How can higher education leverage lessons from consumer technology in order to build student-centric universities? We will explore examples from how we are nudged into choices and habits in everyday life, and discover ways some universities are leveraging these strategies to impact the student experience. Simple and complex techniques can be put into place by leveraging the expertise of successful consumer technology for good in higher education, supporting enrollments, retention, and graduation.
Dr. Sasha Thackaberry, Vice Provost for Digital and Continuing EducationDr. Sasha Thackaberry serves as the Vice Provost for Digital and Continuing Education at Louisiana State University. She leads fully online programs, support for online and blended courses, and continuing education that encompasses professional development, K-12 and community programming. Previous to her current post, she was the Assistant Vice President for Academic Technology, Course Production and New Learning Models at Southern New Hampshire University. She is on the Executive Committee for WCET, is on the 7 Things Advisory Committee for EDUCAUSE and has been a member of the National Council for Online Education Advisory Board for UPCEA.
She has served as a consultant for K-12, community college, non-profit and corporations in instructional design, professional development and elearning ecosystems. She has also held a variety of roles spanning the field of elearning and innovation, including as the Director of eLearning Technologies, Manager of Next Generation Learning and Senior Instructional Designer at Cuyahoga Community College, and as the Online Learning Coordinator at WVIZ/PBS ideastream, a designated edtech agency for the state of Ohio where she ran online programs for professional development of in-service K-12 faculty statewide.
Dr. Thackaberry has published articles in Inside Higher Ed, EDUCAUSE Review, eLearn Magazine, Distance Learning, e-Literate, WCET, evoLLLution, and the League for Innovation’s Learning Abstracts. She is the co-recipient of the 2013 MOOC Award for Excellence through the Open Education Consortium, and a 2010 Innovation of the Year award through the League for Innovation. Dr. Thackaberry holds a PhD in higher education administration with a research focus in Competency-Based Education as well as an MAT from Kent State University. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance is from the University of Akron.
Engage in a highly interactive session with a panel of senior leaders on where our dynamic field is headed. Alternative credentials, shifting demographics, and new models are already shaping how institutions serve students. This group of panelists will provide their unique perspectives on organizational and market forces that are emerging, how they are responding at their institutions, and how UPCEA members will lead us into the near-term future (2025!).
Nelson Baker,
Georgia Institute of TechnologyDr. Nelson Baker, dean of Professional Education at the Georgia Institute of Technology and associate professor in the university’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, leads a multifaceted operation at Georgia Tech Professional Education. The division is comprised of the Global Learning Center, Georgia Tech-Savannah, the Language Institute, and an extensive program of professional education courses in science, technology, engineering, and math, with online professional master’s degrees, as well as an array of distance learning courses, both credit and noncredit.
Baker particularly seeks to create and assess ways in which technology impacts the learning of engineering students. His award-winning work has generated projects such as multi-lingual web-based intelligent simulations for problem solving; intelligent tutors; student models; an online faculty assistant tool for creating course objectives; and a variety of technology-based assessments and virtual reality interfaces for education.In addition to his role as dean, Baker serves as the U.S. principal investigator for a FIPSE Atlantis programme grant (P116J090074), an international activity exploring quality management and benchmarking of continuing engineering education programs; and also as a co-principal investigator on a five-year NASA project, Electronic Professional Development Network (ePDN), which develops and delivers STEM content to high school teachers.
In February 2012, Baker was appointed by Chancellor Huckaby to serve on the University System of Georgia's (USG) Distance Education Task Force to create a framework to better coordinate and guide the future use of distance education for the 35 colleges and universities within the USG system. He currently serves as the President of the International Association for Continuing Engineering Education, and is past-chair of the Georgia Board of Regents Administrative Committee on Public Service and Continuing Education. Baker is a board member for the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, and is an active member of ASEE and ASCE.
Bob Hansen,
UPCEA Dr. Robert J. Hansen was named Chief Executive Officer of the University Professional & Continuing Education Association in September 2010. Under Hansen’s leadership, UPCEA has grown by 125% in the past six years. He established a number of initiatives targeting the association’s unique role in online leadership and management under the umbrella of the National Council for Online Leadership: the Summit for Online Leadership and Administration, the Online Leadership Roundtable for chief online learning officers, and the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership. He also established the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education, advancing two frameworks to provide a set of standards that reflect the ambitions, potential, and importance of units that serve adult learners.
Hansen previously served as Associate Provost for University Outreach at the University of Southern Maine, a regional public university located in Portland, Maine. Prior to that position, he spent six years at Saint Xavier University of Chicago as Assistant to the President & Secretary of the Corporation, and then as founding Executive Director of Orland Park Campus & Off-Campus Programs. Hansen also previously served as Assistant to the Governor for Education in the administration of former Illinois governor, Jim Edgar. Hansen earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois, an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame.
Sasha Thackaberry, Louisiana State UniversityDr. Sasha Thackaberry serves as the Vice Provost for Digital and Continuing Education at Louisiana State University. She leads fully online programs, support for online and blended courses, and continuing education that encompasses professional development, K-12 and community programming. Previous to her current post, she was the Assistant Vice President for Academic Technology, Course Production and New Learning Models at Southern New Hampshire University. She is on the Executive Committee for WCET, is on the 7 Things Advisory Committee for EDUCAUSE and has been a member of the National Council for Online Education Advisory Board for UPCEA.
She has served as a consultant for K-12, community college, non-profit and corporations in instructional design, professional development and elearning ecosystems. She has also held a variety of roles spanning the field of elearning and innovation, including as the Director of eLearning Technologies, Manager of Next Generation Learning and Senior Instructional Designer at Cuyahoga Community College, and as the Online Learning Coordinator at WVIZ/PBS ideastream, a designated edtech agency for the state of Ohio where she ran online programs for professional development of in-service K-12 faculty statewide.
Dr. Thackaberry has published articles in Inside Higher Ed, EDUCAUSE Review, eLearn Magazine, Distance Learning, e-Literate, WCET, evoLLLution, and the League for Innovation’s Learning Abstracts. She is the co-recipient of the 2013 MOOC Award for Excellence through the Open Education Consortium, and a 2010 Innovation of the Year award through the League for Innovation. Dr. Thackaberry holds a PhD in higher education administration with a research focus in Competency-Based Education as well as an MAT from Kent State University. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance is from the University of Akron.
Terry Rawls, Appalachian State UniversityDr. Terry Rawls serves as Executive Director, Division of Educational Outreach and Summer Programs at Appalachian State University a position he has held since 2015. This follows two years as President of the Strategic Transitions Group, a company he founded in 2013. From 2012-2013, Rawls was Vice President of Education Solutions with UniversityNow. Prior to this, he served as the President of Patten University. Prior to this, Rawls served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer at Heald College in San Francisco. Rawls joined Heald after serving as the Vice Chancellor of Academics at Jones International University. He has also held senior positions as the Founding President of The College for Public Leadership in Washington and in a number of positions at Central Michigan University, where he was engaged for many years with the off-campus, adult-focused unit of that institution.
October 16th | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Change sneaks up on you. Ten years ago, just over two-thirds of adults in the U.S. had a cell phone and just five short years ago, half had smartphones, which ultimately built the infrastructure for our mobile economy. With more communications satellites being launched and the planned roll-out of 5G this year, more technology and automation will sneak into our society and ultimately form the smart city. With disruption comes opportunity or obsolescence. The UPCEA Center for Research and Strategy will share its compilation of secondary research, job analytics and labor forecasts from EMSI, and interviews with leaders and futurist and how it could impact the future of professional, continuing and online education.
Jim Fong, Chief Research OfficerJim Fong is the founding director of UPCEA’s Center for Research and Strategy. In his role, Jim has analyzed demographic, occupational, technological and societal trends and data to help the higher education community better serve the adult and corporate learner. As the Center’s director, he works closely with dozens of colleges and universities annually in new program development initiatives, enrollment management and marketing process analyses and the review of online and continuing education portfolios.
Prior to joining UPCEA, Jim worked as a higher education strategic marketing and CRM consultant and researcher for two firms and prior to that was the Director of Marketing, Research and Planning for Penn State Outreach. At Penn State Outreach, he was responsible for strategic marketing, marketing management, research, creative and database teams. Jim played a major role in the early launch of Penn State’s World Campus by assessing new program needs and the development of marketing strategies and systems.
Jim holds an M.B.A., an M.S. in Applied Statistics and a B.S. in Mathematics, all from The University of Vermont. In 2004, UPCEA awarded him the Adelle Robertson Award as its Continuing Professional Educator for the year. That year, he also received the Mid-Atlantic Region’s Distinguished Service Award.