UMUC at the 13th annual Sloan-C Conference

UMUC made a remarkable presence at the 13th Sloan-C Conference that was held in Orlando, Florida, November 7-9. The Sloan-C Consortium, which hosts the annual conference, is one of the fastest growing and pre-eminent organizations dedicated to the growth and accessibility of online learning. The total attendance of the 2007 conference was over 1200 people, representing college faculty and administrators, instructional technology professionals and designers from various states and countries. Relative to this year’s theme, The Power of Online Learning: Making a Difference, UMUC presenters from various departments spoke on topics ranging from best instructional practices to faculty development to emerging trends.
http://deoracle.org/university-showcase/papers-studies/umuc-at-sloanc-conference.html


Speaking of the Sloan-C group, they thought highly of the course I am currently taking ...


The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is pleased to announce that the CTLA 201, Teaching with WebTycho Training Course is the winner of the prestigious Sloan-C 2006 Excellence in Faculty Development for Online Teaching Award.
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/ctla/sloan.html

UMUC, SecondLife and virtual training

A little more poking around and it appears that UMUC's own Julie Commons (aka Jules Gilliam) and Kathleen Maloney (aka Kathleen Puckett) have a great deal of experience with the use of SecondLife and virtual training, particularly for emergency preparedness training:

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/07/20/interview-with-umuc-on-simulations-for-online-learning/

See thier remarkable handiwork at:
http://polaris.umuc.edu/de/csi/nmc/simulations.html

Using virtual worlds to conduct online tabletop exercises

I've just happened upon what is assuredly a future fixture
in all training and higher education programs in homeland
security and emergency management: the use of virtual worlds.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there light years ahead of me ...
such as the folks at Idaho State University Institute for Rural Health.

Play2Train is a virtual training space in SecondLife designed to support Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), Simple Triage Rapid Transportation (START), Risk Communication and Incident Command System (ICS) Training. This virtual environment spreads over two islands Asterix and Obelix (65536 x 2 sq. meters), with one island dedicated to a virtual town and the other a virtual hospital. The design of this virtual environment is influenced by dioramas frequently used by emergency services to support their tabletop exercises. A diorama is a partially three dimensional full-size replica or scale model of a landscape typically showing historical events, nature scenes, cityscapes, etc. for purposes of education or entertainment, source: wikipedia. Play2Train will provide opportunities for training through interactive role playing and will be the foundation for our emergency preparedness educational machinima. This site will document activities and developments in this part of the SecondLife virtual world.

http://irhbt.typepad.com/play2train/

This is, in a word: incredible. And just the beginning in terms of application
within the academic world. I would absolutely love to develop a group exercise
for my future online undergraduates (University of Maryland University College)
involving a virtual tabletop exercise. In fact, this is the ONLY way to recreate
the spirit and interpersonal nature of a group face-2-face exercise in e-learning.
Please contact me if you would like to collaborate on such a project.

Expect much much more from me in this forum on this topic.

2nd annual HSDEC education summit at UMUC in March 2008

Registration for the 2nd annual Homeland Defense and Security Education Summit is open until 27 Feb 2008. $150 gets you entry for both days (18-19 Mar 2008), beverage service and lunch. This year it is being hosted by my school, UMUC!

See the HSDEC workshop web page for more info:
http://www.hsdec.org/workshops.aspx

Increased demand for online training in CJ, EM and HS?

According to the post below, there's a growing need for criminal justice graduates, which these days can have significant (minor concentraitons) components in emergency management and/or homeland security.

Which is a good segue for some shameless promotion for the programs I am part of at University of Maryland University College, with undergraduate, graduate and online education options.

Prospective students can ge here: http://www.umuc.edu/prospective.shtml


Right now is an ideal time to get a criminal justice degree online. According to The U.S. Department of Labor, by 2012, there will likely be a 24 percent increase in corrections across the country. Quite simply, national and private security is becoming more and more of a concern and as a result the demand for professionals in the field continues to grow. Since September 11, 2001, the need for criminal justice professionals has dramatically increased. Professionals are required for assisting in investigations, for working in prisons, for homeland security, and for protecting property. Governments at all levels as well as private companies and even private individuals can hire someone who has pursued a criminal justice degree online. Thanks to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and thanks to funding provided by security grants throughout the nation, security jobs are more plentiful and offer more room for advancement than ever before.

Full post here:
http://www.flixya.com/post/potofgold/93748/Demand_For_Professionals_With_A_Criminal_Justice

Newest addition to UMUC faculty - me!

I have good news - I will be joining the faculty of University of Maryland
University College to help develop curriculum and teach courses for their
undergraduate Homeland Security and Emergency Management programs.

Here's the link to our new programs:
http://www.umuc.edu/programs/undergrad/hmls/
http://www.umuc.edu/programs/undergrad/emgt/

Founded in 1947, UMUC offers a broad range of cutting-edge classes and has earned a global reputation for excellence. Headquartered in Adelphi, Maryland, UMUC has classroom locations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Europe, and Asia, and provides award-winning online classes to students worldwide.

We had over 150,000 online course enrollments in 2006!
I'm excited to join the team!