Dr. Adair has served in a leadership role for Quality Matters since it earliest days. As Managing Director and Chief Planning Officer of QM Quality Matters, Inc, Dr. Adair managed its development from a grant project to a self-supporting, widely-adopted international organization for quality assurance in online learning serving more than 1000 colleges and universities, education-related organizations, government entities, and K-12 institutions. She currently serves as its Executive Director, leading this non-profit organization and its committed community into a new decade with expanded services for quality assurance.

Deb has more than 20 years’ experience in higher education, in faculty and administration, as well as non-profit leadership and management consulting. She has received citations from state and local governments for her work on literacy and women’s issues. Dr. Adair has held faculty appointments in management at the American University and Troy State University; she teaches online courses for the University of Maryland University College. Previously, she served in the U.S. Army as a Soviet Analyst and Cryptologic Linguist (Russian).

Dr. Adair received an A.A. degree from Broward Community College, a B.S. degree from Boston University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Arizona. She is a graduate of the first class of the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Education and an alumna of the HERS Leadership Institute. Her acknowledgements include citations from state and local governments for her work on literacy and women’s issues, the Broward College Alumni Merit Award, and the Nofflet Williams Award for service to the distance learning community.

She currently serves on the boards of the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies and the National University Technology Network and has authored and interviewed as an expert in quality assurance for online learning.

I serve as the CEO and Founder of SmarterServices. Since 2002 it has been a joy to lead the company as it has grown to serve over three million students and twelve thousand faculty from over five hundred educational institutions. I have served as a higher education administrator for over twenty years and as a Director/Dean of Distance Education for ten of those years. My passion is my family – Kim, Andrew and Annabelle. I enjoy working in the yard and watching Alabama football.

As Innovation Liaison at Lumen Learning, Gary Abernethy works with colleges and universities to help them impact college affordability, access and student success through effective adoption of open educational resources. Previously Mr. Abernethy was the Director of the Virtual College of Texas; a collaboration of the 50 Community Colleges of Texas, where he facilitated the use of technology to improve teaching and learning. Mr. Abernethy earned a BA degree from The State University of New York at Albany, an MA degree from The University of South Florida. He resides in Florida with his wife, son and their yellow lab Bob.

Dr. Kelvin Bentley has over 14 years of experience as a faculty member, online learning administrator, and a consultant. He earned his PhD from the University of Delaware in 1999 with a major area concentration in clinical psychology. Dr. Bentley currently serves as the Vice President of Academic Affairs for Tarrant County College's TCC Connect, an administrative unit which oversees online learning and dual credit programming as well as an accelerated Weekend College.

He initially served as an assistant professor in psychology for colleges and universities. He gained valuable experience in online education when he developed his first online courses in 2001 while serving as the founding coordinator of Northwestern State University's first fully online Bachelor of Science program in Psychology.

Dr. Bentley has been able to work within academia and in the for-profit sector. He has held different administrative positions overseeing online learning initiatives for different colleges and universities. In addition, he has held administrative positions with companies including Acatar and Lumen Learning as well as consultant roles with companiessuch as Blackboard and Eduventures.

Dr. Bentley's most recent honors include serving as an active participant in EDUCAUSE's Breakthrough Models Academy in 2014. In addition, he served as a Fulbright Specialist in distance education in September 2010 when he offered faculty workshops on best practices in online course design, development and facilitation at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia.

Kelvin has varied interests. His professional interests include the present and future of competency-based education, quality assurance in online education, learning analytics, and best practices in instructional design. Dr. Bentley's personal interests include spending time with his family, traveling, meeting new people, running, and sampling different cuisines.

Norman Bier is Director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) and Core Collaborations at Carnegie Mellon University. His work at OLI sits at the intersection of CMU’s internal educational practice, ongoing learning science research and external collaboration.

Norman has spent his career at the intersection of learning and technology, working to expand access to and improve the quality of education. His experience spans the higher educational sector, including 2-year and 4-year; public and private; domestic and international; and commercial institutions. Prior to joining OLI, he was Director of Training and Development at iCarnegie Inc., a CMU subsidiary chartered to deliver software development education through international partner institutions. Using technology and faculty support, iCarnegie reaches thousands of students who would otherwise not have access to a CMU-level education. He has taught computer science courses as an adjunct faculty member at the Community College of Allegheny County, philosophy courses at Carnegie Mellon University and served as a founding committee member of the Cook Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as board member for the Kaleidoscope Project and the Shady Lane School.

Over the past 25 years I have focused on the education of youth and adults alike. Working at various universities and corporations, I built faculty development programs and conducted educational consulting on distance learning, analytics, eportfolios, competency-based education and student collaboration. I started off my journey working as a high school and community college teacher and at non-profits as a trainer with individuals with disabilities.

I have been the president of Texas Distance Learning Association on the board of the United States Distance Learning Association, National University Technology Network, and Texas Association of Higher Education and Disability. Through this service I work at bringing people together and developing a community of practitioners to continue to develop the field of education. I am also working with a gifted group through TxDLA on building a competency-based course on online instruction and management and, through my role at BNED LoudCloud, developing a competency-based course on building a competency-based program.

In my role as the Chief Academic Officer at BNED LoudCloud and thought leader within the educational technology field, I consult with many schools on the deployment of technology and the education and development of both online learning and competency-based education. I am always looking for ways to continue to develop my skills and add to the field. I have written chapters on badges and collaboration, continue to do research on the experience of students, and looking at the impact of competency-based education.

I teach as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland University College in the Masters of Distance Education program and I continue to contribute to the field by presenting on collaboration, ePortfolios, analytics, competency-based education, instructional technology, assessments, testing, and leadership development.

Prior to joining the Online Learning Consortium, Dr. Buban was the Assistant Provost for Research & Innovation at Post University. In this role, Buban instituted university-wide initiatives with a forward thinking, student-centered focus. These initiatives included, but were not limited to, the university’s transition to digital course materials, the creation of an online academy for high school students, competency-based learning initiatives, professional developing credentialing, articulation agreements, enrollment management, oversight of all academic publications, as well as a variety of teaching and learning initiatives.

Prior to joining Post University, Buban worked in Academic Affairs at SUNY Empire State College. She collaborated on a variety of online learning initiatives including the implementation of ePortfolios, open learning access and opportunities, and prior learning assessment.

Dr. Buban continues to study and present on topics surrounding effective technology use for adult learners in online environments. She is a member of the SSEA Communications Committee, an organization for which she was named an Emerging Scholar in 2012. Given the opportunity, Buban continues to teach in the areas of adult and online learning.

Awards

• Emerging Scholar, Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, 2012-14
• Graduate School of Education Scholarship, Lesley University, 2010-11
• Best in Track Award, Sloan-C International Distance Learning Conference, 2011
• Explorations in Diversity and Academic Excellence Grant, SUNY Office of Diversity and Educational Equity, 2011

Darren Catalano is the CEO at HelioCampus. Previously, he was vice president of Analytics at UMUC where he led the university's strategic analysis efforts, facilitated data-driven decision making, and directed the predictive analytics program focused on improving student success.

Mr. Catalano oversaw the Office of Analytics which partnered with key university stakeholders to evaluate performance metrics, analyzed trends and monitored progress toward strategic and operational goals. His responsibilities included managing the data analysis, business intelligence and data warehousing functions at UMUC.

Prior to joining UMUC in 2011, Mr. Catalano ran the Business Intelligence department at Rosetta Stone, where he built new analytics functions into finance, accounting, sales, marketing and customer operations. He began his career as an analyst for Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic) before working as a management consultant across multiple industries. Mr. Catalano earned a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia.

Thomas Cavanagh, Ph.D. is Associate Vice President of Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida. In this role he oversees the distance learning strategy, policies, and practices of the nation’s 2nd largest university. In his career, Tom has administered e-learning development for both academic (public and private) and industrial (Fortune 500, government/military) audiences. He is also an award-winning author of several mystery novels.

Julie Curtis is vice president of strategy and communications for Lumen Learning, where she evangelizes the use of open educational resources to improve education affordability, access and student success. Working in higher education technology for more than a decade, Julie has led initiatives around strategic collaboration, thought leadership, new product introduction, marketing research and strategic communications. Julie holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brigham Young University.

Beth Davis is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the PAR Framework, and she currently serves on the PAR Board of Directors. Beth has a proven record of bringing technology products to market, having previously served as the vice president and general manager of Macromedia, Inc., where she was responsible for managing their entire suite of products including Flash, Dreamweaver, Flash Communication Server, Contribute, Director, and Authorware. During her tenure as managing partner at Sage Road Solutions, LLC, Beth was a trusted business advisor for institutions and enterprises interested in putting learning technologies to work in the service of student success. With PAR, she has assembled a team of professionals up to the challenge of bringing this high-tech, high-touch project to the higher-education market. She earned her B.S. degree in marketing from Rutgers University and her MBA from the Anderson School of Business, UCLA.

Dr. Larry Dugan

Jackie is Capella University’s subject matter expert in accessibility, assistive technology, inclusive design, and disability accommodations. She leads problem-solving efforts to remove barriers for learners in the online environment as well as collaborates proactively across the University to direct enterprise-wide accessibility initiatives. She holds a BS in Special Education, an MA in Curriculum and Instruction, a Certificate in Assistive Technology Applications, and recently became one of the first Certified Professionals in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). She has worked with individuals with disabilities for over 15 years in K-12 and post-secondary settings and has presented at local, state, and national conferences.

I'm a Strategist and Innovator focused on empowering organizations that are envisioning, creating, and implementing holistic learning and education solutions.

Advancing the work of national organizations, I have served as a Strategic Advisor for the American Council on Education Alternative Credit Project. I am currently a contributing member of the IMS Global working groups defining standards for competency-based education, extended transcripts, and digital credentials. I chaired the Badge Alliance working group that defined a conceptual framework and technical standards for badge endorsements.

As a thought leader, I've led the collaboration of research groups comprised of nationally-recognized experts, authoring works on critical topics such as "Quality Dimensions for Connected Credentials," "Communicating the Value of Competencies," and "Clarifying Competency Based Education Terms: A Lexicon." My forthcoming publications include white papers and book chapters on strategic innovations in higher education, including extended transcripts, open badge ecosystems, and badge endorsement. I've written and presented extensively on medieval literature, emerging technologies, portfolios, learning engagement, badges and other digital credentials, competency-based learning, and the future of learning and teaching.

As a teaching practitioner, I'm an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, most recently teaching a competency-based medieval studies course in Liberal Studies.

ANDREA GILBERT
Instructional Designer and Adjunct Math Instructor,
Monroe Community College

Sharon Goodall is currently director of innovations in Learning Design & Solutions at UMUC. She has extensive experience leading teams in developing educational technology solutions and interactive courseware for the online higher-ed sector. More recently, she has been leading the implementation of over a dozen innovation pilots, in partnership with the Center for Innovation in Learning and Student Success at UMUC. These pilots have involved a number of adaptive learning platforms, applied in a variety of learning contexts.

Brad Held is the Accessible Technology Coordinator for the Student Accessibility Services office at University of Central Florida (UCF). He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Biotechnology at the University of Georgia in 2006. Prior to arriving at UCF, Brad worked in Assistive Technology for over ten years: four years in a public school K-12 setting with Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia and five years in higher-education at The University of Georgia and The University of South Carolina. He is certified in Assistive Technology Applications.

Dr. Jennifer Stephens Helm, Vice President, Assessment and Accreditation, American Public University System, joined the University in 2005. She leads the Institutional Research and Assessment department with a focus on enhancing institutional effectiveness by providing data and information that supports and strengthens institution-wide decision making, operations management, and strategic planning processes.

Dr. Stephens Helm has an extensive background in learning outcomes assessment where she has consulted with schools, school districts, state departments of education, and school reform organizations. Prior to assuming a position with APUS in 2005, Dr. Stephens Helm worked with the Accelerated Schools Project at Stanford University, developing a nationwide electronic reporting system of outcomes for the school reform organization. She has taught at both K-12 and higher education levels. She has presented and published at both national and international conferences in the areas of school reform, distance learning, faculty development, institutional research, and assessment.

Dr. Stephens Helm holds committee appointments on the Association for Institutional Research Forum Theme and Plenary Speaker committee, Transparency by Design working group committee, and the Higher Learning Commission Assessment Academy committee. She is an alumni of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education and is professionally affiliated with the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), American Educational Research Association (AERA), WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET), National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN), and and the Sloan-C organization.

She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on learning, development, and instruction from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

Dr. Laurie G. Hillstock has been a faculty member and administrator in higher education for over 16years. A former Associate Vice President of Curriculum and Instruction, most of her experiences have been in the distance learning arena, focusing on strategic planning, technology integration, faculty and curriculum development, and student success.

Dr. Hillstock currently serves as a Consultant for the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). In her role, she is charged with developing, overseeing and helping to implement programs and projects that support OLCs vision and short- and long-term plans specifically as related to the OLC Community. In addition, she is the developer and facilitator for both the OLC Leadership in Online Learning Mastery Series and the OLC Advanced Online Teaching Certificate Program. She is also a mentor for the basic OLC Teaching Certificate program as well as a content developer and workshop facilitator for other OLC workshops.

Dr. Hillstock has also served as an independent consultant, assisting both public and private institutions with strategic planning (i.e., organizational structure, policy, accreditation, and funding models), leadership development, and faculty development.

Dr. Hillstock holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership (Higher Education) and M.A. in Human Resource Development from Clemson University. She also holds a B.A. in English (minor: Computer Science) from Converse College.

Phil Ice, Ed.D. holds an Education Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with minor concentrations in Instructional Technology and Science Education. He is currently the Chief Learning Officer at Mirum Learning and was most recently the VP of Research and Development at the American Public University System.

His research is focused on the impact of new and emerging technologies on cognition in online learning environments. Work in this area has brought him international recognition in the form of three Sloan-C Effective Practice of the Year Awards (2007, 2009, and 2010) and the AliveTek/DLA Innovation on Online Distance Learning Administration Award. Sloan-C has also recognized Phil through awarding a team he lead at APUS with the Gomory Award for Data Driven Quality Improvement in 2009. He has been recognized by industry as a 2013 IBM Business Analytics Champion and as a member of Adobe’s Education Leaders Group and Adobe’s Higher Education Advisory Board. He was a recipient of the Adobe Higher Education Leaders Impact Award, 2010.

Phil’s vision for the future of technology in higher education is also demonstrated by his inclusion on the advisory council for the 2011 NMC / ELI Horizon Report and his role as Principal Investigator on a $1.05 million WICHE/WCET grant to explore online retention patterns across six institutions. His work has covered the use of technology mediated feedback, which has been adopted at over 50 institutions of higher education in five countries, multi-level institutional assessment techniques, learning analytics, and application of semantic analysis for mapping institutional learning assets.

He has conducted over 100 peer reviewed and invited presentations and workshops, as well as authoring more than 20 articles, book chapters, and white papers related to the integration of emerging technologies in eLearning. Other examples ofhis research include the use of embedded asynchronous audio feedback mechanisms, using web 2.0 tools for collaborative construction of knowledge through integration of RIA’s and remote observation of student teaching experiences using asynchronous, flash-based environments.

Phil is also involved with seven other researchers in the United States and Canada in numerous other research initiatives related to the Community of Inquiry Framework. This research has resulted in the development of a validated instrument that captures the intersection of Teaching, Social, and Cognitive presence in online learning environments.

Dr. Connie Johnson is Colorado Technical University's (CTU) chief academic officer and provost, working with both online and ground degree programs. She has oversight of academic affairs, including faculty, curriculum, classroom experience, and accreditation. During her time at CTU, Connie has initiated adaptive learning technology implementation, effective leadership of academics, women's leadership, leading academics through change, and effective technology implementation in the online classroom including the promotion of academics, faculty and student engagement through social media. Additionally, Connie has extensive experience in regional accreditation, curriculum implementation, and faculty training and development.

Dave Johnson, PhD, is the Director of Research and Analytics at Colorado State University where he and his team support assessment and educational research at CSU. He directs IT, applications support, web and software development, analytics, and instructional design for CSU Online. And, he serves as the functional lead for building learning analytics capacity across the institution. Dave has a decade of experience teaching all levels of undergraduate education, from freshman to seniors, and he employs his background in research and teaching to support CSU’s goals and mission as a research and teaching-focused land grant university.

Expertise in launching and growing "world class" online programs in Higher Education. Strategically working with major public, private, for profit and not for profit institutions. Working with publishers to help digitize and monetize new and existing content through innovative, custom platform development.

Instructor for undergraduate courses in Philosophy and the Humanities since 1971. Began exploring hybrid models in 1996, and have taught exclusively on-line since 2001.

Judy Komar has developed one of the largest implementations of Adaptive Learning at the post-secondary level in the U.S. With over 200 course learning maps and more than 50,000 students within this system Judy can share best practices to improve student outcomes using Adaptive Learning and identify Adaptive Learning myths. Judy has developed several methods of implementation for use of Adaptive Learning and drives the use of a learning analytic engine to improve the learning experience.

Manoj leads all aspects of Realizeit’s commercial development, growth agenda and operations in the US and Europe.

Manoj has held senior executive roles for more than 15 years providing transformational leadership in high volume, high growth and global businesses in Education, Technology and Retail sectors.

He is the former Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Career Education Corporation where he and his team pioneered the implementation of predictive analytics-based personalized learning across large-scale ground and online institutions powered by the Realizeit platform. His work at Career Education Corporation has resulted in awards and accolades from Information Week Top Innovators, Computerworld “Best in Best” in Education Technology and others.

Prior to Career Education Corporation, he served as the Vice President of Information Technology for Toys R Us Inc., leading technology operations and engineering in the US and internationally.

Manoj earned his Bachelor in Engineering from India’s College of Engineering, Pune and his Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Mark Leuba is Vice President,Product Management for IMS Global, the ed-tech interoperability leader. As a technology executive in education, Mark has held positions as CIO for an online university, CTO for an LMS platform company and consulting-advisor to leading foundations in education. In 2015 Mark led TIP, the Technical Interoperability Pilot project for the Competency-Based Education Network and published the project research in the Educause Review.

In addition to his cross-functional product role, Mark is overseeing IMS's Digital Credentials and Competency-Based Education portfolio. Mark is formerly an education technology consultant and the the Chief Information Officer for American Public University System, where in that role Mark guided technology strategy and investments through critical milestones such as regional accreditation, Title IV authorizations and initial public offering. In 2009 Mark joined Moodlerooms as Chief Technology Officer where he led strategic initiatives for the open source LMS platform provider, most notably its transition to cloud-based infrastructure. At the time, the successful migration of 1,000 plus client websites was the largest project of its kind in education services.

As an education technology consultant Mark contributed to numerous projects for the Gates Foundation, including their Next Generation Courseware Challenge and most recently he led the C-BEN TIP project, to date the largest technology R&D effort focused on CBE. It was this CBE work that led Mark to IMS Global.

Holding a B.S. degree in Business Administration/Finance from the University of Baltimore Mark also earned an Associate's of Arts in Information Technology from the Community College of Baltimore County.

Russ Little is the chief innovation officer for the PAR Framework, leading PAR’s efforts to link predictions to action. Russ is a recognized subject-matter expert in the use of technology to address student success, retention, and completion challenges, and, most specifically, on Integrated Planning and Advising Services (IPAS) and learner analytics. Russ has managed the development of numerous student success initiatives and projects including the Student Success Plan and Curriculum Management Tool developed at Sinclair Community College. He is a frequent speaker and presenter on these topics at national conferences and events including EDUCAUSE, Complete College America, and the League for Innovation.

Russ holds a master’s degree in information systems from Wright State University and a bachelor’s degree in management from Antioch University, McGregor. He is an award-winning, certified project manager with more than 20 years’ experience as a higher-education IT professional. He frequently presents on technical and higher-education topics including IPAS, analytics, student success, retention, and curriculum development.

Charla Long was the founding dean of the College of Professional Studies at Lipscomb University and the creator of their nationally acclaimed competency-based education (CBE) model and badging ecosystem. Dr. Long has served as a full-time higher education consultant, specializing in competency-based education. During 2015, she served as a consultant to Public Agenda on two significant CBE national landscape and field-building projects, funded by both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation. She also served as a consultant and subject matter coach to EDUCAUSE's 2015 Breakthrough Models Academy and Incubator institutions. Today, Long serves as the Executive Director for the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN).

Dr. Louder previously served as the institution’s Assistant Vice Provost for eLearning, where he was the director of the Office of Online Compliance & Regulation and acted as the primary consultant for TTU Colleges and Department leaders on the development of new, high demand eLearning degree and certificate proposals. He also served concurrently as the Managing Director of the TTU Ethics Center, establishing the Ethics Center in 2010 and working to increase ethical research, ethical content, and ethics related activities on campus.

Frequent national and international presenter, lecturer and author on the topics of distance and online learning, student ethics, and academic integrity, Dr. Louder is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the TTU College of Education. He also holds several certifications related to online course design and delivery (e.g., Certified Blackboard Trainer, Certified QM Peer Reviewer) and is an experienced online instructor. Additionally, Dr. Louder has secured over $2.1 million in grants in the fields of ethics and health and human services.

Dr. Louder came to Texas Tech in 2010 from Angelo State University, where he earned a B.A. in Communication and Psychology and a M.A. in Communication before working in the Angelo State University College of Nursing as an Instructional Designer. He received his Ed.D. in Instructional Technology with a minor in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech University in 2011.

When he is not working, Justin enjoys reading, spending time with his family, and traveling.

Dr. Mark David Milliron is Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Civitas Learning, an organization committed to helping the education field bring together the best of emerging technology, data science, and design thinking to help students learn well and finish strong. An award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant, he has worked with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, foundations, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world. In previous roles, Mark served as the Deputy Director for Postsecondary Improvement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; founding Chancellor of WGU Texas; Endowed Fellow and Director of the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development at The University of Texas at Austin; Vice President for Education and Medical Practice with SAS; and President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

He is a member of numerous boards and advisory groups, including the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), the Global Online Academy, and the Texas Student Success Council. Past board service includes the American Council on Education (ACE), the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and Western Governors University.

In 1999, The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education named Mark a Distinguished Graduate for his service to the education field. In 2007, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) presented him with its prestigious National Leadership Award. In 2013 he was inducted into the United States Distance Learning Association’s (USDLA) Hall of Fame. And in 2016 he was chosen by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the “Top Technology Innovators” in higher education.

Regardless of all of his activities and accomplishments, he will quickly tell you that the most important job and the greatest blessing in his life is serving as Julia’s husband, and as father to Alexandra, Richard, Marcus, and Max.

Dr. Javier Miyares is president of University of Maryland University College, a constituent institution of the University System of Maryland. Since his appointment in 2012, he has expanded access and opportunities for adult learners through key initiatives and has been in the forefront of leveraging "big data" and analytics to fuel advances in learning science.

The university has also expanded its corporate and institutional alliances under his leadership. UMUC has established an agreement with the federal Office of Personnel Management to help fill identified skills gaps in the 2.7-million-strong federal workforce. He also established the UMUC Completion Scholarship, enabling Maryland community college graduates to earn a bachelor’s degree from UMUC for a total cost of $20,000.

In 2015, the USM Board of Regents approved a UMUC plan to spin off its highly successful Office of Analytics into a new company, HelioCampus, that now offers business intelligence products and services to universities nationwide. The university has committed to using profits generated by HelioCampus to support scholarship programs that would further reduce and perhaps ultimately eliminate tuition costs for graduates of Maryland community colleges who seek to earn their bachelor's degrees at UMUC.

Recognizing the university’s expertise in providing education to the U.S. military, the Department of Defense in 2015 awarded UMUC a new seven-year contract to continue offering coursework and academic support services to our U.S. troops in the Asia Pacific region. In 2013, UMUC secured the DoD contract to continue providing instruction to U.S. troops across Europe for the next 10 years.

Under Miyares's leadership, the Pillars of Strength Scholarship program has been established in association with the Yellow Ribbon Fund and the The Blewitt Foundation. This unique partnership awards full UMUC scholarships to the volunteer caregivers of wounded military servicemembers.

Also during Miyares's tenure, the UMUC Cyber Padawans—the university's cybersecurity competition team comprising students, faculty, and alumni—won the 2014 Global CyberLympics in Barcelona, Spain, as well as the Maryland Cyber Challenge in 2013 and 2014, and the inaugural Cyber DiploHack competition organized by the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2015.

UMUC has received numerous honors during Miyares's tenure. The university was named 2015 Global Educator of the Year by the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. for its leadership in academic innovation. UMUC's service to veterans has been cited by Military Times, which ranked the university No. 1 in its 2015 "Best for Vets: Colleges" list. UMUC also received the 2015 President's Award from the Open Education Consortium for its exceptional leadership in adopting open-source material in all classes by fall 2016.

Miyares has often cited higher education as his gateway to the American Dream. Born in Havana, Cuba, he was spirited out of the country by his Jesuit teachers on July 4, 1961, at age 14, after his father was taken prisoner by Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Miyares later joined Operation Pedro Pan and eventually moved to Maryland, where he attended the University of Maryland, College Park, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology. He completed all the requirements but the dissertation for a doctorate in educational measurement and statistics.

Miyares currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) and as a commissioner with UMUC's accrediting agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Patsy D. Moskal is the Associate Director for the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where she has been a faculty member since 1989. Since 1996, she has served as the liaison for faculty research of distributed learning and teaching effectiveness at UCF. Patsy specializes in statistics, graphics, program evaluation, and applied data analysis. She has extensive experience in research methods including survey development, interviewing, and conducting focus groups and frequently serves as an evaluation consultant to school districts, and industry and government organizations. She has also received funding from several government and industrial agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 2011, she was given the honor of being named a Sloan-C Fellow. She has co-authored numerous articles and chapters on blended and online learning and is a frequent presenter at conferences and to other researchers.

Jon has a diverse background in higher education, corporate development, and learning technology. Prior to Learning Objects, Jon worked at Brigham Young University (BYU) in a variety of roles including Director of the Center for Instructional Design and Assistant to the Academic VP, where he coordinated academic technology issues campus-wide. In addition, he taught extensively in BYU’s Instructional Psychology & Technology, Public Policy, and Political Science departments. At TD Ameritrade Jon was responsible for client-facing education and internal learning and development.

Dr. Peek is the Chair of the Competency-Based Bachelor's Program in Organizational Leadership at South Texas College. He has been employed in higher education for the last 20 years in various colleges and universities and in the private sector as the founder and president of The Trade Policy Research Group.

Alexandra M. Pickett (@alexpickett) is gives leadership and direction to the Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Exellence. Formerly the Associate Director of the award-winning SUNY Learning Network (SLN), the online learning network for the State University of New York. Working with 40 of the 64 SUNY institutions, she has directly supported or coordinated the development of more than 5,000 faculty and their web-delivered courses. She also teaches Introduction to Online Teaching in the online CDIT master’s program at the University at Albany. She is the principle investigator on the SUNY/SLN NGLC grant-funded project, an elected member of the National University Technology Network advisory board, and on the steering committees of the Sloan-C ALN and Sloan-C Blended Learning conferences. She is the co-recipient of a number of awards recognizing excellence in online faculty development, distance learning innovation, online effective practice, and institution wide programming and systematic progress. She was recognized as a Sloan Fellow (2012), an honor conferred by the Sloan Consortium Board of Directors, also serves on the new Campus Technology Advisory Board for 2013-2015, and was most recently appointed to serve on the advisory council for the UPCEA Center for Online Leadership and Strategy. She consults and speaks nationally and internationally on effective online teaching and learning, large-scale online faculty development, online instructional design, and using web2.0 to enhance instruction.

LeCroy Center Provost Pam Quinn supervises services in distance and online learning technologies for the colleges of DCCCD. The LeCroy Center’s activities include Dallas Colleges Online; Dallas Learning Solutions; eCampus, the district’s learning management system; and districtwide software training and support.

She is a recognized leader in the field of distance education and has spoken throughout the U.S. and at multiple conferences in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. She was recently selected to serve on the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements Commission (NC-SARA), a new initiative that will create interstate reciprocity in the regulation of postsecondary distance education. Dr. Quinn also serves on the board of directors for the North Texas Consortium of Community Colleges. She has been a board member and/or chaired such organizations as STARLINK, the Texas Community College Association Distance Learning Committee, the National University Technology Network (NUTN), the Instructional Technology Council (ITC) and WCET of the Western Interstate Cooperative for Higher Education.

Dr. Quinn was an appointee of both Governors Bush and Perry to the Texas Online Authority, which developed the state of Texas’ official website. She was Governor Bush’s official Texas representative to the Western Governors University when it was founded in 1997. She also testified in front of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Distance Learning and has served on the Distance Education Advisory Committee for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Dr. Quinn earned her doctorate in education from Lamar University. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and public relations from Texas A&M University - Commerce and a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism education from the University of Kansas.

Distributed Learning. In this role, he works with faculty to transition courses from face-to-face to the blended or online environment. His research areas include the integration of emerging technology into online curriculum, accessibility for online learners, and the use of OER materials. He has presented at local, state, national, and international conferences; in addition to being published in multiple peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Rob Robinson is a Senior Director of Partner Success at Civitas Learning where he works with colleges and universities to help them leverage data analytics to further their mission of student success. Prior to coming to Civitas Learning, Rob was a Principal Strategist at Blackboard, a position in which he provided strategic consulting services to higher education clients in the US and abroad. Between 2010 and early 2012, Rob served as Assistant Vice Provost for Educational Technology at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he led online and hybrid course development and supported faculty and staff across the institution. From 1999 until 2010, Rob was a key leader with the University of Texas TeleCampus, a large-scale, System-wide organization supporting fully online degree programs, many of which were inter-institutional collaborative programs. Rob holds a B.S. and a Ph.D. from UT Austin and an MBA from St. Edward’s University. His areas of expertise include: Online Education, Analytics Maturity Assessments, Resource Allocation, and Public Speaking.

David Schejbal is dean of Continuing Education, Outreach and E-Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Extension. David oversees a budget of $105M, an array of online and face-to-face credit and noncredit programs and services. David also initiated and now co-leads the UW Flexible Option.

In 2012, David was one of the founding members of C-BEN: The Competency-Based Education Network.

David received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Connecticut. He serves on several boards and is a frequent keynote speaker and author of articles published in American Council on Education, Innovative Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.

Dr. Richard (Dick) Senese serves as the Interim President, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Chief Academic Officer for Capella University. Prior to returning to Capella in 2014, Dr. Senese served in leadership roles with the University of Minnesota Extension for 13 years. He most recently served as the Extension’s Senior Associate Dean, where he oversaw research, program evaluation, international partnerships, and faculty development, among other responsibilities. Prior to his promotion to Senior Associate Dean, he served as the founding Associate Dean for the Center for Community Vitality. He has taught at a number of Minnesota-based institutions, including St. Olaf College, Metropolitan State University, and the College of St. Scholastica, and served previously as the Associate Dean for Capella University’s Harold Abel School of Psychology. In addition to his career in higher education, Dick served as a campaign manager for Senator Paul Wellstone’s 1990 campaign and worked for him in both St. Paul and Washington, DC. He also held a number of positions with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota, including servicing as State Chair from 1997-99.

Dr. Senese received his PhD from the University of Minnesota through the Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology program with the Department of Educational Psychology. He is a licensed psychologist and active in community affairs in his native Minnesota.

Bert Snow is the VP of Design at Muzzy Lane Software, and a designer with a history of innovation in game design. Bert is the author of the report "The Potential for Game-based Learning to Improve Outcomes for Nontraditional Students", funded by the Gates Foundation. This research helped inspire Muzzy Lane’s new cloud-base service for authoring game-based learning, AUTHOR.

With the Muzzy Lane team, Bert works with partners to create game-based learning projects using the Author service. Bert and the team have created award-winning projects including the McGraw-Hill Practice series simulation-games, Underground Railroad, Journey to Freedom for National Geographic, Past/Present, a social history game, a series of developmental Math games for Cengage Learning, and many others. Bert is currently working on a project for the Library of Congress.

Before joining Muzzy Lane, Bert was a founder and lead designer of Virtual Music, a company that pioneered the music-game genre, and created groundbreaking music-gaming titles including Quest for Fame starring Aerosmith. Virtual Music was acquired by Namco in 2000. Bert also has been very involved in the creation of the River Valley Charter School, a public Montessori-based school. He holds a BA with highest honors in Art from Williams College, and speaks frequently on game design and learning.

Dr. Linda Sullivan

As the director of Distance Learning and Continuing & Professional Development, Julie Uranis is responsible for the overall operations and strategic direction of proctored testing, WKU On Demand, instructional design, Career and Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning at Western Kentucky University. Prior to joining WKU, Uranis held both teaching and administrative positions at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), joining that institution in 2003.

Uranis has a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, a Master of Science in Technology Studies, and a Graduate Certificate in Community College Leadership from EMU. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Dr. Debra Volzer works with an experienced and cohesive team to provide thought leadership for our clients. Her responsibilities include advising clients on proven success strategies and innovative approaches to achieve desired strategic outcomes in blended and online learning and to leverage deep experience and understanding of teaching and learning in K12, higher education, and corporate environments to help clients find effective answers for existing issues and upcoming opportunities. As the Academic Lead, she helps clients create competency based courses to allow students to track their learning and move through a curriculum at a pace that meets the students’ needs and learning experiences and enhance on-ground and online courses through the use of technology and learning outcomes assessment.

Nick White is the Director of Competency Based Learning Solution at Capella University. In that role, Nick leads a team of curriculum specialists, assessment specialists, instructional designers, project managers, editors, and course producers who work with Capella faculty members to design high quality programs and courses. Nick received a Master of Science degree in instructional design from Capella University and a Bachelor of Science in technical communication from Metropolitan State University. He is an award winning instructional designer and administrator, is currently the chair of the WCET steering committee, and is a frequent speaker at national conferences.

Kevin Yee is the Director of the Academy of Teaching and Learning Excellence at the University of South Florida. Prior to joining USF, he was a faculty developer at the University of Central Florida. He has also held instructor and visiting appointments at Duke University, University of Iowa, University of California-Irvine, and Pomona College. He earned his Ph.D. in German from the University of California-Irvine.

In 2016, Dr. Yee also assumed the duties of Assistant Dean in Undergraduate Studies, and supervised the Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships as well as ATLE.

Click here to read his curriculum vita.

Dr. Yee has always striven for highly interactive teaching. He collects ideas for innovative approaches in the classroom and curates a list of interactive techniques.

He has been an invited speaker at numerous colleges in the United States, as well as institutions in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, to speak about interactive teaching and numerous topics in faculty development. Contact him at kyee@usf.edu if interested.

His research interests are broad, and focus on everything from emerging technology and Web 2.0 tools for teaching, to the pedagogy of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and concepts such as student motivation or gamification. He taught USF's first MOOC in 2013. Here is a sample tour of a MOOC.

An affiliated faculty member with the World Languages department and in the Honors College, Dr. Yee has taught courses on German Romanticism, introductory German language classes, fairy tales, and Walt Disney World.

Having worked with Adaptive Learning for the last four years, the presenter will use that journey to reveal how to construct an Adaptive Learning implementation using multiple methods to improve student engagement and success. Dispelling myths and providing real experiences, this presentation will be an engaging workshop utilizing shared design elements and best practices based on extensive experience. Participants will better understand how integrating Adaptive Learning into their current programs to fit the needs of their students can improve the student and faculty experience.

In today’s higher education climate, the path to degree attainment includes a myriad of credit alternatives including MOOCs, micro credentialing (badges), non-credit bearing certificate programs and various other opportunities. As these alternatives evolve from their experiential learning predecessors, institutions are faced with the opportunity to treat them as credit-bearing learning experiences. Options include prior learning evaluation such as CAEL’s Learning Counts, institution-specific credit evaluation services and credit recommendation services such as ACE’s College Credit Recommendation Service, as well as micro- credentialing such as MOOCs and badges. However, while these alternatives expand learning opportunities for students, little is known about how institutions accept and document these opportunities, as well as whether these credits can be applied to the students’ degree programs. This presentation will provide preliminary results to a study being conducted at six institutions who have historically accepted various forms of credentials.

With analytics as a focus, the Online Learning Consortium recently published a special edition of its journal, implemented a webinar series, and launched coursework within the OLC Institute. Why now? What does this mean for administrators, faculty, and instructional designers? This interactive and highly engaging session will build from experiences of workshop participants while showcasing high-level lessons learned and directions forward.

"Adaptive learning” gets more than its share of hype today, as any number of organizations, colleges and universities with courseware systems featuring differentiated content. Yet in today’s dynamic higher education environment, institutions must adapt to many changing factors that impact student learning: funding and affordability; efficacy and the educational experience; student access and preferences; instructional approach and academic freedom, to name a few. This session explores the big picture of what it means to be adaptive in higher education, the types of partnerships that help institutions cope with this environment, and how open education offers strategies to help students, faculty and institutions thrive.

In the last three years, the number of higher education institutions publicly committed to competency-based education (CBE) has risen from 24 to over 600. Hailed by Undersecretary Ted Mitchell as the single most promising set of innovations we have to make improvements against the challenges facing our education system today, participants will learn why the CBE movement has gained so much momentum. Utilizing shared design elements developed by current CBE higher education professionals, participants will better understand how to build a high-quality, robust CBE program that best fits the needs of their students. Participants will explore the benefits and barriers for programs based on demonstrated learning and not seat time. Finally, by leveraging the frameworks and learnings curated by CBEN institutions, participants can develop and implement their CBE program with more confidence.

Institutional Case Studies: We want to hear how institutions are answering the call to challenges in higher education by using adaptive learning to improve student outcomes. The goal of this panel is to hear from many institutions using adaptive learning pilots to redesign and/or create new courses in partnership with one or more adaptive learning solution providers. This interactive panel discussion will feature several pilots and other adaptive learning institutional initiatives.

Barnes & Noble Education LoudCloud provides software solutions that help higher education institutions address key challenges to deliver affordable options, drive student persistence and improve learning outcomes. BNED LC’s ecosystem of products focus on 4 key areas – Learning Analytics, Competency Based Education, Learning Management and affordable Courseware. These solutions are grounded by a strong understanding of the various stakeholders that drive student success, including the student, faculty, advisor, administration and employer.

Competency-based education has moved from a boutique idea into the mainstream conversation in higher education. A wide variety of CBE programs have emerged, serving a very different student populations. Learn more about how these programs are working from faculty and administrators.

Serving students regardless of ability status has become an increasingly important consideration for college and universities in order to ensure access to all as well as comply with federal expectations. This panel of experts have been on the front lines of these efforts and will help participants understand the current climate and how to move their institution forward to greater universal access.

In the era of big data and predictive analytics, higher education has made great strides in recent years to use data to improve student persistence and outcomes. Colleges and universities are increasingly using analytics to gain insight and make informed decisions about complex issues involving students, courses, and programs. Industry experts in analytics will share their unique insights, perspectives, and expertise on the innovations of analytics in the higher education industry. They will also share their experiences with their tools and applications that are leading the industry in the higher education environment.

This roundtable will be a chance to engage in a conversation with two leaders in the CBE movement. Focused around a set of strategic questions, the interactive conversation will provide insight, raise questions, and provoke conversation on this important trend.

Technology has proved to be a strong force in accelerating the advancement of CBE. This panel of innovative educational technology providers will share their insights on CBE and how technology can advance these efforts.

Barnes & Noble Education LoudCloud fundamentally believes that if you understand behaviours, you can improve learning! Our mission is to create innovative software that redefines the learning experience based on a richer understanding of behaviour, process, and outcomes. Our solutions aim to help higher education address 2 significant challenges – affordability and student retention. Students need to have first day access to affordable, effective and engaging course materials to learn effectively. Faculty and advisors need to be able to immediately identify and intervene, when and where students struggle. BNED LC addresses both of these challenges by offering an integrated solution that delivers affordable, complete courseware and learning analytics, unlocking the ability for students, faculty and advisors to harness the power of technology to better understand behaviors and improve learning. Please join us to learn more about our solutions and experience supporting higher education institutions.

This panel will provide participants with different vendor approaches to providing its customers with learning analytics resources to help improve student performance and persistence.

Two forms of assessment that are critical to providing a strong eLearning program are the assessment of learner readiness and the assessment of content mastery. Dr. Mac Adkins, CEO and Founder of SmarterServices, will provide an update on enhancements to the SmarterMeasure assessment engine including the release of the CBE Readiness Indicator. The NUTN Board had input into the formation of the SmarterProctoring Proctoring Process Management System. An update will be provided on how it is serving statewide systems in Georgia and Mississippi.

Research conducted at Muzzy Lane (and funded by the Gates Foundation) has identified many places where game-based learning is valuable for non-traditional students in higher education, especially in online classes. Inspired by the research, Muzzy Lane has created a cloud-based service to enable educators to easily create mobile-first game-based activities for students and integrate them into courses. Monroe Community College, SUNY, is working with these tools to create a series of activities where students develop skills in Study Strategies and Financial-Aid Literacy. Tata interactive Systems is currently using 3D Virtual Worlds, Augmented Reality, Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, Holograms, Digital Walls, Interactive Tables, Beacons to enhance user engagement and improve learning effectiveness across different verticals such as healthcare, manufacturing, education, travel and logistics. This session will offer a lively discussion of research and examples of how tools can be used to create game-base learning environments.