eDesign Collaborative Blog

The eDesign Collaborative (eDC) Blog is a dedicated resource to announcements, updates, upcoming events, surveys, and other items for the eDC community. 

Announcing: 2019 eDC ThinkTank Roadshow

October 30, 2018

After successfully piloting virtual ThinkTanks in 2018 with Utah State University and Oregon State University, we’re happy to announce the 2019 eDC ThinkTank Roadshow schedule. We’ve tweaked things a bit and the 2019 eDC ThinkTanks will now be free and open to all members of UPCEA! Non-members will be charged a nominal registration fee.

We hope you are as excited about the 2019 schedule as we are and will share this information with your colleagues in instructional and multimedia design! Registration for these events will open soon, so watch your email for an announcement!

  • Friday, February 8th – Penn State University – Operationalizing Innovation
  • Friday, March 22nd – Arizona State University – Elevating Instructional Design
  • Friday, May 3rd – University of Wisconsin – Faculty Professional Development
  • Friday, July 19th – UC Irvine – Creating a New Design Team: Necessities, Successes, and Pitfalls
  • Friday, October 4th – Brigham Young University – Modified Agile Development & Workflow Processes

What is a ThinkTank: Most conferences have the format of bringing people away from universities to share what they are doing…however, much is lost without seeing things in context. Ours is a “Flipped Conference Model” where we bring people to universities and show them how things work in real time. We meet the whole team, tour, and then spend time in panel discussions and Q&A to learn more. So why attend? To have a behind the scenes look at a university and meet the whole team, network with those in your similar situation and workshop best practices to bring home.

  The eDesign Collaborative serves higher education instructional design teams (instructional designers, multimedia developers and team administrators) in higher education seeking networking and professional development.

Learn more about the UPCEA eDesign Collaborative here.

UPCEA Blogs and Updates:  

What is Regular and Substantive Interaction? The Term That Has Defined Online Learning Still Lacks Clear Definition (Elearning Inside)

There’s an issue with online higher education that has yet to be resolved. For learners to apply for federal student loans, and for institutions to receive these Title IV funds, online or distance programs must demonstrate “regular and substantive interaction” (RSI) between students and instructors. There’s just one issue in following this guideline. No policymaker…

Read More

Extend financial aid to cover more alternative education programs, groups say (edscoop)

Despite a surge of regulations in the 1980s designed to prevent fraudulent use of financial aid funds for online courses, the Department of Education still struggles to balance consumer protections with a growing need for short-term and distance education to offer student aid, according to a report released Wednesday by higher education policy advocates. The report — authored…

Read More

The Building Blocks of Higher Education’s Future: Blockchain

Are you reading the blogs on technology by Ray Schroeder, Director of UPCEA’s National Council for Online Education?  When he’s not talking about augmented reality or robotics, he’s talking about blockchain.  Are you at an awkward mixer and everyone is talking about blockchain?  You’re not alone.  It’s a simple, but challenging concept that is coming. …

Read More

Higher ed groups ask for flexibility with online learning rules (EducationDIVE)

Dive Brief: As regulators and industry representatives hash out a potential future for higher education accreditation, particularly rules governing online learning, three industry groups have put forward their own policy recommendations. Covering topics such as competency-based education (CBE), regular and substantive interaction and state authorization, the policy briefs were written by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), the…

Read More

Education Organizations Release Federal Policy Briefs Addressing Needed Modernizations To Higher Education Regulations

Briefs Authored by UPCEA, OLC, and WCET Cover Competency-Based Education, Financial Aid, Regular and Substantive Interaction, and State Authorization WASHINGTON, DC – February 27, 2019 – Today, three organizations in higher education—UPCEA, OLC and WCET—have issued a set of policy briefs relating to necessary changes to federal regulations affecting the professional, continuing, and online education…

Read More

Don’t Tell My Mother…I Read a Fiction Book

My parents immigrated from China in the 1950s and 60s. They strongly encouraged my brothers and I to study engineering, computers, medicine or mathematics. Nothing else mattered. I chose math and my brothers chose computer science and electrical engineering. I went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s degree in statistics…

Read More
See More eDC Blog Posts
See All UPCEA Blogs