UMassOnline CEO David Gray Featured UCEA Presenter

Posted on June 11, 2008 by Jennifer Brady

At this year’s three-day University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) Summer Institute being held in San Francisco, California, UMassOnline CEO David Gray will be a featured presenter at two sessions on Tuesday, July 8th. This summer’s program, entitled ‘Innovations in Program Development,’ is described by the UCEA as being designed especially for decision-makers in professional and continuing higher education – including vice presidents, deans, directors, and managers in technology and marketing. It is aimed at leaders who are responsible for promoting innovation, developing strategy, and creating new programs.

David’s first presentation is entitled ‘Capitalizing on Distance Education to Redesign Degree Programs, Increase Capacity, and Improve Services at a Reasonable Cost.’ Here, in brief, is a preview of this planned, upcoming presentation: The online medium allows colleges and universities to reach out to new and different market niches and to serve existing students better and more flexibly. The technologies of e-learning also invite new and quite different approaches to the provision of learning programs and associated services. From the individual faculty member to senior administrators, online learning provides the opportunity to rethink and reconstruct the service delivery model, often improving cost-effectiveness through innovation and inter-institutional collaboration.

David’s second presentation is entitled ‘Innovation Opportunities Offered by Blended Learning.’ Following is an abstract for this presentation: Blended learning models offer colleges and universities the opportunity to mix the best in face-to-face instructional techniques with the very best in content delivery through systems of online learning. There are almost unlimited variations on the blended or hybrid learning theme which can be employed both to improve learning outcomes and to optimize the capacity of institutions to serve growing and diverse student bodies. This session will explore the many different approaches to blending and the benefits that blended programs offer to institutions and students.