The 5th annual Rutgers University–Camden Faculty eLearning conference took place on March 1, 2018. The conference featured presenters from Rutgers–Camden, Camden County College, Rowan College at Burlington County, Rowan College at Gloucester County, and Rowan University. Attendees joined from these institutions, as well as from Atlantic Cape Community College and Salem Community College.
Each year, the conference strives to promote best practice in online, hybrid, and classroom teaching and learning; excite interest in pedagogies supported by educational research; and encourage faculty to share meaningful teaching ideas and experiences. One of the most popular sessions to do so included a roundtable discussion, led by instructor Tracie Paulson (RUC Biology) and librarian Zara Wilkinson around the topic of using Open Educational Resources (OER) in the classroom. Another session that attendees found especially illuminating was the conference’s student panel, “Students dish on online learning.” held over lunch. The five-student panel shared their experiences (both good and bad!) taking online courses at Rutgers–Camden. The panel gave the faculty conference attendees an opportunity to learn what online course activities and instructor behaviors most help students succeed in online courses.
After attending the conference, eighty-five percent of faculty who attended plan to incorporate new technological tools and/or pedagogical methods in their teaching, according to the post-conference survey. Survey participants indicated they plan to begin using a variety of tools in their classrooms: student polling tools, social media, Adobe Spark, OER, and VoiceThread.
Overall, attendees had a positive learning experience at the conference. Feedback included:
- “I really liked the format. I enjoyed the short, engaging sessions that provided a wide array of topics to choose from.”
- “I thought the conference was amazing. I really enjoy when something is well organized and runs so smoothly. I think one of the best features was that each session was only 30 minutes, which enabled the presenters to have low-stress and the attendees to see a variety of sessions as opposed to seeing only 1 or 2. It was really run beautifully and breakfast and lunch were much appreciated. It was an enjoyable, professional, and academic day.”
- “This was a great conference, well organized with a lot of informative speakers and conversations. Thank you so much for hosting and organizing it.”
- “I really enjoyed the conference and took away something new from each session I attended. Great job! I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference.”
Plans for the 6th annual eLearning conference are underway! Check back for updates.