We’ve stepped away from this blog for a while, we admit it! Prior to the pandemic, our department, the Office of Distance Learning, had seen an increased workload as School of Professional Studies expanded its course and program offerings. With Northwestern’s move to exclusively online learning last spring, we found ourselves busier than ever supporting faculty in our own school and throughout the university. Now that things have more or less settled to a “new normal” (or, hopefully, just a “steady state for now”), we are ready to turn our attention back to this blog and re-engage in an exchange of ideas with you our readers and commenters.
The re-launched Distance Learning Blog will take a new, dialogic approach. While we will strive to make our posts thoughtful and grounded in research, the emphasis will be on starting a dialogue, asking as many questions as we answer, and providing an active forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences. So, your comments and questions are not only welcome, but necessary to the success of this effort.
Since the Distance Learning team supports the faculty in Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies, the technologies and methodologies of online adult higher education will be the primary focus of this blog. However, we hope the dialogue will inform and be informed by the experiences and insights of educators, designers, and technologists who serve learners of various ages and in various contexts.
David Noffs and Jacob Guerra-Martinez are the editors and moderators of this blog. In addition to being a Learning Designer with SPS Distance Learning, David is an instructor in the Information Design and Strategy program. Jacob is also a Learning Designer with Distance Learning and is also a recently published author.
As a first step in creating a dialogue with you, our readers, do you have topics to suggest for future blog posts?
We hope you find the SPS Distance Learning Blog informative and thought-provoking. We look forward to hearing from you.