Purdue to offer free online conference for educators

Purdue's West Lafayette campus, in partnership with Purdue University Northwest and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, will offer an online conference for educators in celebration of National Distance Learning Week.

"Reaching and Retaining Students through Online Education" will run Nov. 7-11 and will highlight the Purdue system's achievements in digital higher education as well as explore opportunities for further innovation and growth. The conference is open to any educator, but the focus is geared toward faculty, staff and students from the Purdue system.

According to the 2015 Survey of Online Learning, conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and co-sponsored by the Online Learning Consortium, 28 percent of undergraduate students are now taking one or more online courses. Purdue enrolls more than 16,000 students in an average of 954 online courses each semester and is expanding its online certificate and degree program portfolio.

The conference will feature daily live sessions hosted from and streamed at each Purdue campus, as well as online discussions, recordings and curated collections of relevant research, digital tools and resources. Speakers and participants will examine the history and future of online education, the online teaching and learning experiences, and emerging instructional technologies, their potential in supporting academic achievement, and related ethical considerations.

Registration is free and available online, along with a schedule of conference activities, at https://www.digitaleducation.purdue.edu/ndlw.

The conference is being organized by the Continuing Education office and the School of Education and Counseling at PNW, the Continuing Studies office at IPFW and the Digital Education unit in collaboration with ITaP at WL.

For more information, visit the website or contact Maricel Lawrence at 765-494-1664 or lawren36@purdue.edu.

Writer: Cassandra Boehlke, 219-785-5748, cboehlke@pnw.edu