An Elluminate Center of Excellence

University of Alberta The University of Alberta is located in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital city. With over one million people Edmonton is dynamic and vibrant and best known as the “Festival City”. Edmontonians have learned to take advantage of both their long, warm summer and cold, crisp winter days.

Edmonton Alberta

The University With 37,000 undergraduate students, 4,000 graduate students and 1500 full-time academic staff, the University of Alberta is one of Canada’s prominent research-intensive universities. The university offers over 200 undergraduate programs and 170 graduate programs, including over 60 doctoral programs.

Dare to… The vision for the University of Alberta has been articulated by our president Dr. Indira V. Samarasekera in two volumes: Dare to Discover and Dare to Deliver. The former provides our vision for the future while the latter delineates how to make that vision a reality.

Our Cornerstones Talented People Learning, Discovery, and Citizenship Connecting Communities Transformative organization and support

Our Strategies Enriching the undergraduate student experience Integrating teaching, research, scholarship and creative activities Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration Northern, aboriginal, rural and international engagement

Elluminate Implementation Our implementations of Elluminate across the disciplines support these strategic initiatives by providing a mechanism through which we can enrich, integrate, and engage our students and faculty as we create collaborative learning environments at the University of Alberta. The On-Line Program Support Group submits this presentation as our submission to become an Elluminate Center of Excellence.

OPSG OPSG is a grass roots Community of Practice (CoP) started at the university in The group is interdisciplinary and consists of Instructional Technology practitioners from Faculties and Schools across campus. The primary purpose of the group is to provide a forum for interaction and collaboration and the sharing of information and expertise. It’s about connecting people. Members of OPSG have been instrumental in advancing the use of learning technologies within individual faculties and across the university as a whole.

Theory Behind Practice Three key elements in building effective learning environments: Community building Social Presence Teaching Presence

The sense of community Integral to developing community is the ability to provide the sense of social and teaching presence. By increasing social and teaching presence and building on-line communities we increase our ability to make authentic connections between and with our learners. Community Social Presence Teaching Presence

Social Presence Affective communication Open communication Cohesive communication

Teaching Presence Design and organization Facilitating discourse Direct instruction

Elluminate… Elluminate provides us with an array of tools that facilitate both social and teaching presence. This leads to a greater sense of community within the learning environment and ultimately provides us with a way to make authentic connections with our learners.

Overview of Elluminate across Campus Elluminate Live! Licensed campus- wide in August, 2006 (is this correct?) Over 500 Elluminate Live! meetings held during the past year Used in 15 different areas

Elluminate infrastructure Keep more up-to-date with new releases PowerLink to our central WebCT Vista LMS Authentication using campus computing ID Examine upcoming Elluminate Publish! tools to help create portable reusable content, edit recordings, create standalone recordings, podcasts

Overview of Elluminate’s Role Across Campus Professional Development: Pharmacy Guest Speakers: Education Health Promotion Studies Research Groups: Nursing Instructor/Student or Admin/Student Communication: Science Education Health Promotion Studies MACT Nursing

Professional Development Create connections and allow for easy interaction, regardless of distance - Pharmacy Support and development - Education

Guest Speakers Out of country participation - Education Learning, Discovery, and Citizenship Connecting Communities Transformative organization and support

Groups Research meetings and collaboration - Nursing, Education Community building - Health Promotion Studies

Communication Deliver courses - Health Sciences, Education, Health Promotion Studies, Continuing Education Office hours - Science, Education, Continuing Education Recruiting - Science Clerkship and Practicums - Medicine

Results Students have positive perceptions of courses Technology did not “get in the way” - easy, fast, cost effective, classroom without walls Improvement over other forms of teleconferencing and collaboration Increased engagement, understanding and confidence Effects of distance reduced greatly Initial apprehension about technology has been overcome through ease of use Students initiating meetings

Future Plans Admission and recruitment Reach out to the best and the brightest Enrich the Undergraduate experience Increased flexibility Provide access to more experts Enrich the Graduate experience Greater range of research opportunities Greater ability to collaborate Achieving out Academic Plan Engage local, regional and international communities

FACULTY OF PHARMACY & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES