition

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:17:14 +0000

Five faculty member courses have been recognized for their promotion of online education and student learning and are the recipients of the Quality Matters (QM) recognition for their online courses.

The following courses received the QM distinction:

Belinda Blevins-Knabe, PSYC 3356, Developmental Psychology
Carol Thompson, SPCH 4313, Communication Difference
Dr. Robert Mitchell, MGMT 3352, Advanced PC Applications
Dr. Margaret Scranton, POLS 1310, American National Government
Erick Elder, ECON 2310, Business Statistics

is a nationally recognized faculty-centered, peer review organization designed to certify the quality of online and blended courses. The is based on research, best practices, and instructional design.

With eight general categories and 41 specific standards, the QM Rubric provides one of the highest standards developed for online and blended course evaluations.

Android Adds ��Vlog��ýLR Mobile App

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:20:53 +0000

Smartphone users with Android phones can now download ��Vlog��ýLR’s mobile app, available on Google Play, linking them to classroom discussions and assignments, the latest news, a campus map, and real-time locations of the Trojan Trolley. The joins its counterpart from iTunes, introduced earlier this semester. Both versions offer mobile links to the Blackboard online classroom platform, the academic calendar, a campus map, the ��Vlog��ýLR news feed, faculty contacts, and a GPS tracker for the Trojan Trolley. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors can all use the free app. “More and more people – particularly college-age people – are accessing information via their smartphones and tablets more than desktop computers,” said Peter Stuckey, associate director of Information Technology Services. “��Vlog��ýLR Mobile puts campus information and Blackboard classes in the palm of students’ hands.” Features of ��Vlog��ýLR Mobile include:

A directory of faculty email listings that will save contacts in the user’s phone address book.
A campus map
A direct link to the Trolley Tracker gives a phone user a GPS look at where the trolley is located in real time and when it will arrive at a designated stop.
A campus news feed from the Office of Communications.
Instant access to all Blackboard Learn content on the go.
A course catalog that includes class times, locations, and more.
The academic calendar.
The entire ��Vlog��ýLR library catalog, including check item availability.
‘‘Images” provides the ability to search, browse, download, and share images from the ��Vlog��ýLR collections.
Athletics provides news, schedules, and features on Trojan teams.
Video features the latest events from around campus, as well as special interviews and highlights.
A “Help” button provides access to important numbers.

Development of ��Vlog��ýLR Mobile was a collaboration among several ��Vlog��ýLR offices – Scholarly Technology and Resources, the Office of Communications, and Information Technology Services – partnering with Blackboard Mobile.

Copeland’s Blackboard Course Wins Award

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:21:40 +0000

Nita Copeland, an instructor in ��Vlog��ýLR’s Department of Health Sciences, will receive a Blackboard Exemplary Course Catalyst Award at the Blackboard World Conference this month in New Orleans. The award recognizes Copeland for her development of her online course, structural kinesiology. The award honors course creators who demonstrate exceptional course development using the exemplary development rubric to create online courses, including best practices, course design, interaction and collaboration, assessment, and learner engagement. “To have my course selected for the Catalyst Award is a surprising and exciting honor, especially considering that courses are submitted and reviewed from all over the world,” Copeland said. “I did not expect to have it selected the first time I submitted it, but thought that I would submit to get the feedback from the reviewers at this level on ways to improve the course.” Earlier in the year, Copeland received the Arkansas Blackboard Users Group Diamond Award and the Quality Matters Certification Award for her course.

��Vlog��ýLR Innovator to be Honored in New Orleans

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:48:16 +0000

Kelt Dockins, a specialist in the Scholarly Technology and Resources (STaR) Office in Extended Programs, will be honored at Blackboard Inc.’s annual conference Thursday, July 12, in New Orleans for his innovations in ��Vlog��ýLR’s use of the online class platform. Dockins, a ��Vlog��ýLR employee seeking a master’s degree in computer science, will receive a 2012 Blackboard Catalyst Award for Innovative Development at the Blackboard World conference. Mark Burris said Dockins – a native of Dolph who graduated from Calico Rock High School – wrote a program that collected, formatted, and distributed evaluation information provided by students in an effort to evaluate online courses. “His program distributed course evaluation data to department chairs within hours of the close of the evaluation period,” Burris said. “It is much easier for departments to customize course evaluations to reflect unique circumstances or industry accreditation requirements. A similar commercial product, which does not provide this level of flexibility, costs in excess of $20,000 annually.” Ray Henderson, president of academic platforms and chief technology officer of Blackboard Inc., congratulated Dockins as well as ��Vlog��ýLR, “for its leadership and excellence in the support of online teaching and learning.” “The efforts made by Kelt really do make a difference in enhancing the learning experience at your institutions and for many other institutions across the globe,” Henderson said.

System Symposium Explores Online Strategies

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:32:24 +0000

The Internet and other distance learning tools won’t demolish the institution of the university that has been in place since the 11th century, Dr. Donald Bobbitt, president of the University of Arkansas System, told educators and administrators from ��Vlog��ý campuses gathered for a symposium at ��Vlog��ýLR in April. But, he said the explosion of online universities that offer enormous convenience for students juggling busy lives will require brick and mortar schools to adapt and compete for those students. “I am convinced that we can do a better job. We must do a better job, and it is absolutely critical that we take on that task,” Bobbitt said. “The most optimistic view that I can have about the traditional university is that if nothing changes, our current funding model, our current delivery model, and our current business model are completely unsustainable. Other than that, everything is fine.” The first University of Arkansas System Distance Learning Symposium – “Getting to Know You” – on Friday, April 20, was designed to share information and exchange ideas about the future of online education throughout the ��Vlog��ý system. Bobbitt presented his keynote address, “Vision for Distance Learning,” to an audience of more than 200 that included several members of the ��Vlog��ý Board of Trustees and other state dignitaries. At the lunch session, Dr. Myk Garn, director of Education Technology for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), presented “Current Patterns and Future of Distance Learning.” He also moderated three panel discussions with various online user groups. The panelists included students, faculty, and administrators who shared their insight, experience, and individual perspectives about the various facets and impact of online education. In his keynote, Bobbitt cited statistics showing recent enrollment increases of more than 200 percent at for-profit universities, while traditional universities grew at a much lower rate – 25 percent. He encouraged educators to embrace alternatives and offer students something he says the for-profits are not offering: quality. Statistics from publicly traded companies operating for-profit schools show they are spending 30 percent of the tuition dollar on marketing, 30 percent on profit, and only 40 cents of every dollar on instruction. “We can capture the largest market share by developing a better product at a lower cost,” he said. “We’re going to have to be pretty innovative because we’re going to have to do better for more people with the same or diminishing resources.” Poster sessions were presented throughout the day in the Engineering and Information Technology building’s lobby, giving participants an opportunity to discover how online learning has developed and will continue to transform the ��Vlog��ý system schools and institutions. For more information about the symposium and videos of the presentations, visit /star/.

��Vlog��ýLR First to Offer Smart Phone Course Access

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:27:42 +0000

What happens if a student can’t get to a computer, the power is out, or WiFi is on the fritz and he or she is desperate to check an assignment, grade, or post a discussion comment? For ��Vlog��ýLR students whose classes use Blackboard Learn 9.1, “there’s an app for that.”

��Vlog��ýLR is the first campus in Arkansas to offer students the ability to access vital course content via their smart phones. ��Vlog��ýLR recently launched Blackboard Mobile Learn, a free app that allows students to access their courses directly from their smartphones.

“This means that students will be getting access to course content virtually anytime, anywhere,” said Mark Burris, director of Scholarly Technology and Resources, a department that supports faculty and students with online courses.

“The app will give students the ability to check grades and assignments, view documents, create discussion posts, comment on blogs and journals, upload content, view course rosters, and more – all through their mobile devices.”

The app was launched for courses taught in Blackboard Learn 9.1. Of the 1,480 courses at ��Vlog��ýLR that use the Blackboard system, 222 currently have access to the Mobile Learn app. More courses will be added to Blackboard Learn 9.1 as the year progresses, giving more students the ability to use the new app.

“Starting in the summer 2012 semester, all ��Vlog��ýLR faculty and students will be on the latest version of Blackboard, and so, will be able to take advantage of this new avenue of online learning,” Burris said.

The new app is available to be downloaded on:

Android devices
BlackBerry smart phone devices
HP web OS devices
iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad

Blackboard Mobile Learn is not available on Kindle devices such as the Kindle Fire at this time. Only courses taught in the Blackboard 9.1 system will have a Blackboard Mobile Learn option. Blackboard CE8 courses will not be available in Blackboard Mobile Learn.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to celebrate National Distance Learning Week

����Vlog��ý Little Rock recognized as Top 10 value for online education